What's on my mind...
We Need to Talk About Your Brand. Your Siren Call.
As we approach these first weeks of Q4, in the middle of bullwonky stuff like school starting, distance and hybrid learning, fires, a pandemic, family shenanigans, and, oh yeah, the upcoming holidays, we need to talk about something. We need talk about your brand -...
Are You Asking Permission or Forgiveness?
Okay, folks, time for the truthiness. The truth about how we make decisions and walk in the world. The truth about asking permission instead of forgiveness. Voice peeps that now have a business are stuck in a pattern. We've been conditioned to ask permission. To beg...
Mary Poppins Saved My Life
When I watched Mary Poppins Returns around Christmas last year, I ugly cried. UG-LEE.I wasn't expecting to get hit with a ton of emotional bricks and have an illuminating transformative moment in a dark theater. And I certainly wasn't expecting to be brought to my...
Let’s Ban the Word Busy
I've noticed a trend. You're starting to get in the groove.You grow, become unfettered, increase your mission and vision in the world. You get FOCUSED. COURAGEOUS. WISE.And then, you get... busy. Or do you?Here is the charge, vocalistas: Let's ban the word "busy".We...
Three Reasons for Two Accounts
Figuring out expenses for taxes is waaaaay the heck easier - think of the amount of time and energy you will save when you already know that everything you spent on your business was in one place. Even if you aren't yet ready to have two separate bookkeeping systems,...
How the Sunk Cost Fallacy is Keeping You Down
Your best work is not behind you. It is in front of you. Your best self wasn't in college, or grad school, or DMA program, or at yesterday's workshop. Your intelligence, wit, selflessness, and gobsmacking amazingness didn't end when you got a diploma or your...
To Get What we Want, we must Seize the C.R.A.Y.
Now that it's January 75th (DEAR GOODNESS MAKE IT STOP!), I offer to you a new mantra: Seize the C.R.A.Y. Clear & Responsible About what is Yours "I wish I would have started planning earlier..." or "I just don't know how to plan! I get ideas, but then am...
You Can Change Your Life. Yes, you can.
I wrote a thing for myself. A reminder. A manifest. A pep-talk. I thought you may relate, so decided to share it: Dear Self (you amazing and delightfully silly and grace-y person, you), You have a choice. Yes, you. You have a choice in how your voice works, your...
Believing in Competition is Killing Your Studio
Believing we are in competition with the studio owner down the street kills our mojo. And by mojo, I mean our soul, teaching, and bank account. Believing we have to hoard all the students in our community is an apology for not specializing. Being convinced that...
Scheduling for Voice Teachers… an Observation
Observation: Never ever once have I listened to a podcast with a male entrepreneur speaking about how they set their life tasks around their family activities, getting the house taken care of, or how to shift the mindset around work when you become a parent. I've...
Stop Blaming the Students…
for being late. for not practicing. for not reading the policies. for being "lazy". for being "impatient". for being busy. Stop blaming for missed payments. ignoring boundaries. hovering at lessons. asking for copies of music, again. Each and every complaint we have...
What do Plungers, Flippers, and Teaching Voice have in common? The potential for pinball.
Pinball is fun when you are the playfield and not the ball. The playfield is the part of a pinball machine that all the cool dohickeys reside. The place where pinballs get trapped, ramped, orbited, flipped, and bumped. Are you the playfield or the pinball? Do your...
Does your life, or business, ever suck, just when you were getting AWESOME?
Because if you do, you're not alone. IT IS A THING. Inspired by a brave and daring post I was commenting on within the last week, I was PM'd and asked to talk a little bit about Upper Limiting. A term coined by Gay Hendricks in his book "The Big Leap". I think the...
Actually, Your Mindset Doesn’t Matter.
What would you say if I told you that your mindset doesn't matter? That all of your goals are achievable no matter what you believe? What if I told you that it DOES NOT matter how prepared you are. Or how knowledgeable? "You don’t have to be great to start, but you...
Pop/Rock/Jazz just isn’t the same…
...as Classical or Musical Theater singing. Which is kind of a big fat duh, but also a little difficult to talk about in voice teacher land. Why? Because our field really does want the best for our students (do no harm!) and some of the sounds and stylings around...