Kern Carter's Blog, page 148

Choose: Money or Passion

Choosing from a different perspective.

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Sacrificing money for love buys the chance to create a unique life

At the end of the interview my future boss dropped the salary figure. “Sounds good, I was expecting a lot less than that,” I naively blurted out. Terrible negotiation skills aside, it meant a chance at something I loved. When the offer came the money was tiny. Well below the London living wage. Financially it was a struggle but the job eventually led to me becoming my own boss.

After four years of stretching myself between 4 jobs I hit the figure in the interview. It was another eight before I was no longer living hand to mouth. Broke for nearly a decade, all the time I was building resilience. I was on my own path.

I soon realized that to get anywhere once you trade money for love, you have to be fully immersed. It’s tough. 10 years on and earning my freedom was worth each small sacrifice along the way.

The job was curation rather than creation — global booking agent for international DJs. With zero experience I had to create a life and a personal brand for myself to match the role.

Passion trumps technical shortcomings if you keep your aim in sight

Hard-nosed negotiation and an eye for figures was never my strong point. The first lesson was harsh and invaluable. Fortunately passion for music and some lucky breaks glossed over my technical shortcomings.

In any building process you live and die by your choices. There are setbacks. To survive you must have conviction or bloody-minded stubbornness. A healthy blend of optimism and naivety helps. I didn’t have a big picture plan. I just followed a feeling.

I’ve rarely compromised my integrity with the people I worked with. When I did it never worked. They knew, I knew. Creativity needs a spark. Money is not a spark. Nurturing a project and watching it grow gets me up every morning. Or in the DJ world, into bed early in the morning .

My task was to source the shows a handful of talented bedroom producers needed to build their careers and resultantly mine. This didn’t happen over night so I had to get creative to make ends meet. Like me, these guys were intent on scraping a living from underground dance music. From middle-class-home-counties-kids to veteran Detroiters in their 40s. Their fellowship let me vicariously live my creative dream.

Focusing on a small niche can widen your horizons

With intense focus on the tiny niche of electronic music where our passions lay, we were able to thrive. I specialised while honing my business skills. I could convince promoters to book my guys. Each booking was a small victory. My team grew with me. Those that matched my effort thrived, those that didn’t fell away.

I was usually closer to the breadline than them but they never knew. Keeping up appearances was a creative venture itself. These guys were living hand to mouth too. Usually a £50 fee raise I secured meant they could come back for the next tour. For many years it was a miracle If I had £50 left at the end of the month from my pay check.

Despite the job satisfaction, my meager salary left me feeling I was missing out compared to my friends. I built resilience yet yearned for more, especially travel. I would later be able to make up for this but didn’t know that then. I just stuck to the task in hand.

Adversity creates resilience but a siege mentality can be toxic

The hunger for the status I attached to doing this has left deep scars in my mental health. A dark energy fuelled me against adversity, shrinking my world at times into a daily struggle. Hard times in London bond you to the city. You feel important but also anonymous.

At my worst I was in the trenches with my guys 24/7. I was too immersed. Never present and always in my head scheming. I would stop in a gallery to note a new strategy for one artist. Or turn away from my girlfriend and a sea view to capture the next grand plan before the thought escaped me.

After many years of hard graft I got the payoff. 2018 and 2019 were a whirlwind of flights, hotels, mega cities, wonders, mountains, lakes and so much more. I’m still processing my privilege. The lifestyle I built had almost no restrictions. I was able to close deals in the Alps, network on the Nile, co-work in Delhi. I’m also now able to address my mental health issues.

Late in 2019, I had decided to cut back the travel and save for a house of my own, an investment to build my future around. Planning a frugal 2020 I had expected by this coming December to be making a serious dent in that. I was reaching my peak and planning my next move.

Money buys you security but exploring your passion builds character. Being broke does not allow for a comfort zone. 10 years on from that interview I was nearly secure. Strong, yet still hungry, still curious. Now in COVID times I am calling on that resilience to adapt and thrive in the current moment.

Sacrificing money for love buys the chance to create a unique life was originally published in C.R.Y on Medium, where people are continuing the conversation by highlighting and responding to this story.

Yes.And!

Should We Choose Art or Money?

Embracing the all (Photo Zev Mair)

I don’t accept that poverty and art must of necessity be linked. This is an assumption imposed on artists by a culture that consumes us and yet does not want to value what we produce.

I prefer to think of the What If’s. What if, like Personal Support Workers, grocery store clerks whose value is suddenly noted during the time of COVID 19, artists could have their value noted and be compensated accordingly? What if we could all breathe freely, doing what we need to do?

Embedded in our culture is the concept that we forget about thriving financially as an artists. We could just learn to eat less frequently.

I’m not buying it.

***

There is a wonderful Trinidadian term — scrunting — just getting by, scraping the bottom of the barrel. I did that for years — all of my energies were devoted almost exclusively to earning a living, doing mind-numbing administrative work.

During this time, a friend threw me a lifeline. She’s started an online magazine. She knew that I could write and yet was barely hanging on to my creative impulses. She gave me assignments — concerts and albums to reviews, musicians and dancers to interview, topics to think about. She gave me deadlines — one per month.

And so, some evenings, after my daughter was asleep, I would sit at an old desktop in a corner of the condo that I’d bought — a critical purchase that allowed me to give her a stable place to live, no longer moving at the whims of landlords. I’d write and then print out my articles. The next morning, during my 1.5 hour public transit commute to my job, I’d put paper to pen and edit them.

I wrote for free. The payoff was the re-connection with myself, knowing that I still had the artistic impulse and ability. I knew that my art had value and that one day soon, I would be paid again for my work.

***

Years ago, I took an improv class where I learned the term “Yes. And.” Someone throws you an idea, a word or a gesture and you have two options. You can acknowledge it, take it in and respond to it in some way. This will help to create a narrative of some kind with — if you’re lucky or just skilled at improvisation — a very funny ending. The alternative is to say,” No. But.” i.e. I don’t like your idea. I’m going to re-start this conversation. I’m not following the arc of this narrative or gesture. I turn away from it. The story stops there.

At this point in my life, I have the opportunity to turn my attentions back to art. I do not accept that the artist’s way must be definition include poverty. I plan to thrive. What does that look like? I’m not certain.

I do know that “Yes. And.” is the story that I prefer to entertain. That we can be both one thing and another thing. I embody, explore and am inspired by the ongoing process of making art. I also embrace the opportunity to live abundantly and well.

Yes.And! was originally published in C.R.Y on Medium, where people are continuing the conversation by highlighting and responding to this story.

Writers — You’ll have to make peace with this if you want to make money

When I first made the decision that I wanted to write for a living, I had no idea what that meant. I initially thought I could just write books and that would be that. Sometimes I miss those days of complete naivete.

The reality was that if I wanted to make money as a writer, enough money to make a living, I would have to write things I didn’t necessarily like. I would have to learn different types of writing that I didn’t even recognize was a thing until I started educating myself.

I sum all of this up in an article titled “To make money writing, you have to make concessions.”

Read it below and let me know what you think:

TO MAKE MONEY WRITING, YOU HAVE TO MAKE CONCESSIONS

CRY

Writers — You’ll have to make peace with this if you want to make money was originally published in C.R.Y on Medium, where people are continuing the conversation by highlighting and responding to this story.

This caseworker got creative to inspire youth during quarantine

Breanna Chanelle Phillip wasn’t going to let quarantine stop her from engaging the youth she works with. So she bought some paint supplies, dropped them at the front doors of the youth that are involved in her program, and added another small surprise to what became an evening of creative expression.

My favourite part of the interview:

“At the beginning, the youth hadn’t even wet their brushes yet and they’re thinking of what it’s going to look like at the end. I’m like no, let’s go through the process.”

Let’s get to the full interview!

CRY: Before the quarantine happened, what would be a typical day for you at work?

Breanna

I work at an organization called For Youth Initiatives and I’m the Black Youth Case Lead. So my position is basically around ensuring that the organization has programs and services that are geared towards cultural safety for Black youth and ensuring that there are programs that help them to discover and express their identity.

For me, specifically, something big was not only identity in regards to blackness, but diversity within blackness. I find that a lot of times there are programs that are like, it’s for Black youth and I’m just like, which Black? So for me, it was really big to ensure that when we’re speaking about blackness, we’re not speaking about one monolithic existence.

CRY: What was going through your head when you came up with that idea for a virtual paint night?

Breanna

Obviously because of the time we’re living in, wanting to kind of give them something else to do. A lot of [the youth]have complained about being bored and not being able to go outside, so I was trying to find something that we could do that would switch things up for them a little bit. So I ended up hiring an amazing visual artist, Samantha Dennis, went out and purchased the paint supplies, put them in little bags and did door drop-offs at the youth’s houses. I also purchased Uber Eats gift cards, so it was kinda like we were eating and painting at the same time.

CRY: What do you think the youth got out of it?

Breanna

I think it’s a matter of trying something even if it’s scary. Like it’s very easy to do what you’re good at, but you don’t know if you can do more if you don’t try more. That was one thing. Also not focusing too much on the end result and focusing more on the process. At the beginning, the youth hadn’t even wet their brushes yet and they were thinking of what it’s going to look like at the end. I’m like no, let’s go through the process.

You can keep up with Breanna on her Instagram page @breannachanelle_

CRY

This caseworker got creative to inspire youth during quarantine was originally published in C.R.Y on Medium, where people are continuing the conversation by highlighting and responding to this story.

New Trend Alert — Is streaming art the new thing?

When we think of streaming, music and movies are probably the first thing that comes to mind. But streaming in the art world is getting some attention, likely because of the restrictions on gathering caused by the pandemic.

Streaming art is different than virtual tours or online platforms that simply display art pieces. The experience isn’t static. Its focus is mixed media pieces which are much more dynamic and almost interactive, so as a viewer you are more immersed in the experience of how that piece was created and what it symbolizes. It’s even possible to create your own “playlists.”

Like streaming platforms in other industries, art streaming platforms charge a monthly fee to use their service. Your monthly subscription gets you access to stream and download art, as well as purchase pieces directly from the platform.

The way artists make money is through being commissioned by these platforms — like Daata and TRANSFER to name a few— to include their art on the platform.

What do you think? Does streaming art make sense? More importantly, does it help artists better earn a living?

CRY

PREVIOUS LETTERSDo you want to earn money as a ghostwriter?What publishers in India are predicting about a post-pandemic industryFreelance writers — this is for you

Follow CRY on Instagram @wecrydeep

New Trend Alert — Is streaming art the new thing? was originally published in C.R.Y on Medium, where people are continuing the conversation by highlighting and responding to this story.

Call for submissions — love or money? As a creative, how do you balance them both

It feels inevitable that the struggle for creatives is always love or money, passion or paper. We go into our respective art, fair or unfair, with the understanding that earning a living is not likely. I can’t think of too many industries that have the same expectation.

For this submission request, we want you to talk about it. How do you balance your passion for your art with the real-life need to earn a living? Do you accept the fact that you may not earn much money? Or do you rebel and push your hardest to make a career out of your creative endeavour? Maybe you have a story where you literally had to make a decision and prioritize one over the other or sacrificed your creativity for a cheque. Either way, we want to hear about it.

Same submission rules apply:

If you’re already a writer for CRY, you know how this goes. Go ahead and submit.If you want to be a writer for CRY and submit to this request, let us know and we’ll add you to the team.Deadline for this prompt is next Friday, May 29Not all submissions will be posted. If you haven’t heard back from us in three days, assume that we’ve passed on your story.

We’re looking forward to reading your submissions. If you have more questions, don’t hesitate to reach out.

CRY

Call for submissions — love or money? As a creative, how do you balance them both was originally published in C.R.Y on Medium, where people are continuing the conversation by highlighting and responding to this story.

Do you want to earn money as a ghostwriter?

I’ve been writing full time now for about seven years. That means seven years with no other side job. I can write a full post about how I’ve managed to make this happen, but there’s one thing that has helped stabilize my income more than anything: ghostwriting.

Ghostwriting takes different forms. You can ghostwrite articles, speeches, social media posts — but what I really get excited about is ghostwriting books. That’s where I’ve made the largest cheques and had the most fun doing it.

If you want to learn more about what it takes to be a ghostwriter, I outline my steps in this post:

SO YOU WANT TO BE A GHOSTWRITER?

Check it out and let me know if you have any questions. I’ll be glad to share more of what I know.

CRY

Do you want to earn money as a ghostwriter? was originally published in C.R.Y on Medium, where people are continuing the conversation by highlighting and responding to this story.

Accepting I’m not the exception — a humbling rant of self-reflection for all writers

My worst enemy is my expectations.

Continue reading on C.R.Y »

CRY is looking for writers to take part in our global project

CRY is beginning a global exploration of the creative scenes around the world. We want to know about the creative atmosphere in different regions — what’s exciting, what does it need more of, how it's staying alive during these times.

We’re starting off slow, so if you’re a writer from one these three places and would like to be part of this project, send us a message:

South AfricaNew YorkLondon

Please don’t hesitate to raise your hand. We’ll give more details once we connect.

CRY

CRY is looking for writers to take part in our global project was originally published in C.R.Y on Medium, where people are continuing the conversation by highlighting and responding to this story.