What keeps this relentless routine from taking undue toll on you is the management systems you put in place. Good planning places you in the driver’s seat rather than under the wheels.

Parts 1 and 2 of The Freelancer Mindset addressed ‘clearing obstacles’ and ‘setting goals,’ respectively. The former clears the way for creative thinking and the latter gives you something to aim at.

This third part looks at turning those goals into operational strategies, which means planning and management. Planning is a lot like map making. In fact, I like to think of career and business planning as a sort of ‘cartography’: it lays out the best way to the destinations you’ve set.

Planning is also the most difficult part of freelancing because it inevitably brings us face to face with our own management challenges. Let’s be frank: studies show that most businesses (and, I would add, most careers) fail, not because they have an inferior product or service, and not because they lack a market for their product or service.

Most fail because of management incompetence. So, when I talk about planning I’m really talking about management of your self, your time, your team and your knowledge.

The way you manage yourself, the approach you take to managing other people, and the ways you manage time, money and information will be the primary reasons you’re creative work succeeds (or fails) in the long run.

Try out these general management tips as foundation practices for bringing order to the normal chaos of freelance life. I’ve been using them myself for over twenty-five years. They’re from my book, Indie Business Power: A Step-By-Step Guide for 21st Century Music Entrepreneurs -

1. Do Only What You Set Out To Do – Focus on your specified project. Resist the urge to be distracted by what your eyes see. Instead, like a boomerang, let your brain keep guiding you back to achieving your immediate goal. Put other reminders in an action file and do them when you’re finished with this task.

2. Do The Best Task At The Best Time – After selecting the most productive task, do it at a time when you can accomplish it most effectively. Do tasks physically or mentally difficult for you at your own peak energy times; this includes making tough decisions. Do jobs you enjoy most (even if others consider them hard work) at low-ebb times. Don’t try to do difficult work against all odds when you know you’ll have lots of interruptions. Maximize your energy waves.

3. Have a set beginning and ending time for your day, as if you still work in the office full-time. Just because you can work 24/7 because of technology, doesn’t mean you should. There is always more work to complete, but that doesn’t mean you should exhaust yourself working just because you have all of your work tools at your fingertips. There will be times you will need to work long hours, but in general, you should set strict beginning and ending times for your work days to avoid burnout.

4. Learn to determine what is not urgent. There’s a tendency in the technology- laden business world to believe that everything has to be done immediately because the technology exists to transmit things without delay. Because of this, people tend to treat everything as urgent rather than determining what really is urgent and what can wait. To learn to do this, begin asking questions about projects before you agree to “get something right out.” This applies to requests from partners and customers. As long as you are conscientious, people will respect you for setting limits on what you can accomplish in a given time frame.

5. Get Rid of “Stuff” – Paper, publications and possessions require maintenance – maintenance costs time, energy, space and money. How long do you really need to keep your old project files, seminar fliers, reference materials, conference materials, association or business journals? Dispose of seldom or never-used items. Ask yourself, “What will happen if I let this go?” If the answer is “Nothing,” get rid of it! Keeping it requires the same decisions over and over. Remember: It’s ok to make a few mistakes; that’s a small price for the contentment of having less “stuff”.

6. Touch It Once! (or, at least try to) – Be decisive: If at all possible, handle mail only once and move on. If later action is needed, put it in an action file. Indecision is organizational death – yet most people aren’t even aware of their inability to make decisions. Don’t shuffle papers with the vague “I-don’t-know-what-to-do-with-this-so-I’ll- put-it-here-for-now” syndrome. Use the simple DRAFT technique – Delegate, Read, Act, File or Toss. DRAFT spells death to ever-growing clutter.

7. Think Before Acquiring More – Evaluate before buying/accepting new items. Get off mailing lists that serve no purpose; drop subscriptions to periodicals you seldom read. Ask yourself if you really need this item – or are you simply acquiring it because it looks interesting; because someone passed it on to you; or because “it might come in handy sometime”? Where will you store it? Items must do something more than collect dust. Accept as few papers and possessions as possible. For each item you do acquire, purge two!

8. Take yourself away from your work environment. People who work in virtual offices particularly need regular breaks from work. A break can be a weekend day spent hiking or driving in the country, or any change in your environment. Have at least one full day a week during which you do not check your messages or do any work.

9. Use the 80-20 Rule. The 80-20 Rule suggests that 80 percent of your accomplishments come from only 20 percent of your efforts. In a business context, the 80/20 rule reminds us that the relationship between input and output is not balanced. It’s an interesting concept. The trick, of course, is to figure out what makes that 20 percent so productive. Then, devote more of your time to these productive activities, and reduce the time spent on unproductive work.

A caution – Whatever map you come up with to help you arrive at your business destinations, remember this: the map is not the territory. Maps are provisional abstracts of the actual terrain you’ll be traversing. They do, of course, provide lots of help along he way: pointing out hills and valleys, warning of dense scrub, and introducing you to various bridges and shortcuts.

But maps (even Google Maps!) can’t reveal all the nuance and detail on the actual road in real time. This is the X factor in planning. No planning will be able to encompass all possibilities and variables. That’s why informed guidance needs the counterbalance of intuition.

Clear obstacles.

Set goals.

Plan well. That’s freelance wisdom.

One life-changing illumination from grad school was my introduction to “Critical Marxism”. Now don’t get scared. The mere mention of Marx’s name conjures dark visions of totalitarianism and lifeless culture. I know. During the Parisian communism experiment, Marx himself is alleged to have said, “One thing’s for sure; I know I am not a ‘Marxist’.”

Things stray quickly.

Those meanings of “Marx” are, of course, historically conditioned. And that’s where critical Marxism (aka, “critical theory”) can be so helpful. It’s whole purpose is to help us think critically about things like culture, history, work, art, politics and language. In other words, to not take words for granted but to examine their historically conditioned meanings and how they affect our own consciousness and, subsequently, our actions.

It can help us put a different lens on modern society.

“Poets, priest and politicians / Have words to thank for their positions / Words that scream for your submission / No one’s jamming their transmission…”

                                                 – The Police, “Do Do Do Do Da Da Da Da ”

“Critical Theory” developed in Germany in the 1920s (where it was known as “Frankfurt School”) as a reaction against orthodox Marxism. Many Marxists, disillusioned with the way communism was implemented in Soviet Union, became profoundly disenchanted with implementing it as a viable social system.

But the essential capitalist critique Marx put forth continues to hold value for anyone interested in the meaning of work and the fractures of modern society. One of his key concerns was “relations of production” – how we relate to our work, our economic structures, and other workers – and how a creeping “alienation” has affected all of these relationships.

As a tradition Critical Theory demands much of the reader – it doesn’t hurt to have an understanding of the main themes and terminology in Marxist theory, Freudian Psychoanalysis, Weberian Social theory and an aptitude for intertwining each of these strands in an attempt to fabricate a greater social reality.

Those who would like a quicker look at critical theory will enjoy Stephen Bronner’s, Critical Theory: A Very Short Introduction (2011, Oxford University Press). He takes complex ideas and distills them nicely for those short snatches of time when we can read and ponder profound things.

In these times of crass “politispeak”, critical theory can help cut through the BS and shed some much needed light.

• You will be the chart-setter.
• You will be the time organizer.
• You will be the gig-creator.

This means planning, and planning means first setting goals.

Some people absolutely love this part of freelancing. They’re planners at heart.  They enjoy describing themselves as “goal-oriented”. They live by lists and relish crossing off items as things get done.

Others resist goals like the plague. To them goals chain progress and limit horizons. They see them as “anti-art”. We’ve all met these types:

•  Some are lucky and have fallen into good fortune with little or no planning;
•  Others are propped up by trust funds and chronic parental bailouts;
•  Still others are spinning their wheels, two months behind on car payments, and not really getting any where – fast.

Most of us, however, simply pay little or no attention to goals. In fact, we probably spend more time planning our vacations than setting goals and planning our careers.

You can make excuses or discount goal setting as being too rigid and linear for the creative person, or you can get with the program and finally start making some real progress toward achieving your dreams.

Quite simply, you can’t get to where you are going until you know where that is.

Similarly, you can’t hit a target you can’t see.

But a list of projects is only as good as the larger goals that frame them.

We’ve heard lots of goal definitions:

• A goal is a thing aimed at
• A goal is a destination
• Goals are dreams with deadlines

However you define goals, it doesn’t really matter. What matters is making goals a value in your life. Goals focus effort, activate purpose and strengthen resolve.

Here are some general goal development tips you can put to use right now:

1. Own. Be sure the goals and activities that you are working for are yours and that you really want and desire to achieve them.
2. Stay real. Setting a goal you believe is unattainable will result in frustration. Strike that delicate balance between vision and realism
3. Give them form. Write down your goals and post them in a place you can see them every day. Make a painting or drawing of it and hang it where you can see it every day .The mind tends to follow what’s in front of it. Plus, there’s a certain magic to taking your goals out of your head and materializing them in ink or image.
4. The now. Once you set your long-range goals try reflecting them in things you do every day. This way you are always moving towards your goal. Success is not someday, success is every day. Decide what you should be accomplishing and then stick to your knitting. Every step along the way to achieving a goal is just as important as the last step.
5. Revise. Daily rewrite your list of “Things To-Do” after first reviewing your desired goals.
6. Time & tempo. Create a time line or matrix chart on which you display your goals visually and the dates when you will have them accomplished.
7. Wholeness. Continually look for ways to integrate or blend personal and professional goals. Not always easy, but a worthwhile pursuit.

And, of course, you’ve heard the saying, “the journey is the goal”.  That’s true. It is not the achieving of a goal that is so important, it is what you become in the process.

Interested to hear about your own “goal thinking”. Please feel free to comment.

Part 3, Planning, to follow.

It is this continuous and creative orchestration of work and relationships which helps us thrive, and allows us to contribute our own special value to whatever opportunities lie before us.

In my work with hundreds of artists over the years, I have noticed a certain freelancer mindset that accompanies this successful orchestration.

The freelancer mindset:

• clears away obstacles

• sets goals

• draws a map

I’m going to cover this in three parts. Let’s look at the first.

1. Clearing Obstacles

By obstacles I’m talking about the internal environment where we think and feel our way through life. The poet Robert Frost once observed: “Something we were withholding made us weak, until we found out that it was ourselves.” Ouch.

Yeah, it’s true, we are our own worst enemies. Whether legacies of family dysfunction or just negative self-talk, we are merciless in finding ways to beat ourselves up.

Tracing the roots of this self destruction (that’s what it is, ultimately) may be a painful journey but a necessary one. Until we do we’ll be hunched over with the weight of the world, not seeing straight, short-circuiting our happiness and poisoning our relationships.

Sometimes the only way to address this is through counseling or psychotherapy. If you think you need to, you’re probably right. I did, found it, and it changed my life.

External also affects internal, and the times are ripe for unshackled minds.

We’re finally beginning to accept we will never return to the more static, less opportunity-rich but also more comforting world in which most of us were raised.  The changes we’re living through are both permanent and dynamic. As Charles Handy wrote, “The real social revolution of the last 30 years is the switch from a life that is largely organized for us to a world in which we are all forced to be in charge of our own destiny.”

That presents us with an exciting opportunity, but also a pressing challenge.

Today we all have the chance to compose our own lives. It’s a liberating prospect, but also daunting, because it requires a high degree of self-knowledge. If we don’t start at the core – if we instead accept reflexive, inherited, or half-thought-out definitions of who we are and what we have to contribute – we run the risk of being overwhelmed by the possibilities that we face.

I call clearing the obstacles “emotional bushwhacking”. We need to take a scythe to the overgrowth in order to see our true path.

To break through to those other parts of ourselves that sit submerged beneath our everyday consciousness demands courage.

But there is nothing more brave than filtering out the chatter that tells you to be someone you’re not.  There is nothing more genuine than breaking away from the chorus to learn the sound of your own voice.

Part 2, Setting goals, to follow.

Those with music companies must always be looking for business partners and creative alliances to help expand their offerings and their markets as well. A music instruction service may team up with a dance studio; a booking agency with a concert promoter; or a record label with a live music series. One enlarges the other.

But these are pretty typical. What about the non-typical allies?

“Creativity is the power to connect the seemingly unconnected.” – Wm. Plomer

Creative alliances will sometimes come from the “adjacent possible” too. What’s that? It’s the “seemingly unconnected.” Check this out.

I recently heard a gentleman named Ben Cameron speak on “the adjacent possible” in the arts. Cameron is a figure more familiar to the non-profit arts sector than the for-profit, and he has an uncanny way of turning our attention towards interesting angles on ordinary things.

By the “adjacent possible” he means finding something in an adjacent area of the economy that may have a possible application in yours.

For example, he cites Gutenburg who, he says, didn’t invent the printing press by hanging out with calligraphers. He was observing a wine press and he lifted that technology from the wine industry into printing – and, of course, history was forever changed.

Another example is the subscription system  – a journalistic model lifted into a performing arts context. All quite familiar today.

But here’s the kicker.

Springboard for the Arts in St. Paul, Minnesota has replicated the community shares agricultural model (where you buy a share in a local farm and you go once a month to pick up your produce) into an arts context.

Springboard launched a community share for artists. Arts patrons buy shares in the artist community and then go pick up their ‘box of art’ once a month – A pick up, Cameron says, that is adored by performers, bands, concerts, galleries, and other arts events; one that has huge public visibility; and that was sold out instantly. When they doubled the number of shares, they sold out again.

Furthermore, he says, the people that buy the box of art go on to collect from the artists they like, commission additional works, and more and more and so on.

An adjacent possible from the agricultural industry lifted over to the performing arts.

“Creativity is the power to connect the seemingly unconnected.”  – Wm. Plomer

Where is your adjacent possible? I’d love to hear your ideas.

Person A:  “I’ve started a business offering private music instruction, selling guitars, and repairing amplifiers.”

Person B:  “I do a variety of things: notation, sound design, performing and some music therapy, when time allows.  I also just released my first CD.”

Person C:  “I’m running a web site for jazz musicians, performing in an Eighties rock band, and studying for my real estate license.”

What’s your reaction to these individuals?  Are you impressed? A month from now, if you were to find their business cards lying on your desk, do you think you’d remember who they were?  Would you even keep their cards?

Chances are, based on these introductions alone, you would not.  Each provides too much information for someone to follow effectively. They lack a focus; they lack a hook.

Your “hook” will be your pitch, your “personal branding statement”, your “elevator speech,” and it will be particularly helpful on your job search and generally helpful woth everyone new person you meet. Just as the hook of a song sticks in the mind, so your own hook cuts through mental clutter and delivers a clear impact.

When people ask me what I “do” I have a lot of potential responses: I conduct the Career Development Center at Berklee College of Music, I write books for musicians, I help my wife raise and provide for three children, I facilitate professional development experiences for faculty, I play second base on my softball team, I perform with an improvisational music group, and so on.

But this litany is not going to make me memorable. There’s just too much information. So this is the answer I provide when asked this question: I help musicians and music lovers put a plan to their passion. That is my life work; that is my calling. Once I reveal this, the conversation fans out from there.

Here‘s a process for developing your hook and using it:

• Inventory – Write down all your skills, resources, experience, and positive traits.

• Assess – Which are the mountain top qualities that help you stand out?

Is it perfect pitch, quickness at grasping how software works, a unique understanding of children, a special aptitude with numbers, ease with organizing projects?

• Distinction – How can you apply your top quality to the real needs of real people and companies? This becomes your core value proposition. Write it down. Nothing easy – Probably one of the hardest but best things you’ll ever write

• Rehearse/Apply – Distill it and practice expressing it in writing and in conversation.

Find your hook. Be remembered.

Today there are more media than ever before and they all need content: stories, leads, unique events, news of local business alliances, etc. Whether its the New York Times or a micro blog out of Cody, Wyoming – every media outlet is open to fresh content appealing to its audience.

Fortunately for us, 75% of what we read in magazines and newspapers is “planted.” That means it came to the media from outside, from people like you and me. Media publicity, therefore, provides an open door for even the most neophyte publicist to explore.

Dollar for dollar, hour for hour, publicity may very well be the best investment you can make for you marketing and promotion program. Think of it like this: if you were to purchase space for a “6 x 8” one-time display ad in The Boston Globe, you’d pay about $2000 (on top of the costs to design the ad). But if you get a story written about you in the same publication, and it takes up the same amount of space, you’re $2000 ahead of the game!

Publicity is more credible than paid advertisements too. You can make any product claim you want in an ad, and consumers know it. A journalist or reporter, however, doesn’t have to feature you in their publication and, by doing so, lends more credibility to what you’re about. Of course, the downside is you don’t control the message when you don’t pay for it.

Here’s a tip for generating publicity: hook your project (or event, or news) to something that already has momentum. For example, take a look at the calendar. Can you tie your story or event in with a holiday or other special day?  What about Earth Day, St. Patrick’s Day, Valentines Day? All of these already have momentum and media attention. How can you hitch your wagon to them?

And don’t just limit yourself to the standard calendar everyone knows. Sometimes the more far-fetched the better. Check out some of the more unusual calendar dates too.  For example, did you know March is “Music in Our Schools Month” and March 9 is Barbie’s Birthday? August is “Foot Health Month”; October “Hispanic Heritage Month”. February 26 is “Tell a Fairy Tale Day.” There are thousands more.

You and your team will have to do some brainstorming on this but it’ll be worth it. Try finding a common ground, a resonance point, where you can tie in with what’s already happening and then pitch that to the media. It’s fun, creative and economical.

Plus, it can generate some valuable buzz for your project.

-Peter Spellman

Some food for thought in this new year:

The Great Tone is the tone of being or, as the Indians put it, the tone of the self, of the Atma.  The Great Tone is Nada Brahma, the tone from which God made the world, which continues to sound at the bottom of creation, and which sounds through everything.

In Latin the term meaning “to sound through something” is personare.  Thus, at the basis of the concept of the person (the concept of that which really makes a human being an unmistakable, singular per-sonality) stands a concept of sound: “through the tone.”

If nothing sounds through from the bottom of the being, a human being is human biologically, at best, but is not a per-son, because he does not live through the son (the tone, the sound).  He does not live the sound which is the world.

When Buddha returned to everyday reality after his enlightenment he first talked about a sound.  Buddha called it the “drum of immortality.”

 

Going deep in 2012.

I appreciate the thought: Without ceaseless attention to things like planning, budgeting, organizing and marketing a music career will more often careen off course, and be thrown onto the rocks of good intentions. Granted.

But “act like a business?”

Why aim so low?

The metaphors we live by are telling.

Businesses aren’t exactly models of success. Most new businesses (7 out of 10) fail within seven years. The majority of businesses are poorly run with “management incompetence” being the primary reason for all those failures. It doesn’t take much insight to see that most businesses practice mediocrity rather than greatness. “Business” also tends to have its own set of values – values a business owner/family member would never practice at home.

So telling musicians to act like a business is like telling them to lower their standards or to “aim low”, and a lot of musicians justifiably chafe at this suggestion.

I propose a different metaphor:

Musicians should see themselves as expressive Energy Grids.

Think about it:

• Grids generate energy: Musicians generate energy through relationship-building, practicing their craft, and expressing their art;
• Grids transform energy: Musicians transform their energy through sharing their talent with audiences; and then multiplying that talent through collaborative projects (1 + 1 = 10 – synergy);
• Grids distribute energy: Musicians distribute their energy in multiple directions through multiple creative activities.

And in order for an energy grid to do its work it must be grounded – that is, connected to the dirt, rocks, water, etc. of earth. So to, optimal health comes from a practiced awareness of our inter-connection with the eco-system we inhabit.

In my book, Indie Business Power, I refer to managing one’s business as “conducting energy”. Conducting. Conduction. Electricity. Energy. See the relationship?

Business is just one component of the multi-dimensional musician. Business can provide tools and strategies for organizing and expanding our work. But musicians (really, all creative workers) shouldn’t just act like a business. That’s too low a target. They are expressive grids – generating, transforming and distributing energy continually.

Your thoughts?

People don’t focus for a number of reasons: Perhaps they fear that by focusing on one thing they risk not having enough business; or, maybe they don’t want to miss an opportunity; or perhaps they just plain have multiple interests.

Whatever the reason, you need to become attuned to the fact that the times call for focus. Mass customization and a segmenting marketplace allow for the development of products and services of a “niche” nature.

What is a “niche”? Niche is an architectural term referring to a special place that’s designed to display or show off an object of some kind, like an ornament, that’s placed in a recess of a wall or an arched area of a room.  And that’s just what a niche can be for you.  Finding your niche will set you off from others who offer something similar and draw the best possible attention to you and what you can offer.

Examples of market niches abound in the world of music:

• Unique Offering: A pedal-steel guitar player in LA (musician and sonic sculptor, Chas Smith)
• Unique Theme: A performer who focuses all things nautical (performer/recording artist, Eric Stone)
• Unique Combination: Combining horror and hard rock (band, Lordi)
• Unique Expertise: Music and astronomy (singing scientists, The Chromatics)

This, of course, is reflective of an increasingly segmented marketplace. The “mass market” is giving way to smaller, niche markets. Marketers love to parse and label them, especially along demographic lines: Baby Boomers, Echo Boomers, Millenials, Generation X’ers, Generation Z’ers, Cultural Creatives, Young Literati, New Ectopias, Golden Ponds, Executive Suites, and many more.

Then there is stylistic diversity. When the Grammys started in 1958 there were 28 categories of awards; in 2011 there were 109! The music market continues to segment and each segment has become a “world”, a cultural/economic portal, through which smart, focused companies can create value and success.

While good news for niche companies, this is bad news for the musical industrial complex. The major labels cannot justify going after these smaller markets because the labels are optimized for the larger, pop mainstream. Niche music cultures can’t generate the sales required to float the major label boat. While 20,000 unit sales is a cause to celebrate at a micro-label, such totals hardly register on big company radar screens.

Mass customization and a segmenting market encourage the development of products and services of a “niche” nature. Since few of us have the time, money or energy to mount national marketing campaigns, it is in our best interest to discover and concentrate on a niche, a segment, we can explore towards successful enterprise.  Whether your specialty is house, trance, bluegrass or neo-soul, learn to work that niche and scope out relationships and opportunities within it.

On a career level, your goal is to “position” yourself in your “market” as the go-to person for that particular skill or talent. You’re an entrepreneur of your own talent. What is entrepreneurship? It’s seeing an economic/social/spiritual need and then creating business forms to meet that need. It’s finding a gap in a seemingly saturated market and creatively filling it in with your unique offering.

Maybe your specialty is tube amps, or Latin jazz arrangements, or building cool web sites. Whatever it is you can create a niche from it, a distinctive offering that stands out in the marketplace of useful things.

Dig a hole an inch wide and a mile deep, and work it.