We will be hosting our annual all day?Artist Management Conference?on?June 21?at the People?s Church in Franklin, TN.

Mike and his staff, along with several?top industry people, will be discussing?artist development and managementspecifically?for those interested in understanding more about the business side of our industry.

This is a?one of a kind?conference where every aspect of?career development?will be presented by people who are currently?working successfully in the Christian Music Industry.

Learn insider strategies and tactics?as well as facts about?artist development that the professionals in the business employ. ?Discover the?“secrets of the trade” from people who work with successful artists today.

The cost for the all day conference is?just $99?and?seating is limited. ?Contact?jan@michaelsmithandassociates.com?to register and for more information.

If you are an artist that wants to learn how to?self-manage?your career or if you are someone who has always?dreamed?about being an?artist manager, then this event is for you. ?Contact Jan?today?at?jan@michaelsmithandassociates.com?and?reserve your spot.

This is such a great post from Seth Godin (one of my personal heroes) that I wanted to share it with you here.

Learning by analogy
The story of Hansel and Gretel is not actually about Hansel or Gretel.

You are surrounded by examples and lessons and case studies that clearly aren’t exactly about your project. There’s never been a book written precisely about the situation you are facing right now, either. Perhaps one day they will publish, “Marketing Low-Cost Coaching Services to Small Businesses Specializing in Graphic Design in the Upper Peninsula for Dummies” but don’t hold your breath.

Marketing, like all forms of art, requires us to learn to see. To see what’s working and to transplant it, change it and amplify it.

We don’t teach this, but we should. We don’t push people to practice the act of learning by analogy, because it’s way easier to just give them a manual and help them avoid thinking for themselves.

The opportunity is to find the similarities and get ever better at letting others go first–not with what you’ve got, but with something you can learn from.

And the opposite is even more true. We over-rely on things where the specifics seem to match, but the lesson is obscured by the trivial. Sometimes when we see something happen that we can learn a conceptual lesson from, we instead jump to conclusions that the specifics are the important part.

Remember that the next time you have to take your shoes off before you get on an airplane.

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Today we launch our new Artist Management Training Series. This is the culmination of over two years of hard work. Through a video training series, I’m excited to share everything I have learned over my years as a manager and developer of talent. I’ve also interviewed a ton of my industry friends and got them to share their knowledge with us.

This is a comprehensive, high tech, modular teaching program that is designed to help you develop a successful career in the entertainment industry. Nothing like this has ever been done before.

As we close out this year and enter a new one, now may be the time to make that move you’ve always (more…)

Get Your Priorities Straight

There are so many lessons from this piece from Bob Lefsetz that you?ll probably miss most of them. Be sure to watch the video of Scott McKain telling about meeting ?Taxi Terry?.

Bob —

For quite a while, I have read your insight regarding traditional media versus what’s really happening today in terms of gaining both recognition and advancing your career. Even though my business is a bit different as an author and speaker (although I’m also trying to move product and book gigs), I had a pretty dramatic example this week of how right you are.

On Tuesday, USA Today ran a story that not only featured me, but had two pictures — one of me on the masthead of the Money section, and another that was on page three that was, I swear, the biggest photo I think I’ve ever seen in that publication. We were ecstatic…it was like winning the publicity lottery.

The article featured everything I could’ve hoped for…said I’ve traveled over 100,000 miles this year to gigs, worked internationally including (more…)