TortoiseClimbing™ experienced 2 significant evolutions from its modest inception in 1992. Its original modest goals/mission were to produce 1) nice recordings for 2) private release.
Were the evolutions serendipitous (or were they destined?) The path of evolution is a scintillatingly delicious story.
After release of Solo Collection in 1993, David began working on a follow-up private album, Romantic Duets with a variety of women. While working on that 2nd album, David's mother asked him to record and produce the recently released Hymns and Songs of My Mother.
Based on his mother's preference that the album be 1) quality, and 2) publically released, meant the new project required much higher production quality, including arrangements and instrumentation, and be targeted for public release.
That resulted in the first major evolution of TortoiseCimbing™'s mission/goals, i.e., when its quality bar was raised from nice to exceptional, and its market was expanded from private to public.
While David was working on the Romantic Duets album, David's father died in late 1996. Then in spring 1998, David's mother requested TortoiseClimbing™ record an album of selections from his father's and her favorite traditional hymns and songs. David and his mother jointly selected the hymns and songs to include.
(A simple playlist is available at Simple Playlist. An annotated playlist with artists and streaming of sample hymns is available at Annotated Playlist.)
Implementing his mother's request for the Hymns and Songs of My Mother to be 1) quality recording, for 2) public availablity required a significant upgrade from the initial goals/mission, and redefined TortoiseClimbing's future.
Namely, TortoiseClimbing™ needed to take on expanded roles from simply making nice, private recordings, to encompass the larger related areas of:
That directly led to creation of the subdivisions of TortoiseClimbing™, which are:
Another significant evolution occurred when in 2019 TortoiseClimbing™ was able to devoted full time to completing elements of this project. Although the production goals/mission did not change, another part of the mission substantially expanded. That was because of the decision to transition from hobby to small business and try becoming self-sufficient, i.e., became a for-profit enterprise.
That meant all actions to market and distribute became critically important to the financial abilities of TortoiseClimbing™. It also opens all sorts of new requirements for recordkeeping and taxes, in addition to the previous upgrade in product quality considerations.
The current plan is to retroactively apply the additional lessons learned and higher quality bar as part of revisiting the original privately released Solo Collection. The goal is to augment its production quality for public re-release in 2024, as the upgraded recording titled Nostalgic Solos.
(No decision has been made on what will be done with the draft duets album.)
The question of whether TortoiseClimbing™'s evolutions were serendipitous (or destined) is only one part of the question. There is the additional dimension of how David's life's experiences interplayed with evolutions of TortoiseClimbing™.
The 1st expansion in mission in 1998 was because TortoiseClimbing™ had to take on significant new functions to accomplish the goals/mission of making an 1) excellent album, to be 2) publically available, thus requiring marketing, distribution, Publishing and Website development.
Fortunatley, many of David's previous life's activities complimented the new requirementsTortoiseClimbing™ needed to take on. Those experiences gave him a headstart in being able to take on the multiple new roles. His experiences included:
Those experiences provided valuable foundations upon which to build knowledge and skills for performing the new resposibities TortoiseClimbing was undertaking to run:
Notes. The publishing requirement evolved from the initial desire to include simple stories about the hymns. In 2000 that evolved into what is now the eBook, History Through 26 Hymns and Songs.
The website requirement initially began because of the collegial expectation of giving full credits to all who were involved in creating the recording. That website functionality grew into an important part of marketing to publicize the albums, publications, podcasts, audiobook, and eBook. The website includes provision of links connecting customers to the online store where they can order digital downloads of the album, eBook, podcasts, audiobook, and CDs.
The 2nd expansion to pursue becoming a for-profit company are similarly blostered by David's background experiences. It remains to be seen how successful the second goal will be.
Identifying and arranging for multiple artists and skills needed, including:
When TortoiseClimbing™ undertook Phase II the beginning of 2019, Ms. Gerber-Salins had become a full-time teaching professor, and was not available as audio engineer and producer for Phase II. Luckily Mr. McElroy was again available as an audio engineer and associate producer at his new Slipped DISC recording studio, which he started in Ashland, Virginia the year Ms. Gerber-Salins left Bias. It is somewhat of a full-circle experience for TortoiseClimbing™ to again be working with Mr. McElroy.
While Ashland, VA is a longer drive in miles, it is only a slightly longer travel time, because of substantially less traffic on U.S. 301 going south from Washington, DC, versus rush-hour traffic driving halfway around Washington, DC's beltway. Further augmenting practicality of working with Slipped Disc™ is the greatly enhanced capability for electronically exchanging music files for collaboration at a distance.
For the publishing part -
It was critical to create a quality website for the greatly expanded TortoiseClimbing™ -
Each of these areas of business activity were significantly new roles requiring numerous new skills, because TortoiseClimbing™ had no:
-- End of window on New Roles --
For current information about TortoiseClimbing™ see Current TortoiseClimbing™.
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