Laura Harley

I’m safely in L.A. and the sunshine and music feel great! Today is a very busy day. This morning I’m rehearsing for shows this week and next. I’ll be playing tonight in Glendale, CA and am looking forward to playing lots of new songs.

I’m also meeting today with my manager and a music biz expert named Tim Sweeney to talk about my career and next directions. I’m really excited for this meeting because I’ve been reading and listening to Tim’s consulting materials for years now and it is going to be great to meet him in person and have him focusing on MY career! Because I’ve chosen to remain an independent artist, I’m very involved with all aspects of the promotion and presenation of my music. It is extremely important to me to present myself and my music in a way that is in line with my values and vision. If I were the most famous singer in the world, but things weren’t done in line with my values and who I want to be, it would be worse than pointless to me. So, this meeting today will be a great kick-off to continuing to develop the next phase of my business plan—-and what that really means is new ways to share my music with more people!

OK, and finally, I know this has nothing to do with music, but you know I love sweet treats and I HAVE to share about my latest discovery with you. Last night I went to Pinkberry for the first time. Pinkberry is an L.A.-based frozen yogurt chain. I’m not a big fan of frozen yogurt, but people keep raving about this place and so I decided to try it. And holy mackerel, was it worth it. My first bite of Pinkberry’s original flavor was like being transported into another REALM. The flavor is CRAZY! It is sweet and creamy, giving you the sensation of the best part of having creamy ice cream, but it is also tangy. I spent most of my time eating it trying to figure out how to compare the flavor to something. And then on my last bite I thought of it! It is like the creamiest, dreamiest piece of key lime pie you’ve ever had. Even if you don’t like key lime pie, you will like it. You HAVE to try it! I think I’m already addicted. I caught myself in between waking and dreaming last night smiling and thinking “Pinkberry, mmmmmmm….”.

OK, now I’ve gotta go practice! More soon….

It is almost Valentine’s Day and since I’ll be traveling to LA on the 14th, I might not get to post on V-Day. So, I’m sending love to all of you today instead! I love being able to make music and getting to share it with you. Thanks to each of you for being part of my music and my life.

Here are some other things I will be totally loving in the coming days:

–Playing shows where I will be debuting lots of new songs that I am very excited about,

–Getting to play with a full band in the studio for the first time in a LONG time,

–Recording songs for my EP (set to be released this summer),

–Being in a much warmer climate for a couple of weeks,

–Getting to spend most of my time focusing on music!!

I’ll be updating you regularly via blog and videoblog entries here. Looking forward to experiencing it all with you!

Lots of love,

Laura

Photo by Daniel Corrigan

The past several days have been SO busy! Barely any time to breathe. So much for having balance! But even in the midst of busy-ness, I’ve been keeping my new boundaries in mind and working to keep them. And I knew for a while that I’d have a really intense couple of weeks to get through before truly implementing some of those changes I’ve been craving. Soon, very soon…..

I’m looking forward to going back to LA later this week. Shows and recordings coming up! I can’t wait. As I’ve been preparing for recording later this month, I’ve been feeling so excited about these songs—I really believe in them and have this intuition that developing them will feel very freeing and be an important milestone for me personally and professionally. It will feel awesome to have them ready to share.

It will also be so great to get away from this arctic weather we’ve been having here in Minneapolis. Brrrr!

And, by the way, you can listen to my interview from the other night at the “Your Mac Life” website.

More soon!

I’ll be interviewed tonight on the “Your Mac Life Show” at about 9:40pm Eastern US time. The show goes from 8:30-11pm and if you tune in a half hour early, you can hear tracks from my album. I’ll be talking about my music and my home music studio (featured in the video below).

Yes, it does rule to start a revolution in one’s own life. But I am finding that I also need rules to keep the revolution going!

I mentioned in my last post that I’m working on bringing more balance and moderation to my life. It has already proved challenging. It is true that old habits often die hard! I have so many internal pulls towards over-work and over-commitment, that I’ve actually been feeling a little afraid to get totally well and over this sickness—-it has been making me take it easy and I realize I’m afraid that when I am well, I’ll lose my commitment to myself and get totally overdone again.

So, I’ve decided to put some rules in place to support myself in this new endeavor. I actually feel much better just having the list of them here in front of me. Several of them have to do with how I will and will not spend my time and how I will build boundaries around family time and music time. Some have to do with how much to check my email and answer my phone, since I have a constant stream of email and calls coming in to me.

Yep, these rules are tough, but in a very good way. I often encourage my coaching clients to be playful with their self-work. In that spirit, I picture myself having a little mini-me that watches over me and helps me follow these rules. She is kind of like a personal trainer prodding me on to moderation. She wears a little red track suit and has LOTS of energy. She is tough with me to follow the guidelines, but I know it is out of caring. She also jumps up and down when I take steps towards balance and moderation and says things like “Way to go, Harley!” I like this little mini-me. Hmm…..what shall I call her? Any thoughts?

On with the revolution…

Well, like many people with this cold/flu thing, I went back to work and relapsed. Grrr. Now I am knocked back to resting again and taking it slow. A lot of stressful things happened this week, so I think that may have something to do with it.

The insights I had on my recent family trip plus all of this resting have got me thinking some radical thoughts. Radical for me, that is.

I don’t think the hectic pace I’ve been maintaining (especially in the non-music work part of my life) for the last couple of years is sustainable—for my physical or emotional health. Even if I could make it sustainable, I don’t WANT to. I feel that the cost is too high and something needs to change. It doesn’t mean I won’t do the things I’ve been doing (although some will have to fall by the wayside), but it does mean I’ll have to go about things in a new way. Yep, I have some plans and tricks up my sleeve. And I know my music will benefit.

So, it is time for a revolution! I say “radical” and “revolution” because it is going to take A LOT of new thinking and boundary-setting for me to create a more balanced life. I’m going to have to say “no” to a lot of things and it may involve disappointing people. But I think it is do-able and all will adjust. I’ve talked about wanting to balance things in my life before—with mixed results. Sometimes I make changes that only stick for a while before I get caught in the maelstrom again. And sometimes I get caught up in feeling like balance for me isn’t as important as all the volunteer and other work I do. But this time, I’m feeling so different inside—and the knowledge that self-care and career development are not at odds with being of service is going much deeper.

So, there you have it. The revolution officially starts…deep breath…right NOW. Oooooh! That gives me a little thrill. I’ll let you know how it goes. Wish me luck and the strength to keep it up!

Did you see the new banner on my blog? We wanted to change things up over here, so we asked the very talented Brian Larson to design some new banners for me. Thanks, Brian! And thanks to Daniel Corrigan for the photo.

In other music news, today I finally got the pedal for my digital piano to work and it is SO much fun to play! The pedal I’m using recreates what a real piano pedal does—basically it makes the notes you hit ring out more fully. It really boosts the sound making it louder, more echo-y, rounder. It makes it possible to make my playing sound more “emotional” and I love it! It takes a while to learn how to use it properly. It reminds me of the first time I got an electric guitar (after learning on an acoustic guitar) and I could put all kinds of awesome effects on it—-distortion, reverb, etc. I was in HEAVEN. Yay!

Getting ready for those shows and the recording—-coming up soon!

Photos by Clark Patrick Photography