Hi everyone,

Sorry things have been a bit quiet over here in Black Lab world.

This community of listeners has been deeply important to me over the years, and I wanted to write you about what I’ve been up to.

In all this quiet, I’ve been making lots of noise — working on a solo album of extremely personal material, making exciting new music with Andy for Black Lab, and collaborating with other great musicians, including world-renowned cellist and composer Philip Sheppard. I can’t wait for you to hear this stuff.

At the same time, I’ve got a few other irons in the fire…

As a working artist I’ve always been engaged in a couple of additional functions beyond music: One, being a businessman, creating ways for me and other musicians to make a living doing the thing we love most. And two, mentoring young musicians, songwriters, and producers in the art and commerce of making their way in the world.

The first function took a natural turn into doing some business coaching for friends (and then others) who appreciated some of the strategies I had developed over the years for keeping my self-employed, artistic personality on track and optimized for seizing the opportunities that life presents. This in turn led to a coaching business that has helped tech executives, real estate developers and contractors (including a few Black Lab fans) make the most of their working, personal, and spiritual lives.

The second passion, which began with mentoring the musical sons and daughters of friends of mine who didn’t know how to help their kids, spiraled into a full-on business a few years ago when a couple of those friends asked to hire me to coach their children.

This necessitated writing curriculum and creating a structure to translate the lessons and techniques of my life into something young people could use to forge their own careers.

This labor has culminated in YearOne, a new company I’m really excited about and want to introduce to you.

The purpose of YearOne is to help high school graduates (and college students who need a break) structure a transformational gap year. College has become so expensive that it makes sense to take a year to build maturity and skills in the areas of time and money management, communication, networking, and resilience to ensure success upon arrival.

At the same time, smart, creative kids who don’t want to go to college (at least, not yet) need support to figure out what they DO want, then leverage that clarity for motivation to gain the organizational and communication skills to cultivate a mentor in their field of interest, whether that be tech, business, the trades, or the arts.

YearOne is a 12-month, digitally-based program with rolling admissions, available from anywhere in the world, featuring online curriculum, one-on-one weekly coaching with me, group video classes for accountability and support, a private social media group, expert guest teachers, and access to an extensive network of industry professionals in a wide variety of disciplines.

This has been extremely satisfying work for me the last few years, and the success of my young clients has been pretty thrilling. It all seems like a good compliment to music-making, and allows me to make a contribution as a mentor that seems both appropriate and fulfilling.

If you're not interested in any of this, no worries — I won’t hassle you about it again and I have some exciting music stuff coming your way in the next month or so.

If you are interested, I’ve provided some links below. We're launching our marketing for YearOne by giving away a helpful book for young adults: Success After High School: How to Get Unstuck, Build Grit, Ignite Ambition, and Launch a Thriving Career in College, Business, or the Arts. You can get this book for free — just pay for shipping and handling — by clicking here.

If you don’t have college-age kids or aren’t in need of a coach, please forward this to anyone you know who might be interested. I appreciate it very much.

I hope you’re well and — and always — thank you for your immense and undying patience.

All my love and gratitude,

Paul

Get yer free book from YearOne

YearOne website

Join the YearOne email list

YearOne Vimeo w/ testimonials and interviews

YearOne Facebook page

Recent podcast I did about my coaching

My (brief) executive coaching website

All my various stuff: http://pauldurham.com

See you soon!