Tip of the hat to making it work – August Diva Meeting

It was a rainy, August day in Manhattan when we met for our monthly Diva meeting having skipped July because of our non-agreeing schedules.  This day found us all present in the Big Apple; Maren singing for the Mostly Mozart Festival and Abby, having just returning from the BARD Music Festival.   I was there having just come from the WICKED world tour auditions (which Abby did with me).

As I sat across the table from my two favorite divas, I realized that I had now joined the ranks of those who were full-time singers without the safety net of a regular income.  As I brought my friends up to speed on my situation, the conversation naturally turned towards how one makes money while pursuing singing.  I shared with them how inventive and resourceful I had suddenly become after the safety net was removed.  I was embracing one of the upsides of my now flexible time and the end of my exhausting juggle of rehearsals, auditions, performances and a full-time job.  Trips in to New York for auditions or extended performances at out of town festivals were now possible for me.  But even with these, the need for income still loomed.

This meeting was my opportunity to pick the brains of my two veteran, full-time singer friends and to swap ideas as to how to bring the money in.  We talked about money management challenges, business ideas, networking, gigs and other inventive ways to provide income for ourselves.   However, at the end of it all, one of the most important realizations we came to was that we needed to make our singing career so successful in and of itself that it would provide the only income we needed.  At the time this post publishes, Abby will have completed a Dallas Travers Business Blueprint Intensive that addressed this very thing.

My friend’s positive outlook and resourceful ideas helped to send me on my way with a plan for making the ends meet.  The overall feeling I left with was hope for the future and the feeling that many, many opportunities have come as a result of my tables being turned.

Diva in the Details – Sanity over Sushi

One side of the scale is loaded with more and more weight as it starts to tip further and further to one side until the entire contraption drops over the edge of the table and on to the floor.  The match stands at the ready, the flame flickering near the candle’s wick while the other end is already burning.  The juggler looks up at the plates spinning faster and faster on sticks over her head when the first plate topples and crashes below.

The issues of balance and fighting the “overwhelm-crazy” in the face of the ever-increasing schedule was the topic of this month’s meet up as me and the divas sat down to sushi at Numa.  We had been talking for months about dreams, goals and to-do lists; the result of which made our calendars fill and our lists grow with the fruits of our quests.

We had each been thinking about the issues of ”busy-ness” with the business.  We shared experiences such as, for example, when one of us accidentally scheduled themselves to attend two events at the same time or better yet, forgetting about an event all together.  Although we each want to be productive, we realized that productivity has to be just that, productive or it’s just the spinning of the wheels.

As we commensurated, we discovered some interesting things:

“No is the new “yes”:

This has been one of my biggest breakthroughs over the last few months.  I refer to the issue of spreading oneself too thin as the “starving artist syndrome” where one feels the need to say “yes” to every gig that comes along.  I’ve come to realize that if it doesn’t serve my ultimate goal, I should say “no” and move on.  This includes singing in a different genre other than the one of my main goal.  Otherwise my energy and time gets quickly displaced.  Although this is a hard adjustment, I feel it is necessary in order to keep my laser focus pointed in the right direction.

It’s “Go time” for “Me time”:

Maren, who keeps a strict schedule and says that her calendar is her best friend, blocks out “me time” if she sees free hours so that she doesn’t fill those blocks and thus scheduling more than she can handle.  Although it gives me cold sweats to have blank spaces on my calendar, it is important to have some “me time” to recharge and should get its deserved attention.  I will be taking that new practice on…I just need to mark that in my calendar….

The In Between Times:

Besides just rehearsals and concerts, Maren schedules blocks of time to practice and do mailings or research.  A great idea as well.  The only things on my calendar are rehearsals and performances with tasks setting up shop on an ever-populated “to do” list somewhere else.  Having a place for everything keeps everything in its place and keeps us from feeling “head-cluttered.”

Things not singing:

Abby shared some great ways to keep the crazy at bay in the other areas of her life when not singing.  She shuts off email notification on her phone, which is a great idea but one I can’t even fathom.  She is reminded of staying in the moment with her Eckhardt Tolle audiobooks and does daily stretches and meditation to help center her and keep her focus for the rest of the day.  She says that she also unplugs the TV or only watches meaningful programs in order to allow herself space to reflect and enjoy the quietness of being alone.  She goes to La Casa Day Spa to do sensory deprivation floatation (which sounds relaxing and scary all at the same time but for which I will visit on my next trip).

All good advice which I will take it upon myself to explore!

Your Turn:

Please share in the comments ways that you keep sane in the music business (or any business that you are in) and ways you buck the stress.

The Diva is in the Details – Big Apple of my Eye

New York, with its pulsing life force and streets filled with dreams, seemed like the perfect place to do a quick turn-around trip to meet up with my fellow Divas for our monthly meeting.  We started the evening with dinner at Room Service , record our possibly very first podcast (!), compare notes and discuss our accountable goals for the coming month.   We were so excited to get the idea of meeting off the ground and to have our first inspirational first call last month where we shared ideas and wrote down our goals for this meeting.  This month was all about accountability, seeing how we did, discussing the challenges we had been facing, and in the supportive environment we have created, share our newfound accomplishments and dreams.   We then headed over to attend a Dallas Travers workshop that I spoke about before but that Maren and Abby hadn’t seen yet.  As expected, the workshop was loaded with not only incredible and specific applications for your career but also inspiring stories and ideas to change the very way we think about the business, thus freeing ourselves to be successful within it! 

Divas with Dallas

The Diva is in the Details – Masterminds Launch!

A rewarding experience, along with paving my way and building this career, is to find others out in the world who are pursuing similar aspirations.  These are people who I can share my experiences with, be held accountable to, and seek advice from when challenges present themselves.  These people will help push me further, motivate me and offer other viewpoints that I might not have otherwise considered.  Because the pursuit ahead is a personal one and can make me feel a bit alone at times, my goal is to work on surrounding myself with those other like minds while also disregarding the NYPs.

Stemming from these thoughts above, (first alluded to here), Maren , Abigail and I launched the first of our monthly “Diva is in the Details”, power trio, mastermind meetings.   

After an exhilarating hour of sharing our goals, ideas and gaining inspiration, we each decided on tasks that we would accomplish before we met again.  Although I had identified my top 10 regional/Equity theatres to target, my next task will be to contact each of them in one form or another, whether through an audition request, an informational interview, taking a workshop, etc.  I’m actually in the process of creating a “touch matrix” to help keep track of my progress.  Abigail and Maren both decided to identify their top 5 to 10 organizations that they want to target for their marketing efforts.

I’m already looking forward to next month’s meeting in New York, where we will begin with dinner and end with a Dallas Travers free workshop in a city that demands action and inspires dreams into reality.

The Diva is in the Details

The voice of concern escapes their lips almost the moment the exciting goals leave ours.  We see the predicted tightened mouth of concern and their imagined pain we are sure to endure.  The eyebrows arch in judgement or a hum escapes their lips as they contemplate the endless obstacles that await us.  If they are bold enough, they list them in detail, unsolicited, as if their concern brings forth expertise.  We of big pursuits and dreams are all to familiar with these responses.  We observe them from parents, family, friends or sometimes even complete strangers.  The negative ideals from which these attitudes are born are not only irrelevant to us, but counterproductive. 

While developing my own self-motivating tools to keep my attitude in excellent working condition, I have discovered the power of surrounding myself with people of like attitudes, goals and aspirations.  These people to which we disclose our goals meet us with open arms, open minds, knowledge and encouragement.  The brow and the hum will not fall upon their faces.  

So, it was with great excitement, and uncanny timing that, while waiting for a rehearsal to begin, Maren asked me if I had read her blog post about her get-together with another fellow blogger, Abby, who had also wrote a blog post about the power of the pinky swear, or the accountability factor.  Both women decided to set some audition goals for themselves and then to be accountable to each other for them.  When I heard this, I, with excitement, added my idea of the monthly get-together to the mix and instantly invited myself to the power party.

At that moment, I looked at Maren, thinking about all of the ways in the past year we have set goals for ourselves and have harnessed the power of health, marketing, networking, practicing, auditioning and now, in the creating of a mastermind group of sorts.  I said to her that the Diva is in the details, which I suggested might be a good name for the group.   These types of details, the plans and goals that accompany fiery visions, the use of any and all tools at one’s disposable is what set apart the dreamers from the doers of dreams.