Crucial Success Skills Forged Through My Journey
Being an independent musician, has taught me a variety of skills, both creative and entrepreneurial. As an artist, I have learned that the skills around my core competency- singing, writing, and composing are the most crucial, and it has always been my endeavor to first and foremost keep the skills related to my voice updated and polished. However, due to the ever-changing nature of the audiences’ tastes and preferences, along with new developments in technology every few months, I’ve learned the art of focused work and pivoting- the ability to create a piece of art, invest my time and energy to develop it, and yet realize when it makes sense to pivot in another direction for my art’s benefit.
By not remaining blindly stuck to one idea, I have been able to understand audiences better and reach a much more varied group of ages and geographies. Independent musicians release music, promote music and perform at events without any major label or management machinery guiding or assisting them along the way. I have therefore learned to treat myself as my own startup, and along the way I’ve picked up entrepreneurial skills related to finances, planning, logistics, execution, delegation, reviews etc. I feel this has greatly contributed to my success, as now that I see myself scaling up each year, I know the basics of all aspects of the industry I operate in, and that leaves very little room for me to fail due to misinformation and prepares me to deal with changes and setbacks in a much more efficient way.
Crafting Creative Opportunities from Every Challenge
The Music Industry along with being creative, innovative, and high impact, is also highly unpredictable, constantly evolving, and unpredictable to a large extent. Coming from an organized corporate background, wherein I worked as a management consultant at McKinsey and Company for 2 years, one of the biggest adversities I’ve faced has been the fragile and precarious nature of what I have chosen to pursue my career in. There is no predictable ladder or path one can expect to follow, there are no defined roles or tasks, and no accountability to anyone but yourself. These conditions have evolved my principles in a very interesting manner. I approach my music career with a dedicated diligence. I have become much more process than result driven, as the results are very unpredictable and often reliant on forces outside me.
I have also prepared myself to be much more ready to take on any last-minute opportunities, as one never knows when these ‘breaks’ may come again and how profoundly they can impact your career path. However, what I have discovered most importantly is the value of resilience in a human being. Being hardworking, yet adaptable, accountable to oneself on tasks, yet leaving enough space for creativity, and giving one self’s best, yet realizing there is no set formula to success, has helped me show up every day and compound my everyday efforts into a successful career.
My Impact
The one place I feel the most aligned with myself and my purpose, is when I am performing for audiences, and I believe the area I impact the world the most in, is entertainment and bringing people’s emotions to the surface. Being able to move people through my voice, music and lyrics has been my biggest aim. Music is something we all turn to, to support our emotions. Hearing sad romantic songs when we’re low or dance songs when we want to express ourselves and shake off tension from our bodies is something we can all relate to. We rarely think of the musicians behind these pieces of music, who must thoughtfully draw from their own experiences and mix the perfect lyrics, melodies and rhythms to help others surface these same emotions.
Having performed over the years for a variety of events, audience sizes and age groups has really made me realize that people love for their feelings to be validated, they like to express their complex range of emotions and they like to move. From feedback and my continued work, I’m grateful to have realized that I have been able to help people process what they feel. Singing at a wedding for example and being able to tap into the right song and emotion that allows a bride and her parents to share a vulnerable moment or connecting friends and family of the couple to all come together and dance, is something I’m very thrilled I’m able to experience. Art in all its forms, may not provide people with a product or service that makes the lives of people more productive, but it definitely elevates the human experience and enables communities to live fuller lives.
Scaling New Heights in Personal and Professional Triumphs
I feel my benchmarks for success are two pronged- one set of benchmarks are number and goal driven, while the other set focuses more on quality and the feelings I’m left with at the end. I have grown up in a corporate family, where there was no intention for me to take up music as a career. So, all my life, I was taught to measure my success against numeric criteria like marks, accolades, salaries, bonuses, designations etc. Hence, I still also measure some aspects of my success using numbers. I try to avoid setting empty numbers as benchmarks but rather focus on the impact those numbers bring e.g. engagement metrics instead of followers, number of plays of a song, number of shows performed etc. I feel measuring these numbers does help me keep some order and direction in an otherwise very undefined line of work.
It helps me be realistic on the pulse of the audiences likes and dislikes and capitalize on my strengths while working harder in areas that need improvement. My second set of benchmarks are more related to the impact and emotion I am leaving people with. It is a newer benchmark I’ve set more myself and is developing more as I dive deeper into the world of creation. This set of benchmarks include the words of feedback I receive after someone hears my song or hears me live, the energy I can generate in a room with my music and the satisfaction I am left with after any of my creative pursuits. This is the benchmark that is very important to keep me going and serves as a very important tool to help inspiration.
The Synergy Between My Path and Recognition Values
The WAHStory Spotlight focuses on identifying individuals who’ve created impact in communities and are unique and powerful storytellers. I feel my journey through life has been very unlike the typical corporate or artist we know. I have attempted my best to bring the best of these two worlds I have experienced, towards becoming an all-rounded entertainer. I have taken charge of my path as an independent artist, learning all the ropes related to my industry, even those which are logistical in nature and far from the creative aspects.
Since the aim of music is to bring people together and evoke emotions, I have also devoted a large portion of my work to catering to audiences while staying true to the styles and languages of music that appeal to me. I have released and performed music related to a diverse range of emotions and have done so by not only drawing from my life experiences but by also observing people around me and helping them to express their stories and feelings via my voice. My unique story, hard and soft business skills, high aspirations and goals and a happiness to act as a voice for people via my singing are all what truly align me with the values and goals of this recognition.