Thoughts on Branding a Business

Branding a business is a hard task to undertake. You don't just take an afternoon to hammer out a name, logo, and mission statement. I mean, I suppose you could and I'm sure it's happened, but Josh and I have been passing around thoughts and ideas concerning our new project for a couple of weeks now. Well, Josh sends me things and then I think about them and make suggestions, haha. I like my life. Anyway...we'll arrive at our whole package soon, I think. Makes me think about how musicians are a little luckier in the business-creation end of things. If you look at every album as a mini-business you are creating, there is a lot of space to change with each project. Instead of having to brand the album, you're almost expected to show up with something new every time. If McDonald's changed their sign or logo every week, customers would get confused. If a musician used the same album cover for every record, people would be confused. That's interesting to me. Granted, a musician DOES spend a certain amount of time cultivating an image that is consistent so the art doesn't have to be...but being a bit unpredictable is allowed in these circumstances. Maybe that's why we're being very careful about finding a business name, logo, and attitude for our project that sits well for a very long time. So there's freedom in the art and not the business behind it.

Digging the Career

There's a little article on MSN Careers about the fastest growing job sectors these days...Josh sent me the link and I was curious, because I am used to the list consisting of "medical care professional" and "civil engineer" and stuff because, well...we always need those. I like not sneezing and I like driving on bridges. I likes the bridges. So I was surprised to see things on this list like: agents and business managers music directors and composers film and video editors public relations managers and ...anthropologists which is kind of neat because the Sol Bourn Institute (we're working on our business plan now and it's a record label but So Much More) is all of that. Granted, we'll be an in-house kinda thing and not selling our PR skillz to major companies or anything, but it's nice to know where the trend is going. And yes, anthropology. As the article says, they, "study the origin, cultural development and behavior of humans, while archaeologists recover artifacts to gather information about humans." Sounds like a songwriter to me!

Thank you, technology.

My usual meeting style. Yesterday was face-to-face breakfast meeting time with Josh, or what I like to call "The 2nd Annual Sol Bourn Records Christmas Party," haha. We had a 2007 wrap up meeting by phone earlier this month, but not surprisingly the shape of 2008 has already changed within the last couple of weeks, so we were excitedly thinking ahead as well as reflecting over our bagels and fruit. As Josh said, it's cool to think that in 6 months we'll have an official business, and Sol Bourn will have LLC written after it, or whatever it will be (can you tell one of the things on our docket is researching this whole thing?) I was just thinking it is amazing that this even works on a logistical level. Twenty years ago we'd have to plan our long distance, across-state-lines meetings to a certain time and make sure we were both around our landlines to answer them. Documents would have to be snail mailed instead of saved as PDFs or emailed. We'd have about 45,000 fewer contacts than we do because we've met a lot of cool people through the wonders of social networking on the internet. It probably wouldn't work to be in different cities without all of these awesome tools at our fingertips. Now we Twitter and Jott and blog and upload documents to Zoho and check our Google calendars. Pretty amazing. But really, nothing beats an in-person chat...with all of the technology around us, it only facilitates the real life stuff, never replaces. That's a good thing. It'll keep Sol Bourn in business for years to come.

The Year Begins to End

That's it. That's all I have. Well, not all of it. But in the effort of not spoiling any possible surprises...this little graphic here is all I can post in terms of what my inspiration is for the blog redesign. This little bugger might not even exist by the time I'm done, but it's green and I like it. J and I decided that part of our "End O' the Year" wrapping up (our year ends in November because we figure cranking it out like mad people for 11 months calls for one off) will involve a fresh look here at jpo.com. Yes, we are already thinking about the end of the year, just like you are probably freaking out at the Halloween stuff in the stores already. I know I am. That's actually one of our built-in mantras for Sol Bourn (our record label and overall company name)...mental rests are essential for what we do. `It's not to say I won't gig in December. I mean, if Queen Elizabeth wants me to play a folkified version of Ave Maria at the palace Christmas party, who am I to say no? (Just call me, E. We'll work it out). But I digress... J and I started something last November that will officially become a Tradition this November...because we're doing it again! Do anything twice and it's an instant tradition, I say. On November 11, 2006 the Annual JP Project debuted at a house concert in Albuquerque with special guest Matt Jones, a mightily talented Burquean. It was an evening to give thanks to all the people who trekked to so many coffeehouse shows, who threw dollars and change in the tip jar, bought the CDs, who were supportive of this endeavor whether they met me when I was 12 or 22 (or perhaps raised me...my parents were there, too!). I had been living in Austin for 6 months, so it was a good time to return to the roost and say hello. This year the 2nd Annual JP Project is greenlighted. The details are coming, ABQ peoples...no worries. The Special Guest is rarin' and set to go, and this time it's a Texan. The hors d'oeuvres...well, we haven't made them yet because it's still 2 months away and that would be gross. I'm ready. Now if I could just get my little green graphic to sprout wondrous blog inspiration, we'd be set!

Impact of a No Impact Life

Colin Beaven is No Impact Man...he's trying out a year of living in New York City without making any negative impact on the environment. That means, according to his site, "no trash, no carbon emissions, no toxins in the water, no elevators, no subway, no products in packaging, no plastics, no air conditioning, no TV, no toilets…" Yeah, I know. It's impressive. He's not going cold turkey on consumption, but he's been whittling away at things one at a time. His apartment no longer has electricity. He stomps his laundry in the bathtub. He has a box of worms that compost things. Colin's got a wife, a 2 year old daughter, and a dog. They're all no impacting, too. While I am definitely looking to simplify my life, get rid of possessions I don't need and not acquire new ones...and while I think being vegan is a really good way of being healthy, respecting the planet, and decreasing your footprint left on the planet (which I am still trying to be hardcore about but I'm not lately and I just need to DO IT already because I've already been basically a vegetarian since the 90 Day experiment except for when I'm weak but we're GETTING THERE OK?, haha)...I could not do what Colin is doing. Well, I guess I could, but I'm not going to. However, Colin posted something that rang true to J and I. We are trying to build a company that covers a multitude of goals: - work for ourselves - create art and put it out into the world - further the careers of other artists we believe in - travel and see the world -- and enjoy and appreciate everything in it - be happy to wake up every day Plus others, but I need to save some for other blogging material, haha. So anyway, sometimes I feel like we sound pretty pie-in-the-sky-optimistically-naive to people. Music and business and happiness and positive impact...well la de dah, right? Guess what, folks? Someone's gotta do it. J and I will. And we'll miss out on some things for it. Like someone paying our benefits for us, and sleep, and going home at 5 PM every night and not working weekends...but we're cool with that because we love this. And we're glad that by reading this blog post, you're along for the ride. Grab a bag of pretzels and settle in. What measures happiness? Colin posted this in his blog not long ago and it rang true to us...so don't worry about our pies and our skies, because I think we'll be just fine. :) "As for the personal or individual level, members of the new branch of the psychological profession who call themselves "positive psychologists" say that we are on a "hedonic treadmill." We earn more to spend more and then have to earn more to spend more and then…We get a quick burst of pleasure from our purchases but no long term increase in happiness. Meanwhile, many are stressed by working all the hours to do jobs they don't believe in with people they don't care for. Increases in the baselines of our happiness, it turns out, don't come from money once you've achieved an income equivalent of something like $40,000. What the positive psychologists say happiness does come from, on the other hand, is strong interpersonal relationships, doing what you are naturally good at, living a life that is in accord with your values, and achieving meaning by connecting to something larger than yourself." - No Impact Man