How do you make a living?

If you feel anything less than ecstatic about the answer, here’s a recipe for professional fulfillment you might want to try:

1) You start by listening for your unique calling–that small, still Voice inside you that guides your decisions when you are wise enough to follow. AVOID THIS STEP AT YOUR OWN RISK.

2) Next you explore the various career paths that seem to fit–the jobs, titles, locations, organizations, gigs, clients, customers, deals, partnerships, and other relationships that make up the whole of your ever-evolving career model.

3) Gradually, you find out where what you naturally do meets up with what others naturally need: your singular contribution to the world around you. This is your niche, your purpose, your destiny and nobody else can fill the position.

The only problem is that many of us have been taught that our professional success is an issue of achievement alone, without regard to whether we feel stoked about our work or what the net result is for the lives of others.

The next time you feel uncertainty or confusion about your professional life, try asking yourself “What do I feel called to do and in what unique way does it benefit those around me?” See what that small Voice has to say now…

Join this SOS podcast Part 3 in The Prosperous Musician series about tuning up your financial vibration and explore the artist’s path toward musical and professional fulfillment.

 

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Legend has it that Bob Marley drove a BMW and declared that it was his right since the car bore the initials of his band (Bob Marley and the Wailers).

This juxtaposition of a man who wrote and sang about social justice and spirituality yet also enjoyed a luxury automobile provides a nice example of how one might simultaneously embrace their conscience while enjoying the finer aspects of worldly life.

Though it is common in our society to assume that one has to choose between living a life of service or a life of wealth, Marley’s BMW poetically illustrates that it is possible to live with comfort and prosperity while doing good in the world–to help others in need while “helping yourself” to whatever you like as well.

While looking for a solution to the common the duality between following one’s conscience (the desire to do the right thing) and building one’s career path (the desire to do the profitable thing), I identified three models, or artistic archetypes, that incorporate the best of both qualities: the strength of the savvy businessperson and the sensitivity of the creative soul.

Three Archetypes of Power and Conscience are:

* The Seeker (who asks important questions),
* The Warrior (who uses their courage to fight for what they believe in), and
* The Jester (who exposes the truth through humor and folly).

Listen to this SOS podcast and expose yourself to some new options as you find your own attunement and balance in the personal, professional, and artistic dimensions of your life.

This is part 2 in the 5-part “Prosperous Musician” series.

 

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Why do so many artists and musicians experience complications when it comes to money? Where does the confusion originate? How might you use your musical skills to “tune up” and improve your feelings and thoughts about that all-pervasive presence we call money?

More personal than health and more intimate that sex, few perennial topics stir up as many emotions, opinions, beliefs, hopes, and fears as money.

Add to this the stereotypes and contradictions floating around society about musicians–images and sound bytes such as the “starving artist” who has to suffer for his or her art or the larger-than-life “stars” featured in the weekly magazines, appearing to “have it all.”

Join this important SOS episode as the groundwork for thriving both artistically AND financially is exposed and explored from a Whole Musician perspective.

 

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Springboards. Sparks. Influences and Inspirations. What are yours? What do you model your music after?

When it’s time to create your next song, you can always benefit from others’ works by extracting out the spirit, concept, or essence of the work and translating it through your own Voice and perspective.

As artists mature, they are still influenced by the music of their predecessors and contemporaries, but rather than copying, imitating, or emulating the styles of their heroes and teachers, they engage in the modeling process.

Just as researchers have methodologies, companies have business models, professionals have career tracks, and economists have schools of thought, musical artists can decide upon the approach they take to their craft, before composing any words or music. A consciously chosen approach can be based on a number of elements, including:

• timeless topics
• successful song-formulas
• proven assumptions behind song-crafting
• time-tested strategies for creativity and productivity
• undeniable grooves, moods, or vibes
• modes of storytelling
• a compelling perspective

Songwriters can extract the spirit, structure, or conceit of a great song and use it as a springboard for their own compositions. We can Song-Model.

A song-model is different from a genre, a sound, or a tradition in that it has nothing to do with how the music sounds or what it is made up of. It’s more like a mood encoded into the music and lyrics or a borrowed approach to the songwriting structure. A model exists apart from the actual content of the song.

Join the Song-Modeling discussion and JP explores three common qualities that have been modeled in countless songs: sex/passion, romance/imagination, and compassion/love.

 

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