Alright – so today we’ve got the honor of introducing you to Sarah Lightman. We think you’ll enjoy our conversation, we’ve shared it below.

Sarah, thanks for joining us, excited to have you contributing your stories and insights. It’s always helpful to hear about times when someone’s had to take a risk – how did they think through the decision, why did they take the risk, and what ended up happening. We’d love to hear about a risk you’ve taken.

I’ve taken a good amount of risks in my life so far. I’ve risked my safety, my bank account, my career choices, choosing to fall in love completely, choosing to accept failure, and even chose to have vocal surgery during the pandemic in 2020. However, the biggest risk to date I’ve ever taken, which may sound incredibly cheesy to some is committing to love myself 100% and consistently.

The biggest risk anybody will ever take in my humble opinion is to live a life where they live through that idea. Why? It’s not just about doing it for romantic reasons, or for self care. Those are only pieces to the puzzle – if you even decide those are in your puzzle. The reason why it’s the biggest risk for me at this time is nobody can decide what that looks like except for you. No Grammy, money, hit song, friend, lover, diet, or thing outside of you will be able to validate that or give you that. Sure, people can have an idea of where they see you going and what might be best, and they see the growing pains you have, but nobody can decide how you will get to the definition of what it means to love yourself. The reason that is incredibly terrifying and a huge risk is because there’s a lot to lose.

You will lose the only version that you thought was you, but was just an idea of you covered up in nonsense and a standard you believed you’re supposed to live by. You will lose people you thought were close to you, and thought were the best people to surround yourself with. You will change so much, people might not even recognize you. You will become healthier in ways you might have mocked at before. Not everyone will like what you’re doing and you will not fit in. You will need to start from zero in the unknown as you fall on your face A LOT learning how to love yourself. You will be tested by thoughts, fear, and uncomfortable emotions. People who don’t understand it fully or who fear the change may try to control you, shame you, judge you, or try to persuade you to be small again, or be less for them and fit into their box to keep you neat and tidy. You will face an incredible amount of grief and pain in this process. It’s not for everyone and most people won’t do it in this lifetime. Your heart will break for those people who don’t have the bravery to follow through the vulnerable process. It will take a lot of work that will fill up the rest of your life, but it will be worth the commitment. Why?

All of that will happen, but the version of yourself that will come through the other end will have stronger character. You will build sustainable relationships with yourself, your career and your personal life. You’ll gain appreciation for the highs and the lows, and the mundane in between. I myself am not all the way through the other side of the learning part just yet. However, the way my life has unfolded and reflected to this shift all because I made the decision to love myself fully and let go of anything that doesn’t align has been 100% worth all of the above.

Sarah, love having you share your insights with us. Before we ask you more questions, maybe you can take a moment to introduce yourself to our readers who might have missed our earlier conversations?

I’m a full time musician – a pop recording artist and singer-songwriter. I always loved music, but it took a lot of adversity and time to decide my path. I started out choosing it as a street performer in Los Angeles, and then found my way to recording, venues, festivals, releasing an album, starting a community on Twitch, touring, and even moved my life to Nashville, Tennessee 4 months ago.The reason I chose music was that I overcame a lot of hardship, and discovered the power of taking care of one’s mental health, and sharing what I learned and experienced with others through song. I felt that being of service in that way was a great gift of joy and purpose. From there, my passion just grew and gave me enough drive to follow the dream all the way.

Even though it sounds like I’ve had a smooth ride, there’s been a lot of tough times, mistakes, and growing moments. I’ve signed sync deals that brought little results, I’ve had a lot of help I didn’t want or need, I’ve had people try to take advantage musically, financially, mentally, sexually, relationally, and even some succeeded. I was one of the artists who were not paid by Pledge Music and had to come up with the money I raised again even after all the work I put into it. I developed a vocal polyp from all the stress, the pain, and hardship, and lack of knowledge through all of that process, and then decided the best course was to endure vocal surgery, and rehabilitation. All of that plus a pandemic, significant losses of love ones, a breakup that was like a divorce, challenges from C-PTSD, chronic pain, suicidal thoughts, and poor perception of the self through the whole process, and then ending it all with a second big move cross country (all from 2019-Spring 2022). This isn’t shared because I desire anybody’s sympathy or pity. I share this to highlight the things that are not seen on social media, that are not shared as often, and that people don’t see. The things to grow through in order to test me to do my best, and show I am just like you, a human.

I think what sets me apart from other artists is continuing to build and flow everyday to reflect who I bring to the table. I know in order to be the artist people want, I need to wholly embrace my individuality and worth unapologetically, and trust that I already have that. Trust that I am worthy of the journey. Trust I don’t need anybody else to verify that. I need to embrace every emotion inside of myself without judgement to know, and accept that I am already those things. Then trust success and all the things coming will naturally follow as I wear that identity authentically instead of a hollow mask. I think will sets me a part and will continue to set me apart.

In terms of what am I most proud of, I am proud of the human and artist I keep pursuing daily no matter the storms that come through my path. I’m proud that I have not quit or did something else other that what feels true to me when life told me it would be difficult, or challenging. I am proud that every distraction I have encountered along the way, I choose every time to show up and do the best I can to stay on path and keep going even when it’s uncomfortable. Essentially, I’m proud of my overall character.

How can we best help foster a strong, supportive environment for artists and creatives?

I chose to answer this question because no matter how much time goes by people still undervalue the arts. It’s incredibly important for every human and living thing to support creatives no matter what your beliefs or values are. This isn’t a biased opinion, but scientifically in order to develop the brain and have the best life we must incorporate the arts as much as we can. The arts and creative outlets help us connect with the right side of the brain. We so often connect analytically with the left side, but the right side needs to be exercised as well to be our best and healthiest selves. That is why society needs to support artists and creatives.

In my view the best way to support depends on the needs of the creative, so always ask if they don’t tell you. For myself I would ask you to follow me on all your social media platforms, hang with me on Twitch, follow me on your music platforms, subscribe to my YouTube, download and share my songs and videos with your friends and love ones at the bare minimum. If you financially have the means join my Patreon VIP fan club and subscribe to my Twitch channel (free to sub with Amazon prime), attend a concert and purchase a ticket at least once a year, and make sure you proudly wear any T-shirt to display the great time you had sharing your time with me. It’s easy to say financially give to the arts and that is 50% of the way to sustain the arts, but the other is investing your time to creative communities and invite others to be part of the fun too! This not only helps create a thriving creative ecosystem, but also helps it grow and sustain itself.

Any resources you can share with us that you wish you found in the earlier of your career that might be helpful to other creatives?

No, I don’t. I believe every resource I have found was meant to be found at the time that I found them. Who knows if my earlier professional self would have been interested or able to fully absorb and put those resources into practice in they way I have. While parts of me do wish I might have made different decisions at points, I don’t have any regrets for anything I might have missed back then. That might sound facetious, but I trust that we are meant to learn certain things at their own place and time.

I think the only thing I might wish was to know I had more paths to choose from for learning instead solely the influence of the American academic system and family. This way I could better equip me to make the best choices for myself instead doing it to pleasing others.

These are just a few resources that have helped my journey. There are so many out there. While they can be helpful, I encourage you to question and research everything you read to make sure it’s a good fit for you:

For the mind, body, spirit, and soul:
Never Broken: Songs are only half the story – Jewel
The Power of Now – Eckhart Tolle
The Gifts of Imperfection – Brene Brown
The Power of Habit – Charles Duhigg
The Alchemist – Paulo Coelho
The Way to Love – Anthony de Mello
Boundaries – Henry Cloud and John Townsend

For music career:
All You Need To Know About The Music Business – Donald S. Passman (newest edition)
How to Make it in the New Music Business – Ari Herstandt (newest edition)
The $150,000 music degree – Rick Barker
The Music Lesson (both books) – Victor L. Wooten

Contact Info:

• Website: https://www.sarah-lightman.com/
• Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/sarahlightman/
• Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/sarahlightmansings/
• Linkedin: https://www.linkedin.com/in/sarah-lightman-44420653/
• Twitter: https://www.Twitter.com/sarahlightman/
• Youtube: https://www.youtube.com/sarahlightmanandfriends
• Other: Twitch: https://www.twitch.tv/sarahlightman TikTok: https://www.tiktok.com/@sarahlightman? Patreon: https://www.patreon.com/sarahlightman Discord: https://discord.com/invite/sarahlightman Music: https://open.spotify.com/artist/3H810UEs5PUINLP9JTNAsc https://music.apple.com/us/artist/sarah-lightman/1160994950 https://sarahlightman.bandcamp.com/ Track my Live Shows: https://www.bandsintown.com/a/15183578-sarah-lightman

Image Credits
Other than the street performing photo, these photos were taken in Los Angeles by Mellie J Photography