David Hooper asked:


1. Set out deliberately to make every day highly productive.

Decide on one main purpose for each day. Determine that you’re going to achieve that one object above everything else. If you accomplish even one worthwhile thing each day, you’ll be inspired to keep moving ahead! And a series of successful days makes a highly productive year!

Achievement begins with a definite, written plan for each day’s work. Be strict with yourself on this one. It’s vital to your best progress.

After planning your day, start working right away with passion and excitement. Do your honest-to-goodness best. If some part of your work seems boring, put more heart and purpose into it, and you’ll be surprised at the satisfaction and motivation that’ll pop up!

2. Make the most of your opportunities each day.

Whatever you do, always expect success. Make the most of your best talents.

There are opportunities all around you! Look for them. Grab them and hold on tight! Keep your eyes fixed upon one purpose, and remember that perseverance may carry you far beyond your immediate goal. It could bring you even greater success than you anticipate.

Don’t wait for your best working mood, but create it. Concentration is one of the great secrets of achievement. Apply yourself wholeheartedly to a task for one hour. You’ll accomplish more than you will from several hours of aimless effort. Get used to doing one thing at a time and to do it thoroughly.

3. Appreciate the privilege of work.

You can’t afford to take things easy while climbing the ladder of success. Don’t back up because difficulty comes knocking at your door. Move ahead. Don’t be scared of a little work. Work is the medicine of the soul. It’s more than that – it’s your very life.

You don’t need extraordinary abilities for the highest success. In most instances successful folks rise to the top by making the most of ordinary talents and opportunities. A person of average ability inspired by hard work and determination will outstrip a genius who doesn’t know where he’s headed.

4. Be courageous!

You’ll be confronted by difficulties and discouragements, but decide to be strong and focused at all times. Make yourself do the difficult things. Get them out of the way first. Your courage and motivation will grow.

5. Develop extra energy reserves.

Store up energy for future use. Now, you may wonder how you can store up what you don’t have, but you’re better equipped than you think.

At the next sign of mental or physical laziness or inclination to give up because of a challenge, try the following exercise: Stand up straight, breathe deeply, rise on your toes, and stretch your arms toward the ceiling. Repeat this several times with gusto. Shake out the lazies, and then get back to your work with renewed energy.

Change of work is restful and revs up your brain power. People don’t often break down from overwork but from lack of organization and knowledge.

Work during all the working hours of the day. Try to make every moment count. Put your whole strength and best effort into the work of the moment.

Also, make time for leisure outside of your regular business hours. Free time is actually most enjoyable when there’s plenty of hard work before and after it. Really!

Take action on these 5 steps, and you’ll find your days filled with great joy and effectiveness



Want a traffic plan you simply can’t fail with?

David Hooper asked:


Let’s say you’ve got your attitude correct, the right skill set honed, and the right philosophy. Great! You’re on your way – somewhere. If you don’t have the right direction planned out, you’ll simply wander aimlessly.

You don’t attempt even the smallest of construction jobs without a plan, and yet many people work in a field they just happened to “fall in to” because someone suggested it, or a friend was doing it, or even worse—they didn’t have anything else to do.

Wandering through your career can be just as deadly as wandering through a desert without a compass and canteen—in both places, you can die a slow death of thirst and exhaustion.

You must know where you want to go in order to set a direction for your life and career. You’ve probably heard the adage, “No one plans to fail, but they do fail to plan.” So determine where it is that you want to go (i.e., what you want to do) and set a course for it.

I recommend doing something you love. Not something that you can tolerate or achieve a reasonable pension from after 30 years of work (do pensions even exist anymore?), but something you are truly passionate about.

If it’s music, think about how you are gifted in that area. Do you sing? Would your singing chip paint off a house? Do you have an ear for pitch and tune? Do you play an instrument? Consider the field of professional golf for a moment. Do you love to golf? Would you be willing to commit days, weeks, months, and years to bettering your game to the point when you could hit the pro-circuit?

Do you have a means to support yourself (and your family) while you work on your dream job? Would you be happy and content doing whatever you chose—for the rest of your days, if need be? These are all questions you should ask yourself as you try to set the direction for your life, and ultimately, for your success.

Now that you know where you want to go, you must plan and prepare for your destination. As you plan and prepare, it’s fair to expect that you will achieve that goal—expectations play a large role in success, no matter what the field. If you plan well and are committed to the work involved, then and only then, can you expect to achieve the desired results in your life



201 Self-Promotion Tips For Songwriters, Musicians And Bands On A Budget

David Hooper asked:


If you’re a musician or songwriter, your manager and your attorney should always be two different people, your agent and your manager should always be two different people, and you, your manager, and your agent should all have different attorneys, all of whom should work at different law firms.

But that’s not all…

Your manager shouldn’t be in your immediate family. In other words, don’t get a parent or spouse to do the job of a professional. Management is a real job that requires real skills.

Parents screw things up. They believe the publicist-generated hype, are too close to the situation, and are often living their own dreams through their “client.”

Worked with a 15-year-old maybe two years ago. She was a very nice, very attractive, and very talented singers. She was good and everybody who heard her demo wanted to help her. In fact, she was so good that a couple of major labels were interested. Everything looked bright for her.

But her father… That guy was a passive-agressive jerk who made it very difficult to get anything done. He was extremely high-maintenance and was constantly taking up valuable resources that would have been better used on his daughter and her career.

My time is too valuable to deal with idiots, so I stopped working with her.

A few months later, at SXSW, her name came up in a conversation. I was talking to an established music attorney who was interested in her, but had reservations because “her father is a real asshole.”

Obviously, this could happen with somebody you are not related to, but it’s not likely, especially if you’re careful about selecting somebody to work with. Professionals in this business understand how to work with people and know how to do it in a way so that things get done.

You wouldn’t get your relatives to play on your record, so why have them do something that is just as important?

This rule also applies to your spouse, by the way. Watch Spinal Tap and you’ll see exactly what I’m talking about. While the movie is a joke, the situation when it happens in real life isn’t nearly as funny



201 Self-Promotion Tips For Songwriters, Musicians And Bands On A Budget

David Hooper asked:


Just saw Can’t Stop the Music, which is the Village People’s big screen debut…

What a great movie. Lots of inside jokes, a good “time capsule” of disco culture, and a great lesson on the music business.

The movie wasn’t entirely true, but the Village People has been a business from Day One and there is plenty to learn from these guys.

For one, they started with a market and then put the band together. The first album, a self-titled EP, was recorded by studio musicians and made specifically for the gay audience and featured songs like “San Francisco” and “Fire Island.”

When that took off, the “band” was put together…

And even though the Village People went on to mainstream success, they didn’t forget who had given them their original break. You don’t have to go too far to see plenty of gay references throughout their songs, album covers, image, or anything else the group is involved with.

The very first album I owned was 1978′s Crusin’. I played it hundreds of times.

Years later, I asked my mother if she knew they were gay…

“Of course,” she said.

Good to see Mom was on top of things. I’d hate to think she would miss that with songs like “I’m a Cruiser” and “My Roomate.”

People did miss it though… The Daily Association used “Milk Shake” in its ad campaign and the US Navy used “In the Navy.” At least for a little while…

From Wikipedia:

The United States Navy considered using the Village People hit “In the Navy” in a recruiting advertising campaign on television and radio. They contacted Belolo, who decided to give the rights for free on the condition that the Navy help them shoot the music video. Less than a month later, The Village People arrived at the San Diego Naval base. The Navy provided them with a war ship, several airplanes, and hundreds of Navy men. When the video started showing and the Navy started the planned ad campaign, some newspapers protested using taxpayer money to fund music videos (especially for a group considered by some to be “morally dubious”). The Navy quickly cancelled the campaign. The scandal tremendously boosted the popularity of the song



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