When the going gets tough, the creatively tough get going. This is what it really takes.
Years ago, when I first started teaching girls and women the art of recording and engineering mothers would call and extol their daughters musical talent and ask me “does she have what it takes to make it?” I would meet them, assess their talent, and make my best educated guess. However, a few years down the line I observed that it wasn’t necessarily the girl with the pitch perfect voice and biggest musical genius whose studio was the thriving one.
Oftentimes, it was the one who matched talent with drive, resilience, and persistence.
It was the one who failed and allowed her mistakes to exquisitely educate her for next time. The one who gave clients the best, most consistent experience, even without snazzy led lights in her studio. In time, the strategy of embracing grit as a creative’s best friend increasingly crystallized and won out in my mind.
Obviously, we have not touched on a huge piece of the puzzle here, which is that no creativity can succeed without a huge dose of siyata d’Shmaya.
Any artist will tell you that that first piece of inspired creativity is divine. Some days it shows up and some days it just doesn’t clock in if it’s not meant to be. I can’t tell you how many times I’ve been asked, “How are you not scared that your next song will be a dud?” to which I reply, “I have no idea.” I just know what my part is: I sit down at my desk, hit record, put my hands out and wait for it to rain. The rest is not up to me.
With that said, as my esteemed teacher Mrs. Tarshish taught us in seminary, you cannot access the bracha that Hashem wants to rain down on you, if you’re not putting out a keili, a receptacle. And if He assigned you a bathtub’s worth, and you show up saying, “Nah, I can’t achieve that,” and put out a becher, you’re going to miss out on a dearth of opportunity. I hold this wisdom daily as I try to greet every opportunity that comes my way, even if it feels too big for me, by saying “I can’t do this alone, but with Hashem’s limitlessness backing me, maybe!”
I’m grateful for every bit that I have learned and digested along the journey. And I’m still learning every day from every encounter.
Years of copious nuggets from my own experiences followed by two years of unrelenting research blossomed into the ProEntrepeneur course which I’m passionate about offering to all my fellow creatives out there. Whether you’re an artist, musician, chef, party planner, graphic designer, stylist or fitness instructor, you have something unique that thousands of people around you can never tap or touch or turn on in the world. Why should you let a few learnable soft skills disqualify you from doing what you love?
And don’t think that you need to become a soulless marketing robot. You don’t need to sell out or dumb down. You just need to learn how to run a business like someone who values themselves and their gifts.
Creativity is not the opposite of strategy—it’s the secret weapon. Your ideas can thrive in a well-run business. Your soul work can make you money. You’re not failing—you’re just learning the other half of the equation.
And if you’re currently covered in metaphorical paint, sitting on six unfinished projects, and googling “how to price creative services without crying,” please know this:
You are not alone. You are not behind. You are just a creative person…becoming an entrepreneur. And that’s a journey worth taking—messy middle and all.
Now go raise your rates. I’m serious.
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