Interview with Pledge Music

by Kole

K: To kick things off, can I get a little introduction for our readers?

J: I’m Jayce Varden, and I’m a Co-Founder and COO of PledgeMusic. We are direct to fan platform specializing in fan engagement that results in creative project funding. We differentiate ourselves from pure crowd sourcing sites by investing our human capital and knowledge into project messaging, development of exclusives, price targeting, content dissemination, and overall project management.

K: Thank you for taking the time to answer a couple questions for musicians. We are all being bombarded by different crowd sourcing sites and are hoping, to hear from someone like you, what they biggest mistakes musicians are making in their campaigning efforts.

J: They ask for money or straight up donations. Show potential pledgers what you are going to include them in. A true direct to fan project isn’t just about selling, its about taking the fan on a journey and revealing the creative process as it unfolds.

J: They underestimate how rabid their fans are. Traditional direct to fan models concentrate on merch bundles. Fans love physical items (particularly signed), but they also love archival/vintage items, they love engaging with the artist. Don’t be afraid to offer higher price points for fans who may value the real premium interaction.

J: The don’t factor in production costs, shipping costs, taxes, and their time cost. Its amazing what a simple excel spreadsheet can tell you. Making use of our shipping regions can save you the $300 its going to cost you shipping that guitar to Singapore!

K: All great points, thank you Jayce! Anything else to add before we let you get back to helping musicians at PledgeMusic?

J: Educate yourself and remember that you are a business. Protect your brand by always doing good business. Treat your fans with love and respect, and show them that you are not just digging in their wallets : )

Voyage of an indie artist

Nestled gently in a cloud of down and white pillows I peer out of a stone frame that dates back thousands of years. Old Jaffa lay below me as my tower in the sky is the highest point on the shore. A blue blanket is cut with white ribbon as a sailboat makes its way across my window.

“Where am I? How did I get here?” I often ask myself. In the past that question came from a place of failure and self loathing. Today it is out of sheer amazement and awe I utter those words as dogs bark and children play beneath my window. This place, these people, the markets are all a dream that I had that is now tangible. Every humus dipped piece of pita is a reminder that I have been here before but couldn’t taste it until now. I had heard of lucid dreaming before and have experienced it a few times but now I am lucid living.  Too often we treat life like a lottery instead of an investment. There is no chance that I am waiting to see if I am lucky enough to win….I will make it so.

Many spend their whole lives in hopes of having the time or the means to travel like I do. Understand that ANYONE could live like I do but most would not be able to endure the sacrifice of time and stability. Music is my career and traveling my hobby, not only do I get to travel but I’m paid to do it.

Who can complain about that? Maybe I will blog about how I do it someday…if anyone cares to hear it. Until then here is the first video. I was greatly disappointed in this one and realized how out of touch I have been…the next one will prove to be more exciting with a better presentation To see the video for this week simply CLICK HERE. Must have been too caught up in living the dream to capture it. I hope that my journey will help you see your own dreams and push you to go and take them. Don’t sit and wait for them…go and get them.

Xoxo,

Kole

Tel Aviv, Israel

April 2, 2012

Week One Video CLICK HERE

Afraid to succeed.

I know that all of us have fears of failure or of not being enough but have you ever feared success? Have you stared directly into your hopes and dreams as they manifest and felt afraid? I am standing there now. Who would have thought that this would be the feeling.

Now, don’t get ahead of yourself, this is not a self worth thing we are looking at but a reluctance to accept exactly what we deserve. You see, if you aren’t used to seeing it there is a strange feeling of guilt. Not because you don’t deserve it but because you don’t know what to do with it.

 

Right now I am staring at a lollipop that is three sizes larger than my head. Guess I will start by getting the wrapper off…..

 

xoxo

 

NomNomNomNom- behind the scenes!

There really aren’t many words for this video clip….just take a peek and write down the ingredients if you wish!

xoxo,

Kole

Time flies!

So I have become a juicing fiend! Now that I have been juicing I can’t live without it. I am going to make a video to show you how easy it is and how to plan ahead. In all honesty, trips to the grocery store are a breeze since I always know exactly what I want and need. My daily menu looks something like this:

4 cucumbers

8 apples

2 lemons

16 celery stalks

10 leaves of kale

12 handfuls of spinach

ginger root the size of the palm of my hand

pita bread with humus, turkey bacon and spinach

1 cup of yogurt with 4-5 strawberries sprinkled with stevia and cinnamon

1 tablespoon of probiotic

So, there ya go folks! Most of that is juiced BUT the amount of nutrients I am taking in on a day-to-day has made me feel AMAZING. When I first started this healthy living I would blend the fruit and veggies for more pulp to fill me belly….it is cheaper that way. If you are thinking it is too much to try to eat that healthy everyday then you are me 2 months ago.

What I have found is I have to make enough juice for two days (which is the max recommended time for juice to keep fresh) to make it convenient. That way I can refill my container and run out the door. It is hard to believe that I have been doing this for almost a month already! All I can say is that I have been caffeine/coffee free for that same amount of time and am seeing the benefits energy wise. That first week caffeine free was brutal……as I am sure, many of you can imagine.

anyhoo, hope you find something helpful in my random banter. Have a great weekend!

xoxo,

Kole

I hate food: A musicians 7 day juice cleanse

I hate food. I never thought I would utter such words, not ever.  But after feeling the way I have felt the last 4-6 weeks, I despise it. Anxiety spills from every pore and my eyes widen like a deer in headlights before I take a bite of anything anymore. I also hate alcohol. A blessing in many ways I assure you but this journey back to healthy living is not easy but necessary. I have become afraid of food because something I am ingesting is making me really sick. An awful feeling.

My favorite color of green is a hue pretty close to a granny smith apple and I have 16 in my grocery basket today. It is one of the ingredients in the green smoothie that will become my staple this next week. I have been pretty exhausted today, more so from my puking episode yesterday and lack of nutrients the last few weeks.

So today was the day, the first day of listening to my body. Again, I am not going into this blindly, I already eat pretty well and spent the past few days weaning myself off of caffeine (the hardest part I think). For the first 7 days I am going to be doing the Mean Green Juice recipe along with some probiotic to support my tummy. This is the recipe as described and used in Fat, Sick and nearly Dead now available on Netflix.

After 7 days I am going to continue for 2 weeks following Alejandro Junger’s book “Clean”, an incredible book by anyone’s standard. A year ago I did the 3 week cleanse from this book with incredible results and never felt better. To reiterate I AM NOT DOING A CLEANSE FOR WEIGHT LOSS I have seen the benefits on my health through this type of cleanse personally and have also seen weight loss as a result. So, here we go….Day one is wrapping up and I feel pretty terrible, but hey….I already know the first 3 days are rough, I have been there but nothing is worse than the feeling I have been experiencing lately. Stay tuned….day one is nearly done.

xoxo

Kole

I HAVE IT ALL! (almost)

Gazing into my own eyes (thank you iphone 4s) I see dark circles. I have been getting good sleep but you wouldn’t know it, by the looks of me. I just knelt to the porcelain God and offered my dinner in exchange for some relief. Do you ever have one of those moments? Not like an “AH, HA” moment, no, it resonates much deeper, like to your soul.  The feeling is almost despair, or guilt and you say ”I can’t do this anymore”. Well, that was me….about two hours ago and I felt the need to share.

I feel awful. Right now, at this very moment as I type in my jammies curled up on my girlfriends couch in Queens, NY, I am in pain. But I am blessed. Abundance is all around and I am grateful, dare I say, FULL of joy, happiness and excitement. So what gives? What’s the problem? Well, if you care to read on feel free:

A little over a month ago I started to have reactions to, well…I am not sure. Whatever I was eating or drinking wasn’t sitting right and that was the first time I puked. The week previous to this first instance I had a molar extracted and was on painkillers. Naturally I thought the nausea may be a side effect of the medication I was prescribed. Well, here we are over a month later and I just had the worst puke session so far.  If you are feeling a little bad for me now, don’t.

This, ladies and gentleman, is the moment I FINALLY make the commitment to my body to make it a priority over ALL things. Why? Because I need it and it is no longer settling for a homemade, organic smoothie from time to time, it is making serious demands. Like many of you I am (at least at times) very health conscious, lost a ton of weight a few years ago, am fairly active and LOVE yoga.  Also, like most of you, I have a barrage of excuses that I keep using to avoid making the commitment to myself. A few examples:

• I would love to eat organic but it’s so expensive I simply can’t afford it.
• I don’t have the willpower
• I don’t have the time
• I don’t have the necessary tools (in my case….a place I actually live to stock up supplies)
• It is just too hard
• I will as soon as things slow down
• Why bother, I am just going to FAIL.

I have said all of these things to myself in one way or another but I no longer have a choice. Few people know the extent of some health issues I had prior to losing the 40 lbs I lost a few years ago. Not many saw me in that state and that was because I was depressed, and in pain. I realize even at my heaviest I wasn’t too far from average but my body could care less about average. My body was hating me. If you want more details, please ask, but they aren’t important, what is important is my commitment now.

Sure, gazing at the scale I would like to be down 10 lbs and fit better in my clothes but that is of little importance now. Tomorrow I am starting a green smoothy cleanse for 1 week….7 days. You are cordially invited if you care to join me and if you could careless, that’s cool too. Maybe you will just get bored at work one day and read up because you have nothing better to do. Also…..cool.

Yes….you have your opinions, yes you have your experiences, and YES I am so grateful for your support. In the past I have done many cleanses, varying lengths, varying benefits and varying results. BUT in the past I was doing it for weight loss and not listening to my body. I have seen doctors (both traditional and non-traditional) and have had blood tests before so I have a pretty good grasp on my overall health. I am NOT going into this blindly, nor should anyone try anything without first talking to their doctor. All of that being said, I am going to do a bit more preparation so I am ready to hit the store in the morning, so I say goodnight for now, sweet dreams my darling and I hope we both get something out of this.

xoxo,

Kole