028: What to Do When You Don’t Get the Gig
The life of a creative entrepreneur is one of gig work. I’m sure you’ve heard the phrase, “gig economy.” For workers in many industry, this gig economy is a totally new thing. In decades past, engineers and computer programmers used to always work as employees of a company. They didn’t have to jump from project to project on their own. My grandfather worked for the same textile manufacturing company his entire working career. He even lived in a town built by and named after that company! But that has never been the case for creative entrepreneurs. Even Shakespeare had to continually be writing new plays, hoping that his next project would be as successful as the last. Paganini had to keep writing music and playing concerts in new places. Picasso had to keep painting more paintings. But no creative lands every gig every time. Sometimes, we don’t get the gig, or the release flops, or no one buys. When Moby-Dick flopped upon its release, Herman Melville immediately stopped attempting to write big, ambitious books, and not long after, he eventually stopped writing forever. Melville’s reaction to “not getting the gig” was to allow the rejection and disappointment to swallow him to the point that he left his creative industry. I don’t want that for you. I want you to have a thriving, satisfying, delightful creative business and creative career for years to come. So today, we’re going to talk about how to handle the rejection that is part and parcel of living and working as an artist. Let’s figure out what to do when you don’t get the gig.
In this episode, you will learn:
- Why it’s important to process your feelings of disappointment after a rejection.
- How to find joy in the process of auditioning or submitting yourself for consideration.
- What a few other prominent creatives have done when they faced the reality of not getting the gig.
- What action steps you can take to make sure that you’re giving yourself the best chance of getting the next gig.
- How to adjust your work in the short term so that you can get the kind of work you want in the long term.
In this episode, I mention that registration is now open for the summer 2023 session of my Taming the Muse Group Workshop. I discuss Giannis Antetokounmpo's answer during a press conference on April 26, 2023, and I mention Episode 8 of the Crafting Audiobooks podcast. I consider a recent interview with writing coach Dan Blank and author Janae Marks, and I refer to Mo Willems' appearance on The Tonight Show with Jimmy Fallon. I also reference one previous episode of this podcast: 016: The Six Components of a Thriving Creative Business.
A full transcript of this episode can be found here. Full transcripts of every episode will always be available at the Starving Artist No More Blog.
Thank you for listening. Please feel free to reach out to me at www.StarvingArtistNoMore.com, with any questions, comments, or feedback. I'd love to hear from you.
