Creative Canadian Woman: Songwriter & Author Gail Taylor is Using Kickstarter

gail taylor is a white woman with dark red, shoulder length hair. She's wearing dark framed glasses and is smiling at the camera. She has on a denim jacket and a dressy scarf in multiple shades of grey

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Gail Taylor left behind a successful career as an investment advisor to go all in with music - in her 50s! Now, as a Canadian songwriter, author, keynote speaker and entrepreneur, she's a passionate advocate for the power of music to inspire change.  Her new book, Curve Balls, is coming to shelves soon thanks to a successful Kickstarter campaign that raised $10K.

In this episode, Gail shares her remarkable story and her tips for using Kickstarter. We talk about her journey from her early years using drugs as a form of escape, to becoming a successful investment advisor and then her pivot to music. She shares the behind the scenes of the Nashville music industry and how it helped her bring her music to life, how she uses music to help others, and the ins and outs of launching a creative project on Kickstarter.

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This Episode Is For…

This episode is for creatives who...

  • feel a big change is out of reach

  • are curious about getting their own music made

  • have thought about using crowd-funding to launch their own creative projects

  • are always curious for ways they can turn their creativity into multiple revenue streams

  • would like to use their creative skills to foster positive change for others

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Transcript & Chapter Markers

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allow abundance in

It enables you to give back

In this episode we discuss:

  • Gail’s early years with drugs and alcohol and dropping out of school at 16

  • her initial steps to pull herself to a better life and financial independence

  • realizing she needed to build her passions into her career in order to be happy (and how that lead to pivoting her investment practice to socially responsible (ESG) investing)

  • her pivot to music (with zero music background)

  • how she decided to turn her music into a business - with purpose

  • how songwriting turned out to be her super power and how she was able to turn that into a way to help others create change and spawned her speaking career

  • how she got her songs recorded and a behind the scenes look into the indie music scene in Nashville

  • how technology has made creating and producing music so accessible to the greater public

  • why she decided to write a book

  • the importance of seeking new revenue streams with your work - especially as technology shifts and how that led her to crowdfunding for her book project

  • her best tips for using crowd funding and, more specifically, Kickstarter

  • some of the pros and cons of Kickstarter and some of the biggest traps people can fall into with their first project

  • how to NOT lose money on Kickstarter (it happens far more than you think!)

  • how she’ll continue to sell the book after fulfilling her Kickstarter obligations

  • musician merch - a common revenue stream for musicians today

  • mind blocks creatives have around money and how abundance allows you to give back

Mentioned In This Episode:

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Podcast Episode, Inspiring WomenMelissa HartfielS5, kickstarter, songwriting, music industryComment