Navigating the ebb and flow of being a freelance classical musician with Michelle

Michelle Lynne:

Hey everybody. Welcome back to The Fearless Artist Podcast. I’m your host, Michelle Lynne, and today we’re doing a solo episode around something I’ve been thinking about for a long time. It’s all about energy management and the ebb and flow of a freelance musician career.

And I don’t know why, I’ve just been overthinking it a lot. I haven’t done one in a long time. I think I’ve gotten really into the role of interviewing other people and hearing their ideas. So anyway, just know that wherever you’re at in your journey of being fearless, there’s always going to be a reason for you not to show up.

There’s always going to be a thought that you have, that you’re worried about what people are going to think, or if it’s good enough, or if you have something important to say. Even though I get messages every single day from people who are thanking me for what Deanna and I do at TFA, for the impact that we’re making, the content we put out, it’s still very easy to fall into this trap of believing, “Oh no, do I have something to say?”

So anyway, I’m showing up because that’s what we teach you guys to do too. We’re here to share our ideas. We’re here to share and connect, and we believe we have something valuable that’s going to make an impact. So I just believe that this is going to be a powerful episode. I believe that you’re going to hear things that are going to spark new ideas for you.

Make sure you have a pen and paper because I know you’re going to get ideas when you’re listening. (And if you’re driving, don’t do that!) I’ve been coaching a lot in our mastermind and our membership, Fast Forward. I do a lot of one-on-ones. I think I’m up to like 20 or 21 one-on-ones a month now. And it’s just such a privilege and an honor to be walking with musicians who are pursuing careers and hearing their obstacles, hearing their opportunities, and hearing their thought process. It’s just such a joy for me. And so I hear a lot about what people are thinking about, struggling with, and that helps me to really, first of all, shape our content to know what musicians need right now.

And everyone’s at a different level. You know, some people are coming in and they’re like, “Oh, you know, should I maybe make an Instagram for my music?” If you’ve been following me for longer than two seconds, then you know what the answer to that is. But you know, and then some people are coming in and they’re balancing multiple businesses. They’ve got different income streams, they’ve got different audiences. And you know, they’re asking me, “Do I need to make a separate Instagram account because I have so many people that I’m working with in different ways?” You know, we have a lot of musicians in our membership that do different things. A lot of people are more than just a musician.

They have multiple skills and strengths, whether that’s in project management or content creation, virtual assistance, organizing, even like cybersecurity, team management, leadership. Some people are in corporate jobs as well. There’s a lot of people doing a lot of different things. And so it’s about managing all of that, keeping all the balls in the air, hopefully not letting anything drop too much, and pursuing ultimately, why are we here? We’re here to pursue careers that are fulfilling to us. And we have learned that there’s more than one way to success. It doesn’t have to look a certain way for you to be successful. You don’t have to have the job that you were told was successful. You don’t have to have the orchestra position, or the solo career, or the faculty position, or whatever you thought was “making it.”

That might look very different for you right now. And you know, the example is Deanna, who’s on mat leave right now. She’s two months in. And I believe Deanna is making it. She is making it as a musician, and she’s currently not performing because she’s got three children. So once she gets off of her mat leave, she’ll be able to figure out a flow and what’s going to work for her and her family. But that’s making it. A lot of us want to have families and have people, you know, partners, lives that are in our music world, but not just exclusively. So that’s where things can get exciting but also complicated, and why we so deeply believe in the power of community. Even my example of starting, you know, I’m recording this episode because our producer wrote me and he encouraged me to do this.

So just another example of how we need each other. You need people around you who believe in you, who will empower you, who will speak out and say, “Hey, you should be doing this! This is your thing. This is your lane.” Just another example of that is, in the Fast Forward Membership, we do monthly workshops now in addition to the group coaching calls. So if you’re new here, our community is called Fast Forward. There’s already over 40 people in it. It’s amazing. We do two calls a month of group coaching where people come in and set their goals for the upcoming weeks. We look at our schedules, time, energy management. We usually do a group coaching exercise that is super helpful. There are discussions and breakout rooms. It’s an amazing, positive community.

And then in addition to that, we’re doing now monthly trainings around things we should have learned in school. So anyway, I currently teach at Code Arts, which is a university in Rotterdam. I teach entrepreneurship there for year one and year two bachelors. And my colleague, Peter, he’s phenomenal and he has this whole branding minor that he teaches, as well as professional development around branding for artists and archetypes. Now, his specialty is jazz, world jazz, and pop. So he graciously invited me to co-author an e-book with him around the classical side of this, classical branding, archetypes for musicians. So he came into the membership just two days ago and he gave a phenomenal workshop. If you’re listening to this and you’re in the membership and you haven’t watched the replay yet, run and watch it because it’s… I’m going to have it on repeat. It was so helpful to help us understand how are we positioning ourselves as artists? What makes you different from everybody else? And this is based on an archetype personality quiz. This is Carl Jungian psychology. And so you take the quiz, you see the results, you find keywords that describe you as an artist, and then you can use those words across everything that you’re doing, whether that’s, you know, your bio, your captions, how you talk in person, how you talk about your music, how you talk about your concerts.

How do you tell someone to come to your concert other than like, “Hey, I am playing Saturday. You should come”? Right? If we can find ways to tell who we are and tell stories and be compelling, that will invite more people, more audiences, to come into our world and to take part. So anyway, he gave this amazing training on Tuesday and it was just this moment that I had when I was watching him teach. I’m like, “You are so in your lane right now!” Like, this is… you’re an expert in this. This is awesome! And I’m happy to learn from him. I’m happy to teach what I’ve learned also in the classical way, but it is just really cool when we see people really stepping into their zone of genius. And I get that privilege of seeing musicians do that all around me all the time.

So anyway, today I wanted to focus a little bit on this ebb and flow of our careers. That was kind of a long introduction, but I just want to tell you guys where my thought process is on this. And so what we see a lot with freelancers is that when there is a lack of, let’s say, concerts or… well, mostly it’s concerts, I think, or opportunities or whatever it is, people kind of start to panic and it’s like, “Oh no, like I only have one thing this month,” or, “I don’t have anything booked for the next season yet.” Or, you know, I’m hearing that a lot because next season’s coming and some, you know, depending on what level you’re at, some seasons have been announced already or some people are still booking stuff or pitching or whatever. So I’ve heard a lot on the coaching calls, like, “Oh, I don’t have anything for next season.” I’m like, “Okay, well, take a deep breath, like, no worries.” But there is a very real ebb and flow to what we do. And so how do we navigate this? And I think I have a couple ideas, and I’m sure many of you do too. So, we’re going to talk a little bit about that.

Just before we get started, I wanted to share a testimonial that came in about the membership. This just was super great to read this morning. This is from Sophie. She’s in Denmark. She’s an amazing clarinetist. She said:

“After graduating from conservatory and moving to a new city, I found myself missing the network of musicians I used to connect with on a regular basis. People I could talk to about the real challenges of building a career in classical music. Fast Forward has given me that sense of community again. It’s a space where we can openly share about our struggles and work together to find solutions. Being part of this group reminds me that I’m not alone in navigating the uncertainties of this career, and that musicians all over the world share many of the same experiences. Deanna and Michelle have created a truly supportive, inspiring space. Fast Forward not only helps me stay accountable, but it pushes me to grow my entrepreneurial skills and keep moving forward as a classical musician.”

I mean, that’s amazing, Sophie! Thank you so much for sharing that with us. Definitely the reason the membership exists is for everything listed. I mean, I remember having this moment where I was like, “I am super busy and exhausted and I can’t tell you what I’ve done.” Like I can look back at my agenda and be like, “Oh yeah, I was here and then I was here and then I had to run and do this gig and then I was accompanying this…” And you know, it was just like so much scatteredness. And without having this, then someone taught me, “If you are too busy to think and plan, then you’re too busy.” Right? Because we need to actually take time to zoom out, look at our schedule, see where our time is going. Where are you spending your time? Where are you spending your energy? What are your goals? Have you accomplished any of the things that you said that you wanted to say, to do? And if you haven’t, why? And without shame, you know, like at The Fearless Artist, we have been very clear from the beginning, it’s a no-shame zone. There’s no toxicity. If you come into the calls, people are friendly. I mean, it was really funny on the call last week, one of the new members, she was like, “You guys are so nice!” And she’s a teacher, she’s a music teacher, and she wasn’t sure if it was the place for her because a lot of the members are performing professionals. She’s like, “Everyone here is so nice!” I’m like, “Yeah, because we chose to make our culture. It’s anti-comparison, you know, edging each other out, competing vibe, and to say, really, like, we’re all here working on our stuff. We all have dreams.” A lot of us need to dream bigger. That’s my thing. For everybody who’s coming to me, I’m like, “Alright, let’s think three times bigger. Like what would it look like to scale?” You know, that’s always a fun question.

So, with having these two-week breaks, you look at your schedule and you’re like, “Oh, I spent this many hours on this. These are the days that I got practice in or not.” Okay, “How would I like my next two weeks to look like?” And in this way, we can start to be more intentional with our time, more intentional with people that we want to be reaching out to. Also, the biggest lesson of life is follow-ups. You have to be following up with people, and in order to do so, you have to keep track of this and remember the last time you were talking to them and what’s your system around that. And it’s not enough to try and keep it in your head ’cause our heads are full of many things.

Speaking of busyness, I’m now in a different season of my life, which is really, really fun. And more and more I’m finding myself in alignment with what I want to do. I have chosen to actually leave my position in Rotterdam, teaching entrepreneurship in the bachelor’s. And I mean, it’s a privilege when you get to a point in your career when you can say no to really good things. It’s a great job. The kids are great. I love them. I love teaching this mindset, you know, how many times have we said, “Things we should have learned in school?” And so there I am teaching them these things in school, but like, fortunately, The Fearless Artist has grown so much. And also if you’re listening to this, I want to say personally thank you so much for listening to this podcast because again, it’s growing. It means so much to me that you guys are supporting the podcast, telling the message of The Fearless Artist, that the word is spreading, that there is a healthy way to be a fearless freelance musician, that everyone has their own strengths and skills. Everyone has a place at the table. And if you don’t, then we build our own table. I mean, sometimes Deanna and I are looking at each other, we’re like, “Wow, we built this thing from nothing! How is this possible?” Lots of learning and mistakes along the way, of course. And of course there was a part of me that thought we would get to this level a lot faster. Then there’s also a part of me that I don’t know if I ever thought we would be at this level. You know, the membership has 40 people. We have a mastermind with 10. We have social media programs. We do workshops. I’m speaking and teaching. We’ve got the podcast. Deanna has her blog. Like, it’s just crazy! It’s fun. We have staff, we’ve got facilitators, you know, so it’s like this whole family community that’s grown and evolved and just really, really amazing people. Like, it’s really about the people and the projects and things that people are accomplishing and going for because they have this new growth mindset of being fearless.

So anyway, May was a really good month. I was in Berlin at the Classical Next Conference, and if you listen to last week’s episode, then I did a deep dive on that with my friend Gti and we talked about what we learned at the conference, but it was just such an honor to be there and to speak and to share this message. I did talk about artist branding, so if you listen to the episode with Peter, it’s episode number four, around artist branding. It’s words, actions, and visuals. How can we use these three things to really lean into our brand and communicate that artist brand? I had 40 people in my second session. Lots of great comments, feedback. I handed out tote bags. It was super fun! And then last week I was in Vienna and I wrapped up a coaching course that I took with Bernhard Caris. He is the creator of Be Your Own Manager. I would highly recommend that you go check his website. He has courses for sales and marketing and other things for freelance musicians, a very similar community to ours. And he is just a phenomenal person all around. I feel so privileged to learn from him. The coaching course that I did with him was… I did actually two. They were each three months long. And he walked us through multiple different concepts, different models that we can use in coaching, and then we had to coach each other in the courses. And then we were observed and given feedback. And for anyone listening to this podcast, I’m sure you can guess what my number one feedback is. I’ll give you a second. It said, “I need to slow down.” So if you… It’s funny, some of my students said to me like, “Oh, we started listening to your podcast and we thought it was on 1.5 speed, but it wasn’t.” It was on normal speed. So anyway, you know what, we’re all working on things. We all have our own things that we’re working on, and that’s what I’m doing. But what a joy to be around people of his level. He was the former artistic director of the Vienna Concert House for six years. He’s got a ton of real-world experience, baritone. I just like, I’m a big fan. I’m a big fan of his and we’re going to be doing more together in the future. So I’m just really privileged. And that’s just another thing I just want to share with you guys: Choose the people that are around you. Choose the people because everybody here is dreaming too small. I really feel that. We need to dream bigger. And in order for you to dream bigger, you have to have clear vision. Who are the people around you? Who are people doing the things that you want to do? Who can you follow on social media? And you’re like, “Wow. If they figured that out, then I can too.” Like, whether it’s speaking skills or camera skills or raising money or, you know, successfully releasing a single and getting streams or, you know, pitching to radio, doing media interviews, like, or performing concerts for bigger stages or in small concerts. You know, how do you get a series of small venues, but be them doing that consistently and building a fan base and talking to people? I mean, there’s so many things that we can grow in. And so when you see other people doing it, you know, I watched female motivational speakers for years back in like 2016, 2017. Getting that in my mind, watching other women with podcasts. Like I never thought that I would have my own podcast. I don’t know. But when you see other people doing it, you’re like, “Oh, there’s literally no reason why I can’t do this too.” And you can grow and you can learn. And so, yeah, just for everybody listening, like get really clear on your vision. That kind of leads me into what I want to talk about today: This ebb and flow thing.

So I wanted to start with just something, a little thought from Ecclesiastes 3. This is The Message translation:

“There’s an opportune time to do things, a right time for everything on the earth: a right time for birth and another for death, a right time to plant and another to reap, a right time to kill and another to heal, a right time to destroy and another to construct, a right time to cry and another to laugh, a right time to lament and another to cheer, a right time to hold on and another to let go, a right time to rip out and another to mend, a right time to shut up and another to speak up.”

I love that. So I wanted to really focus on, “There’s a time to plant and there’s a time to reap.” Just there’s a season for everything because I think with our freelance career, we just assume that we’re supposed to always be reaping. You know, it’s like always going to be concerts, it’s always going to be busy, it’s always going to be stuff happening. And then when you don’t have that and you go on socials and you see somebody else who has endless concerts, it looks like it can be very easy to be like, “Oh no, I’m doing something wrong.”

So anyway, I hear this from a lot of people and also I went through it a little bit with myself. I have a concert series, Opus 16, and we do six concerts per season, and then we have two venues, so it’s 12 concerts. And then Candlelight was insane. Like I was doing last year, I don’t know, six, seven, eight, nine, even one month, I did 11 or 12 concerts, I think, in December 2024. I was in my own home two nights because the rest of the nights I was out performing. So it was insane. That was like harvest time. And then the last couple months it’s been slower. So the thing with like, when you have a lot and then you have less as a freelancer, you’re like, “Wait, I don’t have any stability! I don’t have any security because someone else books us!” Right? So how do you create security for yourself? If like, the power, let’s say, in quotes, is in other people’s hands to say yes or no to you? Like, let’s say you’re pitching for concerts and the other people can say no, so then you don’t have any concerts. I mean, how can you, how do you handle this inconsistency or instability? So that was something that… there was like, you know, when you have the temptation to fear. That was definitely there. It was knocking at my mind and I had other people reaching out to me, other artists, and they were asking me like what I thought about it and stuff. And I was like, “You know what? I just don’t want to go into that mind of thinking at all. I’m just going to trust.” Like I figured out, I got some feedback that I needed to. It wasn’t personal. There’s just some stuff happening. Okay, fine. So if I’ve done everything that I know how to do to be giving excellence and to be performing at my highest level, then I’m just going to let go. Right? That’s what I just read in this verse: There’s a time to hold on and there’s a time to let go. So I decided to let go and I’m going to focus on what I do have in front of me. Well, luckily what I do have in front of me is an entire coaching company that seems to be exploding, as well as my beautiful co-founder who’s currently on leave. So that’s a lot of things to do.

I have a business coach and she was like, “You need to maximize at The Fearless Artist right now. If you have time away from performing, like full on, go into building TFA because things are working. We are finding incredible musicians. People are jumping in. There’s a lot of movement, so you’ve got to maximize at what’s working!” Right? Then Opus 16, you know, I put more time. We had the radio came and broadcasted. There’s a lot of work that I could do around there with like networking and building connections and working with other, even like businesses to get more sponsorship. I had some important networking lunches, those kind of things, like building relationship to help get ready for next season. And I think that’s kind of what I want to touch on, like, when we have this ebb and flow, there is a time for you to prepare for what’s coming next. So instead of panicking that you don’t have something right now, it’s like, “No, no, no. This is the time to get ready for when it’s going to come back.” So first of all, I have to believe that it’s going to come back. That’s abundance mindset. And second of all, I’m going to use this time strategically to be ready for when it does. I’m just going to give a quick example. When I left my first conservatory job in Maastricht, there was a sense of like, “Oh no, I’m saying goodbye to something that’s good. It’s a faculty job. I never thought I’d get to work on faculty because I don’t have a doctorate degree.” If you’re a North American listening to this and you know exactly what I’m talking about, and my colleague Peter, who I mentioned earlier, said to me, “Michelle, trust your entrepreneurial spirit, that you’ll be able to create that income in other ways.” And that for me, just lives like… Boom! Like that just hit me like, “Oh, I can trust that what I have inside of me will create possibilities and opportunities.” And that is what it means to be an entrepreneur. Like we are creating our own futures. We are making projects happen. We are reaching out. We are picking up the phone. We are sending the emails. Like there is so much work that goes into initiating. And I really believe that’s part of the fearless mindset. So that was very, very helpful for me.

So when you are in, let’s say if you’re in a slump, let’s call it the ebb, right? First thing I would say is, get clear on your vision. So this is the time to say like, “You know, what do I actually want? What does my ideal career look like? What am I aiming for? What lights me up inside?” If you need a way to help you do this, there’s a model called the Ikigai. It’s a Japanese concept. It’s about purpose, finding your sense of purpose. And this is something that we use with our mastermind clients. What gives you… what do you love? What does the world need? What can you get paid for? And what are you good at? And when you find something that hits all four of these, you know, like, “Okay, this is my lane. This is where I need to hang out and pursue.” So for me, that’s why I know like, even though, you know, The Fearless Artist coaching other musicians takes away time from me practicing, for example, I get so happy and excited doing this stuff, like coaching and talking and speaking and that kind of thing that I’m like, “Oh no, this has to be part of my life. This has to be part of the portfolio career that I’m building.” Right? Getting really clear on the vision of what you want.

Then, like I said earlier on the show, looking at other people who are doing it. ‘Cause getting that vision clear, like, I don’t know if any of you are like visual people. Like when I don’t want to do something, I will just watch other people do it and then it’ll kick something into gear in my head. Like if I don’t want to go work out, I’ll just open my phone and watch a few videos of people working out. Or I’ll look at my own past fitness content and be like, “Ugh, yeah, okay, I actually do care about this. I’m going to go!” Right? Like just getting that visual in your mind. Or like even, there’s this thing called clean talk. I don’t know if you guys, anybody here’s on TikTok, but like there’s this woman who will clean your house and sometimes just watching someone else clean gets you in the mode of like, “Okay, yeah, I can do that too.” Like it inspires you somehow. So getting clear on your vision, what are we aiming for?

The second thing I would say is, this is the time to build your network. As we know, there are, you know, I always say two ways to make it as a musician. One is you need to be really good at your instrument. Put in your hours, do your scales, you know, get your chops up. But also you need to know how to talk to people. ‘Cause if you can’t share your ideas, if you can’t share your projects, if you can’t get people to come hear you play or, you know, build a fan base online, then you’re going to be playing at home alone for your dog like I did in COVID. That was so sad! But I think she loved it and it helped me. And I was also doing online concerts then. So anyway, the point is you want to be able to use this time strategically to build your network. So, this is the time to reach out to people, have coffees, get on Zoom conversations, take the time to like strategically use your social media to look up people that you’d like to work with, follow their projects, reach out to them, make a nice comment on one of their posts, like, get the relationships going. This is the time to listen to new repertoire. This is the time to update your website. Read books, podcasts, get inspired, stay inspired. Take yourself for an artist date if anybody of you listen to The Artist’s Way with Julia Cameron. If you’ve read that book, it’s incredibly beautiful and she talks about taking yourself on an artist date. So if you’re going somewhere that feeds your artistic soul… something that I like to do when I’m traveling is I’ll walk around the city center and see, you know, the architecture. As someone from Grand Prairie, Alberta, you know, this is always astonishing to me to get to see some of the buildings over here, the churches, cathedrals. I was just in Vienna. Like, everything there is beautiful. It’s crazy! You’re just, there’s always carving or things that are dripping gold and even doors are super ornate. You’re like, “Okay, wow, this is amazing!” Go to a museum, go to a concert. Find ways to be inspired. Talk to other artists. This is not the time to get isolated if you are in an ebb. If you are in a slump, this is not the time to separate yourself, to be around people who might speak doubt into you. Like, “Oh, how do you pay your bills?” Or like, “Oh, are you sure you should be doing that?” Or like, “Is this really for you?” Or like, “Shouldn’t you just do a normal job?” You know, if you’re nodding, listening to any of this, then I really want to encourage you again, like choose your circle carefully. Choose who you let in your brain, because those thoughts can eat away at your dreams. And like, that’s not what we’re here for. You know, five words that will ruin your life: “What will other people say?” “What will other people think?” This is your life. Okay? You’ve got your shot. I don’t like saying you’ve got one shot because I personally have failed so many times and like by the grace of God, I’ve had very multiple second chances. So I don’t want to say you have one shot, but I will say like, this is your life. You get to choose who you want to be, how you want to show up, who you want to connect with. And if you’re making decisions based on what other people think of you, especially strangers, like if you’re posting something online and you’re worried that somebody out there might not like you, it’s like you don’t even know them! Why would they have access to your inner thoughts or your inner desires if you don’t even know them? Like we can’t be so afraid of not being liked by everybody, that we don’t show up and take up space that we need to be taking up. So if you’re in an ebb, then work with new people, read through new repertoire, call somebody and do a sight-reading party. I mean, do anything that gets you inspired. Take a lesson with someone new or, you know, there’s like Tonebase, a piano website. You can go on there and find lessons or just go to YouTube and watch a masterclass of someone teaching. I mean, all of those things are ways to kind of kick your brain into inspiration mode, right?

And then if you are in a flow season, like what I mentioned earlier was like when I had 11 performances with Candlelight that one month, or like right now, we’ve had 10 new people join the Fast Forward Membership in the last two months, which is like a huge honor and also very exciting and also a little bit like, “Okay, we’ve got to make sure that our systems are in place, that all these people can come in and quickly get connected and start working on their goals so that they can make progress right away.” ‘Cause that’s what we say that the membership is for: accountability, support, and your goals, and then teaching you everything that you need to know so you can take advantage of the opportunities in front of you. So, you know, we’ve got to double down on what’s working. If you’re in a flow season, that means other things are going to get put to the side. Other things will get put on pause. That’s why I’m stepping down from Code Arts, my faculty job, ’cause like I’ve got to focus on TFA. Like, you know, we have so much gold there to dig. It’s time to harvest. When it’s time to harvest, like if you come from a farming background, which I do, it’s like everybody’s on the field sunup to sundown, you are getting that canola in the truck. Like, sorry, Dad, if I butchered that metaphor, but you know what I mean, like all hands on deck, we’re going full on. So for me, I’m like doubling down on what’s working. I’m talking to as many people as I can. When I was in Berlin, I was handing out tote bags. I was asking people to come on to the podcast. Like, this is the harvest time. This is an exciting time. People are catching the fire of this vision. The word is spreading. Everyone’s getting excited about what they can do. Every day, somebody’s sending me a message of like, “Good news!” I’m so privileged. Like somebody’s like, “Oh, somebody came up to me in real life and said that they saw me on Instagram and they thought it was amazing what I was sharing!” Or somebody else said, “Wow, I can’t believe you’re so busy as a conductor!” I had a good friend of mine take two social media coaching sessions with me and completely transformed his Instagram, and now he even had three private donors donate to his orchestra because they saw him posting on Instagram. And I’m like, if that is not confirmation of like why you need to invest in yourself… You know, he paid me for two sessions. He starts posting and then boom, he suddenly got private donors out of nowhere! People coming up to him saying, “Wow, we didn’t know that you were so busy! We had no idea the projects you were doing!” Yeah. ‘Cause guess what? People don’t know unless you tell them. People don’t know. How are they supposed to know? Right? It’s up to us to share, to share in an authentic way, to share in a way that feels good to us. And I’m not asking you to bleed online or share your innermost being, but I am saying you’re a public figure now if you are an artist, okay? If you are an artist, if you’re a musician, then you have to be seen, you have to have visibility. Why? Because you literally picked a career where you are given a stage and there is a spotlight shining on you, okay? So we have to have a little bit of comfort with being visible. So that means we need to share what we’re doing. And go to where things are working, maximizing your opportunities, focus on what’s working and go 200%. So this might mean saying no to good things. I just gave the example of leaving my other job. Maybe you’re going to stop teaching. Maybe you’re going to no longer take beginner students. Maybe you’re going to focus on creating that course that you’ve always wanted to do. Maybe a lot of you want to start a podcast. I’ve had a number of conversations. Like four or five people have told me they want to start a podcast. Okay, do it! What do you need? Let’s get you started. Probably you need to stop overthinking. Probably you need to know if people are going to like it. And guess what? You’re not going to know unless you do it. And then you wait and see what the feedback is and people will tell you. People will tell you that they liked it, and that will give you the confidence to keep going.

So we’ve talked about how do you handle an ebb season, how to handle a flow season. I would also encourage you, like, just to make sure that you’re not getting into an emotional state about this, to really like get numbers. We need to track things like how many concerts have you had in the last three to six months, right? Like let’s zoom out and get big picture. Is that growth compared to last year? Maybe you’re actually doing better than you thought, but because it feels off, or because maybe you got a rejection that really stung, or maybe you thought that you had something that was going to work out and then it didn’t, right? These things can really throw us off. So what we really need is to get grounded in numbers. Maybe somebody left a mean comment or said an off thing to you and it’s like still stuck with you. And then we need to focus on like overall, like how is your, let’s say your Instagram presence? How do you feel about it since last year? Have you noticed growth? Have you made new connections? Who are the strategic people in your life that you’re connecting with? Who are you calling to share your good news with or ask for encouragement or, you know, who are the people in your life? And that’s super key to keep us going through these ebbs and flows. That’s also why I believe so much in the membership, because every two weeks we come in and it’s like no matter what. I mean, there’s this analogy that I’ll share. I’ve talked about it before. It’s from Seth Godin, and he’s a marketing expert. So he says when they pour concrete, when they pour sidewalk, they intentionally crack the sidewalk every, let’s say, three feet, so that if they didn’t, it would just crack wherever it wanted. Right? When the winter comes and it freezes, and then it thaws and it’s just going to crack wherever. But if you have the cracks already pre-done on purpose, then you will still have a nice sidewalk. So this is the same for us. By stopping the craziness and evaluating every two weeks… How do I feel? How am I doing? Who are the people that I need to surround myself with? Who are the people I need to let go of? Is there anyone that I need to unfollow or mute or not ask them advice anymore because it’s not bearing fruit? It’s not healthy. It doesn’t help me. Right? Who do I need to get out of my life and who are the people that I can invite in? I’ve already shared with you guys, you know, Bernhard for me, Peter, obviously Deanna, like people who are important to you, who inspire you though. Got to keep those people close. That’s how you can handle the ebbs and flows and get out of the crazy rollercoaster feeling ’cause you have this consistency and this clear way of evaluating how things are going. Then you can also break it into like three-month goals, six-month goals. You know, for everybody in our Mastermind, we work with them minimum six months, so they have to commit to like, “Where do you want to be in half a year? And how can we help you get there?” Make sure that you’re accountable. Actually, I just learned in my course last week that you’re like 70% more likely to achieve your goals if you have accountability. So a lot of times people will come onto the call and they’ll be like, “Yeah, I just did the thing that I was supposed to do one hour ago because I knew I had this call tonight.” And they feel really embarrassed about it. I’m like, “There’s no reason to be embarrassed! That’s literally what it’s for. It is the crack in the concrete. It is to make sure that you’re going to do the thing that’s important to you because otherwise it doesn’t happen. It doesn’t happen.” Like I’ve hired coaches for every important thing in my life. I have a fitness coach, I have a business coach. I had an album coach when I had to figure out how to release my first singles and market those. You know, producer, anything that you can think of. You know, my accountant is harassing me for receipts. The producer of this podcast, he’s telling me like, “We’ve got to stay on track with the schedule.” If I didn’t have other people being like, “Here are the parameters, here’s the structure,” like, I mean, left to our own devices, I mean, I don’t know. I wouldn’t be here today, that’s for sure. So who do you have in your life that can help keep you on track and becoming the best version of you and everything that you’re supposed to be?

Okay, I just want to mention one more thing before we wrap up this episode. By the way, if you are still listening, just please, it would mean so much if you would leave a review for us on Spotify or on Apple or wherever you listen to these podcasts. It’ll just take 60 seconds and it will help other fearless artists discover everything that we share on the podcast. It would mean a lot. Just a couple quick sentences about what you love and a star rating. That’d be so great. Thank you so much.

Okay, something that I hear a lot from musicians is they don’t have any concerts coming up. This is going back to the ebb and flow thing, so they don’t know what to post. And actually at the Classical Next Conference in Berlin, I heard an Italian business coach and she was like, “Oh, so do you think that you’re only worth talking, sharing something online if you have a concert?” Like, and that was a pretty harsh response, but she was right. And I looked at her, I’m like, “Oh, good one, lady!” Because like, you are so much more than your performing schedule. It doesn’t matter what you have coming up or not, or if your last concert was X many months ago or whatever, it’s… it’s like you are an artist. You are an artist. You wouldn’t be listening to this if you weren’t, and you have something to say. You have something to share. So here’s what you’re going to do if you know that you need to post something and you don’t have any concerts coming up, right? First of all, your content strategy, which you will learn if you do our social media programs, doesn’t revolve around upcoming dates, okay? It revolves around who you are as an artist and the message that you want to share with the world. So that can include performances, but it can also include practicing clips, repertoire that you’re interested in, ensembles that you like to work with. It can also just be thoughts when you’re walking in the forest and you have a thought about creativity, or you have something that you want to share about technique or anything about your instrument that is interesting to you. You know, you’ve put your life into this. You’ve put 10,000 hours into this, you have something to say. And so if you have old footage of a concert, I don’t need you to say “Throwback Thursday.” Okay? I don’t want anybody listening to this writing captions around “Throwback Thursday.” I want you to just post the clip of the concert. Let’s say it was two years ago, and you say, “I loved this concert because…” “Here’s a story from that night that we played together.” “This was a beautiful experience I had because…” Or, “Here’s what an audience member said to me that I’ve never forgotten.” Or, I don’t care what it is. Tell me something about that night, about your colleagues, about how you felt on stage, and it doesn’t matter when that clip was taken. Okay. Because if you post that and somebody sees it right now and they have an upcoming season, and they’re like, “Oh, that sounds great. I would love to have them,” then you could be creating opportunities for yourself with content that’s just sitting on your phone. And you could be creating more work, getting more concerts, working with new people, because you’re showing people that you’re in shape, you’ve got chops, you know what you’re doing. And if you’re listening to this and you’re like, “Well, actually I’m not in shape ’cause I’ve not been practicing consistently,” fine, whatever the concert wouldn’t be tomorrow. Somebody would reach out to you today and say, “Hey, would you like to come?” And then you would get your butt in gear, because guess what we just said? When you have cracks in your concrete and you’ve got dates on the schedule, you’re practicing. Right? This podcast has to go out weekly. So I’m sitting here making an episode, even though I have something else to be at in a couple hours that I really need to do, that I really need to go. So post old content. Tell me a story about you. Tell me who you are as an artist. Tell me what excites you. Tell me what you’re passionate about. Tell me a way that I could see myself in your content, and that is a way to build an audience. That’s a way to build connections with people. And your network is so important. We already talked about this as you’re building your career as a musician because people are going to open doors for you. They’re going to recommend you. They’re going to tell their friends about you. They’re going to bring their friends to your concerts, and this is how we can grow. This is how we can take control and build our own careers, okay? I really believe it’s all about the people.

Okay, I’ve given you guys a ton of information. What I want you to do right now is take out your phone, open up Instagram, send me a DM, and tell me what you loved about this episode. Please again, go leave us a review, share this with a friend. Thank you so much for all of your support for listening. If you want to join the membership, now is the time. We have monthly trainings around really great topics, not just content creation. I’m going to be doing a “Killing Perfectionism in Classical” course, which is going to be revolving around mindset, perfectionism, why we hold ourselves back, resilience, and how we can overcome the inner critic. That’s going to be coming over the summer. So you definitely want to get in now. Just open up your phone, send me a DM, be like, “Hey, I’m listening to the podcast and I loved this.” It also helps me get good feedback, so I know what you guys need and what’s interesting for you. As always, make sure you’re following us on all the places to follow on Instagram and Spotify, Apple, wherever you listen to your podcasts. Thanks for being here and we’ll see you on the next episode. Be fearless!