1. Work on your business, not just in your business – When you are a creator selling your art, you probably need to work in your business because you are the artist. But working on your creative business and not just in your creative business should be every creator’s goal. For example, an independent music artist should work on the structure that presents your art to fans & patrons instead of solely working on the art itself. Both are equally vital! Build your art business, not just your art collection.
2. Website > Social Network – Both a website and social network presence are needed in this day and age. In the online world, owning a domain where you house your website is like the concept of home ownership. It is to be aspired toward. Having a social network presence is like renting an apartment. It’s a good place to be, but it could be taken away at any time by the owner (the creator of the social network site). So putting all of your eggs in the social network basket, so to speak, is never wise. You must “own” a way to contact and present your art to your tribe beyond social network. Therefore, building an email list of your tribe and housing all of your business and art info on one central website is ideal for longterm communication. You may ask, “Why all the doubt in the life expectancy of huge social networks?” One word…Myspace.
3. Be “3 deep” – I suggest that you are “3 deep” in every outsourced position in your creative business. Do you hire a person to perform a task on a project by project basis for some of your business needs? That is called outsourcing. Some things we personally outsource to freelancers are graphic design, photography, videography, web development, performance musicians, etc…We may have a person that we have worked with in the past that comes to mind every time we are ready to make a new video for example. But what happens if that freelancer is busy or has a family emergency and can not complete our project by our reasonable deadline? Well, if we are “3 deep”, then we have no need to panic. We just contact one of the other videographers that we have enjoyed working with in the past. When we are “3 deep” we are bound to have someone available to meet the deadline for our project.
4. Choosing a tour mate is about more than talent – (This one is more music-specific, but it can apply to the process of finding the right partner in many aspects of your business.) The lifestyle and the personality of your tour mate are oh so important. This is something I have always encouraged my husband to consider when choosing who goes on the road with him. Yes, they need to be super talented, but they also need not annoy or frustrate him with their presence. LOL! You are a unique individual and you may not mix well with every artist you meet…and that’s ok! If you are spending days on the road together, having countless conversations over mealtime, and trying to present chemistry while on stage, then the entire person needs to be considered. Are you (and your family) energized or depleted after being around them? Spend some time with them AND their family (if married) off of the stage and make sure they are a good fit before adding them to the team. If your kids spend every encounter fighting with their kids, your spouses never speak to each other, and you have a completely opposite sense of humor…just keep looking. Even if you love their talent, keep looking. It’s just not worth it!

Creative friends, how will you find the people you need to become “3 deep” or tour with for example? My answer is COMMUNITY. You need community with other creatives in your industry. This is only one of many reasons why my husband and I believe in the RISE movement so much. Click here to join our RISE online community for creatives and join the movement.

What tip from the last two blogs will you apply to your journey? Let me know in the comments below.

Today, I am sharing 3 easy tips that you can implement that would empower you as a creative in business today.

1. Fail often!– Successful creatives that we admire always have an abundance of stories about when things went wrong. Have you ever thought, “How is it that this insanely successful person has had so many things go wrong? Most of the things I decide to do works out pretty well for me.” I believe that they have these kinds of stories because they are constantly taking risks. Brave people who step out and try new things will have more opportunities to fail.  If you aren’t failing, then you’re not trying anything. If you aren’t trying anything, then you have no opportunity to succeed. No Bueno. I’ve learned that taking risks and trying things that could either succeed or fail in front of my peers is a normal occurrence on a successful person’s journey.
2. Always pre-determine the ROI (Return On Investment)– Creative friends, this is so important to think about before considering ANY opportunity. Before accepting a gig from a new promoter. Before signing a contract with an agency. Before collaborating on a project with a new artist friend. Before doing anything new or anything you have done before, determine if there is any return on your investment of time and talent. If there is no return that you can verbalize, then ask yourself why you are drawn to participate. Sometimes, it’s because we don’t think highly about OUR time and talents so we treat them like something of no value. We aren’t treating them like our gift from our Creator. Sometimes, it’s because we sincerely feel like God wants us to do this specific thing. Unfortunately, we may also believe that He doesn’t care about reaping a return or multiplying our efforts. (That could be its own blog in itself. lol)  ROI = multiplication and the parable of the talents from the Bible tells us that is very important to GOD.
3. Under promise and over deliver– If you are a performing creative, this is how you keep your performance calendar filling up for your current project. A lot of places that book you will bring you back over and over for their future events! But they will not be inclined to do so if you or your representative talked you up and inflated you and your skill set just to get in the door. When a promoter or event planner requests a particular service and you show up to exceed their expectations, they WILL want to invite you back. What can you do to exceed expectations? This can be done in MANY different ways. One thing I see that Jarrell does often is that he makes personal connections with the people who brought him in AND with the concert attendees. He doesn’t hide out in the green room after the concert. He is often found talking, encouraging, or praying with staff, volunteers, and concert attendees until he is starving and exhausted. In this example, he may have promised to rap a few songs, but he delivered more than expected.

I hope this helped! I have 4 more tips coming in my next blog. Two weeks from now it can be delivered right to your inbox by simply leaving your email here: Click to Subscribe to Jeneil’s Angle

I would love to hear some of your tips for creatives who are on the journey too. Tell us in the comments below.

Here is some wisdom from our Creator regarding planning:

Habakkuk 2:2 And the Lord answered me, and said, Write the vision, and make it plain upon tables, that he may run that readeth it.

Luke 14:28-30  ²⁸ “Suppose one of you wants to build a tower. Won’t you first sit down and estimate the cost to see if you have enough money to complete it? ²⁹ For if you lay the foundation and are not able to finish it, everyone who sees it will ridicule you, ³⁰ saying, ‘This person began to build and wasn’t able to finish.’

Here are some steps to help you get started on a plan for your next creative project:

1. The Vision– This is the creative idea. It’s the foundation of the entire project. Without a clear vision, the entire work will disintegrate before it manifests. This vision must come out of your creative mind and land on paper so that your support team and tribe can help you bring it to life.
2. The Budget– This is a spending plan as you make the vision materialize. EVERYTHING that will cost you money should be included in the budget. This must be done before a single dime is spent on the new idea! There are many times when the details of an idea will change along this process, and you could spend money in an area that truly wasn’t needed if you spend before completing the budget. The second part of this step (once your realistic budget is on paper) is to determine where the money will come from. There are many ways to obtain money for your new creative project including income from employment, crowdsourcing, fundraisers, investors, your savings accounts, etc…
3. The Timeline– This is for building the system around your calendar for production accountability. Start with the ship date (the day you release your creation to the world) and then work your way back to the present day. It’s important to set your benchmarks in realistic segments of time. You are not one dimensional. You must consider your family calendar and your work calendar simultaneously in order for your benchmarks to be accurate. Also, consider the calendars of services that you choose to outsource. For example, if you have a deadline of March 15th to have your album mixed and mastered by, then you need to ensure that the person providing this service has time to work on it in that time frame. And also that they can have it to you by March 10th. Why? Because life happens, not just for you but everyone you work with. For this purpose alone, their deadline for a finished product must be BEFORE yours. Trust me, you will regret giving them the same deadline as you have on your timeline. Write your timeline down and put in parenthesis under each task what due date you gave the person you outsourced to.
4. The Marketing– This is how you present the vision to the public in a systematic way. If no one knows about your project, then all the planning was in vain. We create projects to serve and help people. One way of serving people is by writing a plan of how and when they will hear about your new project. People need to “hear” about something at least 7 times before they truly have an “aha” moment and buy-in to what you are advertising. Plan for them to hear often without being “spammy”.

If you have a creative idea that you are ready to start on and could use some specific project planning help, shoot me an email at Jeneil@freedommusicgroup.com.

Please share your favorite planning tips for creatives in the comments below!

This week, let’s see what the difference is between ministry and business. According to the Merriam-Webster dictionary, “ministry” can simply be defined as “the period of service or office of a minister”. A minister is defined simply as an “agent”. Sometimes we over-spiritualize the term “ministry”. But based on a literal definition of the word, any person or agent who is serving their community is technically participating in ministry.

Rabbi Daniel Lapin, in his book Thou Shall Prosper, said, “Deep within traditional Jewish culture lies the conviction that the only real way to achieve wealth is to attend diligently to the needs of others and to conduct oneself in an honorable and trustworthy fashion.” Creative friends, doesn’t that sound just like ministry?  “…attend diligently to the needs of others and to conduct oneself in an honorable and trustworthy fashion.” That was practically my ministry creed no matter which non-profit I was employed with or where I was volunteering at the time. I was in ministry BECAUSE I was serving. Well, can you guess the context of Rabbi Lapin’s quote when he wrote it? It was written about BUSINESS in chapter 1 entitled “The Dignity and Morality of Business”. Selah. (Pause and think about that.)

I grew up with business owners all around me. To this day, my dad and all of his siblings own businesses. I always said that I never wanted to be a business owner. Mainly because it looked hard and sounded like a lot of work. Lol! After high school, I went to a Bible school where I was trained in Christian life studies with an emphasis in church leadership. In fact, I have 21 years of experience in church leadership. If there is anyone who would have to spend years of retraining their mind so that they could simply wrap their brain around the idea of business being their ministry, it’s me. Some of you may know that my husband (and I) just transitioned out of ordained full-time ministry at our local church just a month ago. The Lord had to renew my mind to believe that, though we are no longer employed as ordained ministers in our local church, we are still in ministry as creative business owners. Our clients, target market, social network followers, fans, patrons, fellow indie artists, and everyone we serve in our music industry world is our mission field. Going into full-time business didn’t take us out of ministry. Our mission field just expanded exponentially!

So my business is my ministry. Newsflash, your creative business is your ministry too! Serving your client is serving in your mission field. Biblical business practice is living out the gospel in a corrupt world system. Your business should be a light in a world of greedy business owners and shady industry professionals.

Creative friends, if you are feeling torn between doing ministry and doing business because you know that what you create has a truth attached to it that can change lives, be encouraged. That is actually the inherent goodness of business coming out of you. Attending diligently to the needs of your clients and dealing honorably in your business transactions is the ministry. Our community does nothing but benefit from creatives who do business in this way.

Like the Apostle Paul said in Colossians 4, I say to you, “See to it that you complete the ministry you have received in the Lord.” How are you using your talents to serve (minister) to your community through your creative business? Tell me in the comments below.