What Would Mozart Do?

Today I am talking to Elena Armijo, an executive and leadership coach. Elena trained as a mezzo-soprano and she transferred her passion of generosity through performance to empowering people through life coaching. In our chat we discuss our love for music, the parallels between stage performance and goal setting, and how to communicate with your audience, however big or small.

Website: www.ElenaArmijo.com
Powerful Women And Change: www.powerfulwomenandchange.com/elenaarmijo
Instagram: @elena.armijo
Twitter: mselenaarmijo

ELENA ARMIJO, PCC, CDTLF

Elena Armijo, Professional Certified Coach (PCC) and Certified Dare to Lead™ Facilitator has a strong track record of supporting clients and organizations in creating impact, culture shifts and leadership development.  Her unique ability to identify common patterns while generating new awareness and re-invention leaves clients with the ability to make stronger choices, clearer decisions and powerful steps toward their desired outcomes.  Elena offers in-depth and customized executive programs for high performers who are at the top of their respective fields – from CEOs of leading businesses, to professional athletes, policy-focused individuals, entertainers and artists, and more.  Partnering with Elena, these clients have created and achieved the professional and personal impact in the world they once perceived unattainable. As a leader and trainer with Accomplishment Coaching© and CHIEF Core Guide Facilitator, Elena continues to expand her work with teams across the world.

Elena Armijo was inspired to become an Executive and Leadership Coach through her work as a professional opera singer. Drawn to work with ambitious top performers like herself, she realized she could bring unique insight to the coaching business after spending many years “on the other side of the table.” Elena’s ten-year career in opera spanned across the globe and included work with many prestigious opera companies as well as performances at Lincoln Center and Carnegie Hall. Elena holds a B.M. of Music Education from New Mexico State University and an M.M. in Vocal Performance from the University of Washington. 

Elle Luna is a designer, painter and writer, and the author of “The Crossroads of Should and Must.”

She facilitates a global art movement, #The100DayProject, where participants create and post something every day for 100 days.

She has played a key role in shaping some of the defining products and applications of our time, working as a designer at IDEO, Mailbox, Medium, and Uber.

After years as a designer, Elle faced her own crossroads. In a powerful Medium post that went viral, Elle described the realisation that despite her professional success, all she really loved to do was paint. Step by step, while continuing to work full time as a designer, she walked her path toward becoming an artist until she could leave the corporate world behind in pursuit of her MUST.

In her first book, “The Crossroads of Should and Must” (Workman Publishing, 2015), Elle explains “There are two paths in life: should and must. We arrive at this crossroads over and over again. And every day, we get to choose.”

Recently, in early 2018, Elle released her second book, co-authored with Susie Herrick, “Your Story Is Your Power: Free Your Feminine Voice“. A potently instructive toolkit on self-examination, it lays out how properly defining and understanding our own lives can help form better futures.

Elle currently resides in Sausalito, California and online at instagram.com/elleluna
#thecrossroadsbetweenshouldandmust
#yourstoryisyourpower

My guest today is conductor and coder Holly Mathieson. In our chat Holly shares about her experience as an international conductor and the influence orchestras can have on communities at large and how her projects often reinvent the role of leadership traditionally associated with the conductor. Although only six months in, Holly’s new venture as a coder has already helped her to identify how the world of music can be enhanced further by the programming community.

https://www.hollymathieson.com/
@hollyjmathieson

My guest today is mezzo-soprano Kezia Bienek. Having worked as an opera singer Kezia recently branched out her career to becoming a doula. In our chat Kezia shares her experiences as a young opera singer, how motherhood has influenced her work and how, as a doula, she now supports women through the time of their pregnancy as well as supporting them in the first weeks after they have given birth.

Find out more about Kezia at www.keziabienek.co.uk
Follow Kezia on Instagram: @yourbirthingfriend and @mez_kez
Follow Kezia on Twitter: @DivaKezia
Also follow @fivexmore and #butnotmaternity

My guest today is Duane Harvey from Detroit, Michigan. Daune is a drummer and jazz musician, whose professional career has been that of a technical engineering professional with Specific experience in the battery development, automotive, audio, and RF technology fields. He ascribes the skill of acute listening, something he developed through his music, as the catalyst for moving into the field of audio technology.

Website: https://duaneharvey.net/
https://www.linkedin.com/in/duane-harvey-86051121/
https://www.audioasylum.com/audio/music/jazz/bbs.html 

Today's guest is cellist, teacher and mentor Oliver Mansfield. Taking inspiration from three role models in his life, Ollie negotiated a busy career performing and teaching. At the height of this career burnout struck and Ollie was forced to make drastic changes to his lifestyle and work ethic. In our conversation Ollie shares details about his own experiences, he talks about how he dealt with the dilapidating effects of burnout and how his inner need for helping people has spurred him on to become a mentor for other musicians as well as create paid online performing opportunities during the pandemic’s lockdown.

Website: www.olivermansfieldcello.com
Front room concerts group: https://www.facebook.com/groups/222503358940969
Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/OllieMansfieldMusic
LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/ollie-mansfield-20140177/

The British tenor Ed Lyon recently completed his training in therapy and coaching which focuses on helping performers with issues such as performance anxiety, phobias, habit breaking as well as general confidence building. In our chat Ed shares the specific incident which was the catalyst for his turning to therapy, first as a client and later becoming a therapist himself. He clarifies the benefits of cognitive behavioural and hypnotherapy for performing artists, and the importance of introducing cognitive techniques to young performers during their studies rather than only turning to therapy for crisis management.

http://edlyon.info

www.edlyon-therapy.co.uk

Bobby Huebner is the managing director of “The Accomplished Traveler,” a lifestyle travel concierge company. Our paths first crossed when we were studying at the University of Michigan and today we caught up after many years. In our chat we talk about what Bobby did to create a life he loves and how his background in music influences his work in the leisure travel industry.

https://accomplishedtraveler.com/

Matthew Johnson is a cellist and photographer. In our chat he shares how his experience in music is influencing his work as photographer and how networking has helped his portfolio to grow, connecting him to various of the UK’s most prestigious classical music festivals.

www.matthewjohnsonphotographer.com/

Today’s conversation is hitting closer to home as I invited my brother Pieter de Villiers, co-founder and Chief Product Officer for Macanta Software Ltd, to have a chat.  Pieter grew up playing various instruments and ended up being a professional drummer. He is now running a successful company. But he had to travel a long way to get to this point in his life.  In this episode Pieter talks inspiringly about the importance of failure, the creative power of criticism and the need for both musicians and business people to be open to the opportunities which are imbedded in change.

https://www.macanta.org/