Tales From The Lane
Living Your Best Life as Creative Artist
Getting Through a “Spectacularly Busy Time” Like a Champ
The parent of one of my chamber music students texted me the other day to say that her daughter would need to leave our next coaching early in order to get to her school music concert. She was so apologetic–she knows that the group has their own recital coming up, and that rehearsal time is precious.
“I’m so sorry! There’s so much going on this month!”
She didn’t need to apologize. We’re all feeling it.
I could list all of the things that I need to do over the next 4 weeks, but I don’t need to. I bet you have the same exact list. Between your own performances, deadlines, rehearsals, and your kids’ or your students’ various events, it’s hard to keep up! Everyone is in a rush to finish things up by the end of the school year.
Added to the mix, of course, is the exam stress the students are under, the pressure we teachers are under to make sure the exams and the performances all go well, and the scheduling conflicts that inevitably come up making it impossible to get everyone in the same room at the same time.
It’s just the way it is.
We somehow always manage to get through it in one piece, but it can feel pretty rough if you don’t enter into this kind of period with a few intentions set out.
It will be exhausting at times. That much I can guarantee. And I’m sure a few of us will be remembering back in the fall of 2020, when we were stuck at home with a bare-bones schedule. No group activities for us or the kids, no social obligations other than a Sunday morning Zoom with the family–for which sweatpants and bedhead were expected attire.
Back then, as much as we missed our community, we breathed a sigh of relief to not be so busy all the time and promised. Promised that we would never go back to the way it had been pre-COVID.
And here we are–JUNE.
The trick, I think, is to make sure that there are only 1 or 2 times a year when things are this jam-packed. Most likely, it’ll be December and May/June–When every arts organization, class, and program is constitutionally (or at least, institutionally) required to have a final shebang.
This kind of schedule is certainly not sustainable 12 months a year, but if we can limit it to 2, and put a few behaviors and boundaries in place, I think we’re going to be fine. Just fine.
And then it’ll be July, and it’s all just summer reading and popsicles, right?
RIGHT?
Here are my top tips for getting through a
“Spectacularly Busy Month”:
1. Find your inner stoic.
Do you need to drive 7 different carpools on Monday? Fine. Drive the carpools. Don’t waste energy complaining about it. It’s not hard, it’s just annoying. Annoying won’t kill us. Keep breathing through it, and put one step in front of the other.
2. Find a way to make those annoying things more enjoyable.
Listen to a great playlist, an audiobook you’ve been meaning to read. Make or pick up your favorite coffee or kombucha for the ride. Rather than allowing these moments to drain you, do things that will generate more energy. Do a minute of stretching, or catch up with a good friend.
3. Eliminate things that aren’t essential.
This one can be tricky because it’s important to honor commitments you’ve made–especially if other people are counting on you in big ways. Is it essential that I make time for my clients? Yes. Is it essential that I post on Instagram every day? No. Is it essential that I play the concerts and rehearsals I said I would play? Yes. Is it essential that I go to the pub quiz every Sunday night with my team? No. They’ll manage without me–I’m still hopeless at 90’s British pop music, anyway.
4. Train yourself to slow down and switch off whenever you’re able to.
Even in the busiest period, there might be a 30-minute window, when you don’t actually need to be doing something. But we tend to stay in that adrenaline-fueled mode regardless. Cortisol pumping away, afraid to let our guard down. If you’ve ever found yourself pacing back and forth, wondering what it is you’re supposed to be doing, you know what I’m talking about. Even on your fullest days, there will be small breaks. Slow it down. Breathe. Drop your shoulders. It’s okay.
5. Find gratitude in the fullness of your life.
Instead of saying to everyone around you “I’m just sooooo busy!” See if you can switch it to “Yep, life is certainly full right now!” bonus points for a big knowing smile. Be grateful that you were invited to take part in these events. Grateful that you get to see your kids exhibit their talents, or learn to punch stage fright in the nose and get out there. Grateful that you are able to give your students these important opportunities to show off their hard work, and grateful that another year is successfully drawing to a close.
6. Be the reason it was fun for everyone.
Everyone at the gig is feeling a little bit frazzled. All of the parents are desperately trying to keep up with everything. The kids are stressed out and want to do it all well and make us proud of them. If we show up grumbling and cracking around the edges, everyone suffers. But if you show up smiling, with store-bought cookies, (because who the hell has time to bake in June?), or encourage a Madonna sing-a-long in the carpool, you can single-handedly make it a fun experience for everyone around you—and most importantly, for yourself.
7. Plan a reward for when you’ve crossed the last thing off your list.
July 2nd I will be sleeping in. I will be playing in my garden for as long as I want, and I will be getting a 90-minute hot stone massage. The idea of Sunday, July 2nd is giving me the strength I need to get through the next 4 weeks. What is your ideal reward? A weekend getaway? a movie in a theater with popcorn and milk duds? A nice meal at your favorite restaurant? Plan it, and book it.
Good luck, my friends! And for those of you who are already through your very full end-of-year periods (I’m looking at you, Florida and Illinois people!) tell us how it is on the other side.
Cheers,
Kate
P.S. If you’d like some help in gaining clarity around your life and career goals, I have a great (and free!) workbook that can guide you toward those answers. You can grab it here for free today.
How a Summer Project Can Lead to Your Greatest Success
Today, for my “in real-time” readers, is Memorial Day in the U.S.
Memorial Day is first and foremost a day of remembrance. It is a day that we honor those who lost their lives trying to make this world a better place.
On a less serious note, it also marks (rather unofficially) the beginning of the summer season. A day of ice cream, opening up the family vacation house on the cape, and the emergence of those white jeans that have been hidden away since early September.
I’ve always felt that the two “sides” of Memorial Day Weekend were entirely at odds with one another, but lately, I’ve been seeing the intersection of the two.
Hear me out.
The people we are honoring had their lives tragically cut short. Many of them were barely out of childhood. They didn’t have the chance to decide exactly what kind of life they wanted to live. They didn’t have the chance to try different career paths, hobbies, learn new languages, climb every mountain, or travel to every ballpark in North America.
But we do have that chance, and we can honor them in part by not taking that for granted.
Summer is a time when, especially as creatives, we have more time and more freedom to explore different ideas and projects. It’s a perfect time to take your work in a new direction or try on a new identity for size. Away from the pressures of a “new year, new me January” where our resolutions are meant to be forever. Or the madness of “Back to school” September, where the minimum commitment time is a full 9-month academic year.
It’s a 2-3 month period. It has a clear beginning and a clear end. Short enough to keep your enthusiasm going, but long enough to see some results. It isn’t as daunting to say “I’m going to work on my vibrato this summer” or “I’m going to learn 3 new French words a day this summer.”
It sounds…fun.
Maybe you, like me, still have a few weeks to go in the teaching year, and the next 4 weeks are going to be chock-full of recitals, the “end of year” this, and the “final” that, it seems there is something on every square of my June tall-on-the-wall calendar page that is going to get a giant checkmark.
Even so, this time of year feels exciting and anticipatory. We poured our heart and soul into this past season—the performances we did, the series and festivals we planned, the students we taught, the courses we ran, programs we launched. The juries we either prepared for, or adjudicated, the auditions we won, lost, or listened to, the shows we put on. The list goes on and on.
And now, we see that glimmer of light at the end of the tunnel. Summer might also be full of students we’ll teach and rehearsals we’ll show up to. We might still be doing our craft all day every day, but somehow it all feels different in July and August.
Festivals bring a change of scenery and some new students, summer courses bring a different timeline, and the longer days, rehearsals that end with a jump in the lake, and the copious amounts of ice cream that will (and should!) be consumed make it seem like anything is possible. There’s more space to it all.
How do you plan to fill it?
Do you promise that you will spend lazy afternoons lying in the grass identifying cloud shapes? Or take a daily nap?
Or maybe you’re more of a project-oriented person. Do you want to read the complete works of Shakespeare? Watch all of the James Bond films? Attempt to grow 100% of your vegetables? Make some art every morning?
I always loved a summer project. Whether it was my library’s summer reading challenge when I was small, or a freshly marked-up part of a new concerto my teacher would entrust me to learn at whichever festival I was heading off to, I adored that feeling of having a set amount of time to accomplish something clear and tangible.
2 Months was short enough to light a fire under me, but long enough to allow me to dream big.
And now, as an adult, I find myself thinking about what my project will be this summer. Last summer was about reconnecting with friends and family throughout the States and England post-pandemic.
This summer feels a bit more personal. As I continue to shift away from some long-held identities and lean into exciting new ones, I find myself wanting to purge my things. Which I have always seen as a sign that you’re ready for a big breakthrough of some kind.
The point is that every person is going to gravitate towards a different kind of project, and each year will pull you towards something new. Generally, they can be broken into the following categories:
A Work Project:
- Learning some new repertoire
- Leaning into a new art medium
- Working to explore or improve a specific area of your technique
A Personal Project:
- Trying a new fitness or nutrition plan
- Training for an event
- Starting a meditation or journaling practice
A Skills-based Project:
- Learn a new language
- Figure out how to use a new bit of software
- Take a deep dive into something that has intrigued you for a while.
An Organizational Project:
- Clean out all the drawers, closets, and cabinets in your house. (and the garage!)
- Do a digital audit of all of your devices.
- Automate your savings, investments, and bill paying.
A Geographical Project: (some might be ongoing–completed over many summers)
- Visit all of the National Parks in the US.
- Go to every playground in your city
- Go to every Italian restaurant within 20 miles of you and decide on your favorite.
What about you? What is calling out for you to explore, try, and add to your life? Because living a well-lived life means always evolving, and the fact that we have the ability to do it for at least one more day is a gift that we should never take for granted.
With Gratitude,
Kate
P.S. If you’d like some help in gaining clarity around your life and career goals, I have a workbook that can guide you toward those answers. You can grab it here for free today.
What if We Gave Ourselves Report Cards?
A few weeks ago, I was doing my morning pages, and there was a thought that kept popping up for me.
“Everything in my life is at about 85%” Why is that? I thought about all of the various areas of my life–my health, relationships, my work, my home. Everything. Why am I not doing what needs to be done to bring those numbers up?
It stayed on my mind all day.
Then later that afternoon, I hopped onto a call with my mastermind group, and the topic of the day was “Good to Great” inspired by the book by Jim Collins. Our cohort leaders, the fabulous Susan Blackwell and Laura Camien asked us to consider what would be required of us to take our individual projects (in my case, my book) from Good, to Great.
Well, if that wasn’t the universe shouting instructions to me to have a big think around this topic, I don’t know what it was.
In general, I feel like things are pretty good all around. No major complaints and I’m extremely grateful for all of it. Yet, in every area, I can see a hundred things I could be doing to make it better. Why was I not doing them?
- Relationships: We have wonderful friends-both here, and abroad, but I could be much better about making plans with people. We often come up for air on a Friday, and realize we have no plans for the evening.
- Home: You all know how much I love my gardens, but there are a few areas that are looking less than great. It wouldn’t take much to clean them up, I just….haven’t.
- Finances: I’m very fortunate, and in a position where I have what I need, enjoy the present, and actively save and invest for my future, but I don’t feel that I am as financially savvy as I could be. I know that by reading a few more books, and putting a good team in place, I would be in an even better position.
- My doctor is big on lab tests, and mine are all A+. As far as my blood pressure, cholesterol levels, and other numbers are concerned, there is nothing to improve. I also eat a fairly healthy diet of mostly organic, homegrown vegetables and lean protein. But not only was I never quite able to lose those stubborn lbs I wanted to lose in my 20s and 30s, I am also totally acing that global average of gaining a pound a year between the ages of 30 and 50, and that is a test I’d have preferred to fail. I know why that is, I know how to fix it, I just haven’t….yet.
Like I said. It’s all Good–some of it is “Very Good”, it’s just not Great. I’m giving myself a lot of B’s and even some B-’s.
And yes, I’m happily married, with wonderful friends, and a beautiful home on a beautiful island, where I can grow plenty of food. I freaking LOVE my work–which happens to be a lucrative business that I built myself, where I get to help people every single day, and I’m not in any danger of starving to death in my old age (because of both my savings and my waistline!)
Maybe I should just be grateful and content. After all, we can’t do EVERYTHING, right?
Only we know (deep within ourselves) what we are truly capable of, so, really, we’re the only ones who can issue that report card. Others around us might tell us we can do better when we know that we had already done our very best. And other times people tell us that our work was fantastic when we know we had sort of just phoned it in.
In my writing and research into the topic of human potential, the one question that I keep butting up against, is the question of “how much is too much?”
I’ve talked to many strivers, dead-set on reaching their fullest potential, who are miserable. Burnt out, full of perfectionism and anxiety. Constantly under self-inflicted pressure to be the absolute best version of themselves all the time. Utterly flawless in their appearance, their home, their social calendar, and their work.
But they’ve been hungry for 3 decades straight and feel a strong sense of self-loathing any time they see the scale go up, or a wrinkle on their face, they had to drive to 3 supermarkets to get enough limes to fill that bowl on the dining room table, they hate the people they “have to” spend time with, and they haven’t had any fun or downtime in years because there is always more work to do to make a project (insert performance, screenplay, book etc) absolutely perfect.
They might be putting out better work than the rest of us, but they are dying inside.
So, back to the idea of giving ourselves report cards. Is it even worth it to strive for the A+? Will doing so ensure misery and burnout?
Not if you do it right.
My hunch (which has so far proven right in my exhaustive and global 3-week experiment on myself) is that the answer is two-fold.
1. Give Yourself Permission to Shape-Shift
We can’t be perfect at everything all at the same time. There is no way you can be the perfect boss, the perfect parent, the perfect partner, and also the perfect host, gardener, friend, stock analyst, athlete, artist, cook, and housekeeper all at the same time. We all know this, so we should stop feeling guilty about it. Our lives shape-shift a bit. With different areas needing more or less attention at any given time.
2. Ask the right question
Instead of “How can this be perfect?” Ask yourself, “What’s something I can do to take this closer to Greatness?” This concept is not new. Whether it’s the idea of the mini-leap, or improving by 1% each day, it’s about taking 1 step at a time and allowing the results to compound.
- Make a lunch date with a friend
- Use the fancy plates to serve tonight’s thrown-together dinner
- Give your project one additional edit
- Find someone to do a run-through for before the “big” performance
- Do one more set of reps
I have every intention of getting that report card up to all A’s, though I have a sneaky suspicion that life and experience have a way of moving that bar up constantly, but maybe that’s where the fun is.
Cheers,
Kate
P.S. Interested in a few top tips on how to take your career as an artist from Good to Great? Grab a copy of my free workbook “10 Habits of Successful Artists” or sign up for my weekly Friday newsletter: The Weekend List.
See you soon!
Fitting In
“The Opposite of Belonging, is Fitting In” -Brené Brown
A couple of weekends ago, my husband Paul and I did a big charity walk. It’s the biggest walking event of the year, and on the 1st Saturday in May 2400 people walk from one end of Bermuda through the railway trails to the other end, 24 miles later. It raises millions of dollars for various organizations around the island.
We’d done it before and it was a bit of a disaster. Something about one of us (okay, me) thinking the walk was in kilometers not miles, and totally misjudging how long it would take us, and possibly one of us (okay, also me) saying yes to playing a gig at 5:30 that afternoon–making the last couple of hours a painful mad-dash to the finish line–Hobbling right past the beer tents and live music, in order to get on the ferry to make it home in time.
So we swore we would do it again someday, and just enjoy ourselves. No rush, no time constraints, just a whole lot of basking in the community atmosphere and having fun.
This year, as the weekend approached, I saw on the calendar that we didn’t have any plans for Saturday, and it was going to be a stunner of a day. So on Friday afternoon I walked into the registration area in town and signed us up. I paid our entry fees, was given our bibs, and then handed over to the nice swag folks to get our bright green race T-shirts only to be told that there was only 1 shirt left. The very last shirt available for the entire event was a Men’s Large.
And they were out of swag.
No problem! I said. My husband can have the shirt. I don’t need one. Bright green isn’t really my color anyway.
But the next morning, as we walked over to the starting point, seeing a sea of bright green shirts, I felt really out of place. I suddenly felt like my white top was sticking out like a sore thumb. I felt like Bridget Jones in her bunny suit.
Who cares? I kept telling myself. I’m wearing a number, I paid my race fee–that’s the important part! We’re all just in this together, doing it for a good cause.
But I couldn’t shake it.
I considered the Pros:
- I wouldn’t end up with awkward T shirt tan lines.
- No one would take photos of someone NOT in the green shirt, so I was safe from any unflattering photos of me ending up in the Royal Gazette (like last time!)
But I still couldn’t rid myself of this feeling that I was “Not Fully Participating.”
It’s a phenomenon we experienced all the time as kids–when it was essential to have the right clothes–the “whatever it is” that everyone was wearing that year. In my case, I wondered if my current Green-T-Shirt-induced discomfort was stemming from the requisite Guess jeans that my parents refused to buy me in 5th grade–causing me an entire year of ostracization from my peers.
But it shows up in adulthood as well, doesn’t it? The businesswoman with the right designer bag, a gaggle of musicians in concert black, the yoga moms in their lululemon.
Trends are about fashion, and they are about fitting in. They create a uniform of sorts. One that is changing and fluid, and isn’t always about clothing.
It could be a social media platform (I had a good friend who refused to join Facebook back in 2008, and as much as we all loved her, we all kind of lost track of her after that) or a device (iPhone, anyone?) hell, even water bottles now have names.
Are you even a human being in 2023 if you don’t own a Stanley?
And while it all sounds absolutely ridiculous when I write these words down “out loud”, there is something a bit primal about it. An almost biological agreement within a tribe of people that we will adapt together, that we will wear the same war paint, eat the same foods, and behave in similar ways.
Does it keep us safer? Maybe. But perhaps this desire to “fit in” by looking like everyone else is causing more harm in the long run. Because if we are looking for the people who look like us to know who to keep safe, then what happens to those who don’t look like us?
Do we just leave them to fend for themselves? Who are we to decide who “belongs”, whether they “fit in” or not?
By the end of our walk, I was exchanging knowing glances and smiles with the few others on the walk who, like me, were without a bright green T-shirt. We knew. We shared an understanding. We were our own special subset of the event. And now that it’s over, I’m just someone who did it and I’ve got the medal to prove it!
And Paul’s Bright Green T-Shirt will live forever at the bottom of his drawer, never to be worn again.
Cheers,
Kate
P.S. Are you on The List yet? If you enjoyed this blog post and want more insider info on how to thrive as a creative, be sure you get on the list to receive my Friday “Weekend List.” Each one is loaded up with additional tips, tricks, and things to think about, including a new curated list of articles, books, podcasts, and things that I think you’d enjoy. Click Here to Get the Weekend List!
Spotlight: Megan Chartier–Cellist and Artist
This month’s Spotlight Series features the brilliant and über-talented Megan Chartier. Megan is a professional classical cellist creating ballpoint and ink drawings in between performances under the name Inkermezzo. Integrating both passions, Inkermezzo is a blend of the words “ink” and “intermezzo,” a short instrumental movement inserted between acts of a larger work.
Searching for her identity when the performances halted in the early pandemic, the artist/cellist embraced musical artwork to cope; she was still a cellist, even without a stage. Her musical illustrations focus on classical music education, awareness, and activism through anatomical and portraiture work. Megan currently holds positions as core cellist of the Astralis Chamber Ensemble and Principal Cellist of the Opera San Luis Obispo in California.
TFTL: At what age did you start playing the cello? Were you naturally drawn to it, or was it something that someone suggested you try?
MC: I started playing cello through the school strings program in fourth grade. I knew I desperately wanted to play an instrument but I picked the cello for probably all the wrong reasons. One, I wanted to play the biggest instrument. Two, all the boys wanted to play the cello. I didn’t feel particularly girly enough to play the violin and I was also admittedly boy-crazy. Three, I wanted to be Julie Andrews in the Sound of Music and the cello was the closest thing to the guitar to swing around – which I did running off the school bus on many occasions, with somehow only one catastrophic cello accident. While none of these reasons are very profound, I found my voice on the cello shortly after and knew it was mine.
TFTL: What about art? Is it something you trained in formally? Or are you self-taught?
MC: I am almost entirely self-taught with my art. Unlike music, artists run in my family: my grandfather was an incredible oil painter and my mom and aunt were very advanced at drawing. I considered choosing art school instead of music school, but I couldn’t stand being told what to do with my art.
TFTL: I get a lot of requests from high school and conservatory students to give them a taste of what different career paths really look like. What does a typical month of work look like for you?
MC: Every month can look quite different, and I’ve learned how to really enjoy that aspect of my career. Some months I go on tour with my chamber ensemble for a week or two, return and jump into an orchestra cycle, then drive down the coast to perform with the opera company for a week or two. Some months, I’m in full audition mode and won’t take many freelance gigs to focus. I also have a full online cello studio, allowing me to travel and perform freely and make cello lessons accessible to those in remote locations or with tight schedules.
As the first musician in my family, the variety of my workload originally felt like I was failing at the big one-job goal, but over time, I’ve grown to view success more in terms with my ability to maintain all of my passions at a high level.
TFTL: How similar or different are your approaches to the craft of cello playing, and the craft of drawing? Do you have routines for both?
MC: That’s an interesting question – I would say that my approach to the cello is far more organized and calm compared to my art at times, but they both affect each other equally. My organization in cello helps my art, and my problem-solving in art helps my cello playing. I often compare daily struggles in each and am able to work myself out of creative holes.
I absolutely have routines for both although, most strongly is the cello. Routines are super crucial with two competing art forms because you can get carried away with one or the other. At the start of Inkermezzo, I would have cello days or art days, nothing in between. Now, I only allow myself to draw at night as a reward for meeting my practice goal in the day – and the evening art routine is a good way to reflect on musical goals for the next day.
TFTL: Did you always have a clear picture of what you wanted your career to look like?
MC: In sixth grade, we were required to choose careers; creating business cards and interviewing professionals in the field as part of a career project. I picked “orchestral cellist,” interviewing a cellist in the Detroit Symphony at the time. My teacher protested my choice, saying that it was like choosing the career path of “soccer player.” It only strengthened my perseverance.
That clear picture didn’t include art though. I knew I loved art and was just as crazy about it as cello – but I thought I had to pick between the two. I actually kept my art a secret from colleagues until the start of Inkermezzo, because I feared that my art would make people think I wasn’t as serious of a cellist. I’m just starting to really explore the possibilities of my career as both an artist and a cellist!
TFTL: What was it like to start Inkermezzo? How has its growth affected the music side of your life?
MC: Inkermezzo really only started because I wanted to sell a few stickers on Etsy and needed a name. It wasn’t a formal launch, just something on a whim. It started with the support of friends and before I knew it, it snowballed into something magical. I go to rehearsals and meet people that have my stickers that I’ve never met before. That’s pretty wild.
Inkermezzo is all about musical art, so it’s really helped define the type of advocacy I’d like to be doing as a musician. For instance, a cello colleague, Horacio Contreras, invited me to join his organization Strings of Latin America (SOLA) as the graphic artist for their sheet music covers and more. We’ve released a beautiful edition of the Ricardo Castro Cello Concerto with more music on the way.
TFTL: What is one change you would like to see in the classical music world?
MC: Apart from the obvious celebration of underrepresented musicians and better ways to recruit younger audiences, the mental health of classical musicians really needs some serious attention. Take toxic teachers and the intense competition out of the mix — our job is to sit alone in a room and criticize every detail of every note for hours upon hours, then get up the next day and start all over. I don’t know many musicians that haven’t suffered mentally from the demands of competitive perfection. Social media has certainly started the change — from Hilary Hahn’s 100 days of practice to @hungrymusician’s self-care cooking classes for musicians, the ball has started to roll and I look forward to seeing what it can do for classical music as a whole.
TFTL: Practicing: Love it or Hate it? What do you find is the most challenging aspect of it?
MC: Who doesn’t have a love/hate relationship with practicing? I’m 90/10. I love the problem solving, but to be honest, the most challenging aspect is having to sit all the time. I get tired of sitting.
TFTL: Who were some of your role models as a young musician?
MC: Very obviously Jacqueline du Pré – but I didn’t know about her until much later. I don’t come from a musical family — or a family that knows much about classical music — so my role models were very much the teachers I had in front of me. In particular, I had one middle school teacher and later my high school youth orchestra conductor, Bill Milicivic, that was particularly impactful for me. He was the first classical musician that I had ever met that was so passionately invested in every aspect of performing and educating. I still wish to be like him when I grow up!
TFTL: Do you have a morning ritual or routine to get you going each day? Can you share some of it with us?
MC: Every single day: I have breakfast, do my Spanish Duolingo while having a cup of coffee, fill Inkermezzo orders, get ready, and practice at least one hour before my first lesson. I’m very much a morning person and without those things, I feel like my day was somehow wasted.
TFTL: What is your favorite thing about attending (not performing in) a classical music concert these days?
MC: Perhaps a controversial favorite thing, but I love observing audiences clap between movements. To me, that means there are new audience members there – new audience members that feel moved enough to disregard the more experienced members not clapping or getting agitated. There is magic in that moment and I wish there was more appreciation for them.
TFTL: What 6 people (dead or alive) would you invite to your ideal dinner party?
MC: Ira Glass, Nadia Boulanger, Anton Kraft, Mark Rothko, Clara Schumann, and Dmitri Shostakovich.
TFTL: Where can people find you? And what is the best way for people to show their support for what you are doing?
My musician pages:
Website: www.meganchartier.com
IG: @meganchartier.cellist
My artist pages:
Website: www.inkermezzo.com
IG: @inkermezzo
Facebook: Inkermezzo
TikTok: @inkermezzo
Shop: http://www.shopinkermezzo
TFTL: Do you have any upcoming performances or projects that we should check out?
MC: Yes! Astralis Chamber Ensemble tour throughout Florida late April 2023
Opera San Luis Obispo (CA) Die Fledermaus in May 2023.
Upcoming art:
2023 Classical Card Collection, one card per week.
New SOLA (Strings of Latin America) sheet music for cello
TFTL: Thank you SO much, Megan! It’s been such a pleasure to gain a bit of insight into your life, career, and process. Thank you for sharing it with us!
(Drawing in Top Photo: “A Cellist’s Self-Portrait”)
The 5 Questions I’m Asking Myself This Quarter
Do you think of each year in Quarters?
It’s a very corporate framework, for sure, and doesn’t always jive perfectly with the artist or performer’s calendar (I mean, unless you have to pay quarterly taxes-blech). We usually start things up just after Labor Day (with 1 month inconveniently left in Q3) but Jan-March (Q1) does tend to have a vibe, as does April-June (Q2). For most of us, the “regular” season ends around then, and teaching certainly does. July and August (Q4) we’re off doing summer things: Festivals, performing in different venues, traveling, etc.
After a lifetime of working from the point of view that it was either “The Regular Concert Season” i.e. September-June or it was “The Summer Season” July and August, I started breaking things down a bit more into quarters over the last few years. I’m a fan, and I don’t think I’ll ever go back.
I find it enormously helpful to look closely at 3 months at a time, rather than an entire year, or worse, just the week (or the day!) ahead. Last summer, I started doing a Stay-at-home retreat at the beginning of each quarter, and I thought I would share the questions I am asking myself at the beginning of this quarter.
Here are 5 Questions I’m Asking Myself as I head into a New Quarter
(and why #5 is perhaps the most important)
#1 What are the most important events happening?
This can be anything from a performance, a big trip, an important deadline, or a big social event. Anything that is outside of my normal routine. I also include anything that is happening in the 1st week or 2 of Q3, since the prep work will need to happen in Q2. Here’s my list.
- Philharmonic Fundraiser on April 27th
- A Work trip to Boston in mid-May
- Student performances on June 7, 14, and 21
- Mozart Requiem on June 10th and 11th
- Piano Festival performance of Shostakovich Sonata
- CLA “Graduation”
- Philharmonic Summer Pops Concert on July 1st
Next, I make sure these dates are all in my calendar, and that I have reverse-engineered the deadlines along the way ( and rehearsals, meetings, travel accommodations, etc)
#2 What Personal Things are Important for me to do?
It’s so easy for me to just keep my head down and dive into work. From one project to the next, focusing on my clients and students. Before I know it, it’s been 6 months, and I haven’t accomplished any of those seemingly optional things like, oh, seeing friends, reading non-work related books, or taking care of myself. That was old Kate, anyway. These days, I try to be much more intentional about it, and these quarterly check-ins really help with that.
Some of the things on my list for Q2?
- Continue my current eating and exercise plan
- Maximize my fruit and vegetable garden (I try to harvest and eat something from it every day!)
- Make plans to meet up with friends at least 2x a week.
- Be better about staying in regular touch with long-distance friends
- Plan our summer trips
Things like these can easily be tracked, and I’ll add them to my weekly stats that I check every Friday. How many times did I get to the gym? What did I harvest from the garden? How many friends did I speak with?
#3 What Business/Career Goals Do I Have?
I used to be one of those people that just waited for the proverbial phone to ring. At some point, I started asking myself what I wanted to be doing, and then at some later point, I started figuring out how to make those things happen.
It’s one thing, however, to write down in early September, “I want to do X by the end of the season” and it’s quite another to say “Over the next 3 months, this is how I want to move closer to doing X” Smaller goals, with shorter timeframes have a higher success rate than having 1 BIG goal, with a due date far in the future.
This is what I came up with for the next 3 months:
- Increase our donor base for the Philharmonic, and get to know them better personally.
- Update the copy on my website
- Re-organize the post tags and navigation for Tales From The Lane.
- Increase my mailing list by 10%
- Add 2 new coaching slots to my schedule as free time opens up elsewhere.
These are all things that are definitely doable over the next 10-12 weeks, but will also require me to focus on them and take weekly action to meet those goals. There’s no “I’ll get to it later.”
#4 What are 3 Words That Describe This Current Quarter for Me?
Now, I don’t have a crystal ball, and obviously, as we’ve all learned, things can change in an instant. And if and when they do, we can adjust things. But looking over the events I have coming up, and the personal and career goals I have set out for myself, I came up with:
- Growth
- Streamline
- “Finish Strong”
Growing the philharmonic community, my email list, my gardens, my personal network, and my reach.
Streamlining processes, systems, my schedule, and work duties (more on that later…)
“Finishing Strong” for my CLA members as they launch their incredible projects into this summer, my cello students as they head into their end-of-year recitals and as I finish up what will have been my first full concert season of the Philharmonic as board president/artistic director.
#5 How Do I Want to Feel Throughout the Next 3 Months?
As I said, this is the Key Question for me. The answer changes with every quarter and can range from Bold to Courageous, to Quiet, to Rested. It depends on what I have going on, what I’m coming out of, and what I want to focus on at the time.
For this quarter, I have a lot of different types of things going on–many of which are going to require a lot of time, effort, and stamina. With full to-do lists each day, and quite a few late rehearsal and performance evenings, I still need to make sure I get to the gym or the yoga mat in the mornings. So my word?
Energized.
So getting sleep, drinking more water (I am THE WORST), and eating nutritious food that will keep me going through long days. That is my word. If I can make sure that I am feeling energized, I know that the 4 lists above will all happen the way I want them to.
I hope that you find this helpful. Both the 5 questions and my examples. It feels a little (okay, very) weird to be putting my innermost thoughts and personal goals out there for the world to see, but I always find it helpful when others do it for me.
Give it a try, and let me know how it goes for you. What other questions you would add?
Cheers!
Kate
P.S. Are you on The List yet? If you enjoyed this blog post and want more insider info on how to thrive as a creative, be sure you get on the list to receive my Friday “Weekend List.” Each one is loaded up with additional tips, tricks, and things to think about, including a new curated list of articles, books, podcasts, and things that I think you’d enjoy. Click Here to Get the Weekend List!
Why You Should Take Some Time Off
I just got back from 10 days in England and Sicily. I still get giddy from boarding a plane without a cello–Talk about luxury! The trip was 50% family and 50% vacation, but it was 0% work.
The time was full of deep meaningful conversations, laughter, ancient ruins overlooking Mt. Etna, some very good wine, and the most incredible food. The colors, sounds, smells, and sights all filled me with a sense of renewal, and I came back feeling inspired.
Even during my years as a professional cellist, I felt the need to get away sometimes. Not necessarily “Away from the Cello” but towards my life as “Just Kate.”
How scandalous of me, right? Time off? Without practicing? Like, for more than a day?
I was warned not to post photos on social media in case contractors and presenters saw them. God forbid they knew I had, after 25 years of daily practicing, taken SEVEN WHOLE DAYS OFF! Clearly, they would never again want to hire such a reckless human.
The idea that we must practice every day has been ingrained in us from the start. Even the wonderful Dr. Suzuki famously quipped: “You don’t have to practice your instrument every single day. Only the days you eat!”
Ummm…
In our school years, counting up practice hours is an obsession. It’s how we rank ourselves amongst our peers. The more one practices and the more disciplined one is, the more social clout they have. Everyone else aspires to be like them.
And as students, it makes sense. There is SO much to learn. So many notes! Chamber music, Orchestra, Concertos, Solo Bach. The music you need for All-state, the music you need for the competition, and the music you need for summer festival auditions, etc., etc. And we’re building our technique. We’re not just learning how to perfect a certain passage of a piece, we’re learning the technique required to be able to play that passage to begin with.
That kind of work takes time, and it takes consistency.
The problem is that the sense of morality that gets twisted up in our student practice routines (If you practiced, you’re “Good” and if you didn’t, you were “Bad”) doesn’t seem to leave us once we’ve been deemed proper professionals.
The scarcity mindset of “Right now, someone else is practicing for the job you want” stays right there by our side, like a loyal pet.
My friend Simon had that saying as the screen saver on his computer. It tormented him every single time he looked at it.
If you’re not busy, and you’re not practicing. You’re lazy. Right?
Wrong.
Friends, that is not healthy, and we need to let it go.
As an adult, and as a professional, you know what you need to do. As an artist, you know yourself, you know your craft, and you know how much time you really need. And at some point, we need to allow ourselves to think of it as our job, rather than our innate identity; our sole purpose in life.
1. It matters who we are outside of that identity
The best way to figure that out is to take some time away.
I’ve always loved the idea of traveling to exotic locations, and I’ve been lucky enough to do a lot of it. Of course, my music career took me all over–including to places like Kenya and Zambia, and all throughout the Mediterranean and Europe, but I also once took a month off one summer and went to Morocco without my cello to volunteer at an orphanage and travel around.
I didn’t tell anyone I was a cellist, and since the people around me didn’t see me as a musician, it was easier for me to see new things without that lens as well. I could appreciate a beautiful space not as a potential concert venue, but for the vivid colors of the flowers in the garden, or the handpainted tiles on the floor.
I didn’t listen to their traditional music with an ear for the modes they used, the structure of their songs, or anything other than the lyrical sound of the words and whether it made me want to dance or not.
2. It’s important to be able to detach and reattach ourselves whenever we want. (and not feel beholden to our craft)
If we’re lucky, we love what we do. I certainly loved being a cellist. I even loved practicing. It was something that looked forward to each day. That was partly a gift from my teacher, who said that practice time was OUR time. We don’t have to answer calls, or answer questions, we don’t have to think about anything that is troublesome in our life. It is our safe space from the big bad world.
But that doesn’t mean that there aren’t OTHER wonderful things out there that we can enjoy. Sometimes, those other things and our craft coincide–like when I was invited to play a concert at the ruins of Ephesus–such a cool experience!
But sometimes they’re mutually exclusive. You can go on Safari, or you can practice. You can hike the Appalachian Trail, or you can practice.
There’s no room in that pack for a cello. Or a canvas, or a barre.
It’s important that we are able to, as adults, detach ourselves from that childhood mantra of “Discipline means EVERY DAY.” to put our craft down for a moment and say, “I’m off on an adventure, I’m going to see wild new things, and I’ll tell you all about it when I’m back!”
3. The inspiration we get from a change of environment (inner and outer) fuels our work and makes it better.
The reason the work of an old master is often so much more compelling than the new young thing is the level of life one can feel in their work. We as viewers and listeners can feel the depth of emotions that a life well-lived brings to the table. The exuberance, the loss, the feelings of being lost, and then found. Of heartbreak and love.
One cannot properly convey the vivid landscape the world has to offer if you’ve never left the practice room. If you’ve only traveled as your artist self, seeing everything through the lens of your craft–it’s too limiting.
Wouldn’t it be great if the idea of an artist taking time to do interesting things OTHER than make our art wasn’t such a novelty? If adult, professional musicians, painters, dancers, and actors were able to trust their ability to be away from their craft without completely forgetting how to do it? That the idea of taking a few days off won’t actually undo 30 years of work?
And also, wouldn’t it be amazing if we were all inspired, and well-traveled, and could put visual imagery of newly explored places into our toolboxes of expression?
Friend, whether you simply take a random Thursday off and drive to a new town to sit in a Starbucks and people-watch, or you hop on a plane to see Machu Picchu, I hope that you will give yourself permission to take some time off. Free of guilt, free of judgment, and full of life.
Go set that “Out of Office” response and get packing!
Cheers,
Kate
P.S. Are you on The List yet? If you enjoyed this blog post and want more insider info on how to thrive as a creative, be sure you get on the list to receive my Friday “Weekend List.” Each one is loaded up with additional tips, tricks, and things to think about, including a new curated list of articles, books, podcasts, and things that I think you’d enjoy. Click Here to Get the Weekend List!
How to Tell if You’re Unhappy, or Just Uncomfortable
Growing up, I would often kick up a fuss about having to go to my Saturday afternoon cello group class, play in a recital, or anything scary like that. “Too bad.” My mom would say, shoving my flailing and sobbing body into the car, cello flung in (carefully) behind me. “It’s good for you.”
Years later, when I had finished school and was a full-fledged “Professional Cellist”, any stress I outwardly expressed before a big opportunity–a competition, fancy masterclass, or performance–was greeted with “Well, why are you doing it? You sound miserable.” and I would groan back “Mooommmmm, you don’t get it!”
But I wasn’t really clear what it was she didn’t get or why, when I was miserable, I still sort of wanted to do it.
I suppose it was because it was “good for me.”
I talk a lot about getting our lives into alignment. Doing the work we love. The work that lines up with our values, desires, and dreams. Work that brings us a feeling of purpose and fulfillment. Work that is a major ingredient in the recipe for a joyous life.
What happens when you’re doing that work, but wake up feeling a little bit miserable?
A lot of people might think: “aha! I’m not HAPPY! I thought this work would make me happy, but it doesn’t. Clearly, I should switch and do something else.”
But here’s the kicker. Living anything but a stuck, stagnant, boring life requires growth. Growth in your skills, growth in your experiences, growth in what you know yourself to be capable of.
And growth is uncomfortable.
They don’t call them Growing Pains for nothing.
The 24-year-old Kate that was a giant ball of stress before her first official professional concerto debut, complaining about having to practice, complaining about not feeling ready, complaining that her dress didn’t feel right wasn’t unhappy. She was growing. And she was feeling the discomfort of that growth from “I’m not capable of this” to “Oh, look, I did it, and I didn’t die. I am now someone who is capable of that.”
Now, to address the elephant in the room.
Yes, I have “retired” from my performing career, but that was more about my life circumstances changing, my values evolving, and the fact that I accidentally stumbled across something that I loved more, that fit better, that brought me even more fulfillment.
I didn’t leave behind my life as a cellist because I was unhappy or uncomfortable, so much as I moved toward something that I was growing into.
And believe me, there have been plenty of uncomfortable growing pains in this world too.
- The First time I announced on FB that I had a blog–and gave everyone the link!
- The first time I offered an online workshop to my colleagues (on teaching online–March 2020)
- The first time I emailed very famous cellists to invite them to teach at my brand new Virtual Summer Cello Festival.
- The first time I launched a group program.
Each of these steps made me incredibly nervous and uncomfortable, leading me to question my decisions, feel overworked (I wasn’t, it just feels that way when the work is uncomfortable), and stressed out.
And each and every one of these steps also helped me to grow as a person, as a coach, and as a business. I look back on them with joy, and maybe that is the main difference.
I once decided that I should expand my experiences as a musician, so I responded to an ad on craigslist (remember craigslist?) and joined a local goth band. They were all amazing musicians–the drummer was Amanda Palmer’s drummer!–and they were very serious about their future.
They called me Kiki (a nickname that has stuck endearingly amongst my closest friends, but in the context of that band felt a little slimy) I wore a neon blue wig (also slimy) and finally quit when they decided they were going to spend the entire summer on tour in the band’s smelly van. When I told them I couldn’t do that, I was berated for my “fear of success”, and I was “bailing on my dreams.”
No. I was bailing on their dreams.
How did I know the difference?
The discomfort wasn’t about whether or not I could pull it off, whether I could lean into this new identity. It just seemed like pure hell. So out of alignment with what I wanted that my whole body had a visceral reaction and I felt every cell scream “RUN!!!!”
Looking back? Right decision. But yeah, I still smile when my friends’ kids call me Auntie Kiki.
So now, whenever I am feeling that discomfort in my work, whether it’s because I am pulling my hair out trying to figure out some complicated process (Mailchimp Automations, anyone?) or nervous before a podcast interview, wondering why on earth I said yes to this, I ask myself two questions:
Question #1: “Who would I need to be for this to be no big deal?”
In example one: I’d need to be someone who was experienced and savvy at email marketing.
In example two: I’d need to be super confident about spreading my work to new audiences, and trust that I had prepared both myself and the host for this conversation.
Question #2: “Does that person seem like a natural progression from where I am now? Or a deviation from my true potential?”
Savvy content creator, and confident interviewee? Feels like a natural progression.
Goth Chick in a blue wig, standing by the side of the road by a broken down van? Definitely a deviation.
What about you?
Where are you currently feeling discomfort in your work or your life? Asking yourself these two questions might help you determine whether you are feeling the unhappiness that comes with deviating from your values and dreams, or the discomfort that comes with growing into them.
Cheers, my friend! You’ve got this!
Kate
P.S. Are you on The List yet? If you enjoyed this blog post and want more insider info on how to thrive as a creative, be sure you get on the list to receive my Friday “Weekend List.” Each one is loaded up with additional tips, tricks, and things to think about, including a new curated list of articles, books, podcasts, and things that I think you’d enjoy. Click Here to Get the Weekend List!
5 Systems You Can Put Into Place This Week (to make your life far easier!)
Life is a lot easier today than it was when I was a teenager. Cell phones, laptops, Spotify, texting, emojis (lol) and it seems that whatever you need, a level? A star map? A metronome? There’s a free app right at your fingertips.
But the ease of getting information doesn’t automatically make life easier, does it? Because we can get so much information and do things so quickly now, we’re expected to do more. Since we don’t need to be at our house to get or make a phone call, we can do it while grocery shopping, picking up the dry cleaning, and otherwise saving the world.
It’s so easy to do everything, that it’s also easy to get completely overwhelmed by everything we need to do. Between managing our social media platforms, booking and promoting shows and performances, keeping track of our finances and tax information, and keeping the household running (somewhat) smoothly, we are up to our eyeballs in daily tasks. So it’s understandable that so many people give up any hope of tackling that BIG.HUGE.DREAM.PROJECT.
Well, you know how I feel about THAT, don’t you?
I think it’s a waste of a good life to be so busy managing the little details that you don’t have time for the BIG.HUGE.DREAM.PROJECT. (hmmm…BHDP? Think it’ll take off? No? okay, I’ll keep thinking.)
Anyway, I do a lot of work with my clients to figure out how to get systems in place so that some of these things either happen automatically, or at least are more organized and centralized so that they take up less brain space, and take less time to do.
Decision fatigue is a real thing, my friend. Our brains can only make so many decisions each day. You know that feeling at the end of the day when someone asks what you want for dinner, and you’re all “I can’t even.”? That’s decision fatigue. So the trick is to keep our brain from having to make a bunch of decisions about inconsequential things all day so that it can focus on the more important ones.
- Curating a program
- Planning a vacation
- Creating a new festival
- Designing your cover art
Here are 5 of my favorites Decision Fatigue-Busting Systems, and the ones I usually start with. If you can set aside just a couple of hours this week, you could get them ALL set up and working for you immediately, so that you can spend more of your time doing the things that you love!
System #1: Handling Social Media Content
If you’re like most of us–staring at your phone, knowing that you should post something, but not sure what? You need a system. You can do this in a few easy steps.
- Decide how many times you want to post each week
- Decide what kinds of things you want to post. For example, each week, I aim to have 1 post dedicated to the week’s blog post, 1 that shares a client win, blog quote, or testimonial, 1 post that shares a lead magnet, and at least 1 reel.
- Create graphics on Canva that you can reuse each week for at least 1 (maybe 2) of your pieces of content. I use the same template for my blog quotes and testimonials, and I have them all in 1 Canva file, I just make a copy, change the photo, name, and quote, and voila. Done. Took about 30 seconds. Keep all of your dedicated social media graphics in a “Social Media” folder.
- Have a folder in your phone’s photo app where you keep photos that would be good for social media. When you’re creating a new post, you can go in there and pull something up rather than having to spend 30 minutes scrolling through a gazillion random shots (half of them taken by your 4-year-old.)
- Take your list of topics that you want to share about and give each one a day of the week. I.e. if it’s Thursday, you’re posting about your rehearsal. If it’s Sunday, you’re sharing something your family did that weekend. If it’s Wednesday, you’re doing a behind-the-scenes Reel.
System #2: Streamlining Household Jobs
Zones are my favorite things, and you can read about my love of them here. and here.
And much like assigning each social media share “topic” a day of the week, I assign various household tasks days of the week as well. Mondays are for tidying the house up after the weekend, Tuesdays I clean the fridge, Wednesdays I water and tend to the houseplants, Thursdays I do laundry, and Fridays I do grocery shopping and pick up fish from the fishermen (except when I forget–like this past week…oops).
Can I switch it up if I want to? Yes, of course I can, but otherwise, I don’t have to wonder when something is going to get done. We now hire someone to come in to do the heavier lifting like dusting, vacuuming, and cleaning the bathrooms, but those are also great things to zone if you’re doing it on your own.
So, again, just write down all of the things that need to happen as far as household chores go, and then figure out what makes the most sense for you as far as which day to do which tasks.
System #3: Make Friends With Your Finances
1. I’ve become a huge fan of Quickbooks mostly because I can sync it to my business bank account and everything gets divvied up and categorized automatically. I can give my accountant access to it, so come tax season (which feels like every other week, right?) it’s all there, ready to go.
2. But if you’re not ready to invest in that kind of program, a simple Excel or Google Sheets spreadsheet will do, and honestly, I have that as well so that I can house the big picture. I set aside an hour each Friday afternoon to do my “stats” I have a spreadsheet for each year, with tabs for each month, and one tab for a weekly snapshot of:
- All of my accounts (bank, investment, retirement, pension, etc)
- Social media stats
- Blog stats
- Other basic business stats
In my monthly tabs, I enter any expenses I’ve had, both personally and for business, and the income I’ve had. It’s not a perfect system since some of my clients will pay for 6 months upfront, and others will pay for it over a year, but it all works out in the end.
3. Automate anything you possibly can.
- Credit card payments
- My own salary payments
- Roth IRA
- Brokerage Accounts
These are all done automatically each month, so I don’t need to remember to invest in my IRA or pay my credit card bill.
I aint’ got time for that, and neither do you, I’m guessing.
System #4: Bookings Made Simple
When I was booking concerts for myself, it seemed that every presenter wanted slightly different things. Some wanted black and white photos, others want them in color. Horizontal vs. vertical, long bio vs. short bio, etc. One thing they all had in common was that they were seemingly incapable of heading to my website and downloading whatever they needed. What worked for me (and them!) was to do 2 things:
- I had everything handy in 1 folder on my desktop. All my folders, a pre-filled and signed W-9 form, all of my bios, photos, rep lists, and (here’s a good one!) a pdf of my passport photo page, Frequent flier and hotel rewards numbers, and social media handles.
- Had it all up in dropbox so that I could send them a handy link and they could use what they wanted when they wanted.
System #5: A Good Project Management App
I saved this one for last because it is the one System that can house all other systems. I use Trello, but other people swear by Asana. I think they’re both great, and whichever one you used first is going to be your favorite!
These tools are basically like a giant bulletin board–one that is highly organized and can hold everything. Because it’s a cloud-based app, you can access it from anywhere, and you can even share certain boards with others. So if you have a VA (or a spouse) they can access it as well.
I have a social media board, where I keep links to those Canva folders, log-in info, and do batch planning for each quarter.
I have a board for my students, and obviously had a board for Virtual Summer Cello Festival when I was running that.
I have boards for my clients, house things, finances, the philharmonic, and travel, and one for random bits of incoming stuff, like books that were recommended to me, or a new restaurant to check out, the name of a great PT, or potential board member.
My Trello board is like one-stop shopping for my life. No more searching 10 different notebooks (I know I wrote it down….somewhere….) it’s in Trello, guaranteed.
Conclusion: The key, to putting systems in place, is streamlining processes and reducing the number of decisions we need to make each day. Having a centralized place like a Trello board to put all information means no more spending 10 minutes searching for that random file. And having a simple process for choosing and creating a social media post means several fewer decisions need to be made around it.
Setting these systems up takes time, of course, but it’s so worth it in the long run. And whether you end up implementing just one of these systems, or all five, I know you’ll see an immediate difference in your daily timeline.
The only other decision you’ll be left with will be what to do with all of that newfound time and mental bandwidth.
Cheers!
Kate
Oh! and if you’d like a list of other tools and resources that I use on the regular, check out my Success Toolbox pdf. It’s free, and it’s loaded with 10 different tools I use that have given me SO many hours back in my week. Grab it here.
How to Invest in Yourself at Any Price Point
When I moved to warm and sunny Bermuda from cold and dreary Boston back in 2016, I knew I wanted to do 2 things: 1) to bring more of my entrepreneurial side to my music career, and 2) to grow food year-round.
I had ZERO idea what either of those things looked like.
As far as my music career had always gone, I just waited for opportunities to come from others–contractors, presenters, administrators, conductors, etc. I wanted to have more control over what, where, and with whom I performed. As for my garden? The idea of growing through the winter, and into what was basically a bed of limestone rock was totally intimidating.
Both were going to involve a lot of learning, and likely quite a bit of investing in time, energy, and money.
Unfortunately, I had also just given up a significant portion of my income, and I didn’t have a ton (or any, really) money to spend on said learning.
Back then, I turned to freebies like podcasts and blogs for my business, and youtube and the free (and, it turns out, pretty toxic) “compost” available at the dump. (Remind me to tell you about the time a truck dumped a car-sized mountain of crappy “compost” at my (very steep) driveway just as a hurricane was arriving.)
Ah…good times.
I didn’t have extra cash to put towards these projects, but I did suddenly find myself with loads of time. So that’s what I invested with for those first few years. The time it takes to piece together bits of free info from podcasts, and the time it takes to turn kitchen scraps into the perfect soil.
Now, 7 years later, I regularly dedicate a portion of my income each year on coaches, courses, retreats, and masterminds in order to get expert eyes on my business, build relationships with my peers, and learn from the best. We’re also now able to spend more on materials to build raised beds, organic compost, and fertilizers, and water lines for the garden.
But there are plenty of options between that free podcast and a $15,000 Mastermind, and there are pros and cons to all of them. I want to outline some of the options at every stage of the game (and we’ll drop the gardening metaphors….for now… and stick to building careers in the arts ;- )
Whether you are a performer looking to book more concerts for yourself or your ensemble, a writer looking to grow their audience or someone with a creative dream project you are eager to get off the ground, there are GREAT ways for you to start investing in yourself at any price tag.
Okay, here we go!
Level 1: It’s Gotta be Free! ($0)
1. Podcasts
2. Blogs
3. Youtube
4. Joining someone’s Mailing List (often via a freebie that you get by entering your email address) Bonus–gets you some great (also free) material in their weekly emails/newsletters as well.
I’m listing all of these in one place because they all give you similar experiences with similar Pros and Cons. One of the most important lessons I learned–a concept I think about every single week in my career, is something that I learned from a podcast. And even though I’m now at a point where I can invest in great coaches, I STILL take in free content on a daily basis. (Read to the end for a listing of a few faves.) And…shameless plug, you should hop onto my mailing list. I send out a weekly email each Friday with a few bits of info/tips/hacks that I think you’ll find useful.
Pros:
- Obviously, the fact that it doesn’t cost you anything is the biggest one.
- Because there isn’t an initial buy-in, you’re free to try multiple people’s content on for size.
- You can take in the material however and whenever you want.
Cons:
- While we all give out great content for free, no one is giving out ALL of our content for free. So you need to understand that while what you’re getting will get you started, it will only take you so far.
- It can get confusing and overwhelming if you’re taking in content from several different people at once.
- You don’t have access to any of those people. You can’t ask them questions about your own situation. You need to take what you hear and see if it applies to you.
Level 2: I’m ready to dip a toe in and see how this goes (between $25.00-$500.00)
1. Webinars and Online Bootcamps
Most webinars and bootcamps (short, 1-5 day online challenges) used to be free, and some still are! But with the end of the Pandemic came busy schedules, and fewer people stuck at home, waiting excitedly for ANY adult human interaction and hosts started finding that people would sign up for a free event and then blow it off. However, when people pay, they pay attention, so even charging a minimal amount like $25, was getting them into the metaphorical room.
With Online Workshops, Webinars, and Bootcamps, the teacher is usually offering it right before the launch of a bigger program. We all do it to gather people who might be a good fit for our program, get them started, and then let them know about the bigger offer. Is it a sales tactic? Yes. But I don’t know anyone out there who isn’t busting their butt trying to give amazing content and information in these free or low-ticket events.
The last thing we want is for anyone to feel like they wasted their time with us. This is NOT, I repeat, this is NOT one of those time-share scams where they get you in a room and the ONLY thing you learn is why you should give them all of your money. The idea, rather, is to teach you something truly useful, and give you a chance to see what it’s like to work with them.
Pros:
- They are short-just an hour, to a couple of days.
- You get to see the teacher in action in real-time, and can often ask questions and interact with them live.
- You’ll come away with at least a few clear action steps or ideas
- A great way to find out if you want to invest longer-term (or higher ticket) with a coach or teacher.
Cons:
- You’re getting just a taste
- Not getting in-depth coaching or long-term help
- Only offered for a limited time, and usually have limited access to any replays.
2. Digital Mini-Courses:
You can find various mini-courses on all sorts of topics. From how to master Instagram to SEO, to Excel Spreadsheets. These are pre-recorded and when you pay for them, you’ll get login information to access the course.
Pros:
- You can pick and choose exactly what you need to learn.
- You can learn it at your own pace and as your schedule allows. Binge all 8 modules in one sitting, or parse it out 10 minutes at a time.
- You’ll have access to them forever. I have many digital courses in my Kajabi Library (a popular platform that “houses” digital courses) that I refer back to often.
Cons:
- Again, there’s usually no personalized support from the teacher themselves. (some people will launch these mini-courses at a certain time of year, and offer a FB group for a certain amount of time–but this is usually peer support)
- They don’t go very broad, But again, if you just wanted info on 1 particular topic, these are perfect.
Level 3: I’m ready to make a real investment ($2000-$100,000+)
1. Group Coaching Programs
These group offers generally run between $2,000 and $8,000 with some running significantly higher depending on the length of time, number of trainings, and other factors.
Generally, these sessions are held live and online.
One of my best friends is someone I met in my first live coaching group, 3 years ago. We Voxer each other multiple times a day, every single day.
Two people who were in one of my first rounds of Profit Pivot just met for the first time IRL–2.5 years later! They were at the same conference and sent me a selfie that warmed my heart.
Pros:
- You have an amazing group of peers that you get to meet and interact with and bounce ideas off of. This kind of work gets lonely really fast–and having others there alongside you can go a LONG WAY.
- You have real-time access to the coach. You can ask questions, usually have a FB group, or a way of communicating with your coach via Voxer, or email, and you’re getting their eyes on your work on a semi-regular basis.
- Small and intimate groups. Usually, these groups are between 3 and 20 people. Any larger than that, and I think people can start to feel lost in the shuffle.
- The Coach is fully invested in you, gets to know you and your projects, and will help you see success.
Cons:
- You’re sharing the coach’s time with the others in the group.
- You’re following a syllabus that may or may not align perfectly with what you are doing/needing at the same time.
- You need to be available for the coaching times, or watch the recording later on….alone…and sad that you missed out on the fun.
2. 1:1 Coaching
Again, this varies greatly in price depending on the kind of coaching, the experience of the coach, and how much access you get from them. They can run from $500 a month to (I kid you not!) $50,000 a session. To give you an idea, I see my 1:1 clients alone every other week for 90 minutes, hold office hours every week (basically just a giant work party/Q&A session that all of my group and 1:1 clients are invited to) and they can Voxer me whenever. My fees are now around $1,000 a month.
Pros:
- Your coach is focused on your work, and helping you succeed.
- With 1:1 coaching, you have the time to thoroughly work through mindset and thought issues that there just isn’t time for in group coaching settings.
- Strategizing is specific to your needs and on your specific timeline. Whatever you need help with at that moment is what you’re getting.
- 1:1 coaching can lead to incredible growth, and you’ll see the fastest level of personal growth.
Cons:
- Usually there’s no peer support (that’s why I hold my office hours, so all of my clients can meet each other)
- It is a big investment.
- I’ll be perfectly honest with you. With 1:1 coaching, things get real. It can feel uncomfortable as you face your own limiting beliefs and are held accountable for the things you say you want to do. As a coach, it’s important to both encourage a client’s growth, and to always meet them where they are at that moment, and as someone who is regularly on both sides of that table, it’s important, and sometimes uncomfortable work.
3. Masterminds
There are 2 basic kinds of Masterminds, but both lean heavily on the peer dynamic. A paid mastermind is put together by a coach, and the members are hand-picked or can apply, but the group is held to a certain standard (income level or type of work are typical) Instead of following a training syllabus like in a group program, masterminds give each member time in the “hot-seat” to talk about their projects, and ask questions, talk about where they are getting stuck, and get ideas and insights from the rest of the group.
Unpaid masterminds are put together by a group of peers themselves. I was in one with a couple of friends back in 2019! And it was a huge kickstart to the early days of my business. Brendon Burchard put one together with his besties (Amy Porterfield, Jenna Kutcher, Lewis Howes, etc.) and although they don’t pay to be IN the mastermind, they all commit to getting themselves to wherever they are meeting in person–covering their flights, hotel rooms, meals, etc. (*Also, what I would give to be a fly on THAT wall!)
Some of the better-known mastermind groups can run up to $25,000 or $50,000. But then, you’re paying for access to the greatest business minds out there.
Pros:
- You get the true inside-scoop. What worked, and what didn’t? How they did what they did. The nuts and bolts.
- You can ask for help, resources, and connections. One person made a “shot in the dark” request for an email introduction to a very famous person in the Theater world, and it just happened that Super Famous Guy had been a teacher, mentor, and college advisor to another member of the group. Connection MADE.
- At the highest levels, these masterminds are like mini-marketing departments. They speak at each other’s events, promote each other, and help to create a serious buzz.
Cons:
- You’re expected to keep up. Mastermind is meeting up in Cabo for a long weekend and everyone is staying at the same 5-star resort? You’re going to Cabo, and you’re shelling out the big bucks.
- This is not just about you. You’re there to help everyone in that room. (while they are also helping you, of course)
- It’s a big investment. You want to be absolutely sure you have the time, money, and bandwidth to take on a group like this, and you want to be absolutely sure this is the right group for you. It will change your life, but you have to be willing to show up.
Conclusion:
Looking back, I can’t believe how far I’ve come. From pulling the old dead plants out of the dried-out pots or the garden beds with 5-year-old soil I had them in, and planting new ones in their place. No surprise, they weren’t terribly successful.
Eventually, I learned that I needed to build up that soil with nutrients. Good nutrients–not cheap chemicals. And that those good nutrients could be free with compost that I made slowly and patiently, one banana peel at a time, or with slightly more expensive bags of compost or chicken manure that I bought at the garden center. Those things allowed my flowers and vegetables to thrive and succeed, and our careers are no different.
Investing in ourselves is a necessary step in our growth, and I have yet to see anyone succeed without doing it in some form. If you have all kinds of time but are short on cash, go for the free things. It will take you much longer, but you WILL be getting good information. If you have less time, and or, a bit of money to put towards it? I can promise you it’s worth it. It will fast-track your growth and get you there a lot sooner.
It took me from 2016 to 2020 to get to the first step with free content, and then a year of a group coaching program to get to the next step, and less than that with my current mastermind group.
Would I have done anything differently? No. Honestly, at first, I wasn’t perfectly clear on what it was I wanted to do, and I didn’t have cash on hand to pay for programs or courses. The free content got me started. I felt inspired and encouraged to keep going.
But I will say that I am SO glad that I DID, eventually choose to invest in that first coaching program and each course I take gives me so much new knowledge. I think it does need to be done at some point. It’s worth saving a little bit each month at the beginning in order to start seeing real growth and progress at some point.
I’ve experienced it first-hand, and I’ve witnessed it with my clients.
Have you taken a course or participated in a group program, or do you have a favorite podcast? Let us know in the comments so we can all share resources. You can find my round-up of favorite podcasts for creative entrepreneurs HERE. It’s a bit outdated and leans toward musicians, but while a couple of these podcasts have changed hosts, they are still around, and are all still amazing! I’ll do an updated post with some of my new finds soon (and I’d love to include some of yours, too!)
Cheers,
Kate
P.S. If you enjoyed this blog post and want more insider info on how to thrive as a creative, be sure you get on the list to receive my Friday “Weekend List.” Each one is loaded up with additional tips, tricks, and things to think about, including a new curated list of articles, books, podcasts, and things that I think you’d enjoy. Click Here to Get the Weekend List!