A few years ago, a client of mine told me about a shift that had occurred in their family with regards to holidays such as Christmas and birthdays. In other words, if it were an occasion where gifts would be given, it was time to reevaluate going through the motions and asking the recipient for their wish list.
The thinking here was that in just a few years, that person would already have forgotten who they got that blue sweater from. But, if a focus were instead put on experiences, memories would be created that would last, dare we say, a lifetime!
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Let me stop here to acknowledge that discretionary dollars aren’t what we’d all like them to be. Certainly, not everyone can afford to travel “because it would make so-and-so happy,” not to mention afford a plane ticket that’s being bought out of necessity. Yet still – and maybe it’s the pandemic that made us all more aware of our mortality – there DO seem to be more people deciding, “I’m just going to do it.”
It seems that more and more nowadays we’re hearing people around us talking about, “It might be a little pricey, but tomorrow’s not guaranteed. And as admirable as it is to work, work, work with an aim of really getting ahead in your career, you can’t take ‘it’ with you, mental health is so important, and, maybe it’s time to finally step outside your comfort zone and not put off that trip that you’d otherwise likely not do anytime soon, if ever!”
On last week’s episode of my weekly “Now Hear This Entertainment” podcast, New York City-based singer, songwriter, guitar player Dan Miraldi talked about an opportunity that came up to go perform in England. “I was like, you know, sometimes you just got to say yes to things, where I was like, yeah that's a cool story, that's, something like that sounds fun. And so, I said yes and then one by one my, the various band members told me their excuses of why they couldn't do it. And I was like okay, so I figured out a way to get over there.”
The story had an even happier ending because the event organizer who’d invited him (in New York) to go over to England in the first place, later came back around and talked further with Miraldi and this time it resulted in getting to perform in Denmark.
Let me repeat, I get it. I know that we don’t all have unlimited funds. But, if you can ditch the safe blue sweater idea and decide instead to pursue an experience, there just might be some career rewards in it for you on top of the good it will do for your mental health to get out of the same old routine and see someplace different, even if only for a little while.
If you’ve been reading my weekly e-newsletter then you know that I’m doing the 2024 NHTE Tour: Ten Years of Talkin’ Tunes, which celebrates my having hit (back in February) a decade of putting out a new episode of the podcast every week without missing once. So, guess what? I’m practicing what this week’s blog is preaching.
So far in 2024 I’ve been to San Francisco, Nashville, Las Vegas, Los Angeles, and Miami (not to mention brief stops in Fayetteville, Georgia, as well as both Melbourne and Daytona Beach, Florida). The day after tomorrow I head to Alabama. I also recently announced dates in late September in Los Angeles and early October in the Florida panhandle. Plus, at the start of December I’ll be back in Las Vegas. And there’s a couple other dates and places being finalized as well.
I love (love) Tampa Bay, but these tour stops allow me to get away and see people while hopefully mixing in opportunities to hit the mental reset button.
Here in Florida, they often publish articles on “one tank trips,” meaning, where you can go on a full tank of gas (keeping within our huge state). The point being, don’t feel you have to travel across states and time zones. Instead, look to see where you can go to hopefully get a little rest and relaxation, and sure, likely still work and/or do some networking while you’re there. You just might end up making some memories that you’ll hold onto for years and years to come.
For twenty years now I have been helping indie music artists, authors, actors, entrepreneurs, podcasters, filmmakers, small business owners, and more. What challenges are you having in your creator career that I can lend some insight to? Let’s have a ten-minute call so you can take advantage of all my experience, and I can help and keep you moving forward.