Today we’d like to introduce you to Jana Pochop.
Jana, let’s start with your story. We’d love to hear how you got started and how the journey has been so far.
I’m a singer-songwriter, guitarist, and social media nerd who moved to Texas in 2006 right after I got my history degree from the University of New Mexico. I spent most of college getting my class work out of the way so I could write songs and play open mics in Albuquerque. Two great Texas-based singer-songwriters, Susan Gibson and Terri Hendrix, toured through New Mexico when I was in college and I decided that Austin seemed to a great place to be for someone like me. I cut my teeth at open mics in Austin and moved my way up to gigging. I also started selling merch and eventually booking shows for Susan Gibson, one of my early influencers. She is a hit songwriter who tours nationally, so I got to hop in her tour van a see all of the country and some of Europe as her tour manager, social media point person, and whatever else needed to be done.
Learning from Susan’s DIY musician life, I started to apply my love of communication and technology to helping other musicians with their social media strategies and founded Social Thinkery, my social media consulting service in 2014. Throughout all this, I have been playing and writing and recording albums. I have released three songwriter EPs, one pop record with my folk/pop duo called onetwothreescream, and am working on my latest songwriter album this year! I crowdfunded it in 2019 and am so grateful for all the folks who pitch in to help me get my music out into the world.
Overall, has it been relatively smooth? If not, what were some of the struggles along the way?
Being a musician and a songwriter is simultaneously the coolest job and one of the hardest because it is wearing all the hats: creator, craftsperson, explorer of art…all the way to the show booker, the promoter, the marketer, the driver. It’s a lot. I’m trying to learn to focus on my strengths and share the tasks that I am not so good at so I can not get overwhelmed. I absolutely love connecting with people through song, and the internet has been a huge means of reaching further than I dreamed. Facebook and YouTube started when I was in college, and now we hardly think about how we have incorporated these tools into our lives. Being an artist allows me to use these means of connection and promotion in really unique ways – I spent a whole year making one video blog a week a while ago – that was fun. On the flip side, everyone is fighting for the prime internet real estate, and cutting through the noise with a message that is memorable is hard. I work on that every day and I still haven’t figured it out – other than to just be myself and create things.
We’d love to hear more about your work and what you are currently focused on. What else should we know?
As a songwriter my aim is to write songs that sort things out for me in my head but also hit people in a place that helps them sort whatever they have going on as well. I love words, and I spend a lot of time working on just the right phrasing for a song…sometimes it comes down to “and” versus “or” and that’s really fun for me. Music has saved my life numerous times – my favorite writers have been stuck in my playlist rotation forever. It’s an honor when someone shares that a song I wrote is on their repeat list.
All of this thought around getting my own music out there has made my Social Thinkery consulting come from a very relatable place for other artists. I know what they’re needing to do because I’ve had to figure it out, too.
What is “success” or “successful” for you?
When you’re a kid who wants to be a musician, everyone asks when you’re going to get “famous.” I probably hung on to that thought a little while longer than I should have to, but now I realize there are so many ways to make a living in music – from playing it, writing, licensing it, teaching it, and sharing knowledge about it. I am so grateful to have built a life where I work from a laptop a lot, much of the time from my apartment, but oftentimes from the road. I love to travel – whether it’s for a gig or for pure exploration, I love for planning the next trip, and I love when I get to be out in the world. It feeds my writing and it keeps me growing. Since I have been a full-on freelancer for over a decade, I think I have reached a point of success, in that I get to dictate my days and no two days are alike. I’ve got supportive people around me that help me play, write, and record, too. It’s a total joy.
Contact Info:
- Website: www.janapochop.com / www.socialthinkery.com / www.onetwothreescream.com
- Email: janapochop@gmail.com
- Instagram: www.instagram.com/janapochop
- Facebook: www.facebook.com/janapochopmusic
- Twitter: www.twitter.com/janapochop
- Other: http://www.youtube.com/janapochop
Image Credit:
Valerie Fremin, Spring Lee, Heidi Fiedler, Noelle Hampton, Emily Shirley
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