Making a path

I'm in yet another transitional period in my life personally and professionally. I'm working on a great project that I'm very excited about. I'm not in a position at the time to hold a day job due to personal transition with my husband's job, so I'm using the time to my advantage to not only help him locate a job but to flesh out ideas and work on them as much as possible to bring them to fruition.

First off, if you haven't read my manifesto, please do so. This will give you the framework needed for this and subsequent posts.

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Recently, two great resources came into my life. The first has been Lea Woodward's eCourse, Pathfinding for Idea Pioneers which she is generously offering for free on her site and which I previously mentioned here. Incidentally, she's also running a competition this week for her Pioneers Collective site which would give me greater access to resources and as Lea calls it, "on tap business advice" for the DIY person like myself.

The second resource has been Chris Guillebeau's latest book, The $100 Startup. I discovered the book the day it was released and I was lucky enough to be the first person to check it out of my local library. I'm only into Chapter 2, but it complements Lea's course well and has reinforced my evolving ideas about my project. Ultimately, these two resources have been well timed for my personal and professional transition.

So what is this idea I keep talking about? It isn't ready for release yet, but clarinetist Marion Harrington and I have partnered up and we're working on a new business geared towards musicians like us. This is the idea that we are fleshing out as work through Lea's eCourse together, and we both started it at the same time. Via weekly Skype sessions, we're sharing the work we've done on each task and we're taking the best points from our independent responses.

What Lea's course has done for me personally has been amazing. It's focused the foundational, groundwork process in a way that I don't feel overwhelmed. I can work on the task and feel accomplished and one step closer to launching this project. Since I began this course 3 weeks ago, Marion and I have made headway on our idea that may have otherwise taken months.

Lea has figured out so well how to make her services personal and valuable to potential customers and clients. Right now, I'm realizing how we have to be spot on with how any idea will ultimately impact people regardless of your goal. If your goal is to generate income, then this becomes more important as you'll need to tap into your customer base. As musicians, I think we sometimes lose sight of this. It's so easy to work on the things we want to do that I think we forget that we must actually work and connect with people in such a way that they want to pay you for your work. Figuring this out for yourself is very, very important and will go a long way towards building long term value across the music industry.

This is the start of my path. It aligns well with my manifesto, and I'm walking the walk now that I've so publicly talked the talk. I'm beginning to find the freedom I've always dreamed of. I'm only starting, but I'm excited what the future holds.