Do you find yourself performing many tasks as a music entrepreneur? Do you sometime feel discouraged that they are so different from each other? Does it seem like you’re losing focus?
In this episode of The New Music Industry Podcast, I consider the question, “how does this all fit together?” I also offer some tips on how to reframe your perspective and recognize the blessings and opportunities that already exist in your sphere.
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Podcast Highlights:
00:14 – One of the most important questions you’ll ever ask yourself
00:45 – The importance of creating an offer that converts
01:20 – The dangers of single-source dependence
01:40 – Building many pipelines
01:50 – Having a focus as a music entrepreneur
02:42 – Don’t create a business people haven’t asked for
03:08 – What The Music Entrepreneur HQ has done for me
03:49 – Reframing your perspective
04:10 – How does this all fit together?
04:41 – Creative alchemy
05:10 – Specialist vs. generalist
05:55 – Recognizing an opportunity
06:26 – Questions to ask yourself
Transcription:
This may very well be one of the most important questions you’ll ever ask yourself, especially if you find yourself doing a lot of things in your music entrepreneurship career.
I’ve shared about my various responsibilities and revenue streams before. My long-term vision is to delegate many of my tasks, and hopefully if you’re doing a lot of things in your career or business, you’re planning to do the same.
You need not use me as the example of what you need to do to cobble together a living and pursue a path of freedom and fulfillment.
As my coach James Schramko says, the most important thing to focus on as a business owner is creating an offer that converts. I recently talked about content marketing on the podcast, but that’s mostly beside the point if you haven’t already created an offer.
This isn’t to say you can’t begin building an audience that you can sell to later. But what if your product idea flops? What if no one wants it when you finally launch it? Then, you don’t have a business – you just have a blog!
Regardless, it is possible to create a six-figure business and probably beyond if you have a single offer that converts.
I think James would also agree that single-source dependence is not a good thing. There are many reasons you can end up losing the revenue source you’ve worked so hard to create. Your product could become outdated. The market could get saturated. Or, if you’re relying on an affiliate to pay out commissions, they could end up pulling the plug on that program.
You can build one pipeline, but why stop there? If you can build one, most certainly you can build another. You can mitigate risk by building many pipelines.
This also speaks to the importance of having a focus – something I talked about in episode 90 of the podcast.
Realistically, I think most of us can only juggle two or three projects at a time. In episode 91 of the podcast, I talked about the idea of following one course until success. It is so much easier to create additional revenue streams when you’ve successfully put one on virtual autopilot.
I can’t speak for you – but that’s not how I’m wired. I’ve certainly limited my focus, especially as time has become more of a commodity in my life. But I still have many projects. If I’m being honest with myself, this probably isn’t about to change. There’s a good chance I will continue down the same path, because it has helped me create many revenue streams, and has also brought considerable fulfillment.
That’s why this question is so important:
“How does this all fit together?”
Former CD Baby founder Derek Sivers says you shouldn’t create a business people haven’t asked for. I think he’s somewhat idealistic in saying that, but his point is well taken. Why spend hours, days, weeks, months, or even years of your life creating something no one wants or sees val...