By Christopher "Soleternity"  McGill

 
Making money is what separates a professional from an amateur. How much money you make almost always directly impacts the quality of your life. Of course, some would argue that a person who is happy is living at the highest quality of life, no matter what material possessions and capital they have. That’s cool. But when we evaluate economics, we evaluate tangible things, mainly because it enables us to measure and compare.

The perception of your lifestyle is an undeniably powerful element of your public identity. Style, class, grace, charisma, power; these are all qualities we can convey or lack. My first car was a 1997 Grand Am. My second was a 1997 Jeep. My third was a 2007 Chevy Avalanche (which was a company vehicle), and my fourth to date is a 2006 BMW. Believe me, I notice the difference in people’s approach towards me based on the car I pull up in, the clothes I’m wearing, my demeanor, my presence. Same guy, different shell. Big difference.

    

Do not make the mistake of assuming that I am advocating a flashy lifestyle. Rather, I’m examining the impact of portraying a certain lifestyle in order to find one’s niche as a successful, respected member of society. Of course, it takes more than just the desire to portray success. You need money, capital, or something of value in order to buy lifestyle tools. For most people, money comes in regularly through their work, and they base their lifestyle on the amount of money they make as well as what is conventional for someone of their demographic, and how they would like others to perceive them.

As producers, we play a different game. We have more opportunities and more risk. We might scrape by for 10 years and then produce a relatively successful song, and accumulate large sums of money--$500,000 or more--not only from royalties and payments from the person who purchased the music, but from the new business that results from the stamp of success that has been branded on your creation. This is a sharp contrast from the standard middle class employee who might average $50,000 in net income over the course of a year, every year, for the same 10 years. This person made $500,000 too, spread out over 10 years. As a producer, it took us 10 years to make $500,000, but we got it all at once.

One school of thought suggests that the producer and the average middle class person discussed in the example are at the same economic quality of life; they can support a similar lifestyle, particularly in terms of the quality of their home, the quality of their vehicle, the ability to provide for others (such as family).

However, from a different perspective, the one who is able to get $500,000 at once is open to much larger opportunities of investment and growth. If one is willing to sacrifice the quality of life temporarily, the possibilities instantly expand for purchasing real estate and making other purchases that usually increase the value of your money. As a producer, it does not make sense to get a $500,000 check and spend $60,000 on a new Mercedes CLK350. You just spent an entire year’s salary. You aren’t rich simply because you got half a million dollars at one point in time. You are rich if you can sustain a rich lifestyle. No one can sustain a rich lifestyle for very long with $500,000.

Last year, I made the mistake of getting a large sum of money and thinking that the money would keep coming. I was so confident that the cash would keep flowing that I decided to upgrade my lifestyle. Eat more expensive food. Buy more expensive clothes. Jewelry. Some of these things turned out to be good investments; the jewelry helps create an attractive image, the clothes help convey class and style, etc. But moderation is key. And living below your economic means is a great way to build wealth. I exercised neither, and as a result, had to backtrack in order to make enough money to support what I had started.

What I’m getting at is that we as producers have to be adaptable to the uniqueness of our income flow. We get our money sporadically. We have to build a lifestyle that reflects this. We will never experience the consistency of making $1500 a week. Instead, we will make $10,000 at one time for the next month. We might have to stretch that money for another month, so its critical we have a savings. Therefore, when we get large sums of money, we have to set ourselves up to elevate, not rise and fall over and over. I advocate buying property and making long term investments. Continue to live poor until you have built enough money that you won’t have to sell your services for a fee ever again. Now you’re free to pursue the projects that you believe in, like how Lee Iacocca took on the job of running Chrysler for a yearly salary of $1, and turned Chrysler into a profitable brand. He was able to do this because he had the economic security to follow his passion.

Be realistic about being a producer. Just because you have a hit record or half a million dollars does not mean you stop planning for the future or being strategic. Mo’ Money, Mo’ Problems. Now you will be worrying about losses and stock quotes instead of health insurance bills and car payments. Personally, I prefer to worry about the former.

 "Producer's Perspective" is a bi-weekly column by Soleternity at www.myspace.com/soleternity