LCN 102: Tamara Bailie on Owning Your Own Voice

Tamara Bailie knows a thing or two about owning your own voice.

I first met Tamara at Patti Digh’s Life is a Verb Camp in 2013, and when I started the Live Creative Now podcast a couple of years later, I knew I wanted to have her on the show.

Like me, Tamara is not a born performer. Like me, Tamara is filled with doubt.

At some point in her journey, someone said to her about her songs, “These are great songs, if you could just get someone else to sing them.”

Ouch.

Thankfully, she met someone later (someone who would become a long term music partner) who was able to tell her that her songs were hers, and she needed to sing them.

We all need someone who can reflect this back to us. Who can remind us (as Patti Digh did for Tamara) to let go of the outcome. 

(Remind you of anything? Guidepost #2 of my book, The Creative Sandbox Way, is “Think process, not product.”) 

Having those people in her corner enabled Tamara to go on and not just write a whole bunch of songs, but perform them as well! And oh, the stories! Have a listen.

Background on Tamara

Tamara’s family business is running a gymnastics training center for children. But her thing, the thing she does for pure love and joy, is songwriting. And then there’s the glass blowing, which is a more recent passion she kind of fell into (you’ll have to listen to find out the story of that).

Tamara’s first song was a birthday gift for her eldest daughter, when she turned two. At the time of this conversation that daughter was seventeen, and Tamara had put out ten albums, and over a hundred songs.

(Small daily acts, folks!)

One of Tamara’s statements, which she learned from someone else, and which has kept her going over the years, is this: “If you only have a few chords, you can put together a song.”

Words to live by, and a metaphor for so many things — not just songwriting!

Songs have been a powerful way for Tamara way to process both bad and good things in her life. “If you listen to a lot of my songs, you’ll get to know me about as well as anyone.”

Listen for Tamara’s story of facing fear and getting up to sing in front of people even when she was scared, and how that made a difference for other people.

When we’re brave, it helps other people be brave, and as Tamara said in our conversation, “that even helps me be brave the next time!”

Amen. I feel braver about the scary things I’m facing in my own life, having re-listened to our conversation. 🙂

More Gems:

• Tamara would have thought that mistakes in performance would make you never want to perform ever again, but a lot of times those moments are the ones the audience find the most memorable and inspiring. If you mess up, just keep going — the world doesn’t end!
• On glass blowing: to create colored glass, you roll clear glass through tiny pieces of colored glass. “Maybe all those broken pieces are the things that bring color to who we are. And maybe that color is how people recognize us in the world.”
• At the recording studio you have to be brave and let go of other things, and at the glass studio it’s the same thing. Two hobbies that are so different from each other give so much of the same thing!

There is so much more to this conversation. I hope you’ll have a listen!

And find Tamara at:

http://tamarabailie.com

https://www.cdbaby.com/Artist/TamaraBailie

A New Experiment: Something Cool

Last week I started an experiment, inspired by a podcast that I listen to with my husband, called Scriptnotes — a podcast about screenwriting and things that are interesting to screenwriters, co-hosted by Hollywood screenwriters John August and Craig Mazin.

I’m not a screenwriter, but my husband is, and he loves this podcast. And it’s entertaining enough that I actually really enjoy it, too. So we listen to it together when we’re making dinner on Tuesdays.

Anyway, at the end of each episode, they have what they call One Cool Thing. Each of the hosts (and their guests, when they have them), share something cool.

Nothing to do with screenwriting — just a cool thing that they want to share.

I really like this idea, and it occurred to me, you know, I have so many cool things that I would love to share with you, so why not, as an experiment, add a little section to the end of the podcast, where I share something cool?

So last week I shared an Instagram feed that delighted me. And this week I’m making it official.

We’ll see how it goes. It’s an experiment.

This week’s something cool is red lentil pasta.

It’s yummy. It’s pasta. But without all the carb loading.

13 grams of protein, people! 

I think I’ve died and gone to heaven.

Meanwhile, be sure to check out…

The Art Bundle for Good

Through April 2 only – over 50 art resources, over $2500 in value, for under $100, and 25% goes to a great art charity for kids!

Click here to check it out and grab it before it’s gone: bit.ly/ABG2017

Thanks for Listening!

Thanks so much for joining me this week. Have some feedback you’d like to share? Leave a note in the comment section below!

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Now go get creating!

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