“It’s just Me, Myself, and I”…
…and so goes the chorus of the popular 1989 single “Me, Myself, and I” from rap legends De La Soul. Whether or not you’re familiar with the song, you certainly are familiar with that feeling of being the only dependable person in your group, your team, or your office. As most sports teams will tell you, “there is no I in team”. That adage sounds acceptable when it comes to a recreational game of baseball or football. However, how necessary is a team when it comes to launching your dream? Do you really need others to make your idea or business a reality?
Well, it’s important to note that the Do It Yourself (or DIY) movement has great merit. It reminds you that you don’t need a corporate machine to live out your dream. If you have the passion, desire, and drive, you have what you need to get the process started. However, you WILL need the help of friends, loved ones, and ultimately customers if you carry an entrepreneurial spirit.
I speak as a voice of experience. Since my days in elementary school, I’ve always desired to somehow be involved in the music business. Whether as an artist or a radio personality, I knew that in some way, shape, or form, I’d find a home in the industry.
After spending five years in terrestrial radio, I suddenly found myself without a home to share my musical gift. In that moment, I faced the proverbial fork in the road. Would I abandon the dream of being involved specifically in radio again or would I begin to look at other opportunities? You must understand that, at that moment in 2009, there were few opportunities to share my gift in terrestrial radio locally. So walking away certainly seemed like an option.
However, an idea and vision inside of me wouldn’t allow me to close the door on the dream. So, with no team and no financial backing, it was time to make the dream a reality and launch my own radio station.
Certainly, a terrestrial radio station had its own challenges associated with it. However, an Internet radio station in any genre in 2009 was still a very NEW idea. While new, it was also far more cost effective to begin and left me the opportunity to create a media platform the way I had always dreamed. Hence, September 2009, my baby was born, known to the world as Bonnerfide Radio!
First things first. You CAN kick start your dream on your own. Simply look in your hand. You’ll find that you have more resources around you than you can imagine. Believe it or not, all of your work experiences have prepared you to launch your dream.
Be creative. The website that we have today for our radio station is far different than the site we launched with. However, it’s better to launch with something and grow into the size of your dream than to have everything and miss the opportunity that lies in the present.
Regardless of the dream, you will absolutely need to employ the Internet. Look within your field of interest to determine how the Internet will best serve you.
One tip I can definitively share with you is to grow your social media presence. As an Internet radio station, our audience was found in one place. The Internet!! What better place to find listeners on the Internet than social media!
I tell people ALL the time that we literally grew our business on Facebook and Twitter. Back in September of 2009, I had about 500 Twitter followers and around 1,000 Facebook friends. Fast forward to the present and, between my personal and business accounts, we have over 25,000 Twitter followers and over 9,300 Facebook followers.
With the explosion of many additional social media outlets, there is still a LOT of ground to cover.
Last but not least, you WILL need a team. Ideally, your business or product will both supply a need and create a demand. Certainly, you can try to contain it yourself. However, your dream, if it’s worth its salt, is bigger than you and will require more than you for successful execution. Seek out people who share the same passion and direction for your vision.
Seek out people who are highly skilled in all areas. You cannot and should not be the smartest person on your team. You’re the visionary, so cast the vision. The team is there to carry your vision to places you couldn’t imagine.
It didn’t take long at ALL for a team to be sought out for our station. Things grew at a rapid pace and the expertise and skills of others became incredibly necessary. Thanks to them, we stand as one of the leaders in Internet radio in urban and inspirational genres.
So, if you’re sitting at a dead-end job that makes you unhappy, you have a few options. You can continue on the job and just collect a paycheck. That will pay the bills but it will not produce purpose. Your other option is to begin exploring the possibilities of the dream that’s inside of you. You were created to provide a unique gift or service to mankind. Explore it. Map it. Do It!!
Indeed, you CAN Do It Yourself, with a little bit of help!
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Gerard Bonner is an avid lover of life, love, music, and photography. Check out his work at getbonnerfide.com.