We were lucky to catch up with Travis Wackerly recently and have shared our conversation below.

Travis, thanks for taking time to share your stories with us today. Are you happy as a creative professional? Do you sometimes wonder what it would be like to work for someone else?

Before becoming a full-time musician I worked several regular jobs. I’m grateful for those jobs, but I don’t miss clocking in for someone else. I disliked just about every regular job I had and that has served positively as the motivation I needed to really make something happen with my creative work. When I hear that someone wants to go full-time with their creative work, and they currently love their regular job then it’s going to make it a little harder to get motivated. Bad things can motivate people and can be a valuable source of growth, I’m not sure why we always try to shy away from adversity.

That being said, I love being an artist and anytime I think of my past regular jobs I work that much harder to make sure I don’t have to work a regular job again. Plus, it’s not about the money but I get paid so much more as a creative than I did working a 9-5. Artists don’t have to starve. If you have the mindset that you’re a “starving artist” then you’ll be a starving artist. Put a value on your creative skills, love something so much that you work towards it, but it wouldn’t hurt to hate something so much that you’re working to distance yourself from it – like being broke, losing your freedoms or working a dreaded “real” job, but there has to be the right balance.

Awesome – so before we get into the rest of our questions, can you briefly introduce yourself to our readers.

I’m a bluegrass fiddler who found himself in the DJ world. I own a business called FCM Entertainment that works with couples who want to make the most out of their big day by going beyond just the music. I also play fiddle in a couple groups that have had some #1 hits on country radio so it’s fun to get out behind the DJ booth and play a honkytonk stage somewhere! I also wrote and published a book called Celebrate the C – Turning Academic Challenges into Real World Success. That’s a book designed to help people overcome their adversity and use it as a positive thing.

Are there any resources you wish you knew about earlier in your creative journey?

Yes. God. With every hard time I hit I have learned to rejoice because I know I’ll come out stronger and that’s one way God grows us. He is not only a resource, but a source of strength when times are tough and that keeps me going. I’ll never forget a time when I felt like I ran out of resources, I almost gave up on this situation every day but I felt like God was telling me to stick with it. I would go to sleep with an enormous amount of stress but the result was one I could only have dreamed of. So my resource when I run out of resources is God, who is the source, so why not go to him first? When I first started I didn’t know any of this and that made life pretty discouraging sometimes.

How about pivoting – can you share the story of a time you’ve had to pivot?

I just got some personal branding photos done, the pics looked great but I wasn’t real happy about how noticeable my hair loss was. I ended up trying on a cowboy hat, my wife loved it so she talked me into buying it. It didn’t take long before I realized I had done nothing to showcase my bluegrass/fiddle talents in any of my branding videos or photos so I had to go back to the drawing board to consider what I wanted my not so unique brand at the time to say about me, and how do I make it unique? I did a pivot as a way of getting back to my roots (I used to wear a cowboy hat from time to time long ago) and I had to forget about showcasing how good I can play a classical song like Canon in D, I needed to showcase some Bile Em Cabbage Down!

Contact Info:

• Website: www.traviswackerly.com
• Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/traviswackerly/
• Youtube: https://www.youtube.com/user/TravisWackerly/videos

Image Credits
Ashley Sunderland