32. Hobbies: Enhancing Creativity and Well-Being for Musicians

The Power of Hobbies: Enhancing Creativity and Well-Being for Musicians

In this episode of The Music Executive Podcast, host Cinnamon Denise discusses the challenges of small talk and how delving into non-music related hobbies transformed her music career. 

By engaging in jewelry making, exploring the world of tea, and embracing fitness, Cinnamon enhanced her creativity, decreased anxiety, and discovered new skills. She emphasizes the importance of pursuing holistic self-improvement to improve one's music career. 

Tune in to hear more about how balancing various hobbies can positively impact your life and career as a musician.

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Chapters

• 0:00 Intro
• 0:45 The Struggle with Small Talk
• 1:55 Discovering New Hobbies
• 2:11 Jewelry Making
• 4:42 The "Tea Lady"
• 6:38 Embracing Fitness
• 7:38 Final Thoughts

Transcript

Intro

Hey Music Executives, this is the music executive podcast, a show where we talk about what it takes to build a holistic music career. 

My name is Cinnamon Denise, and I started this podcast because as I have been on this journey I noticed that there are challenges that I experience that are not unique to me but still  greatly impact my well-being.

Whether you are a part time, full time, or hobbyist musician, I’m sure that you will find value in this show. 

It is currently 5 am, I have not had my coffee yet because I need a new coffee machine, so if you have it in your heart to buy me a coffee today, please head to the link in the show notes to hold me over until I can get that new coffee machine. You are appreciated. 

Premise 

Small talk. I really struggle with it. I know, I’m not unique. Some people say they don’t like small talk because it feels very surface level or very unnatural, which I can relate to. 

But I found that a big part of the reason why I didn’t like small talk was because unless it was music related, I wasn’t enjoying the conversation. I, like most musicians, am engulfed in this industry, and inundated with its peripheral topics, trends, worries, etc. 

Just being real y’all, I realized that I didn’t have anything else to talk about besides music and that’s why small talk was painful. 

So, I did something really innovate, I got a hobby and small talk became a little less painful. So I got another hobby. And then, I made friends with people who weren’t musicians. 

It’s ok, you can laugh just hear me out. Then I got another hobby y’all and made more friends. 

And 3 things started happening. I became much more creative, my anxiety decreased, and I found out that I was really good at a lot of other things.

So, if you’ll humor me, I’m going to journey through a few non-music related hobbies that I took up, my journey to each of these hobbies, how each one directly improved my music career, and why they are great hobbies for folks like us. 

Alright, let’s do this music executives.

Jewelry Making

I was getting ready for a gig, and I was trying to put my outfit together. I was really struggling because I wanted to wear something simple, sophisticated, sleek, but I wanted to wear pretty earrings. I looked high and low, and I could not find what I wanted. 

I would get close to what I wanted but then there would be something wrong with the earring like it would have a color that was going to just throw the outfit off. Seeing my frustration, my partner said to me, “why don’t you just make yourself some earrings?”

So, a few YouTube videos, 15 hours of work, and $10 worth of supplies later, I made my first pair of earrings. Them thangs were hideous. 

However, I was so proud of myself for making earrings. I realized how much I loved it, even though they were ugly. As we creatives do, I obsessed over jewerly making, I stumbled across bead weaving techniques, like looming, peyote stitch, brick stitch, herringbone stitch, kumihimo, the endless types of beads, threads etc. It was nuts. 

With time, I became able to look at a piece of handmade jewelry, and know exactly how it was made. Now, could I make it? No ma’am. But I knew how it was made.

It felt like my own little secret. What this led to was me being good and figuring things out, particularly music productions. I learned very quickly, how I learned. And it was through intense observation and listening. I took this energy into production. When I experience a fiction podcast, or production of any kind that I enjoy (or don’t enjoy), I dissect why and how that piece was created. 

I found that creativity is not sporadic at all. It is very planned and strategic. The secret to being your best at something, is iteration. So I made another pair of earrings. They were hideous. 

And another, also hideous. 

Then I made another with the same beads, thread, materials, and they were wearable. I wore them in my house only but they were wearable. Then I made another pair, and they were good enough for a dinner date in a dark restaurant. 

With each iteration, I got so much better, pretty quickly. I  was only 4 months in and people were asking me to make them jewelry. 

Time away from hyperfocusing on music, almost cleansed my ears from what I knew as fact and made what I knew supplemental information to what I was learning. Mmm, I’m preaching today.

Also, I found that I was particularly good at jewelry making because I have steady hands. As many of us do. 

Making Tea

After spending hours focusing on these tiny beads, I would want to unwind and I would go the farmers market. I would buy beautiful herbs that I literally had no idea what to do with they just smelled good. I bought Tulsi one day and looked up what the heck to do with it. And the easiest thing that I found was make tea. Y’all, when I tell you that tea was amazing…oh my god. 

Paired with spectacular health benefits and incredible taste, I started to dive into the world of tea, herbs, and ultimately mixology. I started learning one youtube video, book, and drink at a time, what tasted good together. Unlike cooking, I didn’t initially need much skill:just hot water, a steeper, and an idea. 

Slowly but surely, I started making variations of Tulsi tea and combinations with mint, and catnip. I became the “tea lady” to some of my friends. And I started to be able to taste what was in certain drinks and replicate them at home. I felt like I had superpower and I physically felt good because tea is amazing for you. 

So now, my confidence, increased and again, my music improved. 

Fitness

I felt great, my mind was clear, my ideas were flowing and I had a lot of energy…anxious energy. So, I started to feel like my body needed movement. It’s easy to sit for hours and work on a piece of music but the tea - made me have to use the bathroom - so I was taking more breaks. 

I started walking a lot more. I walked not to get energy but because I had energy. It was probably the caffeine, I know but whatever. 

Now, I’m walking. And my dog loved it, so he was happy. He was able to sit under my desk for hours when we would get back home because he was stimulated enough for me to do so. 

With time, I became so much more in tune with my body, and the walking wasn’t enough anymore. I wanted to expel anxious energy. I started weight lifting. I did not go to YouTube because I didn’t want to hurt myself so I got a trainer for a month. 

I learned proper form, and began to understand this whole “macro” thing enough to see some real changes. I started to fall in love with non-scale victories like waking up earlier, having more energy, being able to sing longer, stronger, etc.

I know, you know where I’m going with this. Fitness became my hobby. But it didn’t feel like it, it just felt like a natural progression of walking, lifting, walking, running, tea, jewelry making, music making, walking, jewelry making, tea, music making, music making, walking…

These three hobbies - jewelry making, tea, fitness - they helped this inundation of music related topics flow out of me, and allowed room for new ideas to come forth pretty effortlessly. 

Outro

My entire existence improved and these are just 3 hobbies that I’ve tried in the past year…there are a few more that didn’t quite fit into this episode, but I wanted to share this journey in this way because - the music executive is a podcast that talks about what it takes to build a holistic music career. 

Said differently, be a human, a whole human, as best you can…and your music, will inherently improve. Because you have improved. 

Alright music executives, that is it for this episode. If you enjoyed it, share it with a friend.

Remember, this isn’t easy, but it is fun. See ya next time.