The Year 2006 Was My Bridge To Financial Stability
Every year when I submit my taxes, I document the total amount I made in the year prior on a spreadsheet. I have been doing this since 2002 and it is always fascinating to look at the comparison of my…
This is the biggest challenge artists face when bringing their art into the world
For the past 20 years, I have noticed a common theme amongst artists who launch a concert series, ensemble, or organization. Out of the gate, they undervalue the cost of bringing their art into the world. I regularly meet with…
Ten Questions To Help You Analyze Your Work Routine
Over the course of my career, I have spent hours painstakingly analyzing my daily practice routine on bassoon to maximize the outcome of my work in the studio. This begs the question…. WHY HAVEN’T I DONE THE SAME THING WITH…
My Journey With Performance Anxiety
When I was in seventh grade, I performed the second movement of the Mozart Bassoon Concerto at my local Solo & Ensemble festival. On that cold February morning, I remember sitting in the warmup room feeling uneasy about my fate.…
Here are 20 bits of advice I wish I had been given the day I graduated!
It’s graduation season! I remember the day I graduated from college as a moment of great joy, excitement, and optimism. and yet…. Despite all the wonderful training I received, I was woefully unprepared to navigate the next few years of…
5 Tips To Help You Tackle Work Outside the Studio Walls
Musicians spend a lifetime working on the perfect practice routine and yet… They rarely have a plan for how they will budget their time outside the studio walls. The most successful musicians I know have figured out how to strike…
One Valley I Hope To Never Revisit
At one point early in my career, I was a finalist for seven collegiate teaching positions in one fall hiring cycle. I do not wear this fact as a badge of honor…. The first five places didn’t want me. Five…
4 Questions I Ask Myself To Avoid Burnout
So many classical musicians I know are burned out, and yet… Very few of them have a plan to fix the problem. One big way to fix burnout is to stop saying yes to every work opportunity that comes your…
These 10 Things Will Help You Define Your Own Path Toward A Meaningful Life And Career
I’ve spent my career helping Classical Musicians find success, and I still don’t know everything….. But I do know these 10 things will help you define your own path toward a meaningful life and career: 1. Believe in your path.Classical Musicians…
12-Year-Old Nate Dares Classical Musicians To Do The Following Six Things
The 12-year-old version of me (in the cover photo, ha) saw my post about Universal Truths for Classical Musicians yesterday and challenged me to a game of Truth or Dare. 12-year-old Nate dares you to do the following six things:…
Here Are 20 Universal Truths About Being A Classical Musician
A lot of classically trained musicians don’t want to hear what I’m about to say, but…. There are 20 universal truths musicians must adopt in order to have a successful career in the year 2023. 1. TRUTH: It will take…
How To Achieve Work/Life Integration
I am so tired of the words work/life balance! Those words imply that my work and my life are not mutually exclusive things that I do. Using the words in that way also suggests that there is somehow the possibility…
My Advice On Self-Promotion For Musicians
As someone whose job it is to regularly work with the next generation of great musicians to help them build a thriving, sustainable career, I am constantly thinking about ways to help emerging artists thrive. One way to channel the…
Why Every Musician Should Have A Personal Website
Why Do You Need A Website? When a concert attendee sees you walk out on stage and wants to learn more about you, the first thing they do is pull out their phones and Google you. Would you rather have…
Here is my advice for creatives interested in launching a non-profit organization
Nine out of ten times when a creative comes to me with a new project idea, they want to set it up as a non-profit organization. While I appreciate the energy and focus that comes when someone launches their own…
How to start small, maximize your impact, and add one line to your resume
There are three small, tactical things creatives can do right now to build a sustainable career. Pursuing any combination of the three areas above will help creatives pave a path to a vibrant career. Today, I want to talk about…
Here is my step-by-step process to help you get serious about building your online presence
Most creatives I know don’t think about building an online presence as a way to build community. Building community online has immense potential because it allows you to dramatically extend your reach beyond your real-world community. With a few basic skills…
How showing up on Clubhouse got me to SXSW
I have long held the belief that simply showing up accounts for about 80% of my success. Showing up, being curious, and listening louder than I speak has always opened doors that enabled me to take the next steps in my career. …
Stop Letting Time Confetti Ruin Your Day
Some days I get pulled in so many different directions, I don’t do anything well. When I multitask, I can’t focus, I get stressed out, and it often takes me longer to accomplish a task than if I had been…
Read this before you search for your next job
50.5 million people left their jobs for something else in 2022. I suspect that most of them took the leap because the job they had did not bring meaning to their lives. The average person will spend over 90,000 hours…
Will becoming a content creator allow you to follow your passions?
Musicians are often told that if they simply “Follow their passions,” they will find ultimate life and career success. For a select few, simply following their passions will get them to where they want to go. The other 99% of us…
How To Find Some Healthy Alone Time
I’m a pretty outgoing person and enjoy the company of others. Until recently, I assumed that meant I was an extrovert. Then, I took the Myers-Briggs Test, and one of the questions went something like this: “Are you energized by large…
How To Jumpstart Your Creative Career
In 2014, I wrote about 5 ways college students can jumpstart their careers in the arts and it is, by far, the most-read article I’ve ever written. The post is filled with evergreen content that is as relevant today as it was…
How I Stopped Letting Email Ruin My Life
Email is probably the single biggest thing that keeps me from achieving my long-term goals. Responding to email is like some kind of warped video game. I often feel that if I can get my inbox down to zero I…
Musicians Know How To Play The Long Game
Musicians know how to play the long game. Their deep pursuit of perfection and bringing beautiful things into the world puts them on the relentless path of trying to attain the unattainable. Their hero’s journey is one of many ups…
Three Steps To Help You Take The Day As It Comes
At my core, I am a take the day as it comes kind of guy. I hate to-do lists, and for a long time, I didn’t even really keep a calendar. Living my life that way gave me a sense of creative…
Read This Before You Launch A Non-Profit Organization
For some reason, non-profit organizations are still the go-to plan for aspiring creatives seeking to make a difference in the world. I can appreciate a good non-profit org, and this post feels a little hypocritical as I have been working…
Five Tips To Help You Avoid Burnout
Burnout is a real thing, especially for creatives! The combination of a high, irregular workload, constant pressure to create at the highest level, and financial instability associated with the work, makes creatives incredibly susceptible to being over-extended. Author Anne Hellen Anderson recently wrote…
Read This Before You Go To Your Next Networking Event
One of the great modern mysteries for emerging artists is understanding how to network. Networking is only difficult if you treat it as a separate activity from simply living your life and being curious about others. Here are five tips…
Does Being A Musician Put You On A Path To Being Miserable?
Not all musicians are miserable. However, all the miserable musicians I know have at least two (or more) of the following things in common: If two or more of the above areas are making you a miserable musician, take the…
Here Is How (And Why) Musicians Should Build An Online Community
For eight years between 2011-2019, I had a regular writing practice. For several days each month, I began my day writing. When I finished, I posted my thoughts on my blog. The problem was that I didn’t really tell anyone…
30 One-Sentence Financial Stability Tips For Creatives
Finding financial stability can be a game-changer. Here are 30 one-sentence tips (with links) to help you take the steps necessary to find stability and build a longer financial runway to create. Here’s How I Help Musicians Find Financial Stability. …
How To Build Up An Emergency Fund
When I was 28 I had an absurd amount of debt. For years I struggled to get ahead. I got to that point because I spent most of my 20s investing in myself and my career. I took out a…
A Quick Tip To Help You Find Work Stability
Here is a quick tip on how to find work stability. Know your industry. Read and be curious about what is trending in the professional world where you would like to work. This is the optimal time to become an…
How To Adopt A Practice Of Digital Minimalism
Digital Minimalism is a philosophy of technology use in which you focus your online time on a small number of carefully selected and optimized activities that strongly support things you value, and then happily miss out on everything else. ―…
How To Use Opportunity Blocks To Tackle Your Biggest Life And Career Challenges
I am often overstretched, which means I have to make difficult decisions about how to spend my time. The problem is that when I don’t give myself time for what I call an opportunity block each day, nothing goes particularly well. Opportunity…
46 Tips For Creatives I Learned in 46 Years
I turned 46 last week and celebrated my birthday with family and friends. On the day of my birthday, I jotted down some ideas that have helped me get to this point in life and I thought I would share…
This Is How I Tackle Financial Risk
Risk is the four-letter word creatives would rather not mention out loud. The path of a creative comes with a lot of financial risk and it can take years to build a foundation that allows them to truly feel like…
How To Track Your Income And Build Financial Stability
Financial experts often recommend that you simply save your way to financial stability. But saving is only part of the work. Your career also depends on your ability to track your income. As creatives or anyone in the creator…
When it comes to building consistent habits, creatives are built different.
For creatives, the pursuit of perfection in their craft is ultimately the pursuit of something that is unattainable. That makes for an interesting mindset when it comes to building habits. Most people develop consistent habits in pursuit of a goal. …
How to build a values-based community engagement strategy
On the left is a photo of me at age 3, one year into playing violin. On the right is my 3-year-old daughter after one of her first dance classes. I use these photos to guide me when I build…
Is Having Work-Life Balance A Path To Mediocrity?
In this week’s edition of “write what scares you,” I want to talk about this tweet. When I work with 20-somethings, lack of work-life balance is always at the top of the list when it comes to things that need…
I’m The Worst At Self-Compassion
Self-compassion is hard for me. Once or twice a month I lay in bed hours after I had hoped to fall asleep, replaying a moment from the day I desperately wanted to go differently. I am brutal on myself. It…
The Creator Economy Is A Gamechanger
There has never been a better time for creatives to be alive. Less than ten years ago, creatives had to be discovered by someone in their field and identified as talented in order to have a shot at making it…
The Mind-Blowing Thought Of Productive Procrastination
What if….and hear me out…. Procrastinators are simply experts at prioritizing the most important item on their to-do list at the expense of things that can be put off until later? There’s a name for people like this. They’re called…
How I Help Creatives Find Financial Stability
Here’s a question that came from one of my readers: As an artist 6 years into my career, I am making things work both financially and artistically, but I continue to be interested in finding creative work that allows me…
It’s Ok To Be Average (Sometimes)
As a Creative, one of the biggest challenges I face is that I want everything I do to be perfect. The best. Better than everyone else. Anything but average. This is a learned experience from my time in the studio…
Five Reasons Creatives Should Build In Public
For over three years, I worked on my book in a vacuum. I loved the practice of daily writing in solitude. The problem was that I had no idea whether or not what I was creating was actually something people…
The Top Five Micro Habits Creatives Should Adopt Today
I often take on too many big ideas at once, which prohibits me from doing my best work. Instead of working on my big ideas that may be two to three years in the making, I’ve been working on a…
Three simple steps to a productive week
During the pandemic, my definition of a productive workweek changed. With extra time on my hands, I had time to reflect on what was truly important to me in my life, and guess what, spending extra time on my work…
How I solved the more money vs. more time conundrum
My more time vs. more money equation has always looked like this: Time > Money As a creative, I need time to think, absorb, and formulate my ideas. When I spend the majority of my time earning money, I run…
Four simple questions I ask before saying yes to a work opportunity.
For many years, I had a scarcity mindset. I worried that each performance opportunity would be the last, so I automatically said yes to everything. When I transitioned away from making a living as a performer, I carried that scarcity…
How I Help Musicians Find Financial Stability
The path of a musician comes with a lot of financial risk and it can take years to build a foundation that allows them to truly feel like they are doing the work they are meant to do. Musicians often…
Finding Meaning During The Great Resignation
Millions of members of our workforce left their jobs during the great resignation. I suspect many left because they didn’t find their work meaningful. Work without meaning is one of the biggest reasons creatives want to make a change in…
Control What You Can Control
In many ways, the start of 2022 feels a lot like a repeat of the last two years. Whether it’s the pandemic, our unstable political system, or even the environment, so many things in this new year seem to be…
Redefine Success In 2022
New year, new you! Every January, we are flooded with the promise of rejuvenation and excitement around ways we can attack our life and career goals in the year ahead. Included in that mindset is a call for resolutions and…
Balancing Your Career And Your Family.
Striking a balance between your career and your family takes discipline, understanding, and commitment. I find that traditional career development discussions typically focus solely on career advancement, while time with family is expected to simply “fit” into work life.…
Seven Tips To Help Keep Your Calendar Sacred.
For the longest time, I didn’t bother with a calendar. When the decisions I made with my time started having an impact on my work/life balance, I knew that I needed to make a change. I had unrealistic expectations…
Oasis is the reason I had over $38,000 in credit card debt when I turned 30.
That’s right, I blame you, Oasis. You and your “explosion onto the English Rock scene” in the mid-90s left me with only one clear choice; I had to purchase (What’s the Story) Morning Glory. Purchasing CDs was not a…
This Is How I Avoid Decision Fatigue
One of the biggest challenges I have with work/life balance is that I get overwhelmed quickly with my to-do list and I don’t know where to begin. I started using the Eisenhower Matrix to better understand the work.…
How To Spend Your Stimulus Funding
I love helping creatives make transformational decisions that give them the best shot at pursuing the life and career they desire. In a matter of days, many of you will likely be receiving the latest round of stimulus funding from…
Finding meaning through programming that is diverse and inclusive.
No matter where you live, there will be opportunities to engage with your community. You need to determine HOW you will serve them: broadly (serving many individuals in a limited way) or deeply (serving fewer individuals but developing a relationship…
Understanding The Rule Of 72
The rule of 72 is an awesome little formula and a constant reminder that my actions today will have a tremendous impact on the future version of me when it comes to investing and saving. While I can’t (necessarily) control…
If Artists were in charge, would we have this problem?
This is not the America I want for my kids. The events that unfolded on Wednesday were some of the worst things I’ve seen in my life. While the majority of us celebrate the fair and legal victory of President-Elect…
5 Indicators That It May Be Time For A Career Pivot
Moneyball is one of my top ten baseball movies of all time (behind Field of Dreams, and The Natural, of course). My favorite quote in the movie comes when a baseball scout talks to Billy Beane about the moment a baseball player is…
Ten Tips For Putting Your Ideas Out Into The World
Looking for some inspiration to start putting your ideas out into the world? Here are ten tips to help you get going: This is your life, you do you! Stop letting your mentors, family and friends dictate the path you…
My Top Tips Of 2020
I publish a newsletter called 5 Tips For The Unrelenting 20-Something every Tuesday. This page is a compilation of all of the links I shared in 2020. Each newsletter is packed with quick, easily digestible tips that enable you to…
The Road That Lies Ahead
In what will likely go down as the longest year of my life, I am so ready for 2020 to be over! We’re going to look back at the pandemic as a very short moment in the course of our…
Ten Steps to a Personal Strategy Statement
Yesterday, I wrote about the steps I was compelled to take in my career to develop a better work/life balance for myself. The post contained big picture thoughts on how to make change in your life and career. Today’s post…
Career Strategy for Artists
In 2010, I had the dream. My wife and I owned a house and had recently welcomed our first child into the world. In addition, my work life was great. I had a tenure track position teaching bassoon at Bowling…
Thoughts on how to serve your community.
As artists, we often feel a calling to serve the community in which we live. Showing up to serve can be, and is some of, the most fulfilling and rewarding work we can do. This can be incredibly difficult as…
7 tips for artists considering work in a traditional, 9-5 job.
On my way into work this morning, I stumbled upon this article, which provides great insight into ways employers can retain a highly engaged team working on a common goal for their organization or business. This type of mindset is…
8 steps artists can take to achieve their three year strategic plan.
Yesterday, I wrote about ways artists can create a three year strategic plan. Here are eight steps to take your ideas from planning to action. Set Incremental Goals—Take the strategy statement you created from the previous post and start to set…
Career planning for twenty-somethings: Why a three year plan of action is the new ten.
What do you see yourself doing in five to ten years? That’s a big, important, overwhelming question. In my experience, five to ten years is too long of a runway to come up with a concrete plan of action. Think…
Launching a new ensemble, organization, or business? Read this, Part IV.
This is step 4 of a series of posts designed to help you launch a new ensemble, organization, or business. Before you read this post, make sure you start with this post, followed by this post, and this post. Here are…
How to set a budget as an artist.
Earlier this week, I wrote about the frustrations of setting a personal budget. Here is a step by step process for budgeting as an artist. Rules of Engagement: Knowledge is power — Understanding where you spend your money from month…
The Frustration of Personal Budgeting.
It can be incredibly frustrating to hear someone give you advice on your finances. Although well intentioned, the solution often floated is that you simply need to live within your means in order to find financial stability. Of course this…
What is an hour of your time actually worth from a Work Life Balance Perspective?
It’s a funny thing, time. We never seem to have enough of it, especially when pursuing an art form that is defined by a fleeting moment in our lives. One minute we’re on stage pouring our heart out for an…
Financial Stability: What is an hour of your time actually worth?
One of the biggest challenges you will face as an artist is attaining financial stability. It is very possible to find financial stability, but nobody seems to share strategies for thinking about how you go about developing a sustainable career.…
One Big Secret to a Sustainable Arts Organization: Stop trying to take over the universe with your ideas.
Over the past decade, I have observed the Walmart mentality permeate the zeitgeist of our field. Build a large, national business or organization and you will have a path to sustainability. Many arts leaders, particularly those who are just…
Launching a new ensemble, organization, or business? Read this, Part III. Developing your Concept.
For the past few days, I’ve written a step by step process for how I would go about launching a new ensemble, organization, or business. Today, I’m going to give you some thoughts on how to develop that great idea…
Launching a new ensemble, organization, or business? Read this, Part II. The Inception of a Good Idea.
Now that you’ve taken a little time for self-exploration, the challenge becomes this: What makes an idea a good one? As humans, it’s in our DNA to muse about ways to make the world a better place. Some of us…
Launching a new ensemble, organization, or business? Read this, Part I. Start with You
One of the most common questions I get as I mentor artists is how to successfully launch a new ensemble, socially relevant organization, or business. Today, I’m launching a series of “how to” posts designed to help you create and…
Thoughts on launching a successful private lesson studio.
Here’s a question I received last week: Hi Nate, I’m moving to a new city and I’d like to quickly recruit 5-10 students into my private clarinet studio. What suggestions do you have for getting started? Here is my process…
5 Books for artists seeking stability
In general, I tend to be more action oriented than planning oriented, which explains the post I wrote yesterday. Instead of contemplating the change I’d like to see in my life or career, I often find myself identifying actionable steps…
Thoughts on Why Music Schools Must Embed Context into the Curriculum
Yesterday, I wrote this post, which discusses the role of arts entrepreneurship in higher education. After the post, I started thinking more deeply about the role that context plays in the process of educating our arts students. Higher education helps…
Strategies to help Artists take some time for themselves.
As many of you know, I’ve been doing a bit of writing lately in an attempt to help all of you find balance between work and being able to take a breath and enjoy life. Yesterday, I read this amazing…
Climbing the Ladder: Majoring in Music As A Pathway To College and Upward Mobility.
A couple of weeks ago, I published this post, which encourages applied university teachers to broaden the definition of success for their students. It is our responsibility to redefine success for all of our students at the earliest age. If…
Advice on how Artists can live on a small income when moving to a new city.
Today’s post comes from a question I recently received from a reader: Do you have any written tips or advice for how to live on a very small income when moving into a new city? This is an excellent question…
Are you looking for a way to find balance? Stop letting EMAIL run your life!
Often, I find myself buried in email with no end in site. I set aside time to dig out, only to be inundated by more emails. Email has been one of the biggest challenges to finding balance in my life. Here…
Trying to find balance as an Artist? Stop taking every gig that comes your way!
We’ve all done it. We’ve taken that gig that seemed like a great idea six months ago. Now, we find ourselves sitting in traffic much like the photo above, wondering why we made the decision in the first place. Yesterday,…
Using the 80-20 rule to help Artists find balance.
This is a picture of me hiking with my daughter. I have the photo sitting on my desk as a reminder of why finding balance is so important. A question I often get as I advise artists goes something like…
Broadening the definition of success for music students.
This is me in fifth grade. At the age of 12, I remember my teachers telling me that if I continued to work, I could get a scholarship to study the instrument in college. Many began to tell me that…
Artistic Micro-Movements
Last January, I wrote this post in response the inauguration of #45. The premise behind the post was simple: What small things can you do today to make a difference in the world? In January and February, our collective efforts…
One thing Artists can do in response to the rescinding of the DACA program.
For most of my adult life, our political parties have been at such odds with each other that even simple legislation has become a challenge to pass. Political score keeping has become more important than the well being of the…
Everyone Should Major In Music!
For decades, we have been told not to major in music. We’ve been told that there aren’t any jobs, and the jobs that do exist have job satisfaction rates in the gutter. When are institutions of higher learning going to…
Six ways to tackle your college loans
“The most important investment you can make is in yourself.” -Warren Buffett Yesterday, I wrote this post about things to consider when taking out College loans. As Warren Buffett mentions in the quote above, I still believe that taking out…
College Loans and Majoring in the Arts
This morning, I read this CNBC article, which discussed the fact that student loans have gone up over 150% in the last decade. The article states that “The average outstanding college loan balance is now $34,144, up 62 percent over…
How I Think about Programmatic Excellence at Colburn
Last week, I wrote this post about ways to tip the scales towards programmatic excellence. Here are five reflections on how I set up programming at Colburn: Give your program time. I was fortunate to be given a year to identify the needs…