Monday Morsel: Awesome Advice from Songbird Amel Larrieux

Soul music icon, Amel Larrieux recently stopped by Abiola's Passion Party to dish on what she's been up to since her days with the Grammy-nominated duo, Groove Theory and how she keeps herself inspired when life as an artist gets tough. A singer-songwriter, keyboardist and producer, Amel juggles many different jobs and responsibilities and Greenlight Yourself was able to ask Amel how she maintains the balance between being an artist and being a business woman. Click play to learn her secrets.

I particularly love when she talks about being on the road to owning herself as an artist. Most of us are no strangers to the demands that are placed on our art and our person while building a career and it's quite comforting to know that that pressure happens at all levels of success. Moral of the story: you are not alone!

Has Amel inspired you? Please leave a comment and share this post with your community.

Success Secret: Form a Mastermind Group

Let's face it, empire building is exhausting! Especially if you try to do it all by yourself. Everyone needs help sometimes and a mastermind group can be a great tool for peer support, career development and inspiration.

The mastermind group concept, introduced by Napoleon Hill and inspired by Andrew Carnegie, is a group of people focused on helping one another succeed. The idea being that two heads are better than one and accountability goes a long way to keeping people on track. 

If you have career goals you need to get a firmer handle on, you might want to try creating a mastermind group. It doesn't have to be fancy or involve a lot of people. In fact, I recommend gathering only a few trusted friends or colleagues. Smaller groups are more nimble and focusing on fewer people can help prevent a sense of overwhelm. 

Here are a few tips for creating a group of your own:

• Determine the purpose of your group. Do you want to focus on general career development or do you need help bringing a specific project to fruition? It's helpful if each participant is interested in working in the same area. That way, strategies and tips for one person may be easily applied to others in the group. 

• Choose your participants wisely. When selecting people, consider things like temperament, communication skills, a spirit of reciprocity and accountability. Also make sure each person is committed to and capable of doing the work. Being supportive can sometimes be tough stuff and bringing the wrong people to the table could prove disastrous.

• Set the ground rules. Again, this doesn't have to be super fancy. No one suggests that you follow Robert's Rules of Order but everyone should be on the same page about what is expected of them so they'll know whether or not they can seriously commit to participating. Consider how often you'll meet and for how long? Will the group be together for a month, for three months, a year? It's up to you to decide.

• Have fun with it. The group should encourage and inspire each member. If it feels like a chore, you're probably not doing it right! Pursuing your dreams is not always easy but getting closer to living your dreams should feel really good!

Have you ever formed or been part of a mastermind group? Did it help you or was it a total disaster? Please share your story in the comments below. Here's a resource that provides more information about mastermind groups and how to do it right. Good luck!

8 Questions to Ask Before Getting a Creative Partner

Partners, collaborators and co-conspirators. We've all had them at one time or another even if it was only in grade school. You remember? Your running buddies! The people with whom you hatched elaborate schemes for fun or mischief or both. Drawn together by a common goal, you combined resources and brain power to make life more interesting and satisfying. It was good stuff even if the plans didn't always turn out perfectly. Succeed or fail, it was time well spent.

image via

Fast forward a few years. Your schoolhouse schemes have graduated and become artistic visions and business plans. Gone are the days of doing things just for the fun of it. You now have a direction and a mission, a career to build. Still, sometimes you long for the days of having a comrade in arms and you consider getting a creative partner. Great! It could be as it was before. Shared resources, shared brain power, big dreams realized!

Hold on, not so fast.

Creative partnerships are huge undertakings and as an artist, you must carefully consider all the possible triumphs and pitfalls before deciding to join forces with another. More so than in other professions, as an artist, your work product is deeply personal as it is both a reflection of you and a part of you. So if you're thinking about combining your creative mojo with that of another, let's consider a few things first.