TAG: confidence

Top 10 Confidence Boosters for Arts Entrepreneurs

Just think of how often confidence comes up in the course of your life, whether it is in rehearsal, in performance, speaking in public, making presentations or pitches, networking or interviewing for a job. Confidence is at the heart of your personal motivation and self-esteem to put you at ease. It is also essential when you interact with others in order …

The Life-Long Journey of Music Entrepreneurship: Where are you now and how can you improve?

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We hear a lot today about “arts entrepreneurship” but what exactly does that mean? Let’s start with “entrepreneurship”:  the process of transforming an idea into an enterprise that creates value—economic, social, cultural, or intellectual– through innovation risk-taking and actualizing an idea. To me,  “arts entrepreneurship” is:  applying the entrepreneurial mindset (including taking risks, creating and recognizing opportunity, grit and growth) …

Being in the Flow: The Start of Authentic Leadership

This past week, I attended the 2014 Opera America conference in San Francisco where I had the privilege of working with the 2014 Leadership Intensive participants.  These 14 talented mid-career opera administrators from North America and Europe were selected to participate in a program that provides training and resources designed to “bolster their leadership capacity and advance their careers”. My …

Group Coaching Lessons for Success-Oriented Music Entrepreneurs: Share, Learn and Grow

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This semester, I launched 3 career groups at the Yale School of Music as an experiment to see how group coaching could facilitate learning and growth for entrepreneurial musicians. My intentions were to provide: a positive, supportive, safe judgment-free environment that promotes learning through self-reflection and joint problem solving in which musicians can share with like-minded peers learn tools to help …

Top 10 Public Speaking Tips for Arts Leaders and Music Entrepreneurs

What is the first thing that comes up for you when you think about addressing a group of people, whether it is a wedding toast, a speech to a live audience at a music performance or a presentation at your local charity? If the answer is “fear” or “dread”, you are not alone! Fear of public speaking or glossophobia is …

Fighting Your Way To The Top: 5 Ways to Manage Inner Conflicts

We live in a complicated, interesting world today where many in the classical music world are wringing their hands because of perceived lack of opportunities for making a successful career, while others (myself included) view our world today as one of tremendous possibility and opportunity.

This is one of the reasons that I am so passionate about teaching musicians how to look at the world as one of opportunity.  One of my objectives is to help my students adopt a positive attitude towards their lives and their careers since I believe very strongly that happiness and optimism breed success and not vice-versa!
Optimism is also essential to the mindset of the music entrepreneur of the 21st Century.

In my class, we start by examining the different attitudes that one can bring to a music career. This attitude is formed by past experiences and perceptions and it translates into energy:

•    stressful energy for things that make you feel hopeless, fearful, angry, or conflicted or

•    motivating energy that makes you feel that you can manage your life, inspires you to keep moving forward, be of service and find opportunity.

Confidence vs. Arrogance: Know Your Gift to Boost Your Personal Power

We have all been there:  you meet someone at a competition or a reception or a class who dominates the conversation, talks only about himself, projects an aura of knowing it all and could care less about you or other people around him. What’s your reaction? “Boy, am I intimidated! Why can’t I be that confident?” Or perhaps “What a …

Two Confidence-Boosting Tools for Music Entrepreneurs: Strengths and Flow

One of the goals of my entrepreneurship class at the Yale School of Music is to help my students develop a mindset of positivity and project confidence since this is at the heart of being a successful entrepreneur. My students have learned two great tools for boosting their confidence—strengths and Flow.  These are more than “feel-good props”.  Both originate from positive psychology, the scientific study of the strengths and virtues that enable individuals and communities to thrive and whose mission includes “find[ing]and nurture[ing] genius and talent”.

What’s not to like?

So here is how strengths and Flow can help you to become confident in your professional and your personal endeavors.