I have been connecting and networking with a woman whom I originally met through http://workitmom.com. This woman has managed to take a hobby that she has a special passion for and turn it into a profit-making endeavor. She loves music and just knew that she wanted to find a way to make money with her music. She wasn’t sure of the steps to take to turn her vision into a reality, but she is keeping her eyes open to many opportunities.
She is such an inspiration that I wanted to share her story with you! I intereviewed her to get a better insight into how she is making money with her music.
Her name is Gia Volterra de Saulnier.
Kim: When did you first learn you wanted to make money with your music?
Gia: I think the best way I can answer this is that I was playing in the subways in Boston with my flute, but never really made that much money with it…but it’s not really about making the money with music, it’s about knowing that my music has an effect on people, or that I can communicate to people in a different language.
Kim: Was there a specific point in time when you found out music was your passion? Has it always been your passion?
Gia: I have always played music ever since I was about 7 or 8 years old. I didn’t realize that music was my passion until I got to college. Funny story that…I wanted to sing, but I had a sore throat, so I had to audition using my flute, and I made it into University of Lowell, College of Music. It was there that I fell in love with jazz music.
Kim: What was your inspiration? A person? A moment?
Gia: I think my inspiration lately has been my five year old. To him, nothing is a challenge…he just goes out there and does it. I love that about him! I have always just gone up and played music, whether it was at a bar (or dive, for that matter) or with a rock and roll band with my flute. Nowadays, I get to dress up in Renaissance Garb and go to different Renaissance Faires. Now with my husband creating Winslowshire, which is a Renaissance Faire that is a benefit for an Animal Sanctuary, and knowing that the faire was a financial success in this economy, was really a great thing for the farm and for us.
Kim: You mentioned to me that your husband made the leather bodice in the picture of you playing the flute. It’s beautiful!
Kim: What steps are you taking to make this vision a reality?
Gia: Lately, we have been working very hard to get Winslowshire off the ground, since it is a new Renaissance Faire and those are few and far between, especially here in Massachusetts. Most folks know about the other BIG faire (Carver, MA), but ours is a much different feel and place, and it really helps the farm. I’m now marketing as much as I can about it using social media (facebook, twitter, LiveJournal, WorkItMom, CafeMom, Festival Network, Whofish, etc…) and have found that I’m pretty good at marketing the event, and I think that is really what I want to do. I have also been writing on blogs and now guest blogging on http://www.northshoreparenting.com. I have also been networking in person at venues where I can learn about new technology and to just get out of my comfort zone and talk about my events.
Kim: You mentioned that you had a vision of what you wanted, but weren’t sure how to get there. Talk about how things are falling into place for you, and how your vision is now unfolding.
Gia: I would like to eventually get out of my 9 – 5 day gig and just do marketing. I’m slowly doing that by consulting on the side. A great tip I got last night on a tweetchat was that if I want to do marketing then I need to just start selling myself to other companies, which is what I’m doing, but slowly.
Check out all of Gia’s websites and blogs:
http://www.winslowshire.com
http://www.winslowshire.wordpress.com
http://www.giazzworld.blogspot.com
http://www.justthetemp.blogspot.com
http://twitter.com/giazzpet
