#self-funded

It’s been a almost 7 months ago that Vodka announced the latest Lauren Mann long-player, Dearestly (July 2016), with a video representation from one of Lauren Mann’s earlier works with the Fairly Odd Folk, Over Land and Sea, which just happens to be the title track of the 2012 long-player by the same name.  

There are now videos available for the 2016 long-player as well, including this one for Hibernate, an introspective look at life. If you are missing the bubbly bouncy fun of Over Land and Sea, just know that there are examples of all of that, too, on Dearestly. But Dearestly is nothing, if not a complete set of thoughts and emotions, and so the brooding loveliness of Hibernate (seen / heard here) is a great example of some of that side of Dearestly. 

So I might regret posting this picture, but...my facial expression basically sums up how in shock I am that I ACTUALLY MADE IT. That I’m DOING IT! Wait, what am I doing besides taking ugly selfies and blogging on tumblr? 

For those who are reading who are totally clueless as to who I am or what I do (which I am sure is a good percentage of you), you can call me Gayle. I write music. I play the guitar. And I try and really dedicate myself to it, the guitar, I mean. The songwriting I am mostly laissez-faire with letting it develop, but I really push myself on the guitar. My music is available for listening ears on Reverbnation.com/gayle4, and you can find links to my social media on my very own website, gaylesmusic.com. 

My song, “What Else” was produced and engineered at a large studio, by a very professional and experienced  fellow rockstar, and it is now being pushed out to stations along the East Coast of the U.S. by manager and promotions fellow. And here I am, driving across Florida for a couple of weeks, promoting the single and winning the hearts of millions....or a few hundred. Or a handful at least. 

I’m not sure if this blog will last after my tour is through. But I am willing, now, to expose myself to the people who might call themselves my fans, and show what I have set myself up to do, and how I have presented my songs, my artistry, to the world....the world being a couple of cities in Florida. No big deal.

Today being my first day that I set out, I spent most of my thinking time being completely awestruck by what I was doing. Flabbergasted, really. I was leaving my home that night to drive two hours to a city and spend the night at a friend’s house, play shows all of that week and subsist on food I had packed. I was to also somehow drive a stick shift truck, which I had been driving for less than a week, some 800 miles total. And go to cities I’d never been in before. 

But I made it. I made it to my first show tonight, in Dowtown Sanford, at a bar and restaurant by the name of West End Trading Company. I lived in Orlando for two years, so I had been to this place before. I knew the host, a good friend of mine who did sound for me at a couple of my shows. I ran into some other old faces as well, and some new ones. And I met the first creep of my trip (of course), about 2 minutes after I had walked into the bar. 

He caught my eye as I walked through the door and extended a hand. 

“I need you in my life”, he said.

Yeah, no thanks. 

After a couple of lies about where I was going and where I was from, I made my way over to a table and watched my friends perform before me. The place was very crowded, which excited me. A couple of years ago I might have been nervous, but now the crowd only filled me with anticipation. 

Remember how I was saying that I really dedicate myself to my guitar playing? Well, I try and exemplify that in my solo acoustic performances, even if it can be a bit tricky to do so. For this performance, I wanted to use my loop pedal...which would overdub my guitar so that  I could solo over a recording of myself. And usually it is a hit or miss, with the volume on either the recording or the guitar being too loud or too quiet...but after a good soundcheck, I managed keeping up with the pedal really well.

I had about twenty minutes, and I started out with some Red Hot Chilipeppers, and then some original songs, “Damned if I Do”, “Optimistic” and “What Else”. I started with faster, more upbeat songs, and then mellowed it out with my slower songs. Always catch an audience with an upbeat song first, preferably one they know...and I certainly caught a few peoples’ attention. And a warm reception from the crowd after each song.

If I had been on this tour any sooner in my life, I wouldn’t have had the experience or knowledge to pull it off. Or skill. Only recently have I been happy with my voice, and have been consistently able to project when needed. Only recently have I been able to manage a loop pedal in a live performance. Through countless performances in the past, I have made enough mistakes to know what works and what doesn’t, how to catch the attention of the crowd and make some memories for people.

I was able to personally connect with  few souls after my performance and show them my website. My business cards won’t be ready until Friday, but personal connection and authenticity with people trumps any fancy marketing scheme in my book. 

I stuck around for a while and enjoyed the social life, but then headed to my former roommates’ home to spend the night. I only stalled my stick shift once...maybe twice. Getting better, though.

So my first night out was a success. I have a roof over my head, I had food. I took a hot shower...and I’m slowly falling asleep writing this. 

For those keeping up with me...I will be sure to include more pictures next time. You’ll have to forgive me, this is my first shot at blogging. But I’m really happy to have made it this far, even if I feel like my voice or my art is so miniscule compared to the rest of existence...I’m making strides, and nothing will ever be the same from here on, I hope

Why do you continue paying outlandish premiums for your insurance plan? Why do your premiums go up every year? What if there was a way to keep employee premiums down without lowering benefits or raising deductibles? You need a smart alternative to the typical PPO network discounts that hardly make a difference in terms of cost savings.  What if instead of “top down discounts” on your bill you were paying a fair and reasonable price from bottom up? This would bring charges for things like MRIs, medical supplies, and procedures such as dialysis to a more reasonable level.

The Open Solution™ obtains massive savings off of billed charges. With the help of ELAP Services we protect you and your precious healthcare dollars by auditing and re-pricing each and every medical facility bill that contain exorbitant charges. We advise our clients to purchase health care in the same manner they buy everything else: with transparency and a clear relationship between cost/value and price.

ELAP Services analyzes bills based on criteria such as what hospitals bill Medicare patients. Using a hospital’s own financial filings, ELAP isolates billing errors and outrageous charges for small items, such as $75 gauze pads. When faced with this documentation hospitals accept the lower payment most of the time.  ELAP also offers a co-fiduciary relationship to provide legal defense if balance billing occurs, and defends plans and individuals from unfair and illegal collection practices by medical facilities.

Check out what happens to a hospital bill after ELAP Services audit and re-prices it:

Unfortunately, most PPO discounts offer minimal savings. Usually PPO networks save you an average 25% off the billed amount. This means if you were to take same bill from above you would have paid $9,583.50 under a traditional PPO network discount. By having the bill audited and re-priced we were able to save the company 84% off the billed amount or $10,709.22.  We dare you to try to find a PPO network discount that will help your company more than our audit and re-pricing services.  

Substantial Healthcare Savings

We have told you we save our clients money, but we thought we had better show you the substantial healthcare savings that The Open Solution provides our clients. Here is one example how our customers from across the country, experience  90% of the invoiced services, to 50% off the services rendered. Our audit and re-pricing formula proves we can give you a larger discount than regular PPO discounts.  

Substantial Savings  

We have told you we save our clients money, but we thought we had better show you the substantial healthcare savings that The Open Solution provides our clients. This is just an example of  how customers from across the country, whose savings ranges from nearly 90% of the invoiced services, to 50% off the services rendered. The big question is does your PPO discount save you this much?  

Home Furnishings Company – Experienced a 40% savings the first year after implementing new plan ($2.5M reduction on previous $6M expense). With 180 stores in five states, the company’s 1,800 employees are free of PPO network restrictions. Eliminating the burden of assembling a multi-state network has greatly simplified the health insurance plan and reduced costs. The Open Solution™ savings example: Reduced $140K hospital bill to $12K – a savings of more than 90%.

 NICU baby in Utah – The Open Solution™ saved one company from paying a $1.3 million dollar claim, using an auditing and re-pricing method. Their total payout was only $187,277.33, an 87% savings off of billed!