Countdown: 1820 days left

Blog members: 11

Facebook friends: 181

Well we're not quite at the end of my first week as a blogger because I started on a Sunday, but I decided that I was not going to blog during weekends (I need breaks too!) so today I am going to do a little recap on my first week completed! 

I started from scratch and now have 11 blog members, although not sure how many of them actually go and read my blog haha. I already had lots of Facebook friends before this blogging adventure, but I was able to add quite a few with the answers I got from my posts all over Facebook. In the last few days, I made very interesting contacts, got great suggestions, reconnected with people I hadn't spoken to in a while... so far blogging is a very pleasant experience!

Today I went playing pool with a few friends, and I met some people I didn't know before. Believe it or not, one of them actually mentionned my blog! Wow!! It really motivates me to keep going :) 

As for the online world, someone suggested me to register my blog at Queer Blogs Canada, thank you Nadine for the advice!! I'm so grateful that people are really trying to help me. I also had a message from someone who would like to start jamming with me, could be lots of fun!

I have to tell you that I just started my summer vacation today and am returning home to Jonquière (the most beautiful city in Québec) for one week and then my parents are coming over to Ottawa. I may not be able to post very often in the next two weeks, but as soon as my vacation is over I will start typing up new posts regularly again, I promise!

Hope everyone is doing great!

Countdown: 1821 days left

Blog members: 11

Facebook friends: 175

Big change today, I slightly modified the background of my blog, I thought the previous one was a little bit boring, hope you like it! :)

I've heard back from Chrisy, I won't go through all the details of what she said but I did mention to her that I am organizing a concert in October (more on that in a few minutes). Here is my favourite part of Chrisy's message to me : "Send me more info on the concert when you have it and I can help you with promoting the crap out of it. haha" What a cool girl!!

So like I said, I am organizing a fundraiser in Ottawa!! I won't give you the date yet because it's not quite confirmed. For those interested in knowing how to organize a concert,  here are the steps to follow (I've done it last year, so I know :)

1) Find a venue. My method: Send an e-mail to every single possible location. If you're doing something similar to the concert I'm organizing, tell them in your e-mail about your interest in organizing a concert. Ask if your date is available, ask for the price, and make your decision when you have all the information from all the places. In my case, since I'm such a debutante and I don't know what the heck I'm doing, it's better to go with a place that comes with a sound technician so that he can take care of all the details like setting up microphones, making sure the volume is good, etc. Last year, my concert took place at the University of Ottawa. They have a music department so they have really good concert rooms.

2) Find a cause. That sounds easier than it actually is! But this is an important step because if you are going to organize and especially advertise a fundraiser, you have to let the organization know because I really don't think you can use their name without their approval. I was quite surprised last year because one of the organizations I approached wanted to turn my event into a strip club kind of thing where the performers remove pieces of clothes if people in the audience give money... I am totally not doing that! Another one of the organizations never answered my message when I offered them to do a fundraiser for them... guess they didn't need the money... Anyways, if you're organizing a fundraiser, don't think this step is the easiest because you might be surprised!

3) Advertise. Well last year I did a pretty crappy job at that and pretty much all my audience were friends and family. I'm not saying that friends and family are not awesome but it's good to get a few more people as well... I don't have any advice for anyone on that right now but I'm sure Chrisy is going to give me a hand and I'll have plenty of things to say about that closer to October!

This coming fundraiser will have other performers as well (not just me) and I've been sending out e-mails to potential performers a few weeks ago, and I sent a few more today. By bringing more performers, it brings variety to the event. By having variety, I think there's more chance that people will find something they like, which means they will come back for the next fundraiser or next concert you organize. Now you will probably ask me where I find the other performers... You would be surprised to know how many of your friends have talents you were not aware of! One of my friends in Ottawa is an AMAZING opera singer, and I know a few more who play guitar or dance... So just send out e-mails, even to people you're not that close with, because that might be an excellent opportunity to get to know them better.

Your own dream might not be to make music, but I really want to prove to you that regardless what your dream is, you just need to work on it, to get closer to it. Believe me, with a little bit of steady effort, there is nothing you cannot do. 

Countdown: 1822 days left

Blog members: 10
Facebook friends: 173

Today I decided to increase my blog's popularity by posting the link for it on Facebook groups I belong to. I'm trying to share my music with the world, but there are so many things that need to be done that it's hard to tell whether I'm starting with the right steps or whether I'm acting like a chicken without its head, running in random directions... I know I should create a MySpace profile, play more guitar, learn new songs, write lyrics, practice piano, write in my blog, send messages, but I don't know what to do first...

The idea behind putting up an announcement on the groups I belong to was that if I am a member of these Facebook groups, that means I have a common interest with the other members, that means there may be some people there who would be interested in my blog! For example, on the group page of the Songwriter Association of Canada, I wrote:

"Hello, I just thought I would share my new blog with you, it might be of interest to someone in this group. I am a singer-songwriter whose goal is to become famous in 1825 days! Check it out at www.claudielarouche.blogspot.c​om"

I left approximately the same message in three or four other places. After about 5 minutes I started getting some feedback (amazing how quick people are on the keyboard!) First of all an acquaintance of mine who wasn't my Facebook friend before (Chrisy) spotted my announcement and sent me a message to say that she has many contacts in the music business in Ottawa. She said she was willing to help if I need it, how nice! Here's my advice of the day for everyone: always keep a good relationship with everyone who crosses your path, because you never know who is going to turn out to be a key person to help you reach your goals!

A few minutes after Chrisy's message I got another one, someone replied to my announcement on the Songwriter Association of Canada saying:

"Why not focus on writing great songs? Fame is not the reward, nor should it be the motivator."

Oops, sounds like not everyone agrees with my methods of self-advertisement :) Well to make a long story short, we exchanged a few messages, she became my Facebook friend, and she sent me the link to her MySpace. Check it out guys she has an absolutely amazing voice! I especially loved the first and the last song. By the way I'll be sharing other artist's links when I find good ones, I really want to help other emerging artists get known!

And finally as I was writing this post, I made another new Facebook friend because of the announcements I left earlier (hello Laboni!)

I think we can say that today was another very successful day, thank you everyone for your ongoing support! And now I'm going to send a little message to Chrisy, I hope she will be able to help me! :)

Countdown: 1823 days left

Blog members: 9

Tonight I had an amazing evening! I thought this was just going to be a socializing event but I actually met a very talented young man, here's what happened:

One of my colleagues invited me to her place for coffee around 7 PM, her nephew arrived from Serbia recently. He is my age and he is spending 2 months in Ottawa so she wanted to introduce me to him. It turns out that the guy is an absolutely amazing pianist (I'm so jealous). He played one Serbian song that was totally awesome. I'll ask him to send me the Youtube link so you can hear it, hopefully the real one sounds just as good as the way he was singing it. I asked him if he knew any Beatles song and he started to play "Imagine", with a few mistakes here and there, but it actually turned out that it was the very first time he played that song... He just figured it out on the spot, I am soooooo impressed... So anyways he ended up showing me a few videos of Serbian songs on Youtube, and I decided to show him the Youtube video of one of my compositions (this one). So he listened for a few verses, and then he started giving me some comments and how I could improve the song, that was so cool! He is really knowledgeable in music (probably much more than I will ever be) so I can't wait to get together with him again and get some good advices! He also said he liked the song and was going to put it up on his Facebook page tonight. He's starting my fanclub in Serbia lol, that's fabulous ;)

So that was the excitement of the day! I got a few more blog members today so I'm quite happy about it, if I keep getting one or two people every day I will have 3650 members by the end of my 5 years, that would be pretty good :)

Oh and I also reached the 100 views on the Youtube video I was mentionning above, yahoo!!

Have a good evening everyone!

Countdown: 1824 days left

Blog members: 7

I was so excited this morning! My blog had 4 members when I woke up, thumbs up for Facebook! We're at 7 now, awesome! So I would like to welcome the new members, and I also have a special mention for Maxime Paquet, my very first blog subscriber. You're the best!

So Maxime being an amazing friend, he actually forwarded the link of my blog to his friends, and one of them pointed out that I should create an artist page on Facebook, which I could link to my blog. I thought that was a very good idea, so I spent a few hours at Starbucks tonight creating my artist page. I also took some time to write up a biography with my friend's help, I'm so happy with it, sounds super professional :)

Claudie Larouche was born in Jonquière, Québec, where she spent all her youth. Following in her father's footsteps, she picked up the guitar at age 17 and started writing her own songs early on. She has participated in several contests and open mic nights, winning second place at the regional contest "Université en Spectacle" in Chicoutimi, Québec, in 2008. Claudie is constantly looking for opportunities to perform, whether it is at local BBQs, for a group of friends or for a good cause. Among other things, she organized, in December 2011, a fundraising event in which she and several of her friends performed, raising close to $600 for Ten Oaks Projects, a non-profit organization whose goal is to help children and youth from LGBTQ communities. Now living in Ottawa since 2008, Claudie is slowly building her fan base in the country's capital region, performing in coffee shops and at local events.

 

So all this time spent on doing not that much after all... It's going to take lots more effort than I thought to expand my presence on the web and become famous!

Introduction

Hello my name is Claudie Larouche! One night on July 24th 2011, I couldn't sleep and decided to create this blog. Here is the idea: Right now, I'm a nobody, but in 1825 days, I will be famous. This blog will keep track of all the steps I am taking in order to make this goal reality. I am a singer-songwriter, I play the guitar and write my own songs, and that's how I intend on becoming famous!

So here is the situation. I'm 25 years old, and I have a permanent position at the Canadian Food Inspection Agency (CFIA) in Ottawa. I have performed in the past (both in Ottawa and in Jonquière, where I'm from) although not in front of huge crowds so I'm pretty much starting from scratch in my famous-ness. Here is a picture of me:

Not the prettiest girl in the world, as you can see, so I cannot use my amazing beauty to become scandalously famous, but that is definitely not gonna stop me! Right now this blog has zero members, and I have two Youtube videos, this one which is a cover of Father and Son by Cats Stevens (45 views as of July 24, 2011) and this one which is a song I wrote for a contest at work (90 views as of July 24, 2011). Hopefully when my quest for becoming famous is over, my videos will have millions of views and my blog will have hundreds of thousands of users!!

For now, I'm going to post the new address of my post on my facebook profile and go to bed. Maybe tomorrow when I wake up my blog will have one member, who knows? Fame is just around the corner, I can feel it!! ;)