Day 27: Art vs Promotion + a Giveaway

To make a career out of making art you have to also market yourself. This doesn't come naturally to me. Well, the marketing myself part doesn't. I love to talk up other people and I'm pretty decent with coming up with ideas for marketing too. But, self-promotion...ugh. It's hard for me. I don't really like much attention on me. I LOVE when people resonate with my music and I love when someone loves my music - it does my soul well. But, talking myself up drains my soul and energy and everything.
I know this may seem weird since I write a life-style blog and I'm on day 27 of writing about my record. But, trust me... the whole writing about myself doesn't come naturally to me. If you had asked me two years ago if I would write about my music for 31 days straight I would have laughed in your face. I have learned to do this because it feels like a safe place to self-promote. I can write it completely alone and hit publish and pretend that no one reads it, even though I know a few do.
I know that when someone compliments me in person I should give them a handbill for my next show, and most of the time I do now. But, it still feels soooo uncomfortable EVERY TIME! Sometimes I can convince myself that self-promoting will ruin my art, that I'll be constantly writing songs just to make money. I can easily make myself feel like a sell-out if I'm talking about myself. But it's just not true.
If I really want to create a career of my art, I have to self-promote. Even if I hired someone else to do the brunt of the work, I would still need to do it. That doesn't mean I'm a sell-out, it means I'm a hard worker and that I also believe in what I'm doing. It doesn't mean that I'm just writing songs to make money, trust me, if I was I would be singing a lot more happy songs then. The truth is, I trust myself when it comes to creating art. I trust my motivations.
So, if you can image this month has been hard for me. I would give you my favorite guitar just to write a post full of etsy shops I think you should know about. And you can bet that first week of November you will see one of those. Anyway, this has been a challenging experiment for me, and we still have a little less than a week to go. I'm making it and although I may be a little emotionally drained from all the me-talk, I just keep reminding myself that all these posts help me live out my dreams, that it's not a Art vs Promotion thing it's a Promotion so that Art can happen thing.
Speaking of self-promotion I'm talking about myself on the radio today... you can listen to one I did the other day today during the 12noon hour on WSGE 91.7 in Dallas, NC or you can stream it live online HERE
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Today's Giveaway is hosted by my friend, and amazing author, Emily Freeman.

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I met her a few years ago through her sister, The Nester. My favorite memory of Emily is seeing her being lifted in the air by some friends during some silly game. Her facial expression will forever be one of my favorite memories of her. Makes me smile just thinking about it! Anyway, the lovely Emily is giving away a copy of my record on her blog today, so go check it out HERE!