How we see the world around us is for a high degree determined by what we have learned. Sometimes we have to unlearn to be able to give our creativity a boost, to broaden your musical horizons. Looking into the mirror Have you ever seen a baby in front of a mirror? The baby has to learn to recognize the image as belonging to him/her. When we look into a reverse mirror we experience something similar. In a ‘real mirror’ […]
1. Praise them for everything they do. They are quite vulnerable. And if you want something different, present it as supplement or improvement to their great plan. You can also make the musicians believe that your idea was actually their idea. See it as exercise in seeing the best in everyone. 2. Don’t confront them with open criticism in front of others, ever. You can do it backstage, and even than it’s best to be as cautious as possible, so […]
As artist it’s important to network. Conferences and seminars offer great opportunities, especially if you want to address new countries. You can pick a seminar or conference per country, you’ll have to travel quite a lot. Or you can pick some more international oriented seminars/conferences. I’ve put them in a list for you. At seminars and conferences you can also catch up on new developments regarding technology, music business and music. For the international music business in Europe there are […]
On September 15 I start with a new edition of the workshop “5 empowerment tools for musicians – online workshop to learn in 6 weeks how to move from despair to an upward spiral towards success”. I’m now halfway of the first edition. It’s great to see how the idea works in action. After only 6 weeks: – you will have the right network to support your musical career – you will know your purpose, the flame that keeps you […]
It’s a crazy thought, but it works. As adolescent, cleaning my room and having a clear mind always happened simultaneously. Most of the time my room was a mess. And when it was very chaotic in my mind too, it was time to clean up my room. My mind got cleared too. “If you want to improve your life immediately, clean out a closet. Often it’s what we hold onto that is holding us back.” (Cheryl Richardson) I still wonder […]
Energy is important for everything you do. When someone gets a burnout, we think that he/she spent too much energy. On the other hand, we all know people who seem to have endless energy without getting burned out. How do they manage? In the music business, everyone I know more personally who is working there for more than 10 years has had a burn-out. To start with, it’s important to know what activities give you energy and what activities take […]
I just read about a research of the McKinsey Institute about making decisions in the world of big business. Many decisions go wrong in that world by two psychological factors: confirmation bias and overconfidence bias. Both can be overcome by asking the right questions. If you take both biases in consideration, it helps you to know when it’s the right time to take a decision. Confirmation bias means, that for all of us it’s much easier to integrate new information […]
Last night I went to the city theater to hear the Dutch comedian Daniel Arends talking about plan A and plan B. Plan A is who you are. You can grow in who you are, but you can’t really change it. Plan B is how you appear to others. You are authentic when you appear as who you are. Often we want to appear different than who we are. Many musicians are shy but want to appear spontaneous and confident. […]
A week ago was the big media spectacle of the Grammy’s. I didn’t watch it and honestly, I’m not at all interested. Still, here two remarkable trends I spotted when viewing all the comments afterwards last week: Women and aging Two strong women showed us that aging is not an issue anymore, both in her own way. Madonna still knows how to look young and provocative, all fitting with her American electro-pop theme. The British Anni Lennox has become a […]
Sometimes you only realize what you know, if someone asks the right question. It happened to me last week, when one of the participants of my workshop D.I.Y. mentality asked me how to select the right manager. He’s made serious progress with his band after the workshop and is recently approached by various managers. Within a split second I mentioned 6 criteria, and thought of the last one (number 2 in the list) after consulting with my partner. I like […]
Since 2005 we call that the third Monday of the year ‘Blue Monday’. It’s supposed to be the most depressing day of the year. On Monday we feel more down than on other days, and even more so on the third Monday of the year. It’s cold, dark, the holidays are behind us and we realize that we didn’t manage to hold on to the good intentions we started the year with. Every time I hear of Blue Monday, I […]
Last Saturday I was at a great show of Wendy McNeill. Her new album is full of migration stories: Sicilians coming to New Jersey, English orphanages coming to Canada, Curds running fro the poison gas attack. It kept me busy. And this morning I realized, that Christmas is about migration too! Mary and Joseph had to travel to Bethlehem to get registered. They were not welcome, no one wanted to help them. One guy offered them a shed, used for […]
There are many ways to seduce someone. My Dutch friends on Facebook talk about it, because Julien Blanc is planning to visit the Netherlands. He teaches men to seduce women by overpowering and dominating them. Men pay thousands of dollars to him to learn that they have to force the face of a women to their dick. Various countries have banned Blanc and in the Netherlands we have a petition to politicians to ban him too. I’m against his methods, […]
Last night I spoke with a friend who’s a production guy, often traveling with big productions crews. Sometimes he and his colleagues might mingle with the backing band, but never with the stars of the show. He was part of the huge production crew of the European tour of Justin Bieber. When he described Justin Bieber as a spoiled prick I wasn’t surprised, it confirmed what I already thought. The friend continued with telling me, that all the people with […]
When stretching your boundaries, you are also changing your perspective on things, often unnoticed by yourself. After the change, others might feel a distance to you, which makes you feel lonely. It’s up to you how far you want to change, how big the distance should grow, how to deal with it. If you put effort into a good relationship to your dear ones, it can bridge the distance. Feeling stiff Two months ago I started to workout again, my […]
