She felt more comfortable with the “Target the right markets” prompt. That made a lot more intuitive sense to her when it came to making sure she was auditioning for the right roles and applying for opportunities that were looking for singers like her rather than just throwing her audition fees and materials at any and every opportunity that came her way. But, related sales? Reacquisition? Rainmaking? How the heck did that transfer? She couldn’t go back and do the same YAP or summer program she did in the years before. That would be a step back, of course. She couldn’t allow herself to think about what it would feel like to go back a step. And, how could she cross-sell anything she was currently doing? There were only a handful of professional opportunities that she was right for every year in her area. It was absolutely too time-consuming to be in more than one show at once. Her eyes floated back to the phrase “identify and win large profitable new accounts” and could only think of The Met or La Scala when she thought large and profitable. She let out a little gasp as the pain in her stomach made itself known again. It was more annoying than anything. The pain wasn’t enough for her to think it was serious. She wasn’t gonna spend a doctor visit on it or anything. “Maybe I need to cut back on my coffee consumption,” she pondered with a hint of sorrow.<\/p>\n

Our diva started diving deeper into these thoughts. She realized that most of her colleagues follow the same tried and true, or seemingly so, proven way of having a singing career. But, there isn’t anything superior or better about necessarily doing it this way. What if she didn’t have to do the undergrad, grad school, YAP (x infinity), resident artist contract, and then the inevitable march up the\u00a0OPERA America Company Member level system? She had already participated in part of that. But, it didn’t feel like she was any closer to the goal. Heck, after her crisis about “having no artistic integrity” the other night, she barely even knew what the goal was anymore.<\/p>\n

What Does a “High Impact” Opera Field Look Like?<\/h3>\n

She wanted to discover new and different ways of creating value for the field. Our diva did not want to play on a field in which audition fees, jewel tone wrap dresses, and awkward sexual advances from audition panelists were the big navigational issues of the day. She wanted to know what a “high impact” opera field would look like. What would that feel like? She found a burgeoning desire\u00a0to define her career in terms of measurable improvements and\u00a0opening up new possibilities. She wanted to work together as a collaborator in every stage of the project. She didn’t want to only be a tired caretaker of a museum piece. She wanted to expand her reach. Snapping back to the reality of her messy desk and cold coffee by another pain that made her lean back in her chair, she started to realize just how tough these plans could be.<\/p>\n

Who knows if even doing all of this work would actually bring her singing success? She started to worry that she might be deluding herself by focusing on these ambitious entrepreneurial skills. “I mean, if I\u00a0had the goods, wouldn’t I\u00a0be succeeding already?” she nagged herself. A feeling arose reminding her of being a\u00a0hanger-on<\/em> to the cool kids in high school. She envisioned herself blindly thinking that she fit in and was being paid attention to by the crowd of students while in reality she was just barely blending into the fringes.<\/p>\n