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Audacity Works
Audacity Works
The Double Life of Artists: Day Jobs as a Creative Lifeline
Join me on a not-so-ordinary voyage through the life of a working artist, navigating the rough waters of maintaining day jobs which aren't necessarily our life's passion, debunking the myth that successful artists live solely off their creative craft. Get ready for an honest chat about survival in a late-stage capitalist world, from my own experiences living off my creativity for years in San Francisco and Seattle, and how having multiple income streams can be beneficial for mental and physical health.
Don't go back to sleep.
xoRachel
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Welcome to Audacity Works, a podcast inspired by and dedicated to the working artist, the creative entrepreneur and generally doing the damn thing. This exists on the premise that the world belongs to those who have the audacity to believe that their lives have value. This is for you. Welcome to Audacity Works. I am your host, rachel Strickland, and this is episode number 35, in which we're going to talk about day jobs, particularly the ones that don't ignite a sense of desire or passion in you. Okay, but before we get into all that, a small recommendation that actually came from my sister. My little sister lives in Atlanta and she is really good at recommending shows and movies, and I am very bad at it. So, in honor of her complaining because I never recommend anything good to her and she always recommends good things to me, i'm going to share her recommendation with you The Bear. It's a series on Hulu. There's like two seasons. It's very bingeable and it's about it's a look into restaurant life And it is very visceral and very real and quite stressful to watch, but also addictive. Anyway, we just finished it last night. So, in honor of Tricia, go watch The Bear. If you have worked in a restaurant before, particularly like Fine Dining, you may be triggered by this, by this series. End of disclaimer.
Speaker 1:Okay, so the subject of this episode was sent to me a few days ago via The Gram by a listener named Daniela. What's up, daniela? Thank you for writing to me, and she said I would. She was talking about the last episode, the one I released last week about desire versus purpose, and she said it resonated with her as in her practice as an aerialist, and she was wondering if I had any thoughts about doing something you don't desire and doesn't give you purpose, but you have to find a way through somehow like a day job. And I was like, yes, absolutely, let us do that immediately. I'm really glad that Daniela wrote to me, because this is, this is like a problem, right? There's a problem in arts culture where, if you don't make all of your income from your art, you're not a real artist, and nothing could be further from the truth. That is just such a staming pile of great big elephant poop, because your job as an artist is to make your work and put your work forward. That is it, that is your only job, and nowhere in that job description does it say earn all of your income from this process.
Speaker 1:So here are here's some perspectives on that One. I'm not here to poop on anyone's parade. If you want to make all of your income through your creative practice, i freaking applaud you. Like, go forth and do that. Need some help? Get some help. Call me, call someone else. Don't try and go it alone. No need to. No need to reinvent the wheel.
Speaker 1:As a caveat to that, most not all, but most folks who say to me I want to earn all of my money through my creative practice haven't done it before, because people that have done it before know how bad it can suck. It doesn't always suck. Also, i'm not trying to poop on your parade. It can be everything that you expect it to be, but it is hard. It is also very worthy And you get to decide The whole.
Speaker 1:The only problem with the this situation, from the perspective that I'm giving it, is that people believe that they are not the real thing if they're not making all or most of their income through their creative practice, and this viewpoint needs to die in a fire. I posted something on Instagram like a week ago. I think there was a quote from a recent webinar that I hosted with coach Cito Adamson, and the quote from Cito was seeking out. Ease and comfort is not laziness. And having multiple streams of income when you're a creative practitioner or a creative entrepreneur is a smart idea, not only for mental health but also for your physical health, because we have to invent our own seasonality as physical artists, because it's not built in to the job description And if you get sick or if you get injured or your body just needs a rest, then something else can be there to support you during that time. And a shadow side of social media is that it's easy to draw conclusions that are false, and one of those conclusions inevitably seems to be you see an artist that is successful on social media and they seem like they're doing all the things and like, well, they must get all of their income through their creative practice. But like, why? Why would we think that? Why? Why would we think that They're not talking about their finances? We don't know if they have family support, generational wealth, another stream of income, funding we don't know. And yet we often draw the conclusion that they must be doing this seemingly sparkly, hard to reach thing, and I think that's just human nature. But to counteract that, i want to propose that we speak more honestly about how we are surviving in this late-stage capitalist landscape. How about this? I will start So.
Speaker 1:I have had lived experience supporting myself 100% through my creative practice. When I did this, i did this for about a year in San Francisco and then the following four years in Seattle. The very first year I was in San Francisco, i was also writing Black Hat SEO copy for an online marketing company based out of North Carolina for like $10 an hour And eventually I quit and I spent my last $25 on a really nice pair of fishnets. I'm like all right, i'm going all in And I'm so glad that I did. And if you want to do that, i will encourage you to do that. And for that remainder of that final year that I lived in San Francisco, i made all of my money from gigs. I was not working as a circus artist yet, i was still training, but I was a dancer and I danced with lots of companies and worked with some circus companies as a dancer. And then, when I moved to Seattle, i started working as a circus artist And for the next four years it was a very prolific time in my life And I earned all of my income as a performing artist, and that was possible because at the time I lived with three other people, rent was low, i had dependable gigs that happened on a weekly basis.
Speaker 1:But anyway, that's not why I want to tell you the story. The reason I wanted to tell you the story is because of what happened next. I was at the end of my time in Seattle. Me and Man Flush were living in this tiny little house in West Seattle And we called it the fairy tree house because it looked like you could just pick it up and pop it in your mouth. It was delicious, so cute. But then Man Flush, who had just recently gotten out of the Navy, got offered a position at Google And that meant that we had to move, and this I mean I encouraged him. I was like we got to go. You can't say no to this opportunity. But it also broke my heart because I loved living in Seattle and I had a really supportive community. Blah, blah, blah, blah. It was hard. So that meant that I moved from Seattle back to San Francisco and Man Flush started working for the Googs.
Speaker 1:If you are a working artist, your community is everything. That is your lifeblood, it is your livelihood. And when I left that in Seattle and went back to San Francisco. It was gone Like, yeah, i had friends there And I had ends, but it wasn't the same structure. I couldn't just go from Seattle to San Francisco without skipping a beat and being able to pay half the bills for everything the way that I was doing in Seattle. And for the next couple of years I couldn't pay half of the bills. I couldn't even pay a quarter of the bills as a working artist And I was supported by my partner. Especially at the time.
Speaker 1:San Francisco was a very different financial landscape than Seattle. I was still working. I worked all the time. But I'll tell you a secret At the end of that first year that we moved back to San Francisco, my adjusted gross income for the year after expenses was $7. That's right, my friends. I earned $7 that year as a profit And I worked the whole time.
Speaker 1:And during that time I was envisioning helping other artists to do what I had done already, and that is how the Audacity Project was created. Would I have been able to create the Audacity Project while trying to support myself full time as a working artist, only using my creative practice to support myself? I don't know, but I just think that it is important to tell these stories honestly and to say when we have had help and support from other areas to to shatter the illusion that someone is doing it all on their own all the time and always has. So that is the first quite lengthy point that I wanted to make. Consider where you might be drawing false conclusions about the other people in your community and about their finances and how they are doing it, because we don't know. I mean, you can ask and they may not tell you and they may tell you, but the only reason this matters is because it affects how we judge our own progress. Okay, next point Having a day job, as I've said, does not make you any less of an artist.
Speaker 1:It's great to have support and to have resources. I'd say maybe half of the people that have gone through the Audacity project have other means of income that support them. Most of the time they love their other job and it's really important to them. It's just that their artistic practice is also really important to them And sometimes they don't love the day job so much. And I'm going to speak really to the other end of that spectrum first. Okay, if you have a day job that you love. It exercises a part of your brain, part of your gifts, that your artistic practice doesn't exercise. I am so freaking thrilled for you. Yay, keep doing that. You get to engage with your creative practice and the culture that surrounds it in whatever way you choose. You get to decide On the other end of that spectrum and this is where I am going to be a very bad influence. I am the best bad influence you'll ever meet because I will stand up and say this to you at any time If your job is sucking your life force away, if you have chronic depression, chronic anxiety about it, if you're miserable in it, you need to find another way.
Speaker 1:There is no reason to continue to do something that you hate for years And like. Capitalism is what it is and it is a double-edged sword. The bad side of the sword we already know about because it sucks. The other side of the sword is that there are limitless ways that you can earn income. If your job is making you clinically depressed and miserable and sucking your life away, you need to find another way. Just quit like quit. It would be wise to have some savings built up first Six months or a year would be better And then get you some good coaching. Find another way.
Speaker 1:So now that I've said that, let's assume that most people are somewhere in between those two things. They may not be in love with it, but they don't hate it and they really enjoy the financial security that they get from it, which is nothing to sneeze at. So, first point one, don't be judging yourself for having a day job. Look at where you live, look at the culture that you live in. Like, yeah, you probably need a day job. Ain't nothing wrong with that? I'm so glad that you have resources. So now that that's out of the way.
Speaker 1:If you do choose to use your creative practice to supplement your income and do it at a professional level, then you need to learn the landscape in which you are operating, because the market is consistently driven down by people undercharging for their work because they can. And here's a fun little psychological treat for you Sometimes, when people have other means of support for themselves, they feel bad charging a healthy rate for their services as a creative, somehow believing that if they charge less, then that leaves more money left over for the other creatives that might need it more for survival. This is inaccurate And this is why it's important to talk to each other. So let's assume you do want to earn supplementary income from your creative practice. The only reason to go into business is to make a profit.
Speaker 1:And I was telling a friend of mine this like 12 years ago and she's like, well, i disagree with you. You can go into business because you have love for the thing you're doing, like, yeah, but you would just do that thing that you love, you wouldn't, you wouldn't need to like, turn it into a business, and you do not have to earn money from your creative practice in order for your creative product to be valid. If you want to earn money from your creative practice, then it becomes a relationship that is about more than you and whatever it is that you feel like doing, although that should remain the paramount relationship. But once you begin Bye now selling things, that brings other people and other concepts into the equation. But I feel like I want to get back to the heart of what Daniela was asking. She's asking for thoughts about doing something you don't desire and doesn't give you purpose, but you have to to survive, and to that I would say if you can look at the thing that is supporting your livelihood, whether or not it is driven by desire or a sense of purpose. It actually is driven by a sense of purpose Because you can use those resources to grow your creative practice. You use them to feed your kids, feed your cat, you use them to survive and be able to have options in the world, and that's nothing to sneeze at. You know a tiny story here.
Speaker 1:I took a brief stint, a six month stint, writing copy for the Amazon App Store many years ago And I was there for about six months And then the contract was up And I went off doing other things. I had a severe amount of dread and shame around taking this six month contract writing copy Because I was coming from a landscape of earning all of my income through my creative practice. I was. I had a lot of shame around it. I didn't want to tell anyone. I wanted to keep it a secret because I was afraid that people wouldn't take me seriously anymore as a creator when the real issue was I wasn't. I didn't think that I deserved to be taken seriously as a creator because I needed more money.
Speaker 1:And I got a note from another artist friend of mine, a fantastic artist, like a very high skill level And she was just so happy for me And she was like I just think that that's amazing And if I could have like a job like that and still be an aerialist, i would do it in a heartbeat. And I was so confused by this email because I was expecting to be judged So I thought that she was judging me. But what she was really doing was sharing her perspective and saying that that was something she wanted for herself. And, looking back on that period of time, i could have saved myself so much distress and so much dismay If I had seen that the purpose of the contract that I was taking was not an unworthy purpose, like the purpose was my continued survival and to try something new and see what it felt like to have a regular paycheck Spoiler alert. That part was awesome. Like I get it, i get the appeal. I had not had that before at that time in my life And it was. It was just so comforting to be able to go into a coffee shop and buy a croissant because I wanted one.
Speaker 1:So maybe the purpose that seems invisible to you now isn't some grand cosmic play, maybe the purpose isn't unearthing the viscera of your subconscious, which I think is a great purpose, but maybe the purpose is resources for your ease and comfort. Maybe the purpose is you getting to have options so that you don't have to take poorly paid work with questionable safety standards If you need to have a day job to support you because your creative practice isn't going to do so enough. maybe the purpose behind that in addition to your own survival which, yes, we want that is to be able to give you the resources to make that creative work better. When you have resources, you're able to access education. You can hire coaches, you can attend retreats and intensives and workshops. You can rent space. You can hire videographers to make your material so that you can get more work in your creative practice. Resources are a good thing And if you have to get them through some way that you're kind of holding in contempt for yourself, if you can find a way to let that go, it doesn't seem in service of either you or your creative work. And if, while listening to this episode, you've realized actually the day job is sucking all of the joy and life force from my life, then you can find another way and I implore you to. But hopefully is hopefully you have some kind of a sense of peace about it, because the purpose is you and your continued existence, and this is a good thing.
Speaker 1:Okay, my friends, i'm looking at the time. Next week I'm going to be dropping an episode on Survival tips for the Irish aerial dance festival. Highly recommend giving that a listen if you plan to attend the festival Starting, i believe, the following week, or anyway, july 17th. So happy Wednesday to you if you're listening to this on the day that it's dropped. Well, happy day to you and happy summer. I want to thank you for listening and for taking the time to be here with me, because without you, i'm just a woman talking to myself in my office. So thank you, and especially thank you to my patrons, who make this and so much more possible for me. Thank you for being here. Don't go back to sleep.