Clarity is Middle C

Clarity is such a powerful stage to stand on, it gives you confidence, vision and the ability to understand what’s working and what is not. Clarity is what’s needed when you take a solo over a jazz progression so you know what notes will work and what notes to avoid. It affords you headspace to really feel the music in your performance and be present and honest in all your work. Clarity is in the center of your music business. Clarity is middle C.

0:00:01.7 S1: Welcome to the show that explores the methods and strategies on block on the financial side of your music business with over 40 years combined experience. Here are your host, Chris Webb and Dave take. Welcome to musicians tip chart. When we talk about musicians and money, where we pile up every self-help book on the market to build a stage for you to financially rack out, I'm your host, Chris Webb, joined by my co-host and the man here to stage a for all of us. Dave dancing, dress web.

0:00:34.4 S2: Thanks for having me back for season two.

0:00:37.1 S1: Have you ever staged dovecote Dove? I did once. And yeah, it was quite exciting, I'd say.

0:00:48.3 S2: I've never been on that and I've been on the receiving end, but I was never tall enough to hold the person because the people around me were always taller, so it's just like I would shelter beneath them.

0:01:02.4 S1: Well, here we're all tall enough to celebrate the fact that we're back for season to you, we are so excited to be back and gets season to underway. We will talk about what's in store this season, but also we will start by asking a few questions, questions for you to ask yourself, and I push for you to assess where you are at and want to be financially, and then we'll give you a tool to help start making that happen. Right after this.

0:01:33.3 S2: In 2005, by Henderson began working on an amplifier to fill what he saw as a void in the marketplace for a guitar amplifier designed to meet the needs of jazz guitar players who wanted a extremely high quality sound and a portable package pennant amplifiers designs and manufactures high quality analog musical instrument amplifiers in Arvada, Colorado, with the 100% customer SAT is basin guarantee you really won't believe the tone coming from either your electric or acoustic guitar and a string instrument with a pick-up for that matter, not to mention the volume these beautifully made compact lightweight Amer capable of cleanly producing... I have one, I love it, it's the best app that I have played in the last 20 years for what I need with Di-versatility to cover almost any kind of a... This is a must have piece of gear for the working musician. Learn more at healers dot com and enter TJ 10 for 10% off your purchase. Welcome back, everybody. This week's non-profit is vendor musicians dot org, Denver musicians Association. They were formed in 1890 as the musical Protective Association of Denver. Local 20 was chartered by the American Federation of musicians in 1897.

0:02:48.4 S2: That means they've been around a while, Chris, today, the 650 plus professional musicians of local 20623 live and work in parts of Colorado, Wyoming and Utah. To the combined efforts and resources of their members, the Denver musicians Association is committed to raising industry standards and positioning professional musicians in the foreground of the cultural landscape, learn more and see how you can help them out at Denver musicians dot org.

0:03:13.6 S1: And make sure you rate and subscribe to this podcast, leave us a comment, go to our website, check out all those resources and discounts that we've collected for you, and while you're there, you can sign up for our weekly newsletter, we... We'll connect you to other related articles and keep you up on all those new opportunities for your music business. Well, Dave, I just thought I'd take a moment and just say how happy I am to be back here with you and see you face-to-face via screen, like we always do. How are you doing?

0:03:43.4 S2: I have covid, Chris, and I think I'm just starting on my diorite.

0:03:47.0 S1: Did that sound a little... I don't know, that could just teething that covid gonna come through the cable because I need to back off of that a attitude, put a masculine... Lower that frequency a little bit.

0:03:58.7 S2: How's that a little bit better? Here you go. Let's covid in The matale Covey. Yeah, I'm on day 12, I'm exhausted. But things like this, worth getting out of bed, Chris, 'cause we get to do this again and I can't wait, there's so much fun things that we've been putting together over the last how many months, and we'll finally get to present it again, so... Thanks for asking me to be on the show. Well, it wouldn't be the same without you.

0:04:28.6 S1: I feel like it has been a while. I feel like I'm so excited to finally get back into the rhythm of being here with everybody every week, and we have, like you said, we have so much that we've been working on to be ready for this season, to really give a lot...

0:04:42.3 S2: I think one thing that I'm looking forward to most on this episode is not only giving, I guess, unsolicited advice, is listening to us, but learning about what you've been doing, and I know we're gonna get into it and sharing a little bit about what I've been doing on the break, just to kind of take some of the lessons that we've been talking about and that we've learned...

0:05:08.6 S1: Well, let's start with the quote for the day, Steve Mari Bully, he said, it's lack of clarity that creates chaos and frustration, those emotions are poisoned to any living goal.

0:05:22.2 S2: Good one, Steve. Good one. What do you think he was when he said that? And someone's like, Hold on, let me write that down.

0:05:31.5 S1: I have no idea. If you have been listening to us, you already know that we hear at TJ believe that financial technique is as important as your instrument technique in becoming successful in building a thriving music business. And for this reason, we are always trying to reinforce the principles of strong technique, a core of those principles is reconciling your previous year and forecasting the next or what in our financial scale, we refer to as the third note

0:06:07.1 S2: Clarity. I wish everyone can see you make the S sign when you say clarity with their hand, keeping myself

0:06:13.7 S1: Straight, clarity is such a powerful stage to stand on, it gives you confidence, vision and the ability to understand what's working, and perhaps more importantly, what is nap? Clarity is what's needed when you take a solo over a jazz progression so that you know what notes will work and what notes to avoid, it affords you head space to really feel the music in your performance and be present and honest in all your work. Clarity is in the center of your music business. Clarity is middle C with your hand. Thank you. With your hampers. So let's ask a few questions to start this out, how much have you planned this year for your music business, are you asking everyone else, do you ask can make this... Well, I guess we can start with each other, we've done this before, and it's a good example that we do practice what we preach. Let's talk a little bit about you first a... Well.

0:07:12.5 S2: Definitely first thing I got in order was March, I wanted to have something new this year, and I think with the lack of being able to play as much as I normally do, and that was where most of my income was coming from, that I took in print, and that was something that we were sharing with everyone, and it's the first time that I was able to have logos made and try the mount in different t-shirts and hats, and I didn't have to spend all the money up front to see if it would work, so that's kind of cool 'cause they're already selling, and then with the money I make from that, I'll be able to go and buy a wholesale and have larger margins later, but it's a pretty cool platform to just hook up to my square space and from there also, I was able to hook it up to Instagram shopping cart in a Facebook shopping cart, so I'm actually selling more much than I was when I physically had it in my hands, just because principal gave me an opportunity to do that, and I really wasn't sure how to do that before and I how to do it, but I guess I didn't wanna spend as much time being able to fill out those orders and get the packaging and do all that.

0:08:31.1 S2: So that's kinda cool. I updated the website to... I love square space, so when that's what I use with most of my clients too, and because I know Square Space, I traded some more with a photographer, and at the end of this month, I'll get some new photos for next year, which I'll be trading the stuff that I know how to do for their work, so I can help him out with his website and I can get some new photos, which is something we also talked about last year, but helping people out and that'll definitely cut down on some costs. I also made a plan to show up for just Instagram, Facebook, connecting via email with the thing that I love most doing and that's playing music, and I appreciate the audience so much, I'd like to show up a little bit more and be less nervous about how I'm presenting myself and just show up, so my friend, ditching Hawk and I were accountability partners, and we're gonna just do more videos and show up for each other to make sure that we're showing up for new content and be creative. Another basket that I was also working on, we talk about just the financials and making sure we diversify, I have a head above music dot com as one of the websites that I started in 2008.

0:09:59.2 S2: And last year, I got more submissions for reviews and just press releases than I have ever before, so I've been posting those and just the ad space on that website has popped out as well, so that's kind of nice to diversify my income that way, but also give back to the music community by giving them a platform to showcase their art...

0:10:23.1 S1: Yeah, and I love that website. It's a great website to take your job.

0:10:26.7 S2: Yeah, yeah. We've been friends since I started that, so it's been cool to always ask you for your opinion and just see if I'm going in the right direction and providing a service...

0:10:41.3 S1: Yeah, that's exciting. That's a lot of stuff to get going on, and hopefully, you've kind of laid out how you're gonna achieve those things right, and had some clarity on how that's all gonna go about... It sounds like you've thought it out quite a bit...

0:10:55.4 S2: Yeah, definitely, especially with time, the time commitment, and to show up to not only have that one action item to get done every day, that's the most important action item, to have some space to live a little bit more than I think I was before to show up to music in a different way, to have something to write about, to have some more adventures and explore a little bit, and without planning my time accordingly, I think I was over doing it a little bit and maybe having some signs of burnout for sure.

0:11:30.9 S1: Well, that's great. So let's ask a few questions to you yourself, how much have you planned this year for your music business, for your goals and for your happiness, as we are fresh in the year, and this being our first episode of Season 2, it all starts with a refined plan, the determination and the right tools, and for having the right tools for myself, that's what I spend most of my year, last year focused on was how do I build something that can be reproduced by others with a consistent result? That has been a big thing that I focus on over the last year, as well as expanding a lot on my platforms of sync placement and writing.

0:12:19.1 S2: Can you start from the beginning? And leave nothing out.

0:12:21.8 S1: What do you mean it? Baby listen, things like going, and I'm attending a lot of conferences this year for sync placement and making a lot of new efforts to build relationships in the sink world and expand my repertoire in my catalogue so that I have more opportunities to have placements.

0:12:45.0 S2: Which conference you're going to...

0:12:46.6 S1: The next one coming up is Durango in California. Nice. Yeah, and that should be a lot of fun.

0:12:53.0 S2: Internet of the winter weather here.

0:12:57.8 S1: Yeah, hopefully the last time I went to it was cold and down pouring... The whole time I was there in California, it was like, Oh, it's never happened. Okay, and so yeah, that's one of my main focuses this year is how can I expand things that I've already built and that includes this podcast and this community that we've been working so hard on ourselves and trying to build clarity within what it is that we're... Even presenting, and that's taken a lot of my time and I've enjoyed it, but I'm excited that this year, I think we'll move past a lot of the foundational part of what it is that we're really trying to build here.

0:13:36.7 S2: Do you see the parallel of more puns that you put in each week with how hard you work on it each week, 'cause I get a tan... You do that, have you?

0:13:48.1 S1: I keep waiting for the funds to run out and they just don't test somehow, there's an endless bucket of to say they're good, but they're there, they're there for me to pick up, and being data, I have the excuse of having bad dad jokes, all I want...

0:14:02.9 S2: I have no kids, I think they're ours. I enjoy him. Well.

0:14:07.9 S1: Well, thanks, you gotta have a little fun with what you do it... Yes, you do. And I've also spent a lot of time building block timing, block time for myself to dedicate to writing and dedicated to recording and producing and teaching, I still have a lot of block time for that too, 'cause I really enjoy that as well. So I'm excited for 2022 and I hope that boy, I hope that we have all the opportunities that come to us without any cancellations, I don't intend myself... I'm doing more shows than I did last year, is that was enough, and I am hoping for a consistent number of... About the same this year, but I always have the fear that things would just go in to shut down again, and that's one of those concerns, that's why we have money put aside for those situations, but it doesn't make it any easier to have that led to...

0:15:02.1 S2: No, but this is also something that I think you and I both learned that because we planned, maybe not for a pandemic, but planned for a rainy day in a different way that as musicians, we weren't in such a bad spot for the musicians out there that only relied on plain life.

0:15:22.8 S1: Right? None of us should have to fear that by shutting down, we're going to fall apart, right.

0:15:29.2 S2: We have... Leo, is that what you...

0:15:32.4 S1: Episode, I don't even... I should know the number, but I don't remember at the time, had it in show, not... And for you, being you the one we're talking to, how did you do last year and did you reconcile and do you feel happy about those results, did you make your goals that you had set in 2021, did you finally get that duet with Bieber? Did you have your financial goals and did you meet them, did you improve your skills in the focused areas that you wanted to, and if you're answering no to any of these questions, you're like most musicians, unfortunately, most musicians can't support their financial needs with just music. What if lack of clarity could be the main reason for that. I have worked out with many musicians building their financial plans, and I can tell you that this is often the case, so the first of our new tools that we have created to help musicians with their financial shredding is a stretchy. There it is, there it is. I mean, this reagent gloss over at that word of spreadsheet, 'cause it really is an amazing tool, like a plug-in to your doc...

0:16:48.2 S1: A spreadsheet is an instrument and is instrumental to strong finances.

0:16:53.6 S2: Did you ever use... Was it fast fret for spreading, not just oil that you put on the OISE... On your fretboard. That's gonna make you faster. Rather than practicing it, I'm just gonna be a better player.

0:17:10.5 S1: Just mop it up. Watched, that's been the problem. Well, we are really excited to give you our musicians tip jar forecasting tool. This tool is to help you track all of your revenue streams in one place, it will give you a simple way to measure how you did last year, predict how you will do this year, and set goals for how you would like to do. It has allowed me to push myself to find a few more opportunities when necessary, and to see what months I need to be more creative to make my numbers and the celebrate victories that I likely wouldn't have had otherwise without that tool. You don't have any way of noticing either, you won't see that it's a nice road map for the future financially... Yeah, and it's gonna be one of those tools, and I believe this whole-heartedly that once you get used to using it, it's confusing how you live without it. Again, this is the reason we call it clarity is because it lays everything out so clearly that you have no mystery to how your money is functioning, where it's coming in, where it's not coming in from, and it gives you all of that laid out right in front of you to be able to attack situations and address weaknesses.

0:18:28.3 S2: Here's an example, there's guys outside my lingo right now, I'm fixing the gutter. If they would have called me and planned when they who are coming over.

0:18:41.1 S1: I would have known how to do the podcast during this time.

0:18:43.9 S2: Let's see.

0:18:44.7 S1: I didn't have that forecasting.

0:18:47.0 S2: You can hear a lot of banging pre...

0:18:49.4 S1: Sorry, everybody. Well, we have down best to make this tool as simple as possible, and all you should have to do is enter your own stream categories and numbers.

0:18:59.6 S2: When you say stream categories, what do you mean?

0:19:02.0 S1: Streams are simply different revenue sources like gigging, teaching, royalties, membership merchandise, some of you might have a stream categories, some of you might only have two right now. That's okay. There's lots of other examples too, if you rent out your equipment, if you run a studio and you work as an engineer or a freelance as an engineer, or if you do songwriting for other people, there's a lot of ways that you might be selling your skills and so each of those would become a different stream category, but dancing... I mean, yes.

0:19:42.3 S2: I mean, there's tiktok. I've been working on my moves.

0:19:46.7 S1: But it's not really musical, but you could put non-musical things in that too.

0:19:51.4 S2: Okay, what if I'm writing music to dance

0:19:53.9 S1: To... In making money off it.

0:19:57.0 S2: Oh, I forgot about that part. That's what a podcast is about, sorry.

0:20:02.5 S1: Likely, it will make sense to break down some of these bigger streams into more specific categories, for example, I play a lot of types of shows, so I have separate categories for things like weddings, corporate events, and more artistic shows, so that I can keep track of them in different streams of income, there's no wrong way to itemize revenue streams, it just comes down to how you want to keep track of them. Sometimes for me, at the end of the year, I have a number I wanna hit for certain different types of categories for a wedding, so I have a certain number of revenue that I wanna hit, and so I don't wanna have to figure out what of my shows were weddings, revenue. So I keep that as this hypotonia makes it much easier and things like placements, I have placements where it comes from the back end and then from the front end, so I can keep track of their different types of income, Dave. And I keep track of them so that I know which side I'm getting more money.

0:21:09.5 S2: I'm just gonna leave it alone. It's gonna even keep going.

0:21:12.8 S1: So I will only say that breaking them down to too many streams can make things more complicated and time-consuming than necessary, so you have to try to find a balance that makes sense for you, but keeps the disciple as you can...

0:21:27.8 S2: Thanks for going over the different types too, I think that's important, where I might not play as many shows as you do, but when we talk about diversifying income, I have a music website that I have to keep track of, do I need more content there? How is that compared to last year and do I have sponsors that are signing up for it as I would probably for shows like the one that... Through your booking agency for just the Saturday, I have one revenue side for that, so everything that comes through, just booking agencies for playing the due, which they have women there too, so I don't know why they call it do that, right. I'm not sure. Anyway, and then also the ticketed chose and live streaming now too, that's something I didn't even do before the Pandora, three to four different platforms that I really enjoy performing on that I never thought I would prior to all of this.

0:22:29.3 S1: And so is that going to be a new stream category for you this year? Yeah, absolutely. And a creative category too, and so now that we have given a simple way to keep track of how much each of your revenue streams are bringing in each month, and a way to forecast how much they will bring in over the year. It's a simple way for you to start setting clear goals on Chris...

0:22:54.2 S2: There it is. Clarity, gang change a Chris web game-changer. This is where clarity starts.

0:23:01.7 S1: It sounds like that hurt when you said, over everything hurts. No, right, well, let's talk a little bit about the season as well, as I mentioned, the middle sea is for clarity, and it is the third note in a set of seven known here on out as the financial scale, we will be playing a lot more of that financial scale for you over this season, with a lot more information on how it all works, soon to come.

0:23:31.7 S2: Every episode we should have... You should play that scale at a different instrument.

0:23:35.6 S1: But it's not like the notes or anything new, that's not fair. Not mean that would really be challenging, I know we discovered some new pitches.

0:23:48.2 S2: Well, even instruments I found was cleaning out doing some winter cleaning and I found a flute that a held on from my sister's eighth grade when she was an orchestra. So it hasn't been played in probably over 25 years, he plans a better time to learn the flu

0:24:08.3 S1: Chris, and when you're playing the financial scale in 25 years ago, when I was in probably...

0:24:15.0 S2: I don't know, give me to the episode for... I'll learn it

0:24:17.8 S1: On the fly. Well, we are really excited to explain this financial scale and to show you how it can be the key to making your money match your goals. Also, aside from this financial scale, this season, we are also lucky to have some amazing guests, some of which have had music on Super Bowl commercials, American Idol, as well as millions of streams. They're all here to talk about the importance of finance and strategy. We will also have help for you on things like taxes, which is gonna be super exciting to have finally, we've been talking about it forever, and we are finally going to do it, and email lists, which we all love to avoid getting placements, which is... As I've said, my big passion this year, finding grants, which is that hidden way to fund all of your dreams as an artist.

0:25:12.7 S2: Why are a bunch of guys name grands, Heidi.

0:25:16.4 S1: Because they're so valuable to land much, much more... We have so many things that we're excited about this season, and it's really about the fact that we're back to make everyone's lives clearer and more functional and offer some ways to help make your dreams financially satisfying, being financially skilled is a practice, and we... Musicians are all familiar with practice, this musicians tip jar forecast that we're giving you today is meant to become a habit to build into a standard part of your business, just like practicing anything else. Yeah, we can help each other thrive by sharing how we use this forecasting tool so that we all can feed back from each other's experiences and make it a better tool.

0:26:06.6 S2: So number one action for the sweet CRS, I would say go to TJ Podcast dot com, send us an email or go to the resources page and request the TJ forecasting tool, and it will be sent to you with basic instructions on how to get the most out of it.

0:26:22.3 S1: It's so excited that we finally have launched the first of those, we know that your time is valuable and we appreciate you spending this time with us and being a part of this community. It is our hope that you feel that sense of community here and that you love being a part of music tip jar, so you'll spread the word and help make it stronger. If they wanna get a hold of his day, what's the best way to do that?

0:26:43.5 S2: You could connect with us at musicians to Jericho, we have a new domain MT Podcast dot com, and is an email musicians tip jar at email.

0:26:53.6 S1: And that's always... Thank you for joining us. Remember, there is already enough for everyone, you just need to know how to get it, we are so excited to be back here with you for another season at TJ, and on behalf of Data kind, myself Chris web, please stay safe. Stay healthy and take care of each other. Clarity affords the focus for your dreams. This is a musician Stephane better. Nothing on this show should be considered a Isabel or professional advice. Please consult an appropriate tax legal business or for natural professional individual device. Individual results and A and All discuss tatters have the potential for problems to lost the house to upgrade in on behalf of musicians, tip jar llcs.