Archive for category: Podcast

Are credit cards something you can use strategically to gain rewards, and maybe even treat-yo-self. Or, are they enabling poor spending choices, and a increasing your debt. What I learned from our conversation is that there benefits from both approaches, meaning if you can use a credit card to pay for life expenses you HAVE to pay for regardless. You can build up some nice rewards and your credit score as well, if you are paying it completely off before being charged interest.

Even though I have been cautious about using credit cards because of the disconnect between buying things, and having to pay for them later. And that slippery slope of immediate gratification. I think Greg and I both agree that whatever route you go with, you still need to be very careful about how you spend money, and choose a system that works for you.

As a freelance musician, we have a limited amount of income we can make from just performing. And most of us know this when we signed up for it. The freedom, independence, and creative lifestyle are usually worth the trade off. But, that doesn’t mean that we are immune to the feelings of wanting more of the nice things that everybody else has.

In our last episode, we talked about some ways you could make more money, and today we look at how we can save money without ending up in a crying ball on the floor because we’re only eating rice and beans. Robert Kiyosaki said it best, “it’s not about how much money you make, but how much money you keep.”

The creative lifestyle has many ups and downs-it’s anything but typical. After a big recital, an audition, or completion of any big project, we usually need some time to rest from the insanity that the performance created. But what happens next, is what we’re interested in for this episode. How do we recover from the down time, and get back to work.

Some thought provoking conversation coming up…the battle between motivation and discipline, the force of Resistance, and tuning out or maybe giving into the call of Netflix (that beautiful song of the siren)

We started this podcast because being a classical musician is a difficult profession. David Oistrakh said the stage is one of the loneliest places on earth. I think what he was expressing was how few people understand the demands, sacrifice, and service that being a musician takes.

And during this time of year..this most wonderfully busy time of year, where it’s pretty normal to have 3 or 4 services a day, you most likely only have time to say hi and goodbye to the other musicians at your gig before racing out the door to get to the next one.

So we believe that sitting down and talking with other musicians can be incredibly encouraging and inspiring….most of the time. This might not be one of those times.