The Art of the Ebb and Flow: High-Performance Habits for Freelance Musicians

Chloe Weston: Welcome back to “Pianist Not Practicing.” This is a very surreal moment today because we have the incredible Michelle Lynne on today. If you don’t know who Michelle Lynne is, I don’t know, you’ve been under a rock. She’s just everywhere. She’s blowing up, she’s so famous and going to be so famous. Um, she’s an incredible Canadian pianist from Grande Prairie, Alberta, which is a small town just like mine in Northern Ontario, Canada.

Michelle Lynne: Woo.

Chloe Weston: Let’s go. Let’s see. I, I was thinking about how to intro you, and it’s really impossible, so I’m going to try and then you’re going to pick up the slack. Okay? Okay. So, Michelle Lynne not only is…

Michelle Lynne: Chloe.

Chloe Weston: …a classical artist, but she also is a singer-songwriter with a gorgeous voice, with a recorded album. And she performs all over Europe for like thousands of people at candlelight concerts, playing, I don’t know how many different programs—like, I want to say ten—Abba and Candlelight and Elton John and, um, Nadi, and just the list goes on. It’s absolutely incredible. And then, on top of all of that, she’s helping the world of musicians by her coaching company with Deanna Petre, called “The Fearless Artist,” “The Fearless Artist Mastermind,” which has been running since 2020, I want to say. Is that correct? Okay, 2020. And…

Michelle Lynne: Helping…

Chloe Weston: …hundreds, thousands by now, I don’t know, of freelance musicians literally achieve their dreams and empowering them with the tools and the knowledge and the mindset to go after what they want. And it’s a program that’s, uh, changed my life for sure, which we’ll get into, um, the lives of so many. So she’s just a beacon of sunshine in the world, and we are so lucky to have her here today, and I’m so happy to be able to talk with you. Um, thank you so much for being here. Did I miss anything?

Michelle Lynne: Uh, Chloe, it’s an honor to be here. I mean, this podcast is one of your dreams come true, so the fact that you invited me, like, thank you so much for having me.

Chloe Weston: Had to have you, like, first, first few, uh, guests. Of course, had to have you, because this, um, as we know, this podcast is in its baby phase, brand new. Um, and it was something that I was really resisting for a long time, something that I wanted to do that would be really fun, but I was worried about all these… all these fears coming in of, of how am I actually going to do this? Is this going to take time away for me as an artist? Am I going to… this whole idea of sharing too much of yourself online, I’m really afraid of, um, sometimes, even…

Michelle Lynne: Yeah.

Chloe Weston: …even though every time I do, great comes out of it. So that’s…

Michelle Lynne: Mm-hmm.

Chloe Weston: …learned through TFA as well. And, and here we are. And that’s largely thanks to TFA and to you to just get out of your own way and make something and have fun and enjoy and connect with people. And it’ll…

Michelle Lynne: Y…

Chloe Weston: …help someone else, which is really the deep down of this whole, this whole platform and this podcast, is that, you know, somewhere out there, there is someone who may need to hear these things or may need a little bit of encouragement or may need to hear, like, yeah, it’s hard for other people to do things too sometimes, but, but it turns…

Michelle Lynne: Mm-hmm.

Chloe Weston: …out most of the time, you know, it’s fun. Um…

Michelle Lynne: And you shared with me about how many podcasts you have listened to and how much it has helped your growth. So the fact that you are sharing now, you have so many things that you want to talk about on this podcast. You have a bunch of different friends who are guests. You’re talking about things from practicing to mindset, to injuries, to pursuing abroad studies, and you’ve got so many people who are going to benefit from these episodes.

Chloe Weston: Thank you. Thank you so much.

Michelle Lynne: And you are a born host. Oh my gosh! You are a born podcast host.

Chloe Weston: Chatty, chatty for sure. Um, did I, did I miss anything in the myriad of, of ways that you are a creative artist?

Michelle Lynne: No, I think that’s all. That’s it. You are very sweet. Thank you.

Chloe Weston: Um…

Michelle Lynne: I think that’s, that covers the majority, yeah.

Chloe Weston: We, just for context, we have known each other online for maybe four years. So…

Michelle Lynne: Mm-hmm. Mm-hmm.

Chloe Weston: …just got back from a piano program, piano festival in Portugal, and it’s called Porto Piano Fest. And it was ten days of absolute madness. It was beautiful. We had lessons with, uh, great master teachers. We got to see a lot of incredible concerts by great artists and, uh, great concerts by our peers as well. A lot of the artists in residency concerts there. You want to tell us about, um, your concert that you did right before the festival officially opened for Porto?

Michelle Lynne: Oh yeah. So, um, Marielle and Nuno are the directors, and I’ve been to this festival a couple times already. So they wanted to partner with a tech company to do some promo before the festival actually began. And the idea they came up with was doing a concert in the main train station, Metro Station, Train, Dad’s Station. And they were like, Michelle, we want you to come in and, uh, we’re going to make this a thing. So, you know, they have pianos in a lot of stations around Europe now. Um, I think, yeah, Montreal has one, too.

Chloe Weston: Hmm.

Michelle Lynne: And so, uh, we chose two hours and the tech company came with a film crew and it was on the news, and people went by and they made requests. And I walked in as this like pianist who was lost looking for the piano. And, uh, yeah, it was super fun. It was a great promo, I think, for their festival and also with the partners that they have built, ’cause, you know, funding is super important for any musical, uh, festival. So I think everybody was super happy with great response and it was fun for me. And I got to go to Portugal early. I was actually there for almost like two weeks total, like as you just said. Um, and usually my trips are really short. I usually have trips that are three to four days. So it was so nice to be like settled in a place and to get the routine and like you and I found our favorite lunch spot and we found our gym and we found our walking route and we found the drinks that we wanted to pour wine and like, I mean, it was just like you got, you get settled and that was really, really nice.

Chloe Weston: It was so incredible. I loved seeing you on the news, and I loved… We, we just got back. I just flew back from Portugal yesterday. Um, so I thought it would be a great time to just recap, uh, the festival and our experience there, because that was the first time we met in person, I think, is…

Michelle Lynne: Yeah.

Chloe Weston: …I don’t know. Like, they say, don’t meet your heroes in real life, but like, oh my gosh, just do it ’cause it’s so fun. And I just had, I, I think my experience at the festival was just like much greater because we got to hang out and I got to have all these conversations with you all the time. I’m like, man, this should be on the podcast. This should be on the podcast. People need to know. Um, so here we are, and I, I have so many things I want to talk to you about. Um, I think, you know, we’ve talked a lot about, actually, we just did an episode for your podcast, “The Fearless Artist Mastermind.”

Michelle Lynne: Everyone needs to go hear you. You were great. Yeah.

Chloe Weston: It was my first time ever being a guest, so, so woo-hoo! Thank you so much. Um…

Michelle Lynne: Did awesome.

Chloe Weston: Thank you. I wanted to, like, there’s a lot of content that we’ve talked about with TFA, but I wanted to dive a little bit into how you got there, also how you transitioned from, it’s not like you’re out of classical, but spread out into Candlelight and how that happened for you. And how, another huge transition, too. Like, oh, I’m going to be a singer-songwriter and have and release music that way as well. I just think it’s so incredible to have all these different facets of your artistry and, and touching people in different ways. Um, so I wanted to ask you how, how that kind of started for you, because you, you studied, um, at a pretty traditional classic conservatory kind of setting. And I was wondering how you broke out of that kind of rep and that kind of world out into this Candlelight world and, and the singer-songwriter world, which I think is really connected, um, from the outside it looks like, uh, the same kind of repertoire and the same kind of concert experience for people. So I was just really curious how that happened for you. Was there a lot of…

Michelle Lynne: Hmm, mm-hmm. Yeah, that’s a great question. Yeah, and I mean, just to circle back, I wanted to also say that I loved meeting you and I loved how natural our friendship was from the beginning and that we knew each other already. And that was something really, really special, ’cause sometimes when you, you know, you’re online friends, that doesn’t mean that you know each other, but somehow we just totally got each other. And it was so great also for me to have a friend at the festival and it made things way easier. And, um, you know, I also had to prepare stuff to play for my old teacher, and so there’s always going to be a lot of like, oh my gosh, like, this is really hard and I want to do well. So it was so great to do it with you. Um, in terms of the singing, I’ve actually been singing longer than I’ve been playing the piano. I started singing at three years old, uh, with my dad in his band.

Chloe Weston: Wow.

Michelle Lynne: And, uh, so they handed me the microphone and we were doing like Dire Straits, “The Walk of Life.” And, um, I was also in a kinda a dancing, singing group when I was really, really young and my mom was helping me memorize words and songs, and, uh, I grew up on country music. Probably you have a little bit of that, too, being a Canadian. And so I could sing every word to every country song and singing with my dad and in the truck on the way to the camping weekends. And, and so it was just always a part of my life. And he was playing in a band for ten years as a drummer and also singer. And I took singing lessons growing up until I was fourteen. So I was doing the Royal Conservatory of Music for piano and for singing. I did, uh, both, but it was classical voice. I wasn’t really doing any pop, uh, stuff. And then, uh, I took a break from singing lessons to really focus on the piano. Went into that as the, you know, the university. But then I did voice as a second study, so I took some lessons there, sang in choir. So I think it was always just kinda like part of me. Like, the voice has always been just, but I kept it separate professionally because I don’t know, piano was like the main focus and it requires so much, it costs so much. Um, and then I think singing also came back with church, so I was really singing a lot every Sunday on like kind of a worship team and it’s contemporary style music. So I think also it’s more similar like to a pop stream. And there’s just like a lot of different answers to the question. So it’s always been there. And then Coldplay, for example, has been my favorite band since forever. So then Candlelight approached me and they’re like, “Hey, we’ve got a Chopin program and a Coldplay program. Can you play this concert?” And I’m like, “Do I have to pay to play this concert?” Because this is ab- absolutely my dream. I couldn’t believe, you know, during COVID, during lockdown, um, I ran out of things to do. So I was literally… No, what happened was I, um, I was… I got a contract with a streaming app, and if I streamed for thirty hours a month for three months, they paid me like a ridiculous amount. It was like seven hundred euros a month, which was an enormous amount because I lost my students or concerts during the time. I was still teaching online. So I’m like, yeah, I’ll stream for thirty hours a month for seven hundred euros. Are you crazy? So I was like, well, what am I going to do? So I was singing a lot, I was doing a lot of karaoke stuff, singing and backing tracks, and then I was also playing through like Coldplay scores. So then when Candlelight approached me, I’d already been practicing the scores. So it was just like this like beautiful moment of like, yes, I’m ready. Give me the stage. And I’m like, I’m, I’m going to run out there. Um, and then in 2020, I went through like a pretty traumatic time, and, uh, songwriting had always been something people had encouraged me in. They were like, you know, in the church communities that I was in, they were like, “You have a great voice. You’re doing worship on Sundays. Have you written any songs?” And I was like, “Uh, you know, like perfectionism. No, no, you can’t listen to anything I’ve written.” Um, but I started playing around with it. And then during COVID, I took a songwriting course from a guy, uh, in the States. And that was super helpful because we went through like structure, song structure, lyric structure, how to craft lyrics, how to craft a song, what makes a good melody. Okay, of course, I know all of this from my classical piano training, but still there was a lot to learn. And then the best part of that course was that we had to, uh, write songs in groups with other participants and give feedback. So now you are forced to grow because… and that’s also probably why The Fearless Artist has so much emphasis on action, because you can have all the knowledge in the world of how to write a song, but unless you are actually writing songs and getting better at it, you have to write a lot of bad songs to write anything good. Um, additionally, I was working with a vocal coach who was so, so crucial for me, for my mindset, for confidence building. Like, I was really rebuilding my life in 2020. Like, I was totally stripped down. So he helped me so much, and he gave me books and resources and influences and things to listen to and fun songs to sing. And we were doing weekly lessons. And so, um, then these songs kind of started coming and I was writing my way. And the last part of the question is like, I had always wondered, my first album, will it be like classical piano or singing? Because I had both sides of me. And which side do you present to the world? It is like, this is me. And I was like, oh, both, like, it has to just be, here, here is who I am as an artist. I don’t really fit in the classical music box. You know, my first album isn’t like the typical, I don’t know, classical sonatas and stuff, but there’s pieces on here that matter to me, and it’s got a theme and I believe music is healing and also it’s like a full embodiment of who I am as an artist. So kind of all of that together over time led to where I am now.

Chloe Weston: And you’ve, you’ve released singles from the singer-songwriter songs already, and then you just recorded the solo piano. Like, there’s some Ravel on there. What else is on there?

Michelle Lynne: Yeah, it’s being edited at this moment. And then the songs that I wrote, I also recorded just as piano solo, uh, pieces. So those are being recorded today. I saw my album cover, uh, which was designed by someone in The Fearless Artist community, Jason. Uh, he did an amazing job. Yeah.

Chloe Weston: Oh, I…

Michelle Lynne: Yeah. He’s just signing my album cover. Yeah, he did a great job. He nailed it.

Chloe Weston: When…

Michelle Lynne: Great job, Jason.

Chloe Weston: …don’t know. It’s getting edited now.

Michelle Lynne: It’s getting edited, and then I need to like, we’ll probably go back and forth a couple on a couple things, and then it gets mastered, and then I think from there it’s pretty straightforward. You just like send it off to the printer and you’re like, “Hello, you know, here is my soul, please.” I know.

Chloe Weston: Oh, this is so incredible.

Michelle Lynne: And there’s been so much like resistance in me and there’s been so much probably self-sabotage and probably excuses. And, you know, these songs that I wrote, they, I released them in 2022 ’cause I thought that the album was going to be out in 2023. And I’ve been like, I crowdfunded for it three years ago. And then, I don’t know. Anyway, I’ve been juggling too many different things and that’s also why I quit my faculty jobs. ‘Cause it was just like, I gotta go for this. And I love singing and I don’t put nearly enough time into it and I would like it to grow.

Chloe Weston: Yes. Tell me about the, tell me about this resistance, because I feel like, even with myself, I find just with the podcast, I was like, “Oh, can I do this as well? Is this going to take time away? Um, is this going to be seen as like, ‘Oh, she’s not a serious pianist,’” like all of these really…

Michelle Lynne: Hmm.

Chloe Weston: …silly kinds of things. What, what has been your experience with, with this branching out? ‘Cause I, I think it’s incredible what, what you’re doing and how this album is really showcasing unique you are and these different facets of you. And it’s hilarious because when I’m talking to friends about making albums, people are always looking for that, like, “What does make me unique? And I’m just a pianist, like, that’s it. Like, there’s nothing special about me. I’m going to release repertoire that, that has been released a million times.” And I think if anything, your approach is, is so impactful and unique, yet there’s all this resistance to, to doing that.

Michelle Lynne: Yeah. Well, you know, one of the reasons you shared with me about resisting the podcast is ’cause you are going to be seen, right? People are going to be able to have opinions, uh, they’re going to learn more about you. Um, resistance to the songs? Oh man. I mean, you just, it is probably just, we always want to be good, good enough. We want to be, maybe, I don’t know. I don’t know what, what, what do we grow up as? Like, people are sitting around counting your mistakes, they’re telling you, and no matter how you play, there’s always a way you can get better. I mean, look, in Porto last week we were comparing five recordings of Mozart minor. Do you want to tell the story?

Chloe Weston: Go for it, because I, it just blew my mind. It blew my mind. And I, I know exactly the point you are going to make, so I want to hear it. Yep.

Michelle Lynne: Yeah. I mean, we’re listening to, uh, Maria João Pires and we’re listening to Daniel Barenboim and Argerich and, you know, Glenn Gould, okay? But, and then we look at the score and we, then we can’t look at their, listen to the recordings and we’re like, “Oh, well, so-and-so didn’t do any dynamics and so-and-so didn’t hold this, you know, cadence resolution very well, and so-and-so didn’t phrase this and, oh, look at this tempo. Why did they do that so quickly?” It’s like, okay, no matter, these are the greatest of the greats. These are the people that we revere and awe and, and rightly so. And yet we still can all make comments. So I don’t know why any artist thinks that it’s, uh, you know, a bad thing for people to make comments about you. Like, no matter how good you are, people can make comments. They have an opinion. So, I don’t know, I think there’s that deep desire of just wanting to be loved and liked and accepted. And probably in my early development, something got mixed up with, you know, I got a lot of praise because I was really good. And so then it’s like, okay, well, if I’m getting praised ’cause I’m good, then I gotta make sure I’m always good. So I always get the praise, you know, I don’t know. And then you are, you light up when people tell you how great you are and then you just want to please people. You know, it’s like all the, all the unhealthy stuff that we have to try and overcome. And I’ve worked on a lot of that with Ella Hooper and my, uh, I’ve worked with her for years as a life coach, and I know, um, she’s helped a couple people in our community as well. Uh, she’s an artist coach, talking about this like resistance and perfectionism and criticism, and my inner critic was on overdrive. Like, I had shame. She says, “You have shame in your God spot.” That’s like one of the first things she told me. Like, I’m supposed to come out here knowing that I have a gift, knowing that I’m loved, I’m fully accepted, and I’m going to share with you what I have to give you. But instead, I’m coming out here hoping for approval or hoping to be, um, received well or that people like you or that they, you know, I also just want to be really respected among my peers. You know, there’s that thing of like, just wanting to belong to your tribe, probably. So, probably for a million reasons. And also what you just said, like, how many people have recorded Ravel? And then you listen to like Jean-Thibauld and you’re like, “Oh crap.” Like, like, the guy’s amazing. Like, I mean, why? I mean, if, and if I played for my teacher, he would have a thousand things to correct or say. And so you have to let go of all of that. And somebody really helped me recently. They were like, “This is a snapshot of your artistic development, like right now. And you have to honor that process in you and just release what you have.” And also the other thing about Candlelight is, it has been so healing for me, because these people are not there to judge me. These people are not sitting there making comments. They are just wowed by the experience. And they are so grateful that they get to, you know, some of them, many people have come up to me and said, “This was my first piano concert ever.”

Chloe Weston: How incredible.

Michelle Lynne: So in some sense, this has been super healing that I’m like, “Oh, I don’t have to perform or earn or prove. I’m just here to give and share and you guys are loving this and that’s awesome.” And so it’s from that healthy perspective that I’m able to release this album, which includes Ravel and all. And I, I know that if, you know, my teacher heard it, he would be like, “This,” you know, whatever, he would, he would have things to help me with. But that’s also him doing his job because he’s a master and I have a ways to go. But that doesn’t mean that I should not share what I have to give now, because a lot of people are going to be blessed by it. And my audience, my Instagram audience, for example, they are mostly non-classical people who don’t know the difference between our 80% and our 100%, for example. So they are just thrilled that we are sharing ’cause to them it’s like, “This is incredible and this is so special.” And like, why are we doing music anyway? To reach people, to touch their hearts, to give what we have. And you were sharing that, too, with when you play in your communities and, um, what you shared on the podcast. People are just like, “This is awesome. We want to hear more.”

Chloe Weston: And we can’t see it sometimes.

Michelle Lynne: So I sometimes I have to oscillate between those two mindsets, but more and more I’m faster at getting out of that negative or unhealthy mindset. And it’s like, “No, come on. I know why I’m doing this and I know what I have to give is important.” Or else I wouldn’t have it. I wouldn’t have it in me.

Chloe Weston: That’s when I, when that happened, we were in Porto and listening to all these different recordings and hearing how the professors were reacting to them and how, “Oh, I, I liked this of this person, but this of this person and this of this person.” Like, they, they didn’t think that any of those recordings were a complete, perfect recording. And it just, every time I…

Michelle Lynne: Yeah.

Chloe Weston: …and even every time I go to listen to recordings when I’m preparing something and I hear how differently people are doing things, it always gives me, it like smacks me in the head again with this realization that I have every once in a while. Like, people are out here just doing what they want and I, I can do what I want. And, and it will be, people will like it and some people won’t. And, and just…

Michelle Lynne: Hmm.

Chloe Weston: …putting it out there like you said, because it’s all just a matter of opinion and taste. And it’s art and it’s subjective and it doesn’t, like the straight jacket of “it has to be this way” after a certain point. Yeah, it’s like you just have to let go. Let go of…

Michelle Lynne: Mm-hmm.

Chloe Weston: …go, go forward and, and make it. ‘Cause otherwise you won’t make anything. And I think that’s something that, you know, a lot of The Fearless Artists, um, when people come in, that’s where they are. They’re in a straight jacket of “I can’t do anything ’cause it’s, it’s going to be wrong. It’s going to be wrong.” Somehow, even, you know, for example, when we were there, we went to this like incredible contemporary art exhibit. From my perspective, it was very frightening, very disturbing. I was like, “Yo, this is, this is a lot, this is a lot to take in.”

Michelle Lynne: Well, tell, tell the audience what we were looking at so that they know. Maurizio Cattelan, and it’s the famous, it’s the famous banana duct taped to the wall is one of his pieces.

Chloe Weston: Famous ones. I won’t get into the, the description of the other ones, but that’s like the most tame, tame one. Um, but you can, you can Google him and look it up ’cause there’s a lot of very interesting, like, no doubt that it’s interesting and provocative and, um, I don’t doubt his artistry or anything, but that just goes to show that, to prove our point that we’re making, that, um, some people may love it and some people may hate it. And that’s kind of like the risk.

Michelle Lynne: And our job is to give, you know? And Jean also helped me a lot this last, um, week ’cause, uh, it’s remembering again, like, it’s actually not about us. Right? If we are artists and we’re called to share this art, I mean, we, we look at paintings, you go look at a Monet, it is the full art hanging on the wall, completed, done. You can look at it. Our art that we’re creating is live over time. So we need time to recreate in real life our art. So if people want to experience Beethoven, they literally need a real-life pianist to sit there and make it happen in front of them. So in that way, we’re serving the art world. We’re serving something much, much bigger than us. So when we make everything about ourselves, wrong notes and how we look and if people care and what people are thinking, that it’s like so egotistical, and I didn’t really realize this, but like, arrogance is too much ego, but also insecurity is too much ego ’cause you are focusing on yourself.

Chloe Weston: Mm-hmm.

Michelle Lynne: And so switching the mindset to like, “I’m here to serve. I’m here to give. I’m here to provide the audience with something that they maybe can’t encounter anywhere else.” That has really helped. Like, let’s get the focus off of me. This isn’t about me.

Chloe Weston: Yes. This isn’t about me. This is, just to be clear, this is, um, Jean Saulnier, your professor from Montreal…

Michelle Lynne: Yeah.

Chloe Weston: …the master teacher in Porto, an absolutely incredible artist. His concert, he played Scriabin, what sonata was it? Number three?

Michelle Lynne: F-sharp minor, number… Yes.

Chloe Weston: Oh my gosh! Just a huge, incredible sound. Unbelievable. Um, so it was…

Michelle Lynne: Hmm.

Chloe Weston: …a pleasure.

Michelle Lynne: Yeah. He got going and we were like, “Whoa, this guy is, he’s on, like, the mic is on.”

Chloe Weston: Yeah, just amazing, amazing to be a part of and just so, so empowering to, to feel that from, from him and, and from you. Like, it’s not, it’s not about you. Just focus on, on making the art itself. And I feel like I wanted to talk to you about that, being at this program and, um, this dichotomy of, ’cause a lot of your life, you are in the master chair, you are in the mentor chair, that’s where you are. And…

Michelle Lynne: Hmm.

Chloe Weston: …when we go to a festival, we’re back to student chair, which the same, the same…

Michelle Lynne: Yeah.

Chloe Weston: …for me. Like, I teach at home and I’m a teacher, and then I go there and I’m a student again. And…

Michelle Lynne: Mm-hmm.

Chloe Weston: …to feel like you are a, you are a fully cooked, perfect little turkey you show up. You know? Like, I, and instead of being someone…

Michelle Lynne: Can I be a Butterball?

Chloe Weston: Instead of being someone who’s, who’s in process and learning something, feeling, feeling the pressure to be, to be at, at top form at all times of the…

Michelle Lynne: Yeah.

Chloe Weston: …day. Um, I was wondering how that experience was for you, um, getting back into the student chair at this festival.

Michelle Lynne: Mm-hmm. So, after, this is an interesting thing ’cause once I left university, I didn’t play for Jean for four years. I think I, I had other lessons and I had other master classes and stuff, but I did have this feeling when I went to work with him in, in He Hall in, I’m going to say 2017, I had this feeling that I needed to prove to him that I was fully cooked somehow. Like, I had, I had learned some Mendelssohn Variations on my own and I was, I was ready to present it and blah, blah, blah. And, um, I was panicked right before, and I remember a friend like having to give me like a pep talk and she was like praying for me. She was like, “You’re going to be fine,” because like, to an outsider, they think we’re insane. Well, maybe we are insane. But anyway, I was panicked and I went there and I played like, you know, I don’t know, one variation, and he instantly just started working on my fingering, and instantly it was like I had never left the studio. And I had such mixed feelings about that, ’cause it was like so much disappointment. Like, “Oh no, like I’m just same in the same spot as I was four years ago.” You know, so that was something I really had to, I kind of really struggled with that, instead of just what I did this year was embracing the fact that I get his ears on my work and he can say like, “You’re in the right direction. You need to go further with X, Y, Z,” which is what ended up happening, happening for me this year. Last year, the year before, I was still a little bit too much in that like, “Oh no, like I hope that they come in and give you like the stamp of approval.” And this year was much more like, “Here’s what I’m doing. Like show me where my weak spots, show me what I’m not hearing, show me my blind spots.” Because I do think, like, even the greats, they, they play for other people to get that reflective feedback. You know, I remember one of my other, um, university teachers talking about how he went to play for his mentor like once every few months ’cause he’s like, “You always want an extra pair of ears.” So again, I think like overcoming my own ego has been like a long journey. But this year I felt really glad that I could be like, “Hey, like this is in process. Here’s what I’m doing.” You know, like Nuno, I loved him, but he also taught me like as if I was back in the student chair, as you said, but I wasn’t offended. I was just like, “Okay, I’m clearly missing this, this blind spot. We need to fix this now and he’s helping me.” And so I was able to just be really grateful in the moment, like, “Okay, now I can go home and work and apply this across the board.” And this is actually what I needed was for someone to give me overall feedback or a tool on my playing that I can then apply. ‘Cause my biggest fear is when they are picking specific things about one specific piece and you are like, “Yeah, but I don’t get to play for you next week. I don’t have you every week in my life anymore, so I need to know how to go home and figure this out by myself. So please, like the more general comments you can give me, like in general, you need to think more this way.” Like, oh, that’s really going to help me overall as a pianist and as an artist, and that’s what I need.

Chloe Weston: Yes, I, I remember meeting with, um, a really young pianist at the festival, and he said that, ’cause I said, “Are you studying with anyone?” And I said, “I’m not with anyone right now.” And he said, “Imagine not having a teacher.” That, that whole concept of…

Michelle Lynne: Hmm.

Chloe Weston: …I can’t imagine making these decisions for myself. And I think that’s such a transition that we’re kind of going through right now, or many people at different times, I guess. But whole concept of, you, you want to be getting to the point where, “Oh, I can handle everything on my own and I don’t need anybody else and I know everything. I’m a fully grown adult now,” which versus needing, needing a teacher every single week. And, and now I’m finding myself where, yeah, I, I don’t need someone every single week, but I, I love to check in with mentors and I love to play for other people and, and still learn from them. But I think it’s kind of a similar idea to like, “Okay, you’re in your thirties and you just, you don’t need your parents anymore. You don’t need support anymore.” It’s like, “Well, when you have a child, they’re your child for life and you care for them your entire life, and you help them at different stages of their life and different situations,” because they’re always going to be a little bit ahead of you. They’re always going to have a little bit more experience than you, and a little bit more knowledge or a different perspective. So I think that’s something that we could really let go of, this, this idea that I shouldn’t need anyone to help me anymore. I shouldn’t need support anymore. But people have support their whole lives. That’s the whole point of being here, is to connect, connect.

Michelle Lynne: I think the biggest, like, I fully agree with you. I, I totally agree, and I think the biggest problem is that we view it in this like black and white thinking. Like, either I need help or I don’t. Like, there’s so many nuances within that. Like, it was, it is so normal for us to go to like a master teacher and have something fully prepared, ready to go, ready to walk on stage and say, you know, “Give me some thoughts. Help me think,” like, “What are you hearing?” asking for the feedback. I mean, having this idea of like, we’re untouchable now, like put on your armor and like, “Nothing you say.” I mean, if we can sit there and say, uh, something about Daniel Barenboim’s tempo, like he could have thought about this. Like, people will provide you with perspectives, and it’s up to us to say who we trust. Of course you don’t just want anyone giving you feedback, but when we have been working with our teachers for years and years, I want to play for Jean until he dies. Like, why would I ever not want his opinion or thoughts when he has trained me, he has discipled me, he has taught me how to think, he’s taught me how to structure the music, he’s taught me how to, my technique? Like, I think when we say we don’t want help anymore, is that you don’t want to show up to your lesson and them say like, “You have no idea what you’re doing. Like, you need to start from zero.” But that’s very different than coming to them with like an interpretation and asking for guidance or just their, their thoughts on it.

Chloe Weston: And that reminds me of, of when, when I go to teach or when I go to a, a situation where, where I’m the mentor and you start speaking and you’re like, “Wow, actually I do know a lot of things. There’s a lot, there’s a lot in…”

Michelle Lynne: Yeah.

Chloe Weston: …you. You kind of forget how much knowledge you are holding and how much you have learned. And, and that’s what really makes me feel, feel great about this whole being a musician thing and being in this world of musicians. It’s like this huge universe and tapestry of people just sharing like a, like a oral tradition to the next generation, and you’re just like one little star in this whole galaxy, you know? And you can give what you have to the next person and, and take what’s being given to you and just pass it on. I really try to, to think about that versus like, “Okay, I need to get to this level and be a perfect little person,” because even, you are totally right. I think, like, I bet you Jean played that program for someone before he…

Michelle Lynne: Hmm.

Chloe Weston: …recorded it, you know? Or like my, my old mentors, too, like, they’ll, they’ll run…

Michelle Lynne: You know what? He, he actually, yeah, I think, I mean, he ran it a couple times in like smaller settings, so I think that functions as the same. Like, he’s still like kind of testing it on a smaller stage. I’m sure he didn’t ask the audience for feedback, but, you know, do you know what I mean? Like, the best in the world have coaches. So I think it’s been interesting also as us going to programs in our thirties, like, it’s also a little bit not done in the classical music world to go to masterclass. And I know that’s what held me back like in my early thirties. I wasn’t really at a place to go to masterclass then, but like when I went back to Porto, I was thirty-five and I’m like, there’s no way I should be at this festival. Like, it’s, I felt like I should be embarrassed or that I should be like the other kids there. Like, I mean, you can be anywhere from like eighteen, nineteen, mid-twenties, you are doing a bachelor, master’s, whatever. Like, yeah, it’s this, it’s this thing of like, “You should have it figured out by now,” um, which is just a little bit ridiculous when you think about the amount of repertoire that we have available to us to learn, different schools of thought, techniques, um, different people you’d like to learn from, different ideas to share. I mean, why would you not want to go surround yourself with people who think like you and practice the same instrument as you and share ideas and be inspired? And it was like, it was a week of exponential development.

Chloe Weston: I agree.

Michelle Lynne: I mean, whether you are in a lesson or watching a lesson or you’re thinking about your pieces or you’re learning Über. I was introduced to so much new rep. Like, I didn’t know the Granados El Pelele. I had never heard of that. So, and like, I’ve been doing this for a long time, so, you know, maybe that’s, maybe I need to be listening to a lot more my piano lit class. You know, but whatever the point is, like, we’re not, wait, we’re not inhuman or, or robots.

Chloe Weston: I actually came home and, um, I met up with a friend and her mom was there and, um, her mom was asking me how the program was. And I said, “Yeah, just being, being surrounded by pianists all day like that, it’s just such a, a great place to learn and to be inspired and be understood.” Like, what we were saying about hanging out with these guys. Like, we’ve met them twenty-four hours ago and we’re having the best time chatting and having fun at dinner.

Michelle Lynne: Best time.

Chloe Weston: Shout out Alex, Felipe. Um, but she said to me, this mom was like, “Yeah, you know, when I go to, um, a knitting or a quilting course and I’m just in the room and everybody is so excited about quilting.” I was like, “It’s the exact same thing.” I just think it’s so cool. Like, it just, it, it just comes down to…

Michelle Lynne: You find your people.

Chloe Weston: My people. That’s literally it. And, and depending where you are, you may not have access to that all the time or at that high level in a concentrated time like that. Like, a two-week, like, sprint.

Michelle Lynne: They are so important to our development. Yeah.

Chloe Weston: So would recommend if anybody needs to go somewhere and have an amazing time. Porto Piano Fest. And that was another thing that I really loved about them inviting people back and wanting to create, uh, like a family of like, “Every year we come here…”

Michelle Lynne: Mm.

Chloe Weston: “…and no matter where you are in your development, you can come back and you belong here.” I just think…

Michelle Lynne: Mm-hmm.

Chloe Weston: …that bowled me over. ‘Cause I’ve never, I don’t know if I’ve ever felt that at a, at a program like, because often I’ve been to so many that it’s kind of like, “You’re in and out. You try this one, you try this one, you try this one,” and you are kind of like collecting them, you know? Like, “Yeah, I’ve tried this and…”

Michelle Lynne: Mm, mm-hmm.

Chloe Weston: …this idea of going back and, and being welcomed with the same people, I think that’s really, really next level. And I think they’re building something really beautiful and meaningful there. No wonder there at ten years.

Michelle Lynne: Yeah. And what Nuno said, like, the teachers get to know you so they see your playing. So, you know, I played for Dr. Mendez three years ago for the first time, and, um, I don’t know. I, he didn’t say I’ve improved, but, but I hope he heard that I improved. Or at least you can, you can adjust quickly when they tell you because you’ve already been, you know, you already know how he’s going to teach and some ideas that he will have. And I loved, I love his style of teaching. Um, very clear. Gave me a lot of ideas. Um, I need to be a lot more in the key. I’m just hanging out in the key a lot more than I was before.

Chloe Weston: Because he said the opposite to me. He’s like, “You’re way too much in the key. You need to get out of the key.” So we just need to combine our playing and then maybe we’ll be, yeah. It was just, um, really great. I think that was something that I came back, a friend of mine immediately said that, like, “Hey, should I go? Is there an age limit?” I was like, “No, there’s not an age limit. Like, people, people want to keep…”

Michelle Lynne: Yeah.

Chloe Weston: “…learning and, and want to have that…”

Michelle Lynne: I…

Chloe Weston: “…especially ’cause when you are done school, you are done school and you don’t have it all the time.”

Michelle Lynne: Exactly. And this is our chance to play for people. And like, of course you can try and find teachers during the year, but they’re busy with their studios. They don’t have time, you know, and we have a friend right now in Italy at a program and they, he just wrote and said that, that somebody there is forty-two. So I just think that we should take the limit off of learning. We should take the, the, you know, and like Peter Award, my colleague at Rotterdam, he started his master’s in, Rotterdam University at forty. And I know there were, he got some eyebrows raised about that. And then he literally crushed it. He said that he understood the material so well because of his life experience already. He like scored super high and now he has more learning. He’s a better teacher because of it. Like, why would we tell ourselves, I had this lie in my mind that I stopped learning at twenty-five. Like, I remember I went to He Hall in 2017, like I just said. And, um, they were talking about Brahms and hairpins. You know how, uh, crescendos can actually be also, uh, tempo markings, right? And he was like, “Yeah, go look it up. Here’s the website.” And I just remember having this moment of being like, “I can still learn.” It was, it, it sounds ridiculous. I understand it sounds ridiculous, but something in my brain was like, “After you leave the university, like you’re done. You’re like, you said, you’re a, would you say a fully cooked turkey?” All right. “You’re a fully cooked turkey, you’re done learning. Now you, you’re supposed to know everything, so just go play.” And it’s like, “Oh wait. Like, we’re supposed to, like continual education, we’re supposed to keep learning and keep being inspired.” And like my, one of my first piano teachers was always telling me to read the letters, like read Chopin’s letters, and Brahms, because then you can learn more about them. And just putting ourselves in these inspirational atmospheres, it also keeps you going through the ebb and flow of the freelance portfolio career when sometimes things are really hard. We got to keep the inspiration alive by being around the right people.

Chloe Weston: Oh, I want to say one more thing about this, and then I have another question for you. I just think that’s something that has attracted me to being a musician forever, is like the fact that there’s, especially as a pianist, how the repertoire is so gigantic that, and I, I remember I’ve said this before, like, “I don’t have, I, I don’t have enough time in my life to learn all the rep that I want to play.” Like, “I wish I had seventeen lifetimes in order to play all the rep that I want to play.”

Michelle Lynne: Yeah.

Chloe Weston: And so what attracts me to be a musician is, is the fact that you get to keep on learning and keep expanding and keep growing. And, and there, our idols are…

Michelle Lynne: Hmm.

Chloe Weston: …I don’t know how old Martha Argerich is now. Eighty?

Michelle Lynne: Yeah. Like she’s playing still.

Chloe Weston: Like, that’s what I want to be. I want to be…

Michelle Lynne: I know. She’s amazing.

Chloe Weston: …or, um, Pressler. Menahem Pressler put out an album at ninety-six, I want to say. Like, that’s what I want to do. Okay. There you go. So just the what attracts me to it, this continual learning. And then you turn around and you are mad that you are not done learning at thirty. You know, like, it, it doesn’t make any…

Michelle Lynne: Yeah, exactly. Exactly.

Chloe Weston: …sense. So you mentioned, the ebb and flow of this performance career. I just, before we pressed record, I was talking about how, uh, tired and exhausted I was after, after this program. Like, in a, in a great way. Um…

Michelle Lynne: Hmm.

Chloe Weston: …the like, your, your social battery and you are running around and your, your energy and you’re not eating exactly what you normally eat or you’re not working out like you normally would or let alone the whole like time, different sleep schedule thing. Um, so your career is so incredible. Like, you are, you are bouncing around all these European cities every other weekend. And I’m, I would love to know how, how you’ve managed or how you’ve learned along the years how to, to keep yourself kind of at an even keel, even when all this is happening and you have to be so on to perform. And what your recovery is…

Michelle Lynne: Yep.

Chloe Weston: …because I think that that’s something that once you get up to a certain level, it’s all about how well are you recovering and how fast are you recovering because you can’t be at this high performance level without taking this rest and recovery. So I was lo- would love to ask you about that, how you, how you manage that.

Michelle Lynne: Yeah. Um, I think you just said it, the even keel thing. So in the past, I’ve been pretty high. I get high energy, high reactions, big, big emotions. And so something I learned was to, uh, kind of just stay calm. Stay calm in a crisis. Don’t get freaked out about little stuff and don’t waste energy where you do not need to waste energy. So, examples, you know, if you are running a little bit late, like, okay, one time, this is, so I’ve been with Candlelight for three years, so I’ve had kind of three years to kind of figure this out. Like, this kind of intense schedule ’cause I was not used to this, right? And, um, like some months it was like I did ten or eleven concerts in the month in different cities. So, like, I wasn’t, I wasn’t home. So one time I am teaching all day at the conservatory, and then I need to play. I jump in the car, there’s a traffic jam, the thing, the line is red. And I get so panicky that I’m like, I call my dad, I’m in tears and I’ve, I’ve still got an hour to drive, mind you, okay? And I’m like, “I’m going to be arriving like twenty minutes before,” you know? It’s like this huge emotional, right? So, um, now I look at the thing and I’m like, text the coordinator. “Hey, I’m getting there five minutes before. I’m going to walk in. I need, this is what I need.” It’s like, I make sure the food is ordered for between the shows. Like, you kind of just gotta act normal. Yeah, cool. Zero. Exactly. I have learned to not let, allow my emotions to surge past what allows, like, I, I focus on the most important thing, which is I need to be ready at 7:30 to walk on stage and not get distracted or freaked out. So, don’t sweat the small stuff, I guess is kind of the cliché way to say that. Um, in terms of rhythm and routine, I try to keep everything the same as much as possible. Like, if I’m going to Paris, I’m on the Eurostar from Brussels, I usually take the 10:12, which means I need to leave the house at around, you know, eight. Um, I write down, I’ve missed it a couple times, so I wrote down in my notes like, “Leave earlier.” You know, I drop the dog off at the same time. I pack the same way. I bring my protein shake with me. People, people roast me for this, but I eat a lot of hard-boiled eggs. I go to the same grocery store. I get a pack of deli ham and arugula. I try to eat pretty clean. I order the same exact meal every single time I play a Candlelight show. The coordinator even knows, they don’t even ask me what I want anymore, they just order it. Um, stay at the same hotels if I’m in the same cities. I run when I’m traveling ’cause I don’t have a gym usually. Or if I do have a gym, I go do my workout. Like, keep things the same as much as possible. Keep what’s constant. This is actually in our playing, like Jean and I were talking about this in the last lesson. It’s like when you have all these notes and all of this stuff to organize, everything that’s constant, you keep constant and then you find what’s interesting, what you need to bring out. So, you know, using that as a metaphor. What’s interesting is us walking on stage, and so everything else, I gotta be chill. Like, I don’t waste energy on if somebody is… this is another big thing, people are rude. Like, people will stand in your way on the trains. They will, somebody will be a little snippy at you. You know, like, it’s just like, you know what? Water off my shoulders. I like the, the oil on the duck. Like, just, “Thank you…”

Chloe Weston: Water off a duck. My mom says that all the time. Yep. That’s a good one.

Michelle Lynne: Water off the duck. You are like, “You know what, dude? You want to be rude? No problem. I need to really focus on what I’m doing tonight.” And so I got noise-canceling headphones. I do not let distractions get to me. I’m not on my phone right before I go on. I just gotta like, lock in and then keep myself calm and centered and grounded. Then things have gotten way, way better.

Chloe Weston: When you are, when you are keeping yourself, uh, calm and centered and grounded, are you, are you dabbling in the meditation game at all?

Michelle Lynne: Um, I mean, I do visualization. I have meditation apps. Definitely a few minutes before like I go on. I just make sure I’m alone. Uh, that’s really important to me. I’m not chatting. I’m not high energy. I’m not like, “Eh, like…” I just don’t get high anymore. I think like emotionally, I’ve like regulated. I’ve learned to stay calm. Um, and I’ll probably learned a lot of this from Deanna, too. So, um, but I have had moments that are just like crappy. Like, I walked in ten minutes after the concert had to start in front of the five hundred people rolling my suitcase behind me ’cause I couldn’t find parking. And like, I still get stressed. It’s not like I’m stoic. I’m still Michelle. I’m still very much myself. But I think that’s been the biggest thing that, um, just like not getting bothered by stuff that I don’t have the energy for.

Chloe Weston: Tell me about this, what you’ve learned from Deanna. What do you mean by this? This is your partner in TFA. She’s very calm.

Michelle Lynne: Deanna doesn’t get freaked out. She just doesn’t. She doesn’t. She’s very, well, what you said, even-keeled. It’s a good word. Um, no big reactions. I’m the reaction person from Deanna, you know? But she, she deeply cares and she will tell you, and you know, she does. It’s not that she’s not emotional. Um, she forgives quickly. She’s very compassionate. She’s very empathetic. She apologizes when it’s not her fault. I mean, she’s just, I’ve learned an enormous amount from her. And, um, yeah, and also watching her parent. She’s got three kids under five now, so she’s been like, we talk a lot about her parenting approach and how, you know, you and I were raised in a very different generation of probably yelling and freaking out and punishment and all that stuff. And, and she, you know, a kid knocks something over. No reaction. She doesn’t react. She’s like, “Okay, we’re going to clean that up.” You know, she will probably address, she will always talk them through it, but it’s just, there’s no big reactions coming from her. And I think that is a beautiful way to parent that I haven’t seen modeled a lot. And she’s, you know, she’s got me reading all the books that she read so we can wrap our minds around this ’cause, you know, it’s new for us. We’re gen, we’re millennials and our parents did not parent that way.

Chloe Weston: Not having a big reaction and keeping calm. I remember thinking of that when, when performing started happening more for me and you are getting worked up about other things or nervous about other things or how is this person going to perceive me or like, um, like a job interview situation or, and I remember thinking that like, “This isn’t walking on stage.” Everything else becomes a lesser stressor. And I think that that’s a…

Michelle Lynne: The stage is a bubble in that beautiful way.

Chloe Weston: Yeah. I think…

Michelle Lynne: You are like, you are protected for an hour. Yeah.

Chloe Weston: And I think that’s really true. It’s kind of what you were saying with the ego thing, like getting really, um, I’ve, I’ve heard that said about getting really complimentary. Like, “You think you are the best or you think you are the worst,” is kind…

Michelle Lynne: Mm, mm-hmm. Right?

Chloe Weston: …of like, trying to kind…

Michelle Lynne: Yeah.

Chloe Weston: …be more, more in the middle and more balanced and, and good things will happen and bad things will happen, and you are just kind of, kind of staying here. And so it’s really interesting to hear how that’s helped you maintain your energy. Because I think when people from the outside look at your schedule, they think, “Oh my gosh, how is that possible? And, and how does she do that?” Um, so I think that, but…

Michelle Lynne: I also have a team, right? I, it’s important to say I have, I have assistants, like one does my content and one does my booking. So she’s doing my hotels, she’s got my trains down. Like, if I get a new date, I just got one. Um, I forward her the WhatsApp message and then within three days my trains are booked, my hotel’s booked, and it’s all in my, I-cal. Like, I’m hands-off and I just look and I’m like, “Okay, great.” And again, same hotels as often as possible. I know where I’m going. I know the trains pretty much by now. And you know what else? The thing is like the coordinators will get really freaked out sometimes ’cause they gotta figure out how to get four hundred people through the door and scan the tickets and somebody’s late and somebody’s missing. And they come to me and they’re stressed. And I’m like, even more, I’m like locking in, like, like, “Goodbye.” I’m the one out there. I’m a soloist. I gotta carry this thing in about three minutes, so I can’t, you know, and there, you know, there’s only been a couple moments where I was like, “Whew, I’m not, um, I’m not able to handle any of that.”

Chloe Weston: This isn’t my problem. Yeah, exactly. I think, I…

Michelle Lynne: Yeah.

Chloe Weston: …the, the art of delegating and, and the art…

Michelle Lynne: Hmm.

Chloe Weston: …of trusting. And I think that’s the only way. It seems like the only way that you would be able to pull off all of the different kind of hats you wear with, with…

Michelle Lynne: I mean, I’m working on it. I don’t know if I’ve mastered it. There’s always more to, I just told Puck today I’m going to give her more hours ’cause, you know, she’s amazing, too. She started to really pick up on stuff. Like, I wanted to write a newsletter. It was on my to-do list, and then I just voice-dumped her and then suddenly there’s a newsletter in my inbox sent to everybody. I was like, “Oh, thank you, God.” Like, I just like, I appreciate them so much when you can trust people around you and…

Chloe Weston: Yeah.

Michelle Lynne: …work together.

Chloe Weston: The lie that you have to do everything your own. And even with, even with the, with the content creation. This is something I really wanted to ask you. Like, do you ever get used to sharing this much with people? Does it ever come up that you’re fearful or, or has it become so routine for what you do that, that you don’t mind?

Michelle Lynne: I think I turned, I flipped a switch in my brain that cares. So like, example, this afternoon I was coaching, um, our Mastermind clients. I had, I was in calls all afternoon, and then I opened my phone and I see a video of me playing and it says something like, “Why do I work so hard?” And then it flipped to a picture of me as a child and it said, “For her.” And I was like, “Oh, good idea, Constantina.” I didn’t read the caption, I didn’t look at the comments. I was just like, “Okay, whatever. It’s on brand,” because like, I’ve trained her so thoroughly on like, “This is the message of Michelle in the brand. This is,” you know, I wouldn’t let someone write on my personal page about sharing photos or whatever, but this is like Michelle Lynne, the brand. So the content needs to go out. So in that sense, I’ve distanced myself. It’s not me, it’s the, it’s the brand. And Gary V talks a lot about this. For anybody who’s confused, Gary Vaynerchuk is a big-time entrepreneur. He also has Gary V, which is his brand. And so the, the content goes out and he himself, the person, is busy running his business. So I think about that a lot. And I, there’s only been a couple of videos for her where I will be like, “Hey, like, I didn’t like that,” or I had to take something down. Um, and then I correct her. Like, in the beginning, I really trained her on like my voice and my style and the message and what I want people to feel when they come to my page, which is inspired and motivated and that they can accomplish their dreams. And also that I get to show like a little bit of travel stuff and we’ve come up with different video ideas, like, you know, a vlog and she will, she will text me and be like, “Hey, I need you to vlog today.” So then I will take little two-second clips like you watched, uh, well, you are doing them perfectly, too. We need to get you vlogging more. And, um, then she will, she will put them together and she will put timestamps on and she will write a caption that’s, she knows that I would have told her to write, you know, give her a couple prompts, and then we go from there. And because she’s been working for me for like half a year, a year and a half, it, it’s pretty seamless.

Chloe Weston: Tell me about this branding. Like, you, you, the personal you versus the branding you. I know that we, we only have a few minutes left and this could be a whole episode on its own, but I think that this is something I’ve struggled with and I think a lot of musicians struggle with this whole concept of like, “Where, what is my brand? And how is that separate from me?”

Michelle Lynne: Hmm.

Chloe Weston: And, and how do I learn…

Michelle Lynne: Yeah.

Chloe Weston: …what that is? And distill it down into something, into a couple words like you just said. Did that take you some time?

Michelle Lynne: Mm-hmm. Absolutely. And I’ve learned a majority of this from my colleague in Rotterdam, uh, Pet Hand-A-Word, who teaches branding and archetypes for musicians. He did a training in The Fearless Artist recently. He’s got an e-book about it. But a really helpful, uh, visual metaphor for branding is the Russian Dolls, the six dolls that fit into each other. So you start with the big one, then you open it up, and then there’s another little one. I’m sure you know what I’m talking about. So for me, brand, um, and this is how I teach boundaries as well for social media, is online. I’m only revealing those first three dolls. The, the ones that follow are for my friends, my close friends, uh, then my inner circle, people like Deanna, and then, you know, my parents, my sister, and then the smallest one is you and God. Like, it’s your soul. Those never go online. So that’s what I mean when I say the brand, Michelle. Those are based on core values that I believe in. Um, the gifts that I believe that I’ve been given to encourage other people, to inspire them, motivate them. Talk about being a fearless artist musician, making money as a musician. How do these things work? So she kind of has like, um, the brand has a lot of wiggle room in that area ’cause like you can talk about all of those topics, but it still doesn’t get close enough to reveal Michelle, the person. And I mean, funnily enough, like you, you kind of experienced that like these two weeks that we had together in real life. You got to see me as me as like a, as a friend. And like in the past, our relationship has been very much like this. Online you only see what I share or like what I tell in public calls. And so this was also an experience for us to be like vulnerable with each other and share weaknesses and insecurities and like actually really talk and get to know each other better. So that’s kind of example. From people are so scared of posting online. It’s like you are not supposed to bear your soul online. You are not supposed to go cry on your Instagram Stories. When you get rejected from an audition, you are supposed to do that with your closest inner circle and let them like help you heal and minister to you and comfort you and encourage you and then you can go talk to a public audience ’cause as musicians, we are public figures, we have an audience. Hello. We are on stage with a spotlight. People are looking, so I don’t want them to see everything about me because it’s not safe and that’s not healthy, right? We don’t bleed online. So that’s what I mean when I say I open my phone and I see she did something and it’s on brand, then it for me, it falls within that first three dolls and it’s got the core values assigned and it sounds like something that is like part of the message. So that’s the mess, the message of me. And then if you want to get to know me, then you know we can go have a coffee in real life. And I will tell you something that I maybe wouldn’t share on Instagram.

Chloe Weston: Exactly. I think that’s a great idea for, for people if they’re just starting to think about this branding thing. Like, just read a little bit about core values and see if you can think, okay, what, what would mine be? And that would be like a really good first step. Okay. So I feel like we have chatted about so many different things today. Um, thank you so much. I wanted to ask you a question. We, we did a little, um, short clip of it in person, in Porto, and your answer could be the same or it could be different, but what’s, what’s the one thing that you want other pianists to know that has nothing to do with practicing, that they, that they could be doing, they should be doing, I don’t like the word “should,” but that they could be doing to help them, help them in their career, help them in their life, help them feel more fulfilled as a pianist. The one, like, one thing that could really, really help them, that, that maybe was a big, huge lesson for you that really turned things around for you.

Michelle Lynne: Well, if I want to, if I want to share something different than what I did in the Instagram clip, I mean, the first thing that comes to mind is like, remember your first piano teacher and the love and the joy and the curiosity and the excitement of like, and, and do you keep in touch with them and do they know how far you’ve come? ‘Cause I think if they could see the results of those, you know, ’cause many, many piano teachers, they have like studios and not everyone goes to do it professionally. So I think I still keep in touch with my first teacher. She, you know, she’s a wonderful person. And having those, that list of, that short list of people who really impacted you, that list of, that short list of people who, in those relationships, I think. Music is really interesting, you know, it’s this one-on-one relationship, and I’ve been thinking a lot about this now with seeing Jean again. Like, they invest so much in us, one-on-one time. Like, they’re, they’re discipling us. Yeah. They’re, and like Jean, he doesn’t cut corners. Like, if you are working with him, it’s like every note, like he’s going to go through it with you and he doesn’t brush you off and he doesn’t throw you. And it’s like, okay. And then you, it’s kind of like normal when you are in school, but then as you get older, you hear about funding cuts and how sometimes some schools are going to group lessons or some music departments are getting cut completely. And you’re just like, “Wow, like I’ve had one-on-one training for years and years and years.” So I don’t know, as a pianist to know that there are people who believe in you, that you are making an impact. There are people who are proud of you that you’ve gone farther than many people ever expected to, maybe. And also just remembering who your individual circle is, because you, we’re never going to be able to compete with Argerich, right? But we all do have that inner circle of supporters who love us and care about us. And like maybe starting small and being faithful with that small group is what will lead to bigger things. And, and maybe if it doesn’t get bigger, that’s also okay ’cause you are still making an impact.

Chloe Weston: Yes, I think this. What, what you are saying is literally the relationship I had with my first piano teacher. She’s the one that got me my first orchestra gig all these years later. She’s…

Michelle Lynne: Yes.

Chloe Weston: …who…

Michelle Lynne: Yes.

Chloe Weston: …at every concert that I have where she can come. She comes and she finds me as soon as it’s over, “Where’s Chloe?” And she will hunt me down and she will give me a hug. And she’s just always so over the moon. And, and…

Michelle Lynne: Hmm.

Chloe Weston: …you can’t, you can’t ever repay someone for, for all they’ve done for you. Like, you can’t ever repay Jean. Like, there’s no way. There’s no way you…

Michelle Lynne: Mm-hmm.

Chloe Weston: …just honoring, honoring it and playing and, and enjoying and maybe passing it on to the next generation, maybe, or just passing it on to audiences. Um, I think you are so right. That’s such a beautiful thing to focus on and really brings you back to why you started in the first place and forget about everything…

Michelle Lynne: Yes.

Chloe Weston: Oh!

Michelle Lynne: Yeah.

Chloe Weston: Thank you so much for chatting with me today. If you know…

Michelle Lynne: Isn’t it so fun, Chloe?

Chloe Weston: …if you are out there and you need a little support, go check out The Fearless Artists. Just watching their memes makes me feel better, you know? There, it’s such an incredible…

Michelle Lynne: Well, that’s all.

Chloe Weston: Um…

Michelle Lynne: That’s Constantina.

Chloe Weston: …follow this is Michelle Lynne on Instagram. Maybe you will be able to catch her in Europe playing a beautiful Candlelight concert or a part of her… We didn’t even get to talk about Opus 16, your chamber concert series. You are going to have to…

Michelle Lynne: Oh, I forgot.

Chloe Weston: You are going to have to come back…

Michelle Lynne: You asked me in the beginning if we forgot anything. It’s like, oh yeah, my chamber music series. Oops. Yeah, it’s fine.

Chloe Weston: …and we will talk about that. Um, but if you are, if you are ever in need of a little boost of encouragement, go follow The Fearless Artist Mastermind or this is Michelle Lynne, and you will feel boosted, I promise you. Um, such an inspiration to everybody around you. Thank you so much for being here. And, uh, we will connect with you next time. “Pianist Not Practicing.” Here we are. Sitting. My piano is right here and it’s just watching me. Just…

Michelle Lynne: Mine’s right here, too, Chloe. I just want to wish you everything good with this podcast and that you reach many people and, uh, thanks for what you are bringing to the pianist community with your joy and your smile. I love it.

Chloe Weston: Thank you so much. We will catch you guys next time. Bye.

Michelle Lynne: Bye.