Category: Artwork

Artwork, E-Business, Management

Lloyd Claycomb II – What Characteristics Do You Need to be a Great Leader

Throughout the world there are many great leaders, these are the people like Barrack Obama whose leadership skills took him to the Presidency and business leaders like Lloyd Claycomb II and Richard Branson who have a level of strength in leadership that has taken them to the top of the business world in their positions as CEOS. Whether or not you have lofty ambitions of taking up roles such as the people above or not, leadership skills can greatly help you in many walks of life and if you are not blessed with natural leadership ability, it will be important that you understand what characteristics leaders possess in order to improve on your own skills.

Dedication

At the head of every successful team on the planet is a leader who shows unequalled commitment and dedication to what they are doing and if you want to improve your leadership skills then this should be at the root of all that you do. It is imperative that leaders are an example to the rest of their team and for that reason, giving any less than 110% is simply not acceptable.

Motivator

One of the key roles of a leader is to be able to engage and motivate those who are under their charge. This is not as easy as it sounds as each and every person is different in terms of what it takes to motivate and inspire them. The very best leaders have a good understanding of how to motivate each member of their team and give them the belief to work to the best of their ability.

Communicator

Leaders must have excellent communication skills in order to better do their job and they should have the ability to speak with people of all levels and still make themselves clear. Communication skills are about more than landing your message in a clear and concise manner, they are also about being able to listen, whether it be someone who has a great idea, some who requires some empathy or someone that is trying to give advice, a great leader knows when to listen as well as how and when to speak.

Consistency

People must look to a leader as being firm and fair and with this comes the need for consistency, if a leader is giving out discipline then they must be fair across the board, and the same when they are giving praise. Equally, a leader must be consistent in their approach and with their levels of commitment so as best to inspire and drive their team.

Forward Thinking

The very best leaders are the ones which always have one eye on the future and can creatively lead their team forward. Being forward thinking can help leaders to not only prepare for any problems which may arise in the future but also so that they can take their team to the next level.

Artwork

Why Is it So Hard to Make it in the Music Industry and How to Overcome the Challenges

It seems that not a day goes by without a new song being released. Many of us miss the days of old, where we looked forward to hearing a new song once a month, and the hype and buzz that came with that. A key problem is that so many people think that because they can make music, since the technology is readily available to them, they are capable of making music that is also of good quality. If you want to take your profession to the next level, you should consider music business degree industry programs, since that is what will teach you not just what to do, but how, why, when, and where to do it as well.

Indeed, perhaps the greatest challenge that musicians of today face, is that they have to find a way to create music that people will want to buy. If you are able to do this, then you will come to the attention of listeners at some point or another. And once you have been able to sell one song, word of mouth will start to take things further, because people become excited about what will be next. The difference is, however, is that you no longer hope for people to hit the record stores for your music, but that they hit the internet and make you go ‘viral’.

Unfortunately, because it is now seemingly so easy to make music, there has been a concerning change in attitudes. That attitude is that, when a new piece of music doesn’t sell, musicians blame not themselves the poor quality, but rather they blame everybody else – their producers, their marketers, their sound engineers. In reality, however, it is because they simply do not excel in their genre, creating something that people actually want to buy.

How to Create Music that Sells

  1. Be ready to commit for a long time. You have to really work on the creative process as a whole for as long as possible. If you want something to be finished today, but you’re nowhere near finished, you can almost guarantee that it will fail. And remember that this will give you a negative reputation and it is very hard to recover from that.
  2. Find a producer that has a proven track record of selling music and listen to what they say. If they have sold millions of records and they tell you that yours is just not good enough, then you clearly need to work a little harder and go back to point 1.
  3. Get a focus group together, something that you will learn during your music business degree. This gives you the opportunity to get people to listen to different sounds and tell you what they think. That then gives you the opportunity to return to point 1 and perfect what you have been working on.

There are challenges in the music industry, but they can be overcome. Go to school and learn about the business if you want to truly be successful.