Why you must say no, so you can say YES

It is hard for creatives to focus down, we all have so many ideas and dreams – I write songs, music jokes, cabaret shows, comedy characters shows, novels plus I act, sing, play about 8 instruments, have done standup and a lot of compering. However I cannot do all of them at the same time, no matter how much multi-tasking  I do. I just get overwhelmed and nothing gets proper time or attention, so ideas end up half finished or pushed out in the world only half gestated. Post 47 of Dream, create and make money in the arts

I like The Accidental Creative Podcasts but tend to find that they are more aimed at those creatives such as those within business who have to be creative as opposed to creatives more in the arts fields on the forefront of the battle amid the bloodshed. (Yes I am romanticising again). However this  podcast proved me wrong where Todd Henry interviewed an old friend Amos Heller who is the touring bass player for Taylor Swift.

It is a really great tale of networking in a positive way and being willing to do the work. I particularly love the point Amos Heller makes about deciding exactly what you are aiming at, even within the field of bass playing – he was questioned about did he want to focus on studio work, having his own band or being a touring ‘artist band’ musician, so playing on monster tours such as the Taylor Swift one he is currently doing.

It is a great reminder for me again to keep focusing down, I do actually play bass guitar as  I am a trained jazz musician/singer and learnt on the bass plus I taught myself to play the double bass for a show. However whilst there could be a great career for a female bass player who looks good in a tight dress, I have not gone there although I have odd flights of fancies about it 😉

The year 2013 for me has been about acting, yes I have done some singing at the Royal Festival Hall but I just rehearse and turn up to do the gig, and love doing it. However in the last show I did there, the extra rehearsals were really squeezing other areas of my life.

Even now I am focusing on acting yet I have accidentally a dance single to release.

As in Andrew Hyde and I have been working on the remix and now the first 2 mixes are done and I have to get the track out there somewhere. So now I have started the coaching podcasts with Ryan James Lock. Once again I have split my focus, however the track has too much time and effort put into it to be ignored and I love seeing my gay friends dance round excitedly to it. So I know I need to clear all the other non-acting projects out the way til I can get the dance single done, even the blog and my podcast interview schedule is suffering, I will have to say no at least temporarily to a co-written new idea of a cabaret show and also my webseries. I have to say no so I can fully say yes. So today I will be letting some people know that much as I want to do projects with them, they are further back in the pipeline. Once I hit mid September then I can re-decide on priorities.

So I have got all this new resolution from listening to the AC podcast, so thank you guys!!

This is a series of blogs for you on how to dream up, build, market and sell a creative event, gig, festival, book launch, cabaret night, exhibition of rude plastic cupcakes or whatever creatively inspires you. It is time to create and put on that play about your family, a series of drawings about hedgehogs, the album you have talked about making or the short film you always wanted to write and make. You can read the series in order Part One or just pick and choose a topic that interests you.