Today was one of those days. And by 'one of those days' I mean, one of those days where I knew what I should be doing, but I just couldn't bring myself to do it!
A week ago I sent emails out to around 170 Kindys and preschools in Auckland. It's always a toss up whether to ring first, or email first....so this time I tried the email approach on advice from a friend. A week later and half of them haven't been opened, 3 have responded and I have booked one gig.
So, after winning the video award, I thought it might be easier to get gigs...I was wrong. It's never easy...well, not for most of us I don't think.
Anyway, today was the day I was going to start ringing all those 170, let them know about me and what I do, ask them if they've seen the email, then if they'd like to book me. I just couldn't do it.
I did a lot of other things...like tidy my office up a bit....then luckily my stepson missed the school bus, so I drove him to school....then I went to The Warehouse and spent an hour wandering around in a daze, picking things up and putting them back...leaving with a couple of storage containers (which are sitting empty on my desk), a pair of red shoes to perform in and other sundry items which I can't even remember at the moment.
Then I rang a friend and asked if I could call in for a cuppa on the way home because I was feeling 'weird'. She said, 'great, come to our place and feel weird here, you'll fit right in'!
I left her place feeling much better, after two cups of Earl Grey tea, some cheese and pear on crackers and with an arm-full of her daughter's picture books to read. When I got home, I jumped on the exercycle for an hour and read them all.
Some days it is so hard to tell people how amazing you are...in fact it's hard to do that any day....and some days you just can't take being turned down time and time again....and on those days, it's best NOT to put yourself through it, because those are the days when people WILL turn you down and you WILL lose confidence in your ability.
Tomorrow though, is a new day I will ring those 170 potential gigs, or at least make a start of it. Let's hope tomorrow is NOT another one of those days.....
Monday, July 28, 2014
Tuesday, July 1, 2014
I'M IN THE FINALS!
Just over a week ago I found out that our video was in the APRA/What Now children's video of the year finals. What happened after I found out, was unusual....instead of being happy and excited, I felt on edge and a bit stressed about it.
Competitions are strange. They really are. We enter ...sometimes paying to enter, sometimes not....and then wait....
If you do make it into the 'finals', it's then onto the publicity. (Especially in the case of this particular competition where the winner is decided by public vote.) In this business, you have to be in the public's face as often as you can - so you try to seize every opportunity and see it as another step towards a sale. It often isn't! Turning votes, watches, people who love your songs, 'likes' on Facebook, happy dancing children at your concert...etc...into buyers, is the step in the game that's the most difficult. And for people like me, who aren't sales minded, nor egotistical (well, except when it comes to thinking my songs are awesome! ;)), nor pushy.....it's almost impossible.
When you don't get into a final, get a place or win a competition, it's always a funny feeling. It's always upsetting. You listen/watch/compare your stuff to the people who got in and sometimes you can understand the judges choices and sometimes you just can't. I find it hard to be unbiased. Very hard. And I suppose, if we as artists, didn't think we deserved to be in the top three, then we wouldn't be doing it! I can appreciate a good kids' song, but I'm very very picky.
There is definitely a sense that being beaten by someone else means you're obviously not as good as them at your 'craft'. Self-esteem often takes a bit of a beating.
I once declared I wouldn't enter any more contests!! And here I am giving myself a real battering!! This year I entered song, album AND video of the year. I didn't make the song or album final....but was lucky enough to make it into the video finals. Thanks to a lot of hard work and dedication by Aimee, her kids and Karl. And a good song.
I'm not really sure where I'm going with this....there are a lot of us hard-working NZ children's entertainers/song writers...making a lot of kids happy....some of us travel a lot, visit a lot of kids, do a lot of different and sometimes ODD (and difficult) gigs. Most of us are not even close to rich - we are lucky to be making a living. We all have some die-hard fans and we are all grateful for those people who come to our concerts, buy our music and let us know how much they love us! We all write very different songs, for different age groups.
I'm not sure a competition is the way to 'measure' our success...perhaps the kids' faces/smiles/laughter/dancing/happiness/singing and sometimes hugs is??
What do you think?
Competitions are strange. They really are. We enter ...sometimes paying to enter, sometimes not....and then wait....
If you do make it into the 'finals', it's then onto the publicity. (Especially in the case of this particular competition where the winner is decided by public vote.) In this business, you have to be in the public's face as often as you can - so you try to seize every opportunity and see it as another step towards a sale. It often isn't! Turning votes, watches, people who love your songs, 'likes' on Facebook, happy dancing children at your concert...etc...into buyers, is the step in the game that's the most difficult. And for people like me, who aren't sales minded, nor egotistical (well, except when it comes to thinking my songs are awesome! ;)), nor pushy.....it's almost impossible.
When you don't get into a final, get a place or win a competition, it's always a funny feeling. It's always upsetting. You listen/watch/compare your stuff to the people who got in and sometimes you can understand the judges choices and sometimes you just can't. I find it hard to be unbiased. Very hard. And I suppose, if we as artists, didn't think we deserved to be in the top three, then we wouldn't be doing it! I can appreciate a good kids' song, but I'm very very picky.
There is definitely a sense that being beaten by someone else means you're obviously not as good as them at your 'craft'. Self-esteem often takes a bit of a beating.
I once declared I wouldn't enter any more contests!! And here I am giving myself a real battering!! This year I entered song, album AND video of the year. I didn't make the song or album final....but was lucky enough to make it into the video finals. Thanks to a lot of hard work and dedication by Aimee, her kids and Karl. And a good song.
I'm not really sure where I'm going with this....there are a lot of us hard-working NZ children's entertainers/song writers...making a lot of kids happy....some of us travel a lot, visit a lot of kids, do a lot of different and sometimes ODD (and difficult) gigs. Most of us are not even close to rich - we are lucky to be making a living. We all have some die-hard fans and we are all grateful for those people who come to our concerts, buy our music and let us know how much they love us! We all write very different songs, for different age groups.
I'm not sure a competition is the way to 'measure' our success...perhaps the kids' faces/smiles/laughter/dancing/happiness/singing and sometimes hugs is??
What do you think?
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