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Episode Summary
In this episode, I introduce myself, the new podcast and also walk you through my process for re-establishing my goals for 2024 in May. I share personal insights, inspirations, and dilemmas I encountered along the way, offering valuable reflections and actionable tips for fellow creatives. Take a listen.
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Osibisa: Wikipedia
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Episode Transcript
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[00:00:00] Well, hello, and welcome to the Food for musical Thoughts podcast with Elish Schumacher, the diary of a music artist. I am that music artist, and in this podcast, I document my activities, findings, experiences, and creative processes as an indie music artist in hopes that some of it will serve as inspiration or fuel for your own creative endeavors or just food for musical thoughts. Hence the title. The title for this podcast was inspired by the phrase food for thought. According to Usdictionary.com, comma, this phrase means, and I quote, something that makes someone think deeply or seriously about a topic or issue. It can also mean something that provokes discussion or debate. The expression implies that the mind can digest or process ideas, like the stomach can digest food. So, in short, food for thought is a thought provoking idea or fact intended to stimulate contemplation or discussion. So when I created this podcast and called it food for musical thoughts, my intention was that perhaps something I would say would stimulate contemplation within you that can spark some creativity or serve as inspiration for something you may be doing already.
[00:01:24] So that is a little history behind why I named this podcast food for musical thoughts, and to give you a little bit of background. About me.
[00:01:35] I’m a singer songwriter. I’ve been singing for over ten years. I’ve mostly been an independent artist. So there’s many things that I’ve had to learn in my career in terms of running my music career as a business. And so I’m still in the process of doing that and just decided that, hey, why not share the journey? And so that is why I’m here today.
[00:02:01] So, without further ado, let’s get into today’s episode. I’m actually talking about how I reestablished my 2024 goals in May. Yes, five months in.
[00:02:16] Honestly, I don’t even know what happened to my original goals. I mean, like, I’ve been looking all over for them, and I cannot find them. It’s terrible, I know, but at least I am. I’m able to admit it. And that’s why I was like, okay, I need to reestablish some goals. Somehow I got lost and. Okay, anyway, it’s time to refocus. So we in quarter two. So we’ll get into that after this brief intro.
[00:02:51] Well, all right, we’re back. So it’s May 2024. As of this recording, it’s quarter two of the year. And as I said, I got lost and decided I need to refocus. I need to get refocused on what it is that I want to accomplish by the end of December. 2024. I want to be able to take 2024 out with a great celebration.
[00:03:21] So what I normally do is at the end of the year, I sit down and I plan my goals.
[00:03:29] And I thought to myself, perhaps as of now, I need to do something different than what I did before.
[00:03:39] So what I normally do at the end of a year, before December 31, I look back and I see, what did I do this year, that year? And I ask myself, like, what did I accomplished?
[00:03:56] And then I write all those things out and then ask myself, well, what do I want to accomplish in the new year?
[00:04:02] And so that’s what I normally do. And now that I’m redoing my goals, I did this end of year visualization. So I imagined it was December 31, 2024. And I asked myself, what is one thing that I did in my career this year that I am proud of? And then I thought for a moment about what that thing is now, of course, this is me projecting myself into December 31, 2024. So when I say that question, it’s in that present tense of that moment.
[00:04:46] And so when I thought about that, putting myself into December 2024, I said to myself, one thing that I would really like to do and I would be proud of is if I did an album, because it’s been a long time since I’ve actually done an album. When I look, the last album I did was like six years ago. And I was like, whoa, that’s a long time.
[00:05:11] And I wasn’t proud of it because I’m like, I really want to be prolific.
[00:05:18] Well, I was visiting Ghana. I went to the Ghana National Museum, and they had an exhibit about this band called Osabisa. So to give you a little bit about Osabisa, according to Wikipedia, they are british ghanaian caribbean Afro rock band founded in London in the late 1960s by four expatriate West Africans and three London based caribbean musicians.
[00:05:53] Now, what really inspired me by Osabisa was they actually released over 50 albums compilations so far within their career. And I was like, whoa, that was. That’s phenomenal. So it’s almost like they’ve done one album every year. And I was like, that is something that I really, really want to aspire to. And I was like, there’s no point in waiting. Why not start now? So as I was thinking about what I wanted to do, and I thought about the album and I thought about them, and I was like, yeah. So from this point forward, I’m like, I just want to make sure that I release an album a year. So to release the album a year would be great. And I thought about some other possibilities for the year as well. Like, even before thinking about doing this album, I was intending on doing a song a week. And then I was, like, thinking about all the stuff that had to do for the song a week. And I’m like, that is a lot of work because it’s not just doing a song, it’s like, you got to promote the song, you got to have a lot of content that goes around each release. And then I was like, okay, maybe I’ll do a song every two weeks. And I was like, that was still seemed overwhelming. I started mapping it out, all the things that I would have to do. I started mapping it out in a program, project management program called Asana. And it was like, this is kind of a lot, considering all the other things that I got going on like this. It just was starting to feel very overwhelming. And then I was like, okay, what about a song a month? And I was like, it’s still a lot considering how much work I would have to put into promoting that song. And it’s like, well, with the album concept, the album idea, so I can get a lot more out of one album than I could if I did one song.
[00:07:45] Essentially, if I’m batching the song making process and I’m just doing one major promotional push, it’s more efficient, I would say. And then also just thinking about the price of an album versus a single. Like, I’m going to put all this promotional power behind one single versus doing a whole album which has multiple songs on it. Multiple chances to have a hit in the sense of, like, you know, a song that really, really catches on or people really, really like. And it just spreads. So, yeah, I’ll just leave it at that. I have more chances of having a hit that way than if I just count on one song and put so much money behind one song. And I’m only thinking about being more efficient because I am, as an independent artist with a small team, it’s like I have to really try and maximize my efforts.
[00:08:46] And I believe in working smart and not so hard. I mean, you still gotta put work in, which I totally am for, but I wanna do it smart. And I’ve actually, even though I haven’t released an album within the last six years, I’ve actually released quite a few singles.
[00:09:07] And so I will say that, like I said, it took quite a bit of work to get them singles out, and they didn’t do as well as I would like them to have done. So, anyway, so as a solopreneur, I strive not to take on too many projects and I certainly don’t want to get overwhelmed and burn out. And so these are some of the things that I was thinking about as I was refocusing or re evaluating what I wanted to do this year. And I felt like one album would be great. And if I just focus on that one album, I feel like it keeps me laser focused on one target, at least one target within like the music career area of my life. And I think that’s beautiful because when I wake up now, I could just think about just that one thing and visualize it being successful and working on it every day. So, yeah, that concludes this episode. I don’t want to make it too long, but to wrap up, if you are on point with your goals for 2024, congratulations. However, if you someone like me and you got lost along the way and you like where is that goal sheet that I wrote? I don’t even know where it is.
[00:10:27] It’s not too late to jump back on the path or even revamp your path to reflect new developments that’s in your life right now. And feel free to use the visualization exercise that I did where I visualized myself in December of 2024. And I asked myself the question, what is one thing that I did in my career this year that I am proud of? And you can switch out career for anything else. It could be what did I do in my personal life? Or what did I do in my health?
[00:11:03] It’s whatever you like. But since I’m mostly doing a musical podcast, I focus on career. I believe this exercise could really help you discover what goals, when achieved, will make you feel really fulfilled come December.
[00:11:19] So let me know if you are on track with your goals for 2024 or if you actually are not and you did the visualization exercise and you came up with a revamp goal, a revised goal. I love to hear what your goals are for 2024 and if you’re on track or you just now getting back on track. So to see the show notes for this episode, you can visit foodformusical thoughts.com ep one.
[00:11:50] Also, if you are enjoying this podcast, please subscribe and or leave a review. It’ll help this podcast reach new listeners and I would also very much appreciate it. The next episode that’ll be coming up, I’ll be sharing how I created an album plan in PowerPoint, so stay tuned for that.
[00:12:14] So thank you so much for tuning in. I hope this episode inspired some musical thoughts or helpful ideas.
[00:12:21] I am wishing you a great day. Evening or night? Bye for now.
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