Business

Debra Recommends Concerts in Your Home

music, concerts, live musicFran Snyder has created a great resource for musicians who are looking to perform in house concert venues as well as home-owners who are interested in creating wonderful events in their homes.

Their Mission:
CIYH creates and nurtures opportunities that pay artists to perform in a listening environment, while bringing communities together with a renewed passion for live music.

Why?
It’s increasingly challenging for touring performers to draw audiences to clubs, and more difficult still to connect with these audiences in a meaningful way. Most venues offer too many distractions (televisions, loud conversations, etc.), and are far too reliant on alcohol sales and a “Top 40” atmosphere.

How?
CIYH promotes the concept of house concerts to artists and music lovers across the U.S. and beyond. Through the web and word-of-mouth, this site promotes the appeal of house concerts and helps turn music fans into concert promoters.

Concerts In Your Home

Debra Recommends Ann Evanston – Social Networking Coaching Club

Debra Russell recommends, internet marketing, Social Media Marketing, Ann Evanston, Warrior-Preneur, twitterI took a Twitter Technology class with Ann and I learned SO much, that I signed up for her Social Networking Coaching Club. I’ve been learning a lot – and really diving deep into the social networking world as a result of her support! Many of the principles I teach my Members and clients I learned at her knee!

I recommend Ann and her Social Networking Coaching Club! She is committed to teaching the strategies and tactics to successful social networking to grow your business, increase traffic, and generate revenue!

Most people do NOT understand the social psychology of how to market their business online without wasting tons of time and energy. Truly build credibility and have your marketing go “viral” with this system!

The Social Networking Coaching Club provides a customized coaching process, online rather than 1:1 which is far more costly! Get results quickly and feedback specific for what YOU are trying to achieve!

Growing your business online makes smart business sense these days. Learning how to do it right the first time is critical. There are many people out there who claim to be “Social Media Experts.” And they charge some pretty nice fees to “coach” people to improve their online marketability. There are also many people out there trying to be “helpful” but have no clue of how to extend strategic help!

What Ann says about her experience with Social Networking:
I am a HUGE fan of social networking – it has expanded my internet presence and closed business for me. As a matter of fact I ran 3Q numbers and I have pulled $30,000, and a book and radio deal for business in 2008 from social networking! (Oh, and I was a featured speaker at BizTechDay – I loved the “heavy hitters” I got to play with that day!)  The opportunities are endless on the internet! And if you practice what is in my Social NetWORKing article you can be successful at it!

If you are serious about true social networking to grow your business, not shoving your business at everyone (it gets old!) then this site is for you! Learn the secrets for success! Go to the Social Networking Coaching Club to sign up or learn more!

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Leadership

I believe that Leadership, or the lack thereof, underlies many if not all of the challenges that we are experiencing in today’s world.  But what is Leadership?

Leadership – A 21st Century Concept

According to the dictionary, Leadership is the position or function of a leader.  (I hate when dictionaries define a word with the word itself, don’t you?)  The definition of a leader: a guiding or directing head, as of an army, movement, or political group.

And I think that is exactly the mistake we are making in our world.  Who am I to call myself a leader – I’m not a directing head of anything but my own life!

We are waiting for someone else to lead, someone else to take responsibility for our lives, someone else to judge what’s right or wrong, someone else to fix what’s wrong in the world.  While on the one hand, I think that having a centralized government is generally a good thing.  Our world is really too complex to work without that, I certainly don’t want to be dealing with paving that big pothole or providing electricity to the city!

On the other hand, I believe that giving over the responsibility for my own judgment, my own authority to someone who lives far away and over whom I have no influence is a mistake.

It fosters corruption.  And it gives me a convenient scapegoat for all that doesn’t work in my life.  It sets up an environment of shame and blame and empowers a victim mentality.  It creates a society that is OK with corporations that steal from the individual as long as the stockholders are making money; with a health care system that takes your money but doesn’t take care of your health; with waste and a pollution which may yet make our planet uninhabitable; with a government that undermines our human rights in the name of security.

All because we’ve given away our leadership.

On an individual level, we don’t learn to trust ourselves.  We are taught to trust the authorities in our lives over our own internal guidance from early infancy, whether it’s our parents, our teachers, our religious leaders or our peers.  This can create tremendous stress, self-esteem issues, and challenges with addiction and depression, because we feel helpless, a piece of flotsam in a vast sea of conflicting and violent currents.  And because we’ve forgotten how truly powerful each and every one of us is.

And it fosters an inability or unwillingness to take responsibility for our own actions, our own outcomes, even our own feelings.  But the truth is, taking ownership of our action and our outcomes, being responsible for our feelings – these are skills we can learn. And so I’ve created my mantra, in order to create myself as an authentic leader in each moment, in each day:

I have the opportunity TODAY
To live my life how I intend my life to be
In balance and with consistency

I’ve become passionate about the challenge of personal leadership.  How do I create authentic leadership from within myself and how can I empower you, my clients, and my readers to do the same?  I believe that we co-create our world in each moment of every day.  Join with me on this journey of exploration, personal growth, creation and expansion.  So that we can co-create a world that truly works, that empowers life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness, that gives equal opportunity to each and every one of us.

Debra Recommends Turning Passions Into Profits

Debra Russell recommends, Christopher Howard, NLP, Hypnosis, success

Turning Passions Into Profits

– 3 Steps to Wealth & Power
by Christopher Howard

This is a book by my NLP and Hypnosis teacher.  What surprised me about this book was what it wasn’t.  It wasn’t another “follow your bliss” woo-woo book.  And it wasn’t a “Business” book.  It is a concrete instruction manual to use other people’s success as your model to create your own success.

Here’s what Amazon has to say:

Product Description

Turning Passions Into Profits provides specific techniques for rapidly closing the gap between where you are today and where you’d like to be tomorrow. In this book, Christopher Howard teaches powerful, innovative tools for modeling and replicating the ultimate success of some of the world’s greatest leaders and billionaires. With the ability to select and incorporate some of the traits, strategies, thought patterns, and behaviors of those already achieving results, individuals can plot a course and arrive at a chosen destination quicker than they ever thought possible. It provides concrete tools and strategies to fully understand the governing principles outstanding achievers use to realize their vision.
In addition, Turning Passions Into Profits supplies exercises to apply these communication and leadership tools to master these skills-ultimately gaining career, financial, and personal success.

From the Inside Flap

What invisible boundaries come between people and their dreams?

Isn’t the playing field the same for everyone?

How can ordinary people break away from the pack?

Why do some people enjoy phenomenal success in everything they do?

In Turning Passions into Profits, Chris Howard, a leading authority on personal influence and effectiveness, helps readers break through boundaries to achieve wealth and power. He gives eye-opening insight into the playing field and the rules of the game of life, and provides innovative techniques and concrete tools for expanding the playing field, rewriting the rules, and winning the game.

Each individual’s personal rule book is based on learned behavior and personal experiences that shape his or her perspectives. Turning Passions into Profits helps readers recognize and overcome their stifling, self-imposed rules and limitations and move toward a more fulfilling and rewarding future.

“Change your focus and take charge of your life” is Howard’s mantra. He provides actionable techniques to get readers on the fast track from today’s frustrating status quo to tomorrow’s infinite possibilities. This inspiring, empowering book includes thought-provoking exercises to complete and strategies to incorporate into every facet of life, including Creation Technologies, modeling, Strategic Visioning, building teams and rapport, and communicating with power. Readers learn about six hallmarks of powerful communications that influence people and special techniques to inspire confidence.

For years, Howard has studied the lives and characteristics of a diverse group of people, some from quite ordinary backgrounds, who became extraordinarily successful, including Bill Gates, Richard Branson, Warren Buffett, Donald Trump, Rupert Murdoch, Oprah Winfrey, and Nelson Mandela. He zeroes in on common characteristics and shares his insight to help readers learn from and emulate the strategies of the masters.

Turning Passions into Profits is part practical, part philosophical, and all-powerful. It’s not a one-time read; it’s a lifetime reference for those who want to quickly close the gap between where they are and where they want to be.

Buy Turning Passions into Profits now

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Meetup.com Creating Community in Your Community

social media, networkingMeetup.com was mentioned in response to a question from the March 2009 Ask Coach Debra call.  The question was about finding and/or building community with fellow artists.  I have found meetup to be an incredible tool for finding and creating community centered around common interests. I have been both a Meetup organizer with my Bay Area Music Business Success Meetup and a frequent participant at other people’s Meetups.

Meetup is the world’s largest network of local groups. Meetup makes it easy for anyone to organize a local group or find one of the thousands already meeting up face-to-face. More than 2,000 groups get together in local communities each day, each one with the goal of improving themselves or their communities.

Meetup’s mission is to revitalize local community and help people around the world self-organize. Meetup believes that people can change their personal world, or the whole world, by organizing themselves into groups that are powerful enough to make a difference.

Check out Meetup.com

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Debra Recommends Songsalive

songwriting, businessSince 1997, Songsalive! is a non-profit membership organization dedicated to the nurturing, support, promotion and education of songwriters and composers worldwide. Founded in 1997, by Gilli Moon and Roxanne Kiely in Sydney, Australia,  Songsalive! is run by volunteer songwriters for songwriters and has reached the far corners of the globe with over 25 chapters worldwide. Through our grassroots international efforts, we’ve put a stamp on what “global community” truly is and it’s the type of community that is definitely needed in this ever changing music business where songwriting can be a very isolating experience and career.

I have spoken for the Songsalive! organization and count Gilli as a good friend.  I’ve interviewed her for the Artist’s EDGE Membership and given great value to my Members.

Check out Songsalive! – supporting and promoting songwriters and composers worldwide

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Debra Recommends TAXI

Debra Russell recommends, music business, success skills, marketing, record deals, music publishing, A&R, licensing

I’ve been working with TAXI as a speaker for the yearly conference, the Road Rally, since 2005.  I’ve come to know many TAXI Members, as well as Michael Laskow and the other staff who tirelessly work to help their members create a prosperous living doing what they love.

I can without hesitation recommend TAXI Membership to anyone who wants to take their music to the next level through licensing to Film, TV and music libraries, who wants to be exposed to A&R reps in their genre without having to move to LA, New York or Nashville.

If you join TAXI on my recommendation, you will receive a $25 rebate for your first year’s dues from me.  In order to do that, you must do the following:

  • After you join, call TAXI and tell them you were referred by Artist’s EDGE,  Studio number #ST1490
  • Then send me an email with your full name, mailing address and date you joined TAXI.
  • As soon as I get confirmation from TAXI, I will cut you a check!

Even if you’re not quite ready to join TAXI, I recommend you hang out on The TAXI forum.  There is a ton of information, support and opportunity to get feedback to improve your songwriting and recording.

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Debra Recommends Rich Dad, Poor Dad

Debra Russell recommends, finances, money management, coaching, law of attraction

What the Rich Teach Their Kids About Money–That the Poor and Middle Class Do Not!

by Robert Kiyosaki

I loved this book. It made me take a good hard look at my relationship with money, but even more so, how I thought about my business.

Amazon.com:

Rich Dad, Poor Dad chronicles the story of the authors two dads, his own father, who was the superintendent of education in Hawaii and who ended up dying penniless and his best friends father who dropped out of school at age 13 and went on to become one of the wealthiest men in Hawaii. Kiyosaki uses the story of these two men and their varying financial strategies to illustrate the need for a new financial paradigm in order to achieve financial success in the new millennium.

Buy this book now

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Debra Recommends The One Minute Manager

Debra Russell recommends, business skills, team management, delegateby Kenneth H. Blanchard and Spencer Johnson

For more than twenty years, millions of managers in Fortune 500 companies and small businesses nationwide have followed The One Minute Manager’s techniques, thus increasing their productivity, job satisfaction, and personal prosperity. These very real results were achieved through learning the management techniques that spell profitability for the organization and its employees.

The One Minute Manager is a concise, easily read story that reveals three very practical secrets: One Minute Goals, One Minute Praisings, and One Minute Reprimands.

The book also presents several studies in medicine and the behavioral sciences that clearly explain why these apparently simple methods work so well with so many people. By the book’s end you will know how to apply them to your own situation and enjoy the benefits.

That’s why The One Minute Manager has continued to appear on business bestseller lists for more than two decades, and has become an international sensation.

Buy The One Minute Manager now

Multiple Streams of Income

msociI’ve been following this model in building my business and it has made a tremendous impact on my income, on my success with my clients and on how much fun I have working!

While these products are primarily focused on Coaching or Service and Consulting businesses, I’ve very successfully coached my clients in the Arts and Entertainment Industry to apply these concepts to their businesses.

I’ve also been teaching this business model in several classes recorded for the Artists Marketing & Business Academy.  And I’ve delivered the Multiple Streams of Art / Music Income workshop in Industry Conferences across the country.

Buy Multiple Streams of Income now (click through to the “Store” for the book.