We recently connected with Lauren Hall and have shared our conversation below.

Hi Lauren, thanks for joining us today. Are you 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?

Yes, I am a full-time musician as of October 2022!

It took me a very long time to get here, and to be honest, I didn’t know it would ever be possible.
I pursued music as a side project a majority of my life, hopping on collaborative projects with other creatives and musicians, lending my voice wherever it was needed, auditioning for shows, etc. I never had a full plan of where music was going to take me, but I knew that, one day, in a perfect, dream world, it would be my career.

I studied Advertising and Marketing in college. As a full-time student-athlete (soccer) at a Division 1 college (Ball State University), I did not have the time to dedicate myself to studying music in college. For 4 years, I would slip into practice rooms in between classes, soccer practices, games to get my music “fix”.

Post-graduation, I moved to LA to “pursue music”. The truth is, I didn’t know what that actually meant. I ran around like a chicken with my head cut off for a few years, working odd jobs to pay rent and bills while singing whenever I could. I didn’t make a dime off of music for 3 years.

On my 3rd year of living in LA, I decided to audition for The Voice (for the 7th time). On the 7th audition, I made it onto the show. Fast forward a few months and I had made it to the Top 32 of the show, but was eventually eliminated. Through that experience on the show, I met a TON of talented, working musicians. These fellow musicians are really who taught me what how to make a living off of music. Now there are many routes a musician can take to make a living off of their work, but I always knew my route was going to be “gigging”.

After I was eliminated from the show (Fall of 2019), I hit the ground running. I contacted as many venues as I could and secured gig after gig, using my momentum from my time on The Voice. I traveled up and down the Central Coast of California, playing gigs at wineries, breweries, restaurants, bars, you name it, all while also working part-time at a restaurant in West Hollywood. I was finally seeing some financial gain out of gigging! It was exhilarating!

Fast forward a few months and COVID hits. All of the gigs that I had planned for the next 6 months were canceled, indefinitely. The restaurant I worked at closed down. Just like that, I had no financial means.

I moved back to the suburbs of Chicago to stay with my family during the lockdown. I eventually got a full-time job working for a Credit Union.

In May 2021, I decided that I would move to the city of Chicago and test my “gigging” luck out here. I sent cold reach-out emails to just about every music venue in Chicago, hoping to get a response. Luckily, there was a HUGE need for live musicians, piano bar musicians specifically. Then began my piano bar career, starting with Chicago’s most iconic piano bar, The Redhead Piano Bar. I like to call those first few months of piano bar gigging as “baptism by fire”.

I slowly built my venue network from there. I added other piano bars to the mix, restaurants, bars, breweries, whatever venue wanted live music, I was there. Eventually, I was booked 3-4 live shows a week.

For a year and a half, I worked full-time at this Credit Union while gigging 3-4x a week. It was exhausting, but I enjoyed the stability (and extra paycheck) from the Credit Union.

Eventually, it got to a point where, not only was I completely exhausted from juggling both jobs, but I realized I was now making almost twice as much as a musician as I was working at the Credit Union.
After a lot of thinking, I decided that it was time to quit my day job and become a full-time musician. The Credit Union was very understanding and encouraging, for they knew that my heart and passion always lied with music.

In October 2022, I officially quit my day job and became a full-time musician. It was the best decision I’ve ever made.
I have so much more time to balance my life and do things that I enjoy, other than music. It has allowed me the time to build my business and streamline my processes. Most importantly, I now have the mental space to be creative again, which has truly done wonders for me as a human and as a musician.

I truly think it all worked out in the time that it should, with all of the lessons I learned through my past experiences.

Lauren, before we move on to more of these sorts of questions, can you take some time to bring our readers up to speed on you and what you do?

I explained a lot of this in the last slide question… oops :)

I am a professional singer / songwriter. I play piano and sing. I like to think of myself as a professional vibe creator and curator.
I perform at weddings, special events, piano bars, restaurants, bars, breweries. I tailor my music selection and vibe based completely off of the venue, the occasion and the patrons. I have the ability to make people dance, laugh and cry with my music.

My job is not only to entertain, but to enhance an experience with live music.
My inspirations include Alicia Keys, Adele and Lady Gaga.

What do you find most rewarding about being a creative?

Connecting with other humans by doing what I love. It’s an incredible feeling.

How did you build your audience on social media?

I studied Advertising and Marketing, so as I learned how to market and advertise for someone else, I started to brainstorm ways to market and advertise myself.

I took a step back to view myself as a brand. I did market research by asking my friends, family and fans what they thought my “brand” was and what they enjoyed most about me and what I (uniquely) bring to the table as a creative and as human (tangible and untangible). For example: a few of mine were optimism, inspiration, light-heartedness, live music and live-streams.

Once I defined the value that I bring into others’ lives, I focused on emphasizing and strengthening those things with everything that I post on my social media.

Once I finished my time filming on The Voice, I had a few months before the show would air. I used that time to hone in on my brand and curate all of my social media presences since I knew I would get a lot of eyes on my pages when I was aired.
Once I aired, I got a huge boost of followers and engagement. During that time, I focused on letting people get to know who I was and having genuine interactions with new followers.

After The Voice was over, there was a bit of a drop-off of followers, but I continued on my momentum by keeping people engaged and sharing my music and bits of my personal life on my social media pages.
Since then, I use my social media mainly to advertise for my shows, as a sort of resumé, and to continue to build my brand and stay connected with people that come see me perform live!

Contact Info:

• Website: lahallmusic.com
• Instagram: @lahallmusic
• Facebook: facebook.com/lahallmusic
• Linkedin: https://www.linkedin.com/in/laurenahall6/
• Twitter: @lahallmusic
• Youtube: youtube.com/@lahallmusic

Image Credits
Jeremy Bell (pink background) Headley Hall (pic in sparkly outfit) Sam Parquette (studio pics with white background) Gary Watson (in orange corset and jean skirt)