Opportunites Unlimited

On April 26th I walk across the stage at Davenport University's main campus in Grand Rapids, MI and I will OFFICIALLY have my Associates degree in Marketing. Although that in itself is truly exciting, it also puts a lot of pressure on me to get and be better at marketing my debut album “Can You Hear Me Now?” and at branding my name. Although I have learned so much and each day I try to use the marketing principles that I have learned I still have yet to reach the momentum that I need to be successful.
I am an independent artist and I believe that I am extremely talented; however there are thousands of extremely talented people in the world. I am starting to believe that prioritizing and finding the right people to support and work with you is key. The thing is in my efforts to be all that I can be,I have found those types of people are far and in between.
Less than a month ago I lost a close and dear friend of mine and he was at the beginning of his life. His death has made my need to succeed even deeper because I am faced with my own mortality. Not only that, it made me want to be remembered for something great. It would be awesome to become a mega-super star, but I am more concerned with sharing my music with the world.
I feel that I am a highly intuitive person, in addition to being very expressive of human emotions. When I sing I translate all of this and I have seen how powerful that is when I perform. This is why I feel so much pressure because it is important for me to be my own driving force. Yet, it is turning out to be incredibly hard. Everyone needs a mentor and I have had that in my father, Anthony Hawkins, vocalist and lead guitarist of the Black Merda Band . His example, teachings, direction, love, support, etc. is the reason that I am the woman, the musician that I am today. Nevertheless, I have taken on more with choosing marketing as my back up career. When it comes to integrating the two, marketing and music, I am the first to take it to the level that I am striving for. Heck, I am the first of his children to graduate from college.
My pursuits are what sometimes motivate me to get out of bed. On the other hand, they are occasionally what keeps me under the covers. I am determined to realize my dreams even if I have to ammend them as I go along. There are a lot of things that I am doing that are right and I know that they will lead me to being who I am meant to be. What worries me is that it is obvious that there are things that I am doing wrong also. So for now, figuring out which is which has taken its place on my list of things to do. Overwhelmed or not, I will get better. But hey, that's just me.