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

Noah, looking forward to hearing all of your stories today. 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?

As any self-employed artist or entrepreneur knows, earning a full-time living from your creative work takes a an incredible amount of energy, dedication and time— but, there was one clear turning point that allowed me to finally make it a career, and this is a step I feel is often missed when folks talk about what it takes to become a full-time creator, or really, a full-time self-employed business owner of any kind.

That step is building up a 6-12 month financial cushion so that you can pursue your own business all-in without having to spend the bulk of your mental energy earning a living outside of it.

From 2010-2020, I lived in NYC, working extremely hard to make a living and build my projects, while 60% or more of my time was focused on outside work to pay the bills. By the end of each day, I was completely out of gas. I would sometimes have my days completely busy with gigs, then spend my nights pursuing my own business, or vice versa. But I was always tired, and it was affecting my personal relationships negatively as well.

When the pandemic hit, I left NYC for 2 years, and leaving behind the financial stresses of living in the big city, as well as many of the regular obligations I had while there, suddenly created this massive freedom both financially and in terms of my time. I was able to commit 100% to building my own business, putting my best daily mental energy into that instead of making a living elsewhere.

If I had known what I know now, I would have left NYC much earlier, even just for a year or two, and saved up in a much cheaper area where I could just focus completely on my own business. I think there’s a good chance I would have built it into a full-time career much sooner, and perhaps be much further along by now. So, don’t underestimate the power of changing your living situation so that you can save as much money as possible, then go in 100% full-force on your dreams for a good chunk of time. It may be just what you need to break through.

Noah, 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?

My career path was “I want to be a spy” at age 5, straight to “I want to be a jazz pianist” at age ten. As I grew up, though, what wasn’t clear was how jazz piano would earn me a living. I am now very proud and simultaneously humbled to say that I have an audience of around 350,000 between YouTube and Instagram. I work diligently to provide the highest quality musical education, both in the form of free content, and thoughtful, value-packed online courses focusing on unique methods for learning modern music.

I think one idea that sets my online presence apart is that I focus on taking modern music concepts (oftentimes skills, techniques, or just styles that haven’t really been broken down yet because they’re so new), and do my best to provide subscribers with clear, step-by-step methods for learning to play that way or use those ideas for composition.

Often times, because the ideas I’m working on are at the forefront of improvised music, I find myself coming up with new methods of teaching concepts that haven’t been taught before to my knowledge— which makes it really fun for both myself and my students.

Let’s talk about resilience next – do you have a story you can share with us?

As your audience grows, so does the group of people who are ready to call you out if you make a mistake, or sometimes even for other reasons you never would have predicted.

At one point, when my channel was growing, I released a video that immediately sparked backlash about its inaccuracy. I remember as I saw the comments come in, I was mortified. People who knew the subject I was talking about better than me were calling me out for not having done my homework.

So the first thing I did was check if I agreed with what they were saying, i.e. was my video inaccurate and did I need to do more homework. In this case, I decided they were right, so I publicly apologized and told my audience what happened and that I agreed with the inaccuracy, took the video down, did a bunch of research, and re-uploaded a completely new version. I think people really appreciated that.

No matter what, we all make mistakes, and chances are, we’re gonna get things wrong from time to time. That experience taught me that if you’re willing to own up to it and do the work to correct it, people really can be understanding and appreciative of the effort you put in, and they can forgive the mistakes you make along the way.

Have you ever had to pivot?

One thing I didn’t mention before is that I have dealt with crippling injuries on and off throughout my piano career. To be perfectly honest, I really thought my career path was to be 100% a performer, and one of the best ones on the planet at that (at least that was my goal).

But life had different plans for me— I later found out I have a genetic nerve condition that affects my muscles and connective tissue, and to this day I live with recurring injuries that slow down my piano playing and practice severely.

So I really had to accept that I’m not physically built to practice, or even perform, for hours upon hours, day after day, like many folks are. And that wasn’t easy to accept, because to this day, a big part of me still wants to be doing that.

But, finding the incredible community online of people who love diving into the nerdy side of improvised music has been life-changing, career-building, and just overall so uplifting and empowering.

I feel so confident that no matter what your interest, if you share that interest in a form of valuable content and put it out into the world, you will find your tribe of people who will not only become your friends, but also a community that will support you in many other ways, including financially. So if your goal is to build an online presence, remember to be patient— keep putting your content out there consistently, and improving it, and your tribe WILL find you.

Contact Info:

• Website: https://www.noahkellman.com
• Instagram: @noahkellman
• Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/NoahKellmanMusic/
• Twitter: https://twitter.com/noahkellman
• Youtube: https://www.youtube.com/noahkellman
• Other: My Education Business: https://www.neojazzacademy.com

Image Credits
For the first photo of me I uploaded, please credit to “Creswick Collective”