Musicians ask me all the time,
“Leah, how the heck do you find the time and energy to pursue music with such a busy life?”
- I’m a full-time, stay-at-home mom.
- I have five children. I homeschool them.
- I run my household, cook & clean, etc.
- I run Savvy Musician Academy.
- I’m a songwriter & put out a new album every 1-2 years.
- And I run my private label, Ex Cathedra Records.
HOW DO YOU DO IT?, you ask.
WHERE DO YOU GET THE ENERGY?, you ask.
I’ll tell you exactly how.
There’s two extremely important things I’ve figured out about creative people (like me) who NEED to create and produce in order to feel sane.
#1: Creative people need structure.
Tell this to most musicians & artists and you get a reaction that looks like a scene from The Exorcist (LOL).
I get it!
I too resist structure, routine, schedules, have-tos and deadlines.
Something about rules feels anathema to the artist.
BUT… having constraints and structure is the EXACT thing the artist needs in order to be the most productive they can be on planet earth.
We may resist it, but if we can overcome our own resistance toward structure, we might just create the most amazing music we’ve ever created…
…and the world will actually hear it.
Why?
Because you’ve mastered the art of self-discipline in an area where 98% of musicians are complete slackers.
That sets you apart already.
You’re already ahead right out of the gate!
#2: There is no such thing as “do it all.”
Hear me now: I do not do all the things I listed above simultaneously!
I attack my tasks and goals in chunks and seasons and I’m deliberate about it.
I know when I’m not in a season of writing. I know when I am.
When I am, I take other things off my plate and I go to town.
I’ve trained my children to do chores and do them well so that it’s not ALL on me, taking up every second of my day.
We currently don’t have a dishwasher (I thought we would die!) but guess what.
The dishes are done every single day, after every single meal, because I trained my 10-year-old how to wash dishes by hand, and it gets done.
I’ve also taught him that if he does a very good job he will be promoted to a more important job one day and one of the other kids will take over that job.
So, lesson: delegate things in your life that need to be done that someone else could do.
Then give them incentives to do a great job.
That could be a friend handling your CD sales and merch that needs to be mailed out.
That could be hiring someone to code your website instead of YOU trying to learn a bunch of geek stuff to save a buck.
Don’t step over a $100 bill to pick up a dime.
Learn this stuff and you will go FAR BEYOND everyone else in your music genre.
You will blow the the other wannabes out of the water because you learned how to actually manage your time and your talent.
Those are the two most valuable assets you have!!
