Normal Rockstar

A New Business Model for the Music Industry

If you're in the music industry, take 15 minutes and watch this video presentation on Trent Reznor and how he make $1.6 million in the first week of sales on a record that he was giving away for free. [HT Brody Harper]

What's Your "Plan B"?

With gas prices still climbing, the housing market struggling, and Americans blindly swiping themselves deeper and deeper in debt, I found myself in a conversation the other day with a good friend who asked me, "So what happens if the band folds? How will you provide for your family? What's your 'Plan B'?"

Have you been asked that before? It's a little disconcerting, really - I mean, we don't ever PLAN on needing a "Plan B"... and that's why it's always good to have one. I'll be honest... I don't really have a "Plan B". I've thought about it a lot and I know what steps I would take when the time comes, but it's not quite necessary right now (I could be singing a different story when Baby Rockstar comes along in a few more months!).

The whole topic of making money is one that I struggle with. The reality is that I live in the US where even those who live below the poverty line in this country are richer than more than half of the world's population. I walk the line daily in my current employment between "business" and "ministry". I want to provide well for my family - be "successful" - but I don't want making more money to be the end goal.

"Wired" Magazine: Why FREE is the Future of Business

Chris Anderson, author of "The Long Tail" and editor of Wired Magazine, has written a fascinating article this month called "Why $0.00 is the Future of Business". Here is a link to the full article - it's pretty long, so you'll need to give yourself a little bit of time to wade through it. If you don't have the time and would rather watch a video, you can watch him give a synopsis of his article below (Wired posted it on YouTube but didn't give any embedding code, so I just recorded it and posted it on my YouTube page so that I could embed it here for your viewing ease - please forgive the low quality audio.)

What do you think?

UPDATE: I guess Wired got jumpy about me recording it, so the video below won't work anymore. Just click on their YouTube link above to watch it. So much for making things user friendly!!

Robert Kiyosaki: "Rich Dad, Poor Dad"

I've started meeting with a business coach/mentor and I'm really excited about it. I have been needing someone like this in my life for a while now and have just recently been able to find the guy locally here who I can get together with on a regular basis. We've only met twice so far and it's been awesome.

He recommended I read Robert Kiyosaki's book, "Rich Dad, Poor Dad", so I picked it up and read through it yesterday prior to our breakfast meeting this morning. I was really intrigued... with a subtitle like "What the rich teach their kids about money - that the poor and middle class do not!" who would not be interested?

This book came out over 10 years ago, so I'm a little behind the times on this one, but it is still a great read and very relevant for today. I'm a big Dave Ramsey fan and he's very anti-debt. Dave's deal is you should have no debt except your house (and you need to try and pay that off as soon as possible). Robert considers a house that you live in a liability, not an asset, because it does not add to your monthly income cashflow.

I've got to be careful that I don't jump in too deep here and give away the whole book (especially if money matters completely bores you to tears!). I've always been pretty cautious about becoming that Christian guy who says he doesn't worship money but lives differently. That's why I've kind of stayed away from books that have "rich" or "millionaire" in the title (a matter of principle, I guess). But I made an exception here and I'm glad I did - more than anything it challenged the way I THINK about money matters. Well worth the purchase, and really a pretty easy read (I knocked it out in 3 hours of concentrated reading).

Have you read it yet? what do you think?

Turn Your New Year's Resolutions into Goals

I've never been a fan of New Year's Resolutions, and this article in Fast Company does a good job of verbalizing why. Here's a little snippet:

"What's fun about goals is the end point, the completion... What's fun about resolutions, on the other hand, is the announcement. Resolutions feel good coming out of our mouths, but they lack enforcement."

Blogsites.biz Launches Today

Today marks the official launch of Blogsites.biz, a new company that I have taken over. Founded a year ago by my business partner Randy (of Ethos), Blogsites.biz began building and developing blogs on a strictly referral basis with virtually no web presence. In our first year of business we have worked with clients in a wide range of fields - real estate, auto sales, comedy, students, charitable organizations, etc.

I have only been with the company for a couple of months now, and am really enjoying the work. I've been blogging for nearly 3 years now and have really seen in recent years an increase in the value of having a blog. I'm looking forward to helping other people join the blogosphere, showing them (a) how easy it is to maintain a blog, and (b) how valuable it will be for them now and in the future. If you know of anyone we need to talk to, please either drop us a line or stop by Blogsites.biz and leave us a comment.

Lose Weight or Lose Your Job

I do a fair amount of flying for my job - especially in the summer as we bounce from music festival to music festival. I prefer sitting in the aisle seat on a plane - I like the flexibility of getting up and walking around whenever I want to without having to climb over people. But because I'm fairly broad-shouldered, I am always aware of the flight attendants/air hostesses as they roam up and down the aisle serving food and drinks, collecting garbage, and performing their various duties. I have often wondered if weight was a factor in getting hired - I mean, those airplane aisles are not very wide, and those flight attendants have to squeeze through some pretty tight places at times.

Well, it seems weight has become a factor - at least for air hostesses in India. An Indian court has ruled against a group of air hostesses who were grounded from the national airline for being overweight. The company policy was put into place in December of 2005.

"No airline can afford to remain lax in any department whatsoever, be it the personality of the crew members of their physical fitness," said the judge. Read more of the story here.

In a related story, Air India (the same airline) went on record in 2004 as stating that applicants for air hostess positions would not be considered if they had acne or bad teeth. Do you think companies would get away with these kind of restrictions in North America, or would they be deemed "discriminating" and "demeaning"?

Google Rated Top Company to Work For

This past January, Fortune magazine rated Google the #1 company to work for in 2007. If you have some time, click here to peruse the other 99 companies that made the list (I was very disappointed to see that Apple didn't even make it into the top 100!). Here are some of the perks that Google employees at their Mountain View, CA campus enjoy (in an effort to save you some time, here's the link to job opportunities at Google - I've already checked it out):

• free car washes
• wi-fi enabled shuttles from area train stations
• haircuts onsite
• up to $500 in takeout food will be reimbursed in the first 4 weeks after having a baby
• free laundry facilities (detergent is provided at no cost)
• workout room
• 5 onsite doctors for free check-ups
• motorized scooters for employees to use when traveling around the campus
• 11 free gourmet cafeterias
• "snack rooms", which contain various cereals, candy, nuts, yogurt, carrots, fresh fruit and other snacks, and dozens of different drinks including soda and make-your-own cappuccinos

The company I work for currently doesn't offer quite the same benefits - but "calling" always trumps "perks" I suppose.

Facebook.com CEO - Is He Crazy?!?

Would you turn down $1 billion?

I would sure have a hard time doing so. But it appears that Facebook.com's CEO, Mark Zuckerberg, has done so. Fast Company featured him as their cover story for their May issue - click here to read the whole story.

Never heard of Facebook? You'd better familiarize yourself with it fast if you're wanting to keep in touch with 19 million registered users (the article states that "... According to comScore Media Metrix, which tracks Web activity, it is now the sixth most-trafficked site in the United States - 1% of all Internet time is spent on Facebook"). What was a networking site for college students has exploded into a social networking phenomenon. I've been using it as of late to get back in touch with some of my high school and even elementary school friends. Look me up so that we can be "friends"!

Technorati Tags: facebook, Fast Company, social networking

Email by Snail Mail

Here's a great example of a country using modern technology to provide a service to those without access to it. (The following is taken from an article in this month's Fast Company magazine. CLICK HERE to read the article in full)

India Post's ePost system allows anyone with Internet access to send email to those without it and vice versa. The logistically ambitious project is emblematic of modern India: Though it's a global technology powerhouse, life for many of its people hasn't changed much in centuries. A quarter of Indians live below the poverty line, and only about 6% use the Internet. Using ePost, users can send an email to a local post office, where it is printed and hand delivered. In reverse, rural patrons can handwrite letters and have them translated into emails. Delivery by ePost-gram costs less than 25 cents per page and usually takes a day, compared with about a week by snail mail.

Technorati Tags: email, India Post, Fast Company