Compass for Creatives: 4 reasons why empowerment is important for musicans

Everything at Compass for Creatives is about the empowerment of musicians. The importance is so self-evident to me, that I often forget to explain myself to others. I hope that after reading the 4 reasons below it's evident to you too.

1. Stay motivated even after demotivating comments
Using your musical talents brings you lots of fun, as long as everything is going according to plan. You enjoy becoming better and better on your instrument, others enjoy it more and more to listen to you. Until there is a party-pooper who tells you that there's no money in music, that others have much more talent than you have, that they deserve success much more than you do. You need power to realize in situations like this, that it's not others you have to compare yourself with, it's yourself and only yourself.

2. Dare to broaden your horizon
If you want to develop your musical talent, you can't rely on playing the same notes in the same way over and over again. You have to broaden your horizon. You can broaden your horizon by listening to music from other genres. It takes power to develop your own style and to be able to adapt some lines of that 'other' music into it. That's when you are really creative.

3. Know your abilities to get more out of it
Don't forget that it has to be fun to make music. If you don't enjoy playing, the audience will notice and you will lose them. The best way to keep the fun in making music, is using your abilities to the best you can. Focus on what you can instead of what you can't. In order to do so, you have to discover your abilities as much as possible.

4. Prevent to get screwed over by the music business
Many musicians feel screwed over by the music business. The publicity around the no-show insurance policy of a promoter of Sinead O'Connor mid August is a good example. Empowerment helps you to dare to question what your business team is suggesting to you, until you understand it as well. That prevents getting screwed over. Empowerment also helps to discover in an early stage when people try to screw you, and to deal with it.

From Tuesday September 15 until Monday October 26 I will do a new edition of
"Online workshop 5 empowerment tools for musicians - Learn in 6 weeks how to move from insecurity to an upward spiral towards success". See here for more information.
The workshop is for max. 12 participants, there are still a few places available.

Snakes and ladders is an ancient Indian board game. It’s very simple: you roll the dice and move your piece accordingly. If you come to a field with a ladder, you can move up to where the ladder ends. If you come to a field with a snake, you have to move down to the tail of the snake.

Recently I did some reflections on my work as booking agent and as online coach for artists. It reminds me of this game. You as the artist are the player, you have to roll the dice, you move the piece. All I can do is provide you with ladders. The ladders are of different lengths and at different levels. And if you have a good team that works together well, they will try to fill all numbers with a ladder. They will make you rise quicker than you could with just rolling the dice.

And there are snakes too. The snakes block a ladder on their fields. Snakes are setbacks. It can be the market that is ignoring you, or family circumstances that hold you back in taking opportunities, or health problems that put you down, or lots of other stuff. No one can predict if you will step on a snake or when, no one can predict the eyes on your dice.

How do you deal with your snakes and dices, with the setbacks and uncertainty of being an artist? In the game you will roll the dice again and hope that your opponent is stepping on a snake too. In real it works best if you don’t look at your opponents. Looking at your opponents (other artists) will make you feel insecure, especially if they haven’t had your setback yet. It helps if you concentrate on your strong points. The "Online workshop 5 empowerment tools for musicians" will help you with it. And if you want more help, I can coach you in this. Please ask if you have any questions.

Surviving as an artist requires you to be strong. I’m not talking about the cliche of sex, drugs and rock ‘n’ roll. That might seem cool or strong, but actually it’s not. It doesn’t help you to survive as an artist, it helps you to run away from it. True strength lies in facing the challenges that come your way.

“The truth is that our finest moments are most likely to occur when we are feeling deeply uncomfortable, unhappy or unfulfilled. For it is only in such moments, propelled by our discomfort, that we are likely to step out of our ruts and start searching for different ways or truer answers.”
(M. Scott Peck)

And isn’t that what every artist is looking for, to find a different way to express his/her feelings, to find a better answer than the songs or paintings of other artists?

Intellectual criticism can block you in your creations that are so much needed in order to become a better artist. Strength also means, that you have the courage to look for supportive people. Surround yourself by your very own support team, a team of people who also serve as ambassadors of your art. For every friend or family member that tries to pull you down when being confronted with your art, you could look for three supporting people to compensate.

As an artist you will experience many setbacks. You will need strength that will help you to survive as an artist. It’s important to realize that strength can have many different faces, and that you are strong already, in your own way. Strength is about using every setback as a starting point for development.

One of the faces of strength is flexibility. Julia Cameron wrote film scripts for many years, and got turned down time and time again. Until she started to produce her own films. She used her setbacks to give her a new direction.

Strength also means that you start a debate with your critical inner voice that might tell you that you are too old to start with learning that art, or that you will never make money with art, or that you are not eccentric enough for being an artist, or that your teacher already told you that you are not good at it, or whatever doubts you might have. Don’t push the doubts away, start to confront them, with positive affirmations and with surrounding yourself with supporters.


Hello , How was summer for you? I hope that you've had a great time! I was working, clearing some clutter. And I enjoyed it! This newsletter is all about empowerment. Why is empowerment important to musicians? I start the newsletter with four reasons. The next article is about offering ladders, another form of empowerment. Chapter 8 in the series Grip on Creativity is about Strength, here the link to empowerment is quite obvious too. Enjoy :-) Take care, Hilde Spille	Index: 4 Reasons why empowerment is important for musicians Offering ladders ... Grip on Creativity (8 of 14): Strength Calendar About Hilde Spille Connect Calendar Wed. Sep. 02 - Thu. Oct. 01: guest lecturer at: Tampere University of Applied Science See here for more information. Tue. Sep. 15 - Mon. Oct. 26: lecturer at: "Online workshop 5 empowerment tools for musicians - Learn in 6 weeks how to move from insecurity to an upward spiral towards success" See here for more information. The workshop is for max. 12 participants, there are still a few places available. About Hilde Spille Hilde Spille has worked at Paperclip Agency since 1995. As senior agent, she is booking Dutch and European tours for bands from all over the world. Names on her roster include(d) Chloe Charles, Jodymoon, Deleyaman, John Watts, Balkan Beat Box, I Muvrini. Paperclip Agency, facebook Hilde is now combining her rich experience in the live music business with her accumulated knowledge from her master's degree in Cultural Psychology and her interest in books about (personal) leadership. You can find the results in more than 100 posts on her blog Compass for Creatives, in the personal coaching of artists and in the workshops she developed (D.I.Y. Attitude, Grip on Creativity and more). Compass for Creatives, facebook Connect Hilde Spille Paperclip Agency P.O. Box 1519 6501 BM Nijmegen the Netherlands T +31.24.323 9322 e-mail, facebook, twitter, linkedin If you like this newsletter, please feel free to forward it to anyone who you think might like it too. Thank you. © Hilde Spille
4 Reasons why empowerment is important to musicians Everything at Compass for Creatives is about the empowerment of musicians. The importance is so self-evident to me, that I often forget to explain myself to others. I hope that after reading the 4 reasons below it's evident to you too. 1. Stay motivated even after demotivating comments Using your musical talents brings you lots of fun, as long as everything is going according to plan. You enjoy becoming better and better on your instrument, others enjoy it more and more to listen to you. Until there is a party-pooper who tells you that there's no money in music, that others have much more talent than you have, that they deserve success much more than you do. You need power to realize in situations like this, that it's not others you have to compare yourself with, it's yourself and only yourself. 2. Dare to broaden your horizon If you want to develop your musical talent, you can't rely on playing the same notes in the same way over and over again. You have to broaden your horizon. You can broaden your horizon by listening to music from other genres. It takes power to develop your own style and to be able to adapt some lines of that 'other' music into it. That's when you are really creative. 3. Know your abilities to get more out of it Don't forget that it has to be fun to make music. If you don't enjoy playing, the audience will notice and you will lose them. The best way to keep the fun in making music, is using your abilities to the best you can. Focus on what you can instead of what you can't. In order to do so, you have to discover your abilities as much as possible. 4. Prevent to get screwed over by the music business Many musicians feel screwed over by the music business. The publicity around the no-show insurance policy of a promoter of Sinead O'Connor mid August is a good example. Empowerment helps you to dare to question what your business team is suggesting to you, until you understand it as well. That prevents getting screwed over. Empowerment also helps to discover in an early stage when people try to screw you, and to deal with it. From Tuesday September 15 until Monday October 26 I will do a new edition of "Online workshop 5 empowerment tools for musicians - Learn in 6 weeks how to move from insecurity to an upward spiral towards success". See here for more information. The workshop is for max. 12 participants, there are still a few places available. Offering ladders ... Snakes and ladders is an ancient Indian board game. It’s very simple: you roll the dice and move your piece accordingly. If you come to a field with a ladder, you can move up to where the ladder ends. If you come to a field with a snake, you have to move down to the tail of the snake. Recently I did some reflections on my work as booking agent and as online coach for artists. It reminds me of this game. You as the artist are the player, you have to roll the dice, you move the piece. All I can do is provide you with ladders. The ladders are of different lengths and at different levels. And if you have a good team that works together well, they will try to fill all numbers with a ladder. They will make you rise quicker than you could with just rolling the dice. And there are snakes too. The snakes block a ladder on their fields. Snakes are setbacks. It can be the market that is ignoring you, or family circumstances that hold you back in taking opportunities, or health problems that put you down, or lots of other stuff. No one can predict if you will step on a snake or when, no one can predict the eyes on your dice. How do you deal with your snakes and dices, with the setbacks and uncertainty of being an artist? In the game you will roll the dice again and hope that your opponent is stepping on a snake too. In real it works best if you don’t look at your opponents. Looking at your opponents (other artists) will make you feel insecure, especially if they haven’t had your setback yet. It helps if you concentrate on your strong points. The "Online workshop 5 empowerment tools for musicians" will help you with it. And if you want more help, I can coach you in this. Please ask if you have any questions. Grip on Creativity (8 of 14): Strength Surviving as an artist requires you to be strong. I’m not talking about the cliche of sex, drugs and rock ‘n’ roll. That might seem cool or strong, but actually it’s not. It doesn’t help you to survive as an artist, it helps you to run away from it. True strength lies in facing the challenges that come your way. “The truth is that our finest moments are most likely to occur when we are feeling deeply uncomfortable, unhappy or unfulfilled. For it is only in such moments, propelled by our discomfort, that we are likely to step out of our ruts and start searching for different ways or truer answers.” (M. Scott Peck) And isn’t that what every artist is looking for, to find a different way to express his/her feelings, to find a better answer than the songs or paintings of other artists? Intellectual criticism can block you in your creations that are so much needed in order to become a better artist. Strength also means, that you have the courage to look for supportive people. Surround yourself by your very own support team, a team of people who also serve as ambassadors of your art. For every friend or family member that tries to pull you down when being confronted with your art, you could look for three supporting people to compensate. As an artist you will experience many setbacks. You will need strength that will help you to survive as an artist. It’s important to realize that strength can have many different faces, and that you are strong already, in your own way. Strength is about using every setback as a starting point for development. One of the faces of strength is flexibility. Julia Cameron wrote film scripts for many years, and got turned down time and time again. Until she started to produce her own films. She used her setbacks to give her a new direction. Strength also means that you start a debate with your critical inner voice that might tell you that you are too old to start with learning that art, or that you will never make money with art, or that you are not eccentric enough for being an artist, or that your teacher already told you that you are not good at it, or whatever doubts you might have. Don’t push the doubts away, start to confront them, with positive affirmations and with surrounding yourself with supporters.

4 Reasons why empowerment is important to musicians