Direct it yourself
The “do it yourself” mentality is appealing. But it doesn’t mean you do everything yourself. And it doesn’t mean it has to be your hands.
Maybe at first, if you are just starting, and have no action, you can do everything yourself. It can be fun to make your website, engineer your recordings, design your artwork, book your gigs, and even play all the instruments when recording.
But as soon as you get momentum, you’ll completely sabotage your success if you keep trying to do everything yourself.
Instead, learn to use others’ hands. Be like a film director. It’s your vision. You decide how things are done. You direct your team on what to do. You don’t do everything yourself.
Yes, this means you need to find specialists at the other tasks. And yes, sometimes it’s hard to find them. But it’s harder to watch your career crawl instead of fly because you’re trying to do it all yourself. I’ve seen too many make that mistake. Please don’t.
i reckon it`s just not possible to do it all yourself. if you wanna have any time to play music or just practice your instrument, it`s not gonna work.
This is so true. When we're not touring, Steve and I spend 70% of our time on the web working on websites, promo, social networking, booking, blogging ect. We toured 7 months out of last year and most things just ground to a halt. It's too much to do, and too much to catch up on when you get back home!
Understanding what the problem is and doing something about it is two different things. Asking others to assist you certainly will help you to stay on track. Finding those that are qualitied to do what they think they can do is another. Professionalism is extremely important, I'm not saying that some of your friends who are eager to help aren't qualitied, but are they professionals or merely amateurs? The music industry as we once knew it, isn't the same any longer. They're cutting back staff that once helped musicians, writers alike. For a fee of course, but the results were quality. Lets look at everything that is necessary today. Promotion, web design, recording production, distribution (thank you cdbaby you cover that) contacting clubs or facilities to host performances, booking. And what I've mentioned is just the tip of the iceburg. Having (1) place to go to receive quality advise from others that have been there done that seems a better way of tackling these problems and not giving up what you love to do best. Create music.
Exactly! We totally agree with you at The Music Void. Read the post that Angel Gambino wrote about DIY Shouldn’t Mean Do it ALL Yourself here:
http://www.themusicvoid.com/2009/07/diy-shouldnt-mean-do-it-all-yourself/
I've been trying to bring myself to do this. I was going to learn web design but I figured my time would be better spent writing, practicing, recording, networking, etc. So I asked if any of my friends knew how to do web design and found out that one of them recently went to college for it. I'm now looking for other things to delegate. But it's still all done under my direction.
Hmm si tienes mucha razón, cuando haces demasiadas cosas no usas tu máximo potencial en lo que eres mejor.
I am a singer-songwriter Tally Koren the reason I'm writing to you is as an artist I am doing it all by myself, and even with designing my CD's from the beginning I've had 100% control. I'd like to share with you a few suggestions, which you can hear in my short video: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MKo-jTYEBos
I have just launched the campaign for my new single 72 Names (Hallelujah) which will last for 72 days. Over the campaign I’m exploring the significance of the number 72 in lots of different situations and I would like you to be part of it!
http://www.tallykoren.com / Facebook tallykoren / twitter @tallykoren / http://tallykoren.wordpress.com/
I have been managing a band for a year and a half. Reading through your blog and others has affirmed most of my ideas i have been working on have been correct. Then i read this a realize i am guilty. i find this one difficult for 2 reasons. the band i am helping has no money (until very recently). when i have reached to people, say, offering to build a website, they never follow through.
does one just keep trying until someone actually comes through?
also, its hard to give up that control because everyone does it different than you would. but i am learning that is not necessarily bad nor does it make it wrong.
MAAAAN! IVE BEEN STRESSING THIS TO MY SO CALLED TEAM!! I DO EVERYTHING YOU MENTIONED ABOVE N ITS KILLING ME BUT I LOVE WHAT I DO SOOO MUCH! IM SCARED TO NOT DO MUSIC! ITS MY LIFE...NO PLAN B..THIS IS IT.
This post goes back all the way to 2007.
Very relevant for me today, as I act to find freelancers to help me with various aspects of my Blog. Things that literally crawled for the last 6 months (since I began), and could go much faster.
Very relevant reading, and echos my thoughts :) Thanks
The most perfect lay out for a Job. Now it time for me to make that change. This ok Derek. But it is so hard to take an easy route, always looking at it the hard way through the easy task. It appears I can not find a better way. What more can I say, oh I'll take the job! You are so right. Afraid to take that leap of faith and go for it, one day I will do that. Just let go.
I was about to send you a question, but as I know you don't answer then(what is very understandable), I end up here in this very one article where you just answer part of my question(hehehehe)... So for that, many thanks, Derek. I will keep searching for more...
Yes, nothing wrong with help, while you remain master of your fate. I'm no carpenter, but I can tell if a table is poorly made. As for your efforts in keeping an eye on other people, Ben Franklin said it first: The eye of the master will do more work than both his hands.