|
About This Author
|
La Bene Vita
I am a professional musician  , worship leader , small business owner , songwriter , aspiring author and freelance nonfiction writer with a chemical engineering degree .
But that's just my resume.
My profile of qualifications is only one of the ways in which I am unique. Here I chronicle my personal and professional goals and my efforts to achieve them. Occasionally I fail. Mostly, I take daily baby steps toward all my long-term goals. Much like the stories I pen, the songs I compose, and the businesses I run, I am always a work in progress.
| |
Student Count = 270. We've enrolled a slew of students in the last two weeks.
That is all. |
| |
My friend is getting married this fall. I asked her to sing in my praise choir this past Easter, along with a host of other singers, and she agreed to do it. At some point, I told the whole group how happy I was that they all agreed to come together and lead worship for Easter. My friend announced something like, "I'm glad you think so, because I was going to ask you a favor in return." She said she hoped I would sing at her wedding.
Now, I normally charge $200 to sing at weddings. She's a friend, but not family or even a close friend. I'm thinking to myself, I would normally charge her. Is she hoping I'll do it for free? But at this point, I'm sort of bound, just because of the way she phrased it, and because she really did do me a favor (and though I see it more as serving the congregation and God, not me personally, I figure maybe my own service to the congregation and God is to return the favor and sing at this wedding.)
So she followed up this month to firm up the dates. Yesterday's emails went like this:
Friend: Are you still available? I need to let the DJ know if he's doing the wedding too or just reception.
Me (after confirming the date): I can do it. Just let me know what you're looking for.
Friend (after listing desired songs): I will pay whatever you normally charge...of course.
Me: That's no problem. I normally charge $200. Let me know if that's okay.
Friend: Absolutely!
* insert back-and-forth with song choices, logistics, wedding and rehearsal time discussion*
Then, this morning, 5AM:
Friend: I looked over our wedding budget last night. After paying a DJ $600...we can't really afford another $200 for music. :( thanks though.
Gah. So, do I offer her a discounted price? Offer to do it free? Was she hoping I would do it free in the first place? Why would she say she would pay whatever I normally charge and then decide she can't afford it. She could be one of those people who is legitimately really bad at budgeting, and maybe someone pointed out how that just wasn't going to work. Maybe she never really planned to spend the extra, but wanted to look responsible by offering to pay, all the while hoping I would offer to do it otherwise. Or maybe she just got the quote from the DJ and was shocked at how high it was. At this point, the easy out is to tell her okay and leave it at that. But I'm not sure if she has some expectation or is hoping for something more. I don't want to let her down, and I don't want a member of my church harboring negativity toward me. On the other hand, I don't want to set a precedent that I'll do all kinds of free stuff if you volunteer under me. I could be indebting my time for life, and I just don't have that much of it to give. I make next to no money, and although it obviously doesn't cost me anything to sing at an event, it's the one thing that earns me a decent income. I do have bills to pay.
So what would you do?? |
| |
We cleared 260 students again - finally - after finally clearing 250 again - at MTMS . So that's good. I also took care of the cash flow situation with a big, shiny bank deposit (granted, and a longer loan payback period), so my anxiety about running out of funds has decreased substantially. I've started to catch up on my to-do list, or, rather, I've stunted its growth, which also helps my anxiety. I've always been a summer girl, so I can't believe I'm saying this, but bring on fall, Baby.
Student count = 260.5.
I realize I've been absent from blogging and social media for the last month or two. That's because my life is a spiraling hurricane. Every once in awhile, I find myself sitting in the eye with a moment to breathe, only to find that the winds have swept away the dregs of my sanity, and I have no idea what I should be doing to take advantage of the lull. But like we say in Ohio: If you don't like the weather, just wait five minutes. Or play a video game. Or read a book. The storm shall return momentarily.
I've nearly completed Ghost Story, the last of the (published) Dresden files, not counting the short stories compiled in Side Jobs. Once I finish the series, I'll kick Jim Butcher in his lazy ass for not publishing more, and then I'll move on to The Chaperone by Laura Moriarty, which I am apparently reading with the book club I apparently joined. (I'm not sure how that happened.)
Still pending attorney intervention regarding Ohio Idol, but are the facts:
OI offered cash, food and parking for each judging day. MT accepted OI's offer and agreed to judge five days in exchange for said cash, food and parking. OI had some last-minute problems filling judge seats and asked MT for assistance. MT provided MTMS employee LL. Now that four out of five judging days have passed, and both MT and LL have judged four out of five judging days, OI claims that OI never agreed to pay for cash and parking (or food, apparently, since we weren't fed on Judging Day 4), and that we, rather, agreed to judge in exchange for a contact list. We have documented evidence to the contrary in the form of THREE SEPARATE EMAILS outlining the agreed-upon compensation for judging.
Another fun fact: We have documented evidence that OI originally said they expected 5,000 contestants, and we know (since we judged on Judging Day 1) that only 500 contestants competed. At $25 per head, OI is short 4,500 contestants from their initial projections, or $112,500.
Those are the facts and can in no way be construed as slander, but readers are of course encouraged to infer whatever they like from the facts as stated, because MT, MTMS, and Brandiwyn🎶Prep starts 10/1!  cannot be held accountable for the thoughts that go through readers heads (or happen to show up on her blog comments, which MT, MTMS, and Brandiwyn🎶Prep starts 10/1! neither endorses nor condemns.)
Because OI is throwing around (presumably, supposedly scary) words like "slander" and "attorney", we are minimizing how much information we report and keeping it to JUST THE FACTS, but we're really not scared. Because if OI could afford an attorney, he could afford to FUCKING PAY US THE MONEY HE OWES. Luckily, MT and MTMS are fully capable of affording an attorney and in fact already have one on retainer. And she's spitfire, so I'm very much looking forward to seeing this amateur put in his place at the bottom of the feeding trough.
Moving on.
........I can't remember what I was going to say. Or do. I think the winds are kicking up again. |
| |
Without going into too many specifics, while I wait for a scheduled conference call with my attorney, MTMS is no longer in any way affiliated with Ohio Idol. I am sure there will be more on THAT in a week or two.
I finished "Changes" - book, um, 12? in the Harry Dresden series.
Wow. |
| |
In bittersweet news, today ends the last MTMS summer camp of the year. On the one hand, we have less fun pictures, videos, and status updates to share on social media (which has been great for those arbitrary rankings on Klout and WebsiteGrader that don't mean anything to our actual sales volume.) On the other hand, the studio will be peaceful during the day, allowing our office staff to catch up on much-needed paperwork.
I freaking hate that word. Paperwork. Because it's so antiquated. We live in the digital age, people. Why do we have paperwork?
Also on the plus side, advertising and running summer camps stresses me out, because it's not what we do best. We run a damn good summer camp, but we aren't so great at filling them. That's okay, though. We're filling the studio with private music students, which IS what we do best. I think we're around 255 and climbing, but we're so behind on our "paperwork" that I can't be sure. 
I have pages and pages of emails in my inbox. I have a to-do folder an inch thick. I'm ready to feel on top of things again.
I keep saying I'm busy, but one problem is Harry Dresden. No, seriously. I can't put the flippin' books down. I'm on number... 11? 12? It's called Turn Coat, and I'm at 95%. I'll finish it and immediately pick up the next book. I don't know what I'll do with myself when I catch up with the author and run out of books to read, but it might involve paperwork. |
| |
...and it's not just my hard drive.
I had a vacation last week, so you would think I'd be refreshed. I'm not. I'm going through the motions. Our student count has been depressing, but today we're "up" to 253 after a whopping 14 enrollments (8 private lesson and 6 samplers) on Monday alone. Maybe we're out of the woods. Maybe we aren't. I'm in a holding pattern. Waiting to see what happens next. Frozen.
Meanwhile, I have projects: two websites (MTMS and church) in the pipeline for renovation; one website (local food pantry) for implementation; paperless timekeeping at work, among other paperless transitions; electronics upgrades and replacements; and, I suppose, the usual writing endeavors. All of this on top of judging for Ohio Idol (which gets less and less fun each round), performing at an increasing number of venues this summer, and managing my employees.
I bought an expensive pink Dell laptop maybe five years ago. After three hard drives and two motherboards, Dell finally agreed that the unit was a lemon (later proven by the class action suit against the video card manufacturer). I got a replacement Dell "of equal or greater value," which, to my dismay, was at least twice as big and heavy and refused to fit into any cute laptop purse I could find. It was also black instead of the pink I'd specifically purchased, and it did not include software I'd purchased. But it did okay and lasted another two years or so. Then the WiFi card started to fail, and the computer politely declined to stay online. I purchased a used HP Pavilion Entertainment laptop less than a year ago, and now Windows has warned me of "imminent failure" of the hard drive.
Frozen laptops don't help my waning momentum. I feel like I need a Win. |
| |
I've been reading an e-book with author advice from one of Penelope's Facebook friends (The Writer's Adventure Guide: 12 Stages to Writing Your Book . It's okay, as far as advice goes, but not particularly well-written or engaging, so I'm glad I snagged it when it was free. It reads like a giant checklist. I will admit that I agree with the section about branding, and it got me thinking about my brand. I'm doing a great job of branding myself as a musician, educator, kid-friendly personality, and entrepreneur. I'm not sure how "writer" will fit into the mix, unless I'm sticking to the existing brand, which means I can write about music, education, kid-friendly stuff, or small business. And everything I've read (and agree with) about launching a writing career (read: writing "business") suggests you should find a niche and stick to it. You want to build a reader base who loves not only your books, but you, the author. They love you when they come to expect certain things of you. Since I already have a brand that I've worked hard to cultivate, it makes sense that I should stick to that brand, if I'm going to use my stage name as my pen name. And it makes sense to use my stage name as my pen name, because I've already worked so hard to cultivate the brand. Why start from scratch?
I'm mulling all that over. I need to evaluate the projects in the pipeline and see where they fit the brand. If they don't, they're out (or, saved for a different brand - i.e., a different pen name - though "out" is more likely, since I doubt I have the energy to brand two different pen names.)
Whatever I decide about writing, I need to keep working on the existing brand to build the music school business. It's funny, but when I petitioned to get support for the Chase grant, my Facebook fans, Klout score, and Twitter followers unexpectedly skyrocketed. The "votes" campaign took a lot of energy on my part, and I probably rubbed some people the wrong way with my begging. It's such a fine balance, branding.
Meanwhile, our student count at MTMS SUCKS, our cash flow SUCKS, and we owe a shitload of quarterly taxes that date back to our initial volume drop in April and May. I thought we were out of the woods on the spring exodus, but I forgot about accumulated taxes. Stupid taxes. Luckily, I have a flexible line of credit, because I'm going to need to borrow to get through this month. So here's hoping we're out of the woods until next April, and that I can come up with a game plan to anticipate this problem NEXT April before it happens. Because if this is a permanent we've-passed-the-honeymoon-phase slump, and not just a spring-and-summer-in-the-music-lessons-industry slump, then I may have a serious problem.
September will tell us whether we're opening campus #2 or struggling to pay the bills in campus #1 next fall.
All of that makes it hard to think about a writing career. Not that I'm supposed to be thinking of a writing career. I'm supposed to be waiting until "retirement" to do that. But I don't like that plan, because when you stop doing something, you lose the skill. If I stop writing, I'll have to spend time building up the skill set again before I could do anything useful with it. I'd like to be practicing now. I stopped playing six days a week at Potbelly, and now my music performance set list has decreased from probably 20 hours of music to maybe 5 hours of music, and my fingers hurt if I play two days in a row. It takes practice, and so does writing.
I never thought I'd ever say this in the summer, but c'mon, September. I need to know where you're taking me. |
| |
My favorite Dresden quote to date:
"Likest thou jelly within thy doughnut?"
"Nay, but prithee, with sprinkles 'pon it instead, and frosting of white."
Brwahhhhhh-hahahahahahahahahahahahaha! I freaking love Jim Butcher. |
| |
I'll be spending most of it at home, because the campsite has no electricity. Even at home, we lost and recovered power twice since Friday, and many in our community still don't have it back since they originally lost it Friday. Lucky MTMS is closed for break this week, or we would be filing a business interruption claim with our insurance company.
Parents arrive today. I may be scarce this week. I plan to spend the time with my family and my Kindle. |
© Copyright 2025 Brandiwyn🎶Prep starts 10/1! (UN: tuozzo at Writing.Com). All rights reserved.
Brandiwyn🎶Prep starts 10/1! has granted InkSpot.Com, its affiliates and its syndicates non-exclusive rights to display this work.
|
Even better if she can whistle to the tune of Mozart or something. 
Comment • View 2 comments ![Merit Badge in Music
[Click For More Info]
To a dear friend whose talent for writing music is sensational. May you have a fabulous New Year, (((Brandi)))!!! *^*Kiss*^*
Big hugs,
Sherri *^*Heart*^*](https://images.Writing.Com/imgs/writing.com/writers/badges/genre-Music-1050.gif)
![Merit Badge in Organization
[Click For More Info]
I don't know how you do it, but I assume there's magic involved *^*Bigsmile*^* I have really enjoyed this month of planning and preparation for NaNoWriMo and I love how organized it all is. Thank you for hosting a great challenge and for your dedication to helping so many of us prepare with confidence and trepidation for National Novel Writing Month (known to sane folks as 'November' *^*Laugh*^*) at your [Link To Item #1474311]](https://images.Writing.Com/imgs/writing.com/writers/badges/general-Organization-1150.gif)
![Merit Badge in Leadership
[Click For More Info]
For your hard work, commitment, talent and innovation in running the October NaNoWriMo Preparation each year, which helps many of us get our scattered thoughts together for November's novel-writing. And also because this badge has ducks on it.](https://images.Writing.Com/imgs/writing.com/writers/badges/general-Leadership.gif)
