When you think about different ways to make money, maybe you think "but I just act!" Or "I just make sculptures!" Or "I just write weird little stories!"
Well there are two things I want you to think about.
1. You've been doing this for your whole life. It's your passion. So it may look to you like just one thing. To me, it occurs as "I just do music!" But the truth is, there are probably a dozen distinct skills I have as a musician, distinct and separate things I can do: play piano, sing, play guitar, accompany singers and instrumentalists, arrange music, play solo, play in a band, lead a band, program a synthesizer, orchestrate music, make piano recordings, produce orchestral mock-ups. That's just off the top of my head – and it wound up actually being a dozen, how's that for divine guidance? – and there are probably a dozen more.
And that's just the list of skills. Many of those skills that I have, those things that I can do (which, again, when I'm coming from fear, just look to me like ONE thing I do, the only thing I'm worth, a vague idea that's cool but not really tangible or value-able), can be broken down into a handful of different products and services, marketed in different ways to different people. Just look at my website, www.yourpianobar.com, which takes one or two skills – playing solo, and singing – and markets them as 5 or 6 different services or products.
It's not just about realizing the things you can do. It's about seeing the blocks in your way to realizing these things and moving them out of the way: I worked so long in theater that I started to define myself as a theater pianist, and so those were the only possibilities I could see. So when I thought about marketing myself as an vocal coach/accompanist, working one-on-one with singers, the only work I thought I could do was with adult theater singers. If you asked me who else might want to hire me, I'd probably say I had no idea, and I'd probably get really scared, which is a sign that there's some amazing possibility I'm not letting myself see, probably because I feel unworthy of success, or just plain unworthy. If you are an intellectual rationalizer like me, you probably see what I just wrote and dismiss it – doesn't make sense, too touchy feely – but it's only when you acknowledge that fear, that limiting belief, that you can stop resisting it, stop denying it, let it just be, and move it out of the way. What's waiting behind it? Confidence, ideas, possibility, self-love. For me, it wasn't until I could separate my own self-worth from my business and my music that I could see that, for instance, I can market my accompanying (and recording) services to high school students auditioning for colleges, and make serious bank by providing a seriously valuable service to people who seriously want it, doing something that for me is easy and enjoyable.
(I absolutely must confess – which I do gladly – that playing for college applicants was actually my brilliant and beautiful girlfriend's idea. But if she had mentioned the idea to me a month or so earlier – and she is always mentioning ideas like this to me – I would have gotten scared, actually feeling scared, getting quiet and uncomfortable, and dismissed the idea, believing it impossible for little old me. Only from being in this place of possibility, seeing and accepting my fears and choosing freely to do and be something different, was I able to see how great an idea it was and act on it.)
2. Like I said earlier, this thing you do, your art, you've been doing for so long, and you may define yourself completely by it. But really it's just an action you take, a thing you do, that comes out of your passions, your desires, your interests and skills. It's time to explore what those interests and skills are that have nothing to do with your art. Trust me, I know this is scary. It's scary for me just writing it. (After writing that sentence, I've just been sitting for a few minutes, distracted. See?) If I think about doing something besides music, or even besides the music jobs I've done in the past, my default response is "I don't have any other skills." And that's because I'm so attached to music being how I define myself and my worth that it's like if I imagine myself, my life, as a word cloud or something, it's just a big white space with "music" in the middle.
But what's possible when you consider that your art, this thing that may be the only way you know how to define yourself, is just one possible manifestation of various skills, passions, interests, desires, that you have? That maybe they're there and always have been but all you can see is "acting" or "painting" or "music" or "architecture."
To be honest, I'm just beginning this inquiry myself, so I'm speaking from more toward the middle or even beginning of this idea, rather than speaking from somewhere maybe three-quarters of the way down the path, as I was in the first part of this post. I've been getting curious about, what are the things that really light me up? And pushing past my ego-based answer of "music, that's it, stop asking already, jeez!" Here's some things I see:
-Geeking out about music theory is REALLY invigorating for me. Like explaining to the kids in my high school pit orchestra the differences between, and purposes of, cut time vs. 4/4, and how 6/8 is 2 and not 6, because they asked about it and are actually interested in the answer. Or one of the singers in my wedding band asking what's up with "slash chords" and getting into the difference between an inversion (like C/E) and a chord like G/A, which I prefer to call A11 because the chord is actually an A chord not a G chord and I always prefer to refer to a chord in a way where I see the root it's based on, what the chord is actually about rather than the most logical way to explain all the notes in it.
See how geeked out I just got about that!?!?! You probably have no idea what most of that means but it activates every soul of my being to talk about that, which is probably just another way to say that it's FUN! Something I'm good at, knowledgeable about, that ignites passion – actually ignites passion, not just corresponds to the thing I always tell myself and others I'm passionate about.
-Writing. Stuff like I'm doing now (like, right now, as I'm, you know, writing this). I enjoy it, and I've been told lately that I'm really good and inspiring and eloquent at it. And even to say "I enjoy it" makes me a little uncomfortable, because my ego says "All I enjoy is music! There's nothing else!"
So those are two places I can look to find ways to make money doing what I love. And, that's just the beginning, because what I was actually talking about was getting curious about what are the passions behind those things? Maybe talking about music theory is actually about a passion for connecting with people, and a great direction to pursue around my career in general is to find work that allows me to connect with people and make tons of money for it. Maybe I like being a copyist – entering handwritten music into the computer to be printed, or re-entering music so that it can be transposed and reprinted, which by the way is the full effort that transposing your song takes – so much because it's organized and methodical and sort of like problem or puzzle solving. Maybe it's the same passion that's behind my love for crossword puzzles. So maybe looking at the passion instead of the action can lead me to consistent, lucrative work, that looks nothing like music (maybe it's filing papers for all I know!) but is still doing something I absolutely LOVE doing.
It can be hard, weird, or scary to peek behind the curtain of what it is we do, what we have always done and who we have always known ourselves to be. Our attachment to "I'm a pianist" or "I'm a dancer" can be a security blanket, and it can a box that keeps us trapped. Get curious about what's behind outside that box! Journal about the things you love to do and what you love about them. Talk to a coach to get your fears and blocks out of the way and discover what your deep passions are. Not only might you find new ways to make more money than you ever imagined, but you could find the thing or things that have been missing in your life that can really light you up, which I guarantee will have you experiencing your art in a whole new way, a way that brings your more joy, peace, confidence, abundance, and cash, than you ever thought possible.
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