Challenge Week Five: You want me to do what to who?

“Before we dive in…You may be freaking out here bit…” Ariel states calmly at the beginning of chapter five. You’re damn right I’m freaking out, but not for the reasons you might think. It’s the tail end of week five for me and I’m still facing this huge mental block about who my fans are. So before I have a blog-ular meltdown, I’m going to take a deep breath and talk through this in front of you.

Ariel wants us to understand the difference between our newsletter list and our email list. At this rate, I only email my fans when I have something to tell them, like when we’ve received recognition in a competition or have achieved a milestone with our radio play. When we have a show or a radio appearance, we let them know. Most of the time our shows are free or very low cost, so I never feel like I’m bothering my fans to spend money every time I email them, because I’m not. I feel like I probably don’t communicate with them enough just simply because I don’t want to bother them. That’s mistake number one. They’re a fan because they want to hear from me; easily noted and corrected on my part. I can and will reach out to my fans more, but there are a few hurdles in this marathon.

Hurdle number one: thinking of yourself as a commodity and your fan as a customer. In reality, I’m partially over this hurdle, but keep catching my the tip of my shoe on the fact that I feel like I have two sets of fans: one set who’s been around for a long time and knows me on a fairly personal level and a newer set who’s just starting to get to know me as an artist they are a fan of. I honestly feel like those who know you personally are sometimes harder to reach because they have a personal expectation of who you are and what you it is you should be giving them or asking of them. The second set is interested in buying CD’s, MP3’s and are the type that can truly be considered a “customer” of mine. Please understand that I love both sets of fans and the support they provide, they are just two entirely different groups and will react as such. Understanding all of that is great, but there is so much more to understand about all of these individuals that right about here is where I start to over-think everything again.

Over-thinking semi-halted, I feel like I have something in the works that will appeal to both old and new fans. It will provide them with something new and set a level of expectation for them and also help them connect to what it is they identify with in me on a deeper level. I’m not comfortable discussing this yet because it’s just a wee-baby idea that hasn’t quite incubated long enough to meet the world…soon enough, though. Back to jumping obstacles!

Hurdle number two: who are your fans? Arrrggghhhhhhhh!!!! Again, a frustrating topic for me. I think it’s becoming clearer, thanks to marketing research tools available online but I’m still a little foggy on this. Right now it seems as if there are two distinct sets of people who are into my music. Older males (married or not) who relate to that old school rock sound and grown-up non-male-hating songs as well as college age males and females who like the different sound as well as the lyrics that again are a little different from what’s generally out there at this point. I haven’t determined any commonalities at this point amongst any of these listeners other than the fact that we all share similar music tastes. I feel like the current research I’m conducting, as well as just getting to know my core fan base is helping me to better understand the likes and dislikes of my younger fans. As I continue to find out where and how people discover my music, I am getting new insights as to what they like to do and where they like to be. It does however seem to me that they enjoy an online presence no matter what way you cut it, so continuing to blog, tweet and FB will be key to keeping those newer, younger fans happy and connected.

I’m definitely going to be lingering in this chapter for a while as I figure out the what’s, when’s and why‘s of what I’m going to offer my fans and how I’m going to let them know what’s available. No more over-thinking, I promise, just good strategy that fits KG.

Challenge Week Four: Musician’s Web 2.0 Guide

I’m right smack dab in the middle of week four of the challenge laid out by Ariel Hyatt as she walks us through the most important web communication tools for musicians looking to engage their fans in conversation and obtain PR presence online. Let me tell you first that I’ve been reading Ariel’s tips and such for a long time before purchasing the book, so I’ve been doing a little bit of communicating with tools such as facebook, twitter and myspace, but no where near enough or consistently to say I’m fully up and running with web 2.0. In all honesty what’s been holding me back is that I’ve been too guarded with my thoughts and words which makes my communication very little at times. As a song-writer, my songs were usually the only honest [read: vulnerable] way of putting my thoughts out there; it’s not that I was dis-honest, I was just non-communicative unless it was in a song. The longer I’m writing, the less I worry about perception and holding back. I still have a long way to go on this, but it is this very hurdle that I’m kicking over that will help with my future online adventures so to speak.

All mental blocks aside, I think that I can implement most of this weeks challenge in preparing for my next album rather than trying to make up time on albums already out there. I’ll get into what I’m thinking of in a little bit. Ariel starts off by pointing out the basic web mediums available such as networking, bookmarking, blogging, wiki, rss feed, message boards, weblogs and shows you how to link up with the information you want to stay connected with. She also goes into detail about the quirkiness of bloggers and the proper etiquette one should use when creating a relationship within the blogging community so that you have a solid chance at getting a blog review of your album. Although I will certainly put my current music out there for review, I feel like I can most effectively use this knowledge now in planning my next album’s launch. What I plan to do over the next few weeks/months is create a list of blogs/bloggers I think will identify with and/or enjoy my music and begin creating a relationship with them by being an avid reader of their blogs and an active participant in their conversations. I feel like this is important, because I want to be as supportive a fan of others as I would like my fans to be of me. I also plan to create a new blog of my own as I start writing the next album to give my fans a deeper connection to the new music by bringing them with me along the journey of writing and recording. Eventually, I would love to hand the reigns of my PR over to Ariel Publicity directly, but until I’m ready for that, I can certainly follow her principles and set the right foundation for my future team to build upon.

Further on in the chapter Ariel points out a great way to make your music available to many bloggers for use online without them having to go through the pesky process of clearing the rights to use it. I love the idea of this as I have only made my music available in the past to those who requested it simply because I didn’t realize this great tool existed. For that tidbit, you’ll need to buy Ariel’s book. I’m not giving away all of her magic and you should invest in your career. You owe it to yourself to learn about this business so you can be a smarter artist, do it yourself, and know when to ask for help. As you roll your eyes and say you knew there was a pitch coming somewhere in here, you should know that I get nothing for sending you to Ariel. I never recommend anyone that I haven’t already or wouldn’t trust with my own career. I currently have only three or four people that I recommend for various areas of expertise and that’s after years of sifting through a lot of garbage.

Back to the task at hand, and I apologize for my free-flow, train-of-thought blogging, but this is what you’d get if we were just hanging around talking. The next two areas that Ariel touches on are Twitter and Flickr. I have to tell you that a year ago, when I first started trying to tweet, I was not a happy camper. It’s just now that I’m starting to chirp here and there, with some sense of meaning and direction, and I have of course linked my tweets to my facebook account, . It’s still a little random and I have some apprehension about the tools just because of my professional situation. What I mean by this is that I still have two distinctly separate lives. Not so much on purpose, but there is the side of me that guards everything I say and do because of the type of day job I have and also because my day job uses facebook as a networking tool for its employees. As I’m learning to be more open about being a “rockstar” and trying to blur the lines by not compartmentalizing my life, my tweets are becoming truer to who I feel I really am, which is not nearly as guarded; I just try to look for meaningful communication instead of general noise. Flickr on the other hand is completely foreign to me as I just don’t have that many opportunities to create photo content *yet*. I say yet, because as I get ready to write and record and play live again, I will have a much greater opportunity to keep everyone up to date with endless visual amusement…especially if I allow my more animated side to surface during daylight hours. I’m actually pretty excited about this one, because I love it when friends and fans share pictures with me of what they’ve caught at shows or just hanging out.

After getting through this chapter, I’ve realized there are a lot of combos you can use to get out there on the web, even if you hate using some of the tools, because you can tailor it to you needs, personality and communication style. I think this probably makes me a blogger-flickr-tweeter, or at least that’s where I’ll end up as I finish implementing these tools into my way of being a rockstar. Thanks for stopping by. I’d love to know what kind of web tools you feel work best for you, so feel free to comment.

Challenge Week Three: Optimizing Your Website

I’ve been busy this week co-writing some songs and am fortunate enough to have a day job that is unfortunately cutting into my creative schedule, but I’m getting things done and meeting my five success each day along the way. Week three of this challenge is all about consistency and not being a virtual burden. In other words, no gigantic flash intros that make you wait forever and a day to get to a confusing landscape of mismatched images and no clear idea of what it is you’re at my website for. Surprisingly, I’m actually not that far off from where I should be.

The first thing Ariel mentions is to get your pitch up on your website so a new person can know exactly what it is their in for. Done! I had already added my pitch to my home page at the end of last week’s challenge. She also points out that your website should load in less than 3.5 seconds and have no flash intro as it will be unreadable to google (although some new types can be found in search engines). This was another super-easy win for me as my website loads immediately with no flash at all. My pitch is in the welcome line of the homepage along with my latest news directly under it. To right a clearly labeled navigation menu and at the top left, the first thing your eyes are drawn to, my join-the-mailing-list shout out.

The hardest part of this chapter for me will not be completed right away, but will be finished in a reasonable amount of time. This part requires you to give the fans a reason to join the club so to speak. I’d love to give an mp3 away as a gift for joining up on the mailing list, but I have one small thing stopping me from doing this immediately. I have a problem giving away something for free that other people have already paid for. That being said, I have absolutely no problem creating special content for those who do sign up and even giving it to those already on the list for being faithful fans, so this is something I will be working on over the next few weeks, either a new song just for the fans or a special edition of one that already exists as a way to say thanks for joining and for being a part of what I’m doing.

Lastly, we are told to make it very clear that our email list is never sold, rented, shared, abused, etc. so that people feel safe in giving us their email address. This information is very clearly noted right in the welcome lines of my homepage.

Week three of my journey to success with Ariel’s help has been a fairly easy one for me, but for that, I’m grateful. It let’s me know that not only was I on the right track, but I don’t have to start from square one again to obtain success. It’s all the little tweaks and lessons learned along the way that bring a new level of success. I’m feeling much less overwhelmed than I did in the past, because I’m making my approach simpler. I’m happier about not feeling like I’m killing myself and I’m allowing myself the time to get things done five little success at a time instead of trying to do everything all at once.

Challenge Week Two: Your Perfect Pitch

So I’ve been busy since I started this challenge last week meeting my daily tasks and learning to relax along the way, especially since I’m back to the day job this week after a few days off for the holidays.  This week we’re supposed to spend time perfecting our pitch.  First let me say that I’ve had my pitch down for quite a while, so this particular task wasn’t incredibly daunting for me this week, however I’m always looking to keep it current to what’s happening with my music and what I’m putting out there at this point.  What’s been a bit of an obsession for me is finding a way to describe my sound in a shorter and shorter fashion each time.  Forget 15 seconds for me, how about 15 words…having the kind of day job that I have, I’m not a big fan of long reads…I want the top line and I want to understand everything I need to out of those few seconds you have my attention, so I operate with a slight assumption that not everyone has the time or patience to hear me out.  I do have extended descriptions in my bio and in the descriptions of CD’s, but they just expand on what I’m already selling.  Enough of that!  Let me circle back to the process by which I created my original pitch, using Ariel’s steps.

Step 1 has four parts: Identify what genre(s) you play in, who do other people say you sound like, who are your influences, and what are the feelings/vibes you want to convey with your music.

Genre:
This is pretty easy for me.  I write and play rock/modern rock.  I am labeled as a singer-songwriter because I am one with a rock band sound.  My first album was more pop-rock than straight up rock, but as I’ve grown and pushed for the sound I want, I’ve landed more firmly on the rock platform.  When you say I play rock music, that leaves the area wide open to interpretation, so I define my rock music by two things: the style and the guitar sound.  For the current album we are promoting, I Wish I Was Alive, we defined the writing style as alt/modern rock and the guitar sound as having old school [rock] bite. (Spoiler: if you check out the link to the CD description you see that we have an extended version of our 15 second pitch used as the CD description.)

Artists Others say you sound like

This one has been the worst. I have never had one person agree on who I sound like, but when I started applying the principals myself in order to figure out how to market my music, I was able to come up with sounds-likes for my songs that landed me on sounds-likes for the album overall. I say album, because the difference between albums 1 and 2 were big and it was obvious that I expanded on the sound I wanted instead of playing it safe as I grew in my songwriting. Therefore we (my musicians and my producers and my other songwriting friends) have landed on artists based on my vocal sound and range, my songwriting style and my guitar sound. For album #2 it’s best put as something like this: Sounds like 3EB, Weezer, Van Halen, with vocals a la Pat Benetar, Annie Lennox, Shirley Manson (Garbage), Sheryl Crow.

Influences

Ultimately, my influences are just about anything and everything I hear, but there are several that are always in my arsenal of go-to artists like Third Eye Blind, U2, Van Halen, Nickelback, Theory of a Deadman, Bryan Adams, Garbage, Jonatha Brooke, etc…it’s always been a wide range and it’s not necessarily that I sound like them, but there’s a flavor from each that lingers when I do write. In album #2, the ones that lingered most were Third Eye Blind and Jonatha Brooke for story-telling thoughts, Van Halen and Third Eye Blind again for guitar style/sound and Weezer based on a similar sense of humor, thus their use in the description of sounds like noted above.

What are the feelings you want to convey

I have a hard time including this in my pitch because I touch on a range of emotion in the album that I’ve had a hard time defining. I use a line in my bio that says “I Wish I Was Alive is a killer Rock album that drives from beginning to end with raw emotion and no apologies” and I think that definitely describes the album. It’s raw, I make no apologies for what I’ve said and it drives.

Because I’ve already had this pitch in place for a while, I didn’t need to run it through 15secondpitch.com, as Ariel suggests, to help define the boundaries, but as I mentioned earlier I have been mulling it over for a long time now (months) trying to figure out what the shortest delivery method is to make the point of what it sounds like and what they can expect. I use my current pitch regularly in press kits, on my website, on my facebook and myspace pages and to describe myself to anyone who asks, so here’s where I decided to challenge myself a bit more. As I’m preparing to write album number three and I get ready to narrow down the description of what everyone can expect I’m trying to keep what’s not changing and add more definite terms and boundaries to describe what the album will sound like when they play it. Based on all of the above, here’s where my pitch falls for now:

With a voice to rival the depth and range of legends like Pat Benetar, and Ann Wilson and musical cues from the likes of Weezer, Third Eye Blind and Van Halen, Kelly Greene delivers modern rock that drives from beginning to end with raw emotion and no apologies.

…and even though I think this is a step ahead of where I stand for now, it’s where I believe I will end up as we work through then next CD: Kelly Greene is driven modern rock with old school bite; Benetar range over Nickelback grit.

On that note, I’ll tell you to go have a listen and see what you think you hear on either album, but especially I Wish I Was Alive at KellyGreene.com

Challenge Week One: Getting Mentally Prepared – Part 3 – Successes

In my first post, I mentioned Ariel’s tips for getting through goals.  Two of them, don’t beat yourself up, and five daily successes are a bit of a stumbling block for me.  It’s not because I can’t do it, it’s because I have to change my mindset.  Even as I lie in bed last night, I realized that I was going to have an incredibly hard time giving myself credit for the things I’ve done in a day.  I met all of my daily goals yesterday and then some, which is typical for someone wired to over-achieve even to their own detriment, but I was still beating myself over the head like I could have done more.  I honestly don’t know why I was so irritated with myself.  In light of that, I’m going to do something a little awkward, alright very awkward, and give myself credit for what I completed yesterday:

Tuesday Successes in no particular order:

1. Online Presence: Set up blog & start entries, plus social media chirps here and there.
2. Educate: Read (Ariel’s book and other material)
3. Create: Write (Music)
4. Physical: Workout
5. Household: laundry
6. Health: spent time relaxing/rest (this one is incredibly difficult for me, but it’s a must…doctor’s orders)

Really, the above was all that I needed to get done, but somehow I felt as if my effort wasn’t enough.  It’s going to take time, but forcing myself to limit to the most important tasks for that day will be key for me.  The tasks that will yield results are the one’s that I need to focus on…and that, ladies and gentlemen is my aha moment for the day.

Challenge Week One: Getting Mentally Prepared – Part 2 – 12 Month Goals

I promised I’d be back after spending some time thinking about my music career goals over the next year, mind you I’ve already been thinking about these and working on revamping them on and off since I bought Ariel Hyatt’s book “Music Success in Nine Weeks” two months ago, so I didn’t just come up with them in the hour or so I spent on the treadmill since our last chat.

Two months?  What got in the way?  My mind and its irritating ability to over-think everything business.  With all sincere thanks to my day job, I have a very strong business skill set for a “creative” person.  Since I understand how truly important it is to have a good business plan and been aware of the effects an artist’s business foundation has on their career long-term, I sometimes let my thinker overtake my dreamer and that’s never good when you’re a born dreamer; so here’s to gaining some balance between the two.  Enter the little things that look negative, but turn for good.  In my case, I found out that I had to have surgery on my hand for traumatic neurosis.  Sounds complicated, but ultimately it’s a fancy way of saying that I had a nerve (neurosis)  that had calcified and felt as if it was ‘cutting’ it’s way out of my hand (traumatic).  As painful as it was and as depressing as the after-surgery no-activity period was and continued healing of my hand is, I’ve had a lot of time to think.  Too much almost and as I’ve said, my goals haven’t changed much, they’ve just become clearer.

In chapter one, Ariel tasks us with choosing focus areas.  For now I’ve decided on the following general areas: brand, music writing, marketing, PR, Fan-base, and Sales.  Within those focus areas, I have chosen the following starter goals and will set a reasonable time frame in which to complete them.  For me this is quite difficult, because it actually means slowing down and not working myself to death.  I have this driving need to ready-set-go and win the race like it’s a 50-yard dash even when it’s a marathon, so I’m learning to pace…go figure.

Brand:

I really feel as if my brand becomes clearer with each album, but I still need to focus in and therefore strengthen who it is I am musically and what people will come to identify as Kelly Greene sound and songs.  It may even be something that’s not easily put into words, but something that becomes tangible to my fans.  I need to spend time thinking about this, but not too much, so I’m setting a goal date of one-month from now  (Jan 30, 2010).  I plan to add blog entries about this process as it becomes more apparent to me.  As I prepare to write my next album, I believe that message will become clearer to me leading me to…

3rd Album Development:

Utilizing new songwriting tools, books, muses and song-writing friends, I plan to push myself like never before when it comes to writing great songs.  Beyond that, I will not rush a release date just because I think I need to.  Both of my prior albums were released within a 3-6 month time frame from recording.  At this rate, I will give myself a year to launch from start date, so ultimately, I’m giving myself 6-9 months to finish the product which seems like forever to me, but allows for me to implement the next two focus areas and their goals.

Marketing & PR:

As far as marketing is concerned, I have a solid understanding of brand marketing and advertising in a classic sense.  When it comes to applying that understanding to myself, I over-think everything.  I analyze to death and nearly paralyze my plans every time, so no more of that.  I’m learning that perfect is often flawed *gasp*.  What I need to learn is clear and that’s why I’ve got Ariel’s book.  I will spend time studying her steps and implementing them every step of the way, first on my current release (now through March 1) and then a second go round in preparing for the launch of album number three.  What I will do differently than in the past is give enough lead-time to create a buzz prior to the new release through social networking and blogging.  I expect that I will begin a PR campaign on album 3 some time mid-summer building up to the radio & retail releases within 9-12 months from now.   I want my fans (new and old) to be excited about the whole experience of the new album, to feel like it’s something they’ve been waiting for, not just handed as a finished product, which brings me to the subject of fan base.

Fan Base:

I have some pretty faithful fans who will travel long distances to support me, but it’s not their job to do that, it’s my job to go to them and to do that I need to expand my fan base into new areas so that it costs many people a little versus a few people a lot (in all senses).   It’s not enough for me to have a one-way connection, I want to understand who my fans are and why they enjoy what I’m offering them and use the social networking tools to create a conversation with them, solidifying a relationship between the artist and the listener.  Being realistic I hope to add at least one-two true fans a week as I get rolling with the plans in the book.

CD Sales/Downloads:

This goal is hard for me to set.  I know I can sell a ton of CD’s when I’m out playing a big show, but the expense of playing a big show in this economy is just not an option for every weekend.  Instead, I will use small acoustic gigs when possible to sell physical CDs, but ultimately, I’m looking to social networking to build enough of a relationship that it turns new fans into CD/download sales.   I hate to put a low number on this,  but given the above goals I’m undertaking, I hope to sell 100 CD’s and/or downloads via social networking this year.  In-person sales will truly depend on the number of shows we can fit in.  As my business strategy becomes clearer, I will definitely set my sights on higher numbers, but I still want to feel as if this is achievable.

I’m only mid-way through chapter one’s goal setting pages and I have a lot more to expand on.  Stay tuned for Part 3 of Getting Mentally Prepared.

Challenge Week One: Getting Mentally Prepared – Part 1

For anyone who knows me personally, you have a good sense that I am super-disciplined, driven, and ultra-competitive with seeking out my own personal best every day.  I expect 110% out of everyone around me and 1000%  from myself.  That being said, when it comes to goal-setting and getting things done, I’ve got that down and I mean really down; therein lies the problem, my friend.  I get so focused on the relentless drive to succeed that like any other heat-seeking missile, I forget to enjoy the ride and sometimes don’t know when to slow down.  Rather, I’m learning when to slow down, thanks to a massive slow-the-heck-down signal from my body.  After taking nearly six months to figure out what was wrong, and making sure I’m on the path to full recovery, I need to pick up where I left off and create a new fire under my online music presence again.  Enter, Ariel Hyatt and her book, Music Success in Nine Weeks.

If you’ve read the post prior to this one, you know of  The Challenge and the rules of engagement.  To state them briefly, Ariel has challenged us to read her book, blog about our journey through the steps over a nine week period and take a chance at winning a 3-month digital PR campaign from Ariel Publicity after all blog entries are judged.  Winning the campaign aside, I’m ready to get back to reaching my goals, setting some new ones and achieving the next level of success in my music career.

Ariel sets the stage by offering three tips for achieving goals.  Here is how I interpreted them for myself:

1. Goals Can Be Changed – everything changes and being highly adaptable is key in fast-paced cyberspace
2. Don’t Beat Yourself up – who me?  Whip myself into submission?  Never! *rolls eyes*  I will always be the kind of person who expects the most of myself and I will always be hard on myself when it comes to getting things done, but along the way, I will definitely be more aware of when I need to take a breath and will take the time to recognize what I have accomplished instead of missing all the little goals along the way that I’ve achieved.
3. Write Down Your Victories -  I make it a habit of being thankful everyday for all of the little things seen and unseen, but I’ve never given myself credit for everything that I’ve accomplished in a day as well.  This will be a new thing for me, but it’s kind of exciting.

In light of all of the above, I feel like I should add a little back-story before explaining my new found plans.  I purchased Nine Weeks to Music Success at the end of October at a point where I felt like I needed to reassess my goals as well as my brand and music based on the fact that I pushed my mind and my body to near breakdown doing things the way I was before.  Between a very visible, demanding corporate day-job, a huge commute, my home-life, workouts, music writing, online presence-building, and in general losing the want to do any of it, I had come to realize that I needed a little help assessing what plans where adding value and what was just life-draining.    Most of my goals are still the same, but I’m [hopefully] taking a saner approach to getting them done.

I’m taking some time today to go through my goals and refine them a little bit.  I will be back later to share what I’ve come up with.

The Challenge: Be Successful in Nine Weeks and Blog About It

The Date: a wind-blown, northeastern, December 10, 2009.

The Place: the third floor of the corporate fortress where I employ classic marketing knowledge to earn my mortgage, meals and wheels, and of course to help fund my blossoming music career.

The Challenge: an email from Ariel Hyatt herself, well okay, her newsletter, challenging we the creative people to…

• READ IT! (Her Book, Music Success in Nine Weeks 2.0)
• BLOG IT! (your experience working through those steps – nine weeks/nine chapters)
• JUDGE IT! (Well, it actually says WE JUDGE IT!  — meaning Ariel and her team do the judging) and…
• WIN IT! (a 3-month cyber PR campaign from none other than the Digital PR Queen herself, Ariel Hyatt)

Say no more, Ariel.  I would be worthy of a slap or two if I didn’t take the time to invest into my music career by simply helping myself and taking a chance at winning your personalized help along the way.

As for those of you listening in, you may or may not of heard of Ariel Hyatt, but my guess is, if you’re visiting this blog, that you’ve either heard of her, her book, or quite possibly you know of me and my music.  Either way, I’m glad you stopped by.  I will be posting at least once a week detailing my journey and all of its potholes and speed bumps along the way.