creative maverick

Derek Sivers has been a circus clown, professional musician and a very successful entrepreneur. Last year, he sold his company CD Baby for $22 million, the majority of which will go to The Independent Musician’s Charitable Trust, an organization that he created to fund and support music education for future generations.

Derek is a fascinating guy as I found out yesterday when I interviewed him for my book - we’ll be releasing the recording here soon. He’s a Scanner and a very successful one at that. I discovered in speaking to him just how similar musicianship is to entrepreneurship.

Derek has created a rather wonderful 71 page guide for musicians called “How to call attention to your music”. You can download it for free at his site here. If you’re a musician I suggest you download it now. (There are no affiliate links or up-sells involved)

Here is some of his excellent advice:

Be an extreme version of yourself

Define yourself.
Show your weirdness.
Bring out all your quirks.

Your public persona, the image you show to the world, should be an extreme version of yourself.

and

Proudly exclude some people

Proudly say what you’re NOT:  “If you like Celine Dion, you’ll hate us.” …and people who hate Celine Dion will love you, or at least give you a chance.

You can’t please everyone in this world.  Recklessly exclude people.

How could you apply this advice to your music or your art project or your business?

Download the free guide here.