Meet Cassie B

We’re excited to introduce you to the always interesting and insightful Cassie B . We hope you’ll enjoy our conversation with Cassie below.

Cassie , thank you so much for joining us today and appreciate you talking about a sensitive topic. It’s unfortunately relevant to so many in the community as layoffs have been on the rise recently, and so we’d appreciate hearing your story and how you overcame being let go?
The pandemic SHUT ME DOWN. I am a self employed singer/ performer and a hairstylist. Both of my passions were completely cut off. In person anything was off limits! At first, two weeks of isolation sounded great, like a little vacation. Little did I know the rules would change pretty much hourly as time went on. This forced me to figure out other ways to stay busy and make some money, since going back to either job was off the table for months. Since I was in high school I have made guitar pick earrings to sell. I go through phases where I have a burst of creativity and make a bunch to sell. I hadn’t had that burst in years, but this was the perfect time to jump back in. My community was so supportive, and I became so busy with making and shipping out my custom guitar pick earrings. As time went on, I got into making mask chains so people could accessorize those awful face coverings we had to wear for so long. I would put charms on the hook that connected to the ear elastic. This made it look the the charms were actually earrings. it was so fun to branch out and make kids styles, and I would add different charms to fit anyone’s personal style. I sold so many! I would say probably 200 or so.
I was so thankful to have a creative outlet to seriously get me through months of no income.
Sometimes I miss the days of sitting at home crafting all day. It was an eye opening experience on every level. I am thankful to be back in the salon, and back on stage now, but I will always be thankful for the time I had to create and self reflect at home. I am also so thankful to every friend and family member (even strangers) who bought my earrings and chains.

Appreciate the insights and wisdom. Before we dig deeper and ask you about the skills that matter and more, maybe you can tell our readers about yourself?
I am currently really pursuing my career in singing. My husband (Ryan Kilpatrick) and I run an entertainment company together, We are mainly working as cover band/tribute performers, but we are also pursuing an original music project together. Ryan really keeps the train moving. He is the main portion of the business side, but he also plays the bass in our bands. He is so smart and he works so hard. We met 10 years ago as performers at Sea World, so our working together comes very naturally to us. I am so thankful to be side by side with my partner in all of it. There are a ton of highs, and a ton of lows for sure. I think this year has really pushed us to another level in our goals and dreams for where we see music taking us. The original music is very exciting. We released a song called Honey back in May. You can stream it on any streaming service you have. We have two more songs in the works. The music genre is pop with a country flare, We plan to just release singles for now. With everything going on, we are finding this route to be good for us. We hope to take our music as far as it can go, maybe touring down the line? Our favorite venue that we work at is called Moonshine Flats. They have another venue called Moonshine Beach that we love just as much. It is a country style venue, and two of their dancers ( Hannah Bergman, and Danual Moon) choreographed a line dance to Honey! They gave me the opportunity to teach the dance on their line dancing night at Moonshine Beach a couple of weeks ago, and it was so much fun! I will be teaching it at Moonshine Flats in August. This is something that I could really get into. I absolutely love dancing, and I used to teach hip hop when I was younger. So this combined so many loves for me! It also allows my music to take on a whole new life when you see a whole room of people dancing to it all together.

Looking back, what do you think were the three qualities, skills, or areas of knowledge that were most impactful in your journey? What advice do you have for folks who are early in their journey in terms of how they can best develop or improve on these?
Three major learning opportunities for me came from growing up in children’s theater, joining a professional dance troupe, and 8.5 years of performing at Sea World as a singer, host, and dancer. I think theater and hosting at Sea world really helped make me a well rounded performer. I am very in tune with what’s going on on stage, as well as what is happening in the audience. There is a major connection with the audience that makes everything I do on stage worth while and meaningful. I like to think this sets me apart. To a younger performer, my advice is just try it all. Take as many classes as you can. Go audition for anything you want, with out fear on rejection. So what if you get rejected. There is going to be a time and place that is just right for you to shine. Everything leading up to that is just a sharpening tool to make you better and stronger.

Is there a particular challenge you are currently facing?
There has been a big shift for me lately. Balancing everything has been difficult. There is so much work to have and do, so I struggle with knowing when to unplug from business life and even family life. I am trying to find the moments I can just veg if that feels good, or take time to do therapeutic activities when my souls needs to recharge. Even just texting and emailing people back has been extra busy this summer. Being self employed you really take on so many jobs you never thought you would do. Right now my strategy is making notes and alarms for as much as possible. I tend to get lost, and not know what to do next. So when something pops into my mind, I’m trying to just write it down and take note of it. Then when I feel lost on what to do next, I can refer back to my notes. So far it’s helping!

Contact Info:

Image Credits
Chachie Pedro Torres Seylin Media

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