Lauren Bateman recounts a defining moment when, while working as a contractor at a pharmaceutical company, she performed on a cruise (open-mic/folk-festival atmosphere) and realized she wanted to pursue music full-time. After returning she researched how to phase out her job, began performing, recorded an album, and started teaching music part-time to provide income before quitting her job.
The defining moment in my life. I was working for a contractor at a pharmaceutical company and I went on a cruise that was just like a folk festival on a ship and I brought my guitar and I'm up on stage. I was performing at the open mics and I was just having so much fun and I got back to my office in my little cubicle and I was like how do I do music for the rest of my life? So I put in a Google search, I was like how to phase out your job to do music? And I started doing that, I started performing, I recorded my own album and then I started kind of teaching on the side so that when I quit my job I'd have some income, I wouldn't be like the starving artist. But I knew when I got back from that cruise ship I was like I need to do something with music cuz that's calling me.
