Here are two great resources I would highly recommend for your off time that will considerably improve your on time. First, take about 45 minutes and watch the videos from Derek Sivers on how he created CD Baby. I’ve talked before about how we were early adopters, releasing our first CD in ’99 at CD [...]

contributed by Dana Detrick In my teens, I never took to babysitting the way my friends did. I was tagged pretty early on as “most likely to end up a crazy cat woman”. True to form, decades later, I have scrapbooks full of the rescued and adopted felines to whom I’ve been caregiver and confident [...]

contributed by Dana Detrick You never really hear of a psychic having a bad day. But they would see the dark clouds coming, right? The rest of us aren’t so lucky. When it comes to the psychological and emotional climate of most industries, it’s feast or famine. After awhile, that takes its toll, and you [...]

contributed by Dana Detrick A lot of entrepreneurs and development buffs like to cite “Man on a Wire” as a shining example that if you put your mind to it, you can accomplish anything. But what I see when I look at “Man on a Wire” is someone who unrelentingly focused on accomplishing a goal [...]

contributed by Dana Detrick We’re all guilty of making exceptions to the rules we set up for our businesses. Those rules might mean discounts for some clients, or putting them at the head of the schedule when someone else has booked first. It might mean more work than what we really intend to do. And [...]

Everyone wants to get paid more, but no one wants to be the first one to raise their rates and risk running off clients. But here’s a very quick and simple goal setting workout to start stretching your “rate muscle” into shape! First, the warm up… At the beginning of each quarter, each month, each [...]

We’ve all seen the promises: Grow a Million Dollar Business! Turn Your Idea into a Million Dollars, y’know, stuff like that. And it’s all just a gimmick to get you or your business to jump into the sales funnel, with spending a ton on training, or books, or seminars as your key to making the [...]

I’ve been critical of using “boring” or overly business-oriented language in the past, but one word I haven’t had a beef with is “content”. As a content creator, I actually like it. Now, don’t get me wrong, I think art should be pure. Each piece should be able to stand on its own, whether it’s [...]

contributed by Dana Detrick I talked a little before about why brand loyalty doesn’t serve you as a business, but I promised to go a little deeper as to why it really doesn’t serve you as a consumer, either. I mentioned some of the things I loved most: Apple (which, at the time I switched [...]

contributed by Dana Detrick I used to love so many brands. There was the Apple phase, then Sony, for technology. Betsey Johnson could do no wrong. It was assured that if I entered, I wouldn’t leave Bath and Body Works without buying something. Even with music, if Duran Duran or Depeche Mode put out a [...]

contributed by Dana Detrick As small biz folk, we spend a lot of time trying to communicate what we are to our clients and prospects. But they still make a lot of assumptions, based on what their personal needs are, and like to throw other things we can do for them into the mix. You [...]

contributed by Dana Detrick Two words enter, one word leaves. Scratch that. No words will leave Thunderdome! I’ve saved my least favorite terms of all for my third installment in the “Borin’ Language Trilogy” (see parts one and two for further vomit-worthy vernacular). And I give you first… Innovation Create something new. Take something old [...]

contributed by Dana Detrick So I gave you 3 ways to remove the biz speak for good before, but there are a few of those terms that are useful, but just need some redefining. Make a shift in your mind about these concepts will create way more concise (and understandable) projects for your clients and [...]

contributed by Dana Detrick It doesn’t matter if you got your business education within the hallowed halls of a prestigious university, from trusted mentors, coaches, or colleagues, or on the street. Odds are good we’ve all been speaking the same “borin’ language” for awhile. Whether it’s just so vague no one can even understand what [...]

No one in pop culture has probably gone through more “Changes” than David Bowie (though he is ironically best remembered for only a few of his incarnations…maybe ch-ch-ch-ch-changes weren’t that great after all?). Ok, maybe Bowie and Serious Vanity Music. Our 15th birthday is coming up, and we’re greeting it with a fond farewell to [...]

contributed by Dana Detrick Back in February, I’d proposed the idea of independent auto makers. It’s now a reality! And not a bad success story, either, with no doubt the potential for growth. So no matter how big your competition will be, how much money and tradition you’re up against, if you’re thinking creatively instead, [...]

contributed by Dana Detrick Awhile back (and this could be any day), Twitter had a glitch that caused many users’ “followers” and “followings” to hit “0″. Did they actually disappear? No. But it was enough of a scare that many social networking pros shook in their boots a little. Over the past year, most of [...]

contributed by Dana Detrick Malcolm Gladwell on spaghetti sauce | Video on TED.com If you get a little over 17 minutes to spare sometime today, take time to watch Malcolm Gladwell’s video linked above about spaghetti sauce. Now, my business, for the most part, is music and noise. But it’s no different than spaghetti sauce, [...]

contributed by Dana Detrick Ah, springtime! When every creature on earth, even the flowers, are trying to get knocked up! Gestation seems to really take a front seat, and for those of you who ‘planted seeds’ for a marketing plan and have expected results by now, you’re pretty fed up with it! I’m going to [...]

contributed by Dana Detrick It’s that ‘disconnected’ time of the year when I go into my tax prep hobbit hole. Finally getting done, but wow. So much overwhelm of receipts and binders and hole punching and…hold on a second, my office supply fetishist personality is starting to have too much of a good time. It’s [...]

contributed by Dana Detrick I’ll let you pick whether I’m Julio or Willie for the appropriate singing in your head of my subject line. The message either way is the same: indie bands, solo chanteuses, anyone who has ever sent a care package to my P.O. Box, I’m sorry. I’m sorry that at one point [...]