TAG: Success,

Arts Leadership in the Post-COVID World: Start with the Creative Success Mindset

We are finally reemerging from COVID isolation and the world of the arts is beginning to open up! The past year has seen tremendous change in our field. The pandemic shut down the ability to perform for live audiences. On top of that crisis, we had a collective reckoning with race. Moving forward, today’s arts leaders and professionals are facing …

Cultivate the Happiness Habit: Maximize Flow in Your Creative Career

Last week, I had the privilege of teaching at the Juilliard Lower Strings Seminar, taught by Astrid Schween, the fabulous cellist of the Juilliard Quartet. The  class provides strategies on how to succeed in the world of music.  My topic was how to cultivate the happiness habit and experience more flow in your creative career. Happiness Breeds Success I am …

Tap into Passion and Purpose: How to Ignite Your Creative Career

This past week, I had the privilege of speaking on Creative Success Now: How to Ignite Your Passion and Purpose for Successful Creative Careers” to students at Yale University. My talk attracted a variety of students who were intrigued about creativity and turning their passion and purpose into a successful career.  These included singers, composers, performers, an aspiring novelist, several …

The Mindset of Today’s Music Entrepreneur:  The 4 Elements of Success

What’s the starting point for creating a successful career in today’s music world? To me, it’s having the mindset of success. I define mindset as your attitude and how you perceive the world based on your experiences:  how you feel about your ability to translate your musical talent into a successful career as opposed to the FACT of what instrument …

Share Your Big Goals: How SMART Goals Set You Up for Success

One of the highlights of my summer is teaching the Art of Career Planning at the So Percussion Summer Institute, the wonderful program for budding percussionists founded by my buddies at So Percussion.  In our session, I help these aspiring musicians to gain greater clarity on their career goals. And this year, one of our students surprised everyone by sharing …

The Growth Mindset Updated: 3 Ways to Help Music Entrepreneurs Achieve Success

As I sit in my office at Yale listening to a piano student next door repeating the same passage in the same EXACT way for what seems like hours, I have an urge to knock on the door and say to this person, “Mere repetition is not going to help you improve. You need smart new strategies and the growth mindset!” …

Networking and the Growth Mindset: How Music Entrepreneurs Can Learn to Love Networking

Summer is a great time to network! Chances are that you are touring, at a festival or engaged in a new teaching or performance venues where you are likely to be meeting a lot of new people. Yet for so many people, networking brings up a lot of negativity. I have heard the following: Networking feels sleazy activity but musicians have to …

How Music Entrepreneurs Stay Positive: 4 Mindset Strategies to Help Through Tough Times

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My coaching groups at Yale are going strong! Students appreciate having a confidential forum where they can share successes and challenges with a trusted group of peers and learn new strategies for creating sustainable careers. With the semester winding down in a few weeks, our students, especially those who are graduating, are finding it a challenge to keep their spirits up …

How to Stay in Balance over the Summer: 5 Steps for Music Entrepreneurs

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Summer is officially here! For many of us, it means a change in routine and the opportunity to do things that we do not have time to do during the rest of the year. School is out, summer festivals are about to begin, you may be on tour and/or you may have more down time around home. How do you …

The Power of Yet: How Music Entrepreneurs Are Inspired to Create Long-Term Success

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I greatly admire the groundbreaking work of Dr. Carol Dweck of Stanford University, who lays out her research on the type of mindset that leads to success in her book Mindset: The New Psychology of Success.   Dr. Dweck identifies two mindsets:  the growth mindset and the fixed mindset. Those with a growth mindset do not simply rely on “talent” …