Ok my Trend Culprit,

I came up with a new way of structuring my contributions to your music career by integrating two areas.

1. Music Business Techniques and Strategies
2. Music Business Mindset and the Holistic Approach

The reason I am doing it this way, is because I am a big advocate of the notion that who we are, what we do, and anything we want to be or accomplish in life, is the result primarily of our state of mind. Furthermore, we are interested in engaging and developing as a whole artist, we need to think of it as different levels of maintaining a good balance between the physical, mental, emotional, and spiritual.

A holistic approach simply means thinking about the big picture, knowing that any change you make to one part affects the whole.

Also, understanding that strategies and techniques that become available as a product of that balance and state of mind.

It doesn’t matter how much you learn from books, from mentors, or through life experiences, if at the end of the day you are not using your most valuable resource (your Mind), in addition to taking care and connecting with the things that really matter (mind, body, and soul), you will have a more challenging path to becoming your true self, delivering your musical contributions, and stepping up to your purpose on the planet through your Music Career.

Read that paragraph again.

The dictionary defines the word holistic as “characterized by comprehension of the parts of something as intimately interconnected and explicable only by reference to the whole.”

In other words, the moment that you internalize this, and realize that it is not about our music knowledge, the new strategies we found online to promote our music, the incredible Publicist running or PR campaign, how many followers we have, how many singles we have released, and even less, about making cool music; but it is all about who we are as a whole that determines our success, most importantly success with ourselves, and then success in our music careers.

Now, going back to talking about structure at the beginning, I have a few questions for you:

1. Are your day to day, or even your week/month activities organized in a way that they are bringing you a consistent and predictable income from your music?

2. Do you already have a structured map of where you want to go, for at least your next six months? Or are you just relying on your manager (if you have one) or whatever comes along?

3. What marketing strategies will you implement to build, nurture and grow your fanbase, get that new single release in front of new audiences, market your merch, get your music video rolling, and your music promo techniques in place?

Whatever your answers are, it’s all good! It may surprise you to hear that many established artist do not necessarily have a written plan for their music careers.

And yet, it is IMPERATIVELY EVERYTHING! But not to worry my Trend Culprit, we are not in a hurry here.

The first steps (and the ones that really matter) are connecting within, finding balance as a whole, organizing yourself, your thoughts, and begin drafting that map that will take you to where you want to be.

Listen carefully that I didn’t say a PLAN, I said a MAP.

You need a structured map to get where you want to be, you need to understand what is going on around you, in the industry, with your fanbase, with the music market itself, and of course with yourself.

So, I want you to do three things this week:

1. You are going to declutter everything around you that is not adding positivity to your life.

AND I MEAN EVERYTHING!

Clothing, shoes, jewelry (if they don’t make you feel fantastic, like a real Super Star, get rid of it), old kitchen ware, bed sheets, old memories, people, anything. You are going to sit down and get rid of papers, computer junk, meaningless emails, TV and news as much as possible, and social media that does not contribute to your positive mood, creativity, and state of mind.

We are transforming ourselves here, as quickly as possible. Get rid of EVERYTHING once and for all. If it doesn’t add value to your MIND, BODY and SOUL – it’s GONE!

Studies show that there is a connection between junk and problems. In addition, there’s enough evidence to conclude that what we put and allow in our environments, determine the quality of our lives and the results we get. Getting rid of clutter can have proud effects in many areas of your life, including:

• You’ll feel more creative
• You’ll be able to concentrate for days
• You’ll focus more clearly on your goals
• You’ll boost your mood

I personally do this at least every few months. And I need to do this even before I start every project I am embarking on.

2. You are going to sit down quietly with a notebook or your computer (whatever works for you) every single morning for at least half an hour to draft your ideal career and personal life.

This is the fun part. I want you to design the person that you want to become, the rock star that you want to be, the impact that you want to have in the world, in your audience, the fame, the money, the private airplanes, the 65K+ fans concert in Brazil, the world tour, the perfect relationships, or just your little new upcoming releases.

I don’t care what it is, but you are going to be adding to your vision every single morning starting this week. If you finish, and you think that you have included it all, you are going to start again, and I promise you that as your days go by, and you have more experiences, more and more things are going to pop up in your mind that you will want to add.

Also, I really do not care about where you are at in your music career at this time. If you are just starting out or you have toured the entire world with your music. If you are not looking forward to evolving, to growing, to improving, then let me tell you my friend, you are not living life. If you believe that you have already achieved the ideal persona that you want, then let me tell you that what will follow to it will be a miserable life.

We are evolving beings, and we never stop our evolution. In other words, we will never get it done, growth and change are inevitable and will never end.

I hope that that penetrated to the core of your being.

So, we are going to call this notebook The Culprit Book. Keep that name in mind because we are going to use it all through out our music career journey.

3. After you review the map you started above, you will select one goal, whichever it is, it doesn’t matter, but it is going to be just ONE (per now) and you will write it down in an index card.

This is the challenging part. For the next 30 days you are going to look at it every single morning, every single night, and as many times as possible during the day. You are going to carry that index card with you everywhere you go, to the office, to the studio, to the venue, to the bathroom.

EVERYWHERE! Every time you look at it, imagine and feel yourself achieving that goal already.

If for whatever reason you forget to do this for a day, you must start over your 30 days. This is your true test of how much faith you should have on yourself and how persistent your should be. This will determine how much you really want your career to grow, and how much success you really want in your life.

Remember that every time you do not finish a goal you set up for yourself, you are developing the habit of failure. If you do not have control over yourself, you don’t have control over anything else, including your dreams and your career.

A real Trend Culprit never gives up a goal!

JUST DO IT! Everything else will take care of itself, and we together will take care of the details as we go. These my friends, are the very first steps to get the fulfilling, meaningful, and successful career that we want.

It all starts within.

Next week we’ll retake on our earlier newsletters, grasping and expanding on the most important and fundamental techniques to build a solid foundation for your music career, no matter what stage you are in.

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Let’s do this!

Rock on!
Love, Mia

P.S. and don’t forget – you are now a TrendCulprit!