We were lucky to catch up with Kimi Tortuga recently and have shared our conversation below.

Kimi, appreciate you joining us today. Earning a full time living from one’s creative career can be incredibly difficult. Have you been able to do so and if so, can you share some of the key parts of your journey and any important advice or lessons that might help creatives who haven’t been able to yet?

Hi, thanks for having me!  Yes, I’ve been able to earn a more than decent living through my artistry. I have a saying: when you follow your dreams, the universe rewards you with abundance.

While that includes material wealth such as consistent revenue, housing, and beautiful clothing, it also means an abundance of joy and confidence in oneself and capacity for success. The leap of faith required to go full-time as an artist is enormous, but the rewards are immeasurable.

That said, the struggle to survive the beginnings of entrepreneurship is very real. I’ve been an artist my entire life, beginning in music at age 5 with piano. But my family was never well-to-do, and most of them are or were teachers and administrators in public education. It was my mother that gave me piano lessons and paid for my instruments in concert and marching band.

As a young adult, I never had large amounts of capital to invest, and no one contributed a cent to my venture – and I never asked. On the contrary, I worked in industries ranging from private education to retail sales to ultimately payroll processing for small businesses in the southeastern United States.

The payroll position taught me so much about how to legally run a business. Then I thought, “you know, I think I can do this myself!” So, I used the money I earned from that job to fund what would eventually become my career – though I still didn’t know it then!

I would buy musical instruments like guitars, digital pianos, and ukuleles, as well as recording equipment to produce my original music and share it with the world. And I would also perform here and there to practice my craft and earn a little extra cash. But even still at that point, I didn’t think of myself as a legitimate artist. I considered myself an enthusiast, if anything. In truth, I had become used to mediocrity because I was terribly afraid of failure.

Despite my apprehension, I still had a vivid imagination and grand sense of adventure. When I was 24, I embarked on a journey that radically changed my life: I set off to Costa Rica to do some soul searching, among other things, and it was there that I put my solo acoustic performance skills to task. It was great to practice my craft and the business of making money at it, especially in a different country!  Budgeting, separating personal expenses from business costs, and networking were all new things I had to learn how to do.

After nearly 3 years of living in Central America and globetrotting about Europe, I moved back to the US to complete my undergraduate anthropology coursework at USFSP, teaching music lessons and doing live performances between classes.  Not soon after, I came to the realization that I didn’t have to work for someone else to be successful, and that I also didn’t have to live up to anyone’s expectations of what they think I should be doing academically or professionally.  It’s my life and I do what I want.  So, I founded my business in 2018 and committed to etching out my own path through music.  And it was then that I discovered how life is so much sweeter when you fulfill your own dreams instead of someone else’s.

Not only did I graduate from university in 2019, but I also ended up earning the most money I had ever earned at any job at any point and time in my life that year. It was an incredible and surreal experience to look at the fruits of my labor and say: “I did that. That was all me!” Ever since then, I’ve invested a lot of time, energy, and resources into developing my brand and making sure my business stands on its own two feet.  My success – and I cannot stress this enough – began with giving myself enough credit and faith to make it all happen.

Great, appreciate you sharing that with us. Before we ask you to share more of your insights, can you take a moment to introduce yourself and how you got to where you are today to our readers?

My name is Kimi Tortuga and I’m a singer-songwriter, multi-instrumentalist, music producer, instructor, performer, and small business owner hailing from Tampa, Florida.

I’ve always been a musician and performer, but it wasn’t until my mid-twenties that I pursued a career in the industry.  Like many other artists, I had to overcome several obstacles, most of which were in my mind, to get to where I am today.  While a lack of major capital has played a minor role in these challenges, most of my hang ups have existed solely in my mind.  Low self-esteem, and fear of connecting with others, for example, held me hostage for a long time.

This adversity, however, became a source of strength and wisdom, and provided me with some excellent writing material that has helped and encouraged me to commune with other like-minded artists. Having confidence and trusting in myself that I am enough as I am and that I’m great, too, did not come easily, and some days it remains narrowly out of reach. But then I look back on how far I’ve come personally and professionally and use those facts to support my heart’s call for the self-love I deserve – and the pay I deserve.

That said, I am all in when it comes to making sure my brand and my business are successful, no matter the circumstances. Failure to keep the business thriving is not an option, and its success reflects how I honor and love myself. That’s the thing I’m most proud of.

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

The best thing society can do to support creatives is to simply let us be who and what we want to be without imposing their expectations onto us.

“My Future Self,” my newest release, is about that exactly: “I’ll be walking my own way” is part of the refrain.  More often than not, people tell me what they think I should be doing with my career and advise me on what I should wear, or even how I should respond to inappropriate behaviors from audience members during a performance.  Totally unsolicited!

It would be fantastic if the public came to an exhibition to see and hear and experience, and then discuss their opinions with their friends over dinner.  People they actually know, not the artist putting their entire soul on display.  We don’t owe spectators anything; the normative of selling oneself to the public for fame is incredibly unhealthy and inauthentic.

Learning and unlearning are both critical parts of growth – can you share a story of a time when you had to unlearn a lesson?

A wonderful lesson I learned was that I did not actually have to placate the audience; that I could just be myself and that would draw in the right people. For me, the right people are considerate and authentic folks that live life for the sake of really, truly living, not to play an assigned role.

Someone once told me “there’s always another gig,” and I never forgot that. If you’re offered work that involves elements that don’t jive with your brand or ethics, just politely decline and keep it moving. You’ll be better than fine.

Contact Info:

• Website: www.kimitortuga.com
• Instagram: www.instagram.com/kimitortuga
• Facebook: www.facebook.com/kimitortugamusic

Image Credits
Photos by James Zambon and Don Scott