78: Cathy Heller | Being Creative in Spite of Your Day Job

Success Strategies

Cathy Heller shares her journey to success in the music industry, emphasizing the importance of persistence and learning from others. She recounts her early struggles with unsatisfying jobs before realizing the need to involve others in her creative process to turn her passion into a profitable business 1. Cathy highlights the value of mentorship and surrounding oneself with successful individuals, drawing inspiration from figures like Bill Burr and Tony Robbins 2.

The difference between a hobby and a business I realized is other people. If it's a hobby, do whatever you want and enjoy it and more power to you. But as soon as you're like, “I would love to make dollar bills from doing this so I can pay a mortgage and buy sushi.” Well somebody else is going to pay you that, so they need to be involved.

--- Cathy Heller

Her approach underscores the necessity of continuous learning and adapting to achieve long-term success.

   

Music Licensing

Cathy Heller delves into the practicalities of licensing music for commercials and media, a niche she mastered through strategic research and understanding client needs. She explains how studying the preferences of directors and brands like Coca-Cola helped her tailor her music to fit their mandates, thus securing numerous high-profile projects 3. Cathy draws a parallel between her work and historical commissions, noting that even Michelangelo was commissioned to paint the Sistine Chapel, highlighting the legitimacy of creating art for commercial purposes.

In any case, when I went back into music, what actually gave me a leg up was that I was really concerning myself with solving the problems of those who are choosing the songs for these ads and for these movies.

--- Cathy Heller

Her success story illustrates the importance of aligning creative output with market demands.