Today we’d like to introduce you to Kristen Allred.
Hi Kristen, please kick things off for us with an introduction to yourself and your story.
I actually have a few different businesses to talk about. You can include info in the article about whatever businesses you think would be interesting to your readers.
My first business is as a piano teacher. My degree is in Piano Pedagogy and I have taught piano lessons for over 30 years. I was awarded the Teacher of the Year from Utah State University. I make my piano lessons unique by not only teaching my students to play the piano, but also to compose music also. Many of my students have placed in state-wide composition contests.
Because of my love for composing, I have several published compositions through the Neil A. Kjos Music Publishing Company and Jackman Music. I also self-publish my works. It was a long road to getting published. I wrote for years and sent compositions to publishers before getting published. I racked up my fair share of rejection letters. For some reason, that would just make me more determined to get accepted.
I was about to give up when one publisher accepted some of my music. Now I have over 100 published pieces. My pieces are mainly written for piano students and are often used on repertoire lists for state and national piano student competitions.
Composing music is incredibly therapeutic and has been really beneficial in helping me through some of the difficult things I’ve been through in life (which I’m happy to talk about).
I am also the pianist for the Northeast Piedmont Chorale. It is a community choir that performs in Raleigh and Wake Forest. They are great and a lot of fun to work with.
My husband and I own and manage a successful Airbnb on Mayo Lake in Roxboro, NC. I decided to look for a lake house to rent on Airbnb when my daughter was about to enter high school. She was dealing with some difficult mental health issues, and I wanted a place for my family to get away and spend time together, but I also needed a way to afford it. I figured if I could Airbnb it out for at least as much as the expenses would be, it would be worth it.
It ended up being one of the best decisions I’ve made. It has turned out to be a great vacation escape for my family and also a successful Airbnb that will help my husband and me retire. I will always be grateful for the time I got to spend there with my daughter, paddleboarding, swimming, sitting around the fire pit, and cooking out, as she has since passed from a drug overdose. She struggles with very difficult mental health for years – she had Borderline Personality Disorder and passed at 21 years of age – almost 2 years ago.
I am also a travel content writer. I have a travel blog called The Trippy Life. The website is www.TheTrippyLife.com. I also have several social media sites linked to it – TikTok, Instagram, Youtube, and Facebook.
For my travel content, I share hidden gems, beach adventures, East Coast travel, and music adventures. I slowed down a bit with creating content for this business when my daughter passed because she was my travel buddy. But I’ve been able to get back into it recently and am really enjoying it.
I really like finding and sharing unique aspects of travel. For instance, I recently shared a lot of content around the places in Durham, NC that inspired the TV show, Stranger Things. Although the show wasn’t filmed there, the writers of the show grew up in Durham. They reference many spots in Durham.
Alright, so let’s dig a little deeper into the story – has it been an easy path overall and if not, what were the challenges you’ve had to overcome?
I covered some of my challenges in the last question. But no, it has not been a smooth road. Life is a gift and curse that way.
When I entered college to study piano, I felt incredibly behind the other piano students there, even though I was given a scholarship. I had to work incredibly hard to catch up.
And as I shared before, becoming a composer was an immense amount of work over several years, teaching myself how to compose and to finally be published. Thank heavens rejection letters tend to light a fire under me. Another challenge of composing is that when you work with a publishing company, it can take months to years for them to review and publish your work. And then even more time for the royalties to start coming in. It’s a long game for sure.
My Airbnb is very fun to run, but takes quite a bit of time to clean and maintain. I have a cleaning company help me, but I prefer to do most of the cleaning myself as I will spend hours making sure everything is spotless. You never know what you’ll find when you start looking under beds, in drawers, and in cupboards. Sometimes we will get difficult renters that we have to deal with, but for the most part we have been blessed with lovely renters.
My travel blog was something I started after I left a very unhealthy, high-demand religion. I needed something brand new to help me work through the difficult emotions. I love travel and quirky finds, and enjoy sharing them. I share interesting outdoor hikes, hidden shelling spots, unique biking trails, and more.
It was difficult and rewarding to learn how to build a WordPress website and run social media channels. Heck, I’m still learning.
I sometimes work with tourism boards to promote their towns and with companies to promote their products. I’ve even been gifted a couple of e-bikes to develop content around.
One of the most rewarding experiences I’ve had creating travel content was when tourism board in Virginia set up an interview for me to do with the famous guitar maker Wayne Henderson of Henderson guitars. I got to go right to his humble workshop in the mountains of VA. I made it into a YouTube video that has massive interest.
It is the only interview I’ve done, and I was clueless. I had so many uh huhs in there that it took me hours to try to get them out.
Can you tell our readers more about what you do and what you think sets you apart from others?
Piano teaching – I specialize in finding motivational music for my students, sometimes creating a custom arrangement just for them. I also help them discover whether they have an inner composer and teach them to arrange music and to really understand the theory and mechanics behind what they are playing.
Composing – I compose piano arrangements that are fun and motivational to play. I want to light a fire under a piano student when they play my music, so much so that they enjoy practicing. I write pieces about things kids love, like jungle animals or mythical creatures. One of the things I’m most proud of is currently having 15 pieces on the National Federation of Music Clubs repertoire list. This means that 100s of students around the country are using my music in festivals and competitions. Another thing I love is that sometimes children write me letters telling me how much my music motivates them in their piano studies.
Airbnb – My lake house Airbnb is one of the most successful in its area. I take great pride in this, as my husband and I work really hard to clean and maintain it. We are always making it better by adding more amenities. I work hard to be a friendly and responsive host and enjoy helping my guests plan their vacation.
The Trippy Life Travel Blog – What sets me apart is some of the unique content i find to share. Like the Wayne Henderson interview and Stranger Things places, or secret shelling areas in NC. I’ve also loved sharing about biking the Virginia Creeper Trail and how to hike the only slot canyons on the East Coast. Oh, and things like Speakeasies are fun hidden gems for me to share about.
Before we go, is there anything else you can share with us?
I think I’ve shared quite a bit and you can select and use what will interest your audience best. I’m happy to talk more about any of it, including what I’ve been through, losing my daughter.
On the page where I can put website/social media links, I’m not really sure what to put, as I have several businesses.
I’ll list some links here, and maybe you could put in whatever links you want that correspond to whatever part of my story you want to share:
https://kristenallredmusic.com/ – to buy music or take piano lessons
My lakehouse
I’m attaching several photos and you can use whatever for the main photo (not necessarily what I put for the main photo) as I’m not sure what direction you’ll take my story. So you may want my main photo to be me in my piano room, or maybe you’d rather it to be one in nature. Feel free to use what is best. I’ll upload a bunch and just choose the ones that will worh the best.
Contact Info:
- Website: https://thetrippylife.com/
- Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/TrippyLifeBlog
- YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/@trippylifeblog
- Tiktok: https://www.tiktok.com/@trippylifeblog?lang=en
- Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/trippylifeblog/
- Airbnb: https://www.airbnb.com/rooms/30364073
