Step 7. Make Your Plan – Define Your Vision, Goals and Targets

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In this chapter, you will gain success mindset tools to:
Take charge of developing your artist’s online presence.
Create a plan that illustrates your vision, and
Set goals and targets to realize that vision.

The main areas of your plan are:

Vision

Your vision is how you see your optimal situation
in the next 3 to 5 years.

For example, your vision could be stated simply like this:

I want to be a happy and successful person,
making a living from music,
in the next 3 to 5 years.

It is worthwhile expanding on your vision.

write a short story:
how would you optimally see your life
in the next 3 to 5 years?

One approach is to think of yourself being interviewed in 3 to 5 years.
write your interview answers:
What have you reached?
Where did you start?
What moves did you make to get to where you are now?

Goals

What do you need to achieve
in the next 12 months
to realize your vision?

For example:
1. XXXXXXXXX amount of album sales
2. $XXXXXXXXX amount of quarterly earnings

Write no more than 1 or 2 goals.
Also, the goals should be quantitatively measurable.

Targets

What do you need to achieve
in the next 9, 6, 5, 4 and 3 months
to realize your goals?

These goals will vary according to the kind of artist you are,
and the kind of situation you are in.
For example,
you might be a solo artist, or
you might be part of a band or crew.
Maybe you don’t even have the equipment you need to work properly yet,
maybe you’re in a good state right now, or maybe you’re struggling, etc.

Here’s an example of how targets can be laid down:

In 9 months:
XXXXX amount of album sales

In 6 months:
Album release
xx amount of contests attended

Online presence:

SoundCloud
Subscribers = 500+
Listens = 10 tracks, 10,000+ listens per track. Single, 100,000+ listens

YouTube
Subscribers = 500+
Views = 10 videos, 1,000+ views per video. Single, 50,000+ views.

Facebook
Page Likes = 1,000+
Average Engagement per Post = 100 (80+ likes, 15+ shares, 5+ comments)
3 posts per week

Twitter
Followers = 1,000+
1-3 tweets per day

Instagram
Followers = 1,000+
1 photo per day

Website
Email subscribers = 500+
Users per week = 500+

In 3 months:
Research and decision on contests that you want to compete in the next 12 months
Research and decision on potential labels, investors and key music industry contacts.
to have an Online presence setup with regular working process
and a team to publish and promote quality content
in order to progress toward your 6 month targets.

Your targets are periodic short term goals that you can plot out
in intervals of 1 month, 2 months, 3 months, 6 months, etc.
up to 12 months.
Once you have your periodic targets written out,
your goals and your vision,
then you should have a clearer path laid out
to make your vision a reality.
After doing so, you can bring that goal-oriented layout down
to your daily scheduling, and
look at what you need to accomplish
even on a day-by-day basis
in order to live
on a progressive path
toward your vision.

This “vision, goals, targets” layout is a goal-oriented method of reaching success
that you can apply to any field.
The fact that you can now apply it to realize your artist vision
will give you experience with implementing a success mindset and approach
that you can also apply to literally anything you want to be good at in your life.

In terms of developing your online presence,
notice how making purposeful use of each platform to continually strengthen your presence:
Is not a goal in and of itself.
Instead, it is a means toward reaching your goals.

You don’t need to be on every single platform.
The noteworthy term here is “goal-oriented.”
That is, you should be able to justify the use of each platform
in terms of how it helps you reach your goals.
For example, you might even narrow down your online presence
to only using SoundCloud, YouTube and a static presence on your own website,
because you might find that, at this stage, you do not have enough resources
(i.e. your own time, money and/or other people helping you)
to update Facebook, Twitter, Instagram, Tumblr and Google+
in any kind of qualitative way.
Having these networks empty or charged with just a few posts
in the last 12 months, is more detrimental than beneficial to your goals.

Here are some questions to help you determine what and how much to invest into your online presence:
How much will a certain platform help you reach your goals?
What needs to be done on that platform to help you reach your goals?
what content?
How often would new content need to be added?
How much promotion would be needed per content item?
How much time can you dedicate to this?
Who else could help you (i.e. think in terms of developing your team)?
Could you even hire someone to help you with this, or offer them something of value in exchange?

Summary – Vision, Goals, Targets

Vision – Think about your vision,
then write it down.
Write it as a short story of how you optimally see your life as an artist
in the next 3 to 5 years

Goal/s – Write one or two things you need to
accomplish in the next 12 months to realize your vision

Targets – Write short term goals over the
next 12 months to realize your goal/s.

These Vision, Goals, Targets Templates are here to help you
spend time thinking about what moves you make next.

Print out these templates.
take the time to think through your answers to the questions.

My Vision

How do I see my life in the next 3 to 5 years?

What have I accomplished?

Where did I start?

What moves did I make?

What was the transition point?

What was my biggest struggle? How did I get through it?

My Goals

What are one or two things I absolutely must
achieve in the next 12 months
to make my vision a reality?

My Targets

In 6 months, I need to have ________________________

In 3 months, I need to have ________________________

In 2 months, I need to have ________________________

In 1 month, I need to have _________________________

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The Internet Guide for Rappers – 10 Steps to Establish Your Artist’s Online Presence and Branding [eBook]

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Contents

Introduction

What is The Internet Guide for Rappers, and what will it give you?

Step 1. Choose Your Artist Name

A step-by-step process of scrutiny on your artist name: its strengths, weaknesses, what you can change, and what you can’t.

Step 2. Get Your Artist Name on All the Web Property You Can

A one-time task that will set the foundation of your artist name’s online real estate.

Step 3. Characterize Your Artist Profile

An essential process that will guide you to find what will make people want to become your loyal advocates.

Step 4. Write Your Artist Profile Statement

Frame the perception you want others to have of you as an artist in a 1-2 sentence zipped format.

Step 5. Write Your Artist Bio

How to put together a snapshot of your strengths, motivations and uniqueness as a rapper, including examples.

Step 6. Make Your Artist Photos

What kinds of photos you need to have of yourself, and tips for how to make yourself more photogenic.

Step 7. Create a Communication Plan

A guide for how to plan your networking in the upcoming 12 months in order to help you realize your goals, and also to open you up to new opportunities.

Step 8. Implement Your Communication Plan

A checklist for you to apply across all your communication channels to maximize the impression you make.

Step 9. Setup Your Artist Profile as an Extension of Your Personal Brand

The importance of differentiating your artist profile and your personal brand from the very beginning, and how to setup your artist profile as an extension of your personal brand.

Template 1: Artist Characterization Template

A guide to fill out your artist characterization, as described in “Step 3. Characterize Your Artist Profile.”

Template 2: Artist Bio Template

The must-have parts of every artist’s bio to help you write your bio comprehensively and quickly, as described in “Step 5. Write Your Artist Bio.”

Template 3: Communication Plan Example Template

One example of how a 12 month communication plan looks like, for you to apply to your own networking actions over the next 12 months, as described in “Step 7. Create a Communication Plan.”

Template 4: Communication Plan Checklist

Template of the communication plan checklist described in “Step 8. Implement Your Communication Plan” for you to apply across all your communication channels, to maximize the impression you make.