of us are afraid to talk about it. Thoughts such as “I stink at numbers,” or “I’ll just let the
venue producer toss out a number first,” pervade our minds and hinder us from being the
best we can. How we think about money is at the core of how well or how poorly we
manage it.
My colleague and friend, Ilise Benun, of Marketing Mentor, recently published her
book, The Creative Professional’s Guide To Money: How to Think About It. How to Talk
About It. How to Manage It. Although it’s targeted to designers, writers and visual cre-
atives, the content is just as valuable to musicians. She was gracious enough to share a
few thoughts on how we develop a relationship with money.
“When I think about how people think about money, it’s in a larger context of how
they think about their business. The first part of the book talks about how adjust or evolv-
ing your mind set to a business mindset, which include how you think about money, how
you set goals, how you think about your pricing and how you position your pricing. All of
these things are part of that process,” said Benun.
She added,” When it comes to one’s money mentality, and how it’s set, I’m not a psy-
chologist, but I do have a worksheet in the book called, What Are Your Money Issues, that
begins by looking at your history because a lot of it does happen early on. I’m not exactly
sure how the money mindset gets formed, although I think it happens very early. It helps
to figure out what those different experiences or memories are that may be getting in the
way of treating your business like a business, especially when it comes to money. I do
think that whatever it was, or however it started, it can definitely be changed.”
Money Management Tips