Deanna Swoboda — Blog — The Entrepreneurial Musician

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TEM136: Deanna Swoboda Quotes

This episode features thoughts on my favorite quotes from the conversation I had with Deanna Swoboda in TEM135.

Quotes:

"I had designed a program, an assembly program, that could be turned into something that people would be interested in having at their schools. It was a program that music stores and music dealers were interested in collaborating with in terms of recruitment. Sam Pilafian really pushed me to organize that program into a business."
"Working in a nonprofit organization gave me skills, business skills…how to organize my thoughts of forming a business, and how to market, and how to plan, and how to organize."
"I think as musicians, sometimes we think about success, what success means to us individually. We really think it should be from point A to point B, and it should be very clean. In reality, it's the zig and the zag…the roads less traveled that you decide to take that have a direct influence upon your career."
"Really, at the heart of entrepreneurship is opportunity recognition. I think a lot of people may attribute their career to fate or destiny, being in the right place at the right time, et cetera, getting discovered or something, getting lucky. There is something to this. But I think that's a little bit of a passive approach. I really believe that it is that combination of talent, hard work, your work ethic, your attitude, and your determination and perseverance, and recognizing opportunities when they come your way."
"It's so important to be honest with yourself about what is truly going to make you happy. I think that it can change throughout life."
"Speaking of failures, I've had so many failures during my career. Without failures, there wouldn't have been self-improvement and moving into what's next. How do I do this slightly different so that it works, and it's a success."
"Everything leads to something else. Every person that you meet knows somebody else who might have an idea for you or be interested in what it is that you have to offer. Everyone and every one of their friends is a potential customer."
"You also have to communicate what makes you distinctive, and what makes your thing distinctive, and how you set yourself apart."

Show notes for all episodes of TEM including topics discussed, links to all books and websites referenced can be found at:

http://www.andrewhitz.com/shownotes

1. Help me get to my goal of $50 per episode on Patreon (only $8 to go!) by pledging as little as $1 per episode to support the show: https://www.patreon.com/tempodcast.

2. I am ONE REVIEW SHY of my next goal of 75 ratings on iTunes. Who is going to help me out by taking just a couple of minutes on iTunes and then emailing me to tell me they were the 75th person?

And finally, a huge thank you to Parker Mouthpieces for providing the hosting for TEM.

Produced by Andrew Hitz

Listen via:

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TEM135: Developing an idea into a product you can build a business around - A Conversation with Deanna Swoboda

Deanna Swoboda is the creator of Brass Rap, a school assembly program so successful she had no place to live for two full years because she was on the road so much! She is also the Assistant Professor of Tuba and Euphonium at Arizona State University where she also teaches music business and product development classes.

What You'll Learn:

How a mentor pushed her to turn a school assembly program into a business
What she learned from working for a nonprofit arts organization and how she applied that to working for herself in the music business
How success is almost never the straight line from Point A to Point B that we expect
Why you aren’t a failure if you are doing multiple things in order to make money
Why what a lot of people attribute to luck is actually opportunity recognition
The questions you need to ask yourself to help define success for you
The importance of quantifying exactly what it is that will make you happy (and why that is a moving target)
Why failing is integral to moving you into whatever’s next
How the school assembly show she booked up to 250 days a year for 10 straight years was made into a refined product through very intentional research and development
Why sometimes “opportunity recognition” is being prepared to rap for a company president on the spot
The importance of cultivating a good attitude

Links:

Show notes for all episodes of TEM including topics discussed and links to all books and websites referenced can be found at:

http://www.andrewhitz.com/shownotes

1. Help me get to my goal of $50 per episode on Patreon (only $8 to go!) by pledging as little as $1 per episode to support the show: https://www.patreon.com/tempodcast.

2. I need only TWO PEOPLE to go leave a rating and review on iTunes to make my next goal. Will you be one of the two to help me out?

And finally, a huge thank you to Parker Mouthpieces for providing the hosting for TEM.

Produced by Andrew Hitz