The Art Of Living

At SXSW interactive I heard Kit Cooper speak about his book, The Art Of Living: Quality of Life Best Practices Revealed. He interviewed a bunch of successful people from all walks of life and found the following commonalities.

  • gratitude
  • risk taking
  • exercise
  • assume positive intent
  • humility
  • write things down
  • self-awareness
  • not imposing
  • emotional intelligence
  • awareness of your mind

Seth Godin on Music Business Radio

davehooper-and-sethgodin
David Hooper -my favorite interviewer- with Seth Godin

I love Music Business Radio because it brings together everything I love, and particularly this episode with Seth Godin in which this new-world marketer applies his perspective to the music industry and how artists like myself should be be thinking.

As I biked home this evening I listened back to the podcast stopping to take a few notes to remember.

  • if you have the wherewhithall to put yourself out there, now is the time
  • every tribe needs a leader and there are plenty still looking
  • focus your output on the free and ubiquitous market or the scarce and precious market, but it’s death in the middle
  • concentrate on the ones that love you
  • don’t find listeners for your music, make music for your listeners
  • once you make that mental shift it changes everything about how you work
  • as an indie musician measure how many people would be delighted to hear from you