We didn't know when we started this Gig Economy conversation that we'd have so much to say. But we did. Here's the second installment aired today, April 24th.
April 24, 2018
Theme for the day: Artist Entrepreneurs
Agenda review:
What we’re going to do today: First, we’re speaking with Jarrod Haning, recovering freelance musician and current performance coach; Then we’ll hear from Shennice Cleckley, serial entrepreneur and self-published author; Last, we’ll get a preview of tomorrow’s 1MC with Nick Hayden, outgoing President of the University of South Carolina’s entrepreneurship club. A very full day!
Segment 1: Music as an entrepreneurial venture
Last week we talked Gig Economy, some refresh stats:
“an environment in which temporary positions are common and organizations contract with independent workers for short-term engagements.”
Intuit predicts that by 2020, 40 percent of American workers would be independent contractors; $2.7 trillion; things driving this shift: mobility, digitization of work, companies learned contractors are cheaper, and millennials are more fluid and transitory.
This week: Artists, creatives, and those Gig Economy people who are working their passion jobs as their “real” jobs.
Musicians are another category and we have a recommended interview now from our friend Bill Grant, himself a creative, he’s a videographer, a film professional. He said if you’re talking musician freelancers, you have to talk to Jarrod Haning, our first guest.
Music entrepreneurship:
Today's first guest, Jarrod Haning, started as a freelancer but then built a full enterprise around music here in Columbia. He explained his approach to music entrepreneurship was about making more money working fewer hours. Sounds like a dream, right? He found all the peripheral ways a musician could earn -- booking shows, giving lessons, selling equipment and supplies, and sharing his skills across the enterprise. This led to Jarrod earning upwards of six figures in the music business.
He mentioned our friend Don Russo at Freeway Music as a similar music entrepreneur with strategic partnerships for equipment and supplies, local venues for booking shows and showcases, and promoting his own instructors as working musicians.
Our show features the music of a Freeway instructor, Brian Connor and his band VillaNova going in and out of commercial breaks. Since he teaches Kasie's daughter guitar at the FM on Rice Bend Way on the Upper East Side, Kasie likes to share his talent with our listeners. Here's more VillaNova.
Segment 2: Coaching as an entrepreneurial venture
From gig economy to performance coach -- 2nd half of the Jarrod interview
Tell us about the practice and your approach of Musical Secrets lessons in business strategy and leadership.
Jarrod mentioned his own website mindsetperformance.co and the "test" link where you can access the MindScan assessment to figure out how to get "unstuck."
Jarrod offered three (3) assessments to people who heard this on the radio, so get it quick!
Coaching, consultants, speakers, and writers can all use the bi-products of their professional work.
Selling your bi-products
Jason Fried, founder of Basecamp, in Rework, suggests selling the bi-products of the work you’re doing; in this way, we’re all as startup founders in the gig economy. We’re selling the things we’ve learned, earning money on the side hustle, being the chefs with the eye on the big empire, and the make-ends-meet strategy of “bi-product sales.” I learned to run twitter chats and pre-schedule tweets, we sell that to our communications clients; Jodie and I are both workshop presenters, we sell the tech we use as part of the workshop experience, the various “parts” of the workshop as a la carte service items in our communications practice.
Some of the “bi-products” I’ve sold:
Marketing -- social media, specifically Twitter chats, Hootsuite pre-scheduling, and blogging
Workshops -- marketing (again), social media, sales cycles
Segment 3: Writing as an Entrepreneurial Venture
2nd Caller -- Shennice Cleckley, 1 Million Cups community member, serial entrepreneur, and freelance author with bylines in Columbia Living Magazine, among others, and a series of self-published children’s books called Mommy and Lewis.
Shennice is a 1MC Columbia community member and our favorite mompreneur. She does it all! Check out her site at https://www.shennicecleckley.com
With Shennice, we talked about Self-publishing vs. Traditional Publishing:
Time -- traditional takes longer; query letters and agents and long editorial review periods with changes and adjustments you’re required to make. That said, the process can produce a polished, better manuscript.
Money -- traditional you get a smaller cut; lots of people to get paid; alternatively, you don’t have to front the costs of printing; most publishers expect you to do your own marketing, so that’s basically a wash.
Control -- you don’t select the cover, the font, the layout, or anything else; alternatively, you have to do those things yourself and if you’ve never done it before, you may not know standards and shortcuts and may end up with a product that looks, honestly, like whomever created it didn’t know what she was doing.
We finished the segment with "Building a writer’s platform to promote your work."
A website
A mailing list of subscribers
Article or column writing for larger publications
Guest posts on other sites with similar audience
Track record of past book sales
Influential members in your network
Speaking appearances
Social media presence
Memberships in organizations that support their own
Recurring media appearances
Write an “I am Fabulous” statement -- your elevator pitch, why you’re the best person to write this book, tell this story, etc.
Make a “big mouth” list out of your network contacts
Pick two (2) social channels and stay dedicated to them, engaging would-be readers
Self publish an e-book
Figure out your persona
Create a sign-up form on your website
Stick to a Schedule -- for writing, for publishing, for posting
Segment 4:
This week at 1 MC -- Nick Hayden of FanPlan and the outgoing president of the University of South Carolina’s entrepreneurship club; Nick helped plan and execute Backers & Hackers and four of those teams will present at 1MC tomorrow; so welcome Nick to the show and tell us what we can expect tomorrow.
Events this week -- Find the Point finishes up its stay at Arabesque on Thursday, 5-7 p.m.
Next Week is Small Business Week!
Wednesday -- May 2nd
Grow with Google event at 701 Whaley Street 9 a.m. until 6:30 p.m.; come for 5 minutes or stay the whole day -- there’s workshops, one-on-one coaching, hands-on demos of Google products, and plenty of networking. Columbia College is a sponsor and we’re excited about being part of the event with a special announcement.
The SBA and the South Carolina Chamber of Commerce present A Salute to Small Business on the same day, May 2nd, at the convention center, 8 a.m. until 2 p.m. with procurement matchmaker sessions and the small business awards luncheon; a good place for government contractors or would-be contractors to make connections.
Thursday -- May 3rd
The City of Columbia and the Office of Business Opportunity will host its annual Small Business Week Conference and the speakers list is like a Usual Suspects from 1MC -- Deb Mullen on social media marketing, Vanessa Mota on crosslinking anglo- and latino businesses, and I’m presenting Creating a Process for Sales Success.