4 Ways to Move Forward (October Ideas)

My new piano student is quite low-maintenance and I spend virtually no time prepping– which was why I took her in the first place.

My friend Kat says I am entrepreneurial, which I think is a good way to describe about my life right now.

Each month, I will be sharing different ideas from what I am involved in. It won’t be a complete account of everything I am working on, but I hope it’ll be interesting to come on this journey with me and perhaps you can learn from my challenges.

1. Be proud of your brand

I revamped my portfolio because my brand didn’t represent what I was about anymore. I’m happy with it now– I’m convinced that this is the only way a person should feel about their brand. It reflects my values and how I present myself to the world.

If you need to further understand your brand, ask yourself why you are doing what you’re doing, and start from there.

2. Everything is hard if you don’t know how it works

So get in touch with someone who does. I am building a secret project that involves running events to build community, which I had little prior experience in.

I’d asked a for feedback from a few people I trust was delighted by the insight. For example, Ricky says the first event is a launch party and it must be big because it sets your trajectory. Theresa says I’m not allowed to fund the event from my own pocket because it’s a black hole.

I’ve decided to have 100 people at my launch party, and we are searching for a venue in Vancouver right now.

3. Work backwards in small steps

I was talking to someone who owned a pager when it was the coolest and would clip it to his belt and let pretty girls touch it.

If you teach music, you’ve likely come across the “tech in the classroom” trend. If the technology in your classroom doesn’t improve anyone’s life, then get rid of it for now.

Anyhow, I’m convinced that this is the era of online learning. After all, I taught myself to code like it was a game.

There is a lot of potential for online teaching for any discipline, especially music. Besides formal piano lessons, I’d learned to play guitar by memorizing chords from a book and there’s no reason a person wouldn’t learn better through video.

Design Lab, my first live 8-week course that taught bloggers how to design, was decently successful this summer.

That was my prototype; I’d documented every possible thing, from my emails to the feedback, the exact places I’d gotten tripped up or bored, and I’d cracked the book open again.

Currently, I am developing a new branding design course that will be launching in Toronto. The tasks leading up to the launch are simple, but there’s a volume of bullet points.

I made work-back schedule, where I accomplish 3 tasks each week until the launch. But then I realized that my expectation about the amount of time it takes to learn new software is unrealistic. If you are curious, I can share the launch with you.

4. I listened to Drake

Remember, when my sister wanted to get into a hip hop dance crew? Well, we auditioned this year, and both of us were chosen in all our sweaty glory.

Yesterday, I was listening to a Spotify playlist on my phone when I recognized a song by Drake— upon contemplation, I concluded that it was a song we danced to in class, that had been replayed 50 times. A person can pick out small things to enjoy about any type of music and gradually learn to enjoy it.

If Drake scares you, then you might need to be more open-minded; if you don’t know who Drake is, then you’d better be working on something you’re passionate about to make up for the fact that you live under a rock.

But, here is one piano piece I really like, Night Flyer by Daniel McFarlane. Happy Hallowe’en.