Living “in the Zone”: How Music Entrepreneurs Optimize Their Flow Experiences

Creative people know the feeling of being “in the zone”,  the state of effortless concentration and joy where your skill level meets the challenge at hand, you know what you want to achieve and you are receiving the feedback on how well you are doing, time whizzes by because you are doing something that you love, and you are thus inspired …

Entrepreneurial Projects: Creative Ways to Deliver Music and Engage Today’s Audiences

One of the hallmarks of my class at Yale School of Music is the entrepreneurial semester project that my students complete in order to gain experience with the skills that we learn in the class.  There are two rules: It has to be something that a student has never done before; and It has to be outside the student’s comfort zone. Yet …

Marketing for Music Entrepreneurs: 5 Steps to Connecting Your Music to Your People

 One of the biggest challenges for today’s musicians is marketing.   For many musicians, marketing feels manipulative and deceptive.  And marketing becomes even more challenging because as entrepreneurs, musicians are essentially marketing themselves.  All this in a world where the audience is aging, audiences are not as educated in classical music as they once were, there is a lot of …

Personal Branding for Musicians: How To Discover and Communicate What Makes You Unique

A personal brand is a powerful marketing tool for creative artists that communicates your authentic unique gift to the people you want to attract. It is a message to your ideal audience members •    that expresses what makes you unique and memorable
•    and distinguishes you from your competition
 •    so that your target audience connects with you emotionally and wants …

Playing to Strengths Part 2: What do I do about my weaknesses?

I’m working away at some great pieces on the piano—Shostakovich Piano Trio, Bach Toccata in E Minor, Brahms Intermezzo Op. 117 No. 2.   Yes, I play challenging repertoire and eventually do it well.  And when I put my time and focus on learning and mastering these pieces, the results are wonderful.  Yet it takes me a LOT of time to …

Playing To Strengths Part 1: Do I Have To Be Good At Everything In Order To Succeed?

My class at Yale this semester is my most diverse group to date, mixing opera singers, early music voice majors, composers, string and orchestra players, one guitar major and a conducting student.  The result is a rich sharing experience from many points of view.  And they are highly motivated to find out what it takes to create success in today’s …

Entrepreneurial Projects: How Today’s Musicians Are Changing Classical Music

One of the signature features of my class at the Yale School of Music is the entrepreneurial semester project where my students have an opportunity to create and experiment with something that they have not previously done in order to apply the skills that we learn in class. The projects from my fall semester’s class were full of new ideas …

Top 10 Networking Tips for Music Entrepreneurs

With year-end top 10 lists abounding,  I would like to contribute my top 10 tips for effortless and effective networking since the successful musicians I know have all figured out a way to create supportive and effective networks.  And networking has a double advantage:  not only is it an effective career-building tool but it can also be fun!
My definition of networking is very simple:

Share + Connect + Remain Relevant

In other words, networking is an opportunity to connect with other people, share and learn something new and expand your community by remaining relevant to people with whom you feel a personal connection. Think of it as a way to make life-long business friends!

Here’s how: