(This is the first in a 5-part series)
Last week, inside the Tales From The Lane Facebook Group, I hosted a 3-day training on how musicians can take advantage of the opportunities presented by our current circumstances to re-write not only their careers but how they show up in this world.
As leaders.
You see, I believe (pretty strongly, actually) that while we have always known how important the arts are to a thriving society, we’ve fallen into the habit of acting like the hired help. If we were to rise up as leaders in our communities and channel our energy into work that gives us purpose and meaning, we would be helping not only the world-at-large, but ourselves, our families, and the next generation of musicians who are watching and following our example.
What does this look like? It looks like teachers deciding that a once-a-week, 60-minute lesson squeezed in between hectic rehearsals and other students is NOT enough to give them what they truly need, and actually doing something about it.
It looks like a percussionist who works between NYC and Europe who is helping other musicians learn to take better care of themselves on the road and in the practice room, and it looks like a singer who, sick of the lack of repertoire being performed (live or otherwise) that is truly representational of all voices, is starting her own ensemble company that will fill that void in utterly breathtaking and creative ways.
To be honest, it looks like a lot of different things, because each of us has our own unique ideas and our own gifts to offer the world, but they have one thing in common.
It takes guts.
It takes guts, and it takes perseverance, and battling imposter syndrome, and overcoming our own self-doubt.
It also requires that we not attempt to do it on our own. It’s not easy. You need to get a support system in place.
On the last day of the training, I talked about the five people we need to surround ourselves with in order to successfully take on new challenges. The first person is The Proof.
It’s a lot easier to motivate ourselves to take on something scary if we know it will work out. Being able to point to an example of someone who has done something similar definitely helps in that regard. As soon as you start to hear your inner voice say something rude like:
“That’s a dumb idea, you could never get away with doing something like that.”
You can point to that person/colleague/celebrity and say, “well, THEY did it. So, I probably can too.”
You can also literally model your steps after them. Find out what they did, and do that too. If it worked for them, it will probably work for you too. Do you want to run a marathon? Find people who have run marathons and ask them how they trained. Do that. Run Marathon.
When I wanted to start an online summer festival last year, no one had done that exact thing. BUT, I had seen enough summer festivals up close, and I had seen people put together online conferences and summits, so I just combined the two. You can do something like that too if no one has done exactly what you want to do. Find people who have done similar things, and then put your own twist on it.
Look around you. Who do you see that you can use as your proof? Write their name on a piece of paper and pin it to your work board and, without getting all creepy about it (please don’t do that) find out what you can about how they did it.
Who’s your proof?
Another exciting thing that happened on the last day of the training is I announced that I’m going to be opening a 2nd round of my 10-week group coaching program, The Profit Pivot. You can find out more about it HERE and if you’ve been thinking about making a shift in your career as a professional musician, let’s talk! You can schedule a (free) 30-minute discovery zoom call with me by clicking HERE.
Would you like to hear about future trainings, challenges, and other happenings? You can join the TFTL Facebook Group and get all of the insider info HERE.
Originally published at https://talesfromthelane.com on December 7, 2020.
