Embracing authenticity, killing perfectionism, and building an artistic brand online with Deanna Breiwick

Michelle Lynne: Hey everyone, and welcome back to the Fearless Artist Podcast. My name is Michelle Lynne, and today I am beyond thrilled to have Deanna Breiwick on. Deanna, welcome and thanks for being here…

Deanna Breiwick: Thank you so much, Michelle. I am so excited to be here with you.

Michelle Lynne: I have been following you for, I don’t know, I’m going to say a couple of years, and I just have been in love with your content. I know a lot of our musicians follow you because you’re so inspirational online, and you share so much of your work and your process and what you do. So, I really wanted to have you on because we’re always looking for people who are being authentic with how they show up as artists online, because there are so many different thoughts around how to be an artist online and what side of yourself do you show and how professional do you have to be and how much personal can you let in?

So I’d love to hear about, first of all, your career and, of course, your process—how you got into this and how it got started for you.

Deanna Breiwick: I would love to share, and I am very honored. Thank you. Um, okay. So, I am an opera singer. I’ve been in the business doing this professionally now for about 12, 13 years. And it really wasn’t until the last few years where I really started investing my time in social media, particularly on Instagram.

I would say that’s really the only place I am showing up, but I feel like that’s someplace where I can show up consistently and with a lot of enjoyment as well. Um, so yeah, basically, you know, back in 2017, I remember my sister was working with some digital marketing company, and she was like, “Deanna, you have the coolest life. Why are you not posting more?” And I was like, “It’s really not that cool. It’s so mundane.” And she was like, “No, Deanna. You’re an artist, you’re an opera singer, you know, you have to start sharing this.” And so she would check in with me and be like, “I know you have a recital this week. Why have I not seen anything on your Instagram?”

So she started providing some accountability for me, and I was like, “Oh, okay, fine.” And she’s like, “Why is your account not public? Like, you’re a singer.” Yeah, so I made my account public and I started just posting more about my career. Then we kind of went into the phase where I feel like everybody was posting like all the glam shots and everything, and we were doing all that—cute photos with the quotes and announcements and all that stuff.

So, I was doing another recital with a really close friend, and I started getting a few clips of our rehearsal process and posting those. At the time, this felt really big because I think a lot of us may have had the same experience in music school. I remember word for word being told, “If it’s not perfect, don’t put it out there.” And so I had so much anxiety of like, “Oh, I’m going to put something out there and immediately somebody’s going to hear it and they’re going to hear my flaws and I’m going to be blacklisted, and I’m never going to get hired again.”

So I had a lot of fear around that, but I thought, I just— I remember I started just posting a few clips, and the response was overwhelming. People were enjoying what I was posting, and they were enjoying my singing, and that felt really good and really encouraging. And I was thinking, “Oh, I’m here, like in my sneakers and rehearsing, but maybe this is what we want to see more of.”

And also considering that as musicians and musicians following other musicians, we’re in that process all the time. We’re rarely in that polished performance state, even those of us who are performing often. So it’s like, maybe we can all start to connect and relate in this space around the process.

So I started posting just little clips there, and then in 2019, I started to see what social media could do as a sort of my own PR tool. And I started getting a lot of PR that I even had, you know, one of the top casting directors in our industry contact me and be like, “Do you have somebody? How are you getting these things?” And I was like, “I don’t know. I think it’s just from what I’m posting,” because I was posting a lot about my career at that point. So it began to open up doors with just publicity, with interviews, with features in opera magazines.

Michelle Lynne: Yeah, I saw the Opera Wire interview.

Deanna Breiwick: Yeah, and there was stuff like Opera News and Classical Singer. So there was this buzz that, at the time, I was just having fun posting on Instagram, but I was actually creating my own publicity, and I didn’t even realize it fully at the time. And then I started getting a few jobs from it as well, where people heard me sing things on Instagram, even if it’s just a little clip. And then I was being hired for something, or I remember one job specifically—they were considering several sopranos, and then they actually pulled up my Instagram and they were like, “Okay, well, look at her. She actually looks perfect for the role.”

And the cool thing about that is, yes, you can be sharing your music and your artistry, but you’re also sharing who you are and your look and your energy. So it started opening doors in that way.

Then COVID happened, and I’m like, “I’m out.” Like, I think we all had that moment of, “Oh my gosh, how can all this—everything we’ve invested in for so many years—how can the rug just be pulled out from under us?” And I’m trying to find new ways of being and supporting ourselves and everything.

In 2021, I remember I was listening to a podcast, and they were talking about finding your purpose. It was kind of a self-help podcast, talking about finding your purpose. And he guided the listeners to ask the universe, God, yourself, “How can I be of service?” And I remember I was out on a walk. At this point, we had been so isolated through COVID, and it almost felt kind of like a silly question to ask because we’re all just kind of in our little bubble. But I just put it out there. I was like, “How can I be of service?” And on that same walk, I was just like, “I need to start sharing some of the stuff I do on social media.”

Like right now, we’re at home. We have the time to be exploring new things. At that time, I was working a lot with yoga and vocal technique and bringing those two mediums together. And so I was just like, “I need to start sharing this.” And so I started sharing that, and then that’s when my account really began to grow.

And it was also—and it still is—fun for me because I’m sharing things I’m passionate about. I feel like it allows me to be creative in a way that is not just singing. In a way, it feels kind of like scrapbooking and teaching and just a whole bunch of different things coming together, you know?

And then also, over time, as I’ve shared more and become braver because it is developing that muscle of courage, I feel like I’ve become bolder in sharing my voice, like my thoughts, my beliefs on things, and stepping more into a role of like a thought leader. But that was something that had— that took practice because I’ll still get nervous posting, but at this point, like my courage muscle around it is like, “Just do it, you know, just put it out there.” And you do get braver. So that’s been my journey with social media. And I have lots of thoughts on why I think it’s really important for us artists, and I love what you guys are doing over at the Fearless Artist Mastermind in empowering us to share courageously.

Michelle Lynne: Oh, that is the highest compliment. Thank you. And you have just beautifully articulated so many answers to, I think, almost all of the questions I had prepared for you today because what you’re saying is so close to my heart. I’ve literally had colleagues say, “Oh my God, we can’t share anything from today’s concert because it wasn’t perfect,” and I had an orchestra manager say to me, “Never let yourself be heard less than perfect or else you will not get hired by orchestras.” And I’m like, “Do we not take into account the fact that it’s an iPhone mic in a boomy acoustic and that it was a live performance? Is there any grace to understand that it’s an iPhone video as opposed to a live recital and that this is promoting people? It’s gaining interest. We’re trying to build audience awareness around what we do, who we are as artists. We always talk about building an audience for classical music, but we’re not willing to share with them what it would be like if they actually—”

Deanna Breiwick: Totally.

Michelle Lynne: Um, they don’t know what they’re going to experience. So we need to invite them by giving them like tasters, you know, how are we supposed to do that if we can’t show it unless it’s perfect? Like, I’ve got to start carrying around like the microphones and the lighting to make it perfect. What is perfect, anyway? I mean, there’s so many different angles you can take with that argument. And I think it’s just, it frustrates me so much because there’s all this irrational fear. Because maybe this thing will happen, but you can’t quantify it. You can’t prove that you didn’t get the job because they heard you play one note or a tune on an Instagram video. You know, I started this challenge, Killing Perfectionism—

Deanna Breiwick: Yeah, I saw that.

Michelle Lynne: —because I had so many colleagues that I knew would never show their playing online, and I was like, this is insane. There’s so much talent just being wasted. And then once we started encouraging people to share, as you’re saying, the response is overwhelmingly positive. People are getting concerts. They’re getting booked for things. They’re getting more people. I mean, how you’re— you realize that you had your own PR strategy is incredible because it sounds like for you, like it just, you know, it has become this beautiful, organic, authentic expression of you. And I think a lot of our musicians are still discovering this part about themselves. So yeah, I’d love to hear more about how you create your content. Like, how did you decide what to talk about? I know you’re saying it was about your process, you’re sharing about the concerts you were doing, but then once you shifted to this in the middle of COVID—finding your voice, being a thought leader, I love that language. It sounds like you stepped into a lot of authority. And how did that come for you?

Deanna Breiwick: Yeah. Well, as I mentioned earlier, I think having this platform was very instrumental in helping me grow in that authority and to gain confidence in that. And, you know, when I hear other musicians say like, “Oh, I just hate social media,” or “I hate, like, that I have to post and whatever,” I think it actually is really important that we be intentional in making the shift to. This is a platform that you completely control, like in this environment of so much uncertainty and so much insecurity, which so many of us musicians live with every day. And also being at the whim of who will present us, who will hire us, who will put us on a stage. Well, what if you take the reins back and you make your Instagram— you make, right? You make these platforms where you have free reign, a place of authority for you, whatever that looks like. And that means you’re making the calls there. You’re choosing what to post. You’re choosing how to present. You’re choosing how much to share, like, and you can even move around with that. If you’re in a season of life where you’re like, “I really want to be sharing more of this,” do it. Or, let’s say, “Oh, I really want to sing this role. I really want to play this piece, and nobody’s hiring me for it. Put it online.” We’re in such a unique time right now where we have this—we can share freely. And we can present whatever we want, and we don’t need a casting director to open that door for us.

Yes, I know we’re talking about two different platforms, two different stages here, but what if you started looking at this as kind of your place where you can curate, where you have full agency? And I find that very empowering. I’ve experienced that as very empowering. And I think it’s something, I mean, it’s free. It’s like the door is open. Um, what do you want to be known for? What do you want to share? What do you want to be considered for? Put that out there, you know?

Michelle Lynne: I love how articulate you are at explaining this. We work with our artists to develop their artistic brands online, and we say, “How do you want to be hired? You need to show that you do that thing or else people don’t know.” And, exactly. Deanna plays Baroque viola as well. And until she started posting about her Baroque viola, they didn’t— nobody knew that they could ask her to sub for a Baroque orchestra because they had no idea that she had a Baroque capacity or, you know, anything that our musicians are doing when, as soon as they show that they’re doing it, I’ve had work come from other singers because they see, “I just did Winterreise. Oh, can you also come do it here?” We didn’t know you were doing it. Well, how are they supposed to know unless you tell them? Like, this is our job, and this is what you’re saying so beautifully about the PR. And I love so much about saying, “I’m free to curate and share my content in the way that I want to represent myself.” That gives so much power and permission. And I think so many musicians view it from the point of fear instead of saying, “Oh no, what are people going to say about me?”

Can you speak a bit to—did you have to overcome any fear about what your colleagues might say or think or judgment? Those kinds of things hold a lot of our musicians back.

Deanna Breiwick: Yeah. I mean, I think, yeah. That’s something that runs so deep for us, something that’s literally kind of like programmed into us in our conservatory settings, and there’s a lot to unpack there. I would say, yeah, I mean, some of the thoughts—which it’s great, cause I’ve seen you guys post them on your Instagram—but it’s like, “Oh, well, people will be annoyed with me. Are they going to think I’m like posting too much, or they’re going to think I’m a narcissist,” you know? And when you really think about it, it’s like you’re creating something wonderful, and it’s part of who you are. And I found for the most part that people are overjoyed to have you share with them and you sharing fearlessly and freely. Like, you hope that’s contagious and that that encourages them to also share in their lives, um, and to show up more fully and authentically, whether they’re a musician or an appreciator. I think it all sets all of us apart. It’s a little freer when we allow ourselves to share freely.

Yeah, I mean, I’ve gotten my fair share of haters. I’ve had—I remember I…

Michelle Lynne: Oh, yes.

Deanna Breiwick: It seems strange because like most of what I share is, in my opinion, not very controversial, but here’s the thing. Everybody comes with their own story, and they will project anything on anything. I have dealt with things like just people who flat out don’t like what I’m doing, or they have very specific criticism. I’ve had full hate threads where like all these people got on and they were just going at me. And then I had an instance where, um, it felt kind of dangerous where somebody kind of came on, projected something, and then a fight began between this person and another follower. And then this person recruited other people in the business to message me. And it was on a post that was about like celebrating your colleagues, but somebody came on and projected something that I never meant on it. And, um, and it became a whole thing, and the reality is, after that, I got shy and I stepped away for a few months, and I was like, “I just don’t want to have anything to do with that.”

So I think it’s important to talk about that. I know we’re trying to encourage people to share, and like the last thing you want to hear when you’re trying to step out and share is like, “Oh, somebody might hate what I’m doing or somebody might show up and harass me.” But I think it’s important to be aware of that reality, that there are people dealing with all sorts of stuff out there on the internet, and who knows how they find you and who knows what they’re gleaning from what you’ve posted.

I think I’ve grown a lot stronger in the whole like “block and bless.”

Michelle Lynne: Yeah, I need to ask you how you’re dealing with this because, I mean, that would eat away so much of musicians…

Deanna Breiwick: Yeah, yeah, and it’s horrible. It’s horrible. But I think it’s also been part of what has made me stronger. And as we’ve talked about, like growing in your authority, it’s definitely made me show up more strongly in that. And what I started doing is, if I look back, the thing where like the fight broke out in that thread—you know, I was going on, I was trying to defend myself. I kind of just—I was thinking, “Oh, I’m just going to leave this comment up there.” You know, I want people to be able to express themselves. I’ve really gotten to a place where this is my space, and I get to curate. It’s not just the content I’m curating. I’m also curating what’s happening in the comments. And if I see something now that feels disrespectful, is mocking me, mocking somebody else, I immediately delete, and many times even just block. And I know that sounds ruthless, but for me, that is the boundary and the parameter that I need to set to keep sharing freely.

And so you find what that is for you. How can you set up these parameters on your platforms and in your life so that you can keep showing up and feeling safe? And I think for a long time, I felt really bad, like, “Oh, I don’t want to block or I don’t want to, like, you know, I didn’t want to come across as like, I’m not open to criticism or I’m not open to other people’s opinions.” But at the same time, I’m like, this goes against the tone that I want in my life and here in the comments when I have young singers coming on and looking around. I don’t want them seeing that stuff. It’s a bad, negative energy. And so I just delete now…

Michelle Lynne: I think that’s so wise. I heard another big Instagrammer talk about this as if it’s your home. And if somebody came into your home and started misbehaving or disrespecting you, would you let them stay, or would you say you need to leave? You know, so the comments are your home. It’s your space. It’s your authority, and you are creating. You’re educating so many singers. I can’t tell you how many people come up and say that they love your content. I posted on our stories like, “Oh, what questions do you have for Deanna?” It was like, just thank her for being so inspiring. I constantly share her content with my students. Um, rewiring your thinking around the voice, expressing yourself, your attitude. Absolutely, you are responsible in that sense for what gets said on your page. It’s your page. You get to choose. And I love how, with so much authority, you’re saying like, “You can come here and be respectful or you can not.”

Deanna Breiwick: Yeah, I love that. Like comparing it to your home because I was thinking about it this morning, you know, because in just preparation for our talk today, I was thinking about that, and I was like, do I want to bring that up? Because it’s a scary reality of just being online in any capacity, you know? But I was just thinking about it, and I thought, if somebody approached me on the street—a stranger—like not even talking about the home, just on the street, if somebody approached me with disrespect, I would not engage them. And so why do I need to give them that allowance online? Just because we’re behind screens, it’s still disrespect coming across in their words and their energy. And I’m just like, “Sorry, if you’re going to be disrespectful, I’m not going to entertain it.” And it’s given me so much peace…

Michelle Lynne: Yeah, exactly. You’re protecting your peace. And I was going to ask, I mean, one of the things I wanted to talk to you about today is like, how do you take care of yourself? Because I know you live in a suitcase. I think another way of taking care of yourself is protecting that mental space that you need for your performances, you need for your people. And you’ve chosen very specifically who you want to serve online. I love that language that you were using earlier about, you know, what’s the message that I have? Who am I called to serve? Yeah. And so we need to focus on that audience because that’s where actually the growth is coming, because those are the young serious singers who are looking up to you as a role model.

Deanna Breiwick: Yeah. Yeah. I think living out of a suitcase for so long has made me very intentional about self-care, and that comes in a lot of different forms. Um, I’m a yogi. I love the many practices of that. So breathwork, meditation, and then also like the physical practice, for me, that just puts me in a space where I feel like I can stay soft and open, despite all the different stressors and like the insecurity and uncertainty that we touched on earlier that I think is so inherent in our industry.

Michelle Lynne: Yeah. Actually, that was one of the questions that came in—is how do you deal with the anxiety of not knowing what’s coming?

Deanna Breiwick: Yeah, I think that will forever be a place that just lives outside of our control. And I think the places that you can take within your control, that you should feel empowered to do so. So whether that’s social media or self-care, relationships—the areas that you can really cultivate and like, the areas in your life that help you reconnect to yourself and make you feel most you are so important, and that’s different for all of us, you know.

So for me, that’s definitely the yogic practice. I think staying connected with my friendships and my relationships while on the road, which is—with a good number of them, there’s a handful—I’m in daily contact, and that’s so grounding. I’m close to my family. Um, I read a lot. That’s kind of my fun escape. And then I stay involved in other creative projects that are outside of my livelihood creativity, as in my singing career. So for me, that’s painting, it’s crochet, it’s—I play my little lap harp.

Michelle Lynne: I read that you started as a harpist when you were—

Deanna Breiwick: Yeah, yeah, I started as a harpist, um, and then when I went into singing, I was just like, “I got to choose one or the other” as a performance degree.

So yeah, I think finding those practices, those activities that connect you to yourself, and I thought they’re so important. And I find that, ’cause sometimes I even have this thought, like, “What’s the use of this yoga practice when I’m so anxious right now?” And I feel like everything in my life and career are just like, “I can’t hold onto anything.” The way I look at these practices is that you’re filling the well. And so as you invest in these things that bring you peace and joy, you may have a little shift that day. Hopefully you do. But even if you don’t, as you continue to invest in these places in your life, and you invest in yourself, you deepen that well. That then you can draw upon when that anxiety comes and when life gets really uncertain and stressful. So that’s why I’m so passionate about the practice and the full spectrum of our practice, whether it’s self-care, whether it’s our instrument, that you are building that deep well to draw upon.

That’s amazing. I saw that you had a copy of The Artist’s Way on your—

Michelle Lynne: Bookshelf…

Deanna Breiwick: Oh, yes.

Michelle Lynne: I mean, I love how she, Julie Cameron, talks about artist states and also artistic cross-training. So it sounds like you’re crocheting for you or playing the harp. Those are other ways to express your creativity. And I think that zoomed-out perspective reminds us that we are, first of all, more than our instruments. You’re more than your voice. You have other gifts. You have other talents. You have other ways to serve. And I think, I mean, the main example for you is with the uncertainty of COVID, you then turned to socials, and you were like, “Okay, who can I reach now with this limited distribution channel?”

I mean, for us too, I remember I’m still so frustrated about this, but there was this fear in the air of, “Will we ever go back to live concerts?”

Deanna Breiwick: Ever.

Michelle Lynne: And this was a normal thought that people were saying as if it was plausible. And I was like, “Come on, people, it can’t be this bad.” And they were like, “We will never sit in the concert hall…”

Deanna Breiwick: I—

Michelle Lynne: Know…

So now, you know, I play for Candlelight, and I have thousands upon thousands of people. And I tell them this story because I’m like, “I am so grateful to be here because at one point, not so long—three years ago—I was sitting in my living room doing everything I know how to do from my Zoom and my WhatsApp, teaching my piano students on WhatsApp video…”

Deanna Breiwick: Oh my gosh.

Michelle Lynne: And being like, “Will we ever be allowed to go back to live concerts?” And here I am now playing for hundreds of you. So thank you for being here and thank you for giving this moment that we can come together. And, you know, things can change so fast. So with the uncertainty, though, there’s also possibility and looking at what we can do right now with what we have. So, yeah, I’d love to hear more about this process and the practice that you’re describing because I think it’s so important.

Deanna Breiwick: I think it is so important. And, um, I think, yeah, I love like the creative cross-training. And I think we must remember, like, I want to remind all of us, we are creatives. Like, this is who we are. And it means that we are uniquely wired to like share in a way that’s just a little off from the rest of the world, you know what I mean? Like, we have—we are gifted with a way of seeing the world and then sharing that. And I think a lot of us, when we go through school, we go through our training, we forget like the magnificence of our creative being, that we are that. And I think we can get so narrow-minded and just training our instrument, which is amazing. And it requires that intensity to have that mastery. But I’ve been guilty of this myself, or I feel like I lead with that, like almost athletic training. And I forget my creative soul. And I think, you know, it’s like, we’ve got to tap into that. And then, like you said, it gives—it brings possibility. It opens up options… And we can be working from that like a strong identity of, “I am a creative, and I have something really special and unique to share,” because each of us as creatives do.

Michelle Lynne: That’s so beautiful. I think what you said earlier about being programmed, especially when you’re in these, you know, 18, 19, 20-year-old years, and that’s when you go to the university, the conservatories, and that’s when it’s so much athletic training, as you’re saying on the instrument, it’s so easy. We just get sucked in. And then, of course, the comparison, which is only amplified by social media. If people choose to use it as the highlight reel only, comparing yourself to someone who’s much further in the process or someone who chooses to only share one side of the story, you know, but what actually happened and none of the hard blood, sweat, and tears to get them to that place. And then, of course, you know, yeah, it can be such a huge thing. How are you seeing this message coming through in your socials? Have you heard responses from people who are saying, “We’re starting to get it,” because you speak with so much eloquence and authority, and it’s so natural for you, but I know that many people are not able to make this shift. And so how can we bring them to where this mindset shift is…

Yeah. I mean, I find, especially when I share things that are not part of the highlight reel—which we all got to have the highlight reel in there too. You know, it’s like, I mean, that’s what sells.

Deanna Breiwick: What sells. And also, we’re amazing. And we should be sharing. Also, we’re amazing. We should be sharing ourselves at our best. There’s nothing wrong with that. And we don’t have to feel any guilt. We work so hard for it, and we don’t have to feel any shame about putting out that highlight reel and promoting it. We— a hundred percent should. I think what I began to see, I remember, one of my good friends, Amy Owens—we lived, she’s another singer. We lived together years ago. And I remember we were talking about, you know, the insecurity we felt as young women where we didn’t want to go out anywhere without makeup on. I remember she would—she brought up, “Well, you know, I look at it as we have range. Like, we have the range of like the really glamorous, made-up, beautiful, on stage. But we also have like sitting on the couch on a Saturday morning in our robe. And we’re beautiful in this entire spectrum, you know?” So, you know, that applies to our physical appearance, which is also something I like to bring to my Instagram. I’ll show up on there a lot in the morning without my makeup on. I want to have range in how I show up and range in what I share. And I think that—we can move around within this container. And so that gives you allowance as an artist to show up differently. You don’t always have to show up the perfect highlight reel. You don’t always have to show up being like, “Oh, I’m in like the trenches with,” you know, and like, you know, all looking all haggard and everything. All of this is part of our, of our, like, as artists and as musicians.

So if you can look at kind of moving around within whatever range feels safe to you and whatever feels comfortable, for me, that’s helped me feel more authentic, showing up online because, like, I remember back in, so back in the 2000s, like, let’s say 2018, where we were doing all our glam photos. And I remember a girlfriend was like, “Oh yeah, you can do this on Facetune.” And, and I’m like, “Oh wow, I can like make my eyes bigger and sparklier. Oh, and I can take away my pimples.” And then what would happen is, ’cause I was already starting to gain a little bit of a following then, I would run into people on the streets in New York. And I would think, “Oh my gosh, they’re seeing me for who I really am.”

Michelle Lynne: Right, right.

Deanna Breiwick: I think there’s a way, and I think it’s individual for each of us, to find what rings true, what feels authentic for you to show up in every way. Even with, like, the musical clips I post—sometimes they’re really polished, sometimes I’m like, “I’m trying this for the first time today! Listen to this interesting run,” you know? Um, and there’s that range in there. And I think we each have to find that for ourselves. But then I think that gives us more allowance to show up. Like, I know, “Oh, I have something I want to share. I can show up without my makeup and I’ll feel okay,” ’cause I’ve done that here before. There’s no pressure. So it takes the pressure off of you to be like, “I always have to be performance ready to show up on social media.” We don’t.

Michelle Lynne: Yeah, that’s so great. And also just circling back to what we said before, it gives people permission to also not feel the pressure of having to be perfect online. If you come on without your makeup, which I mean, you’re still so beautiful in the mornings—

Deanna Breiwick: Thank you.

Michelle Lynne: —’cause I love everything, but it just feels so, it feels so much more real because it’s like, “Oh, here’s my friend Deanna teaching me something great about like lip trilling today.” And it’s helpful, and your energy is still there. And we talk so much about how to build your own artistic brand. It’s really just your personality amplified online. It’s just your brand is your voice. It’s your facial expressions. It’s your energy. It’s your personality. That’s also, I mean, the example that you had of them holding up the photo and saying she fits the role. I mean, that’s because you’ve convinced them. You’ve persuaded them already. And that’s why we also love our content, ’cause it’s advertising for us. It’s our PR 24/7. We’re sleeping, and people can come on your page, discover who you are, learn about you, and be inspired, and you don’t have to be doing it every day one-on-one. It’s like you’re influencing 50,000 people because of what you’ve—the content you’ve been making. And it’s authentic, and it feels real. And I think that builds a lot of trust with your audience too.

Deanna Breiwick: Thank you. I agree. And the thing is, like, each of us, if we’re just amplifying ourselves, there is no comparison because there’s nobody out there that is expressing exactly like you are, you know? And so you can just like let that one go right now because nobody can show up like you do, and you don’t have to show up like anybody else. You know, you don’t have to show up like me or like you. It’s like we’re each doing our own individual thing. And that’s why, you know, earlier I said like, “Really dig deep into your own creativity.” And when you’re staying connected to yourself, you’re sharing something that is uniquely you, and it removes the whole game and struggle of comparison.

Michelle Lynne: I just want to thank you so much for sharing this because someone of your level of career, like someone who is, you know, the 1%, everyone looks up and they think it’s untouchable in this way. So for you to share this, it’s like, no, it is still like this, um, at this level. Because so many musicians might think like, “Okay, yeah, it might be true for us. But once you really make it, then you have to be perfect all the time, and you have to show.” So if you can do it, it just inspires so many. So I just want to thank you so much for what you share in your authenticity and your content. I know, um, I was also going to ask you like, where does all this joy come from?

But I think you’ve explained so well, like you stay connected, you stay grounded, you keep your people close to you. Even when you’re traveling, you have your inner circle. That has been so crucial for me as well. Just remembering the zooming out, remembering why we do this, thinking about who you want to serve. Is there anything else that you would add to this?

Deanna Breiwick: Mm… you know, I love it. We’ve covered so much. Yeah, I think maybe one more, just like a little practical thing to add on there is… ’cause for me, I really enjoy showing up on Instagram. I despise Facebook. I get lost on there. It’s cluttered. I know I should be consistent across the platforms. I know this! Um, I would probably benefit from like, from getting it on the mastermind. Like, I need help being consistent across—

Michelle Lynne: Also hate Facebook, sorry.

Deanna Breiwick: Oh, it is just like—it is just an abysmal place for me. I get on there and I get lost immediately, and I’m like, “What is this notification? Like, why was I highlighted in this post?” Like, so I, for a while, I completely went off it. And then now, what I’m having—I’m just, you know, you can have Instagram posts onto Facebook. And I’m trying to be better about just even just going on once a week and responding to comments. Okay. Like, this is my capacity with that. And YouTube is something I want to get into. I’ve been sort of building a little plan around that, particularly like connected with yoga and singing stuff. But find a platform that resonates with you. Find a place where you actually have a good time showing up. I think that’s really important instead of trying to like instantly become consistent across all platforms and like engaging everywhere. Like, it’s too much. It’s just, it’s too much. So find some place that feels fun to you. Find some way that feels good for you to show up, and whether it’s just like talking about your experience, whether it’s sharing some music, find something that just feels good to you, because I think that’s a big part of it is we’re going to want to come back to things that resonate with us and things that are fun and things where we feel connected. And that’s different for each of us. But I think finding the fun in it is like essential. I have a fun time on Instagram. I have a fun time creating content and engaging and chatting with people. So I think we have to find the fun in it. And maybe it, like, that goes back to like, where’s the joy in this? Like, make it fun. You know, there’s so much that is difficult about our careers. Find a way to make this into a fun place for you, whether that’s setting boundaries that you need to set, whether it’s like deciding on the kind of content that you want to post, even if immediately you’re like, “Oh, maybe people won’t like this.” If it’s a joyful experience for you, there’s going to be some people out there who are going to also resonate with that ’cause you’re showing up authentically.

Michelle Lynne: So I think, find the fun in it, and then, you know, just a question that I think is good for all of us to ask is the question that I was asked in that podcast. Um, now I want to ask it to all of our beautiful listeners here: take a little moment after you finish listening to this and ask yourself, “How can I be of service?”

Deanna Breiwick: How can I serve? And even just asking the question, you might have something come up immediately or give it some time over a couple of days and just see what comes up as you meditate on this. And, um, I promise it’ll lead you into some curious, interesting, enlightening direction.

Michelle Lynne: That is so, so beautiful. And serving has been a theme on the podcast. Even the last episode that came out this week was talking about a digital course that he created. “Who am I called to serve? What is the message that I have?” And it’s so much different. Like, selling is not selling; it’s serving, and you’re not trying to sell your services, you’re offering your services to the people who need them. And so then it’s actually an act of generosity to show up online. It’s an act of generosity, which circles back to what you were saying earlier. You’re giving something; we’re creating something wonderful. People are overjoyed when we share it with them. It’s a gift. And a book that I read that really changed my thinking on this was The Art of Possibility by Ben Zander. And he said, “Whenever you walk into a room and you feel, you know, that insecurity or there’s a lot of highbrows in the room and you think, ‘Who am I?’ You just think, ‘How can I contribute to this situation? How can I make this situation better?’” And that changed everything for me. Every room that I walk into now, no matter who’s in there, it’s like, “Okay, who can I contribute? How can I make this a better situation?” And then you always find your way. You can find a way…

Deanna Breiwick: You do, and it completely shifts your own energy. It, it like completely, it breaks you out of whatever kind of like mind game that might be happening as you walk and you think, “Oh my gosh, I’m performing for them,” or, “I’m going to be presenting to them. Like, what do I have to give?” But the truth is, as we spoke to it earlier, like we all have something totally unique to give, and you never know, like in that flow, in that state of generosity, whose life you’re going to touch, who you’re— you know, you’re going to connect with. Like, there is so much possibility there.

Michelle Lynne: Yeah, that’s wonderful. Um, thank you for how you share and give on Instagram. Thank you for giving your time to the podcast today. Uh, I want to touch—you have a book coming up and also a course that we want to make sure everyone knows—

Deanna Breiwick: Yeah. So, um, I’m currently editing my first book. It’s called Pulling Back the Curtain. And it’s about my heart journey as a musician, as a singer, as an artist—how I share very, very vulnerable things I’ve never shared publicly, but I’m so ready just to share them because I think it’s their stories and experiences that we’re going to really connect on. I think a lot of us have had these experiences as performers that maybe are full of anxiety or fear or shame, and we keep them to ourselves. And so I’m hoping that through this book, we can just pull back the curtain on the real experience of being an artist and a musician and connect through that. And I share really my life journey of coming to that grounded, joyful place as a person and in my artistry. So that will be coming out in the new year, Pulling Back the Curtain.

And then if you go on my Instagram, I have a freebie, a free practice that would be useful for all of us musicians. It’s five minutes. It’s called a Vocal Vitality Ritual, but it’s really—it could just be, you know, the Musician Vitality Ritual. Um, and it’s a five-minute practice to connect you to your breath and body before you jump into your warm-up for that day. Um, and so it’s just, you know, as we were talking about, like those practices that help you connect to yourself. Um, this is one of those, and I think it’s a great way to connect to yourself before you get into the whole training and performance prep and everything—to have that little moment for yourself.

Michelle Lynne: That sounds amazing. I’m definitely going to try that out because today I just rolled out of bed and forced myself to start practicing. So maybe it’s better if I connect to myself…

Deanna Breiwick: Yes. Well, and, and it’s like, it’s so nice to know that it’s just like, it’s five minutes. Like, it’s so quick, and you get yourself moving and breathing, and you just feel like you’re seated more fully in yourself as you move into your other practices for the day.

Michelle Lynne: That sounds amazing. Deanna, this episode is full of gold. Thank you for your generosity and your time today. It’s been a real pleasure to have you on.

Deanna Breiwick: Thank you so much for having me. I so believe in what you guys are doing, and it’s been an honor to be here and chat with you.