The Blog
Engaging, practical ideas, helpful tools, and creative
strategies to help you lead and teach with confidence
Ten years ago, Steve and I finished our master’s degrees at the Eastman School of Music and set out to build careers in music.
We decided to make a move that was less common in our field at the time: Instead of heading to a big city with lots of opportunities to begin a freelance career, we moved to a small town in rural Massachusetts.
That became the impetus for everything that followed.
In today’s digital age, there are a number of software programs, hosting platforms, apps, and tools designed to help you do your best work.
Some are designed to simplify things or take the guesswork out of decision-making. Others are designed to save you time and help you focus more on creating than organizing or getting set up.
I'm always curious about what tools and resources others use to organize and run their creative businesses (and life in general), so today, I thought I’d give you a peek behind-the-scenes into my own life and business and the tools I use on a daily and weekly basis.
I always knew I wanted to be a freelancer. I liked the variety of doing different kinds of work: teaching, accompanying, writing, creating, designing.
But I didn’t really know what it meant (from a practical standpoint) to be a music entrepreneur (musicpreneur for short) until I was in grad school.
As a musicpreneur, you wear two hats:
You’re the CEO — the money person, the one making big decisions about your brand and values and the work you’ll do, the one paying quarterly taxes and reading about SEO and conversion rates.
And you’re the artist — the creative one, the dreamer, the idea person, the one seeking inspiration and doing the work, the one learning the music and planning the lessons and exploring the bounds of creativity.
We’ve heard it all before: the lore of work-life balance. Of doing it all, and doing it all well. And so we set out in search of the magical formula that will keep us in perfect balance, the solution to all our problems.
But secretly, we kind of wonder: is it real? Can it be achieved?
There’s been some debate recently as to whether or not this idea of balance between work and life is actually attainable. The thing is, the word balance makes it feel precarious: the feeling we have when learning to ride a bicycle, that we might lose our balance and fall over at any moment.
Not a great visual for life, just saying.
It’s an age-old paradox:
How to get more done in less time.
We buy new planners. We sign up for new digital task organizers. We keep a notepad handy at all times and have a running to-do list on our phones, in our inboxes, and in our heads pretty much all the time.
And yet, we’re still trying to find ways to be more productive. To stay on top of everything and keep all the plates spinning.
One thing I’ve found to be helpful in the past few years is batching.
In music school, we learn about performance style and theory, analysis and history. We study and read and listen and write. We soak up rich musical experiences and learn to dedicate ourselves to practicing our instrument and refining our musical skill set.
And if we're lucky, we learn about music careers and the business side of things: arts leadership and advocacy and community engagement, taxes and finances and grant-writing, websites and social media and marketing yourself: the extra-musical skills needed to make it in the 21st century music world.
Will you graduate and land one of the coveted symphony jobs? Will you join the ranks of academia and start down the tenure track?
Some of you may. Some of you did.
But what if you want to do a few different things? What if you want to teach and have a podcast? What if you want to perform in a professional chamber music ensemble and run a YouTube channel?
The beginning of a new career is an exciting time, full of energy, motivation, and possibility.
Maybe you’re taking that first step from music student to music professional, newly-printed diploma in hand (or in the mail - sometimes these things take a while).
Or maybe you’ve been working for a few years and are ready to make a change and set off in a new direction.
Maybe you’re in between things: trying to figure out what you want to do and what kind of musician you want to become, or maybe you’re beginning a second career later in life.
Wherever you are today, and wherever you hope to be in the next few months, here are 5 helpful tips for getting started:
Dear Creative,
Life as a musician is beautiful, messy, deeply fulfilling, and complex work.
It starts within—a desire to do work that matters, to make a difference; a yearning for beauty; a spark of creativity. It requires you to take risks, listen, adapt, and live with abandon.
It’s what all artists do, really. We dream, we try, we create, we innovate.
There will be good days, times when you feel like you are making a difference, creating something beautiful, and truly serving people.
And, like anything in life, there will be hard days mixed in, as well.
Every spring, my husband Steve and I set aside a few days for a work retreat.
We’re both music freelancers, so this is a time for us to take a step back from our businesses, reflect on the successes and challenges of the past year, evaluate what’s going well and what could be improved, and do some creative planning for the year ahead.
Often, we try to tie this in with a short getaway (because by March or April, we usually have a pretty bad case of cabin fever). In the past, we’ve found affordable rentals on Airbnb (a business expense!) within an hour’s drive and bring our dog Rory, our laptops, a few books, and food and snacks for a few days.
Music ministry can be fulfilling, demanding, meaningful, challenging, and deeply rewarding work - sometimes, all at the same time! It’s an opportunity to use your musical skills and experience in service to others; inspire and encourage others in their musical development; help people and nurture them in their faith; and participate in something greater than yourself.
It’s an opportunity to teach, create, inspire, dream, give, grow, and serve.
