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Your Future: Trending Up

Thursday, June 2nd, 2011

“If you build it, they will come” was the mantra in the 1989 baseball classic, Field of Dreams staring the incomparable Kevin Costner. Finest actor of our day, IMHO.

Well, our mantra at Velvet Singer is that “If you can see it, you can improve it.” Say it with me — “If you can SEE it, you can IMPROVE it.” That is the truth.

Do you believe that? Do you believe that one of the barriers between you and success is simply clarity and understanding?

Automatic Trends Email

I am so excited about this new feature that I built earlier this week that I am not even waiting until it is released before announcing it. Because we overhauled the Trends module in the last update (v2.9.2) it is was a simple step to add an automatic email report.

Now whenever you log out of Velvet Singer, you will get a clean and clear snapshot of where you stand and where you are headed:

  • Are you performing more often?
  • Are you making more money?
  • Are you learning new arias?
  • Are you singing more lessons?
  • Are you faithfully journaling?
  • Are you networking more regularly?

And so you will have clarity on where you stand and can spur yourself along to greatness.

Need accountability? No problem! Because the report will be a nicely formatted HTML email, you can forward it along to your teacher, friends, family or supporters to involve them in your journey.

Look for this and much more in the next release!

Here is what the full Email report looks like:


Velvet Singer

www.velvetsinger.com

James Testdata

lyric baritone
 
Session Update

as of 6/1/2011 10:12:28 AM

Summary

During this session, I added records to the following tables:

Journal

673 total

10 new entries

Auditions

274 total

1 new audition

Contacts

274 total

5 new contacts

Repertoire

114 total

1 new record

Finances

283 total

6 new transactions

Email

633 total

No new emails

Projects

61 total

No new projects

Events

739 total

21 new events

 
 
 
Trends Update

Journal

Trending

Average

Journal Line Items

Up ↑

150 journal line items per season.

1346 journal line items in 9 seasons.

16 journal line items per month.

673 journal line items in 42 months.

Journal Forms

Down ↓

31 journal form entries per season.

153 journal form entries in 5 seasons.

4 journal form entries per month.

162 journal form entries in 42 months.

 

Audition

Trending

Average

All Auditions

Up ↑

39 auditions researched per season.

274 auditions in 7 seasons.

All Sent Applications

Down ↓

19 applications sent per season.

134 applications in 7 seasons.

2 applications sent per month.

134 applications in 70 months.

All Sung Auditions

Up ↑

9 auditions sung per season.

54 auditions in 6 seasons.

 

Contact

Trending

Average

New Colleague / Peer

Up ↑

22 new colleagues entered per calendar year.

112 new colleagues in 5 calendar years.

All New Contacts

Down ↓

55 new contacts entered per calendar year.

274 new contacts in 5 calendar years.

5 new contacts entered per month.

274 new contacts in 51 months.

New VIP Contact

Up ↑

11 new important contacts entered per calendar year.

55 new important contacts in 5 calendar years.

 

Repertoire

Trending

Average

Solo Repertoire

Up ↑

6 audition selections learned per season.

37 audition selections in 6 seasons.

Role / Work

Down ↓

5 roles learned per season.

21 roles in 4 seasons.

 

Finance

Trending

Average

Income

Up ↑

$13,924 in income per calendar year.

$55,698 in income over 4 calendar years.

$1,547 in income per month.

$55,698 in income over 36 months.

Profit

Up ↑

$11,732 in profit per calendar year.

$46,928 in profit over 4 calendar years.

$1,311 in profit per month.

$46,928 in profit over 36 months.

Expense

Down ↓

$2,192 in expense per calendar year.

$8,769 in expense over 4 calendar years.

$230 in expense per month.

$8,769 in expense over 38 months.

 

Project

Trending

Average

All Projects

Up ↑

14 projects added per season.

56 projects in 4 seasons.

 

Event

Trending

Average

All Events

Up ↑

106 events totaling 198 hours per season.

739 events totaling 1384 hours in 7 seasons.

12 events totaling 22 hours per month.

739 events totaling 1384 hours in 64 months.

Voice Lesson

Up ↑

1 voice lesson totaling 1 hour per month.

33 voice lessons totaling 30 hours in 38 months.

Performance

Down ↓

27 performances totaling 76 hours per season.

109 performances totaling 304 hours in 4 seasons.

Voice Lesson

Up ↑

8 voice lessons totaling 7 hours per season.

33 voice lessons totaling 30 hours in 4 seasons.

Coaching

Down ↓

21 coachings totaling 20 hours per season.

83 coachings totaling 80 hours in 4 seasons.

2 coachings totaling 2 hours per month.

83 coachings totaling 80 hours in 37 months.

Practice / Vocalizing

Up ↑

7 practice sessions totaling 8 hours per season.

29 practice sessions totaling 32 hours in 4 seasons.

1 practice session totaling 1 hour per month.

29 practice sessions totaling 32 hours in 35 months.

Teaching

Down ↓

1 lesson taught totaling 1 hour per calendar year.

4 lessons totaling 4 hours in 3 calendar years.

0 lessons taught totaling 0 hour per month.

4 lessons totaling 4 hours in 26 months.
 

©2011 Velvet Singer, LLC. Chicago, IL 60640
www.velvetsinger.com
All rights reserved.


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Importing Repertoire from Excel

Thursday, May 26th, 2011

Have you worked hard on maintaining your lists of repertoire in electronic format and now you want to bring those in to Velvet Singer?

It is simple:

    1. Go to Repertoire module
    2. File menu / Import Records / File…
    3. Select an Excel file to import
    4. Match the fields
    5. Check “perform auto-enter”

I absolutely love that people are thinking about this. That means that they really get how powerful it is to have everything gathered together in one spot, and want to come up with cool ways to make it all as easy as possible.

If you would like, you can download and use this Repertoire Import Excel Template that I whipped up. It has five columns of data: Title, Work, Role, Composer and Language. You can also create or modify your own Excel to contain that basic information.

The Details

Here are some more details for those that would like to play at home:

1. Go to Repertoire module

You will be importing data into the Repertoire module, so it is imperative that you navigate to any Repertoire layout before triggering the import. It will become obvious as you get to the field matching screen if your target is anything other than Repertoire.

You can import into the Detail or the List Repertoire layout, there is no difference.

2. File menu / Import Records / File…

From the menu drop down, select to import records from a File. You’ll notice that you can actually import from a variety of sources. Another popular option is the tab-delimited source. That works just fine too.

3. Select an Excel file to import

Of course, before you import the Excel file with your data, you may want to do a little clean up work. For example, Composers in VS are only last name (except in the case of duplicate last names such as J. Strauss). Also, you may not have inputted information into all five suggested fields (Title, Work, Role, Composer, Language), such as the Language field. In this case, you can either do data entry in Excel before the import or in VS after the import. Whichever you prefer.

Download the Excel Template.

4. Match the fields

There are a variety of ways that you can match the fields in the source (Excel) to those of the destination (VS). If you have your columns labeled in Excel exactly matching the field names in VS, then you can first:

    a) check the box “Don’t import first record (contains field names),” then
    b) arrange by Matching Fields.

Otherwise, you can manually align the data on the left with the fields on the right. Do not worry about leaving fields blank, especially such as field names that you do not recognize such as z_recCreateAccountName. These are developer fields and will fill in automatically.

5. Check “perform auto-enter”

Important: You must check this box as you click Import. The system will assign each of the new Repertoire records a unique ID. Without this ID, your Repertoire will not be able to “relate” to other data such as your Journal or Auditions. They would be entirely anti-social, which is not the spirit of Velvet!

Lastly, you will want to scroll through each record and manually input the Category and Type within Velvet Singer.

Thank you for your curiosity and enthusiasm for this feature!

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E-Workbook is Here — v2.9.2

Wednesday, May 11th, 2011

We have been holding on to this release for quite some time, trying out the new E-Workbook in seminars throughout the country. Tweaking, building and refining what we think is an excellent add-on to Velvet Singer.

After automatically downloading the newest update, v2.9.2, you can open up the Workbook add-on from the Main Menu.

This is an entirely separate file (the first add-on that we have released) and it is a very feature rich application of its own. We may even begin to sell it as a separate product. For our current customers? Free!

From the E-Workbook menu, you can open up the workbook for either of our Seminars:

- Seminar A: Organization / Goal Setting
- Seminar B: Business Plan

There is tons of information and TLC poured into both, but we think the Business Plan workbook functions really well as a stand-alone application.

The Bottom Line: Persuasion and Communication

The Workbooks walk you through everything you need to know, helping you generate rich and persuasive prose. For example, rather than trying to describe your values from scratch, you can first pick from a list of 39 common values.

E-mail Reports

From the Business Plan menu you can generate two types of reports, opening them in your web browser to print or preparing an HTML email to your family, friends, teachers and supporters. You can also Resume your workbook from the last page you edited, Backup your data, Submit your data to our compilation project or Clear all of your previous responses.

The E-Mail report allows you to send a beautiful and colorful HTML report directly from the system with no setup required.

Customize your message to request feedback and direction, or make an appeal for direct financial report. The more you involve your stakeholders, the more they will support you.

Business Plans

Your business plan will arrive with professional and colorful styling. It will contain copious amounts of valuable information, yet it will also be well organized and readable.

Velvet Singer business plans contain the following information:

  • Executive summary
  • Mission
  • Vision
  • Values
  • Current approach
  • Entrepreneurship strengths / weaknesses
  • Product strengths / weaknesses
  • Positioning / branding
  • Ambitions
  • Financial outlook
  • Risks analysis
  • Strategy
  • Five year plan
  • Priorities
  • To do list

Trends Module

Rebuilt and optimized to show you only the best information without any setup required on your part, the trends module is completely prefabricated and ready-made. Simply navigate to the Trends module from the main menu, and the system will compile your data. Click around, learn and share.

From each Trend record, you can see composite information describing your progress. For example, this singer has been doing about coachings per month.

View your profitability over the years or show the same data broken out into months. You can also drill down into income or expenses.

Trend reports gather high level data so you can analyze them together or share them with your professional contacts.

This report show a singers has researched 273 auditions, sent out 134 applicat

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Sync Multiple Computers to the Cloud

Wednesday, April 20th, 2011

You have probably heard a bit about the “cloud” and “cloud computing?”

Windows and Mac users now have an even easier way to use Velvet Singer on multiple computers. Windows Live Mesh, Dropbox.com and a few other computer syncing services work great to keep you all perfectly put together.

Go to either website to download the service. Essentially what it does is carve out a new folder(s) that sync to the cloud. Place Velvet Singer entirely within a syncing folder. You still run the software directly on your computer and don’t lose any of that rich software-like feature set, yet changes to your data will be ready and waiting for you when you begin work on your other computer. Simple as that.

Watch this You Tube video to learn more about Windows Live Mesh or click here to learn more about Dropbox. According to my customers, they both work great!

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From Your Resume Into Velvet Singer

Thursday, March 24th, 2011

I have gotten asked many times what is the best way to get started. I often recommend to start slowly, and to just focus on developing a regular pattern of checking in. Chip away at it and don’t stress yourself out.

For those of you who, as I do, sometimes like to jump into things with more of a splash, I would recommend that you start with your resume. Print it out so you have it right in front of you and carve out about fifteen to twenty minutes to pipe in some data. In entering your resume data and “velvetizing it,” you will have made a very strong step toward becoming organized and empowered.

Projects and Repertoire

Likely each line item on your resume will become both a Project and a Repertoire record. Create the Project and Repertoire records first. Then the trick is to link the Projects and the Repertoire together, which you can do from either the Repertoire or Project layouts by clicking the “plus” icon.

  • For example, Prince Karl Franz from The Student Prince is now an active role in my Repertoire, and Light Opera Works, Student Prince 2011 is an active project in the 2010-2011 season.
  • Mozart requiem is a “role” in my Repertoire that I used on the complete Project “Virginia Glee Club, 2011″ and which I hope to use again.

Contacts

Next add your professional contacts from your resume. Simple.

Vocal Study as Projects

Lastly, setup your active voice teacher and active coach as new Projects. I typically call Projects like these something like “Michael Lessons” or “Coachings with Alan.” You may also want to link your professional contact with your Project (which can be done from either Contacts or Projects using the plus icon on the Members tab).

You are on your way!

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Version 2.8 — Personalized and Branded

Thursday, December 30th, 2010

This is arguably our biggest release to date! It is so big, we almost thought to call it 3.0, but we have some even bigger things planned so we couldn’t quite go there yet.

Enjoy and Happy New Year!

Branded Reports

We are thrilled to release this powerful feature: branded reports. Currently this branding applies to the Audition “repertoire selections” report — so when you print your rep list for your next audition, you can make it look just like your resume.

You can customize the font, size, bold, italics, add a headshot or add your own customized header logo image.

Navigate to the Main Menu, Settings, “Edit Branding and Resume Information”.

Now that we have this, think of what else might be on the horizon! If you can brand your rep list, why not use Velvet Singer to create your resume? More to come on that.

“Favorite” Reports

You can easily flag any report as a “favorite”, and even personalize the name of the report. We have started to build so many reports, that it is finally becoming necessary to be able to sift through and get to just what you need.

You will notice that we started you off with a few of our favorites. These reports are likely to be useful to you as well, so click through and to get a sense of what they each provide insight into.

Dashboard Menu and Totals

The top menu now has another menu item called “Dashboard.” We thought of calling it “Quick Menu” or “Quick Find” because we are convinced this feature will really help you do things faster.

Also, the Dashboard Menu (ie. the new thing) as well as the Dashboard layout, now display total record counts (including total dollar amounts for the Finance module). This is hugely powerful! That means that you can get a quick snapshot of how much you have been singing, how much money you have earned from your church job, or where your Auditions stand, just by looking up at this menu drop-down.

This should make reporting more powerful too:
1) Select your report
2) Use the Dashboard Menu to limit the records

Simple as that!

Three Contact Categories

The Contacts module now has a few new powerful ways you can group your contacts, making it more powerful than ever to invest the time in documenting your network.

Using the Category field, you can set which of the three primary ways you relate to this contact:

  • Professionally,
  • for Artistic Development, or
  • Personally.

Your contact might be a “VIP Contact” (in the Type field), but you primarily rely on them for your artistic development (coach or teacher) not for getting a job. Now you can more accurately record the nature of your relationship, and it will all be sitting there waiting for you when you need it.

Also, our professional contacts often have multiple jobs, so now you can mark up to three as this example shows. The information will appear on all reports and based on any Quick Find you run.

IPA Source

www.ipasource.com is a fantastic resource for singers, and now you can access it directly from within Velvet Singer. You may login to your IPA Source account or purchase songs “a-la-carte.”

From any Repertoire record, simply navigate to the Web Page layout, and toggle to the IPA Source option. That will search to see if your aria or song is among the thousands that IPA Source translates.

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