by Amy | Mar 18, 2017 | business
If someone would have told me years ago that practicing every day would make me an incredible singer, I would have never believed them. Something in my mind would have said, “Oh…that might work for someone who has a lot of talent or money or time, but not me.” As much as I wanted it to be so, in my mind, this dream just didn’t seem possible for me. I thought that other people were fated with being successful singers. I didn’t think I had a space in that arena. As much as I wanted it to be so, I didn’t have the confidence that my actions had the potential to actually make it so. So I created my fate by that belief…that false belief. And I quietly, subtly submitted to the role of side-liner, singer sub, onlooker, supporter and cheerleader to all my colleagues and friends who were succeeding at it. But I was rarely ever the one to actually have the success. “Gosh…that’s sad, Amy!” you might be thinking. Yes, but where in your own life have you played the same role? And don’t get me wrong: I have very little regret. I was happy there (or so I thought) in that space. But I can’t help but always wonder, “What more could I have accomplished if I would have just changed my beliefs?”
Funny how life comes full circle. Now, I am a mother of 3 kids I need to nurture and instill these beliefs into. I am in the process of restarting my vocal studio with a completely different business model that requires lots of risk, lots of time, and inevitably…lots of money. On February 4th, as you all may know, I decided to take the plunge and quit my full-time job in order to pursue this endeavor of creating online vocal courses and going ALL IN with my business. It hasn’t been easy. Money is tight in our house. Actually, incredibly tight. Before I quit my job, I decided I’d still work the same hours I was working at Apple, from 5am to 1:30pm Tuesday through Friday, so we could keep the kids in the same routine they were already familiar with. But this ultimately means I’m still missing seeing them off to school and spending days coloring and having dress up tea parties with my 3-year-old princess since she’s still in preschool 4 days a week so I can get this off the ground. Since my last day at Apple (over 6 weeks ago), I’ve invested in two online courses that teach me how to create courses and get in front of the camera in the most professional way possible. I am learning the ins and outs of WordPress and Canva and my hosting company, Bluehost, as well as Convertkit and Buffer and all the nuances of social media marketing. It’s a HUGE learning curve, but I’m dedicated to practicing and learning day-by-day. Sometimes I make monumental leaps and other days I make incremental progress, but something has clicked with me that has never clicked before: My dedication and commitment to this process of learning and getting this all down and working on it every chance I get is causing some SERIOUS MOMENTUM. I am experiencing baby successes that are leading to toddler successes. And I’m pretty sure these toddler successes will one day graduate from Kindergarten and become 1st grade successes. And a year from now, I’m POSITIVE I’ll look back and say, “Wow, Lady! You’ve come a long, freakin’ way!!!” Cuz that’s how I talk to myself. I call myself “Lady” and say “freakin'”. 😉
All that to say, when we are dedicated to the process, and working on it every day, incremental success becomes inevitable. It’s the same with fitness, our abs, our guitar, or our finances. Whatever we spend lots of time on, playing around with, reading up on, asking others about, tweaking, adjusting, trying…PRACTICING…we’ll eventually master. Will we master it to the level where we’ll become world famous and make millions of dollars? Who knows. But we will never know unless we commit. And as you know, the reasons behind our commitment have to be super clear and super strong. We have to know where we’re going and identify the processes that will get us there the quickest. It is imperative that we understand this and recognize what we’re doing at every step. But it is even more important that we make some kind of progress every single day. Most people get defeated because their efforts are scattered and random. And then they wonder why they’re not seeing results. We always want to see immediate results for our actions, right? But true success rarely comes in the form of immediate results, if ever. We know this fundamentally, but when someone doesn’t respond to our blog or Facebook posts or even our paid ads, we can’t help but take it personally and get discouraged.
So today, I’m charging you. Commit to the mastery of the skills your are learning. Commit and put all those eggs in that basket. You may not see the outcome and reward in doing so for months or even years, but you will eventually reap the benefits of your commitment to practice and get better along the way!
by Amy | Mar 10, 2017 | business
I don’t want to brag :), but I am SO happy with my progress on my business this week! First of all, I took the leap, and I’ve been taking not one, but two online courses simultaneously:
- Courses that Convert by Amy Porterfield – a step by step approach to creating courses that will SELL!
- LIGHTS, CAMERA, BRANDING! by Tiffany Lee Bymaster (aka Coach Glitter) – a guide to being the best you can be at video — whether live or prerecorded.
I know…pretty crazy! But the courses seemed to compliment each other so much and each had specific content that is directly related to the business I’m trying to create, so regardless of the workload, it just seemed right! And can I just tell you…I’m learning SO much! And I’m motivated to do the work, ya know? Before I enrolled in Courses that Convert, I felt like my wheels were spinning. I knew I needed to do something, but I didn’t know what to do first. Since this course was not cheap (around $1000), I gulped when I signed up. But I now know I did the right thing. If I am able to do the work and get this process underway in less time and with less headache and mental and emotional mindgames, I know I can make this business happen and set attainable goals for myself along the way. This feeling is such a good one for me to have, because I know that it isn’t just hype and emotion, but the actual doing of the hard work that gives me perseverance to go on.
So yesterday, after getting my daughter off to school, I finished Lesson 2 of my coursework and decided to just dive in and create my course outline. I was so focused it was unbelievable! I was able to rip out my course outline in less than 2 hours and have a much clearer vision for how I wanted to structure the content! This was a HUGE stride for me and my business yesterday. I had been feeling so defeated, like I just couldn’t get the things done I wanted to do. And all of a sudden, it was SO clear and borderline EASY! Now it was only that easy because I had been laying the foundation and doing the little things that I needed to do leading up to yesterday. But, it was effortless and so rewarding!
Everyone says that, once you get into the habit of exercising, running, practicing or any other kind of discipline, it becomes addictive. You can’t live without it. I never really understood that until recently. I’ve never considered myself to be a runner, for instance, but after months of running on my treadmill every single day — whether it was just a few minutes or a half hour, rain or shine, feeling good or not — I ran! And now I can honestly say, “I love running!” and I miss it when I don’t do it. It’s also opened the door for more kinds of workouts that my body needs and made me not as timid to jump in and try new things. Weird how that happens, right? And very early on, when I began singing, I wasn’t that good. I tell my students this all the time. I mean, I had a raw talent, but it wasn’t anything like what it is now. My teachers had their work cut out for them. Many didn’t even take me seriously. I was refused by some prestigious vocal coaches I wanted to work with, because I wasn’t good enough to work with them. But I kept trying. I kept practicing. I never lost my zeal for learning and trying to find the answers. And even though I never had the “career” I initially thought I wanted to have as a singer, I still went a long way with my voice and can do things I never thought possible when I sing. The same is true for me and my business. What used to be a dread, because it was overwhelming and I just couldn’t grasp all the seemingly endless processes and things to learn, it is now something I can I honestly say I wake up looking forward to working on! From the moment I get my coffee, I find myself drawn to my computer to see what else I can learn or create. This is when I know I’ve formed a habit worth hanging on to. A long time ago, I heard the quote that has been attributed to George Washington, “It’s wonderful what we can do if we’re always doing.”
So there you have it! It’s the doing of the things. Not all at the same time…but day by day by day…that eventually get us to our goals. But just like the doing can take us to our goals, the choice not to do will also take us somewhere. And that somewhere is not a good place for me. And I suspect it isn’t for you either.
Have you ever read the book, The Slight Edge, by Jeff Olson? It’s such a timeless and true book about success…in virtually any aspect of our lives. I resurrected this book recently just to thumb through it and get inspired, and I was immediately hooked back in. The premise is simple: do little things every single day and you will get results. Whether those little things are good habits or bad habits, they will eventually have an outcome. The outcome is never today or even tomorrow. Very rarely is the outcome even a week from now or a month from now, but slowly and steadily, progress happens. And that, my friends, is the underlying impetus for me. I know that, if I’m always doing, I will eventually achieve my goals. I will eventually have the life, the voice, the business, the body, or whatever it is I’m aiming for.
I said all that today, because I want to encourage you, friends. If you are struggling, feeling down, feeling defeated, feeling OVERWHELMED, just know that your consistency in the doing will pay off. Your perseverance when times get hard and you wonder why you’re working so hard will eventually lead to something you can be proud of and feel good about! I also wanted to encourage those, like me, who have a very limited amount of time and resources to accomplish your goals. This may not apply to everyone reading this, but I can say that it takes a Herculean effort on my part to do a n y t h i n g of significance. And I’m talking about even getting laundry folded or a room vacuumed. I have 3 young children ages 8, 5 and 3 currently as I write this post. And up until last month, I had a full time job at Apple. And for years, I never knew how to carve out time to actually create or make something happen for my business. I felt trapped — and even paralyzed — like my hands were tied and there was nothing I could do. Ever feel like that? Like you want to make something happen, but overcoming the odds against you just feels too hard and exhausting to even begin? Well, I can relate.
It actually wasn’t until I quit my job that I realized how much time I had had prior to working — time that I didn’t even know I had! You know that old folk tale where the guy complains that his house is too small and prays for a bigger house, so the next day, he acquires a roommate, and then two cows, and three goats, and 10 chickens (I’m probably getting this wrong because I have a terrible memory about stories), but the gist is that his house was filled up with all these things, and when he finally got rid of all these things after a month of living with them all, he all of a sudden had the HUGE home he desired (and he probably enjoyed the smell of it again too)! I find this to be true for me. I had ALL this time that I didn’t know I had before I worked full time. Then I worked full time and had no time at all — not even enough time to SLEEP. So now, I’m not working full time and I feel like I have SO much more time available to create the business I want because I know what it was like not to have any time. Does that make sense? I hope so!
So, if you don’t feel like you have any time to create the business of your dreams and make the kind of progress you want to make with it, maybe it’s just time to reassess what’s on your plate. Do you have too many goats and chickens and cows lurking around? Do you have time you don’t even know you have? What if you got up a couple hours earlier? What if you went to bed a couple hours later? What if you took advantage of a sitter a couple days a week or took a break from social media or t.v.? I know there’s no ONE FORMULA FOR ALL, but here’s what my work schedule currently looks like:
Tuesdays – Fridays
- 4:15am – wake up and drink coffee 🙂 and have some quiet time
- 5:00am – start working (either in my home office or at a coffee shop, since they open at 5am and my house can sometimes be crazy in the morning)
- 7:00am – eat breakfast and help get my kids ready for school (if I choose to stay home)
- 8:00am – work out for 30 minutes and shower
- 9:00am – get my daughter ready for her preschool
- 9:30am – 11am – get back to work and start working on my courses
- 11:00am – grab a snack and take a walk or do something I need to do around the house
- 11:30am – work on my social media sites and wrap up day’s work
- 1:30pm – pick up my daughter from preK
- 2:30pm – pick up my sons from school
- SPEND REST OF THE DAY with my family!
Now, I’m totally not suggesting you get up at 4am! (actually, I kinda am) But that works for me, and I can tell you that I don’t miss the sleep! Sure, I go to bed earlier than most people (usually around the time my kids go to bed) on those nights before I work, but I have other nights where I don’t. The point is, I made a shift in my schedule that automatically carved out a time for me to work. Even if my kids were home — which they will be in the summer — I can still carve out this early time from 4am to 9am and spend the rest of the day with them without having to hire a sitter most days. That’s 5 hours a day!!! Who knew I had that kind of time??? And sure, it takes discipline to get up at that time every morning, but you know what? I’m addicted. I’ve done it for so long now that my eyes automatically open at that time and I couldn’t sleep much later if I tried.
I just want to encourage you and help you find time for yourself and for the things you want to do. If you don’t start actually carving out the time and doing the things you want to do, how can you ever know what you are capable of? What’s the Dave Ramsey quote? “Live like no one else NOW, so you can live like no one else LATER.” And that’s what this is all about: making necessary sacrifices now in order to build the business of your dreams. The sacrifices won’t last forever. And truthfully, they won’t even feel like sacrifices, because you’ll know where you’re headed. Ya just gotta start. Now. Go on…No buts!
Please comment below and tell me how you’ll carve out extra time for yourself and your business this week.
Look forward to hearing from you!
xoxo,
Amy
by Amy | Mar 8, 2017 | struggle
Hi Friends! I have to admit to you today that I am down-trodden x 10 today! I knew it was going to come this week. After all, I have never had Premenstrual Syndrome, but rather…POST-menstrual Syndrome. Is that TMI? Well, sorry if it is, but it’s true. I don’t get down and depressed during the days leading up to it but rather during the days following. And here I am. My energy level is low. I’m feeling blah. And I just can’t seem to get any traction with the IMPORTANT things I need to do for my business. Does this sound familiar to you?
I guess I need to give myself a break. After all, I am just human. But I feel like I’ve been operating in superhuman mode over the past few weeks and trying like a mad woman to get websites and social media set up so that I can just plunk information into them. I’m also in the process of creating courses, which is the main goal for my online business…but there is just so much work involved. It’s also not easy to do the bulk of the work unless you have a dedicated, rather large chunk of time to dedicate to do just that. I have also kept my energy flow pretty high over the past few weeks, so it is totally normal and actually pretty predictable that they would plummet right now. But still…
I’m also just struggling in general with creating the community that I am going to need for these courses to be successful. I have a Facebook page. I have a blog. I want to start a podcast. And there’s the courses I want to sell (my ultimate goal)…but WHERE oh WHERE are the people?? Today, on my way home from the cafe where I was working early this morning, I was just feeling so down. I don’t take it personally when people don’t engage with my posts. I’m past that. I just want to know WHAT to post to make them engage. And no, I don’t want to download any more plugins or pay anymore money to ensure that that happens. Isn’t there another way? How can I engage people and get information from them to help me build my courses in the process? I know there are people out there who want to learn how to sing. Why? Because I’ve taught many of them and literally everywhere I go, people are telling me they’ve always wanted to learn how to sing. Why then, is it so hard to get people to respond to my posts about singing?
My only conclusion is that I need to have content and notoriety before I can have the respect and following I need to have. But how do I get that??? How do you get your foot in the door and get people’s respect so that they will spread your name like wildfire and shout it from the mountains that everyone interested in what you teach should come to you???
And when? How long will this take? weeks? months?? years????
So what will I do? Well, my tendency is to plow right through it all. I know I will probably stay with that tendency. But in the meantime, I just don’t feel like I have time to lose. I quit my job to invest all my would-be-working time to get my business off the ground, but some days I just don’t feel like I’m getting there quick enough. On top of that, I have Mommy guilt. And I don’t even know if I would call it that really. I feel less guilty and more…just sad about having to put my 3-year-old daughter in preK 4 days a week so I can figure all this out. After all, she’ll only be little once, right? And I feel like I’m missing out on being with her in order to figure all this out and try to (at SOME point) generate some income through all this.
Anyway…I don’t necessarily share this post to vent with you. I do have bouncing boards and people I can go to for things like this. But I do want to let you know, if you are struggling, that STRUGGLE IS REAL and it’s all part of the process when you are trying to create the business of your dreams. And I am. I want to figure this out. I am DETERMINED to figure this out. But the groundwork laying part is hard. All the setting up and days you feel like time is just flying by and working against you are hard. And have I mentioned HOW MUCH INFORMATION there is to learn???
I’m literally taking 2 pretty big courses simultaneously. Yep…that’s right. 2!! I don’t know if I’m ambitious or insane or both. But I just feel like I need to learn and this is the quickest way to get there.
YOU: What 2 courses are you taking, Amy?
ME: Well, glad you asked. I’m taking “Courses that Convert” by Amy Porterfield and “LIGHTS, CAMERA, BRANDING” by Tiffany Lee Bymaster. Both ladies are fabulous and the content is incredibly rich. So it’s inspiring me. There’s just not enough time in the day.
Speaking of which…gotta go listen to another lesson and GET ON IT!
Have a great day!
…and thanks for listening.
P.S. – Please feel free to comment below on some of the areas you are struggling in with your business.
xoxo
![Posture vs. Body Alignment]()
by Amy | Mar 8, 2017 | singing
So which is it?
Is it posture or body alignment?
I’d like to think it is a mixture of both. But for the sake of this post, I’ll talk mainly about body alignment. Posture, for me, always brings up visions of a military officer. It makes me immediately feel stiff, tense and somewhat stressed. It gives me the feeling of being upright, unnatural and serious. For years, none of these mental images and perceptions made sense to me as a singer. I did it, because I was told to. But I didn’t know how it made sense and fit together with the idea of being relaxed as a singer. So, with that in mind, the idea of replacing the word “posture” with “body alignment” was a breath (no pun intended) of fresh air to me.
So when we talk about body alignment, we are referring to the way we stand or the way our buoyant bodies move in place. It’s the way we energize the voice while we are in an energized but stable position.
We begin with proper body alignment by standing against the wall with our heels, buttocks, shoulder blades and head touching the wall. When we walk away from the wall, we have more awareness of where our head should be in relation to the body. But this is the part where we relax the shoulders, breathe and allow our bodies to be relaxed but energized with our sternum high and our feet placed slightly apart with knees slightly bent. We’ll talk more about the bent knees in a moment, but the point is this: we want to stand tall, but never, ever stiff. We want to be in a noble posture that emphasizes height but never tension.
After we find this tall, noble posture with the sternum high and shoulders relaxed back and down. Oh…by the way…did I mention we don’t want HIGH shoulders when we sing? I didn’t? Well, anyway…we don’t want high shoulders. And then, after all that…(are you still with me?) we want to make sure our back and hips are properly aligned and our feet are hips’ width apart with both knees slightly bent and one leg slightly more forward and bent than the other.
What is the point of all this? Well, we want to have stability. We want to be able to stand without falling over. When our knees are straight and too close together or the body isn’t properly aligned, we run the risk of our knees locking and losing balance. With nerves already in place during performance, our sense of balance is already threatened. And if we are standing with our body properly aligned and our feet at a hips’ width apart with knees slightly bent, we are able to sing with balance and stability.
Now back to the high sternum. When we raise our sternum (the bone in the center of our chest) toward the ceiling, we are physically encouraged to stand in a noble position. This high, noble position allows our rib cage plenty of room to expand and our lungs to inhale to their full capacity.
So, this. This is the body alignment we need and want as singers. No stiffness. No pretense. No high shoulders. But we do want high sternums. Make sense?
Here’s a wonderful diagram of how the body should look when it is properly aligned.
Enjoy!
Recent Comments