Whether you’re celebrating with your valentine, galentines, or palentines today, leave a little space in your day to show gratitude to a few more people. Even if you think of yourself as a solopreneur in your professionally creative life, it’s clear that we never do it alone. We are all parties in a delicate ecosystem. We rely on each other, and there are fewer people we rely on more heavily in our music business than our singing team.
[Like the images that you see in the 29 Days to Diva series? Haute Stock helps me quickly create gorgeous graphics for the Sybaritic Singer.]
29 Days to Diva Day 14 Assignment: Send Some Love To Your Singing Team
Make a short list of all of the people who encourage you in fair and foul weather. Think about the people who are consistently offering you opportunities; introducing you to inspiring people; and helping you refine your goals, technique, and/or singing materials. They don’t need to even know that you think they’re on your team. That’s not the important part. The important part is to recognize who is making your singing life better.
Who is on your singing team?
Here are some people who you may make up your singing team:
- Voice teacher
- Coach (music and/or business)
- Collaborative pianist or ensemble members
- Conductor/Director
- Singer friends
- Creative collaborators (writers, poets, filmmakers, animators, dancers, actors)
- Photographer/videographer
- Recording engineer
- Publicist
- Agent
- Composer collaborators
- Staff members (do you employ someone to help make your singing life run more efficiently?)
- Important: Family members and close friends who support you through it all
Use the five love languages when showing gratitude.
Think about the five love languages: Words of Affirmation, Acts of Service, Receiving Gifts, Quality Time, and Physical Touch. Is it possible for you to show gratitude toward your team in any of these ways today? (Also, given classical music’s seeming inability to understand consent and sexual harassment, I want to explicitly share here that I’m not advocating for you to touch your singing team members. Perhaps you could consider gifting them bodywork or massage sessions.)
Showing gratitude is good for your physical and mental health and for your relationships. While making other people feel seen, respected, and valued, showing appreciation to your singing team also reminds you of all the incredible things you’ve done together. Take time to celebrate your wins! Plus, you’ll deepen your relationships with the people on your singing team making you more likely to work together in the future.
A mini template for showing gratitude…
Open up your email inbox, grab your phone for a text, or tap on that camera icon to take a short video. I want you to take a few moments today to share gratitude for your squad. Let them know how much they mean to you.
Hi [Name],
I wanted to let you know that I’m so grateful for our friendship and that I get to work with you in my musical life. You’ve taught me so much like [real example.] I feel thankful that our paths have crossed and I hope they will continue to do so for a long time.
Sincerely,
[Your name]
See? Don’t agonize over what to write or how to send it. Get to the part where you let the people know you care about them and that they have a positive influence in your life. You’ll all be happier for it.
Honestly, gratitude isn’t just for the squad.
One of our diva mentors, soprano Nina Guo, splits her time between Boston and Berlin and plays in Departure Duo with double bassist Eddie Kass. They are devoted to performing, commissioning, and researching works written specifically for soprano and double bass. They have a very cool longterm goal to commission 30 hours of repertoire by 2030. Plus, they maintain a database of all known works for soprano+double bass. With all of that experience, Nina knows the value of and is an advocate for showing gratitude. She says, “Say thank-you and ALWAYS follow-up—to everyone—always. Such small things, but it really makes a difference for everyone you work with. I cannot emphasize how important it is to say thank-you and stay in touch with the musical community at large. It requires very little on the day to day but makes a huge difference in the long run.”
Show your work!
Divas, what kinds of questions do you have about showing gratitude toward your singing team? When was the last time you received a message like this? How did it make you feel? Do you have a practice for showing gratitude regularly? I would love to know! You can leave me a comment below. Or, even better, tell me all about it in a Facebook or Instagram story. Tag me, I’m @mezzoihnen, and answer one or more of the questions above! I want to see your smiling face! Don’t forget to use #29DaysToDiva | #29DTD.
Did you like this post?
Then I bet you’ll really like this one:
Make room for what you love is a popular de-cluttering mantra. The idea is that we get rid of all the crap and extraneous stuff that is filling up our physical space to interact with only the things that bring us joy and contentment. As part of our inner work, it’s time to do some de-cluttering. You can approach this idea physically like the books for organizing your house suggest. But, you can also think about making room for what you want internally and time-wise.
Read all of A Singer’s Inner Work: Make Room For What You Love here.
