Tag Archive - music

Ariel Hyatt’s Music Success in 9 Weeks – Week 2

July 12, 2010 in Music Success in 9 weeks with 0 Comments

After a successful week 1 it’s time to begin week 2…

This week is all about branding myself online and off line. To be more specific it’s about creating a short pitch that quickly and effectively will tell anyone who and what I’m all about as an artist.

Because I’ve worked through the first few weeks of the Music Success in 9 weeks book previously to this blogging challenge, I have already spent a lot of time on this task. And yes, it’s a very important one indeed.

Thanks to the help of Ariel and a few other artist from Ariel’s CyberPRMastermind network we’ve worked together to create my current brand and pitch that is…

John Gilliat - Ottmar with a Twist, Fiery Rumba Flamenco guitar to Energize you and Soothe your Soul

So this week I’ll revisit and blog about Ariel’s week 2 instructions to tell you a little about the process I took to get to my current pitch. (and who knows, maybe we’ll tweak it a little more)

Before I began reading Ariel’s book I had already spent a considerable amount of time on branding myself. Originally it went similar to this…

John Gilliat… Passionate and fiery guitar that will energize you, soothe your soul, and let your spirit soar! (I also in conversation would tell people the music blends elements of Rumba flamenco & latin jazz)

It looks like I was on the right track however it was a little wordy and I had never thought it would be to my benefit to incorporate a popular artist that I sound like.

Also it appears that I’m doing it all right as I have my pitch on everything. (I think – I’ll double check this week and add it to anything I’ve missed) And yes, everything includes websites, blog, business cards, cd’s, demos, price sheets, press kits, guitar case stickers, bumper stickers, you name it, it’s gotta be there! Including contact info and the website address. Looks like Ariel has come across many artists that are completely missing the boat on this one. Are you??

BTW, for members of Ariel’s CyberPRMastermind network, Today along with reviewing and updating my week 2 tasks I’ve added new audio files and a video to my profile for those curious enough to drop by for a listen.

Week 2 – Day 2… So the first thing I did to re work my pitch was to recreate my outline… Who do I sound like, what music style do I fit into, what feeling and vibe does my music convey. Then I used the outline to rewrite my pitch.

Ariel also mentions www.15secondpitch.com a site designed to help a business create a pitch. Unfortunately for me the sites pitch creation tool didn’t do a lot for me however, Ariel believes that creating a profile there will help me get found in search engines. Therefore I consider my time here well spent. Just for a fun I’ll let you see what the 15secondpitch engine created for me…

My name is John Gilliat and I am a guitarist specializing in rumba flamenco Latin jazz. play guitar and entertain people my music gets people excited and feeling great performing fiery rumba flamenco guitar to make you feel great.

Ok, so it’s not quite what I had in mind, but for some it could be a good starting point.

The biggest help in creating my pitch was the feedback I received from other artists at Ariel’s CyberPRMastermind network. I highly recommend posting your ideas on the related forum. There is a lot of wonderful brainstorming and creative work going on there!

Week 2 – Day 3… So today I began branding again and found that I hadn’t placed my brand (pitch) on my twitter, myspace, facebook and reverbnation pages. I checked through all my off line media to ensure the new branding was in place.

Week 2 – Day 4… Ariel talks about saying your pitch out loud to know for sure if your comfortable with quoting it forever and there is still part of my pitch I’m not to comfortable with. It’s the “to energize you and soothe your soul” that doesn’t feel right. So I felt I could drop it completely if my pitch now read like this…

John Gilliat is:  Ottmar with a twist… Passionate and Fiery Rumba Flamenco Guitar.

The word passionate, to me, replaces “soothe your soul” It tells you that my music is very deep and from the heart. (very soulful) Fiery already replaces “to energize you”. (So no reason for that text, it just becomes redundant.) Now I’m much more comfortable with my pitch! It defines who I sound like, what’s the music style is and gives you the vibe.

Week 2 – Day 5… Time to go back and update my online and off line material to the new pitch.

Now it’s time to jump the cue and begin week 3

Music Success in 9 weeks – Week 1

July 5, 2010 in Music Success in 9 weeks with 0 Comments

So let’s get down to business…

This week is all about setting tangible, attainable goals and creating a mission statement. Creating the system to achieve your dreams!

I already have my journal so no need to purchase one for this task. Ariel talks about the power of intention. Writing it all down. This isn’t to new to me as I’ve been doing it for years and yes there is a lot of power to this! Unfortunately my journaling has been intermittent. I do it when I’m down and need a pick me up.

However,  I really like Ariel’s lesson of writing down 5 successes each day. As a bit of a perfectionist and a very high achiever, I occasionally beat myself up inside feeling like nothings been accomplished. Now due to my blogging and journaling, I’m feeling like each day is wonderful, eventful and productive (most of the time).

Next in Ariel’s week 1 is goal setting. Again for me, this is nothing to new, I’ve been doing this for years. Creating and writing down daily, short term and long term goals. Crossing them off as they’ve been accomplished or tweaking them as things change. However her goal examples are much more focused and detailed than mine. I’ll be revisiting mine this week to see if I can break down the goal details to smaller daily tasks and time lines to attain a result a little quicker. I have so many goals that I haven’t began to start as they need to be broken into those little daily tasks. Page 16 of Ariel’s book is big for me. I’ve printed it out to read each day and for my 1st goal to make happen asap (from now to Sept.6th exactly) is to complete this 9 week journey!

It’s now day 2 – week 1 I am revising my music and money goals for the year and created my own bucket list (lifetime goals) Also today I have written my daily task schedule to tackle today.

It’s now day 3 – week 1 At first I thought… why a week to create a list of goals??? I already know what I want to do, I’ve always known. I can write this out in a few hours! Wow, was I ever wrong! Now I realize it’s not just about writing them down with a time line. I’ve just discovered that for me, this week 1 is about creating the daily process and taking the week to fine tune it. Create the system to achieve the “Bucket list”.  Create the system that works for me. (I’ve now redefined week 1 as Creating the system to achieve your dreams!

I always wondered why my dad carried around little scraps of paper in his pocket with all his daily and weekly tasks. I used to think that maybe he wasn’t good at remembering anything and was very old school in his ways however now, I totally get it! My dad has accomplished so much and works his butt off 24/7 (maybe a little too much) But I admire him and am so amazed with his achievements. My parents began with nothing and now live in a beautiful home right on the ocean. (literally) How did he do it? It was the little scraps of paper.

So, today I have fine tuned my own personal scraps of paper. I own a blackberry and created a Google calendar for me to easily update my schedule. My Google calendar and blackberry calendars are sync’d together and all is updated with a single entry. My paper scraps (daily & weekly task list) is my blackberry’s task application. It now lists my short term tasks (goals) and I have created a task I call “A1 Today’s Tasks” that contains my immediate list and estimated time line. These are the big ones that are updated and accomplish daily with time lines attached such as “Complete corporate hire me page on blog – 30min”. As they are completed, they are erased and my success journal is updated. I’m striving for Ariel’s minimum 5 successes each day and have been averaging 5 to 8. If my A1 list is looking a little thin I go back to review my big goal list to create more A1 & short term tasks. It should help keep me better focus with what needs to be done now! I’m also mindful that my A1 list includes music career progress tasks and not just my old putting out fires list. The music tasks are always the first to tackle every morning.

It’s now day 4 – Week 1 Today I’m off to Victoria, it’s a 2 hour drive and a 2 hour ferry away. The trip on the ship buy’s me a little time today to continue to tweak Ariel’s week 1 task of evaluating and fine tuning tasks, time lines and goals. Today is also a big day as I’m working on a project in Victoria that could lead to an incredible amount of international exposure.

It’s now day 5 – Week 1 Continuing to journal my day’s successes, adding tasks and removing completed tasks. Found a cool little goal/achievement app for my blackberry however couldn’t get it to activate. If I can get it to work it will be great to track tasks, time lines goals and achievements. (the app is called Dream and Achieve by Vimukti Technologies if anyone is interested)

It’s now day 6 – Week 1 Got my blackberry “Dream and Achieve” software activated this morning. I’ll be revisiting my goals, tasks & time lines as I enter everything into this app. It will track my progess in all categories I choose to excel in such as money, health, carrier, relationships, etc…

It’s now day 7 – Week 1 Time to review my first week. Although I thought I would complete this task in a couple of days, realised this weeks task is much more than just writing out goals, tasks, time lines and journaling. It was also about creating the daily system or process to breaking down each dream into manageable daily and weekly tasks that are attainable and slowly chip away at the big dreams. I’m now inching forward to my goals rather than staring at them on my wall.

Will follow up tomorrow with my Music Success in 9 weeks progress…

Performing at Banana Republic

May 18, 2010 in Behind the scene at the Gigs with 0 Comments

Today I’m performing at Banana Republic. Sounds like a very exotic location! The Banana Republic is a wonderful clothing store and I’ll be playing for sepecial after hours in store event at their Park Royal North location in West Vancouver, BC.

I arrived on location very early to find out my location within the venue and to decide how to best fill the room to create the right ambiance for the event. I’m going to place my PA speakers in three of the rooms to spread the sound throughout the venue at a nice ambient level.

Now it’s time to head back to my vehicle to get the gear and start setting up. I’ll be playing my fiery Rumba Flamenco Latin Jazz guitar as a soloist for this evenings event.

The event went very well, everyone really enjoyed my music and I would like to add that the manager and staff were wonderful. I had a nice meal on my break and even received a gift bag to take with me. I also had an opportunity to say hi to a few others that I had worked with in past events that just happened to come out to shop at the Banana Republic event. This is a very popular clothing store!

Tomorrow I’ll have the day off to teach then I’ll be performing at a lunch in event the following day for the Painters Union District Council of BC. Then I’ll rush home to teach a few more guitar students. It’s a busy schedule and I love it!

Playing Guitar for the Columbia University Dept. of Pediatrics

May 3, 2010 in Behind the scene at the Gigs with 0 Comments

My setup at the Sheraton Wall CentreToday I’m playing and performing for the Columbia University Dept. of Pediatrics. The event is being held at the Sheraton Wall Centre in downtown Vancouver. It’s a 7:30pm start and ends at 9:30pm. I’m going to arrive at 6pm because the Sheraton’s parking garage and it’s two towers can make the load in a bit confusing. I’ll be using my small sound system as it will be a very small group of 30 to 40 people. I’ll be playing in the Orca room located on the third floor.

This time the load in was easy. I found a place to park right beside the elevator that took me from the parking garage right to the floor the banquet room was on. (This venue isn’t always that easy) I’ve performed here before and it can be multiple elevators and a lot of walking.

This event was one of those background music gigs were the room is very crowded. I had people bumping into my guitar while I was playing. It was also a very noisy room from all the networking chatter which is all very common for a corporate reception gig.

My small sound system

Everyone seemed to really enjoy my performance as I had a lot of great comments from the guests. Also had a guest ask if he could play a few song on my guitar. I once allowed a guest to play it and he dropped it! So I don’t allow it anymore.

At 9:30 I packed up and then it was time to head home. Another successful event.

The photo on the left is what my sound system looks like all packed up. It takes around 15 minutes to set it up.

Below is a photo of the Sheraton Wall Centre Orca room were I’ll be performing background music for the client.

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