If you’re an independent artist, you know how exhausting it can be to handle all your music marketing alone—spending countless hours glued to a screen, crafting strategies and promotional material that may or may not even work.
I picked up a guitar and started writing music at 16. Now, 38 years later, at 54, I’m still writing, still creating, and my passion hasn’t wavered. Despite the negativity, snide remarks, and judgment from others about my career choices, I continue doing what I love. People love to say, “Follow your dreams,” but often, they mean as long as those dreams align with their expectations. If I had listened to the countless negative comments over the years, I would have quit long ago. But “quitting” was never an option—there’s nothing to quit when what I do is an inseparable part of who I am. My music fulfills me in a way that many people spend their lives searching for.
I see so many people bouncing from whim to whim, fad to fad, trying to find meaning and satisfaction—only to end up with more material things and wasted time. It’s mind-boggling when those same people judge my choices while they remain lost in their search. And it’s almost comical when they label my efforts as “failures” while they settle for a job they dislike, only to come home, zone out in front of a TV, and scroll mindlessly on their phone until they fall asleep in a recliner.
While I do find it amusing in a “human nature is strange” kind of way, I also feel empathy for them. Their insults are often just projections of their own dissatisfaction. It seems to bother some people when they see how much fun I’m having in my musical journey, and their response is to try and tear me down.
Coffee & a Playlist 