Hello, I'm [ m o t h ]!
I'm an instrumental music composer (60+ compositions), musician (12 instruments) and software creator (12+ apps). I also write books and my writing has gotten fairly funny lately and that has been a nice, stressful development.
I played 2,000 gigs on trombone and bass in the 1990's and have played music on 4 continents. They were fairly small gigs, but I was often on the front of the stage improvising. I made about $170,000 doing that to give you an idea of the scope of it.
I've been making all of my money coding software since 2007, working exclusively from home. I've been working part time at the software thing which has allowed me to continue with my music and writing. I've been posting my music on my website(s) for 25 years. I consider the internet my STAGE, although I have never made any money from it.
I'm fairly eccentric and some PTSD events from decades ago (struggling to make a living as a solo musician) including some physical damage, which makes it much more practical to work from home. I haven't made money coding software for 1.5 years, but I did manage to make $132,000 at in in 2022.
So.
I've been planning a solo music/comedy tour this last month. I started putting together some "comedy notes" and "recording pieces" so I can be a little more organized on the stage, although I probably could just improvise every night (or morning) without these additional assets (OK, that might be slightly delusional, but then again, maybe not). My big plan for the show is/was to pay an assistant a ton of money to handle all of the personal interaction and gear moving to help me get from the stage to my hotel room as seamless as possible so I can have a decently normal life. I travel extremely well, but I'm getting old and really just want my website to generate money since it is my stage. I've never made a dime from it though.
What should I do? (or rather "what would you do as my manager" as I am quite busy with all this other stuff) Thoughts yesterday about trying to monetize my website [ again ]. Should I put a PayPal button on it? Some kind of Venmo button on it? I still code software every day even though I don't get paid for it. My "internal-external critic tells me that I should focus on music rather than coding software, but I love coding software. Perhaps you could help me get a book publishing contract? I write about 350 pages a year. I think I may even be able to write some fiction now.
I always feel like I'm begging or something doing this, but you know, I just need help with this management stuff! I do not have the social skills or whatever it is to do this!
I tend to look for a better housing situation and write them creative letters about my eccentric lifestyle. Stuff about being a haggard old internet music star who is like an old, happy cat who has been on a lot of adventures and is sitting in the sun on a blanket by a window sipping black espresso all day. Getting up to stretch and do a shoulder stand like Bat"man". Heading to the kitchen to make a vegan/vegetarian curry or fire up the wok. I pressure cook batches of brown rice to have with my old fashioned oats in the morning.
You see, I'm a transwoman and I painted my toenails pink for the first time yesterday! For the last decade, I'd occasionally paint them neon yellow. This last month I've been enjoying "tucking". It's not the most pleasant thing, but I like it well enough to do it around the house for a few hours a day even though I live alone. I plan to do this out in the world in the future, but I don't know, it may hinder my movements. We'll see?!.
Essentially, I have enough old artifacts from my work and I still enjoy working enough (I'm 53yo), that I still produce more. My social skills are poor enough that I have no negotiating "power". It seems reasonable that a decent, mid-level, business manager would be able to work some deal reasonably quickly, to capitalize on my assets and skills so that I can continue to bask in basic food/clothing/shelter and you may, well, I don't know what you like, but maybe you could fly to a tropical island or something and remember me once in a while with that vision of the cat with the smile by the window doing shoulder stands and drinking espresso?
Something like that.
[ m o t h ] - for, 4, u, them, trans-granny, thing, it, dj?, bone-head
