Take Your Artistic Potential to the Next Level

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As a performing artist, you face unique challenges in cultivating your creativity, navigating financial uncertainties, and maintaining your well-being. In this episode, I share insights, tips, and real-life stories to help you thrive in your artistic journey. Whether you’re a musician, actor, dancer, or any other performing artist, you can get personalized guidance and support to help you reach new heights in your career. Tune in to discover how coaching can empower you to unleash your creativity and achieve your artistic dreams. 

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Transcript:

Hey there, and welcome to the Creative Solutions Podcast. I’m your host, Izolda Trakhtenberg. This is another special episode where I’m recording outside. This is exciting for me, like gangbusters. And it’s also very interesting. One of the things that I do with my volunteer time is I help various and sundry groups do Animal rescue.

And right now I’m sitting in my car at a Home Depot parking lot with a critter that got handed off to me from Staten Island and I’m waiting for the rehabber person, shout out to you Jimmy, to come pick this beautiful little critter up for me. The critter was found under a car with a broken leg. And she has seen the vet, but now she needs to be taken to rehabilitation.

Anyway, uh, yeah, these are the, these are the ways that, uh, I spend my free time, uh, what there is of it. Anyway, I wanted to talk to you about something that is super close to my heart, and that is the fabulous, exhilarating, and sometimes turbulent world. of performing arts and performing artists. When you’re a performing artist, you face some pretty unique challenges that, that set you apart from people in more traditional careers.

Whether you’re navigating creative blocks or managing the financial rollercoaster, or trying to maintain your mental and emotional well being while doing eight shows a week or doing a concert tour or heck just in the recording studio, there are a lot of obstacles and challenges. that comes up right in your path and no matter what you do, it’s full of twists and turns.

And I want to talk about that, about some of the challenges, and I want to talk to you and give you some real actionable steps and strategies that’ll help you overcome them. If you’re a performing artist or you’ve Thought about becoming a performing artist. These techniques are going to be super useful.

And what’s more, it won’t just be useful for you as a performing artist. And this is the beginning of a series. Actually, I’m going to go through, I’m going to talk about fine arts. I’m going to talk about freelancers. I’m going to talk about people who are changing careers to a more creative one. And I’m going to talk about what if you’ve just gone through a career transition, like you’ve just retired.

What do you need to do in order to make this work for yourself? What are the challenges that you’re going to face that are sort of unique to creatives? And how do you meet and rise above those challenges? So I want to talk about things like how do you embrace your creativity? Um, it’s these challenges.

How do you get, how do you get your finances so that they are, so that you’re doing okay. Right. And I’m not a financial advisor. Um, I’m totally not going to talk to you about it in that way, but I do want to say that there are some strategies that you can employ that will help you really navigate some of the financial issues that can come up if you’re a performing artist.

And also I want to talk to you real quickly about, uh, Second Monday. I’m calling it I’m saying that it’s the second Monday is money Monday, Eric Henning, who’s a financial expert and also a professional magician is going to be joining me every second Monday of the month. And we’re going to be talking about finances, money, and everything else like that.

If you are a creative, a performer, a fine artist, whatever, if you are a writer or a musician or a sculptor or a dancer, he’s going to have great advice for you when it comes to how to manage your life and manage your work. Okay, so. There, let’s move on. The next thing that I want to talk about in this episode though is, uh, how do you maintain a sense of wellbeing, a sense of wellness when you’re in the limelight?

And I want to talk about this stuff because when you’re in that position of being in the performing arts, you are, you are the product. Right? Your expertise is the product. But it’s funny, there’s a wonderful Stephen Sondheim song from Sunday in the Park with George when George is painting and in the version I’m thinking of, as Barbra Streisand did.

Her Broadway album, which is really mostly Stephen Sondheim songs, and she’s talking about, uh, there’s a whole long line, and she’s talking about all the things that she has to do to get this album recorded, and then she goes, so that you can be on exhibit, and she goes, no, so that your work can be on exhibition.

And that moment of like, yeah, it’s not me, it’s my work, is profound, but let’s face it, a lot of us, a lot of us end up living our work when we do this. So, I’m going to talk to you about some of this stuff, and I want to remind you that a lot of this is stuff. If you find it too challenging, some of the stuff I’m talking about, some of the stuff that you’ve been thinking about, probably if this, if this, if you’re still here, this episode must be resonating with you and you’re probably going, yeah, you know what?

I could use a little help with that coaching. I want to talk to you about coaching. I’ve talked to you about the fact that I’m a coach myself. A coach can really offer you guidance, personalized, customized guidance and support to help you navigate some of these complexities because this journey is, it’s a marathon, not a sprint, of course, but it’s also something for you to think about with respect to who you are and who you want to be and how you want to show up as an artist, as a performer.

So here we go. Let’s, let’s think about the very first section of this whole episode, and that is How do you embrace creativity when you’re having challenges? Right? As a performing artist, creative blocks, they can feel like stumbling blocks. And I want to, I want to say that, you know, they can paralyze you.

You can go, I can’t sing, or I can’t play, or I can’t write the next song or the next piece or whatever. So I want to give you a technique that is That is, that has worked for me and I would love to, to ask you to think about using it for yourself and it’s the, it’s called the character change up and I want you to take a scene or a song and I want you to infuse it from a different character’s perspective, right?

So instead of thinking about, I used to do this when I directed plays, I would tell. The actors, you know what your motivation is here. You know what you’re trying to achieve in the scene. Now I want you to play this as if your motivation is the exact opposite. See what happens for you and to you when you look at this as the exact opposite from what you had before, from what you thought you wanted.

And this is a really interesting and fun way to breathe new life into whatever performance you’ve got. Because It will help you get out of your own way because you’re going to be sort of embracing a different point of view. All right, a couple of other tips that you can try. Improv, right? You can experiment with improvisation exercises to break out of a creative rut.

You can embrace spontaneity. You can, if you’re, if you’re a singer, you can draw something. If you’re a dancer, you can sculpt something. Flower and water making a paste still works. Um, just don’t judge anything. Just try it. Just try to get out of your head and brainstorm. Take some crayons and a piece of paper and draw and write and create.

And see if that helps you sort of break out of whatever mental issue, whatever block has been standing in front of you. You’re going to be, I think, surprised at how easily and how well. You can break through it. And then I’m going to ask you to think about collaboration, right? If you find that you are, uh, done, uh, consider collaborating with someone else.

Because if you get together and you brainstorm with other people, Whether or not you get something for you, you might create something better than all of you. You know, the, the whole being better, greater than the sum of its parts. That’s something to think about that. Oh, maybe this is something that I can do.

You can brainstorm, you can do writing exercises together. If you’re performers, you can get out there and do some improv or, or whatever, whatever. I don’t even know, but you can do these things and you can spark some innovative approaches to whatever work is. sort of stuck and it will help you. And if you’re working with a coach, your coach can help you.

I could help you with some of that kind of, what are some of these strategies? What are some of these techniques? What are the tips that I could give you to help you unblock, unlock, and unleash your innovation, your creativity, your ingenuity, your spontaneity, and what I like to call the juice and the sizzle.

Alright, the next thing is finances. Now again, I’m not an accountant. I’m not a certified financial planner. I’m not any of that. This is just something to think about that when you’re trying to manage your finances as a performing artist. Oh, look there. You probably can hear it. There’s a, an ambulance. I’m in a par I’m in a Home Depot parking lot.

So anything can happen, right? Alright, so It’s crucial to be able to sustain yourself financially, and you’ve got to start a budget. You’ve got to tailor it to your career goals, and one of the things that I’ve learned in a business class I’ve been taking recently is that you’ve got to keep your, even if it’s tiny, you’ve got to keep your financial lives separate.

So your personal checking account and your business checking account, even if you don’t make a lot of money as an artist yet, keep them separate. And if you can get a credit card or a debit card, uh, for the business, do that and only use that business card for your business. And don’t use your personal cards for your business.

So for example, if you’re a musician and you need a new microphone, you wouldn’t buy that with your personal card. You’d buy that with your business card. These are all ways to keep everything separate. So that, uh, as somebody said in the class, When the IRS comes, audits, doing taxes. Your accountant will love you.

The IRS will love you. But also there’s something better and that is you know exactly what you’ve spent on the business versus your personal life. And you can always apparently loan money to your business from your personal accounts. But then it’s a loan from one to the other and then the business pays you back.

And it’s a different kettle of corn than if you just keep putting your own money into it. And there are lots of, um, banks that you can look to, to find cheap business accounts because a lot of them will charge you a lot of money. So if anybody’s looking to charge you money, and this is another little lesson that I learned, uh, shout out Sabrina.

Uh, this is another little lesson that I learned, which is, remember, you are the customer at the bank. They should be thanking you for what business you give them as opposed to you being grateful to them. They should be coming to you and being like, Oh, thank you so much for your business. We’ve, we’ve made it so that we don’t think that way, but we really should.

It stands us in much better stead. If we start thinking of ourselves as the customer to be wooed by banks, rather supplicant going, please, please, please give me the opportunity to have a bank account at your bank. No. Banks take your money while you have it in there and they are making micro investments.

I’ve talked to you about this before. Banks are making micro investments with your money, whether it’s a couple of days or maybe six days or maybe eight days or maybe three months, maybe five minutes, and they’re making money on your money. And you almost never make money on your money unless you’re getting a very small percentage, right?

Banks are making money on your money. If you have any kind of money in the bank, They’re making money off that. And there are a lot of benefits they provide you. Your money’s safe, until it’s not. But you can access it when you need to, etc, etc, etc. But you are the customer and they should be grateful to you for giving them your business instead of the other way around.

So, and really, track, track your income, track your expenses. I use Empower, it’s a, it’s an app. that lets me track all of that stuff. It’s really very nice. There are other ones. Uh, Mint is another one. Wave is another one. They’re, they’re, these are apps that will let you do that. For business though, QuickBooks, QuickBooks, QuickBooks.

Wow. It’s hard to say. QuickBooks seems to be the way to go. Okay, a couple of other different things. One of the things that you want to do for sure is seek financial advice. You can attend a workshop. You can, uh, you can listen to Eric Henning when he comes on the show for Money Mondays. But really, don’t try to do this by yourself and don’t try to do it all at one time.

Start small. You’ve, especially if you’re overwhelmed by finances like I am, I get overwhelmed and I had to really develop some really lovely strategies to make this work. All right, so the animal rescuer is here. I will be right back.

Okay, I am back and just so you know the possum had a broken leg. She’d been found under a car by someone who happened to be a vet tech and The vet tech took care of her and then we had to transport her from Staten Island to Bensonhurst. I went down to Bensonhurst, picked her up, and then dropped her off in Rockaway with the person who’s going to take her to Long Island to a rehabber so that she can be healed.

So that’s, that’s what all of that was today. And, uh, it’s really fun for me, actually, to do these episodes out and about. I carry my microphone with me and I’m going to be doing more of these kind of, I’m out here and I’m just doing an episode of something that I think will be valuable. to you and interesting somewhere in New York City.

Anyway, uh, so the possum hopefully will be fine and I’ll keep you posted as, as I learn more, I will let you know. But anyway, let’s, let’s talk more about the notion of, uh, the financial aspect of being a performing artist. So, Like I said a minute ago, getting financial advice, attending workshops, things that will enhance your financial literacy would be amazing.

A couple of other things that you can do, you can, uh, diversify your income streams, right? You can actually maybe teach classes. If you’re a performing artist and you want to play guitar or you sing, for example, or you dance, you might be able to do that. You might be able to, uh, sell. Merchandise like t shirts or stickers or buttons or anything like that either back of room sales if you’re doing some sort of performance or online if you if you get like I’m not an affiliate with WooCommerce or Shopify but I know that they both work and certainly I have a shop where you can buy some of my sayings on stickers and on t shirts and things like that bumper stickers Because if you want to do that as a performing artist, if you, if you have a show that you’ve been in, or if you have t shirts that you, uh, can have someone else design, or something like that, that will, or, uh, albums, if you, I know people are back to vinyl.

If you’re a musician and you’ve got an album, or you can sell your stuff on Amazon, or on iTunes, or Google Play, or wherever it is that you might be able to sell them. You also need to remember, and we’re going to be talking about this a lot, the notion of pricing. Remember to negotiate fair prices for your services, for your gigs.

If you are, if you consistently underprice yourself, you’re underpricing for the market, but also You deserve to be paid really well for what you’re doing. If you’re an expert in your field, if you’re a performer and you’re great at it, you deserve to be paid incredibly well for having been there and done that, if you will.

Your years of practice, your years of honing your skills should count for a lot. And so don’t undervalue your talent and don’t undervalue your skills and expertise just because it might give you a chance to perform unless you are independently wealthy and do it just for the love of the game. I say, the love of the game is free.

Fabulous. And you should get a fair rate for what you do. Okay, let’s move on. Let’s talk about wellbeing. Right? If you are a performer, you need to be very careful with yourself because your body is your product, if you will, your body, your, uh, what you can do with it, your, your singing voice or your playing fingers, right?

I know Barbra Streisand at one point was said to have insured her nose for a million dollars. That was decades ago. So a million dollars meant a lot more then than it does now. I have a friend who’s a doctor of physical therapy who has traveled with traveling, uh, shows like Broadway shows that go traveling.

And she is their in house physical therapist because performers need that. You need to take care of yourself. Uh, In order to be able to keep doing what you’re doing. So incorporating, uh, some kind of a yoga practice or a massage or things like that, mindfulness practices. If you, if you meditate or if you don’t meditate and you can meditate, make that part of your daily routine.

For me, it’s yoga. and meditation daily. Now, I don’t have to meditate forever. I don’t meditate more than about 15 minutes a day. And, uh, my morning meditation often is about five minutes, five to six to seven minutes. It’s not how long it is. Truthfully, it’s more. that you dedicate to it and you make it a daily practice and it changes your whole outlook and it will eventually lower your stress levels and things like that.

So it can help. You can also do deep breathing exercises if you prioritize self care activities. And if you’ve listened to the show for any length of time, you know, I talk about breath being sort of, if stress is the Root of all evil, breath is the bomb for all good. It really is. Breath is the thing that will just change everything if you give yourself the opportunity.

And, uh, I’ve talked about military breathing. I’ve talked about taking a deep dive into your breath. Slowing your breathing down, exhaling for longer than you inhale. There are so many different ways that you can do that, that you can incorporate breath work and breathing techniques into what you’re already doing.

And the other part of this, of course, is Meditation can, your meditation practice can have breathing at its core as well. So anytime you can prioritize those self care techniques and activities that will recharge your mind, your body, and your spirit, that will buoy up your creativity. A couple of other things that you can do.

You can create, really create a network of fellow artists, uh, find your mentors, find people who understand the really unique issues and challenges that the performing arts industry presents. And I encourage you to lean on other people and, uh, have them lean on you for guidance, for wisdom, for encouragement.

You know, if you want to do that, that kind of work with me, certainly you can do that. I’m a coach and I help people do that kind of thing all the time, everything from how to prioritize. and set and achieve those goals to voice lessons, right? We can do that because we can help you get to the place where you want to go when, when we work together.

It’s important because, for example, I started the Vegan Writers Group of New York City because I wanted to build a community of people who were all in that same space of wanting to improve their writing, wanting to bring their work to new levels. And that was a really easy way for me to do it. I found a group of people, people were interested and, uh, you know, there were some people were going, Oh, I can’t believe you did that.

That’s amazing. I wouldn’t, I would never have the courage. Well, Okay. And you won’t ever know unless you try. So my thought on it is, hey, why not try? Why not see what’s out there and who else might be out there? I’m very lucky in that I live in New York City where if you have any kind of an idea and you want to try it, people are right there ready to do it with you.

But you can also do this as a Facebook group. It can be something that’s online. It doesn’t have to be something that you meet in cafes in somewhere in downtown Manhattan. You can do this online and have that be the way that you meet with people and help each other. The other thing that I would encourage you to do as far as your own well being is to take breaks, schedule downtime, get time, take time to rest, to recharge, to come back to that juice and sizzle.

It’s so important because your mental health and your physical health are both equally important when you are pursuing performance art. It just, or the performing arts, I should say, uh, and or the performing arts, because if you’re not well, On either side, either body or mind, then that creative part of you is going to be subdued.

It’s going to be dimmed. And what we want instead is for it to be lit and bright and ebullient and at the ready for you to go and do the way you want to go and do. All right. The next section is your goals. One of the things that you need to do as a performing artist is you need to figure out what your goals are.

Are you the kind of person who, if you gig once a month, that’s awesome. If you do, if you open mics, that’s great. If you’re a comedian, for example, and you do. on an open mic a week. Here in New York, that’s too little, frankly. There are comedians out here that are doing three, four open mics a night. And once they finish, they go on to the next one, and then they go on to the next one, and then they go on to the next one.

And it’s exhausting, which is why I really don’t do standup comedy so much anymore. I was, I loved doing it. I think trying to be funny for people, trying to let them into the inner more. innermost part of your soul that tries to be funny can be an amazing experience. And I know, certainly, a lot of people got more into it with, uh, shows like The Marvelous Mrs.

Maisel becoming so popular, especially women went, you know what? I want to do that. I want to talk about my story. in a way that’s hopefully funny. And, uh, and so you gotta be out there and you gotta be doing it. The hard part of that, of course, is it’s, it can be tough to maintain. So you need to figure out what your goals are.

If you want to be a full time performing artist, that’s different than if you want to be a hobbyist. It just is. But you need to figure out what those goals are and you need to lay the foundation so that you can track your progress and you want to break those dreams, those goals down into smaller and smaller and smaller, tiny, even actionable steps.

You’ve heard me talk about this if you’re a longtime listener of this show, about things that are the smallest actionable steps. You break it down into rules of sets of three and it can be something tiny, like open the website up for the thing that you wanted to apply for. Even if you don’t, Apply for it today.

At least open the website. Have that be open in your browser. It can be very, very small. And As soon as you do that, you can then take action that’s small. It first of all, makes your subconscious go, Ooh, there’s a satisfaction of having accomplished something. Even if something is small, small steps, as you know, are still steps.

So don’t ever, ever, ever go, Oh, I didn’t get anything done. If you got something done, you got something done and you want to use those SMART goals, right? Specific, measurable, achievable, relevant, and time bound. to make sure that your goals are realistic and that you can take action on them, that you can attain them.

And then I want you to go ahead and review and adjust your goals as your career evolves. Again, if you work with a coach, that would be a great way, a great use of your time. And in fact, a lot of my clients, what we do is they, they actually get to a point where they don’t need to see me every week or even every two weeks.

They come once a year. We figure out and set their goals for the year and develop a plan of action. And then they go, okay, great. See you next year. And that works actually. It works for them. Once you’re ready to do that, once you know the techniques of how to get the rest of that stuff done, you don’t need a coach until you are in that place.

A coach can be super helpful. So. Review those goals, but stay flexible. And you want to be able to adapt to changing circumstances or opportunities, right? If something comes up, if you get a part that you did not expect to get, then by gum, you might want to change some of those goals around you because you got this part or because you got offered a tour.

If, if that happens, then. Hey, there’s a lot to be said for taking that opportunity, but that means that all of the other stuff that was in place is going to have to be evaluated, assessed, and modified accordingly. And then I also really want to encourage you to sit on your laurels a little. If you achieve something, if you accomplish something, acknowledge it, acknowledge what you’ve done, acknowledge your progress, and then use that.

That progress, that checkmark, woohoo, I got this done as a sort of a motivating force to continue in. in what you’re striving for. I think it’s so important to think about it in those terms. Like there are a lot of people who are like, Oh, you should be humble. Don’t brag. It’s not bragging to acknowledge what you’ve achieved.

It’s acknowledging what you’ve achieved. Nothing wrong with that. And I’ll give you an example. Uh, Sisters in Crime is a mystery authors. There’s a national organization and they’re broken down by state. And, uh, they have an anthology that they are putting out. And one of the things that I do is of course, I write books.

And my first book in the Cassie Belmont Tarot Reader Mystery Series called Die by the Sword came out in 2022. And I am sort of still working on. But I decided that one of the things that I wanted to do when they put out the call for, uh, short stories for this anthology, I decided I was going to write a short story for that.

And, uh, it’s not a done deal, but the, it passed the first round. It got accepted into the anthology and it passed the first round. It’s not, woohoo, it’s done. It’s more like. Hey, you passed the first round. Let’s do some edits. Let’s see if it’s going to be usable for this anthology and If it is then it’s going to be published in the anthology and it’s going to take place the story takes place between book one And book two so that’ll also motivate me to write book two and and I love that I love that notion of being able to do that.

So I want to be able to, uh, to rest on that laurel a little. Hey, I wrote a story that’s part of this universe that I created and I’m going to do something with it. And if for some reason it ends up not going in the anthology, that’s okay. I have a short story that is part of the world that I created that I’m going to publish on its own merit.

Because I can because I did it and I can be very proud of myself that I did. Now does that keep me from working on other things? Absolutely not. I’m going to be working on book two. I’ve got other things that other irons in the fire as they say. So it’s out there and I’m working on it. And that’s what all you can do for yourself is like sometimes you go, okay, I finished this.

And now I’m moving on. And in fact, uh, I recently saw Once Upon a Mattress at New York City Center. And the way they do it is they get together for two weeks, the cast of these shows that they put on, and then they have two weeks of performances. So they have to put up, and it’s not a fully built set or anything, but they have to put on essentially a full two hour performance of a show for two weeks.

After two weeks of rehearsal and direction, they put on this show for two weeks. And then at the end of the two weeks, they’re done. And I’m sure it’s kind of a bit of a whiplash, like, wait, what? What do you mean we’re done? But they’re done and they’re moving on to the next thing. And they get to be super proud that they did it.

And I loved the production. I thought it was great. And I mean, it starred Michael Urie and Sutton Foster and Harriet Harris and my man, Cheyenne Jackson, whom I love, David Patrick Kelly, who still, I love David Patrick Kelly, but it’s still hard for me to go. That is the same guy who played the bad guy in Dreamscape from the 80s.

It’s amazing to think about, but anyway, so you have all of these incredible artists, uh, oh, and Jay, Jay Harrison Gee, who won the Tony last year for Some Like It Hot, they’re in. They’re, they were in Once Upon a Mattress and I got to see that. So there’s all of this stuff, but you come in, you do this and then you rest on your laurels for a second and then you’re on to the next thing, which is the point of what I was talking about to begin with.

All right, moving on. So a couple of other, uh, sort of tips that you want to think about. You have to keep building your skills. Okay? You got to keep building your skills as a performing artist. The whole point here is not, not to rest on those laurels. Like I said, you rest on it for a little bit, but then you keep practicing.

You keep, I’m playing piano every day. I play guitar every day. I practice singing every day. Do I want to? Not always. I’ll be honest. There are times when I’m just bone tired and all I want to do is go to sleep. But nobody cares and nobody’s making me right. Nobody’s, nobody’s standing over me and going, you must practice.

It’s me deciding that this is the set of skills I want to keep sharp and building. And I believe it was Jascha Heifetz who, when asked about practicing, he said something along the lines of, uh, if I skip practice for a day, I notice. If I skip practice for two days, the audience notices and he was right.

That’s, that’s just the way to look at it. So, so keep learning. It’s, it’s essential for your growth as an artist. And what you wanna do is evaluate areas of improvement, see what you need to improve, see what you want to make better, and then find opportunities. to develop those skills. Now, again, if you work with a coach, a coach can help you.

If you work with a, if you’re a singer, if you work with a singing, a voice teacher, that person can help you, uh, whatever it is. I know, I know ballet dancers keep, they keep going to class. They don’t stop going to class ever. Uh, they’re, they spend time on the bar because that is part of being a ballet dancer.

You are constantly working to maintain your, um, maintain your skills and your abilities. So take classes and workshops or online courses, whatever you need to do to keep refining your technique and to expand the tools in your toolbox. And again, practicing important. That’s another tip. Dedicate time every day, whether it’s rehearsing or practicing or studying, dedicate some time every day to doing that.

And then, like I said earlier with you, if you have mentors or coaches, get feedback from them, right? I had a talk back when we did the the play reading of my play Listen, we had a talk back because I wanted to hear other people’s opinions. And what you want is constructive critique. You don’t want it, you don’t want it to be like, this sucked.

That’s not constructive. But if somebody tells you things that they, that worked for them or things that didn’t work for them, that can be a super valuable tool for your growth and your improvement. So find people you trust and then, and then seek their feedback. Okay. So the next thing is. Balancing work and life or art and life.

Maintaining a balance between art and your personal life is going to ultimately be key to your overall, overall wellbeing. You want to set boundaries around your time and your energy, because you want to prevent burnout. You don’t want to get to the point where you’re like, Oh, I can’t do this. So when you can get help to do the things you need to do great, but you want to prioritize.

Ideas and things and activities that bring you fulfillment and joy and happiness and peace and contentment outside of the performing career. Because if the only thing that makes you happy is performing, that is off balance. It’s off kilter. So you want to be sure that you, that you find things to do that you’re going to love that have nothing to do with performing so that you maintain that separation of church and state, if you will.

So you The other things that you might want to do here is schedule regular activities like exercise, things like hobbies that you want to do, spending time with family members or loved ones. Make that non negotiable. Just like brushing your teeth, a little bit of self care every day should be just part of the daily routine.

For me, it’s almost always meditation and yoga. That’s what does it for me. Something else might work for you. And, uh, I encourage you as much as possible to, to seek that out. I think it’s important. And then, uh, you have to learn to say no, that’s not easy. I know, but if something drains your energy and you can tell, right, you can tell when people, especially I call them energy vampires, you can tell when you’re spending time with someone and you feel more exhausted.

After you’ve spent time with them, then you feel happy and joyful. And content. They might be someone who drains you rather than someone who lifts you up. And yes, there are times when someone’s having an emergency or whatever it is that you are going to extend yourself. And yes, you will probably feel a little bit more drained after spending time with them, but that shouldn’t be, uh, the norm, right?

That shouldn’t be the way that, that you feel with this person all the time. So if you. If you find that you’re spending time with someone who makes you feel drained, you’re going to probably want to figure out ways to not be in that situation as much as possible, right? Because you as a performer need all your energy.

When you’re on stage, you want to be on stage 150%. Whatever that performing is, whether it’s dance or acting or music or whatever it is, you want to be sure that you are not drained, that no one has drained you and that you have not drained yourself of your vital spark. And then If you focus on activities and opportunities that align with your own values and your own goals, remember you’ve worked up until now to sort of set those goals and figure out how to achieve those goals.

And if you’re working with a coach, you’ll have someone who can keep track of those for you and with you. Then you’re going to be able to say yes to the things that further those and say no to the things that run counter to them. I think that’s so important. And you really want to remember that these challenges are going to come up no matter who you are, no matter what preparation you make.

So if you need help, a coach. Someone like me can help. Sure, a coach can offer you personalized guidance and support to help you navigate some of this stuff because it’s not it’s not easy and Sometimes you’re too close to it. You can’t see the forest for the trees so it’s important to think about how am I dealing with this stuff and am I dealing with it in a healthy and a vital and in a manner that’s ingenious and, and full of spark.

And if you are, good on ya. And if you need some help, nothing wrong with going to someone to get some help and support to do just that. All righty. Wow. This, I didn’t realize this was going to be such a long episode, but I’m kind of glad that it was. I hope that you enjoyed it. And, uh, yeah, I’m going to do this for a bunch of the other sort of the challenges creative artists face, the challenges creative freelancers face.

And the reason I’m going to do that is because I really want to delve deeper into what it means to be a creative in our society. We’re not always going to have that support. We’re not always going to be able to find that, that system that, that can help us. And so as much as possible, I want to sort of tell you about the potential challenges and pitfalls and also give you ideas on how to rise to them and overcome them.