The Year in Review—Looking Ahead

Today being the last day of 2013, as a creative freelancer I find it only fitting to evaluate my year with an eye toward 2014.  And what a difference a year makes!  

Financially, I have turned myself around and will continue to put forth these same efforts and energies in 2014.  Last year at this time I was continually in the red by $200.  Looking at my checkbook, I have a comforting cushion of black.  The turnaround occurred in early March, when I received payment for a series of gigs for the Pikes Peak Library District.  And it has continued to build as I slowly began work for an online educational writing entity, A Pass Education.   And I it looks like I will have some regular work the first quarter of 2014 with a second online entity, LearningMate.

Which will be helpful, indeed, since health-wise I am confronting what seems to be a genetic legacy:  osteoarthritis in my hips.  At the relatively young age of 50, I will face my first hip replacement (the right one) on January 31.  Since I am healthy and in shape otherwise (thank goodness!), I am told the recovery will be short-ish, three to six weeks.  And only a four inch scar.  While I am wrestling with the seeming unfairness of it all, I do look forward to walking normally and hiking once again this summer in the beautiful Colorado Rockies.

Creatively, 2013 has been mixed.  I thought I would be doing more regular creative writing for both this blog and my kitty blog.  Being honest, I lost steam midyear as I was grappling with regular trips back East to help my sister manage the ever-increasing complexities of aging parents.  This all came to a head when my father died at the end of August…  Rather than beat myself up for the lack of writing focus, which does not serve me, I look ahead to the possibilities for 2014.  

I did, though, return to regular acting and taiko drumming classes when my finances turned around. I have also slowly begun to again incorporate yoga and the space it creates back into my life.

And…I got a surprising creative boost the early part of December:  an email from a casting producer from America’s Got Talent inviting me to audition when they visited Denver on December 7.  (These city visits, btw, are auditions for the producers of the show—not the celebrity judges.  At least not yet.)  After speaking with her, I prepared a 90-second “best of” Percussion Lady (a little drumming, singing and storytelling)—which got me a second audition with the executive producers that same day.  A long day it was, indeed, at the Colorado Convention Center.  It was an amazing seven hours in the company of talented, creative individuals.  Maybe I will be invited sometime the first quarter of 2014 to audition for the celebrity judges.  Or, maybe not.  But the experience provided me with the jolt I needed to refocus my creative passions.

AGT Denver Audition - December 7, 2013

Looking ahead to 2014:

I must and I will incorporate more drumming into my life!  More taiko!  Maybe even purchase a “walking drum” so I can play and walk at the same time while creating my rhythm of the machine…  I may even participate, again, in the Colorado Performing Arts Jamboree in January. 

I will also continue to focus my energies on attracting paid work that fulfills me—Percussion Lady and Golda gigs and educational writing.  Hopefully after my first hip surgery, I will have more energy that is free of pain to focus on taking Golda on the road…to the Philly area, to start.  

I am also looking to attract TV and film auditions that will provide juicy, meaty roles that pay—maybe even get my first SAG credit.

Midyear, I also look forward to resuming my efforts as the volunteer coordinator for the Intendence Film Festival.  I think it’s time, and my left-brained qualities do come in handy.

And, of course, I look forward to more writing for my own benefit…

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Perhaps 2013 needed to be the transition year it has served to be.  To help clear out the cobwebs of my psyche and intent in order to allow me to embrace the possibilities that await in 2014. 

Streams of Income

I’ve chosen this life, this freelance life.  And with it the responsibilities, joys, aggravations, anxieties and freedom to express the whole of who I am.  Perhaps you can describe this lifestyle as pieces to a puzzle, designed to baffle or to test ingenuity or resourcefulness.  Last week, though, on an audition (ahem, interview), I likened this more to a mosaic, the disparate parts of colored stone, tile and glass coming together to create this wonderful, beauteous whole.

No matter how I describe this life, I’ve realized—over the last months and years—the following for me to work and play at my optimum:  These puzzle pieces or mosaic bits must overlap. The streams of income and creativity need to flow effortlessly…

I’m finally at a point, after much MUCH effort and focus, back in the black, financially.  While I have yet to be comfortable in this place and still have concerns dropping back into the red, opportunities are now coming to me more often than before.  I feel less anxious, which is a good thing.  For example, this past Friday I was not only paid for my first contracted assessment (test) writing gig (yeah!), I received an email from that organization inviting me to be a part of another educational writing project—which started this past Monday.  And I also booked a twice-a-month rhythm and drumming gig at a local nursing home.  Tributaries…

Of course, I continue to focus on my other “water sources,” both here and back East:  Percussion and rhythm programming for kids, families, teachers, and seniors; Golda Meir performances; and acting in TV and film.  

And I have a new project I’m researching and hope to have as a viable current flowing soon: homecare health aid consultant.  I am now developing the model and business plan to help families find long-term home care for their elderly relatives, so they can remain in their homes rather than transfer to a facility. I’ve been successful finding home care for my own parents, and the Internet, Skype, and Craigslist is a beautiful thing.  I begin the writing of my plan this week…

Wouldn’t it Be Nice….

…to have an extra four to six hours in any one day to check off all those things on the “to do” lists?  Yes, of course.  But with only 24 hours (and 7 of them in a prone position), I do what I can. 

Doesn’t seem to be enough time…a common complaint.  Two weeks or more go by before I realize I haven’t posted to either of my blogs (this or my cat blog), and I need to practice more rhythm and drumming.  I can be hard on myself for not working on the creative stuff that emboldens my life with color and creativity…or I can be kinder, take stock of where I am and move forward with more clarity.

(And, besides, today is the start of two very VERY busy weeks of performing.  Springtime is a..bloomin, even if the outside thermometer does say 16 degrees!)

Ultimately, I prefer the latter. 

It’s Never Too Late…

…to realize that you might be good in a number of areas but need help with others.    I’ve been a freelancer—whether or not I would have admitted to this in the past—since June 1997 when I chucked the corporate life and went out on my own.  Creatively, I’ve done quite well for myself:  I’m rhythmically gifted and discovered the joy of hand drumming and performing;  I love to sing and tell stories; I continue to teach via drumming classes and workshops for educators; I perform a one-woman show that I authored; and I’ve pursued acting in television and film—a dream I have held onto since I was ten.

However, it’s been a rocky ride, financially.  Yes, I will admit to this.  As my husband now realizes, I am just not cut for the life of a 9 to 5er.  Nope.  And while the life of a freelance creative educator comes with freedom and vision, it does not provide a regularity of income.  I know I can attract abundance—I’ve  done it in the past.  But how to manage this abundance when I’m in a temporary lean period so that I’m not looking to eat my arm for sustenance (figuratively speaking!)?  

Perhaps I need to learn how to treat what I do more as a business?  Would that help organize those aspects of personal financial management I seem to lack?  It’s like I don’t know what I don’t know, and this not knowing is getting in the way of my enjoying more the time I have here in this life experience.

Maybe it is not too late to learn how to better manage the business facets of my acting career and Trencher Educational Consulting (dba “The Percussion Lady” and “Golda Meir: Choices & Chances”).  Maybe I can learn enough to know that I need to hire a professional to cover some of these aspects.  

Suggestions?

The Week Between

Yep, it’s that time of year.  The piles of filing, organizing and shredding have gotten a bit much.  And my file drawers are busting.  I must prune and purge my office!  For a creative with left brained organizing tendencies, this does not necessarily funnel down to filing.  So, during the relatively quiet week between Christmas and New Years, I do my own version of “spring” cleaning.  

Not only do I get to root out the unnecessary form or file, I have this wonderful opportunity to reflect and to plan.  Despite the monetary shortfall (which I am most heartily efforting to remedy), 2012 has been a busy year with performance and creativity!  The stats:  in 2012, I —

• presented Golda Meir: Choices & Chances 11 times;
• lead rhythm/drumming events at nursing homes and memory care units an average of 10 times per month;
• facilitated 10 rhythm-based educator workshops;
• presented 16 specialty percussion lady performances; and
• landed three paid acting gigs—one of which was the role of Corey Alden on the feature length docudrama, CREEP!, coming out sometime in 2013. 

It’s been a blessed year, and now I need to create the space—both physically and mentally—for an even more focused and abundant 2013!