No Limitz 9 Week Blogging Challenge

Week 6 - Blogging By Dana Blayone

Fri, 02 Mar 2012 21:55:00 GMT

Hey everyone, ok update on the whole CYBER PR Challenge. You may have noticed that Week 5 is missing...well that's because I need a good hair day for that one!! Week 5's theme is Youtube, so I plan on having us girls do a video blog, but when ever we are together we're usually off and running to gigs, or doing our admin day (which we call music monday) in our grubbies and messy hair. So we are still planning on doing it on a music monday town day. That way we will look all smokin'....or at least decent hahaha!

So Week 6 is on Blogging! I'd have to say that this is the greatest part of the whole challenge that I've taken full advantage of. It was always a conflict...to blog or not to blog! Well the answer is...BLOG, BLOG, BLOG, BLOG! I'm learning that it is the most benefical thing you can do online. We have received so much more traffic on our site and its fun. If you're not over picky "don't let perfection stop your progress" is what I'm learning....just go for it!! Put in a few links, a couple of pics and talk about something you love. I actually love learning about stuff like this...because even though it seems overwhelming, when you realize its simple its like finding a treasure. So on top of it all Sherry & I have both started our own personal blogs. It's great cause its our own personal views and experiences which is new for us to send out to the worlds because we've always represented ourselves online as a duo with the same experiences. But we do so many different things on the aspects of music that the blogs give us a personal outlet.

http://danablayonesongwriter.wordpress.com/
http://sherrycrawfordsongwriter.wordpress.com/

Doing as much online to promote yourself and your dream is a necessity, but you also have to make sure that you pay attention to your local surroundings. No Limitz is now part of a Northern Alberta local marketing group called "ThinkLocalMarket.com" . We performed for their first networking Gala where we not only promoted our latest album "Hold That Thought" we were also promoting "HOUSE CONCERTS". We absoulutely love this growing and dynamic group for not only does it help promote products grown, created, produced, serviced, and given in Northern Alberta, but all the members try to help and promote each other. There's marketing courses, networking opoportunies, and you discover what's in your own back yard. You don't need to order stuff from Texas or some far off place, its probably made in the next town over. Remeber to try to discover opportunities around you, not only abroad. So if you want to discover some REALLY COOL STUFF just head over to www.thinklocalmarket.com and find it there!

Week 4 - Social Media - I've been twitterized

Thu, 16 Feb 2012 11:10:00 GMT

So OK, Im a little behind on the 9 week challenge. Look how hard I've been working :P. But actually, I'monly on blogging about it. Once I got through the chapter on week 4 I was happy to see that we have already been doing a lot of what has been asked. It pertains to the “Social Media” and we have had our No Limitz Facebook Page up and running for a while and just started our twitter page in October when we went to Whitehorse YK for the Breakoutwest.ca conference and Brian Thompson from Thorny Bleeder Records and The DIY Daily, had encouraged us and helped us through the process. We also have the beginnings of a lot of the social media necessities, so I’ve been in the process of updating and making the quality of our sites a bit better. I’ve also been weeding out our twitter account. I did a lot of following !! I was following almost 1000 people and it worked to get followers back, BUT it also was very lope sided too with 300 followers and 1000 following. I knew we needed “quality‘ followers otherwise I’d end up with a mess to clean up! So I went to my App store and found a program called “unfollowForTwitter” and was able to see who’s accounts were dormant and who was not following me back. After a few tries and experiments I decided to unfollow everyone who wasn’t following me back with the exception of certain folks and organizations that I wanted on my twitter account so I could tag them in my twitters and it would at least connect me to them via a back link. After that I went into my twitter account and followed everyone that was following me. “Its a good Karma thing”. I think I will do this process of following a hundred, wait a week to see who follows back, then clean up with an unfollow. Its a slow process, but it all takes time and patience. BTW... HIT the Twitter button above and follow us :) (and facebook for that matter :P)

I do have to admit...I’m enjoying all of this because 1. Its creative. 2. I’m learning new things 3. I’m seeing results in traffic to our sites already. And that is EXCITING!

WHAT I DIDN’T EXPECT!…. Was that I really enjoy blogging. Even though I haven’t been blogging too much on the 9 Week PR Challenge, I’ve been blogging about other things and people, AND both Sherry and I now have our own personal blogs. Check them out… danablayonesongwriter.wordpress.com and sherrycrawfordsongwriter.wordpress.com. And they are completely different but both based on music.

Well, next project is on Youtube. Which I expect to REALLY ENJOY. I really love marketing and exploring all these avenues as much as I love songwriter. By the way… I wrote a new song inbetween doing all this online work. And I’m really digging the groove of the song!!! Hmmmm maybe I’ll put it on Youtube for ya ;)

OK - I’m off. Everyone have a super and loving Family Day Weekend.

Hugs & Cheers

Dana xo

Big Hearts For Big Kids - Music Miracles

Mon, 13 Feb 2012 21:05:00 GMT

What a great night we had on Saturday night! Sherry & I attended for the Big Hearts For Big Kids which is a fundraiser for the Grande Prairie Emergency Youth Center that is actually the only one in Northern Alberta. The event last night was sold out by an enthusiastic crowd that laid their dollars out on the table and gave their hearts to their community to ensure kids in need have a safe place. An incredible $104,000 was raised last night and the look on all the volunteers faces last night including the tears of joy in Tenille’s eyes were like magic. This is the third year we as No Limitz have attended the event that Tenille is the creator, organizer, hostess, and miracle worker of. The first year we were on stage performing, the second and third year youcould not haveheld us back even though we were not on stage, we went out on the floor and rolled up our sleeves and helped make money for such a worthy cause. With Michelle Wright, Jason Blaine, Willie Mack, Jake Mathews, Pear, Wendell Ferguson and of course Tenille gracing the stage it was an evening of amazing entertainment. You see sometimes music isn’t about sitting down with your guitar to write a song, or to sing to a crowd, or go dance to a band. Music brings people together to make miracles happen. To heal communities, lift hearts, to celebrate life of those around us. Music is a small drop of magic that can change the world.

The Return of PRMICSW - 2012

Tue, 07 Feb 2012 09:20:00 GMT

Well today Sherry & I announced the return of the Peace Region Music Industry Conference - Showcase & Workshop for the 5th Year. I have to admit that we really had no intention of putting on a workshop this year, but there was no way we could refuse all the requests from our Music Industry supporters, local artists and community. Just the thought of PRMICSW not happening made everyone feel very unsettled and a little bit like they lost a home. It does feel pretty darn good to know how much of an impact our vision of creating a stronger music industry though a weekend music conference & songwriters workshop made not only with in our community, but within the whole music industry. Everyone thought we were crazy to take a break when we did because it grew very quickly with a reputation of a dynamic and high quality workshop that resulted in so many “artist success stories”. The reason we wanted to “break” was because, we were putting our own songwriting career on the back burner because we were too busy focusing on the workshop. That tends to happen when you have a big budget to fill and a lot of people depending on you. And the workshop was getting too big to create the quality impact we wanted. PLUS… we wanted to empower the local artists to get them involved in their own local music scene and start making things happen! Well... mission accomplished there! It was really nice to see the musical buzz sustain throughout the year. So, with many irons in the fire this year for No Limitz, and with a few changes to PRMICSW Weekend we will once again plan for a magnificent weekend with Duane Steele & Robbie Josh Gwilliam returning for the 5th year, and introducing Blair Packham from Toronto, Ontario representing SAC. Head over to WWW.PRMICSW.COM to get all the nitty gritty details. And have a fabulous day!

Cheers
Dana

p.s. Now Im off to go work on Week 4 for the 9 WEEK CHALLENGE OF ONLINE MARKETING....Did I mention everyone else is on Week 5! hahaha :P
Blog ya later :)

Week 3 - WEBSITES and applying our No Limitz Pitch

Fri, 03 Feb 2012 06:35:00 GMT

Well I have to admit, that I didn't really follow through with the week 3 plan just yet. Lots of deadlines were pending this week. We applied for a grant to have some demos produced (cross your fingers for us please!) and well.....there is an announcement on the rise.... eek! I just can't quit spill the beans yet! But stay tuned on our No Limitz Facebook Page and some of the other groups we have. If you are on our emailing list you will also be the first ones to know! I'm digging the new No Limitz pitch of "The No Limitz singer/songwriter duo, Dana Blayone & Sherry Crawford create a mixture of emotions with their songwriting skills and blended harmonies that have been compared to the likes of Blue Rodeo, kd lang and Alison Krauss". We have also had comments that we sound like the Judds & Sweethearts of the Rodeo, which is a total honor, but its hard to fit everyone one you sound like into a 10 second saying. Week 2 was a success! Even though I haven't quite gotten through the Week three plan, Im excited to say that I attended the Think Local Market Online Marketing sessions with David A West. Lets just say I am excitely overwhelmed!!! I learnt so many wonderful and exciting things that I can tap into online I feel like a kid in a candy store. One thing I really learnt was "the most important thing to do is BLOG". Sounds intimidating but....it works!! So... if you want more exposure online... BLOG BLOG BLOG. Well I will keep you posted on how we are "Creating Our Own Success" ( haha where have you heard that before???? :P) Ta ta for now ! Dana

WEEK 2 - The No Limitz Pitch

Mon, 23 Jan 2012 21:00:00 GMT

So the challenge for this week is “THE PITCH” which is telling someone who we are and what we sound like in 15 seconds. It was a really good exercise for us and was much overdue because we have grown so much as songwriters and as a band. The last pitch we had was “Joan Jett meets the Judd’s at at Dixie Chicks concert” covering rock, pop, country with strong harmonies. I guess we settled on that because its so hard to compare yourselves to someone when you're not exactly like them and play such a wide variety of genres. The difficulty we had is that No Limitz has two completely different sides to it. The songwriting/singing duo that has this folk country pop sound to it, and the dance band that plays covers ranging from country, classic rock, oldies rock and some originals mixed in between. We quickly realized that we needed to market what we actually provide online and that would be our original music. So we are focusing on our primary goal and main passion.... being songwriters. It was a little bit easier this time around working on our pitch because we have had so much more exposure to industry members and fans and put ourselves out there to be critiqued by some of the best (which is always incredibly nerve racking!) and came out with wonderful results when it came to both our songwriting and our harmonies. So we used their words and comparisons and blended them into a pitch that felt close to who we are as songwriters. So here’s a “draft” of our pitch. I think it will still be a work in progress for a little while yet, but I feel better about this pitch especially with the production and feel of our new album “Hold That Thought”. BTW... it is available on the “OUR MUSIC” page ;) Feel free to download one of our free songs too! Thanks for reading and have a great week with No Limitz!

THE NO LIMITZ PITCH
The No Limitz singer/songwriter duo, Dana Blayone & Sherry Crawford create a mixture of emotions with their songwriting skills and blended harmonies that have been compared to the likes of Blue Rodeo, kd lang and Alison Krauss.

Let me know what you think, I’d love to hear your ideas on who you think we sound like.

Cheers
Dana

WEEK 1 - The challenge is GOAL SETTING! By Dana Blayone

Mon, 16 Jan 2012 21:40:00 GMT

Well I guess I’m kind of lucky that I’ve always set goals for my dreams since I was quite young. I became a planner’s assistant as a teenager and had a great boss who taught me “goals without a plan are only dreams”. And that job turned me into the “planning control freak” that I am today. :) A goal of mine for the past few years is to “Calm the control freak within” and there is much more peace in my life now that I’m learning to recognize things that I should let slide and things I need to focus on. Sherry is a great balance for me for when I start going overboard on the “freak” part (hahaha). We have an awesome working relationship and an amazing friendship. We are living our dream right now as singer/songwriters with a band in demand which involves the best group of guys you could ever ask for as bandmates,(but we call them our brothers). We have a great team! We also get to travel and co-write with some incredible songwriters and artists, and have the honor to be part of someone else’s dream and watch our songs come alive through them. We've achieved all this with alot of positive energy, thinking outside the box, following through on our tasks and goals... and not expecting results overnight. You can’t force a garden to grow. If you know that you planted some good strong quality seed, nurture it, weed it, expose it to some rain, and be patient, something amazing will happen! We call it the "No Limitz Vortex"!

The up coming goals we have for this year are simple yet difficult because life and administration get in the way.

Daily Goal:
Write or practice something everyday! The tasks...
Pick up my guitar and play. Simple hey! Well sometimes...I have little kids, two jobs, and I volunteer teaching guitar at my kids school twice a week. But all of this creates writing fuel. Sometimes I get in a couple hours at night, sometimes its only 10 minutes. I do what I can and don't worry about if I miss a day. Its about positive energy.

Weekly Goal:
1- Co-write at least once a week. The tasks…
Book them! Arrange with artists and co-writers a day to write a month in advance, and with technology today we are writing via Skype. We are looking forward to this week’s writing session with one of our favorite songwriters in Nashville, Tim Taylor. We have written some amazing songs with him so far and are always excited to see what masterpiece we will create next.
2 - Watch TV at least once a week. The tasks…
(Weird I know!) This is call research & development for music placement in TV/Film. In order to submit songs to music supervisors you need to know what they are working on and the kind of music they want for certain shows. So its research… then network! Its hard to watch TV after a full day of work, kids, practice...bed.
3- Write a BLOG
This is new for me! A little nerve racking cause anybody can read this (and my grammer usually needs a little help at times hahaha)...But life is about taking a few risks! So here I go!

Yearly Goal:
Record eight new demos by the end of the year. The tasks…
1) Write great songs!… (this is covered in weekly goals) plus we have quite a few in the pot already!
2)Money!... Fill grant applications by the deadline. Get more gigs to pay for new songs. Sell more albums...btw check out OUR MUSIC and feel free to buy a song or two ;)

Lifetime Goal:
Be Happy
Surround ourselves with amazing people, treasure and love our friends and family, be true to ourselves, and most importantly...HAVE FUN!

So this is just a few of our plans, cause if you seen the million other things that we do outside of this...I could go on FOREVER. We need to be careful what we wish for because living in the No Limitz Vortex… “thoughts are things”, and we need to be sure we are ready for opportunities when we come!

I wish you all an awesome week with No Limitz!

Cheers!
Dana

Pre-9 week Challenge

Wed, 11 Jan 2012 04:50:00 GMT

Dana's Blog - Tue. Jan 10/12 The reason I wanted to do this 9 week blogging challenge with Ariels PR Mastermind Program is because the best way I learn is by jumping into the water and needing a reason to swim. There are so many different medias out there and there is so little time. So I figured if I dedicate 9 weeks to learning a proven system...pushing myself out of the comfort zone and learn some new things and enhance the things l already know...WHY NOT! This blog will be "two for one" since Sherry & I are doing the challenge together. So sometimes you will hear from me, sometimes from her, and alot of the times from both of us together :) The WEEK 1 Challenge is setting goals. For No Limitz its important that Sherry & I "write down" our goals (cause there are alot of them) and decide which ones we should be focusing on. We will share some of these goals with you and you can follow our success... (Does that sound bold) haha! Well when it come to Sherry & I, we "Dream Big", think alike, and usually acheive the task at hand no matter how big. PLUS we love watching the outcome slowly unfold in the days that follow after we reach one of our goals cause an action creates a re-action and so on. So I look forward to this new blogging endeavor! Stay tuned... D