26 "Every Performance Felt Like A Protest" and "You Don't Wanna Freak Them Out"

Guest 1: [00:00:00] The most powerful thing you can do when you're turning your back. And I can't perform with my back. It closes off the room to the people who are in front of you, and it becomes very intimate. And so you are able to share and express something as if you feel as though you're in an intimate setting, and whether it's a small room or a massive room, you're entering a portal where this thing is going to be happening and other people are getting to experience it. [00:00:22][22.2]

[00:00:26] I work with with children a lot too, and when you work with children, that can be so humbling sometimes. You can never be the hero or it's show. It's up to us. And so there were some weeks where I was preparing them for a gig with the Boston Symphony or for the Boston Lyric Opera. These are like big professional productions. We come off stage with all the applause. They just see different things is a big deal. Their biggest thing was, oh, I can't wait to go on stage and do my best to get back to the dressing room, because I have a saved in the dressing room and I really want to eat. The rest is I didn't get a chance to eat. Ever. You can never feel like a celebrity when you're always working with with kids. I was working with students who I have never had, one job going at one time. And so to be a conductor and to be a composer, also music director, you have probably at least 7 or 8 projects going at one time, depending on the day of the week. I could be rehearsing children and college students and professionals on the same day, just two different times a day in any medium, whether it's musical theater or opera, classical music, there's such a care of their own talent. And once you get a lot of very talented people in the same room, it can be very challenging to get everybody on the same page. My job is really to convince them that we're all on the same team. We're all we're all going for the same kind of thing. If I'm working with a cast of, you know, somebody in a musical or an or an opera. Again, that's just like everybody is bringing in training and perspective from across their life, and you're trying to distill that down to to one vision or one sound where I'm at right now, where I'm saying to myself, wow, I'm trying to drop some of that training, trying to drop some of that conservatory rigor that I got at the conservatory and trying to reconnect back to what is like in broad strokes, what are we doing here?

How does this appeal to a mass audience? How are you? How are we connecting with an inner child? Or how are we finding joy in the work that we have to do and work so hard to do? And put together? It's it truly is, cyclical and and freeing in a way. You're trying to get back in touch with what were the things that I loved when I was, when I was a kid? So there's really two things that are always on my mind and that is one. One is the preparation of it before anybody is in the room, before any person has, you know, walked in, is singing something or playing something or acting something out. I'm trying to just really imagine in my brain, you know, what could this sound like? What are some different possibilities? What could we do paired with what was the intent of the person who wrote it? I say this all the time, and nobody just write something because they dreamt it. Most things have been carefully constructed. It was very important to the person who sat down the writer. They put time into it. They were going through something. They were trying to communicate, something that maybe they couldn't do with words. And they're trying to communicate something with with the music that's on the page or the text that they've chosen to do it on the page.

And then trying to form my, like, visual and aural scape of what that piece is going to be is the job of the conductor, I think, is to answer those questions why are we doing this piece, and why are we doing this piece now? And as well as you can prepare for something when the day actually comes, when then when the concert's actually there, when you're actually on stage under the lights, in some cases, none of the none of the preparation matters because you are living in that moment of that day. And maybe you chose a piece for one reason. But now, today you've woken up and something has happened. I was in North Carolina. I was working on A Fiddler on the roof. Okay. We had been doing it for months and months preparation and then into rehearsals. Were getting ready to do two performances the week before the performances. We we see that there are fliers being passed around the community. It is a hotline. You can call for a meeting of the KKK. And this KKK meeting is supposedly supposed to take place on the same date and time as our matinee of Fiddler on the roof.

And that was part of choosing that piece. We had chosen that piece because we think it just it's it's timeless. It speaks to a time when, you know, father is trying to marry off his daughters and is wrestling with different traditions and things like that. And that was our angle until that came out. And then for that entire weekend, we did three performances, I think that weekend, and every performance felt like a protest or a revolution against against what was happening in the community. Surreal experience. And then that performance. I've never forgotten that. And I know the cast and everybody who worked on that show has never forgotten that moment, because there are people in our community who decided to wake up on a Saturday morning, say, should I go down here and see Fiddler on the roof? Or should I go over across to this, you know, farm and burn across and attend the KKK meeting? [00:05:34][308.6]

Naty: [00:05:39] Hey, folks, it's Naty. We'll be back with more right after this break. What the hell is my job? [00:05:50][11.0]

Guest 2: [00:05:51] I have a really cool opportunity to work with CEOs, and. And I just have this belief that if you help that CEO or that central leader, whoever is at the top be ridiculously successful, then everyone else below that has the opportunity to be successful as well. My personal mission statement is to unlock the God-Given potential of leaders so that they and their followers will live a more vibrant, loving and impactful life. And that whole concept of vibrancy or the vibrations, it's the energy. It's the life that we have in us. And when we are working and doing our best work, whatever we're called to do, that's where life comes from. And so we have we have that opportunity. And so what I do is I work with people who have an exorbitant amount of influence, a disproportionate amount of influence over their company or organization or community and help them to leverage that influence in a way that's healthy and hopefully very productive and and helpful to the people that work with them, their families and their community.

And the thing that I don't think a lot of people recognize is that CEOs have their own trauma, they have their own challenges, they have their own issues, and their people think, well, because they're in charge or because of their wealth, that their life is great and there's nothing wrong or there's no challenges that they have, or they have it on easy street. And the truth is, they've got challenges too. And I think that's an insight that all the people recognize. There's lots of people who say, oh, yeah, when I'm a dad or when I'm a mom, I'm going to do X, Y, and Z, and I'm like, no, you're not. You don't have any clue what you're going to do until they put this human in your arms. And then you're like, oh, now what? And it's true about CEOs too. You really don't know what it's like until you are one. CEOs have a very unique role that not a lot of people recognize or appreciate. It's it's often a lonely role. They can't talk to their employees at times because it's either inappropriate or it's illegal or it's awkward. They don't always want to talk to their partners or their shareholders or their board, because they don't want to freak them out. Your family is tired of listening to you and your friends don't understand or can't relate.

And so it is an isolating role. It's also a role where like perfection is expected and you have to like, embody the company. And sometimes you wake up in the morning and you don't want to embody the company, you don't want to be that perfect person. And then the third thing that's really unique is that a lot of the CEOs that I've worked with, they feel the weight of the world on their shoulders. You know, I had one CEO said that I have 380 some people that will eat tonight because our company exists, their mortgage is paid because our company exists and pays their salary. I ask questions for a living. I share insights based on what people do. I don't give a lot of advice in sports. They talk about the game slows down and they can suddenly see the field, and they can see all that's going on around them, and they notice and they pay attention. And they're in that zone, that zone of genius, that zone of excellence. And so you're in this flow and it is easy. It's it's enjoyable. It is excellent. And it gives you energy. And so I love being in that intense moment and being right there for them.

And I have a heart for helping those individuals because I can see the unique challenges they have and frankly, the unique opportunities and resources at their disposal. You know, if you look at like a business like Starbucks, target, Dunkin Donuts, they make money in volumes and they want thousands of people to come through and work with them. For me, I'm the opposite. I only need 510 clients and life is good. And so for me, I'm not filling my schedule with hours and hours and hours of coaching. What that allows me to do is then focus on the clients that I really do work with, so that they get my best. So when you hit a revelation and insight, and I'd say maybe 20% of my coaching sessions, there's a revelation of insight when you when you mind for one of those and you get that and suddenly it's it's just game changing. It's like, whoa, that changes everything. And I mean, I want to do a happy dance. I'm giddy the rest of the day like it is. It is the best. Hi. It is just fantastic because you know that that's a that's a significant life change when someone says, oh, wait a second, my opinion is valuable or oh, you know, I've been discounting myself for years or I don't need that employee that that person is is has been knocking me down for a long time. I why don't I get someone who's supportive of me. Yeah. Yes. Good for you. [00:11:01][309.6]

Naty: [00:11:02] Hope you like the episode. Please help us out by rating us, sharing with your friends, or buying us a coffee at buy me a coffee.com slash. What the hell is my job? It costs us money and time to be here for you at the start of. Every single week. So please consider supporting us. See you next time. [00:11:02][0.0]

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