by Rachel | Business Ownership, Professional Development
It’s been a month. Between launching a new course, starting a new early childhood music class session, and restarting a podcast, I needed some content creation downtime. As a result, the crickets have taken over around here…womp, womp, womp.
BUT — they got their eviction notice today, because I finally feel ready to get back to writing and sharing. Just this week, I added a few new songs to the store, and it felt GOOD. I can’t tell you how much I missed the songwriting and recording process, since to be honest, I did almost none of that over the summer.
As much as I loved creating my Introvert’s Guide course, it took up just about all of my creative energy. I was thrilled at how well it was received, and equally thrilled to get back to my roots after the enrollment period ended.
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by Rachel | Professional Development, Resources & Tips
Well, this cartoon basically sums up my entire professional life. Every single day, I push outside of my comfort zone in order to be the best music therapist and business owner that I can be, even when I’m feeling completely spent.
If your work day is anything like mine, it probably includes facilitating sessions, teaching classes, leading groups, interacting with client families, speaking with colleagues, networking with other professionals, and attending work-related events. Add to all those face-to-face interactions the inevitable emails, social media exchanges, and phone calls, and I’m 100% “peopled out” by the end of the day (if not sooner).
I absolutely love my career, and couldn’t imagine doing anything else. But I will admit that it’s been a steep learning curve, becoming good at my job, given the fact that I am a total introvert. I’ve had to challenge myself with uncomfortable and sometimes downright scary situations in order to grow as a music therapist, and after 10 years, I finally feel like I have insight to offer fellow introverts who also experience similar professional challenges.
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by Rachel | Professional Development
It seems fitting that I decided to release The Introvert’s Guide to Thriving in an Extroverted Career the day after Labor Day. When I committed to creating this course earlier in the summer, I didn’t realize what an undertaking it would be.
While I’ve created many courses in the past, none have required the amount of focus, vulnerability, and transparency that this one has. But I knew that in order for it to be truly beneficial to my fellow introverts, I needed to tell my own story as openly and honestly as possible. That meant sharing my shortcomings, failures, and hard lessons learned throughout the course of my life and career.
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by Rachel | Business Ownership, Professional Development
July 2007 was a good month. I got engaged to my now-husband, and then just a few days later, passed the board certification exam to become an official board-certified music therapist. This photo was taken the following month — the earliest one I have in a work setting with those four letters (MT-BC) behind my name.
These past 10 years have been full of learning, growing, and stretching myself in ways I never though possible. I thought it would be fun to take a little trip down memory lane, highlighting my music therapy journey from the beginning to where I am now.
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by Rachel | Business Ownership, Family Life, Professional Development
In the summer of 2007, I started a little side hustle called Music Therapy Connections. That side hustle grew into an actual business that took up all the hours I wasn’t working at my full-time job, and it eventually replaced my full-time job. In time, it grew into a partnership with another music therapist and didn’t stop there.
10 years in, Music Therapy Connections is a full-fledged brick and mortar business with a team of 10 that serves hundreds of families within our walls and hundreds of people in the community each week. What a wild ride it’s been.
And through it all, I’ve not only run the business, but also provided music therapy, led early childhood music classes, and taught piano, voice and guitar lessons. I’ve taken two summer maternity leaves and extended summer breaks to be with my kids, but always returned to my students in the fall.
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by Rachel | Professional Development
The day I found out that Beyoncé has an alter ego for performing on stage is the day I got over my insecurities about being an introvert. If she needs a little boost to go out in front of thousands of people, then it’s okay for me to need one in my daily life, right?
Performing has never caused me much anxiety, because I’ve always taken a page from Beyoncé’s book and slipped into character as “Rachel the performer” (or if it’s a musical, whomever I’m playing) before going on stage. But leading groups and classes, constantly interacting with people, and thinking/singing on my feet — that’s a whole different ballgame.
Music therapy is an extroverted profession, as I learned on day 1. I think the social aspect of being a music therapist was my biggest challenge from the very beginning, and it took awhile for me to get comfortable. Becoming a business owner brought along an entirely new set of social challenges. There are still days when it feels really hard to be “on” (especially before my kids became good sleepers and I was perpetually exhausted), but I’ve developed strategies that make being an extroverted introvert possible.
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