Oh, the dreaded day job. When will you ever break free from it so you can dedicate your time to your creative expression?

There are many ways to support your creative work. And sometimes, the work you do as an artist will become self-sustaining. But this is not a reality enjoyed by every creative. The goal, then, should be to become aware of the options available and move in the direction you feel led to.

In this episode of The New Music Industry Podcast, I read from my upcoming book, Flashes of Elation, and dig deeper into the world of jobs.

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Podcast Highlights:

00:14 – In recent episodes, we’ve been looking at my upcoming book

00:29 – What my first book, The New Music Industry was about

00:42 – What Flashes of Elation is about

01:01 – Today’s topic

01:15 – Special bonuses for pre-orders

01:32 – Jobs and creatives

01:56 – Jobs and money

02:05 – Different approaches to creative freedom

02:58 – My guitar instruction career

04:24 – Paring down my commitments

04:35 – Saying “no”

05:07 – Teaching

05:21 – Jobs and creative expression

06:43 – Freedom and personal discipline

06:59 – A reason to live

Transcription:

In recent episodes of the podcast, we’ve been looking at my upcoming book, Flashes of Elation.

Where my first book, The New Music Industry was about “the what” and “the how” of the music industry, how it’s set up, what it looks like, how to thrive and survive in today’s musical climate, Flashes of Elation is a book about “the why.” What is your purpose? Why do you want to be a creative or musician? What drives you? What motivates you? What inspires you to keep going when things are tough. And rest assured things will get tough at times.

So, in today’s episode I wanted to look at a section called Jobs. And this may not be the exact copy in the book once it’s launched, but it’s a work in progress, and it is coming along.

If you’d like to claim the special bonuses that come with pre-orders, you can only pre-order the book until June 30, 2017. So, I just wanted to encourage you to check it out before pre-orders close.

Let’s look at Jobs.

Jobs

Some creatives are not suited to jobs. This isn’t to suggest that jobs are inherently evil, or that they can’t provide you with an outlet for your creativity, but if you want to paint, you don’t need to find a job to get started. If you want to make music, you don’t need someone else’s permission. Creativity is something many people pursue outside of a job.

But the reason the job question comes up is because of money. We all know we need financial resources to make our art sustainable.

You need financial resources to make your art sustainable.Click To Tweet

So what’s the answer? Do we work 9 – 5 and fund our artistic pursuits? Some do. Do we start a separate business and set aside our art until we’re free to do what we want? Some do that. Do we quit our jobs and trust that we’ll figure out the money thing later? Some do that too. And there are many other options, such as starting a freelancing career, taking chances on high-risk investments, selling your art, winning the lottery (unlikely) or cutting costs by becoming a hermit (hey, I’m not going to judge). Different approaches work for different people.

But there are pros and cons to each. There are some pretty major pitfalls to some of those options too. I should know. That’s why I can’t tell you what to do. But what I can do is open your eyes to the possibilities, and encourage you to find expression for your creativity – no matter how you earn a living.

***

I just got a call today from the guitar studio I’ve been working at since 2014. They were wondering whether or not I was going to be coming back to teach in the fall season (most studios either don’t offer lessons during the summer months, or only accommodate a few students). They already knew that I might not be coming back, but they called to confirm.

Overwhelmingly,