MUSIC ISN’T A VIBE— IT’S A PERFORMANCE TOOL!

All right, all right. Hello everyone. Bienvenue and welcome to this week's live. This week we're talking about music. I am really, really excited and interested in the subject for obvious reasons. I myself, I'm a musician, a singer-songwriter. I've had a career in music for over 30 years. Do not guess my age, okay? But today's conference Music isn't a vibe. It's a performance tool. What? How, right? And you're definitely underusing it. Trust me. So, I'm your host, Claire Hayek, founder and CEO of MSP Team Building. I'm also a neuroscience-certified coach and mental fitness coach. And apparently, singer-songwriter. I don't know how long my bio can go on for here. But before we dive in, I would love to Welcome our co-host and our speaker today, Allison Huey. Thank you so much for joining, Allison. Welcome.

Thank you so much for having me today.

Yeah, my pleasure. Allison is an expert in clinical applications of music therapy. She has proven— a proven track record of improving patient outcomes through therapeutic interventions. So it's very relevant for you to be here, Allison. When we met, I was I'm extremely excited about your insights and what you have to— what you taught me and you added to our conversation. I think we kind of both come together in an interesting way with different backgrounds, but yet we're aligned. So I'm extremely happy that you were able to join me today. So before we start, actually, I would like to know where you're joining us from. where you're logging in from here, please do put it in the chat. I will be sharing some polls and some questions as well in the chat so we can keep the conversation going. So this is interactive and it's not a one-way conversation. All right. So let's— this conference is going to challenge the conventional view of music as entertainment. I mean, obviously music is entertainment, but it's way, way more than that. And I think you kind of know Deep down inside, you all know why. When we're feeling sad, we're feeling happy, music is always a tool that could accompany in a way, either set the mood or get us out of a mood, right?

Mm-hmm.

So, it's very powerful. But how can we bring it in a team setting? How can you bring it in a leadership setting, an organizational setting, cultural setting, right? That's the big thing we're answering today. It is a really a relevant strategic tool that can significantly enhance performance and well-being. All right. So let me just put our first chat prompt here. I'm curious to know, okay, how often do you intentionally incorporate music into your professional environment? I mean, some of you might go, oh yeah, we do that regularly or every now and again, occasionally, or not at all. So please do put it in the chat regularly, occasionally, or not at all. We want to know and kind of survey here what's happening and where you're coming from. So here's some stats for you before we really dive in. Listening to music has been shown to reduce cortisol levels, the hormone associated with stress, as you all know. Thereby, it enhances focus and decision-making. So, it automatically has that effect in a way, right? So, reducing the stress level will have better clarity, better focus, better decision-making. And teams exposed to music demonstrate increased cooperation and teamwork. Right? I don't know. Who's thought of that? Have you thought of that? Have you even tried this at all before? It's pretty fascinating in my opinion. And in a way, if I explain this in a in a neuroscientifically sense of things, music directly influences the brain's reward system. So it's going to release those neurotransmitters like dopamine, serotonin that of course enhance mood and motivation. Of course, like we said, it's going to reduce the stress level and the cortisol level. So incorporating music into team settings can lead to improved communication and a more cohesive work environment. Or if we're feeling stressed, we're feeling that it's a disaster, something's going on, we can intentionally incorporate music and say, okay, we're gonna take 30 seconds and do squats, jump up and down, change the energy here. And, you know, you can just put on very highly energetic music and you'll see the whole mood will change. And then you can maybe tackle on the problem with a bit more clarity after. So Alison, I really want you to weigh in here. Please share with us how, you know, with your experience with music therapy, how you've used music to impact stress and performance.

So primarily in my work as a music therapist, I work with people with dementia, people with anxiety, depression, people who've experienced trauma in a clinical way. But then there are also things that we can use from the music therapy research and the research around music and the brain. As you mentioned and highlighted some of those studies about preferred music and cortisol levels, those sorts of things, we can apply that research to team building, to our relationships, to our everyday life and the ways in which we use music. Often intuitively we reach for music when we're having a hard day or if we're celebrating. You know, nearly all of our celebrations involve music. And just take a moment and imagine the last party that you were at, the last gathering celebration, even a sports game or something like that, and imagine that without music. It's Yeah, it would make sense. Bizarre. Yeah. So it's all around us. And as you mentioned, it can be a powerful tool for clarity and for focus. Again, decreasing the cortisol levels, but it matters which music we choose. So time and time again, music therapy research, research around music and experience of pain, lots of things show that preferred music is key. No pun intended, but preferred music really lights up our reward centers, really helps decrease the cortisol, bring up serotonin levels, as you mentioned. And when we share that with someone else, it provides a powerful connection. So—

Right.

If we're using music to help with focus and preferred music, it can be important to choose music that doesn't have lyrics if we're working on things like writing or You know, reading material, that kind of thing. Instrumental music tends to be best for that because that way our language processing centers aren't working on deciphering the lyrics and making sense of it. You can use, you know, coffee shop or instrumental covers of preferred music as an option. But as you mentioned, doing something like a dance break to, to get a team stuck out of a rut, something like that, you can go for. You know, the music with the lyrics, with, uh, potentially empowering lyrics or lyrics to help the team express frustration around something. Um, that's another thing, you know, it doesn't have to necessarily be happy music and it can be music to help us feel less alone. One of my favorite quotes from Brené Brown is music helps me feel less alone in the mess.

So, um, I love that.

Giving voice to that frustration or, you know, anger or stuckness can be good. But then moving past that. And then if we are using music in a way like a dance break or, you know, moving, shaking it out, shaking our body physically, whatever, to get the blood flowing, get our mind reset in a way, helps reset our nervous system. And when we engage in movement with other people, that also helps promote trust. It promotes a sense of rapport when we're all moving in rhythm together.

Okay. Well, okay. So if I understand correctly, the type of music, and you call it preferred music, depending on the type, then it would bring us in a certain— I often talk about brainwaves. So bring us in certain brainwaves. For instance, you mentioned instrumental kind of music like coffee shop music, etc., that are, you know, maybe very popular covers that, you know, in a way they're familiar to us that we relate to, etc. But without the lyrics, that could help bring it down to Beta 1 where we're more focused, we're in flow, and we're able to just, you know, it helps us focus better. Did I get that right?

Yes.

That's one of the ones. And I love that because sometimes, I absolutely agree with you that sometimes the lyrics get in the way. And I actually started a song series Saboteur Sage Song Series on social media, not on LinkedIn, on the other social media. And where I literally take like 20 to 30-second clips of music, popular songs. And what I do is I observe where, you know, what the lyrics are, what the songwriter basically, what it's saying, the meaning, and which stage they're in. Because sometimes the song is about really, you know, specific saboteur, the judge, you know, the singer really judging herself or himself, or, you know, being possessive or being controlling or being hypervigilant, being the pleaser. These are all saboteurs, different types of saboteurs that get in the way, right?

Yes.

And I find it fascinating when we put focus our awareness, I mean, it's great just to, how can I say, escape through the music and just focus just on the melody, on the vibe, on the energy, on the music itself. But when you focus on the lyrics, sometimes you're going, whoa, wait a second, I'm feeling happy here and I'm feeling, yeah, okay, this is like my body is totally responding to this and it's energizing me. But the minute I focus on the lyrics, I'm going, this is really sad. This is a really sad song. So it's fascinating. I find it fascinating how when, depending on what you're focusing on, lyrics could really shift the whole mood.

Absolutely. And that's a great metaphor, right?

Yeah, yeah. So, and I think what's also interesting about this is that the brain will, depending on what we're focusing on, then the brain, the body will respond accordingly, right? So if you're focusing on the music, I mean, the brain doesn't know these lyrics are saying something. If you're just focusing on the music, it could be a very sad song but the music's so uplifting, your body's going to be uplifted.

Yes.

The minute you put your focus on the lyrics and you really get into the meaning of the lyrics and all that, then it could be all energizing, you know, and uplifting, but now all of a sudden you're just like, you know, you're curling down and going, I don't feel as good anymore. So yeah, I find that really interesting. So I immediately think of what you said about the music in the little—

Yeah, I immediately think of Pumped Up Kicks by Foster the People. Um, right. Yeah, there's lots of other examples like that. And, uh, I come from the southeastern United States and I'm near the Blue Ridge And Appalachian Mountains, and there's a big song tradition of Appalachian murder ballads that a lot of these old folk songs or old, you know, um, kind of country-ish songs, bluegrass music, um, sound cheery, but they're talking about murder. And, you know, it's that disconnect.

That's crazy.

But again, that's, you know, another good metaphor, uh, You know, sometimes things are mixed.

Yeah. There's also some songs that I find, you know, they're classics and I'm not gonna name them, but, you know, they're racist. They're literally all about that, you know? It's, I mean, DEI down the drain, you know? But, and we're like, yay! Do you know what you're yay-ing on? You know?

Yeah.

Or even kids, you know, really loving some kind of music, very, very, you know, popular music and the lyrics are very putting down women or very condescending to women or anyway. But that's not what we're talking about. We're talking about—

We could be here all day.

All this to say, guys and gals, okay, all this to say is what you focus on when you're anything, when it comes to music, anything really is important. So, when it comes to music because there's the element of lyrics, We're talking more on you can use the music itself and even the instrumental side of it more as a plus as opposed to the whole thing. The whole song, that could be sometimes distracting, especially if you're trying to do, being focused or performing or etc. Or you want to get into your performance in flow, easy flow, right? So this is really the point here when it comes to the lyrics. Otherwise, I mean, please go ahead and enjoy a really fun song with positive lyrics that uplifts you. But moving on here, So I wanted to talk about some strategies to bring it more to action, okay, on how we can incorporate music into a daily routine. Now, I'm going to be sharing a couple of examples here, but Alison, I really would like you also to weigh in on each one here and give us some examples on how that was maybe adopted or maybe used differently when it comes to your reality and how you use it in your day-to-day when it comes to your clients. One of the things that you kind of mentioned in a way is initiate maybe a meeting with purposeful music. So, you can choose to start your meeting with a selected piece of music to set the desired tone. So, was it— do you want it to be calm instrumental for focus or something upbeat just for energy? I often, and if you've joined some of my webinars at MSP Team Building, you'll notice that we always open up the session with very high-energy music because we're going into an hour or an hour and a half kind of masterclass or something like that. And we really, we don't know where you're coming from. We don't know how you're feeling. You're probably, I mean, usually it's around 11-ish or 1 o'clock in the afternoon. And did you just get out of a really bad meeting? Did you just have a stressful call? Are you under pressure? We don't know what's happening. So, it's kind of a reset. We literally do this on purpose and we never skip this. It's literally before we let people in, music cue, start the recording, let people in. And this is not a coincidence. We know that this really uplifts people as they come in. You can see the faces. They're like preoccupied. They're looking left, right. They're probably looking at their tab as we start, as they're waiting for us to start. And then, all of a sudden, now they're present.

Yes.

And, you know, some are kind of like, you know, they're still typing but, you know, they're just nodding their heads like that and getting to the rhythm. Some are literally just like fists in the air. It works. It works. And it just puts everybody at the same level and sets the mood. Like, we're literally saying, for the next hour, we want to reenergize you. We want to make sure this is interactive. We want to make sure this is positive. And we want to establish a collective mood. We want to boost engagement and we want you to be ready for it. So, it doesn't hurt to have some kind of ritual at work when you start your meeting is to put whichever music you want to put in depending on what you're trying to do. And it doesn't always have to be the leader or the person initiating the meeting that chooses the music.

Yeah.

You can also make it a team-building thing, right? And ask people like, okay, next meeting, Just every week somebody takes the initiative and the why, you know, why you're choosing this music. Maybe set some kind of guidelines like, okay, no depressing, no, you know, these are the type of music we're looking for. Please bring in your favorite song. Allison, anything you want to add on that?

I love that idea. And often having that ritual of beginning sets the stage and gives participants or employees that sense of safety and, you know, knowing what's coming up. And again, helps us reset and come into the present moment. And I love that you mentioned with playing that high-energy music before you start your events and that people's affect changes, the way they walk. You know, you see people start bopping their head or dancing, and that connects us in a powerful way.

Yeah.

Again, That helps initiate that connection and trust and rapport, especially when it's music that the people enjoy. Um, and you bring up a good point with allowing other people in the group to choose music.

Yeah.

And that gives a sense of agency, a sense of—

Deciding.

Being heard and valued and a, a part of, of the group. And sharing music that you enjoy is, seems like a, a trivial thing, but you're sharing a part of yourself and your inner landscape. When you share music that you enjoy with someone. So, um, you know, an idea for that is you could have people write down those songs that they enjoy and fold 'em up and put 'em in a basket and draw one each week or, um, something like that. Um, because it is a vulnerable thing. Um, and it's, it's a big question when you ask somebody, you know, what's a song you like or what's your favorite song? Like, it's hard to just pick one out of thin air.

And so, you know, you never, you can never pick.

A question you have to sit with. And yeah, and have some guidelines, as you mentioned, especially for a corporate environment. There's a lot of subjectivity in music. It's said to be the universal language, but our experience is very subjective. And depending on where we're from, our experiences with the music, you could have a song that Claire loves that I despise, or, you know, vice versa. So it's tricky, but then, you know, again, it's It's an opportunity for people to have a little more knowledge of their teammates.

Yeah. And I think there's a really good point here, Allison. And I think here, the idea is you want to make sure that you set some boundaries. It's like, okay, this is not about what music you love. This is more about what kind of music can serve us right now in this meeting. So, you need to kind of have some guidelines in my opinion. Because then otherwise it would be a whole different exercise. It's like, let's get to know each other and get to know our music. Yeah. You know what we like and even make it a cultural thing, you know, make it a DEI exercise, you know, where you bring it together and leverage where people come from, bring something to like the potluck of music. Right.

I like that. Musical potluck.

Yeah.

The potluck.

Music potluck. So bring in your music from where you're from because we're all from somewhere, you know, our ancestors, you know, even if we're from Canada or the US or like, you know, North America, it doesn't matter. Even in your own state or your province, there's some kind of like a very traditional music that you really, you grew up with. So bringing that forward and listening, maybe you don't have to listen to the whole song, like, you know, 30 seconds of it. It brings that color, like, wow, we're so colorful in our— how we grew up and the music that we really vibe with. And this brings people together. It establishes stronger bonds and a sense of belonging and understanding each other where we're from. So yes, culture thing. Music brings culture. I mean, I don't know if you see this, Alison, but this 30 minutes of ours can go on for 2 hours easily.

Absolutely.

Right.

There's so much more I could say about that. Yeah.

So much. And even more underestimated. You know, it's under— undervalued. You know, that's the thing.

Like you were saying, even if you have specifications on, you know, each person choosing a song that serves our team in this moment and serves this purpose, they're still bringing their lens into it. And so the, the song that is chosen, even if it has all those parameters around it, there's still that layer of shared vulnerability and a safe space and kind of a titrated level of vulnerability.

Absolutely.

Absolutely.

I love that one. So, bringing music to your meetings. Bring it in different settings. The second one I wanted to talk about is the musical interludes. We talked about music potluck. That was kind of brainstormed right here. So, that was the second one. Okay. The third one, let's say, is musical interludes. It's kind of like the first one. So, you You can break up a meeting or break up a day with some kind of music break. So, whether it is to just calm people down or bring people into a certain mood, you can just inject these also throughout the day. It obviously has to be scheduled. But we're talking about like brief music sessions, like 5 minutes and that'll do. One track, you know, like 2 tracks. Mix them together. It really will— it brings the cortisol levels down and It helps with stress management. Another way is do sit-ups, go for a walk, breathe for 5 seconds. There are so many other ways, right? But we're talking about how we can leverage music. So, it's either you bring in, you schedule it in for your team, or you encourage people just to take that. Maybe it could be a notification that pops on everybody's agenda and says, here's your 5-minute music break. Take 5 minutes and listen to something that inspires you, that calms you down, whatever. Choose out of these 3 3 themes. Here are some ideas.

I love it.

That's just easy things. And it shows that you care. You care about your employees. You care about your team. You care about your people. And allowing them to take that 5 minutes, trust me, if they take that 5 minutes, they're going to be more focused, more energized, more engaged, better mental fitness, better mental health. And they're going to perform much better for the rest of the afternoon. You know, breaking it up but in a focused and intentional way using music. I'm gonna jump to the third one here, Alison.

Okay.

I'd love for us to elaborate on that. And I know you want to also tell us about the card series that you have that I'd love to know more about. And we have like 5 minutes left. We're gonna stretch this, people. We're gonna stretch this another 10 minutes. There's no way we're finishing at noon. If you have to go, we totally understand. Please come back because a lot of interesting things coming. The 4th one I'm gonna say is to encourage music activities that encourage collaboration. I'm gonna talk about one that is very personal to MSP Team Building. It's the first workshop that we've created that does actually— that I found that is very relevant in team settings and leadership setting is called Innovation That Rhymes. And I'll share the link in the comments if you want to know more information. But basically what it is is that we put teams together, put you in different teams, but we're all in the same room. And the challenge is, and we throw this at you last minute, we never tell you ahead of time, is that you need to rewrite the lyrics of a very popular song that we obviously chose before. But now you're rewriting the lyrics. So, you're songwriters rewriting the lyrics in the context of what you do, your why, your anecdotes. Your vision, your mission. Why do you get up in the morning? Do what you do. So now it becomes your your team song. It becomes your organization song, literally written by your people. And the the the the best part is that we bring a live recording studio and we record you interpreting the song live. And some of you are going, "Oh boy, what?" Right? We are not talented. We are tone deaf. Oh my God, it's gonna be disaster. No, wrong. Because when people sing together, there's synergy. There's collaboration. And there's all of a sudden, people just sing well together. Imagine you're in a concert and the band is on stage obviously. And the lead singer is in the front with the mic. And you all know the song. And you're like thousands of people in the crowd and they hand the mic. They gesture. And now, the whole crowd is singing. Right. You think they're singing off? No, they're not. They're singing perfectly in tune because that's the power of the group. That's the power of collaboration. And this is what we bring. And the idea is not about the song. The idea is about what music can do and the power of music. What could actually— how it brings people together and how people realize that As scared as they, as they were judging themselves, their judges really working hard there and going, oh my God, I'm not good. I'm not good. I'm not good. It's not about spotlighting anybody and making anybody feel horrible. It's about how we can come together. And when we come together, no matter what the challenge is, we can face it. And even if it entails recording a song and we cannot sing, and we do succeed, we always succeed, I promise you. And we send you the mix and it's hilarious and it's fun. And now it's all about the message, right? So talking about an uplifting activity, I— one of my favorites, Innovation That Rhymes. Allison, please give us your 2 cents here. And please tell us about these cards.

Thank you. I absolutely love that idea. And Claire, I wish I could be a part of that one day. That would be so—

You will be. I promise you.

It sounds like so much fun. And like you said, the The process of creating something like that as group and then singing together is so powerful. I know a lot of people say they can't sing, or sadly, people have been told in childhood, you know, once they start to get to, you know, 7, 8 years old, oh, just mouth the words, don't sing. I truly believe everyone can sing. Singing is so great for our mind, body, and spirit. I created a card deck with some creative prompts, and with that in mind, knowing not everyone feels comfortable singing, the music prompts don't involve singing or music making. It's the Creative and Curious Card Deck, and I made it with several other creatives in my hometown of Spartanburg, South Carolina, United States, and got a community grant to put it together. So there's music prompts, art prompts, writing, as well as movement in here, and some fun illustrations by a local artist.

Awesome.

But the, the card that I pulled this week— there's 52 original prompts in here, aiming to pull one each week on Monday nights on Zoom— is Song Anchor. So this one's a music card, and it says music can be a powerful memory anchor. Think back to a time when you were brave. Listen to a song that reminds you of that time or a song that you listened to during this period of your life.

Love it.

So take a moment and like feel into that question and see if any moment or song bubbles up. Um, and then as you listen to the song, what do you notice in your body as you listen? So this is something you could do on your own. Or you could do it with, you know, a group, you know, giving folks a time to think about this question and experience this and then, you know, come back and share, you know, what song or what moment, you know, what moment of bravery in your life came up.

Right.

This can be an encouragement to, to continue to be brave. And anchor into that. So these cards are available on my website, carolinamusictherapy.com/store. They're $35 with shipping added if you're not local. But I know I've contacted—

You want these cards. Okay.

Thank you, Claire.

These cards, I just put it in the chat. Okay, I, um, Alan just told me about this and I'm like, what? Where's the, where's the link?

Thank you, Claire.

And I want a copy. Okay, so, um, we'll, we'll get it, get it over here to Canada. We'll find a way. I mean, seriously, we're just next door. Gosh.

Yes, I know, we're neighbors.

We're neighbors, literally.

And there's so much more I could say about that, but— Oh yeah, I also have the whole free live, free printable If you go to my website, there's a little popup window and I'll send you a PDF of this little cute printable that's got some music-based prompts inside. Have you ever made these when you were a kid? Actually, the first one that I opened says, listen to a song that reminds you of a time when you were brave. So how about that?

Do you have the link for that? Where we would go to get a copy of this?

If you go to my website, there will be a pop-up window to join my email list. And when you do that, you'll be sent this PDF.

Join her email list. Okay. I'm joining and I want a copy.

Thank you.

So, thanks so much, Allison. I put this in the comments, by the way, if you're looking for the link. I put it here on LinkedIn in case you're streaming on YouTube, TikTok, or other streaming platforms we're on. Please do go on LinkedIn. Otherwise, reach out. Drop music in the comments and we'll send you the information. All the links that we have here. Just let us know what you're looking for and we'll reply to you. Now, one last question that I asked before we wrap this up is which of these strategies resonate with you the most? The 1, 2, 3, or 4. So, the first one was we're taking, starting a meeting with a music break basically just to set the tone. The second one we talked about the music potluck. The third one we talk about more the interlude. interlude to break the day and schedule these. And the 4th one is literally activities that would involve music that would be on the team building side of things that really leverage the power of music and boost performance and productivity. We talked about Innovation That Rhymes. Again, that's on our website, MSV Team Building. I shared the link and Allison shared her beautiful music cards that I can't wait to get my hands on. And I did share the link in in the chat as well where you can get these. So, we need to wrap up here. This is crazy. And I always say that every week. There's just— time flies when you're having a good time.

Mm-hmm.

Hopefully, this was very useful to you, everyone. We really want to hear from you. Please do comment in the chat. Let us know if this was useful for you. And I surely hope it was. It was useful to me. And I thought I was the music expert and I learned a lot today. So please leverage music in your day-to-day. It's very good for your brain. It's very good for your body. It's very good for your mood. It's just for your mental health. And your performance automatically will be affected and will be boosted because of music. Music is such a powerful thing. And we're underestimating it. We need to consciously leverage it more and more in our day-to-day when it comes to personal life, professional life. Please do. And I just wanted to share the next event here. I will just pop— put this on the screen. Next week, I'll be talking about basically same time, 11:30 Est a.m. Est eight thirty a.m. P.S.T. April twenty-third. There's a QR code here, and I will also share this in the chat. I'm going to be talking about how you can rewire your thoughts and watch your life change, and faster than you think. I'm actually going to give you a tip that you can do that within three days. As crazy as this may sound, trust me. It It's doable. And I myself have experienced it. So, I come from experience and I'm the proof, the living proof. And I still apply it every day. I am very excited to dive deep into the subject next week. Now listen, please do join me if you feel like this resonates with you.

Absolutely. I need that.

Yeah. And so, I will leave it at that. And Allison, would you like to say, you know, any final words before we go offline here?

It's been such a pleasure talking about the power of music and all the many ways it can make our lives better, and us as individuals and as teams and as the collective.

Thank you so much for joining me again. I hope this was very, very Useful and that we've shared a lot of gold nuggets and that you can take these and apply them. It's great to learn and listen but to apply is where the key is.

Applying.

The key is taking those steps, running with what we're sharing with you. We share these things because we're passionate about what we do. We want to add value and help people out. But please do Please do take little, little steps and, and tell us how it went. All right, so until next week, Alison, great, great to see you. And we'll— can't wait to get these cards.

And thank you, great to see you.

All right, stay in touch. All right, bye everyone, have a great rest of the day. All right, take care.