Is there anything sexier than seeing a creative on fire, going after their dreams, with a focused plan in place including the financial side to make it happen? This week’s podcast looks at the financial processes we can put in place to support ourselves and our creativity as we near the end of the UK tax year and I am looking at being as tax efficient as possible.

Have you got financial systems in place to support your life, as financially stable and successful working creative? Are you ensuring that the money you have coming in is being used wisely?

When you have systems in place so you know where you are at, you feel in control.
Where you know you have money put away for projects, and the tax saved for the coming year, you can feel abundant and creatives’ who are joyous and feel abundant I believe are freer to dream and create from what they want to say, not out of fear.

Knowing you have covered your rent or bills this month mean you can then be open to the possibilities of time, focus and energy on your creative goals.

This mythology of broke creatives is often because they haven’t been trained to look at their art from a business perspective and how to fund their dreams.

Whatever your dreams of your next creative project: a book, a film, an album they need money to fund them, even if it is just being able to take the time out to get them moving on and not have to do 17 freelance side jobs to pay all your bills. Most creatives including myself, have suddenly had to take on extra jobs to get through certain periods of study or lack of work, but planning to save as you go, so you can take the time out to get your projects funded and out the door is vital. We all have had problems where we are looking how we can meet our bills, future expenses or indeed even our rent one month.

Having a sense of control, knowing where you are financially, what taxes you have to pay, knowing upcoming expenses and due income, planning (not just hoping) for your and possibly your family’s future as well as making your dreams happen is part of being grown up and serious about your long term career in art.

I have various systems I have put in place, financial routines, daily habits that all support my dreams so when I go ‘I have a dream’ I have processes and a runway to start making it happen. Finances are one of the pillars to that.

Do you have financial system, financial structures, financial routines in place to support your career as a creative?
Do you put money away for tax whenever income comes in??
Are you aware where you could be more tax efficient?
Do you feel when you look at the financial aspect of your career as a creative , whether you are just starting out, a part time creative or indeed a full time one, that you know where you are at?
Are there certain business expenses you need that you could buy now before the tax years ends to help you become more tax efficient?
Where do you feel you need to learn more about taxes, tax reliefs, legitimate expenses.
Do you know the tax bands, so how much you can earn before paying basic rate tax?
Can you work out now what your current tax liability is and ensure it is saved in a special account, or start saving for it?


We are in the UK tax year end 5th April, and whilst you can look at your taxes after the tax return has finished, there are steps you can do within the tax year that are helpful for your routines, mental health and the feeling of some kind of control.

You can be really clear on what is due approximately, where you could be more tax efficient, the use of any tax breaks or tax relief which you can use within the tax year itself, for example pension contributions where the government will give tax relief breaks (up to 45% in the UK)


I am an ex banker, I studied business, I used to yell ‘buy’ and ‘sell’ in the multi-millions on a trading floor in government bonds so I do have a different relationship to money and maths than some creatives. But we all have to challenge ourselves and keep reminding ourselves that we can make our creativity pay, helped by having proper systems in place.

As creatives we are often brilliant at experiencing and retelling the joy in the moment but there are many very successful people who have made their millions and, due to their lack of financial focus, skillset or mismanagement of funds by themselves or their managers have lost it all. From Mike Tyson, to the wonderful actor Wesley Snipes (Blade) who spent two and a half years in prison as he neglected to file $15 million of income, to the amazing Italian film director Federico Fellino who bought a Roman house for himself and his wife off the proceeds of his masterpiece La Dolce Vita, and later had to sell it to cover unpaid taxes.


The solution is putting easy, workable systems in place so you are ready, on top and clear on next steps. Just like a ballerina practising a pirouette or a musician focusing on the hard bit of a piece of music, you go in and start systems’ that you work, hone and help you have financial clarity at all stages of your creative career.

Get ready with your systems so when you hit the next levels’ of wealth, those moments when opportunity come in you can grab them and take full advantage of the financial benefits as well. You already then will have the systems and knowledge enough not to make bad decisions. Finance is important even if we don’t want it to be.


I understand we are still, at time of writing, in the middle of lockdown when many of us, including me lost most of not all of our work but this does not give you the excuse to not look at the real facts and figures of your career, especially on the financial side and the next year ahead projections. The more you keep an eye on it, the quicker you are to see issues, where you need to lean down, quickly find extra work and ways to make projects work if funding is less than you had already planned.

Having a plan, even when you feel out of control massively decreases stress.

So maybe this Easter , when we are not all clubbing, gigging, flying to see friends, you can choose to give yourself the gift of financial control. Even a couple hours to get some rough clarity on annual numbers such as income help.

It is your call on how detailed you want to be but just income vs expenditure this month or this tax year will give you clarity, seeing where you can tighten things up, where you can see an issue you need to address such as a planned project with rising costs against a diminished budget for example.

I am also looking at this financial aspect for creatives as I am doing a last edit on my programme on Getting Your Art In Gear which is going to include at least 8 financial strategies and processes to get to financial peace and stability as a creative, no matter what your income level is. Processes to save so you can afford to pay for what you consider to be the important things in your life, creatively or otherwise. To be able to prepay the venue you need to hire, to fly to the workshop you want to attend, to fund the people you need on board to get your film or album finished, to get yourself from creating on the kitchen table as we all are now, to taking your creativity to the next level up.


The song at the beginning is a remix of my LondonTown tune by Andrew Hyde
At the end is a clip of my Haunt Me tune from my album ‘If you can’t make love make coffee’ available online, and also actual CDs if you want to contact me ;)

Aims of this podcast - Love Your Creativity & Make Money
This podcast is about being a working creative from thoughts on marketing, budget to what techniques we can all use to get the work done and out there, no matter where you work full time as an actor, a choreographer or have a yearning to paint more over the weekends.
The book on mental, practical and financial tips on ‘getting your art in gear’ is being launched soon.

About me, Marysia Trembecka

I am at heart a storyteller and this has translated from the initial creation of work to being a performer, including film and theatre acting, writing and performing international touring comedy shows to MCing.

Highlights include sell-out Adelaide and Edinburgh Fringe shows, singing at the Royal Festival Hall in 23 different languages, as well as doing TEDx talks and corporate gigs, such as the Brit Awards Afterparty at the 02 as my ‘The Singing Psychic’ bio queen character.

My ‘THE SINGING PSYCHIC’ who ‘reads the songs in your heart’ also has a GAME SHOW version, and was a finalist in Best Show, Funny Women in 2016, and I have toured internationally since then.
I have also produced five webseries as the character including my 23 episode SONGS OF BREXIT webseries I made for the June 2016 EU Referendum, on the pros and cons of the EU, I started the web series singing The Clash’s ‘Should I Stay Or Should I Go Now’. It was very wll received due to the blend of education and entertainment, and I ended up on London Live and even a BBC2 Live Debate on the National Living Wage amongst other press of the back of that.


I also was awarded Arts Council funding for research on a solo show on how we are all judged by our sexuality, so as part of that, I interviewed people on the cutting edge of sexual politics. From this I then created another character ‘Queen Of The F*cking World’ which has also toured internationally from Glasgow WOFF film festival in the female perspective strand to sell-out London, Edinburgh and Adelaide runs. I sing and play the bass guitar and guitar in this show.

My film acting credits can be found on IMDB and indeed my projects are on my media gallery
http://marysiatrembecka.com/media-gallery/
Facebook Marysia Trembecka
Twitter instagram @MarysiaT
My London acting agent is Dulcie Huston, CCA Management
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