This blog is now hosted at www.coreykgraham.me/bizblog - As you can expect I am ever evolving and when its time to move its time to move.
Now if you are reading this message in an RSS Reader it would mean that you are not subscribed to my feedburner feed. This means that when I change feeds you would not have a seamless transition and you will have to subscribe to - http://feeds2.feedburner.com/coreykgraham.
Subscribe to my feedburner feed! It helps me to know who is reading which is certainly a motivation to keep writing.
This move is going to be a pretty silent one, no big splash.
Things are happening! Here is a press release I just received, It explains it all ...
CARIBBEAN MUSIC COMES TO BOOM UP THE UK!
Caribbean music and music businesses are set to get a major profile booster shot as Liverpool SoundCity and Miribai Communications (Trinidad & Tobago) join forces to begin major UK and worldwide promotion for Caribbean artists and music business, starting with a launch at Liverpool SoundCity.
Headed up by David Pichilingi and Becky Ayres, Liverpool SoundCity, in conjunction with Josanne Leonard, Miribai Communications, who is also on the board of the Worldwide Independent Network (WIN) the umbrella organisation for AIM and other international independent associations, the partnership will include the development of Caribbean artists in the UK, spanning promotion at industry events and festivals, plus building the extension of networks for Caribbean music within the UK music industry.
"We are very proud to be working with the Caribbean region on SoundCity 2009 and beyond. The love of the music is something we are both deeply passionate about. This is the start of a much wider and deeper business relationship that will see us working on a range of exciting projects together over the coming years." David Pichilingi, Festival Director, Liverpool SoundCity
“Over the past few years Miribai has been hard at work building up strategic alliances in the UK and other markets to support our Caribbean creative industries. Our region is a major producer of music and other cultural products, with artists such as Eddy Grant, Shaggy, Billy Ocean and Rhianna having major profiles in the UK, so we’re excited about this relationship and the platform it provides to roll out a range of projects to support a sustained presence in the UK and Europe and add real value to our region’s artists and creative businesses. We’re in for the long haul. ”
Josanne Leonard, Miribai Communications
With over 133 different varieties of Caribbean music, and a population of over 40 million people, many of whom are active musicians, producing fantastic music which is heard and resonates in influences all over the world, the Caribbean represents a force to be reckoned with within the music industry worldwide. Success from international artists such as Eddy Grant, Billy Ocean, Jimmy Cliff to lesser known supposedly ‘niche’ artists who yet command audiences of thousands at reggae, raga, dancehall, soca and all myriad of Caribbean influenced festivals and concerts, means that the Caribbean musical heart beats passionately throughout the world.
The UK is strategically, culturally and economically the ideal place for the Caribbean to establish a firm foothold, not only to access the UK but also other European markets. As the third largest music market in the world, and with 1.3 percent of the UK population being of Afro-Caribbean descent, Caribbean musical culture already resonates strongly on the British cultural psyche. There is a great need to nurture this however, and to help Caribbean music to flourish as the mainstream genre it rightfully and actually is, and the setting up of a UK initiative in 2009, is a crucial step in enabling this to happen.
Liverpool SoundCity (20th - 23rd May 2009) www.liverpoolsoundcity.co.uk the UK's biggest summer city music festival and business conference, which in 2008 hosted 25,000 music fans and industry, 322 bands, in 22 venues over 4 days and nights.
The Sunday Times: 'Top Festival for 2008'
The Observer: 'A music industry festival that will rival South By Southwest'
NME: ''some of the hottest acts ever to grace a city with real musical heritage!'
In May 2009, Liverpool SoundCity will showcase over 70 acts from 25 different countries, to an audience of music industry and fans, with artists from the Caribbean at the forefront of the event. Music industry delegates invited to watch the artists perform will include those who work in music making (artists, production), marketing (plugging and promotion), film and video making, design, booking agents, venue owners, promoters, management and the core business (record labels, publishing, production companies).
Liverpool SoundCity was founded in 2006 by Dave Pichilingi as a means to promote music from the NorthWest region on the UK internationally. The festival itself began in 2008 as part of the European Capital of Culture which was bestowed upon Liverpool to recognise its cultural richness and diversity.
Dave Pichilingi’s background is in the management and marketing of major and independent record labels, including RCA/BMG, Produce, V2, EMI and Factory Records. He has worked extensively with music artists and has accumulated a total of 3.5 million unit sales worldwide. He is currently Director, Liverpool Sound City, Director of Robot Records, Director of the Masque Venue (Barfly) Ltd, and Director of Tri-tone Music, who publish Liverpool band, The Coral amongst others. He is Chairman, Music Development Agency (North West) Ltd. An adviser and consultant to a range of music businesses and forums, David holds degrees of BA (Hons) in Drama and English from Lancaster University and MBA from the University of Liverpool.
Liverpool SoundCity’s International Director, Rebecca Ayres, has worked closely with Miribai Communications, the main stakeholder for the project for over a year, having helped launched the Caribbean Pavilion and presence at London Calling in June 2008 which saw over 30 Caribbean music businesses and artists coming to London for 2 days of an international music business conference, exhibition, networking and showcasing. As the International Events Director at Liverpool Sound City and formerly London Calling, Rebecca has extensive experience of working with music export offices worldwide, and helping to develop relationships for them in the UK, with a diverse range of contacts including BPI, AIM, MMF, MPA, UK Trade & Investment, British Council, British Underground, and many large and small independent companies ranging from labels and artists managers to booking agents and promoters.
Both Dave, Rebecca and the rest of the Liverpool SoundCity team are committed to helping international artists to raise their profiles at Liverpool SoundCity through showcasing and targeted promotion to music industry and fans, not only from Liverpool, but from the UK and all over the world making it the ideal partner to promote Caribbean music in the UK and Europe. Liverpool SoundCity has close relationships across the whole of the UK music industry, including:
Associations: BPI, AIM, UK Trade & Investment, Music Managers Forum, Music Publishers Association, UK Music, British Academy of Composers and Songwriters, Musicians Union, Arts Council, British Underground, British Council
Record Labels and Publishers: Universal, EMI, Warner Music, Sony BMG, Beggars Group, Ministry of Sound, Wall of Sound, Deltasonic, Moshi Moshi, Because Music, DFA Records, Ed Banger Records, Heavenly, Domino, Warp, Anjuna Beats, Sentric Music, the AIM membership, which includes 800+ independent labels
Live Promoters: The Liverpool SoundCity Live promoters include Eat Your Own Ears www.eatyourownears.com, one of the most foremost promoters working in live music today, plus promoters who work on the following festivals and events: Leftfield Stage at Glastonbury, Field Day, Underage Festival, The Great Escape, Concrete and Glass, Warehouse Project, End of the Road, and Medication, a student night in Liverpool which has drawn a crowd of 3,000 every Wednesday night for 15 years!
PR: Liverpool SoundCity’s PR company Idea Generation www.ideageneration.co.uk will help in promoting the Caribbean music export desk. Idea Generation is the UK’s largest arts, cultural and entertainment PR agency with clients including the Edinburgh Comedy festival, ICA, British Council Film Dept, Amazon.co.uk, The Big Chill festival and Monkey: Journey to the West amongst many others.
Media: Liverpool SoundCity has strong relationships with Clash Magazine, NME, Mojo, Q, Uncut, MTV, BBC Radio, BBC 6 Music, BBC Introducing, NME Radio, Xfm, The Guardian, The Observer, The Times, Sunday Times, Independent, Telegraph, Music Week, Virtual Festivals, efestivals, NME.com Stool Pigeon, Artrocker, Record of the Day, Last.fm, Rushes Film Festival and is working closely with the Miribai Communications to ensure that all relevant media, both mainstream and underground are targeted and cultivated.
Brands: Liverpool Sound City, through its sponsorship partners Big Fish Events www.bigfishevents.co.uk has strong relationships with brands such as Red Bull, Red Stripe, Gaymers Cider, Guitar Hero, Smirnoff, and is constantly developing relationships with new brands which are relevant for SoundCity and its partners.
“We are incredibly excited about our relationship with Miribai Communications to enable success for Caribbean music in the UK, and believe that the Caribbean artists who will perform this year at Liverpool SoundCity will be a huge asset to the festival. We’re looking forward to welcoming artists, music industry, media and officials from all over the region and will ensure that the artists performing are given great exposure to give them maximum opportunities to be seen by a music loving industry, media and fan based audience. I think it’ll be one of the highlights of the whole event!”
Its the mid week and I am sure that some of your great hopes of things to accomplish this week have started to fizz a little. And you are a bit stuck sitting at your desk with a big pile of things still to be done.
And here comes Corey Graham 2.0 to challenge you. Yeah that's right I am challenging you to step back, and take a few minutes to try to see things from another perspective.
You never know what you might come up with! Its not that scary!!
Let me share some ideas I received in an email last week. Ordinary things, taken from another perspective....
I have to be honest the past few months have been quite a roller coaster ride for me. The strides I made in the early part of 2008 towards working smart, had slowly slipped through my fingers.
No, no, no lol, its not that I became less smarter, definitely not! Don't get me wrong! I am talking about "Working Smart". My time, money and energy were not utilized in the right way. My priorities were a big fuzzy and well we know that things to do list was not being referred to as much as I should have been doing.
As a part of getting on track and sticking there, one of the key things I decided to do was to give myself permission..... I gave myself permission to take time to learn how to do my job faster. It's something that in 2008 I missed. I was always focused on just getting the job done and making the deadlines. This year I have been spending more time to "work smart".
Let me give you an example.
I created filters for my gmail 2 of them being a documents filter and images filters. Now, anytime someone sends an image or document to me it gets highlighted. Most of the images I get are actually posters and the documents are proposals. These filters make it a no brainer to find documents or posters in no time amidst the tonnes of emails the flow into my inboxes on a daily basis. It has made my life soo much easier. Let share them with you, after all sharing is caring. And I do care!
For GMAIL (Matches: (.jpg OR .png OR .gif OR .bmp OR .jpeg) has:attachment Do this: Apply label "Pic") Matches: (.doc OR .pps OR .xls OR .pdf OR .docx OR .ppsx OR .xlsx) has:attachment Do this: Apply label "Docs")
Some of the other things I did were - - Get my facebook under control - Organize my workspace making sure I have all my tools to get the job done - Organise my blackberry alerts using - AlertMatrix
Basically I allowed myself to also question my workflows to see if they were effective. In some cases they needed to be changed. I found a change in my perspective of some tasks made my load much lighter. E.g, writing and presenting I not treat as one in the same. They are both communication, different forms of communication but none the less they are communication. I think the key though to working smart especially in this recession time is to build a network of persons and develop healthy give and take relationships. Solve your problems together.
Are you capable of giving yourself the permission to work smart? Are you ready for the next level?
Its Friday, time for a good lime time to relax, grab a beer and chill out with some good friends. Talk about the week's joys and sorrows, and of course talksome foolishness.
I am sure that at the time of posting some of you are reaching for another beer, or calling for another round. Others might have already reached their limit and tapping out, no more alcohol. Yet others might not have touched a drop of alcohol, but enjoying laughing and the energy of the time.
If you ever limed with me you that I have a tendency to get a little loud and share in the spirit of the moment with everyone else. I won't tell you about that time I .... Anyways back to the blog post.
Most of you will read this post after you have had their usual friday "after work lime", when all the boose has passed out of your system and thinking clearly again and looking forward to a new week which will of course have another Friday.
Now, for next week I want for you to focus on only talking about the things you are committed to, and do not present those random thoughts and ideas to people like if they are set in stone. Basically just trying to impress.
"Come On don't go into denial, it's just you and me here. You know you do that! Mention little things while you are accepting another beer, paid for in full by your listener. Ah lol. So you doooo know what I am talking about now?"
Alrite good we are on the same page, now here is what I would like you to try to do next week. Put away the conversational goals and deals. Yes, those ones that pretty much the only thing about them is that they sound good. You have in no way committed to them. Try to stick to sharing them as ideas. Actually be honest! Start your statement with "I had an idea..." Of course its fine to share those things you have actually committed to. Its this fakeness, I am talking about.
The short version is, make sure you are a person of your word.
I am not saying to not to discuss your ideas. I am 100 % behind sharing of ideas however, I am also a fan of being a person of your word. It is something I have become very aware of over the last year especially noticing how my influence has grown since I started to take blogging seriously. I found out ...
If you want to grow your audience and your influence, keeping your word is key. Give people the opportunity to believe and find comfort in your words. This earns you their attention and respect in a significant way. In a very silent way, but in a significant way, One day you might wake up and find your words reach far beyond your imagination. Corey Graham 2.0N
Do the things you say you are going to do. REMEMBER , if you know there is a good chance that you might not do it, don't communicate it with any definate details. Give yourself the opportunity to keep your word! Keep social, keep liming its important. Enjoy next Friday night.
As we go through the day we notice those we consider to be experts, gurus or masters their craft at work. We readily give them time out of your busy schedules to watch and admire these 'superhuman' displays of true mastery. it could be the coconut vendor serving some of our tourists with lfancy tricks or a politician delivering an impromptu but very coherent and motivating speech I know what this feels like, when people watch you in awe. Amazed by your talent. People often ask me, Corey Graham 2.0 you are sooooooooo crazy!
Well I am reading their emphasis on "so" to be an indication of how in awe they are of my talent to be crazy. And yes, crazy is a talent. It is a skill! Well at least my brand of crazy.
Alrite now stick with me here, let me tell you how to master a skill like crazy! I think that there are many skills out there that we can aquire once we figure out how to master a skill like crazy.. Let me break it down into 3 steps.
Get the perspective
Seek it out. Talk to a guru or expert about the skill you want to aquire. Even talk to some fans of a particular thing. Try to get a flavour of what it is really all about! Get it from different sources. Try to read books or get into a conversation with them. People will enjoy sharing their passion with you. They will love to tell you about it. Listen well. Listen carefully. Listen for the concepts and the perspectives.
Do it, Practice, Practice, Practice
Choose something, some project you want to accomplish and get into the drivers seat and start to drive. Make sure you seek feedback and listen. Make sure you seek it. Put it into practice. Keep moving, keep learning and getting better.
Join the community
Practice is fine and good, but you have to get around people who are doing the same skill, and preferably with people who are better than you so you have a very good picture of what being good looks like. Share your experiences and listen to theirs. Motivate them and let them motivate you. Keep growing!
That's it just do that and you will master oh this might be a 5 to 20 year process soooooo .... GET STARTED NOW!
I spent the better part of the day getting one area of my life more organised thanks to www.shelfari.com
Now I can say my reading is much more organised. Well at least my reading of books. You see anyone that knows me well knows that I have invested alot of time and money into reading books all the topics I had no clue about or I wanted to get a deeper understanding. Things like Leadership, business, marketing and the list goes on and on. I started out with John C Maxwell's The 21 Irrefutable Laws of Leadership: Follow Them and People Will Follow You. I just wandared in the bookstore and picked up the most interesting book I saw on the topic of leadership. I didn't do much deliberating or research. I just wanted to immerse myself in the area, by getting a perspective from someone else. That book really changed my life and my perceptions of leadership! I found myself with a very good concept of what leadership was all about and being very inspired to learn more.
After I that, I began to purchase more books randomly and read to broaden my horizons. After a while my purchasing far outstripped reading and today I have a situation where I own more books than I have read. At the start of this year, 2009, I decided it was very important for me to get back into a good reading routine. I knew that ideally it would be great to have some kind of listing which shows the books I owned and the books that I have read etc. I also decided to make a special effort to blog about the books I have read and share my thoughts with you on my blog on an on-going basis. Help you to decde what is worth reading and what is not.
Shelfari.com does a wonderful job of helping me organise with this "read more" - New Year's Resolution. It is easy and it is very Web 2.0. Once you sign up for a profile you can start to add books to your bookshelf which you can fit in under the following categories :-
I plan to read
I'm reading
I've read
****************
Favourites
Own
wishlist
****************
Import Books
I basically now have a digital representation of your book shelf so that you can keep track of all the books you own, planning to read etc. It will help me decide what to read next! And of course being a Web 2.0 solution it will allow me to connect with other people who have also read the book and see what they thought etc. Each book has ratings, a listing of people who read it and comments. Shelfari is just what I was looking for. And I was not even looking for anything!!
I would recommend Shelfari to anyone and encourage our Caribbean Authors and writers to make sure their book is listed on Shelfari!
The One Minute Entrepreneur was an interesting read. It was different from most of the business books I have read as it was told in a story form. It was about Jud's life and his Journey to become and successful entrepeneur. I found this format to be refreshing as it had a slight element of suspense as to what would happen to Jud next. The bigger purpose where the "One Minute Insights" he learned as he journeyed through life. This allowed the book to take a wholistic approach to the idea of being an entrepreneur. However, if I had to make a comparation to One Minute Manager I would say that One Minute Manager was a more ground breaking book for me personally because of how it was presented. The One Minute Entrepreneur also had its moments are are some of the insights that stood out for me.
Some of the key insights were
Associate with people you admire and can learn from.
You'll be the same year after year except for the people you meet and the books you read.
When you feel moments impacting your destiny, seize the opportunity.
On the entrepeneurial path, few people come int your life without a reason.
To build a great marriage, especially if you're an entrepreneur, make sure you commit to spending time together outside of meals and sleeping
Never let your expenses outstrip your revenue.
Don't be a banker for ur customers. Timely collection of invoices is crucial
As an entrepreneur, the secret to success is generating CASH, CASH, CASH.
Profit is the applause you get for taking care of your customers and creating a motivating environment for your people.
Working people today want a partnership relationship, not a top-down hierarchy.
Giving can be much more rewarding than receiving.
Overall it was a very refreshing read and also short and sweet. There were some very valueable lessons. One point that also did hit home to me which was not highlighed was hat many persons are married singles because they truly don't get involved with each others passions etc. They simply share a bed and share a table a meal time!
I would recommend that you give it a read!
If you want to purchase the book you can do it here on my Amazon Affliates Store - I actually get a percentage of your purchase, which I can assure you will go along way in me improving my blogging.
Everyone is saying it but I am sure that some of you do not have and insights as to how "everything will move online. I decided to take some time to offer a little insight to this.
One simple and fundamental way our concept of the internet is changing is, using services which are not based within the browser. As great as the internet is today, we still do most things from within the confines of our browser.
Imagine if didn't have to have one tab for youtube, another for email and one for twitter. Imagine if all these all services were actually on your desktop in the same way that you use Msn? or Skype?
Allow me to feature the Adobe Air platform. Abobe Air is making it easy for developers to build some of these services into applications you can access from your desktop. You won't really appreciate this unless you get to using it. Alrite here are some of the applications I like -
Tell me if they were not cool? I really do absolutely love the Twhirl application. I am wondering though, when I can see some of our Caribbean developers developing some applications for Adobe Air?
Think about it - How about a Directory of Caribbean Radio Stations? Including online stations?
Adobe Air is just one platform there are others. Remember also that these applications might start on your personal computer but might end up on your TV? Or your cell? Maybe even your watch? Think about it .... remember - EVERYTHING moving online?
P.S. If you are working on such a project or know of any, feel free to send me an email about it - corey@coreykgraham.com.
My idea of building a career is a little bit different. Honestly let me stop trying to be cool...It is a lot different from what I have learnt as I grew up in this world. My society and surroundings taught me to get into a particular discipline and keep my focus there. Build my career from that. Its not that i completely disagree with this approach, however I have found it to be incomplete in the context of my life. I couldn't quite decide where I should focus my energy. I have spent a lot of time with persons between the ages of 18 - 24 over the last 2 years and I realised that, similarly to me this way of thinking actually causes them more pain than good. They analyse themselves and their talents and think in many cases they realise that they are passionate about several different disciplines.
This can range from drama to music to marketing to business to engineering, and the list goes on and on. They become disillusioned by too much choice. They have too many paths that their life can take.
2.0 On Career 2.0
I would like to put forward a new perspective. Instead of making your mind about which career path you should take. Take some time and make a big mission or dream you would like to accomplish. Something the lends to your different passions. Once you have completely appointed yourself to fulfil this mission then you can build your career. Make yourself the General!
Now General 2.0 you can relax a little bit, because you know you are going after something you want. As the world is now evolving in to what some term as the new industrial revolution, you can now creatively blend your different talents and passions into a "pepperpot" that defines you and fulls your hunger to accomplish your mission/dreams. Web 2.0 is creating several new possibilities available to everyone.
Creative and talented people, especially in the Caribbean have so much to offer the world. Spread your wings and fly.
I know you have a lot to get done today. I am actually feeling some of the pressure myself. Deadlines are coming closer. They only get closer. Deal with it!
Wapaxx, Wake up. Snap out of it.Now before you go slaving away on your deadlines again. I want you to stop for a minute and consider. No don't get frantic. Just breathe! Relax a little bit. Alrite now ...
- Are you doing the things you need to do easily and quickly? - Have you made use of the technology availlable to make your job easier? - Have you made use of the wisdom around you to make the job easier?
Is there a time in your schedule for you to research the best ways to approach things? Why have you been putting this off? Give yourself permission to be more effective.
Sum of the conversations we have daily define who we are. Corey Graham 2.0N
Plans To Enhance My Network
This year I have decided to focus more energy into building my network. Those persons who help to expand my thinking, inspire or listen to my ideas. I wanted to invite them into this '2.0 world' I am building. As it evolves and lessons are learnt, I want to be able to share these lessons with the key persons around me so they can benefit from these learnings. At the same time they can share the things they are learning with me.My aim has now evolved to facilitate conversations and encourage Caribbean people to express themselves.
Take A Moment To Study The Art Of Networking With Me
Ironically, networking has always been one of those topics I have never truly taken the time to put it all together in a cohesive way. Its one thing to know the little bits and pieces, but its also important to put everything together. Many of us do not truly appreciate the fine art of networking, it goes far beyond buying a drink at the bar or shaking hands. Nor is it just being able to stand out from the crowd and be remembered it much more than that! I decided that we could take this journey together and see the big networking picture.
Thoughts From Networking Gurus
I seeked out some people who excelled at network and asked for their opinions.
In a recent interview, with Datwon Thomas the editor and chief of King Magazine shared his perspective on the topic, This is a man who accredites networking to be a key part of his success. He expressed, Always ask for a contact. And for those busy and influencial people you need to be persistent. You have to have something to back it up with though. Don't just come to them because you want to talk. Have something that is worth their while. Also look at the one thing you do best and focus on that. Let it get in. Make sure to get out and to make cold calls.
Nurse Karen, soca journalist who seems to be ever in the know, expressed these sentiments on the topic,'I think that all people have opportunities coming their way. People who don't recognize them, miss them. You have you ask questions, shake hands, represent yourself properly, keep in touch, share your ideas and good things will come back to you, it's a guarantee.Or regularly check in with the people you already know, whether or not they are in your field. When people understand what you do they will talk about you. And all of their contacts become your contacts'
DJ Malcolm X who always seems to have connects under every rock -I second those comments from all the above mentioned. Lucky for me most people find me cause of the business i'm into. As an event coordinator, promotor and as a radio personality, ppl send you stuff, they want feed back on an artist.Or they might need you to make that artist known. You must be straight with them if its a good product or not. Keep in contact, let them know its progress...its helps them to see you serious or genuine. Exchange numbers/emails, keep in contact. If you meet with them or have to bring artist and their team here ..treat them as how you would to your self....eg their accomodation, meals and media... you must make them comfortable... show them a good time . They can only go back and you be recommend to others in the field...once you have clean slate like i do (smile).
Ppl will always find you rather than you find them.. then you become a brand , a house hold name....the guy who makes things happen , the guy who ppl want to work with....you must prove that you can deliver. Don't always network based on the successful shows or parties you have promoted or produced, talk about the failed ones as well...let them know you pick back up and go again.....let them see you as a fighter...because everyone knows not all promotions are successful...keep in contact...always exchange ideas and give pointers as well. Treat ppl with the upmost respect and you can only gain ....This is just how I know or how I deal with ppl ... there is no school I went to, to deal with this...I'm a walking canvas...I'm the screen ppl see, so you always have to be prepared or available to network. The way you carry your self and your self discipline is very important.
My Thoughts On Networking
I really love that especially the part about, expressing ideas. I have found that expressing ideas allows you to show your level of thinking. It also gives others a clear insight to your passions and motivations. When people can see that. People who share those passions will find you. Those you want to connect with introduce themselves to you. When people know your passion and motivation they are more inclined to trust you.
In some cases your passion might be passed on to another. It can inspire.Imagine we all are candles and when one person's passion....their fire touches another and lights it. We now have 2 more light candles.Networking doesn't waste your time. It multiplies it!
Based on what I have LEARNT so far I will simmer networking into a few points
- Define your personal brand
- answer who are you and what do you do? Clearly and in simple words.
- keep in contact with persons try to keep connected with people in your field or sharing your passions
- present yourself well
- be social, help people have a good time- Dedicate time, money and energy to communication and contact with people.
- listen thoughtfully when people talk about their dreams
- live to fight another day. If you are not feeling well, opt to interact another day
"The currency of real networking is not greed but generosity."~ Keith Ferrazzi
"Always recognize that human beings are ends, and do not use them as means to your ends."~ Immanuel Kant
"Your network determines your net worth."~ Anonymous
Don't be stingy with your relational investments, giving only to those who've first given to you. Rather, take responsibility for setting the tone of adding value in your relationships. John C Maxwell
"Experience will not save you in hard times, nor will hard work or talent. If you need a job, money, advice, help, hope, or a means to make a sale, there's only one surefire, fail-safe place to find them - within your extended circle of friends and associates." Keith Ferrazzi from his book "Never Eat Alone
Feel Free to comment with your perspective on Networking!
My first interview turns about to be with young aspiring Music Executive Simone Harris. A Jamaican by birth Simone now lives in Miami where she is pursuing her passion for the music business. Simone and I discuss the evolution going on in the music industry and how it relates to the Caribbean.
Who Is Simone Harris? At 26, former LaCadco dancer turned Entertainment Business Consultant, Simone Harris is on her way to completing her 2nd masters degree in Music Business at Florida Atlantic University. She is the first Jamaican to be registered in the program and the only female. Read More on Simone http://kingston21.wordpress.com/about/
LISTEN HERE -
CLick here to download http://www.mypodcast.com/fsaudio/coreykgraham_20090228_0959-389869.mp3
In 2009 I decided to put more effort into building networks of people. Corey Graham 2.0 N I call it. I believe that in the Caribbean we do not have many of our meaningful discussions online especially in terms of sharing ideas among ourselves. We are not truly sharing our experiences and perspectives with each other in a way that will make us all better, and help to develop our Entertainment Industry for example. I strongly believe that this can be an important step in building a Caribbean Community.
Be The Change You Want To See In The World
About a year ago I started a group on the business networking site linkedin.com called the Caribbean Entertainment Professionals Group. This is one of my initiatives to make sure I stick on the positive side and providing a solution rather than magnifying the problem. This group features persons from around the globe who are interested in Caribbean Entertainment and in many cases depend on the Caribbean Entertainment Industry to pay the bills.
Admittedly when I started it, I knew I did not have enough time to nurture it and activate the conversation. However, recently I have been able to have some very enlightening coversations on it giving me a better "world view" of the things happening in the entertainment industry.
Take a look at the group. Feel free to post your appropriate blog posts and other RELATED material on the group for discussion.
I encourage you to start a group for your industry today!
I am one to always support innovation in the Caribbean... We all know Trinidad Carnival is in full swing and Mr Machel Montano is singing about some "Magic Drum". I knew it was a steel pan tune but little did i know it was not an ordinary steel pan, Machel was singing about. It is actually the P.H.I.
Yeah that is right P.H.I. - Percussive Harmonic Instrument or PHI (pronounced “Fie”). It was developed in the Steel Pan Research Laboratory of the UWI St. Augustine Campus.
"P.H.I. merges the powerful facility of MIDI with a physical form inspired by the traditional steelpan. MIDI is an acronym for Musical Instrument Device Interface; MIDI facilitates the communication of electronic music synthesizers over a network."
Basically, the P.H.I. allows the steel pannist to play his music as usual. However he can now make the output sound like anything he likes. A piano? Guitar?
Yup, that's it. The Magic Drum. The P.H.I. is now here. and ready for shipping! There is no price on the website but I am sure its going to cost a pretty penny!
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