http://funksville.podomatic.com/

Executive Producer and Host: Zaque Eyn

As a leader it is important for me to bring my A game for the team 24/7. Informed decisions, keeping the team motivated by sharing new insights in the industry, and being the person they want to be someday makes a great leader. It comes from within, but can be learned.

A good leader has to not only do what they say but keep up on their toes. It is important for me, and any leader, to wake up early and start the day in the am, 6am for me, what about you? I get more work done, and a jump on the industry with the extra time in the day.

Anytime I have a meeting I dress the part, and prepare myself accordingly to bring my A game. Doing research on the client, and digging deeper into the industry on a particular topic sets me apart. I strive myself on being professional, and always on top of my game.

Knowing how to conduct myself around a client is paramount in the music industry. People in the Hip Hop world, for instance, never change a thing about themselves for anyone. It can be a tool for branding themselves, but does hold them back when trying to get further in their career. Sagging pants, talking in e-mails like they would if I were a homey, and not being respectful really hurts their career. An opportunity to communicate with a high level executive does not happen everyday. Give respect to another person on there level, not yours.

I was called into a meeting a couple of months ago to sit in on a recording session. Anytime I sit in on a session and have never meet the artist I do some research first. I make a point to be at my best and look presentable to fit in with the client: dressing nice but not to nice, taking a shower, not smoking weed (I don’t smoke weed regardless) before or during the session, and getting plenty of rest the night before. Because I always bring my A game the artist ended up getting my phone number before she left and continues to work with me today. Mind you she is a celebrity artist, and has shared the same stage as Britney, Destiny’s Child, and Areosmith to name a few. I recognized the talent she had and respected her as a person, talked to her on her level —not some thug level— nor did I blow smoke up her bum to boost her ego. I simply told her how it was and kept it real the whole time.

  Being a good leader you have to take many things into account, but mostly, people should want to follow in your footsteps, not someone else’s. Nobody is going to follow you if they themselves are more professional than you, and to be honest you won’t get too far in your career either.

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Zaque Eyn is Founder/CEO/Owner of United Funk Organization & Funksville better known as Funksville UFO, and the Director of Creative Empowerment for various companies and artsits. While Zaque Eyns talents range from producing, sound engineering, music, fashion, events, marketing and business development; his approach to each project is rooted in successful business approach and strategy. He applies his skills and solid industry background to better even the most demanding of circumstances.

Zaque Eyn has worked with companies such as Jim Henson Studio, Neverland, Pomplamoose, Lauren Mayhew, Dave Weckl, KC Porter, Ashanti, Dennis Moody, Luis Conte, Skills, Lumitech, Love Parade, Laguna Sega, Dj Schmolli, Berkley Liberation Radio, Tutto Media, Freshly Squeezed TV, Thrice, Best Buy, Tom Kennedy, Steve Weingart, Gary Meek, Ray Yslas to name a few.

So you’ve got the band & songs ready and now it’s time to start hitting up venues, labels, bloggs, social networking sites, ext… But what do you write and how do you make it effective when you only have about 1 sentence to capture your potential audience?

Let’s start with the basics. First make sure to do your homework and refer to the correct person using their correct title: Mr, Ms, Miss, ext… Nothing will get your e-mail sent to the trash faster then saying Dear Jon when the booking agent is Adam (you’d be surprised). If they have a last name use both. Some people like both names when being refereed to and in doing so you have already started to build a relationship with them, you defiantly will not hurt yourself (for instance my name is Zaque Eyn not Zac or Zaq or Zaqueyn and I am called Zaque Eyn not Zaque or any other version of). Make sure you check the spelling of their name. I cannot stress this enough. If you spell it wrong then don’t expect a reply back, although the exception here is if you write a great letter then people can get over the misspelling of their name, usually.

Keep the letter as short as possible and do not add fluff. People want the specifics, fast and short: Your band name, your fan base, how many CD’s you sell at shows, how much merch you sell at shows, website (myspace & facebook don’t count) contact person, phone number. However the exception to this rule is that you do want to be personable and friendly. No body wants just an information dump! Put your personality into it. The most important mistake of them all, you fail to mention the date you want for your booking! Tell them what date you want & what time (be specific am or pm counts).

The 7 Deadly Sins of Writing

1. Failure to focus on the business problems and payoffs- the content sounds generic.

2. No persuasive structure- the letter is an “information dump”

3. No clear differentiation of this band compared to others

4. Failure to offer a compelling value proposition.

5. Key points are buried- no impact, no highlighting.

6. Difficult to read because they’re full of jargon, too long, or too technical.

7. Credibility Killers- misspellings, grammar and punctuation errors, use of the wrong client’s name, inconsistent formats, and similar mistakes

On to the fun stuff, how do I write this thing?…

Structure of Persuasion

****State the Needs or Problems**** Restate the business problem or need (we want aug 1st at 8:30pm)

****Identify the Positive Outcomes**** Identify the outcomes the client seeks (merch, cds, fans)

****Present a Recommendation**** Recommend a solution (we can play here and help your sales)

****Provide Details to Substantiate**** Provide substantiating details (past shows or venues)

1st: The Customers/Venues/Labels/other Needs; understand their needs, issues or problems

2nd: Outcomes; Focus on the outcomes or results the customer/venue/label/other wants to achieve. How will he or she measure success? What must the organization see in terms of results to make their investment in your products and services worthwhile?

3rd: Recommend a Solution; To be a solution, the products and services you are recommending must be linked to the customer’s specific problem.

4th: Prove you Can Do It; Typical kinds of evidence could be references, testimonials, case studies, resumes of team members, project plans, guarantees, third-party validation such as awards, details about your management philosophy, your company history, and so on.

The Funnel

Most important: Introduction: state key point(s)- who, what, when, where, why, how

Secondary points: Body: present each point in order of importance to the reader

Details: Conclusion: just stop or, in a longer document provide a quick summary, forecast, and/ or next steps

Ok so now you think your ready to tackle this with guns blazing? Not just yet. Don’t just type something up and send it off, share it with your band mates or friends and have them proof read it. It is better to tweek the letter with them then it is to be hopeful the venue will get where you are coming from or understand something. Remember they don’t want to think. They just want to be told nicely.

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Zaque Eyn is Founder/CEO/Owner of United Funk Organization & Funksville better known as Funksville UFO. WhileZaque Eyns talents range from producing, sound engineering, music, fashion, events, marketing and business development; his approach to each project is rooted in successful business approach and strategy. He applies his skills and solid industry background to better even the most demanding of circumstances.

Zaque Eyn has worked with companies such as Jim Henson Studio, Neverland, Dave Weckl, KC Porter, Ashanti, Dennis Moody, Luis Conte, Skills, Lumitech, Love Parade, Laguna Sega, Dj Schmolli, Berkley Liberation Radio, Tutto Media, Freshly Squeezed TV, Thrice, Best Buy, Tom Kennedy, Steve Weingart, Gary Meek, Ray Yslas

We have all been there, booking studio time then when the day comes we end up working out parts & dealing with issues that should have been taken care of before hand. The clock is ticking in the studio and money being used that could have been saved or used for what it was intended for… tracking the magic. 

Here are some tips to make the most use of your studio time:

Your Going To The Grammy’s. Practice & Pre-Pair like it. 

A. Give yourself 15min to practice each song a day. Don’t burn yourself out, it is important to maintain your sanity and stay focused on the song. Two Times through each song is a good goal. Do this each day for 1 week before the session.

B. Ask your engineer & producer what recording techniques they are going to be using in the studio prior to practicing. Polish up and make necessary changes before you get IN the studio. For instance: They want an off tuning method for your guitar… you should be practicing with that sound… no surprises going in, magic coming out. 

C. Record your practices with a basic recorder just incase you do something that is amazing. Share it with your engineer or producer as soon as possible so they can make necessary changes if need be or to let you know if it works. 

Have pre-production meetings with your team, often. This allows for issues to come up, techniques to be polished appropriately, the right gear & microphones to be rented and/or used along with knowing exactly what is going to happen tracking day. 

A. Go over your tempo & recording schedules so you can time manage yourself for the day. Are drums the first day of recording? How many days recording drums; 1,2? Do you only have 1 hour to Nail your guitar part in the studio? Are you trying a couple of different playing styles for each song? Have you rehearsed your vocals? Did you get a vocal coach? Ext…

B. Write out your music: Vocals and in the proper structure & Sheet music for your instrumentation or a chord sheet at least. If the producer and engineer know what is suppose to happen he can guide the session better and you’ll also be a professional.

C. Work out tricks & tweaks with you team.

D. Let your producer & engineer navigate the process adding to this list…



Have a clear head. 

A. Don’t forget to sleep! It’s important. 

B. Chill out on the drugs at least 4 days before the session. Your body will thank you and your music will reward you. 


C. Take 20 minutes each day to yourself: Meditate, Sit in quiet; by a tree, at home, listen to ocean Waves or nature music ext…


D. Eat at least one healthy meal each day, if not all meals. Stay off the junk food. 



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Zaque Eyn is Founder/CEO/Owner of United Funk Organization & Funksville better known as Funksville UFO. While Zaque Eyns talents range from producing, sound engineering, music, fashion, events, marketing and business development; his approach to each project is rooted in successful business approach and strategy. He applies his skills and solid industry background to better even the most demanding of circumstances.

Zaque Eyn has worked with companies such as Jim Henson Studio, Neverland, Pomplamoose, Lauren Mayhew, Dave Weckl, KC Porter, Ashanti, Dennis Moody, Luis Conte, Skills, Lumitech, Love Parade, Laguna Sega, Dj Schmolli, Berkley Liberation Radio, Tutto Media, Freshly Squeezed TV, Thrice, Best Buy, Tom Kennedy, Steve Weingart, Gary Meek, Ray Yslas

Most musicians and artists think of only one or two aspects of their career: music and social networking. I find most musicians just go through the motions not really giving it their all, especially when it comes to social networking. In order to improve your skills as a musician, get more gigs and make more money you have to think outside of the box. Improvisation is a key asset to your bag of tricks and can pay you back ten fold. If you always practice what you know you will never learn anything new or improve your craft and skill set. Trying new things out and getting out of your comfort zone forces you to expand your mind with the side effect being some potential hit tunes on your hand. More importantly it will help you to bridge out of your genre of music, once you get good, and allow you to diversify your income potential by taking on other projects or gigs. This article however is not about making better music or writing hit records, it’s about doing simple steps with social networking, like improvisation, that will pay off in the future. 


Let’s take a look at social networking. Before we get into the finer points it is important first to understand what networking is all about. Networking is defined as “a group of people who exchange information, contacts, and experience for professional or social purposes.” Let’s add to this and broaden the definition because simply exchanging information, experiences and contacts is not enough to boost your career. Networking should also have some set guide lines that go along with the definition.


GuideLines:

1. Set up a File Maker or Address list/book of the people you meet out in the entertainment world.
2. Get yourself a business card holder so you can organize the cards you receive.
3. Build a set of “hot points” so you can remember where you met them ie: John Doe- 111 Mina Dance Club 8/15/2009 Musician ext ext.
4. Never let more then a month go by before you call the person back.
5. Always initiate the first call if they have not already called you, in other words don’t wait for them. (unless guide line 7 applies)
6. Stay in touch at least every 3 months via phone call or e-mail but don’t wait longer then 3 months. If it’s an important contact, say someone whom you want to work with soon or in the near future, you want to be in touch at least once every month and a half (1 ½ months).
7. Don’t get their information if your never going to use it. If they insist on giving you their info then except the info and wait for them to call. Unless of course you find a need for them then call or contact them as soon as you come to this conclusion.
8. Always get back to people within the same business day or 24hours at the latest if they have contacted you via phone or e-mail.
9. Get out of the house and socialize at industry events.
10. Repeat as necessary.

Now that we have some Guide Lines for networking properly we can talk about social networking. As you may have noticed we didn’t talk directly about social networking in the above 10 points. You will be happy to know that these points do speak towards social networking just as much as being out in the real world. But wait! If I follow these 10 points then my social network would defeat the whole purpose of adding all those “friends.” I hate to break it to you but if your adding all those “friends” whom you have never meet and will never talk to it does defeat the whole purpose of social networking. Let me explain. For one thing you have the “friend” equation. I use friend in parenthesizes because most people just sit there and add people to their profile never taking the time to know them. So inessence you are building a fake network of people who don’t care about you or even keep up on what your doing. A “friend” not caring can be proven by just simply going through your friend list and seeing how many of them have interacted with you over the time you added them. Chances are that unless you actually know them and engage them the answer is NEVER. Well if NEVER is happening to you then what is the point of all those people? If they are never engaging with you or interacting with you then does it really matter if you have a 1,000 + people on your friends list if only 200 of them you actually talk to? “But the record labels won’t look at me if I don’t have thousands of friends.” Seriously! Do you really think the record labels even matter now a days? If you do then your in the wrong industry, you should be living in dream land with the Unicorns and Fairies. Ok so your smart, you know that the record labels don’t matter but realize that investors want to see results and fans amongst other things. It’s true they want to see a fan base but they want to see a real fan base, not a fake one. Trust me when they start looking into who is interacting with you and who is “liking” your posts on good ole Facebook or any other social network with appropriate tracking like Twitter and re-tweets they will realize that it’s fake. “Ok well then how do you expect me to possibly keep up with 200 people let alone thousands of people?” Well now that we have our Guide Lines in place we can start to use them in a logical manner. Let’s take point number 7, probably the most used and important for social networking because it states that we should not get info if we are never going to use it. 


Hopefully you have a band page or brand page set up already, if you don’t do so now. From here you will notice a few things going on but the most important is that “like” button at the top when people come across your page. Make sure you set up your page so you have a unique url and not some generic one. It should look something like www.facebook.com/FunksvilleUFO With any luck all your friends will hit that “like” button and even your current fans in the loop will hit it too. Soon however you will start to get people you don’t know liking your page. This is a great thing. What you have to realize is that there is a reason why they are liking your page and that reason is because they like what you are doing. This is not to say they like your music per say, it could be your logo, image, photo’s or even updates your posting. The important thing to do is keep up with your page and interact with the new people just as much as current fans/friends. Don’t post on their wall “check out our new song (or album)” because you will only be turning them off and no body likes to be spammed for no reason. Engage them instead. Tell the new fans thanks and ask them a personal question or just a question, something like “We luv people who hit our like button. Thnks! We’re going to be in your town next week and we heard the philly cheese steaks are off the hook. Where should we go for the best one?” Or something like “Thnks for joining our family. We can’t decide between movie night or painting on this blank canvas we got. What do you think we should do?” Then after they have answered send a “awesome that’s what we were leaning towards.” Then go out and do it. You gotta be real, no fake stuff. While your out or painting take some pictures or a short video and then surprise them the next day with that photo or video and give them a little message saying “good choice! We had a great time.” The point here is to be real, use your own words, always engage a new fan with something real and never self promote as your only strategy. Self promoting should be used sparingly. Send them an actual photo or video and you’ve won them over for life and you will have a real conversation going with them that everyone can appreciate. This is how you build up your network of true fans. If you’ve done this they will continue to talk with you and like your posts which is what you want, interaction. You always have to take the time to get back to people or, if your busy because you now have thousands of true fans, at least make sure you like comments on your page.


Networking is all about communication and building your relationships. It takes time and work but done well there will be no stopping your success.
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originally published in Music Think Tank

Zaque Eyn is Founder/CEO/Owner of United Funk Organization & Funksville better known as Funksville UFO. While Zaque Eyns talents range from producing, sound engineering, music, fashion, events, marketing and business development; his approach to each project is rooted in successful business approach and strategy. He applies his skills and solid industry background to better even the most demanding of circumstances.

Zaque Eyn has worked with companies such as Jim Henson Studio, Neverland, Pomplamoose, Dave Weckl, KC Porter, Ashanti, Dennis Moody, Luis Conte, Skills, Lumitech, Love Parade, Laguna Sega, Dj Schmolli, Berkley Liberation Radio, Tutto Media, Freshly Squeezed TV, Thrice, Best Buy, Tom Kennedy, Steve Weingart, Gary Meek, Ray Yslas