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September 29, 2006
Trying to Getting Caught Up
This has been quite a week. Sheryl has been away at the ABWA conference in Anaheim, CA, and I ended up performing two gigs, (with one more to go) teaching a class, and working on some stuff in the studio.
I’ll try to get back to regular writing next week.
Today I will be performing with three very talented singer / songwriters: Austin Church, Sybil Gage, and Chris Kahl. We’ll be at the Tiger Café in Melbourne, which is located at Holy Trinity Academy on Pineda Causeway between Route 1 and Wickham Road.
This show is the prototype for a "Rolling Thunder Revue", "Traveling Wilburies" style concert series and when it is successful the promoters will bring on more acts and rotate the talent throughout the concert tour.
So, this will be an actual concert, where people pay to get in, and we will be more than mere background music. We’re putting on a show! And it ought to be a great show, considering the talent involved.
I’ll let you know how it goes.
And finally, here are some pictures from our 25th anniversary get-together. We had some high-powered talent in the room, and it was truly a day to remember!
Austin Church sings at our house!
Bill Rice (Who is in the Nashville Songwriters Hall of Fame)
Lathan Hudson (Who is in the Alabama Songwriters Hall of Fame)
Christine Reily
Sandz of Time (Asli Walker, Sandy Ferris, the PSG, and Spike Dean)
Sheryl and Leon (the PSG)
(Photos by Anne DuBois)
Posted by leon at 11:54 AM | Comments (0)
September 20, 2006
Good For Your Brain
I found this article while reading the news online this morning.
I file this one under “See, what have I been saying all these years? Music is good for your brain!”
Music lessons said to help children's memories
Training affected brain responses in kids ages 4-6, study finds
TORONTO - Parents who spend time and money to teach their children music, take heart — a new Canadian study shows young children who take music lessons have better memories than their nonmusical peers.
The study, to be published in the online edition of the journal Brain Wednesday, showed that after one year of musical training, children performed better in a memory test than those who did not take music classes.
(click here to read entire article)
http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/14920590/
So next time you drag your child off to their piano lesson, you can truthfully say to them: “Its for your own good!”
Posted by leon at 12:05 PM | Comments (0)
September 19, 2006
Pushing the Snowball
One of the difficulties of running a project studio, and depending on it as your main source of income, is the “up and down” nature of the business. When there’s a steady stream of projects coming in, things don’t look too bad. The bills get paid.
Unfortunately, if a few projects are put on hold, things get tight. It’s very much a “feast or famine” situation. It’s also very hard to get ahead. When it’s feast time, you try to set money aside for the famine, so there’s never any extra. During the famines you’re trying to reduce expenses, so there’s never any extra!
Another problem arises if you want to take a vacation. There’s no such thing as a paid vacation when you operate what is essentially a one-man service business. It’s rather like the dentist who complained that he wasn’t making any money unless he had his hand inside someone’s mouth.
It’s basically a problem with cash flow, something that nearly every business faces from time to time.
There must be something in the air. We’ve had several members of our musical family come into hard times. We’ve seen them suffer car accidents, lose the financial backers for their project, deal with unexpected major expenses, or have to work through family problems. As a result, some of them have put their projects on hold, or cancel them altogether.
This means I end up feeling bad for them, and bad for myself at the same time. I don’t like that reaction.
After years of living this way, Sheryl and I decided we needed to create a steady stream of income, without going out and getting a “real job.” Getting a real job would mean, of course, severely curtailing, if not completely shutting down, the activities of the studio, and Sheryl would not be able to do much with her music.
So, we are putting a great deal of effort into building our BurnLounge business. We have seen others do very well in creating regular income through this company, and since it revolves around music, it’s a perfect fit for us.
Of course, just like any business venture, you don’t start out making a lot of money right away. Right now we feel as though we are pushing a huge snowball up a hill. When we get to the top of the hill and start down the other side, we will be glad we made the effort.
Another reason we are excited about our BurnLounge business is that as we build it, we are creating a team made up of many of our friends, and we all have something to gain as we work together. Sheryl and I are not the only ones who want to create some steady income and help others in the process.
Don’t get me wrong, I love being the PSG, and I want to be able to keep going for a long time. There’s a lot of great music and musicians out there waiting to be recorded, and I want to be able to help them without worrying about my next mortgage payment.
Posted by leon at 07:40 AM | Comments (1)
September 15, 2006
My Vision – Part 2
It’s another bright Florida morning. I like to get up early, even before the sun comes up. Since I am a musician, this may seem strange to those who think of us as “night owls”, and indeed my wife Sheryl is a night person, but I like to be up and at it early.
I read, study, meditate. I work on my blog, answer my email.
Our home sits on an acre of land in a semi-rural area of Cocoa, Florida. Everyone out here has at least an acre of land, so we are definitely not crowded.
It’s very quiet out here. (A great place to have a recording studio.)
I pray a silent prayer of thanksgiving and gratitude for all I have and for what I am allowed to do.
When Sheryl gets up, we will either walk the dog, or drive over to the YMCA and work out together, them come back and walk the dog. Got to make sure we take care of Buddy Rodgers, the studio dog.
In the meantime, our daughter leaves for school and / or work while we are out.
Sheryl and I have breakfast together and talk about our day.
Sometimes we are together all day, Sheryl working in her office upstairs, and me in the studio / office downstairs. No commute, no traffic to fight, and we do save a bit on gas.
Some days we leave the office for meetings. We are members of the Chamber of Commerce, and we often meet clients and team members at various places around town to talk business or just get caught up. Sometimes Sheryl and I go together, other times just one of us. We are never apart for too long.
Almost every day we have a member of our music family coming over to record or plan a project.
We have worked with so many bright, creative people over the last 16 years!
Just about every client we’ve ever had has become our friend. They’ve become family.
Our home is their “home away from home.” Here they feel relaxed, cared for, and creative. We are so privileged to be able to serve them in this unique way.
I am committed to personal growth and development every day of my life.
I try to learn something new every day.
I am committed to building my business with integrity and excellence.
I am an encourager, leader and developer of leaders.
My desire is to help everyone I work with to be the best they can be and to settle for nothing less.
I “live to serve.” I serve my wife, my daughter, my extended family, my friends and clients. I never forget the value of service.
There are days when it gets hard. But even when times get difficult, I will not quit. I will not give up or walk away. No one would be served by my giving up. There is so much to do, and so much to be gained.
Sheryl and I are working towards the day where we lack for nothing financially. We already lack for nothing when it comes to friends and loved ones. We have a great family, and a multitude of close friend whom we cherish with all our hearts. We always remember where we came from and what it took to get here.
When I started S.O.L.O. Creative Media, it was all about making money and supporting my family. Well, I still like making money, but I have discovered the real reason for wanting more. With more money, I can do more, give more, and help more people. Having a lot of “things” doesn’t mean much to me.
We joyfully support our church, Christ Community Church in Titusville Florida, both financially and with our time.
I am grateful every day for what God has given us, financially, spiritually and emotionally. I live my life with integrity and took forward to each new day that I am granted.
As Sheryl and I run our business and go out and perform music, we meet people from all walks of life, and we find ways to serve them or assist them.
Every day I have the chance to offer someone a way to improve their life, and escape the boredom and cynicism that seems to have engulfed so many lives.
This is my responsibility, and I accept it gladly.
Posted by leon at 05:26 PM | Comments (0)
September 14, 2006
My Vision – Part 1
Well, I’m up past my bedtime today.
Usually I need my eight hours of sleep, but there are some days I wish I were an android that did not require slumber.
Yeah, like Data from “Star Trek – The Next Generation.”
I envied his ability to glide smoothly from task to task, all the while losing nothing in the way of energy or efficiency. He could literally keep going 24 / 7.
In later episodes he did “sleep”, but it was purely a voluntary thing.
So what’s keeping me up?
Specifically, I have been staying up late learning about how best to run our BurnLounge Business.
Sheryl and I want to build people, not just a business.
We want everyone who works with us in this to have as much to gain as we do.
So how can we best help our team members?
How can we train them, encourage them, educate them?
What tools and systems can we use and put in place that will make this all work?
There is so much material out there on running a home-based business, or on Network Marketing. Where do we start?
Quite often I am struck with just how much I have yet to learn.
To quote a great song by the great Austin Church:
“All I know is that I don’t know
What I thought I knew
When I knew it all”.
(Those may not be the exact words, but you get the idea).
35 years ago I used to think that my education ended when I graduated. I wanted nothing more than to get out of school, get a job, go to work, and make a living.
It seemed easy enough.
I would go to work, put in my time, come home, and forget all about it in front of the TV.
Then get up tomorrow and do it all over again in the same way, day after day, year after year.
That was the ideal life, or so it was modeled for me as I was growing up.
The older I get, the more I see that this is not the life I want.
So what do I want?
What is my vision?
Well, I’ll try to sleep on it, and I’ll get back to it tomorrow.
But I’ll probably end up lying awake for a while thinking about it.
Posted by leon at 12:32 AM | Comments (0)
September 11, 2006
9/11 – We Remember
Unless you’re living in a cave somewhere, cut off from all forms of communication, you know that today marks the five-year anniversary of 9/11.
9/11 was one of those events where you remember exactly where you were and what you were doing when it happened.
In the week before 9/11, Sheryl was getting ready to fly out to California to see her dad for perhaps the last time. He had been in declining health for some time and by September 2001 it looked as though the end was near.
She was scheduled to fly out on September 9th. During a layover in Denver, she learned that her father had passed away. He died while Sheryl was on the flight from Orlando to Denver.
She arrived in California to help her mother and family plan the memorial service.
My daughter Rose and I prepared to follow Sheryl out to California. We were scheduled to leave on September 12th.
We never made it.
There are of course, hundreds of thousands of stories similar to ours, concerning that dark day.
Today, many people marked the occasion by journeying to Ground Zero for a Memorial Ceremony, including a solemn reading of the name of every person who perished in the attacks.
Sheryl and I watched it on one channel, but the commentators insisted on talking over the reading of names! Not only that, but they were getting in some not-so-subtle digs at the Bush administration concerning his handling of, well, everything.
We switched to CBS, where they had the decency to show long portions of the ceremony without comment.
I don’t have anything truly profound to add after all that has been written and said today.
We’ll sit down tonight and watch the President’s speech, and we’ll thank God that we are still here, and able to serve those in our circle of influence.
We’ll remind ourselves that while evil men truly exist, there is still a lot of good in the world.
Posted by leon at 02:25 PM | Comments (2)
September 06, 2006
Not-So-Random Stuff
Don’t have time to write much today. We have a recording session booked tonight, another session tomorrow, along with four private lessons that Sheryl will be teaching in the studio, two sessions on Friday, and two more on Saturday.
As usual, I’m not complaining. I’m very grateful that all these talented people want to have us work with them.
On Saturday, September 9th, at 7PM, Sheryl and I will be participating in the “Musical Kottage Open Mic” at the Majestic Restaurant in Titusville. All proceeds from this event will go towards the production of the Music Kottage Compilation CD.
I found an interesting article on one very famous band’s dealings with the concept of selling songs online.
Which famous band is it? All right, I’ll tell you: it’s the Beatles.
Of course, the biggest news of the week has been the sudden death of “The Croc Hunter” Steve Irwin. I didn’t realize how firmly ingrained in the popular culture he had become until he died tragically.
My thoughts went immediately to his wife, children, and the family he left behind. Although we will probably never meet any of them personally, our prayers are with them.
Posted by leon at 11:38 AM | Comments (1)