Hi Guys
This is my first post on Steem. I know there’s some very switched-on minds here and hope to get to know some of you. Thanks to Michael X for the email invite. I’m writing this in sunny North London and I’ll be 42 this year. I’m truly excited to be on the ground floor of something new. I want to see how far this thing can go.
ABOUT ME
“I love it when a plan comes together” - Hannibal Smith
I’ve been professionally into music one way or another for over 20 years. I’m happiest when I get to create sound, find the emotion in harmony and rhythm, and I’ve had a love affair with the piano since I can remember. That extends really into anything that makes an interesting noise, whether or not it’s an instrument by design.
Creating music is something I do for those moments when the sonic elements kind of “fuse together”, and something greater than the sum of its parts flickers into being. Trying to nail down those moments becomes the art and science of music production.
It keeps me humble, there’s always more to learn. To make authentic work I think you need to connect with the mindset of exploration and play. Children are the most creative people in the world and they don’t over-analyse, they just imagine. We all are supremely creative because we all have technicolour dreams. That’s not enough of course, but without it you have nothing to work with, no inspiration.
In this life everyone needs something they can really get their teeth into, and I never want to stop learning about this stuff. Creating in the studio is better than any drug for me.
COLD HARD CASH AND REASONS FOR LIVING
“If you don’t find a way to make money while you sleep, you will work until you die.” - Warren Buffet
I also help I keep the lights on through helping businesses with online stuff.
We live in a unique time in human history, where it’s possible to reach over three billion people without leaving the house. So if there’s only 36,000 of us here on this platform at the time of writing, that’s pretty exciting stuff. I read once that all musicians should at some point study marketing, and I kind of saw the sense in that. I grew up with some uncommonly talented people, but they were not so good at (or interested in) promoting themselves, and had a hard time turning that creativity into cash as a result. How do you make money out of what you make? I mean before you die in poverty and then get ‘discovered’….. I resolved to learn as much as I could about how to connect with some of those 3,424,971,236 people online, so I wouldn’t have to work for idiots too much of the time.
THE RAT RACE AND PASSIVE, ONLINE INCOME STREAMS (or not)
”People think focus means saying yes to the thing you’ve got to focus on. But that’s not what it means at all. It means saying no to the hundred other good ideas that there are. You have to pick carefully. I’m actually as proud of the things we haven’t done as the things I have done. Innovation is saying no to 1,000 things.” Steve Jobs (Apple Worldwide Developers’ Conference, 1997)
For the last couple of years I’ve become kind of obsessed with passive income streams. I guess quite a lot of people on here are similarly obsessed, and rightly so. Working in the traditional sense of just exchanging your time for money in a linear fashion kind of sucks, unless you’re learning something from it, or helping someone. So many of us use up their lives in this way and then regret it. As I found the hard way, I really have little choice but to work towards my own financial freedom.
And let’s face it, music can be hard thing from which to make a full-time income, especially when you’re freelance. There have often been times when I needed more in order to keep going, and I’ve been online trying to generate income in various ways for about four years. I really didn’t know too much before that but I’ve always been good with tech stuff and picked up a few things along the way.
Now I’ll work incredibly hard, stay up all night, sweat blood over projects I believe in, to get them right. That’s a blessing and a curse because, not being immune to a bit of doubt and uncertainty from time to time I often found that belief would be shaken and I’d become temporarily delusional. I’d think I could take on five, six, ten simultaneous projects and end up doing one, or none of them. Analysis Paralysis they call it, or Information Overload.
In order to bring in a good income online there is NO magic bullet or system, though in the past five years I’ve bought a boat load of products that claimed otherwise. . I will freely admit in the process I’ve been a victim of New-Shiny-Object-Syndrome, I’ve been a massive information-product junkie, and there’s been a lot of wasted resources as a result. And I DON’T think I’m alone here. Anyone else?
One thing has become abundantly clear. It’s bloody obvious really. It’s taken 42 years to figure this out, but here’s the thing: if I’m working on a project that’s really only about the income then I have little investment in the journey. That probably isn’t going to work too well for me. Because I won’t have the necessary dedication to follow through and really make it work. I’ve found this can be a problem with working for yourself, nobody tells you what to do and it’s on you when the decisions made are bad ones.
So I cut and cancelled a whole bunch of stuff because it was becoming a major source of stress. I cut my losses, closed my shopify store and shut down a website project because I realised I didn’t really care enough about them. In other words, even if I got those projects going pretty well and there was some income there, I would still be more interested in other things. To be fair my plate is still full right now but at least I’m not going quite so nuts trying to meet all the demands I’m making on myself.
I’d like to write about this journey in more detail and share some ideas about what worked for me, and what I am happy to be rid of today.
I’ve also worked in education for over ten years. Teaching is fascinating because it’s all about people I’d be a terrible Geography teacher . But I can teach what I know.
Ideally, work needs to provide spiritual as well as financial nourishment. Teaching can be good like that if you can get around the corporate nonsense that pervades a lot of government-run institutions. I’d like to write about this particularly teaching Creative subjects. Because I think that kind of communication applies to all aspects of life. I’ve learned more from being a teacher than anything else. If there’s any teachers in the house, let me know below!
WHY AM I HERE?
One thing I do know, if you want to make money you have to concentrate on giving people value.
I was attracted to this platform by the enthusiasm of a couple of trusted online friends but also by the idea of creating an income stream from sharing stuff that is meaningful to me.
WHO?
I need to keep my face and identity anonymous. Then I can be more open about other things. You’ll understand why this is important in just a moment. A level of anonymity will serve to make my posts more honest and therefore I hope more valuable to somebody.
CREATIVITY
“You’re either a student or a victim….”
I’m going to write about my journey with music and creativity and post some specific techniques and ideas I think may help people in the studio. Please let me know if you think that’s a good idea…! If you’ve got a band, or you’re a music artist, or a creative artist of another kind, I have some stuff to share about how to get a load of eyes and ears on your stuff without spending much cash.. Again, please let me know in the comments if that’s you.
I’m going to write about my journey with music and creativity and post some specific techniques and ideas I think may help people in the studio. Or If you’ve got a band, you’re a music artist, or a creative artist of another kind, I have some stuff to share about how to get a load of eyes and ears on your stuff without spending much cash. Again, please let me know in the comments if that’s you.
LIGHT
Essential for me remains daily practice of tai chi, through which I begin to understand more about myself and others. The underlying principles have proved immensely powerful and transformative, and helped me through some of the most difficult times of my life including the loss of loved ones. This stuff, for me is the antidote to the stress of modern living and especially for those of us that spend hours online or staring at screens.
DARKNESS
Finally I want to mention addiction and recovery, which I know affects so many people right now. It’s one reason you won’t see a picture of my face on here. I need to keep that anonymity so I can safely tell my story, in the hope it may be of help to others struggling with their own demons.
I’ve been in recovery for drugs and alcohol for a couple of years and still get days where I think it’s a good idea to use, to run away from the realities of life through chemical means. With the grace of something outside my own ego, thoughts remain only thoughts and I don’t need to act on them. But I have to remain vigilant or I’m gonna fall down the hole again, and I can’t do that.
Today I’m able to be a more useful person in the world as a result. As anyone who’s been in this place of darkness will tell you though, it’s really one day at a time and all we get is a daily reprieve.
When I started in recovery I was truly amazed by the sheer number and variety of people who suffer from the disease of addiction.. fat ones, thin ones, rich, poor, old, young, yellow, black, white, pink, this is something that affects a lot of people. For this reason, as well as because it’s helpful to me, I would like to write about this journey too, and I have a feeling there are people out there who may find that relevant.
GETTING OUT OF BED
“If you’re confused it must mean you’re about to learn something”… G.Fox
I hope you got something out of this post. If you’ve taken the time to read this far I’d genuinely appreciate any feedback, and upvotes of course, so please comment below.
I will make one promise about future posts: I’ll try always to be as authentic as I can and provide value. If I can accomplish those things, I won’t have wasted your time.
Wishing you a safe and productive day.
Catch you soon.
Engineer