Episode 09: Love makin’ music

This is the nineth episode of The Life and Times of Mike – Navigating a Scenario 2 workscape

Mike appreciates the experience he’s creating for himself and his mates and how it’s changing him for the better

We had our first gig yesterday and it was AWESOME. So much fun.

We were nervous at first – even though we’ve all performed in front of people heaps of times this was our first time as part of a ‘real’ band being paid to be there. But the nerves wore off and I reckon we did a pretty good job. The owner of the pub was really happy – said he’d have us back sometime and would write a review for our website. Everyone seemed to enjoy the music and told us we sounded great – I even handed out a few business cards.

Performing in front of that audience was such a buzz – just seeing people connect with our music and feeling happy because of that, is the best feeling in the world for me. While I’m mostly happy in my day job, this has made me realise I was missing something – and now I’ve filled that gap.

I guess doing the music side-gig has been a bit of a risk. What if we’d stuffed up? What if people didn’t ‘get’ the music and hated it? That could have been seriously embarrassing and ‘Mike and the Side Hustlers’ would have died an early death. But people – the owner of the pub who paid us, the people we knew in the crowd, complete strangers at the pub – saw that we could get it together to make good music and act like a professional band. I’m proud of that. But I’m even more proud that I took the risk – I haven’t taken such risks for a very long time. This shows me that I’ve got it in me. I wonder if I’m not taking risks in my factory job, that I could that would be good for me and the factory. Something to talk about with my workmates over a pint next Friday night!

I’ve also come to realise how much working and just being with people – the relationships I have with them – means to me. And I’m good with people, I’ve always known that. At work I got the job of Supervisor because I’m popular with the guys, but I can also be assertive – not aggressive – but able to cut through the bullshit and get people to do good work.

The opportunity to lead the band has been really different than at work. I’m learning to adjust when it’s leading people who don’t report to me. Much more about using influence and having trust. Something that’s going to make me better leader all round, I think.

The guys have been awesome – we’ve been getting to know each other in a whole new light doing music together. That’s the power I think of building relationships while doing a project together. Much more meaningful than going to a lot of networking events. One of the young guys in particular has been a real star, I’m going see if I can post something online to help his career. I found the activity Write a Recommendation in the Folkscape Library – looks like it could be useful for this task.

Now that the first gig is done – I can relax a little. And I’d like to start meeting new people. I’m thinking of setting up a Kinfolk Group in the Folkscape Community. Something for people like me doing their own side-gig while still holding down a day job that they like. People who join the Folkscape are going through some sort of career development or challenge, so it’s likely a good place to connect with people in similar situation to me. They may even get inspired by my story – and that would be cool!

 
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(Amended) Photo by Amy Velazquez on Unsplash