We caught up with the brilliant and insightful Allen C. Paul a few weeks ago and have shared our conversation below.

Allen C., thanks for joining us, excited to have you contributing your stories and insights. Have you been able to earn a full-time living from your creative work? If so, can you walk us through your journey and how you made it happen? Was it like that from day one? If not, what were some of the major steps and milestones and do you think you could have sped up the process somehow knowing what you know now?

My journey to full-time living from creative work is proof that there is no one-size fits all model to this lifestyle. I started my creative life as a musician, but that quickly became a side hustle to my full-time work as a elementary school teacher and then a full-time minister of music. In fact, you could say that while both of my full-time jobs involved music, I gave up the idea of creating for myself because I just didn’t think I had the time or energy.

The major shift came when I decided to resign from that full-time position in ministry, and instantly recognized that I had little to no understanding of how to make a living as a musician who relied on performances. That led to many months of freelancing and learning the business of gigging and working in the local music scene, which became the source material for my book God and Gigs.

The second major milestone in this creative journey came as I began my podcast, The God and Gigs Show. While I knew next to nothing about podcasting, this medium quickly became my go-to during the pandemic and I had a lot of great experience learning to produce my own show. My experience became the catalyst to being hired by my current church to run our podcast team as well as our musical bands.

In all, my various experiences in using creativity as both my full-time job and my side-hustles have led to a harmonious balance of both worlds, in which my income comes from several different sources, but all flowing from my passions for music, education, and podcasting.

Allen C., 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?

Whenever people ask me to describe myself, I boil it down to four words…

Husband, father, creative, forgiven.

That brief description also helps define what I do as well as who I am. I’ve dedicated my life to helping creatives like me to thrive in every area of their lives – family, faith and their careers – while excelling in any creative marketplace.

I’ve written 4 books, published devotionals on YouVersion (the world’s largest Bible app), produce 4 podcasts including one ranking in the top 50 of Religious and Spiritual Podcasts on Spotify, spoken to podcasters in national conferences, and I’ve helped reach thousands of people weekly through my ministry work with Metro Life Church in Miami, FL. All of these efforts have put my creative gifts in the forefront and shown me a purpose that I can follow.

The road to that purpose was anything but smooth, however.

Growing up in Northwest Florida, I played piano at my family’s church while studying classical piano. I was fortunate to win some statewide awards, play with the Tampa Bay Symphony at age 18, and get into the University of Miami School of Music on a full scholarship.

I tried playing in local bands for a while, but at the time I was disenchanted with the life of a freelance musician. As a result I spent 8 years as a music teacher in Miami-Dade schools as well as a musician at a church in Richmond Heights, where I eventually was promoted to the full-time staff.

In 2009 I felt the pull to resign from my position and start my music career afresh in so I began attending local open mics and reacquainting myself with the South Florida music scene.

I began working more often, and had the pleasure of working with many local artists. Inevitably after our gigs, we would get to talking about our lives, and I always found that we had similar issues – balancing working as entertainers with family responsibilities, career insecurities, and trying to make ends meet financially.

Not only that, it seemed we had spiritual similarities. Many of them worked or played in local churches but didn’t feel like their leaders understood their challenges as artists in the entertainment industry.

To address these questions, I wrote down my thoughts, which turned into a blog, God and Gigs. In April 2015 one of my posts went viral and I realized there were many other artists who wanted to share their stories. So, I held a Kickstarter, raised $7,000 and began writing my full-length self-help book for these musicians. I published it in 2016 and it was a #1 hot seller on Amazon. I began holding local workshops soon after for musicians and freelance artists which were well-attended. In 2017 I began a podcast, The God and Gigs Show, and we’re now headed toward our 300th episode and have interviewed Grammy winning musicians and creatives, including people who have worked with the greatest artists of all time – Aretha Franklin, Prince and many others.

In the midst of all this, I continue my music career and I’ve had the change to support amazing musicians in events like Jazz in The Gardens and the Juneteenth celebration at the Adrienne Arsht Center. The main thing I’m proud of in my work is the relationships I’ve built with high-character creatives who care about each other and their work. That’s how I’m building my coaching and membership businesses – God and Gigs 360 – by showing them the true way to success is through community.

What’s a lesson you had to unlearn and what’s the backstory?

The greatest lesson I’ve had to unlearn is the idea of “building an audience”. So many people in my musical life made it seem like the only way to be successful is to have a ton of people buying my music, but that never worked. In fact, I spent thousands of dollars creating a recording only to shelve it and give up promoting because I didn’t have an audience.

Now, I have thrown away the silly notions of audience building and I’ve wholly embrace community as the key to lasting success. Audiences fade, communities stay together. That one lesson has helped me build several new communities, including our Sit Sing Swing group that attends our jazz concerts bi-annually, and our God and Gigs community which supports each other through chat, social media and monthly zoom meetings.

It’s all about community.

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

The biggest pivot in my life was when I handed my senior manager (an executive pastor) my resignation as he was handing me my promotion.

I had made a decision to walk away from the only job I thought I would ever have – as a full-time minister of music – because I felt God was calling me to something different. However, that’s not easy to explain to someone when they are trying to get you to elevate your position in your current area.

That pivot is what led to countless new relationships, my books, podcast career, my renewed musical career, and so much else, but it required the faith and courage to say “no” to what seemed safe and say “yes” to the unknown. And if you want anything great in life, you’ll have to make the same decision I did.

Contact Info:

• Website: https://allencpaul.com
• Instagram: https://instagram.com/allencpaul
• Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/acpwrites
• Linkedin: https://www.linkedin.com/in/allencpaul/
• Twitter: https://twitter.com/allencpaul
• Youtube: https://www.youtube.com/@godandgigs