Our mini-album release performance in February 2010.

In my last two posts, I wrote about taking the driver’s seat and grasping control of my career and artistic direction. It is has been an amazing ride in the recent four to six months for my bandmates and me (and it’s just starting ).

In my last post on November 25, 2009, I wrote the following goals for our band:

1. Break the 1,000 fans mark on our Facebook page.
2. Hit the radio airwaves.
3. Release our own album next year.

Well, guess what?  No. 2 and no.3 are done.  We released our first mini-album on February 10, 2010 and as a result, we’ve been featured on two major radio interview shows. Check and check.  Goal no. 1 is in the process of being completed (I forecast completion in two days max); at the time of this writing, we are looking at 947 fans (and that number shot up from 774 fans within 48 hours due to a TV show appearance we did two days ago).

On national TV earlier this month.

The fact that I am mentioning all these figures and accolades are not for showing off or asking you to bow down to us. :p  Not at all!  I just feel compelled to write this post today simply to tell you that if you: 1. make goals and commit to them, 2. take action on your passionate ideas, and 3. stay consistently fervent on achieving what you set out to achieve, … you’re going to see some pretty phenomenal results.  I kid you not.

Since October of last year, our band has achieved many of the landmarks that a ’signed-and-backed-by-a-huge-label-band’ achieves with only the smarts, courage, and passion of a few stubbornly hopeful individuals.

Some crowning achievements:

1. Getting radio airplay
2. Going on a major TV show
3. Winning a nationwide songwriting contest
4. Releasing an album
5. Getting accepted to perform at the Woodstock 2010 of Taiwan (Spring Scream)

What’s even more inspiring is that we’re actually making profit from our ventures because we are literally our own bosses (i.e. no big brother entertainment agency snatching a huge chunk of our income).  One thing that I’ve learned more than anything is the importance of a strong movement.  And by that I mean the friends and family that help build the fundamental roots to uplift a product (in this case, our band Cool Silly).  We have such amazing support from our close friends and it is truly indescribably touching just knowing that they are there for us. So, special thanks to all of you guys and gals!!!

And as usual, some upcoming goals for the band to be completed within the next 6 months:

1. Sell 500 mini-albums (on our way)
2. Shoot a music video
3. Surpass the 2,000 fans mark on our Facebook page
4. Perform in China (in the works)

If you’ve read this far in to the entry, I read somewhere once that goals are dreams with deadlines and that a goal without a deadline is just a wish. Bottom line: Take action on your passionate ideas!   Set goals with deadlines and stay committed!  If you come up with cool ideas and halfass execute them, you are simply wasting your time.  Go full throttle!!!  You will be on your way to awesomeness in no time!  I leave you with a nice quote:

A deadline is negative inspiration. Still, it’s better than no inspiration at all.

Now GO!

Well, I just took this entrepreneurship project to the next level a few days ago…. how you might ask?

An album release! (mini-album to be exact)

Yep, we just released our debut mini-album a few days ago in Taipei, Taiwan.  With the exception of a professional mastering engineer to master our album, everything else we performed ourselves, including the following tasks:

1. Music production (lyrics, music, recording, mixing)
2. Design of posters, album booklet, and other various paraphernalia
3. Release party coordination
4. Digital outlet for selling our album
5. etc. etc.

I won’t lie, the execution of these tasks was not a trivial feat.  I slept on average 5-6 hours each of the ten days prior to the release date.  But not without eventual success and satisfaction!!!  We had an awesome turnout at our release party and sold as many albums/posters as there were attendees.  We are really stoked about this release and are confident in the six songs on the album.  Cool Silly is going on radio pretty soon and TV should be right around the corner.

You can preview the songs on the album on our website. The album is available for purchase in the form of an instant digital download (with digital album booklet) there.  All you need is either a Credit Card or PayPal.

Please help support us! You won’t be disappointed I promise. The album will soon be on iTunes as well as other worldwide digital platforms.

The challenge of being your own boss, creating a product from scratch, and taking that product to market is no easy task. But to finally achieve this first step of releasing an album lays the necessary groundwork for future development. Sometimes taking that very first step is the hardest one a.k.a. actually taking action on an idea. But that is the beginning of commitment. And commitment is one of the major items necessary for getting something done (whether it be in the form of a contract or verbal agreement).

Bottom line: take that first step! More to come…

Since leaving my previous agency last month, I started a pop trio called Cool Silly with two of my closest friends in Taiwan who I had previously written music with. The idea for this group came about when I saw a poster for an upcoming nationwide songwriting contest which would require live performances in each round of the contest.  I figured the three of us could 1. write a song for this contest without any problems, and 2. put on a pretty decent show.

Well, one month later, the results are in:

1. We are number one in the country (hear our #1 song below).
2. We have performed in front of 100,000 people.
3. We have accrued over 3,000 views on our live performance video on youtube.
4. We have our own concert lined up at the end of December.
5. We are performing on a TV show later this week.
6. We have an official band website (designed by yours truly ) and close to 500 fans on our Facebook page.

This all happened in the span of one month…

What is key to all these milestones is that we achieved them with zero financial or agency backing a.k.a. we did everything ourselves with the help of some amazing friends. I guess desperate times really do call for desperate measures.  Sometimes you just have to get out of your comfort zone and believe in yourself and challenge your limits.  A few of the things that got my drive going:

1. Leaving my previous agency i.e. no more income.
2. Fast-approaching deadline of songwriting contest when I first heard about it (we wrote and recorded the song in literally a few days).
3. The personal satisfaction and inspiration of gaining achievement upon achievement based solely on one’s own hard work and efforts.

To-be-achieved goals for Cool Silly:

1. Break the 1,000 fans mark on our Facebook page.  Add us!
2. Hit the radio airwaves.
3. Release our own album next year.
4. Start (and maintain) a youtube TV show (check).

And finally, here is the song that garnered us all the above achievements:

Bottom line: Get out of your comfort zone and challenge yourself in an area you believe you have authority in! You won’t regret it!