Today we’d like to introduce you to Jenn McMillan.
Hi Jenn, so excited to have you with us today. What can you tell us about your story?
I’m a classically trained singer and musician, and I’ve been performing for most of my life. I studied Vocal Performance at the University of Michigan and spent years after graduating teaching voice and piano, performing, writing music, and trying to figure out where exactly I fit in the music industry. After doing that for nearly a decade, I finally realized that trying to follow the traditional indie musician path just wasn’t working for me. So I took matters into my own hands and went back to school to get my master’s in business with a concentration in marketing.
Once I graduated, I pretty much hit the ground running. I wanted to actually apply what I had learned to build a creative career that worked for me, rather than continuing to wait for the traditional music industry path to somehow click or catch up. I started experimenting with new ways to bring together my music, my love of creating playful experiences, and the marketing and business skills I had gained.
Over the last few years, that has grown into a creative world that finally feels like me. I release and perform my own music, create immersive events centered around music, creativity, and community, and produce experiences like SoulSpace and my upcoming Witchy Women in Music event. A lot of what I create has a slightly “witchy,” whimsical, old-world feel to it, because those are the things I genuinely love.
More than anything, I think I got to where I am by finally giving myself permission to do things my own way. Instead of trying to squeeze myself into an existing version of what a musician or creative entrepreneur is “supposed” to look like, I started asking what a creative career could actually look like for me, and then I started building it.
And that’s when things really began to click. Over the past year, I’ve sold out every event I’ve hosted, built a community of people who genuinely get excited about what I’m creating, and now I’m producing my first larger music and vendor festival this fall. I’ve learned that there really isn’t one blueprint for a creative career, and you don’t necessarily have to choose just one thing. It’s possible to take all of the things you genuinely love doing and figure out what a career that makes room for all of them looks like for you.
Can you talk to us a bit about the challenges and lessons you’ve learned along the way. Looking back would you say it’s been easy or smooth in retrospect?
It definitely has not been a smooth road! I think one of my biggest challenges was spending years trying to make myself fit into a version of a creative career that just wasn’t working for me. For a long time, I thought if I just worked harder, released more music, posted more consistently, played more shows, etc., eventually everything would click. When it didn’t, it was really easy to assume I was doing something wrong or that I was just “not good enough.”
I’ve also had to get comfortable with uncertainty. When you’re creating something from scratch, there’s no guarantee anyone is going to care about it. When I started hosting my own events, I had no idea if people would actually buy tickets and show up. I just knew I was creating things that I would want to go to, so I decided to try it.
Probably the biggest thing I’ve learned is that something not working doesn’t necessarily mean you’ve failed. Sometimes it’s just information that it’s time to try something different. A lot of what’s working for me now came from being willing to do exactly that.
Thanks for sharing that. So, maybe next you can tell us a bit more about your work?
At the heart of what I do, I’m a singer-songwriter and storyteller. I write and perform original music, but over the last few years I’ve realized that I’m most excited by creating an entire world around the music rather than stopping at the song itself.
A lot of my work blends music with immersive experiences, community, and a little bit of magic. I love anything witchy, whimsical, historical, or slightly theatrical, and those things naturally find their way into what I create. That might look like performing an original song in a historic Victorian home, hosting an intimate candlelit gathering where I perform alongside a creative activity and ritual, or producing a larger event that brings together local female musicians and witchy small businesses.
I think what sets my work apart is that I’m always asking, “How can I make people feel like they’ve stepped into something?” I don’t want someone to just hear a song or attend an event. I want there to be a sense of story, atmosphere, play, and imagination around it.
That’s probably what I’m most proud of too. I’ve started creating spaces where adults get permission to use their imaginations again, dress up, meet new people, experience live music, and just play for a little while. Seeing people genuinely connect with something that started as an idea in my head is still pretty surreal.
Any big plans?
Right now, I’m really excited to see how much bigger I can make this world. This fall I’m producing my first “Witchy Women in Music” event, bringing together local female musicians, artists, and small businesses for an immersive evening centered around original music, but with a witchy twist- with things like tarot readings, ghost stories, local vendors, and all that fun stuff. It feels like a natural next step from the smaller gatherings I’ve been creating, and I’m excited to see where it could grow from there.
Longer term, I absolutely want to take my music on tour, but I want to do it my way haha I’d love to create immersive shows in beautiful, historic spaces where the music, storytelling, and setting make people feel like they’ve stepped into another world, while also creating a sense of community where the audience feels like they’re part of the experience together, not just watching it.
I think that’s what I’m most excited about moving forward: continuing to blur the line between music, storytelling, and immersive experiences, and seeing just how far I can take it.
Contact Info:
- Website: https://www.jennmcmillan.net/
- Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/jenn_mcmillan_/
- Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/JennMcMillanOfficial
- Youtube: https://www.youtube.com/@JennMcMillanMusic
- Other: https://open.spotify.com/artist/0DbtRnq9bGfILbvvZY21ih?si=16DnnY3OSja6_kYJV7DG5Q
