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

Alright, Brittany thanks for taking the time to share your stories and insights with us today. We’d love to hear the backstory behind a risk you’ve taken – whether big or small, walk us through what it was like and how it ultimately turned out.

I was always an artist, always creative, but I was told as a child that no one in our family is creative. So that confused me for a while. I listened to them and not to me. I knew in my soul that I was always searching for spaces and places to get lost, to lose myself, not to find myself. I loved playing piano, but refused to learn how to read notes. I played by ear – big, extensive, difficult pieces, like Moonlight Sonata, I memorized and played by ear, swaying and closing my eyes as I played. But then I hit 7th grade, and I found boys (or they found me), and drugs, and hormones, and I quickly shifted towards wanting attention from others instead of paying attention to what brought me joy. I quit piano lessons, and got lost in the wrong ways for a while. My parents sold the piano. I was devastated. It felt like they were giving up on me. That was 30 years ago.

This month, I started taking piano lessons again. I am learning how to read music. I am practicing every day at home, as my children sing along and sit on my lap and pull and tug on me. They are watching me learn something new, all over again. Somehow, this is terrifying. But I am doing it anyway. One note at a time. This feels like a big risk.

When I was little people asked me what I wanted “to be” when I grew up. I never ask kids this question – I ask them what makes them feel joy, where are places where they get lost in a good way, where they lose track of time….these are the questions to ask ourselves. But adults always asked me, and I said: “I want to see the whole world and write it all down.” The risk here? Living into this dream – making the dream the truth, one written word at a time.

I started writing The Overflow – a very vulnerable, honest, personal Substack newsletter full of my experiences, particularly as a mother, and most recently, chronicling my experience losing my mother to pancreatic cancer while being a mother. I am seeing the whole world, and writing it all down, even if it doesn’t look how I imagined it. I have always believed in getting specific with the universe. I said I wanted to make money writing. So I started getting gigs editing other people’s writing. But then I took a big risk: I shifted The Overflow to a paid subscription model. It was a huge risk for me – to put myself out there – to decide my own writing is worth getting paid for. And slowly but surely, people are signing up, paying for my writing. A dream come true. And it’s giving me the confidence to finally begin writing my book – maybe a collection of essays, maybe fiction, maybe both. But books have always been my true love, and so I want to write one, and so I will! As scared as I am, I know this is another risk worth taking.

While books are my true love, music has always been my religion – evidence that the gods exist – but for that reason, I assumed I couldn’t ever work in music – I didn’t want to ruin it for myself with money and other people’s expectations. I also was always told that you couldn’t ever make it as a multi-hyphenate – being an artist is hard enough, you should focus on one discipline. That was bad advice. A big thing I’ve learned is to not listen to other people’s advice, because this is just what they would do in the situation – not what you would do. Instead, take a risk and ask them to tell you a story about their experience. Take what resonates, discard what doesn’t.

But I didn’t learn this lesson until later in life. I listened to them, and not to me, and started a career in film programming and acquisitions. Basically, I spent 10 years helping other artists get their work seen and sold. I watched thousands of films, longed to make them myself, but never shared that dream, never took that risk of being honest. I was a shadow artist, traveling to Cannes to buy films for the domestic theatrical market – but I wasn’t good at it. I was selecting films I liked, but they didn’t have “commercial value.” Finally, a filmmaker asked me to produce his feature film, and I shifted to making stuff – but it was still other people’s stuff. It’s only very recently in my career – since I got pregnant – that I started actually doing what I wanted to do. That’s why my musical artist name is “Baby Luck.” A portal opened up when I gave birth, and I am forever grateful for this blossoming. I started writing songs, singing, making music, writing essays, sharing my writing, not waiting for everything to be perfect or clear before sharing work. It’s a daily dance full of creative risks in my world, and I’m only just getting started.

Brittany, 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 am a mother, first and foremost. It is the most creative thing I do. I am constantly navigating time, space, teaching, learning, listening, paying attention, playing, organizing, managing, producing, creating art, making art, cooking, creating this life for and with my kids and husband. It is a dance and (mostly) a joy, and it is a huge task to navigate this mothering with my varied and various creative projects – the ones that have already been born and those still inside me ready and waiting to emerge.

Artistically, I’m a true multi-hyphenate. To start, I am a writer. Storytelling has always been a deep calling and I follow that call. I write screenplays for film and TV. I’m currently developing an original TV series, “The Death Doula,” for which I won the 2023 Pitch-a-thon at SeriesFest. I’m grateful to my partner and EP, Gabrielle Glore, who’s been a true supporter of my work since day 1.

I write a robust Substack newsletter, “The Overflow.” which brings my great joy, keeps me connected to my community without needing social media, and it is the playground for my writing practice, and fodder for my future book(s).

I also record a podcast, “Britt and Sax”, with my husband, Old Man Saxon, which is our way of recording and time stamping our lives, one day at a time. We’ll do this as long as it helps us both and helps our marriage.

I’m a filmmaker. I’ve produced, directed and written a number of features and short films, web series, and music videos. Currently, I’m in the early stages of development on both a short film and music video, both of which I plan to shoot with my husband, Old Man Saxon, in spring of 2024.

We’ve also just co-founded our healing arts non-profit, Three Things. I offer storytelling, life review, and doula services to older adults. Saxon is focused on bringing afro-futurism and music to youth. We work with clients such as Denver Public Library and Denver Public Schools, and I’m very excited to expand our offerings in 2024.

I’m also a recording artist and DJ, “Baby Luck,” with numerous songs and mixes released on prominent electronic record labels. I’m excited to begin producing tracks for other artists and explore song writing for other artists in 2024.

I’m really proud of keeping my writing practice up through all life’s ups and downs, especially during this past year. My mom was diagnosed with stage 4 pancreatic cancer on August 19th of last year. She became an ancestor this July 13th. Throughout this time, she always told me to “keep writing.” So I do, and so I will.

I trained to become a Death Doula with the Peaceful Presence Project, so I could better help myself help my mother during her transition from life to death. I’m creating fiction around the reality of this grief, loss and life. I’m excited to offer support to those at the end of their lives and their loved ones.

I’m proud of winning Best Underground Music Video, with a video that came to me in a dream, and I made it come true, with an incredible cast and crew here in Denver. It’s for my song, “Cute” (with Kevin Knapp, my best friend) and it features his wife, Hutchtastic, and my whole family. It’s a dope ass video and I’m super proud of what we all co-created.

I love making films in our homes. I am proud of my short film, “Wolf,” another film I made in our home, when I was pregnant with my 2nd child (unbeknownst to me!) based on a short story I wrote about the grief surrounding my abortion. It played in a number of film festivals and it was so cathartic and healing to make that film with my incredible crew, funded 100% by friends and family.

I’m really proud of Unsent – a live show and forthcoming podcast I co-created with the incredible Hanna Bowens, where brave souls get on the mic to share messages they wrote but never sent. It’s cathartic and entertaining and we love co-hosting these shows. We partnered with Warner Bros. Discovery 150 to develop a TV series based on real Unsent letters a few years ago, and we’re still developing this project. The opportunities are endless!

Overall, I’m proud of being brave in my work, and sharing my work. I look forward to what wants to come to life from my creative garden in 2024!

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

I used to run a program at Sundance Institute. It was a big deal and it impressed a lot of people. And I quit. People thought I was “crazy,” but I saw the never-ending path – I would never make my own work if I kept a job like that. I would always be comparing myself, longing to be on the stage, always working hard to climb the ladder, always working for people who wanted more time and energy from me, and I was getting run down. My health started to crumble, I was getting a divorce, I was trying to produce a film and adapt a novel I optioned into a screenplay – I felt like I had to do it all and I was falling apart. I quit. I left LA, got a U-Haul, and moved back in with my parents for a year in Oakland. I was 33. I was embarrassed and ashamed, AND deeply grateful for the break from the film industry, an industry I’ve never felt comfortable in, or welcomed by, but always somehow drawn to. The time away gave me perspective. Clarity comes with distance. I started working on my own projects, and made hard decisions to let go of projects and partnerships that were keeping me down. I had to lose a lot of time and work to get free, but I did it. I had to start over, and it was hard, but I found my way and now I am finally in a place where I am creating my own work and my own life.

Have any books or other resources had a big impact on you?

Right now I’m listening to “The Creative Act” by Rick Rubin. It’s really helping me realize that I am always creating, and how I create is unique and totally fine. I’m always so worried I’m not doing enough, that I’m doing the wrong thing. And artists can always do more. There is always more to write, to say, to record, to practice. But I am learning that the real creative juices come from inside – in the stillness – the stillness I very much avoid by staying busy and drinking too much coffee. As I listen to this book in pieces, and get more still, and breathe more, I have the best ideas. They really do come from inside.

Tantra practice, yoga practice, walking, Tara Brach’s meditation podcast, and swimming – all of these practices really help me create. I would like to start my Tai Chi and Qi Gong practice in 2024. When I get still, when I breathe, and when I move with deliberate intention, the words, the ideas, the music, start to flow. The magic is in the sacred pause.

Contact Info:

• Website: https://imbabyluck.substack.com/
• Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/imbabyluck/
• Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/brittany.ballard.56/
• Linkedin: https://www.linkedin.com/in/brittany-ballard-22a4b05/
• Twitter: https://twitter.com/babyluckmusic
• Youtube: https://www.youtube.com/channel/UC_1m7GIlkFabpRCXhAtSmOQ
• Other: https://linktr.ee/iambabyluck https://threethingsco.org/