You. Are. A. Rock Star. | 2023 02 06

Published on by Suzanne BeenackersLeave a comment
Me and little bear Puux ready to rock at Guns N’ Roses.

Have you ever met someone who said they could make you a star?
I haven’t, but I know it from movies.

But I have experienced situations that were comparable to that Hollywood-esque situation, and I can tell you that even those watered down, simplified and far less suave offers that were going to make me the money and the glory, were absolutely irresistible.
But they always fell through, and in hindsight I think it was because they sensed I would be trouble.

They sensed that although I had the qualities, I had what it takes, I also had something else:
One hell of a personality.
My tongue (what I could say) could break the spine of a grown man, and that was just counting the intentional side of it. The self-defense, side of it.
How many spines, egos, and thin or thick layers of veneer I would have accidentally trampled upon and crushed on my way, would have been too much to count.

Naturally, that was not how I viewed it at the time.
At the time, I was deeply frustrated they did not call back, or that I wasn’t selected, or that the chance or opportunity that was already granted to me, was revoked or not followed through on without explanation.
When now, looking back, I can see it has been my biggest blessing.

Nothing is a full-proof protection against violence and manipulation, against exploitation and systemic abuse. And the best protection is privilege, including parental protection.
Something I had in spades.

I owe it first and foremost to my parents, that my life has been smooth. Although around the time I was 30, I made what I see as a huge mistake that has cost me 20 years of my life (even though I also know that nothing is ever lost, and there are no bad mistakes);
But that was my own mistake.
I didn’t do drugs, but I might as well have – that’s how totally off-path I consider those decades were. Although there are also moments I can see it went all exactly as it should have gone.
And even:
That I would not want to trade it!

But the blessing of not having been snatched by some kind of sexual or financial predator and of not having known abuse in the vulnerable years up  until 25, was also thanks to my ability to be aggressive in my language and  to having a set of fully functional boundaries.

That too, has protected me from situations where I would have been vulnerable and  powerless. Situations where I would have been bound by contracts or would have been under pressure of agencies that were getting money out of deals my silent compliance was required for.

It is not unthinkable that my ability to be aggressive in my words and defend myself, has saved my life.
Both, because I intervened quickly when something happened, usually by walking away but resorting to other means if required, and they saved my life by preventing those situations from happening altogether.

But they might have also kept me from getting offers to “make me a star”! 
Still would fall for it, wouldn’t you?
“I could make you a star….”
Oh, the seduction!
“I can make you, <insert your name>, a ROCK STAR!”
Oh baby, where do I sign up?

No, it is definitely not because I cannot be seduced, I was spared much misery and smothering contracts.
I can be seduced, and as the quite graphic yet also very common Dutch expression goes, I can be seduced with “one wet finger”. 

But no one ever promised to make me a star, nor seduced me to be a Rock Star.

And in all probability, no one has asked you either.
Because you too, would be trouble.
And because I fooled you a bit… Stars? Yes, they can be created.
By savvy agents, by important people in the industry, even by the people closest to them, like the parents or a spouse.

But Rock Stars?
Well…. Rock Stars can be created too, you know.
But only by one person.

The only one who can make you a Rock Star;
You – who has read this all the way down to the bottom of this Monday morning blogpost, written on the sixth of the month of February 2023;

The only one who can make you a Rock Star?
Is you.
But again, that’s still not totally accurate, because you were born this way. You could not NOT be a Rock Star, even if your money, fame, your very life, depended on it.

In practice, there is only one truth and one truth only:
In all your talented, feisty and disruptive glory-
You already are, a Rock Star.

.
~Suzanne
become the Rock Star you were born to be

You. Are. A. Rock Star. | 2022 02 06
is the fourth Catacombe Rock Star post

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Catacombe offers international Rock Star mentoring & business coaching:
https://catacombenijmegen.com/current-offer/

& in-person business coaching in Nijmegen.
https://catacombenijmegen.com/nederlands-dutch/

“We Want More!” | the encore

In the upcoming weeks I will be test-driving three powerful, life changing, Rock Star mentoring sessions:

1. Rock Your Business

Business coaching for creatives who want to monetize their art, or who want their business to support their art.

If you were trained to think in terms of demographics, target market, or even the numbers game of SEO and social media, when all those things are absolutely not what lights your heart and soul?
Then this is your curtain call to change it all, Rock Star.

A Rock Your Business session is my low investment offer.
For this whole year I have set the rate at the price my own local business coach charged me;
In 2018!
Rock Your Business is an incredibly good deal to break the chains of your industry, and start running your own show.  

2. The Artist

Get real about the highest work you are here to do.
What is the project or dream you’re putting off?
Could even be multiple ones!

This about your desire and knowing, you need to step into your full creative expression.
Even when no one, including you, understands what it is or how it will unfold.

This is about what should become your highest priority.
This, is the thing you know your life is for.

The Artist is a two hour session and a significantly bigger investment. 

Before moving on to my third offer, a message to

All Rock Stars

You are already a Rock Star.
By reading this blog, by letting my message resonate with you, it is already established that you do things differently, and that you ARE different.

By subscribing to this blog – where I will also be sharing the Rock Your Business videos, I will be making for you! –
you will already get great value, and it would be an absolute honor to work for you in this way.

If at any point you want to work with me personally, you can shoot me, Suzanne, an email at:
s_beenackers@hotmail.com
Containing a small motivation how I can help you or why you would like to work with me. Include your full name, and a link to the websites, social media accounts or LinkedIn, that are representative of what you are doing now, could be a career, a business and/or it could be your art.  

Your application, like your identity and everything else you tell me, is confidential and will not be shared with anyone else, with the exception of the bill which I need to give to my bookkeeper.
Your bill can be drawn up anonymously, if you prefer, but an anonymous bill will limit your possibilities of deducting the costs of our work together.

Other than my bookkeeper seeing the bills, no one sees my correspondence. I do not have an assistant for my social media nor my email.

After your application, and before taking you on as a client – for any offer – I make sure I can deliver you what you need and that working with me is what would help you most now.
My prices are not public, as they already fall under the larger umbrella of my client confidentiality.
Once we have established we’re a good fit, I give you the price of the session you are interested in, and you will have all the time you need to think about that.
All sessions are paid in advance, and bookings are not finalized until paid in full.

I hope this extra paragraph is helpful in giving you, Rock Star, an idea if my Catacombe offering is something that could help you.

Top offers

Before I give you my third and final offer, I want to point out that I also have two top offers, which I will rarely be communicating because they are very specific.

One for when you are on tour, so a high voltage offer!
On tour, can mean that you are literally on tour. Or it can mean whatever a comparable time would be, in your life.
“On Tour”, is the offer that allows us to continue our work in what is a hectic, high-demand time.
A peak-time, in your artistic life.

And I have one offer for when you are in a very quiet phase, when you have it made so hard, that you wonder where the action is!
It’s called “The Genius”.
This is a time we can use that stability to take risks, a few dares perhaps?
Blow something up?!

MESSAGE TO ALL ROCK STARS

In all likeliness, you will break things, blow things up, destroy and go on the occasional rampage.
Which is probably the most difficult thing to deal with, the most challenging aspect, of having a Rock Star personality.
But in your determination to not hurt other people, beware that you don’t hurt yourself instead.

Start seeing aggression as a sign something is wrong in your life. It is you making space, it is you defending boundaries.
The booze and the drugs, the overeating, the I-don’t-know-what;
It’s all just a sign of your dissatisfied Rock Star soul.

Start feeding it the things it really desires, the things it has a passion for and that you, Rock Star, crave from the bottom of your rebel heart.
Start giving it that, instead.

And then, finally, here is my third offer.
This is a bigger investment than 1. and 2., and together with the “on tour” offer, and the Genius offer, this is my first high-ticket one:
THE ROCK STAR 

3. THE ROCK STAR

One session the length of a 3 hour rock concert, and we both know we’ll be totally wasted after. But in the most satisfying of ways.
This is your show, we are here for you and I am your rhythm section. And my suggestion as such, is that we play three separate sets, covering
A. Your financial freedom
B. Your creative freedom
and C. Your sexual freedom
You’re on that stage, because you are a performer, because you are a disruptor, and because you, are a symbol of freedom, Rock Star.

Your message, any Rock Star’s message, is the message of freedom.

And with your financial freedom being the least interesting for your message and to your audience (people meet people who are financially free all the time), your real capital as well as your lifeforce -just like everybody else’s!- is actually in those other two types of freedom:
Creatively.
Sexually.

The finance is important, and if you have your work dusting away on your computer or if you are totally into doing things that would sell like hotcakes if only you packaged them up, in your own Rock Star way?
Then yeah, sure. Sell it!

But your biggest most important things, your true capital as a Rock Star, are your freedom creatively and sexually.
More than anything else, that is what THE ROCK STAR session is about.

But talking financial freedom makes great foreplay 😉

Online/ Offline

Both 2. The Artist and 3. THE ROCK STAR are online sessions.

1. Rock Your Business is also available in real-life, in Nijmegen, The Netherlands

1. Rock Your Business and 2. The Artist are scheduled between 1 PM and 8 PM CET, Amsterdam Time, on weekdays.
THE ROCK STAR is flexible.

 

Yes, Let’s rock this!

Apply for Rock Your Business, The Artist or THE ROCK STAR,
by shooting me, Suzanne, an email at:
s_beenackers@hotmail.com

Containing a small motivation how I can help you or why you would like to work with me. Include your full name, and a link to the websites, social media accounts or LinkedIn, that are representative of what you are doing now. Could be a career, a business and/or it could be your art.
And of course, tell me what you would like to achieve!

Keep it short and powerful, so that I can immediately see what you’re made of!
“I want to rule the world” will do just fine 😉 

After we have established we’re a good fit, I give you the price of the session you are interested in, Rock Your Business, The Artist or THE ROCK STAR.

I’m looking forward to your application, and am very excited to get our show on the road!

~Suzanne
become the Rock Star you were born to be

Meet your Mad Crazy Person (MCP), Rock Star | 2022 12 27

Published on by Suzanne BeenackersLeave a comment
image from the movie Elvis

Recently, I realized that I AM a writer;
Sleep-deprived, time-pressed, recovering from sickness?
I’ll write.
I’ve traded writing for exercise, for seeing daylight, I’ve traded it for sleep and I’ve traded it for meals.
I’ve traded it for careers, sans question.

I’ve not yet traded writing for relationships, but that is because I have marginalized relationships altogether.
I don’t find it ethical to write about my relationships, but as a consequence, I have an understanding my involvement will be limited at best.
And non-existent if needed, as ultimate consequence of accepting that my relationship with my writing desk comes first.
I don’t want to write but I need to, if I have any desire of staying mentally sane without spiritually dying.

Sure, I could numb myself in a way that my creativity would die. In fact, I’m not even sure that this may not still be required.
That if I fail, I will no longer be able to afford to be creative.
But, as they say in Lord of the Rings, but it is not this day.
(“This day we fight!” * battle cry * )

The reason I am guilt-free writing today, is because I have marked this, the blog you’re reading now, as marketing.
Although this blog definitely satisfies my creative urge, it is not an artistic expression, but a message to you.
This is a message for you, Rock Star. 

The Crazy Mad Person in me, must write you. 
The Colonel Parker in me, must write you.
The Jon Bon Jovi in me, must write you.
But I am getting ahead of myself.

Suffice to say Catacombe is not my only blog.
And my main writing name is a different one entirely. In essence, the “I AM” a writer, from the first paragraph, is partially or entirely, a different persona.
The part of me that absolutely needs to write, even if it would cost her her life;
She doesn’t write this.

In the same way, YOUR artistic side, your work in its purest form, the work that if I let you dream and say “Sky is the limit” –
That work?
Is probably very specific.

You will not come up with 10 different skills you’d be mastering, 10 different businesses you would run or 10 different markets you would be serving until the end of time, if I just told you to think about what you’d do, if nothing was required of you.

I will try to give you examples, about how specific your answer too, would probably be. Based on guessing, but it’s just to give you an idea.

I think Axl Rose from Guns N’ Roses, when given the chance or at least if he had to choose, would “only”  write songs.
Whether sleep deprived, or recovering from illness, happy or sad?
He’d grab a notepad to write down lyrics, or an instrument to work on a song.

But Slash is someone who lives to be on stage. Which is why he’s in two bands, Guns N’ Roses and Slash ft. Myles Kennedy and The Conspirators.
I will not deny he works his ass off to be in great shape, and give an excellent show! But that’s all extra.
That’s a cherry on top.
Being on stage is something that gives him so much energy and purpose, all he requires to do it is a pulse.

In the 20th century, Slash was addicted to drugs and alcohol.  Axl must have done his share as well, yet Axl also (and this probably saved him) had a brutal exercise regime on some mega-stairmaster nobody could work on because it was set at so heavy.
Even if he wanted to, Axl would not have been able to let himself “go” the way Slash could, because Slash’s predominant artistic expression, is to be on stage.

When Slash comes home from touring, he finds it difficult to settle, where Axl (proverbially!) could go for years without seeing someone. Just like most writers 😉 

So your dominant creative expression, is the one you could do half-dead, sleep-deprived, hungry, sad, or on half a bottle of Jack Daniels.
You will know what this is.

And as I just showed you, I see this playing out differently in Slash and Axl.

Now for the final missing piece – and again, I’m using a bit of my imagination here, but I think it will benefit you in understanding why the Mad Crazy Person (let’s call it an MCP) is critical in achieving Rock Star results –
for the final comparison we’ll go to Jon Bon Jovi, who was very ambitious from when he was an early teen.

Jon Bon Jovi was single-mindedly focused on becoming a rock n’ roll star, and this determined ev’rything.

He was his own PR person, his own agent, his own manager, damn he was his own fanclub if needed! 
From the get go his musical efforts focused on:
-being SEEN and being HEARD! 
Preferably on stage.
-collaborations
Looking for people to write music with, record music with, play in a band with. Do business with.
-marketing and selling
Jon Bon Jovi intuitively seemed to apply the three golden marketing rules:
Know, Like and Trust.
Know:
Even in the earliest interviews he tells the people WHO he is, who the band members are, where they are from.
Like:
He always makes it about being there for the kids, the fans.
Trust:
He will tell you what they’re up to in the upcoming 6 to 12 months, where you can see them, what album you can buy.
The trust comes from him telling you about their upcoming year; but on a way more subtle level, also addressing your upcoming year!
This picture you’re being served of Bon Jovi’s future, has got you in it. 

Jon Bon Jovi was, is, and will always be, first and foremost a brilliant marketeer.
He understands rock n’ roll stars aren’t born;
they are created.

And that is the Crazy Mad Person from the title.

Crazy, is not the craziness of me writing for my most exclusive blogs where I will still be showing up in my last, my most quiet days.

Mad, is not the madness of Axl Rose working on Chinese Democracy album for so long it ultimately became the most expensive rock record of all time.
Nor does crazy or mad refer to the unbelievable things Slash did in the 20th century, as the tagline of his autobiography states:
“It seems excessive … but that doesn’t mean it didn’t happen.”

No.
The Crazy and the Mad are what is required to push you into the limelight. To sell not just your work, but YOU, to your audience.

Jon Bon Jovi was his own CMP, and Madonna was her own CMP. 
But most stars have other people stepping into that vacancy for being a star’s CMP. Sometimes that works out, more often it doesn’t.
But it’s not the 20th century anymore.
The landscape has shifted so dramatically it is almost impossible not to be your own CMP.

The chance that you manage to create an audience for your work is much higher than a publisher, record company, or employer creating a space or stage for your work to be received.

In the movie Elvis you can see his manager, Colonel Parker. This is a good and recent example, of what I suggest you start being for yourself.
Like Colonel Parker, you should be on the lookout for deals and ways to make money by selling what you have to offer.
Which is not Elvis at your disposal;
But you.

You need to be your own Colonel Parker;
Shrewd.
Ruthless.
Talking to the right people at the right time, and taking chances and liberties more often than not!

But more than that you need to be your own Jon Bon Jovi;
Always tell people who you are.
Where you’re going.
And how they can be in it.

There’s nothing crazy about that.

.
~Suzanne
become the Rock Star you were born to be

Meet your Mad Crazy Person (MCP), Rock Star | 2022 12 27
is the third Catacombe Rock Star post

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Let YOUR work be reborn. The Rock Star way. | 2022 12 25 Christmas

Published on by Suzanne BeenackersLeave a comment
1985 02 22 Madonna by Ken Regan

There was a moment that you knew.
You knew this thing had your name on it.
You knew it was yours.
You didn’t know details, or hows, or whys, but you knew what you knew!

This was what you wanted.

Yet you waited a while, didn’t you?
No worries.
But I think you waited because you couldn’t believe this one was meant for you.
Not just why it landed in your lap, but also why others didn’t fight you over it.
They barely showed interest in it.

Maybe they mocked it, but that was focused at you. Maybe they were jealous of the attention you would be giving this thing, and that’s why they gave you a hard time over it.
But it is not because they envied you for having it.
Or for discovering it.

Your craft.
Your passion.
Your art.
Or an area of expertise that already bore the contours of the professional work you’d be known for, in this lifetime.

And if that was you, I see two options;
Either you stuck with your vision, followed the path, and are now rocking whatever it was you were shown.

Or, like me, you made too many mistakes, and you lost the dream.
Like I did with my vision to become a yoga practitioner and then later a yoga teacher.
In hindsight, I really did not make that many mistakes.
Just one.

I did not understand what I was shown.

And to make matters worse? Even now, I would not be able to tell you what it is, I was shown.
But I do know one thing though;
It wasn’t “yoga”.

Just like you, if you had that experience of seeing that one thing with your name on it;
That experience of that thing landing in your lap and you seeing your future;
Just like you, were not shown that thing either.

You were not shown;
Your profession.
Your passion.
Your area of expertise.

Not the way you parent, the way you govern, the way you do business, the way you create;
Not the way you love, not the way you move, not the way you ARE.
You were not shown a way at all.

You were shown a VISION.
When you, and I, thought we were shown A WAY.

I thought my way was yoga, so I started practicing yoga and took classes, yoga teacher trainings and started teaching. And the further along down the path I went, the further I moved away from my vision.

So hail to you, if you are rocking whatever it is you were shown.
You did not lose your dream along the way, not by luck, but because you stuck with the vision.
Not the way.
Not the HOW.

You were not swayed by what others said were the right ways and the proper hows, to go with your vision.

And we, the ones that failed, did.

We were never shown a how, nor a path;
We were shown a vision.
You can’t follow a ten step formula, not a four year education, not a parenting course, not the protocol of how things are done in whatever industry or area of life you think your vision belongs.
That’s not how you bring a vision to life.

That’s how you kill it.

So go back.
Go back to when you knew.
Go back to the beginning of the beginning when that thing landed in your lap and you looked around if no one else came to claim this beautiful, meaningful, exciting thing… if it was really meant for you. 

And pick it up from there.

Because do you know why no one fought you over it?
Why no one bothered to go after what you would have given anything in the world for?
Because they saw something else entirely. They saw only the worldly, material, recognizable aspects of it.

It is not just that others cannot see, what you have always understood was yours;
But also that they aren’t meant to.

It was your vision.
Let it be reborn today.
And commit not to the recognizable worldly aspects, but to its wholeness.

Or even;
Its holiness.

.
~Suzanne
become the Rock Star you were born to be

Let YOUR work be reborn. The Rock Star way. | 2022 12 25 Christmas
is the second Catacombe Rock Star post

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Your Rock Star Manifesto | 2022 12 24 Christmas Eve

Published on by Suzanne BeenackersLeave a comment
Imagery from the movie Elvis

“It was at the moment that Elvis the Man was sacrificed;
And Elvis the God, was born.”
movie Elvis (2022)

Manifestos are written across different continents, for different purposes.
They have been written when there was a call for change, revolution, justice.
Manifestos have moved us forward, when the world around us collapsed.

From a writer’s perspective, it would be funny to now say;
This is no such manifesto.

From a global perspective, it would be wise to now say;
Christmas 2022 calls out for a new savior.
A new light.
That after three years which have pulled us deeper into war, polarization, death and recession, it is a time when the manifestos should be drawn up and sworn oath to.
When new voices should let themselves be heard, nail their words to doors, and set fire to systems that have abandoned us.
But no.

Writer or not;
This is not, such a manifesto.

This is a manifesto for you, Rock Star.
Because it is you, who has forsaken this world.
Our soul has left, a long time ago.

If someone asked those who were meant to be Rock Star Writers, to pour their brilliant analysis of the state of the world into words, words that would move millions;
Then tell me, how many would be able to answer the call?
A hundred?
Ten?
One?

If someone asked the Rock Star Musicians, to write a protest song to mobilize the masses;
A song to chant that would not just change to world, but unite it.
How many could do it?

If the artists were asked to visualize the atrocities of our time;
Who would?

And the truth is that after years of not understanding this myself, and honestly brutally losing myself, again and again;
I now have perfect understanding of  WHY, so few Rock Stars in the most authentic, bold, and FREE way, exist today.
Why all those calls would go by unanswered.
Because it doesn’t pay jack shit.
That’s why.

And that nobody in their right mind would – and should! – pursue this path if you are not absolutely sure that you’d not just rather kill off your own soul, and go for the money.

Because you can be either an employee, or you’re an entrepreneur. The latter meaning an independent professional of some sort.
That’s your choice.
Artists have artificially been forced to take their place with the Independents, next to the local physical therapist in what used to be, and what are now the proverbial yellow pages.
But that’s not how this shit works.

Artists who are domesticized into payroll jobs or into regular businesses, are castrated, chained, curtailed.
And I say this having perfect understanding that within a few weeks I will be handing my balls in, just like you have.
So no judgement.

But it has fucked with our minds and we started believing that shit ourselves!

And if we want to have a guaranteed income, we do need some sort of employment.
And if we don’t want to end up in severe trouble with tax services, we do need to find a way to cope with the business side of things when we receive money for our art.
And yet.
It is so not who we came here to be.

We did not come here to become successful musicians, writers, artists.
And even more of us did not come here to be the specialists, the successful online entrepreneurs, the local brick and mortar businesses that we were pushed into believing that we are either.
Yet we let ourselves be fucking swallowed whole by it, now didn’t we?

By now we have so much identified with being this neatly boxed up pretty little professional.

We’ve joined professional associations and take further training.
We have insurance for an array of things.
We have disclaimers and legal protection to shield us from unhappy clients.
And the list goes on and on.

All pretty little boxed up stuff that if you market it right, you will be able to monetize the fuck out of.
And you better, since you just handed in your balls and soul to do it.
Monetary compensation should be the least you should go for.

But it will not get your soul back.
It will not get YOU back.
You can never earn back, or buy back, the parts you have given up believing in. The parts you thought you had to give up to join the club of good employees or good businesses or even bad employees or bad business.

You were never supposed to buy into all the crap society has made up so it can function.
It is absolutely not your job to make society function, simply because you came here to rock the fuckin’ boat.
That’s in your divine job definition under the P of Purpose.

You know you are a Rock Star when:

A.
You have an art
This can be a regular art, like music, painting, writing, performing, but it can also be a craft, a skill like teaching, pastry baking, and yes, also selling and marketing and running a business!
It can ALL be your art.
And you have at least one.

And B:
You have a message
This is the part that sets you apart from your peers and why believing you were like them has crushed you.
This is why you forgot you’re a Rock Star.
Because you DO have a message!

And like all messages, just like the one that came 2000 years ago, it was meant to be spoken and to be written.
Your message came to be screamed and to be yelled.
It came here to be set free, but also to be carved in stone and to be nailed to doors.

And it is this message, that a professional business would never show. And the reason why, as I said earlier, Rock Stars have perfectly good reasons to send their soul into the afterlife long before they die.
Because the message is the part where you are no longer that well-functioning, skillful, professional under A.

Speaking your message may very well be what kills your business, gets you fired, wakes up the neighbors, and becomes your downfall.
But it can also be the thing that propels you to stardom, doubles your income, brings you friends, and creates your legacy.

But regardless of which one it is going to be, it will certainly
– and with all the bells and whistles and angels and hearing God’s voice you will feel this happening-

It will certainly, save your Soul.

.
~Suzanne
become the Rock Star you were born to be

Your Rock Star Manifesto | 2022 12 24 Christmas Eve
was the very, very first Catacombe Rock Star post

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