Hi everyone, thanks to your feedback, I’m getting closer to a perfected newsletter template. This week, you’ll see that I’ve included specific content around the three areas I speak about most: Work/Life Balance, Financial Stability, and Finding Meaning. Again, I’d love any thoughts you have as I continue to tweak this newsletter in order to provide maximum value to you!
The photo this week is one that I took two years ago during a family camping trip to Zion National Park. We camped adjacent to the National Park at a place called Zion Wright Family Ranch and it is one of the most beautiful places on the planet. Incidentally, John Branch wrote a book about the Wright Family called The Last Cowboysand it’s one of the most authentic portrails of American Life I’ve read in a long time. Check it out!
Thanks for reading and I hope you enjoy these tips:
Work/Life Balance Tip: Stop Letting Email Burn You Out
When it comes to work/life balance, email can be some of the most time consuming work you will do all week! The achiever in me wants to tackle my emails immediately with the goal of getting my inbox down to zerio. That is a lofty goal, and an impractical one. Treating email that way means I’m spending important time on things that are not nearly as important as tackling my big, life-changing projects.
Tip: You have got to come up with a plan for tackling email. Jocelyn K. Glei has a great post about the phycological impact email and here is a quick, one-slide strategy I created for finding email balance.
Financial Stability Tip: Try Charting Your Income
When it comes to balancing your finances, you are often asked to simply cut more from your monthly budget in order to have your income meet expenses. The challenge is that artists and creatives will often have major swings in their income over the course of a year. For example, most professional brass musicians are swimming in money during the months of December (Christmas) and May (Easter) but struggle during the months of January and June.
Tip: Chart at your income over a 12-month period and see if you notice any income patterns. Doing this will help you plan for the future. I recently created this podcast where I lay out the different types of income you can attain.
Meaning At Work And In Life Tip: Search For Meaning Outside Of Work First
One of the things I explore with people the most is how to find meaning in their work and life. Although we spend a lot of time searching for a job that brings us meaning, I think it is just as important to focus on what brings you meaning outside of your place of employment.
Tip: Last week, I created a podcast to help you think about finding meaning beyond your place of employment. Check it out here.
Field Notes: How To Make The Most Out Of An Album Release
With streaming services such as spotify and youtube serving as the primary way for us to release content into the world, it becomes increasingly difficult to use your creations to support your livelyhood. That doesn’t mean you should stop creating, but it does mean that you have to start thinking about different ways to define the success of a recording. One of the biggest things to consider is how to use the streaming services as a way to build a following instead of thinking about them as a way to attain financial stability.
Tip: I love the way Dan Runcie at Trapital discusses ways hip-hop artists get more milage out of their music by tapping into content in between their album releases.
The Way Things Work: How To Better Understand Power Structures
We are in the middle of a huge reframe when it comes to power structures in this country. Within my life, I have watched the standard organizational structure go from top down, to flattened, to shared in just a matter of years. There are examples of this playing out everywhere and I think it is a large part of why everything is so unsettled at the moment.
Tip: Take some time to understand what is happening in regards to the power structures in place at the moment and how we’re shifting as a society. This Harvard Business Review article, does an outstanding job of defining our new power structures, which is immensely helpful to creators trying to get an edge in their careers.
Things I Loved:
- Who knows Franz Becker because this is absolutely stunning and I want to say thank you/ask for more.
- M.I.C.—K.E.Y., Sing—U-Lar—It-Y (yikes)
- 18-29 year olds had a huge impact on the election this year.
- Simplicity is the key. 🙂
- Behind the scenes stop-motion filming is my new favorite.
Invite Your Unrelenting Friends!
If you liked what you read here, I would be truly honored to have you join this newsletter by subscribing below!