Read an Excerpt
FROM CHAPTER 2: GETTING CLIENTS
The Power of a Theme Song: Inspiring Yourself and Others
Since ancient times, music has been an important communication tool. It conveys messages without words and transports people to their pasts with just sound. Music can be a powerful motivator when tapping into your psyche or when trying to inspire others to change or implement something new . . . .
My philosophy on the power of music can be applied to entrepreneurship as follows:
- Feelings can be experienced on different levels simultaneously, like a collage of various materials, or like different instruments multilayered in a song. Music helps you develop multiple intelligences and weave mosaic tapestries of past memories, both of which are needed when problem solving as an entrepreneur.
- Feelings can vary in intensity, like a brushstroke on canvas, or like changing tempos in a song. Teamwork ebbs and flows in a similar fashion. A good entrepreneur knows when to be a lone wolf and when to join the pack.
- Feelings can be expressed in a diverse manner, like different colors of the rainbow, a solo versus a duet, or a lone bagpipe versus a trio of violins. I especially like to use "different shades in the rainbow" or "various instruments in the orchestra" analogies when assigning specific tasks to people doing a project as a team or when I'm mentoring others.
- Feelings can be individualized and interpreted, like any good painting or musical composition. Echoes of heard music help a good entrepreneur to be more creative, develop self-concept, and be more intuitive when trying to accommodate the viewpoint of the other parties involved in the business venture.
- Feelings can be expressed verbally and nonverbally through body language. Music facilitates your self-regulation. Music facilitates emotional attunement through engaging your brain's ability to perceive the tempo of feelings. Being an entrepreneur can be quite stressful, and having an outlet is important. Relaxing music can actually alleviate stress by helping to relax tense shoulders and smooth out frowning, tight facial muscles.
- Feelings are time sensitive, like music, which is all about the performance of time-sequenced movements - rhythm. Music facilitates your motoric tempo, your body rhythm and timing, thereby fostering better body awareness - the awareness of an internal body clock. This awareness can help with your ability to engage in time-sensitive discussions with others (such as discussions about a raise) and to respect personal boundaries (physical and mental) more appropriately in the workplace. It can help foster emotional resonance and engagement with others.
Music is thus one of the key manners in which human beings express feelings, develop and share memories, and build bonds - music increases emotional attunement. What does this mean for an entrepreneur? It means that using music for your pitch and your presentations can bond you emotionally with others through shared memories or shared feelings. It can make a person decide to help your cause, follow your leadership, or purchase your service or product. It can change mood, transcend place, and bridge time.
I recall seeing James Cameron's Avatar in 3D in an iMax theatre in Manhattan in December 2009. The movie theatre was packed with people, yet for over three hours strangers sat quietly transfixed. Parents, teens, fanboys, girls on dates, young children, older adults, blase New Yorkers, and sci-fi movie lovers alike sat together in silence. We were riveted by the story and the special effects unfolding onscreen. We were rendered silent watching a unique film that was accompanied by an exquisite soundtrack by the indescribable James Horner (the soundtrack earned him an Oscar nomination, and he received the Max Steiner Award for Music in October 2013). Many of us will forever remember his haunting music, not just the movie's plot. Many of us can recall how the entire theatre was filled with cacophonous clapping and whistles at the end of the movie.
I have shared this experience with many people in my seminars, who also recall how almost everyone, in unison, surged to their feet and applauded at the end. Why? Would the actors or James Cameron know? Were they waiting in the wings, like on Broadway, to come out and take a bow? No, but we did it anyway. Why? Because we were all emotionally attuned to each other. We were strangers in sync with each other because we had all just shared a moment.
That's what emotional attunement is all about. It's the shared emotional reaction to the feelings of those around us and/or a reaction to an environmental trigger. Emotional attunement is like a sixth sense about what resonates with people. The best entrepreneurs either have this skill to begin with or hone it over time with practice. For interviews and sales pitches, cover letters and project proposals, as an effective entrepreneur you need to:
- Psych yourself up to complete your tasks and emote about your service or product and passionately inspire others to get on board your train.
- Gauge the emotional temperature of those in the room and try to establish a focal point, hopefully your pitch, which will emotionally resonate with the audience long after it's over.
How do you accomplish both? By channeling your inner musician and having a theme song playlist (yes, more than one song) for yourself, for your pitch, and for getting work done.
For those who remember the ground-breaking television show Ally McBeal (which I found to be funny, brilliant, and quite insightful about the human condition), you may recall that Ally (a rather neurotic but lovable lawyer played whimsically by Calista Flockhart) was told to have a theme song for herself. She was to sing or hum it before conducting trials in court and during difficult moments or periods in her life. Critics of the show lambasted Ally's rich inner life and her fantasy theme songs (remember the dancing baby?), which sometimes included entire productions and orchestras. Kind of like another later TV show that featured a male lawyer, Eli Stone, played with panache by Johnny Miller (which I also watched and enjoyed). In education we frequently tell children to "sing it to remember it," "sing away the blues," or "sing together to break the ice."
It's no wonder that music-themed television shows such as American Idol, Glee, and The Voice are very popular. It's no wonder that there are so many radio stations on the air. It's easier than ever to have your own inner anthem, even a playlist full of them for various occasions, thanks to the ever-growing popularity of the iPhone and iPod or built-in music players on other smartphones. There are also streaming, Internet-based music services like Pandora, Songza, Spotify, Rdio, and now Apple iRadio. I keep my SoundHound iOS App turned on in my iPhone whenever I'm driving my car. I never know when a song will come on the radio that will inspire me, which means that it should be added to my playlist for future reference when I'm working on or delivering a pitch.
I use these theme songs, these personal anthems, in different ways and at different times depending on my sales pitch, personal mood, and familiarity with my audience. My experiences in both education and on the lecture circuit have taught me to not underestimate the power of music. It can be used to promote a specific collective feeling, invoke a shared memory, or help me share a moment with my students, colleagues, and audiences. Try it and you'll see what I mean.
PENINA'S POINTERS
Tips for Choosing Theme Songs Wisely
- Make a list of catchy show tunes and television themes you remember fondly from childhood or from your iTunes library. You can also search Bing, Yahoo!, or Google online or visit this gem of a website, TelevisionTunes.
- Choose several tunes as possible personal theme songs. Your personal anthem should be a song with words that are meaningful to you, should help you remember a wonderful memory, and should have an upbeat tempo to actually get you moving and creative so you can commit to being in work mode as needed.
- Create a digital folder somewhere (iTunes playlist, desktop computer, Dropbox, SugarSync, Amazon cloud drive, etc.) and name it Personal Anthem or Music for Meetings and store the MP3 files inside. As a safeguard, I recommend creating a folder inside your e-mail account and e-mailing yourself the files as a backup.
- Create a playlist of catchy tunes, with lyrics appropriate for business settings and songs containing keywords you want for your actual pitch or slideshow. You can also use instrumental music as background or to evoke feelings and a specific response. I do it for most of my YouTube videos. Create a digital folder and back those up too.
- Get a Google Alerts notification, in addition to doing a monthly search on your own, for new websites that compile databases of songs, genres, music clips, etc. Bookmark those sites for future reference, whether for yourself or for a future presentation.
- Voila! You have just compiled the soundtrack to your life - your inner life, your work life, and, I hope, your inspired and inspiring life. You deserve an Oscar or a treat of your choice for your arrangement. Best of all, you can always change it and win one again.
