Client Show & Tell: Starving Artist? Or Satiated Creator?
Ask For What You Want by NayArts
I’m on vacation early this week, & my clients are doing some Show & Tell! It’s time now to hear from Juliana Finch, a glorious (yes, glorious) singer/songwriter whose music will make you melt (yes, melt). If you like what you hear, help her make her new album (& have her play in your home! yes, really!) by being a backer. I became one already. Yes, the music ‘s that glorious. I wasn’t kidding.
When I first discovered Michelle’s coaching practice and blog, I had one of those “Aha!” moments that Oprah talks about. Here was someone who was telling people that it is not only totally ok to be a creative person out in the world, but that your creativity is possibly integral to your well-being and can help you thrive! That idea is almost my religion, so it was immediately clear that Michelle was my kinda gal. For the past couple of weeks, I’ve been getting some excellent group coaching with Michelle and it has helped me push past a plateau I’d reached regarding the business side of my creative work.
For most artists I know, the terms “business” and “money” might as well be four-letter words. Our creative work is a labor of love, so mixing it with money can feel dirty. We’re all familiar with the idea of the starving artist, right? Somehow, we’ve gotten the idea that a real artist has to be suffering and toiling in obscurity. If you’re financially secure and marketable, it must mean that you’re a sell-out.
I hate to burst your bubble, but that idea is a load of hooey.
Does any of this sound familiar to you?
“I could audition for that part, but there are hundreds of people trying out, so my chances aren’t good.”
“I know I’ve been playing this open mic for a couple of years, but everyone has to pay their dues.”
“If I were good enough to be a professional, I would have been discovered by now. “
For me, clinging to the starving artist persona did nothing but give me permission to shrink from the world, not try my hardest, and put my art on the backburner. It was comfortable, it was easy. It was a free pass to give up. A couple of years ago, I finally got fed up with it and decided that I would like to be a satiated creator instead of a starving artist.
For me, that looks like this:
• I decided that my work was good enough for people to pay for. When I gave value to my own work, other people gave more value to it, also. This psychological hump was the first thing I had to get over before I could move forward. Then…
• I decided to stop playing free shows. When I do a free show these days, it’s because it meets some very specific personal requirements I’ve set up. Believe me, this was a scary move. I had been playing whatever shows I could get for a long time, and many of those were in coffee shops or restaurants where no one was listening anyway…but I’d heard for years that young musicians have to “pay dues” and that’s what I thought I was doing. You know what else young musicians have to pay? Bills.
• I decided to invest a significant amount of money in putting together a full-length,professional album. I was done waiting for a record label to “discover” me and give me permission to be a singer/songwriter. I was tired of telling people at shows that, “Gee, I’m sorry, I don’t have another CD yet. I’m an independent musician so I don’t have a label to pay for things and… “
You know what happened when I made those three changes? I made more money in one year playing music than I had made in the previous five years of playing combined.
When I told one venue that I wasn’t able to do their free Wednesday night shows anymore, they offered me a paying Saturday night slot instead. I had finally started treating myself like a professional, and others took the cue from me.
I know it can be terrifying. I know that there is a part of you saying you aren’t good enough, and who are you to expect other people to pay you for this thing you would do for free anyway. But I also know that what you do can touch people in unexpected ways; that you can improve lives by your art, even if you never meet the person whose day/week/month you changed; and that by choosing to not to starve, you can feed the world with your creative energy.
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Tags: Grown-Up Gigs
July 20th, 2010 at 5:54 am
This is beautiful! The world will ALWAYS let you work for free, no matter how talented you are, and most of the time the world *wants you* to work for free for as long as you're willing to do so! Same goes for working the low-level position, or only taking the opportunities that you feel "good enough" for (the ones that aren't *too* good).
I'm really tired of this concept of "paying your dues"! I understand that you can't just waltz into the big gigs and the big opportunities, and sometimes you have to start small and learn and work your way up, but defining it as "paying one's dues" just gives us an excuse not to work harder, like you said! It makes us feel like, well, this is where I'm supposed to be as a lowly beginner, when I've done enough I'll be able to move on. Instead, we should be thinking, alright, this is where I *have* to be for a short amount of time, but there's no reason for me not to be out of here and on my way up as soon as possible!
There is no amount of dues you can pay that will guarantee you'll be moved up in your field. You could keep paying forever, and, especially if you seem content to keep doing so, nobody is going to come and say "Well done! You've paid your dues! Come with me to professional land!" It's such a huuuuge step to realize you're personally past that "dues" stage and on to the "my talent is worth something and I'm going to act like it" stage. Major congratulations, and thank you for the inspiring post!
July 20th, 2010 at 4:55 pm
Wonderful post, Juliana! So true, and so exceptionally articulated. This will be a must-read for all of our interns.
July 21st, 2010 at 4:48 am
@Natalie, “Well done! You’ve paid your dues! Come with me to professional land!”
This cracked me right up, and it's such a great way to put it. I think a lot of us wait for "rescue" or to be swept away instead of just doing it ourselves.
@Leah, thank you so much! Say hi to your interns for me.