Feb 26, 2026
When your heart is racing and your brain starts whispering “don’t mess this up,” it’s easy to think the goal is to shut the thoughts down. But that fight is often the thing that turns normal pre performance activation into full anxiety. In this short episode, I borrow the first rule of improv, “Yes, and,”...
Feb 20, 2026
When the world feels heavy and your body is bracing, it is weirdly easy to start treating music like it has to justify itself. You practice anyway. You show up anyway. But inside, you are carrying pressure, tension, and that quiet question most musicians do not say out loud: how do I keep doing this without burning out...
Feb 13, 2026
In this episode, we unpack how unrealistic expectations quietly overload your brain, tighten your body, and slow your progress. And more importantly, how to reset them so they actually work for you.
You’ll learn:
• Why high standards are not the problem but misaligned
expectations are
• How pressure and...
Feb 6, 2026
What if your path
takes longer than you thought it would?
What if you don’t win the job straight out of school. Or even
straight out of your twenties?
And what if that’s not failure, but just a different kind of
success?
In this episode, I sit down with Bill Denton, Principal Trumpet of the Lyric Opera of Chicago,...