Erin Potts: Launching Tibetan Freedom Concerts

Erin Potts founded the Tibetan Freedom Concerts with the Beastie Boys and now continues to engage the creative communities through her consulting company, c3 Lab. Potts advocates for setting goals to push bold ideas forward.

Of course, most ideas never really happen. Potts was just 21 years old when she started the organization that would produce the Tibetan Freedom Concerts. She explains that her greatest obstacle was "a lack of confidence in myself... My gut always knew what to do, but my head sometimes felt like I couldn't know." Well, she successfully orchestrated the first Tibetan Freedom concert just two years later. Behance caught up with Potts and asked her how she got the idea for the concerts off the ground.

"You always have to know what your goal is," Potts explained. "Our concerts were message concerts, not benefit concerts, because our goal was to raise awareness not funds. It was about communicating the message of Tibet. And, we took extensive (and sometimes expensive) steps to focus all attention on Tibet. Looking back, I have to admit that we were fanatical about it. But it worked."

Today, Potts leads C3 Lab, a consulting company she founded that facilitates unique collaborations between social causes and cultural leaders. She also co-leads her clothing company, Be+cause Clothing. Like her experience founding the Tibetan Freedom concerts, Potts' team at C3 Lab is goal oriented.

"With my company, we never did a real formal business plan, but we do an annual retreat to identify our goals for the year, and then we check in on them every month or so to make sure we're living by them. The great thing about goals is that when they are achieved, it feels great. Wins like that are important. It's real momentum building."

More on Erin Potts:

Erin publishes a geat culture blog, you can also view her clothing line, "Be+cause Clothing."

Milarepa Fund & The Beastie Boys