Maintaining Your Hyphens with Rebecca Singh
TRANSCRIPT:
The reason that you are a multi-hyphenate is because you have many gifts.
Let's talk about maintaining your hyphens. I'm Heather Kelly, and this is High Five, where we give five tips, insights or sparks of inspiration for arts leaders and cultural entrepreneurs.
Today, my wonderful friend Rebecca Singh is here to share her thoughts on maintaining your hyphens. And she holds so many different roles as an arts leader and entrepreneur. I will welcome you, Rebecca, and let you share with us your thoughts on maintaining your hyphens and how that applies to all the different things that you do. Thanks for being here.
Thank you so much for having me, Heather. So one of my first tips is, to have your day job support your artistic or your creative side. I am an actor, singer, writer, producer, and audio describer. And I've found that whether I have, I've been having sort of multiple side by side careers or what I've been doing has looked a little bit more like moonlighting, that the most manageable way to navigate all of that is to be sure that the thing that I have to do supports all of the other things.
So lean into choices that make your lifestyle more sustainable. I did it by creating Superior Description Services.
I love that not creating your work or ensuring that the work that you're doing supports your creative outlets and your artistic needs as well. Is that a fair way of summarizing that? Absolutely.
So my second tip is it's more important to believe in your art than it is to be able to explain it.
And I say this because as a multi-hyphenate person, you're more likely to run into people who don't understand what you do because they don't fully believe that you can be doing more than one thing. They may think you're unfocused and that you can't possibly do what you're already doing, or that you can't possibly be what you already are.
Resist the urge to have them understand you. Instead, lean in to channeling your energies to make your work. Believe in yourself and just do it.
I love that. Focus on doing the work, believing in yourself, and not worrying about trying to explain it to everybody else, especially when you're doing so many different things. Again, ideally back to your point. One that support each other.
So my next tip is that one size fits one - a tip for anyone who's expanding their work into something that they don't normally do or haven't done before, or even any organization or any group that is expanding to do something that they haven't done before, is to make the process accessible for you.
Make changes, or do whatever you need to do to the plan to make it work for you. And if on the other side of the equation, you're trying to make your work more accessible to someone else. Also consider one size fits one. You can make your work start simple, but, being accessible to just one person with a disability and you can go from there. Start small. Start with baby steps and one size fits one.
Such a great phrase. One size fits one. So going to use that all the time.
Great. Okay. So my point number four would be to go at your own pace. One of the things about being a multi-hyphenate is that you may be moving forward on certain things in a pace that possibly slower than other folks or slower than you would be if you were just focusing on that one thing. And that is okay.
You just simply need to do things at your own pace so that you can do things in the way that you need to do it. Sometimes you'll have projects and ideas that might sit for months or even years. I know that I do, and eventually when I get back to them, or when they rise up to the top of the pile again, I embrace them and I meet them where I am today.
So in all things, go at your own pace. You know best what pace works for you. Use that pace. I can totally relate to that, as well as having so many things on the go. And they rise at different times and flow at different paces so that, that sounds great. Yes.
So the last tip I'd love to share with you all today is just be your authentic self.
You are a special, wonderful individual. The reason that you are a multi-hyphenate is because you have many gifts. And, you know, I think that sometimes it's not, the celebration of those gifts are right in our face, but it's the truth. And so I just encourage you. To be your authentic self. So true, so many gifts and so many different facets of all of these incredible people.
Yes! Thank you so much, Rebecca. Now, where can people connect with you online? And then I think we also have a special gift for some of the people watching or listening…
Yeah, absolutely. You can follow me on Instagram @CheerleaderChronicles, and you can hear about all of my awesome projects and discover me as a multi-hyphenate. And if you do follow me and, like my latest post and make a comment, “hyphenate”.
The first 20 people to do that will receive a free copy of my graphic novel new book, My Origami Motorcycle.
Amazing. I love that book. That is such a treat for people. Thank you so much, Rebecca. And for those of you watching and listening, please tune in next week to our next episode of High Five. I look forward to seeing you then.