After 4 years of teaching I had a collection of original songs and a desire for a different life situation. Over the summer of 1998 I recorded a CD of 9 of those songs with the help of my older sister, Julia, and her connection to a studio and several musicians. It was that summer that I came across an advertisement in a Christian magazine for Incubator Creative Group, a management company for emerging artists. Julia and I attended the GMA Music in the Rockies competition and festival that summer and met Tami Rowbotham and Nate Sakany who run Incubator. I knew that God had answered my prayer: here was a company who would help me develop a vibrant music ministry and teach me good business strategies as I began to step out in faith.
I moved to Milwaukee, Wisconsin and took a part-time teaching time which allowed me time to work with Incubator. My first experiences were filled with reading books and writing testimonials and having experiences that forced me to get to know myself really well. Within the first year I realized that if I were going to have an effective ministry, I first had to be willing to be vulnerable with my audience. I had to share my heart and my life freely so that people knew where I was coming from and would therefore sense a reason to pay attention to my message. This was difficult because I had always been a strong, independent person not seeing a need to trouble others with my struggles. It always seemed someone else was in a worse situation than me. I began to see how this attitude kept me on a pedestal above people instead of being among them, side by side, living life together. So, working through these “Incubator assignments” changed my attitude and changed my behavior, not just in concerts but in my everyday life. I began to ask for help more often, to show my weaknesses more freely, and to allow others to see more of what God was doing in my life.
Incubator Creative Group has helped me develop interesting concert programs; from ideas regarding hair and make-up to how and where to move onstage to what to say in the transition times and the main message time. Incubator has given me beneficial financial strategies to help me save money and make money to use for ministry purposes. Incubator has provided guidance during the songwriting process and in the recording process. They have allowed me to set the time-line and the vision and they have supported my ideas with prayerful and biblical input. During my 10 years with Incubator I have moved locations 4 times, gotten married, lost my Mom, had a baby and began work as a part-time Worship Minister at a local church. They have shifted with me each step of the way and have always provided encouragement to follow the call to music ministry that God has placed on my life.
