Brooke Richey

An unfaltering foundation that says, "not today satan." I'm really good at saying no to obstacles which have attacked me or my success in life; Gandalf's "you shall not pass" is at the base of my subconscious mind -- letting those things win and rob me of my life isn't an option. I know that's pretty extreme, but other things that I can contribute my success to is my willingness to learn and keep working at something till I'm happy with it. And then once I'm happy with it, I can get creative with the space and time to do more and expand with it. My music is a great example of that -- I was one of those people who had to build the muscle of talent to get good at music. Rhythm and tempo were not my strong suit for a lot of years, and I had to really work at this to get good at performance. Same for singing and composing, it took years for my voice to develop as well as to learn and understand harmonic structure and good writing.

To take advantage of every opportunity that comes your way and every moment of inspiration that moves your mission and work forward. Also that your network is everything! The relationships you build and your ability to collaborate with others will shape your career, success and fulfillment the most.

Since I do a few different things, I'll focus on the music composition/performance aspect. The advice I have for young women entering this space is: never undersell your craft and don't believe the lie that there's not enough money for what you want to charge or what you want to do. The energy you give to it is what you'll reap -- so if you want a successful career, don't work for free and stop bending over backwards and sideways for other people's projects. Prioritize your mission over everything else and work in a balance of collaboration with others that is aligned to where you are headed.

The biggest challenges in my field (partial to my area as well) is lack of opportunities and low economical impact. Musicians in my area struggle to make money fully from their art and often have to spread themselves thin across multiple projects or side jobs to earn a living. This isn't always a negative thing, but it can limit fulfillment in career overall and desire to persist. When the pay off isn't enough, it's just not enough. I think this is largely mindset though and musicians would benefit from learning that you can monetize your craft through other means to fund your vision.

Honesty - 1000% If you aren't honest with yourself, you won't be honest with others. I grew up in a covert and overt narcissistic environment, and for a lot of years this damaged my ability to show up fully as myself; I was conditioned to wear a mask in my adolescent years. I've really taken my time to process out the residue from my upbringing so that it doesn't spill over into the remainder of my life, my career and relationships. If you want to be the best version of yourself, live your best life and build with others, it all comes down to honesty. Truth is a firm foundation, lies are a web you get trapped in.

I also value kindness. Life is hard enough in trying to balance everything and in trying to stay frequent with your own evolution -- there's no reason to not be kind. Kindness shows character and respect for the human condition. Kindness tells me that you respect life for what it is.

A third value of mine is diversity across capabilities. At least in the United States, we've always been known as a "melting pot". We have very many different people of different backgrounds, and this is something that is to our advantage, that unfortunately gets overlooked much of the time when the ego takes control. When I say capabilities, I mean by development, whether genetic, personal or mindset strength. While we like to be in places that feel most like us, we grow and benefit most as a society and in our communities when we have a healthy balance of people across different capabilities. It's a key source in nervous system regulation, which in the public health space, is something the USA genuinely needs.