We were lucky to catch up with Kimera Morrell recently and have shared our conversation below.

Hi Kimera, thanks for 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?

I was stuck in an aimless mindset, making music every day expecting it to just happen for me. Waiting to be discovered, and waiting for the money to finally start flowing in. But it wasn’t happening.

Until one day, a producer friend I wrote songs with asked me if he could pay me to record vocals on a song he had written. Having that first exchange of my talent for actual dollars was the huge eureka I needed to switch my mindset. The problem for me lied in not believing I could monetize my voice. I had no proof that could be a reality. But in denial, I just kept creating. It was that moment of receiving that I felt a shift.

Woa… I can make money… singing.

So I started spreading the word, posting to social media that I was available for hire, telling friends to tell friends, and then: discovering the possibilities of the internet. It’s like I was blind to what was right in front of me the whole time. And it’s name was Google.

I started discovering websites where I could offer my recording services, and then even started asking the question, “how else can I monetize my voice?”

I now have about 20 music revenue streams and make a healthy multi six figure salary SINGING on my own schedule. Life is a dream.

Kimera, 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?

Music is in my blood; my father played french horn in orchestras and my mother is a beautiful soprano. I took after mom, singing is my biggest passion. I didn’t know what I was going to do for a career when I was in high school, but I knew music had to be part of it. So I went to college to become a recording engineer.

Good thing about learning to record is needing something to record, so that’s how I began songwriting and recording my own voice. I just so happened to be from the same town as Louis Bell (Post Malone, Camilla Cabello, Halsey), and was able to learn a lot about vocal production from him as he developed myself and two other artists in a girl group. When the girl group disbanded, I asked myself what they had that I didn’t, and it was awesome sounding songs. So I began my pursuit of become a skilled writer and vocal producer.

Enter Myspace – I was able to find new producers online who could send me beats and I could write and record to them. This lead to me to finding my first management team who got me signed to Sony ATV as a songwriter.

Sounds cool to get signed, but it actually was a really tough road for me. Having all my publishing owned by this mega company meant I could not work with any sync licensing agencies to get my music in tv and film. The management company was toxic, and I found my career going no where.

After reading my contract a hundred times, I walked into a meeting to negotiate myself out of my deal, and I was successful.

That new found freedom was timed right around when I had my eureka and a friend hired me to record vocals. I now saw a clear mission and created an action plan to figure out how to finally make money with my music in a practical and sustainable way.

My mission was accomplished, and now a new mission is ahead. I am now helping other singers build their own businesses, earning a great living from their own home studios. It took me 10 years of stumbling around the music industry to figure out what to do, and now that I know, I want to spare singer’s from the struggling musician myth.

You can make money with your voice. You can support yourself very comfortably as a full time independent singer. And you can start today.

What do you find most rewarding about being a creative?

The most rewarding aspect of being an artist with a successful business is freedom with my time. Hands down, having the freedom to work when I want, when I feel, is the best ever.

I’m super motivated, so I do work a lot. I get things done efficiently. But I do so on my time.

Many days I start slow, maybe go to the beach for a run first, and get my nature time in. I’ll sit in the car overlooking the ocean and write a song for a client then go home and record it… if I feel like it! Sometimes I let that be all I accomplished for the day and just enjoy a beautiful day. Usually when I do that, the next day is super productive.

It’s an easy going lifestyle, and yet everything that needs to get done gets done.

Any insights you can share with us about how you built up your social media presence?

I’m definitely an instagrammer! I post helpful videos about recording vocals and making money in music all the time @kimeramorrell.

I have a spreadsheet with the categories of topics I talk about, and then titles of each video per topic. I cycle through each topic each time I post. I’ll spend an entire day making a big batch of videos and then keep them in topic folders in Google Drive so I can just download them to my phone on the day I post them.

As far as building though, I think it’s wise to dabble in many different marketing strategies, and they will all lend a hand to each other. So a little blogging, SEO, email marketing, social media posting, and good PR work such as being a guest speaker on panels or other community events, and of course being interviewed like this! Every different effort will build your audience across the board.

Contact Info:

• Website: https://www.kimeramorrell.com/
• Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/kimeramorrell/
• Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/kimeramorrell/
• Youtube: https://www.youtube.com/@KimeraMorrellMusic
• Other: Looking to hire Kimera for vocal work, or download her acapellas? You can do that at https://kimerav.com/

Image Credits
Sara Saleh https://www.instagram.com/ynbystudios/