We caught up with the brilliant and insightful Savannah Marshall a few weeks ago and have shared our conversation below.

Savannah, thanks for joining us, excited to have you contributing your stories and insights. I’m sure there have been days where the challenges of being an artist or creative force you to think about what it would be like to just have a regular job. When’s the last time you felt that way? Did you have any insights from the experience?

I am (relieved to say) happy with myself. I enjoy who I am, and wouldn’t change my identity even if I could. My identity is strongly rooted as a musician, so therefore yes, I am happy being who I am. Blessed even. In terms of how I apply my identity towards my vocation, that relationship is always being assessed. I approach the world with a creative mindset, and believe that I can make a living doing what makes me happy (a privileged mindset, for sure). What makes me happy includes playing the drums, working with people and at times offering them education in an area I feel qualified to share expertise in, and making food for people. Aside from being a musician and a music educator, I own a small business called Fresh Beets that is dedicated to making food and music a part of the daily ritual. Through that business, I have hosted music festivals, offered free music lessons to kids in our local area, vended food at farmer’s markets and breweries with my popup equipment, and currently am selling breakfast tacos at a cafe in my city. I actually work at that cafe as an employee while selling my own goods at the shop, so I make out very well with that arrangement.
My creative interests are multi-faceted, so therefore my revenue streams are diverse. If one were to imagine my wealth as the ocean, there are many small streams that feed into the larger system. I’m not always involved with every job at the same time. Some seasons are for music gigs, other seasons are for education, others still are for selling tacos, and certainly, all seasons have overlap among all of my vocations. But I am the architect, and I design each of my days and my overall life experience. I feel that if I had a regular job (I did teach at just one school full time a couple years ago), I would not have as many opportunities to satisfy my needs as a creative. I would be asking one job to be my everything, and I know that it couldn’t be. By diversifying my income through all of my creative projects, it allows my needs to be met more fully and completely. When my needs are met, I can be more aligned with my art and with myself.

As always, we appreciate you sharing your insights and we’ve got a few more questions for you, but before we get to all of that can you take a minute to introduce yourself and give our readers some of your back background and context?

My name is Savannah Marshall, and I am a musician and creative entrepreneur living in Massachusetts. I have been playing the drums for most of my life, and knew music was my ultimate calling when it was time to go to college and major in something. I pursued a degree in music education, and then in Community Music, believing that music is one of the best vehicles to connect ourselves to the human experience. During my time in graduate school, we were asked to dream up a non-profit business idea we could see ourselves leading as a class project. I meditated on other areas which ignited my passion for connection besides music, and realized that food holds similar power in bringing people together. Both food and music are emphasized in cultures for celebration, ritual, and special occasions, just as they are used every day to simply keep us alive. I wondered what I could offer the world by bringing food and music together more regularly to help nurture folks’ daily experience. Through this thinking, I crafted the idea for my business Fresh Beets. Fresh Beets started as a class project, and has evolved into a sole proprietorship that provides quality food and musical opportunities as parts of it’s evolving offerings. As a class project, I imagined Fresh Beets would be a food truck/music venue combo vehicle. The truck would park and a fold down stage would drop from the back, bringing a musical performance to any street corner, while slinging fresh, healthy, vegetarian street food. I wanted to turn any area into an instant block party, and provide access to quality sounds and tastes.
Since imagining this scenario, Fresh Beets has been operational as often as I personally would like to run it, as it exists now as a sole proprietorship. I have accessed grant funding to host music festivals in parks in my city while selling my food there as well. I have also vended food at farmer’s markets (while selling local CDs or band merch if unable to book music performances at a market), breweries, backyard parties, and more. I currently have a grab-and-go breakfast taco business established at a local cafe under Fresh Beets. The more I consider the food truck/music venue vision, I continue to realize barriers to entry and other obstacles. These don’t discourage me from perusing Fresh Beets, but they do cause me to consider changing course. Just because you have a great idea doesn’t mean you can’t go back to the drawing board to see how feasible, or even desirable it truly is. When you’re a creative, you can easily morph and adjust your ideas to fit better within your means, and your ever changing personal goals. Fresh Beets may never become a food truck, but it can become an institution in my city known for providing elevated experiences with food and music that are accessible and affordable to many.
Aside from working on Fresh Beets, I currently perform with 5 original bands in the Boston area and am a musician for hire. Playing music was my first passion in life, and I’m generous with allotting time to keeping this creative part of myself satisfied. I also teach music on a seasonal basis, and hope to at least live and lead by example, whether I’m being paid to teach anyone, or not. I am privileged to chart a course of my own design, and wish to inspire others to take steps towards their own happiness, either in their professional or personal lives. I say, why not both?

Can you tell us about a time you’ve had to pivot?

I was in graduate school for Community Music during my early/mid twenties, and until that point had been working as a music educator. In school I was honing skills that would help me work with folks of all ages and abilities to give them unique and meaningful musical experiences. I won an award from the Massachusetts Music Educator’s Association for “Most Promising Young Educator,” and believed I was right on track to do whatever it was that I set out for after graduation. I could imagine myself being a band director for a high school, or maybe owning a private lesson studio. The longer I stayed in college, the more opportunities I could imagine for myself. When I started working on a class project asking me to dream up a non-profit organization, I imagined Fresh Beets. My concept for my fictional food truck/music venue business was so compelling to my professor, he suggested I pursue it in an idea competition at the school, the prize for which was a few thousand dollars that would be applied directly to my concept. I couldn’t accept the prize money and stash it away in a savings account… I asked. Lo and behold, a few months later, I was awarded $4,000 to seed this business that I conceived as a class project. Suddenly, my whole world changed. I was granted the opportunity to actually follow through on this mere idea, and I realized I needed a lot more experience to make this investment successful.
After I finished my classes for graduate school, I relocated for about 5 months to Austin, Texas, because they have the highest concentration of food trucks per capita in the country. I got a job working on a food truck to see if I even liked that kind of work. I had never worked in the restaurant industry before! As a person freshly graduated from music school, I started focusing on getting jobs in restaurants instead of schools or music studios. I made most of my income the next few years working in restaurants trying to gain much needed experience before truly starting my business. At times, I felt like some kind of cliche… the musician working at a coffee shop or in a dish pit to afford their creative life style. Sometimes, I worried that was what I appeared to be to other people. But deep down, I knew how unapplicable that cliche actually was to my life. I was intentionally working in restaurants as a way to gain experience I was planning to apply to my own artistic vision. Each time I applied to work in a new restaurant, I was transparent about my motivation to work there, and the experience I was hoping to gain and later use in my own business. Each business owner was happy to have me, and happy to teach me their ways. I found out that restaurants are actually really into comradery, skill sharing, and elevating the scene, just as musicians are. Sure there’s always a degree of competition, secret sauce, or signature sound that folks hold close to the chest, But all in all, it doesn’t matter what the application is, creatives are on the planet to share what they have. I’ve benefited from this generosity in so many ways, and from folks I never would have met or worked with if not for winning a little idea competition in college. I chose to put music education on hold, and have appreciated the years spent exploring the restaurant industry. Turns out, I really enjoy it!

Is there something you think non-creatives will struggle to understand about your journey as a creative? Maybe you can provide some insight – you never know who might benefit from the enlightenment.

I feel that from some folks who hold a more conventional job, perhaps working for someone else or for a big company that offers benefits and securities, there is a sense that creatives do what they do because they don’t have the _______ (Fill in the blank, “discipline, willpower, dedication, attention span, work ethic, drive, maturity…”) to be successful at a “real job.” I’m here to tell those folks choosing a conventional career, this belief is unfounded and should not be tolerated. We all make choices. Each choice is unique to the person and seeks to serve the individual. If one’s choice is to work a conventional job, good luck to you. If another’s choice is to play acoustic guitar gigs and also work in a restaurant, good luck to you, too! Choosing one shape for a career does not dictate your values. There is value (or lack thereof) in everything we do, and that is dependent upon the individual. The decision regarding how you spend your time and earn your money is your own. May you approach your craft with dignity and integrity, whatever your craft may be!

Contact Info:

• Instagram: @street_fresh_beets
• Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/freshbeetstruck
• Other: https://linktr.ee/savannah.marshall