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The Bold Lounge
Everyone has a bold story, and every story is important. This podcast presents bold stories that will inspire and enable you to free your own boldness. There is a continuum of boldness where each of these stories belongs. From true vulnerability and service to making the tough choices and taking the big leap, each episode will feature an extraordinary journey of hope and perseverance. So tune in and take your seat at The Bold Lounge, the place where bold stories are freed.
The Bold Lounge
Rachel Druckenmiller: Bold Enough to Show Up & Shine
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Content Warning: Pedestrian accident/vehicle collision, severe injury recovery
About This Episode
What happens when you stop muting yourself? Rachel Druckenmiller went from a shy, guarded kid to an award-winning keynote speaker, leadership trainer, and recording artist by daring to show up and let herself be seen. From a bold choir audition in college to leaving her corporate job, and discovering her gift for songwriting, Rachel’s journey shows the power of saying yes to life’s invitations. In this episode, she shares how her VOICE methodology helps others break free from self-silencing patterns, why unmuting ourselves is a gift to the world, and how living with fewer regrets can open the door to purpose, joy, and true expression.
About Rachel Druckenmiller
Rachel Druckenmiller is a keynote speaker, TEDx speaker, and leadership trainer on a mission to help organizations, associations, leaders and teams unmute themselves and amplify purpose, strengths, and impact. With nearly 20 years of experience, she has been recognized by Smart Meetings as a Best of the Stage Speaker, Forbes as a Next1000 honoree, and Workforce Magazine as a 40 Under 40 Game Changer, Rachel is a change agent whose refreshing perspective has helped her stand out as a leader in her field. Rachel is also a singer-songwriter whose music you can listen to on all music streaming platforms. Her first book will be released in the fall of 2026.
Additional Resources
Website: racheldruckenmiller.com
Instagram: @unmutedlife
LinkedIn: @RachelDruckenmiller
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Stay Connected
Follow Leigh on Instagram: @theleighaburgess
Follow Leigh on LinkedIn: @LeighBurgess
Welcome to the Bold Lounge podcast. My name is Leigh Burgess and I will be your host. If you're anything like me, you love hearing inspiring stories of people who have gone on bold journeys and made a positive impact in the world. This podcast is all about those kinds of stories. Every week, we'll hear from someone who has taken a leap or embarked on an extraordinary journey. In addition to hearing their stories, we'll also learn about their bold growth mindset that they use to make things happen. Whether they face challenges or doubts along the way, they persisted and ultimately achieved their goals. These impactful stories will leave you feeling motivated and inspired to pursue your own bold journey. I believe everyone has a bold story waiting to be freed. Tune in and get ready to be inspired. Welcome to the Bold Lounge.
Speaker 1Today I have Rachel Druckenmiller. She is a keynote speaker, tedx speaker and a leadership trainer on a mission to help organizations, associations, leaders and teams unmute themselves and amplify purpose, strength and impact. With nearly 20 years of experience, she has been recognized by Smart Meetings as a best of the stage speaker, forbes as a next 1000 honoree and by Workforce Magazine as a 40 under 40 game changer. Rachel is a change agent, no matter what, and whose refreshing perspective has helped her stand out as a leader in her field. Rachel is also a singer-songwriter whose music you can listen to on all music streaming platforms, and her first book will be released in the fall of 2026. Thank you so much for being on the Bold Out. I'm so excited to jump into all of this. I am too Leigh. Thanks for having me. Absolutely All right, let's start with your definition of bold. We talked a little bit in the green room about all things, and I'm super excited to see where bold comes into play in your life and what it looks like. What's your definition?
Speaker 2I really love alliteration, Me too, Me too. So for me it's to show up, to step up and to let yourself be seen and shine. It's living life with as few, if only and why didn't I regrets as possible Okay.
Speaker 1Living life with as few of regrets as possible. So I wish I could have wow, if I only those moments that we have, and so showing up and stepping up, being seen and ready to shine. So what does showing up and stepping up look like in that sense? Do you have an example in your life or an example where you lived aligned to this particular definition, where you showed up, stepped up, you got seen, which means you're probably vulnerable and you put out your light and then you wanted people to see it so you could shine?
Speaker 2Yeah. So if I think of the one moment that was the catalyst, I think sometimes there can be these situations where you have in our lives, where it goes back to this one moment, where after that moment, things really changed yeah, life can't be the same. No, it can't be the same. So for me, the catalyst was I was born and raised in Baltimore, maryland, lived in the same house my whole life. My parents are still living there 45 years.
Speaker 2And when I was a junior in college, a sophomore in college, my Spanish professor, I had to take a language. It wasn't my major. He pulled me aside after class one and he said Rachel, you have a knack for language. Have you ever considered studying abroad? And I was like no, literally never. I'm the biggest homebody on the planet, never thought about living in another country whose language I barely speak. But every adult I talked to was like you have a chance to go live in Europe for four months. You should do that, including my own mother, who regretted the fact that she didn't do it when she was in college. Ok, so I sign up to live abroad, in southern Spain, in a town called Granada, for four months.
Speaker 2I'm very terrified of doing this. How old are you now Like? What age are you? Uh, 19. I just turned 20. I just turned 20. Okay, so I go over there and I'm immersed in this culture. The Spanish people are. They're vibrant, alive, expressive. They are very unmuted in every way you could think of being unmuted, and when you're immersed in a culture of people like that, it affects you.
Speaker 2And so I came back from that trip felt like a different person inside, as somebody who'd grown up really shy and guarded and quiet and muted in a lot of ways. I came back and the gospel choir on campus was having rehearsal and auditions for the spring concert and I hadn't even as a kid I wouldn't even audition for my high school choir because it felt too risky and vulnerable. But I was in the gospel choir because no auditions were required. But if you wanted a solo you had to try out. I waited until everyone left the chapel and I'm shaking and I'm nervous, but there's this voice inside of me that's like you need to audition for this.
Speaker 2And I went up to the director and I told him and I stand out and I look over all these empty rows of this church and I close my eyes and I let my little Mariah carry self out and he gets up from the piano. Eric is his name. He gets up from the piano when I finish and he knocks over a microphone stand and he goes where did that come from? It's like where have you been hiding that? Right? Yeah, that was the moment. And then I got it. I got the solo. I got a solo every semester after that. Music is how my husband and I connected in college. I mean, it was a catalyst for so many things. That was the first moment that I can really distinctly say where I showed up and did something really really brave and really bold.
Speaker 1Yeah, and it changed the trajectory of your life and you don't know what it's changing. I think that's the thing that I see when people make bold moves or take that first bold step. You don't know what may happen next, which is part of my definition of like nothing's guaranteed. You're not sure it'll be a slam dunk, most likely could not be, and it's more than not. It's not a slam dunk, but you're going to learn, or you're going to feel something different, or you're going to meet someone, or you're going to get some feedback. You know, there's just so many ways that you can learn when you take that first bold step. So, for you, what did you learn about yourself just by doing that, just by putting yourself out there?
Speaker 2Here's what one of the things I learned. I learned about the power of accepting the invitations that come our way. Okay, so saying yes to one invitation can catalyze other invitations and opportunities. So because I said yes to Spain, a part of me came alive and wanted to come out that I'd previously like tamped down.
Speaker 1Yeah, but you could have never known right.
Speaker 2Never known.
Speaker 1And I think that's the part that I think people see a limit to what's possible and like one of the things through my work and you certainly do it through your work is I want people to see all the possibilities and to know that they actually own it, they actually have it inside them, like I don't give it to you, you don't give it to me, like I actually have the agency to do the things, that you see the possibilities.
Speaker 1And it really starts with your beliefs. And I think you know, when you went over there was like okay, I'm, I'm from Baltimore, maryland, and I've never really left, and here I am, like in this new place. But in my mind what I heard and this might not be exactly what you said, but it opened up, things came alive, I think is what you said in the sense of what was possible, what you could try, what you could do, and not that it was like if you did an audition here versus there, it wasn't, like it was any less stressful, but it was an opportunity that you didn't want to let go. Another moment of like I'm going to try it right.
Speaker 2Yes, I became braver and willing to take risks. It was a risk. It's like there's a you know, confidence is compounding and it's the more you take one risk and then you see, oh, I can do that, I'm capable.
Speaker 1Okay, let me try the next thing, and then I'm capable. Builds. It's actually biological. So I think that's the fun thing, I think in the sense of how we almost rewire our brains. So one of the things that my second book is talking about, the neuroscience of what I, what I consider bold moves, and I would just want to. After all that time, I'm trying to understand how or why organizations or individuals don't take that first step or don't want to.
Speaker 1Obviously, like you said, hitting the nail on the head with a sense of like the risk is there. There's potential ups and downs, pro cons we're so good at figuring that out. We usually don't think about the cost of inaction. I'll just like put that there for a moment. But one of the things that comes up is actually fear. Right, so fear as a protective mechanism. But why I say it's biological is literally, just like you said, every bold step you take, you gain more confidence, which compounds, which creates more agency. Literally, you're rewiring your brain to say, oh, I took that risk then and now it's okay, right. So when you think about yourself of, like that was one risk, is there any others? Like in the sense of that trajectory that became another milestone for you, in the sense of I took a chance, or I took a risk, or I did it even though I wasn't sure.
From Award Winner to Keynote Speaker
Speaker 2Well, there are a couple of things. Another thing that changed the course of my career I was the director of wellbeing and employee engagement at the company where I worked for 13 years, and about a decade into my career there was this award that was put out by an organization called the Wellness Council of America and they were recognizing the top 100 health promotion professionals in the United States and we had an award-winning program. We had been recognized nationally, regionally, locally, for the innovative things that we were doing in the name of wellness for our people. And the last day the application was due, someone reached out to me was like Rachel, based on what I know about what you've done, you should really consider applying for this. I thought I'm working for some 50, 60 person company in Baltimore that no one's ever heard of. What chance do I have? But let me just submit the application, and it was very involved quantitative, qualitative essays, data, all this stuff. I submit it. I find out a few months later that I'm in the top 100. Oh my gosh, this is so cool, this is amazing from hundreds of my peers across the country and then I get word that I'm in the top 10. Wow, I almost didn't even apply for this.
Speaker 2And then they were reaching out to me. They said we're scheduling calls with all the top 10 finalists. And I had this feeling, lee. I had this feeling inside and I was like I think I won. Like I, I had no rational reason to think that, yeah, and we got on a Skype call together and they tee it up and they go and you won the whole thing, rachel, like you won, and I break down.
Speaker 2I mean, I have been at this for I guess at that point, eight years, sometimes feeling overlooked and ignored, and like, is anyone listening to what I'm saying? Does anyone care? And then I get this award. Listening to what I'm saying, does anyone care? And then I get this award. I'm the number one health promotion professional in the United States and I'm going to get flown to San Diego to accept an award plaque. And I thought to myself this is a conference I'd attended seven years previously. And I thought to myself this is an opportunity I do not want to waste. And I said to them can I give an acceptance speech? And they were like, sure, eight to 10 minutes, whatever. So I get up there. I saw the video of this. I'm talking like this, like in a really high voice and I'm pacing a lot because I was, like, really nervous.
Speaker 2The early days early early days and after I finished delivering that, the president of the company gets on stage and he goes. That was amazing. We should have her keynote our conference next year. He just says it to the whole room of 400 people, which is the biggest group I'd ever spoken in front of. I write in my journal on the last page I will speak at Wacoa next year. I do nothing else with it. I shelve the journal. Four months later I get a phone call hey, rachel, we would like you to be one of our keynotes at next year's conference.
Speaker 2Never given a keynote in my life Zero training in public speaking. I've been doing workshops and lunch and learns, but not that. That's not the same. Right, it's not the same and I you know. So anyway, I I accepted the invitation even though I felt wildly unqualified to do that, and it was the thing that made me realize oh my gosh, this is, this was in 2016. This is what I want to do. And that was a catalytic moment that because I sometimes you accept the invitation Sometimes, sometimes you throw your own party and I was like I'm throwing my own party here. I'm creating an opportunity that does not exist, because I know the stakes of what it is to get in front of 400 of my peers and thought leaders and people of influence in my industry. I'm not going to waste it.
Speaker 1Right, and you said hey, can I have an acceptance speech? I mean, that was bold too, like in the sense of just asking. I always say, and was something my friend said to me when I was negotiating one time for a role and she said you don't get what you don't ask for, you know. So I'm sure she wasn't the only one that's ever said that, but it was like it hit me and it's really stuck with me. I don't even know if she realizes how much that stuck with me, but I think you really chose to step up and step out for yourself, and obviously you were showing up for yourself as well and you were shining.
Speaker 1So and it leads to one thing, leads to the next and, regardless of it, you're trying something new, which is always like a good muscle, uh, to flex. I don't know what your opinion of it is, but if someone doesn't make those moves, where do you think they limit themselves the most? When they don't say yes or they don't explore? And we're not saying say yes to everything. We're saying say yes to what feels like you're curious about, or something that you want to learn more about or try.
Speaker 2I always talk about the cost. What's the what is the cost of silencing yourself, holding yourself out, you know, doubting yourself. What is it costing you in terms of fulfillment, in terms of joy, in terms of more broadly impact? Because if you're holding some part of yourself back, you're limiting the potential for impact that you were meant to have and I think so many people because of that. They're sitting there in doubt and frustration and resentment and fear of failure and judgment and rejection and disappointing somebody and not being good enough. And it's a pretty sad place to be staying. It is and it's so heavy there's. I call it the void, you know there's. We get in this place of the void, we realize something's not right, it's not working, something's missing and we feel a sense of it's like a pain.
Speaker 1So when did you decide enough with the self-silencing? Was there a moment where you say I'm going to be unmuted, like where does that come from? Tell us a little about the evolution of even you know your brand and what you, what you speak about when you're saying unmuted.
Speaker 2Well for me. When I burned out, I literally lost my voice for a period of time and I got really quiet and a friend of mine that from church had said she called me one day after church. She said, rachel, I'm not sure why I need to tell you this, but I'm supposed to tell you that maybe you had to get quiet because there's something you need to hear that you're not otherwise able to hear. Okay, so this was 2017. I, you know burnout. I go through this experience and at that time in my life I'd never been through something so difficult. Did you know you were burnt out? Oh, yeah, I was well. I went to my doctor. I was. I mean, I had, I was sick all the time. I was diagnosed with Epstein-Barr virus by my doctor and this is when he said maybe you're doing too much.
Speaker 1Yeah, it's like maybe you're doing too much, right yeah?
Speaker 2I'm like no.
Speaker 1I'm ambitious, I have a lot on my plate. I'm doing great stuff.
Speaker 2Yeah, like not a helpful diagnosis, too much itis, so you know. So I go through that experience and I start sharing it. So four or five months after I burn out, I start speaking about burnout and I start sharing things in a way that is like way more vulnerable than anything I've done. I mean, I'm putting text messages on the screen from my friends my friend Kara, who texted me warning unsolicited observation coming. You talk so much about not worrying so much about achievement and about the importance of slowing down, but you yourself don't seem to do that. You don't seem content or fulfilled.
Burnout and Finding Her Voice
Speaker 2She said that to me in a text message and I was like that's very uncomfortable to read someone saying that to you. But I'll respond to that later. But I pulled it up, I would share it on a screen and I'd be like she was right. You know, when I started being honest, I started to be emboldened because I thought, gosh, I was so silenced for so long because I couldn't bear the thought that somebody would think that I didn't have it all together or that I was incompetent in some way or inadequate in some way. And so it's like, well, if I beat them to the punch and if I just start sharing this stuff more honestly and openly, then how are they going to judge me for it, because I'm already calling myself out? Yeah, did you feel like you had to be perfect? Oh, my whole life.
Speaker 1Oh, my whole life. Okay, so that was something that you just felt like for a long time.
Speaker 2I was a golden child. My parents went through a brief separation when I was five or six years old and and we moved out with my mom my brother and I did and I became the quintessential golden child. It was like I will follow the rules and get good grades and have good friends and never get in trouble. And I did all of that so seamlessly and you get rewarded for that when you're a kid and I. I got rewarded with grades and teacher's approval and that kind of stuff. But deep down I struggled with fitting in. I had lots of health issues. I had half a dozen surgeries, some at your nose and throat, by the time I was 16. And I was just this scared kid. I was so scared a lot of the time and I was not the kid who was, like you know, hairbrush microphone on the coffee table situation. Yeah, there's not a single picture from my childhood of me singing. But you sang, but I sang in a room with the doors closed, by myself or in a choir where you didn't, you could blend.
Speaker 2Or in a choir by the time I got to college, when you didn't have to audition.
Speaker 1So you didn't even sing in a choir in elementary or middle or high.
Speaker 2You had to audition for my high school choir. That was a hard pass, oh okay.
Speaker 1Okay, I thought it was only solos, but you had to. Actually that would make sense, I guess. And you know we talked a little bit about like I played an instrument in elementary through high school and tried marching band for a year but that didn't work out. My mom really wanted me to be in band but I was an orchestra geek, I think you know when you talk about standing out or stepping out, I think that's something that is hard for a lot of people, you know, and they don't even realize. They may be what I'll call shrinking. Or you know, like I physically keep moving in my chair, like moving to the back of the room versus being in the front. For you, what do you think the cost of that? Might've been early on. Now, obviously you're out there, you're unmuted, for sure, but do you ever feel like there was a cost?
Speaker 2You know, I was running through a keynote.
Speaker 2I just gave a keynote for a group of 750 women and men, of course, that are allies and support them in the energy industry last week and I was rehearsing it at my high school.
Speaker 2I still live close to my high school and they have a big stage, a thousand seat auditorium, and it was going to be, you know, similar size kind of room and stage at the event. And I went to rehearse it and I got to the point of the story, which is the closing story, where I talk about how I was this silenced little girl and like a shell of myself and standing on stage in this empty auditorium, a stage that I walked across on graduation but, other than that, never sang on. And I'm standing there and I'm telling the part of the story where I was in high school. We had this amazing concert choir and even though I love to sing, I never tried out because it felt like too big of a risk. So I'm like standing on that stage, saying that to nobody and knowing that I'm about to go speak and sing at this event in front of 750 people voluntarily and enjoy it. Yeah, and it's just.
Speaker 2you have these moments where you're like, it's like I'm doing the thing I'm doing, the thing that 16 year old me wanted to do, and 25 years later, but it feels so good and like that burnout experience was the catalyst that made me realize I had disconnected from joy. I had disconnected from myself. It was a wake up call for me to realize, rachel, what do you want to be doing? And the thing that I wanted to be doing was to be speaking full time. I didn't want to be a corporate consultant. I didn't want to tell people to check boxes in a wellness program that made them roll their eyes and didn't actually improve their health, like I didn't want to do things that I did not believe and I knew in the core of who I was.
Speaker 2We're not effective, and so I threw all of my money, I drained our bank account and went through a professional speaker training in 2018. And I called my husband and, before I signed up, I said do you trust me, cause I'm about to move some money? And he said yes, I trust you. And that was the catalyst that got me to combine singing with speaking, which I'd never thought of doing, and I was immersed in this environment group of 80 people from around the world who also had messages to share, and that was the catalyst that got me to realize I can do this. I am leaving this job on a hope and a prayer, with no business plan, and I'm going to make this happen.
Speaker 1Yeah, so in 18, you took the speaker class or you know cohort, kind of joining the cohort and kind of doing all the things. And then how soon after that did you take the next bold step, which is to leave corporate and to say I'm now a full-time speaker?
Leaving Corporate to Pursue Speaking
Speaker 2So it's a funny thing that happened. There were two catalysts. I talk about catalysts a lot because catalysts like trigger and activate a sense of boldness in us. One that happened was I thought that I was primed to be in the role of the national director of wellbeing and employee engagement at the company. I had the business cards already and I was like let's just formalize this, you know. And they kept kicking the can down the road and it got to the point where they were like you know what Budget's not there, it's not going to happen, kind of like, just stay put. And that does not work for me.
Speaker 2So I'm in this program where I'm feeling expansive. I mean, my persona in this program was the peacock, literally. That's like okay Cause that's like okay because they just here we are, you know, they're not hiding. So that's happening at the same time that I feel like I'm getting smushed at my corporate job and I'm meeting this new version of myself who's a little bolder and braver. I was about to record at the end of the program it's six, seven months long. At the end of the program we record a video that's like four minutes to real, basically.
Speaker 2And at the end of my talk I was saying you know, it's time to expand and be seen and heard for all that we are. It is time to unmute ourselves, which is not a topic I ever talked about in my corporate role, but it was like what I wanted to talk about. So I was going to have to stand on stage and say those words and I thought to myself I will be out of integrity if I say those words and I have not left this job. I will not believe myself. So two days before that, I sat across from my CEO, who I had known for 17 years, worked for him as an intern you know, through 13 years full time and he said where do you see yourself in 2020? This was May of 2019. Where do you see yourself in 2020?
Speaker 2And I got really quiet, my lips started to quiver and I started to like tear up and two text messages came in from two friends at that exact moment and they said I think today's your meeting with your CEO like, do what you need to do for yourself. And I see these messages and I'm like Rachel, you have to do this, like you have to do this now. And I just said to him I said I think it's time. I think it's time I'll be leaving September 1st. And then I went and recorded that video and I believed myself and three months later I had a couple of bookings and belief. I left myself.
Speaker 1Yeah, I always say I was powered by self-belief when I left my corporate role with probably less of a plan, because I, like I just got to a point with burnout that I was just I had to make a drastic change, like I had to choose me, which just felt like the opposite of what I should do. Although everyone was encouraging me to do it, no one was saying no, keep going. Like no, they're like you got to stop so going to need to do it. No one was saying no, keep going, like no, they're like you got to stop. So.
Speaker 1And it wasn't like you had like a year of planning and all of that Like you made the move based on, like I want to be aligned with who I am and what I'm saying and my values and what I'm passionate about, right and ultimately, what the world needs too. And to me that's like the icky guy you know what you're good at, what you get paid for, what you're passionate about and what the world needs. There you go and here it is. So when you stepped out literally onto that stage of being a speaker, did you feel like at any point like you should go back, or did you feel like just keep moving forward. That didn't you know. Maybe that didn't go, but this will go. It's coming. Like, how did you power yourself through that, some of those initial moments?
Speaker 2I would say in year one, or did it just go from here to there? Funny, you should ask. So I leave September 1,. I have some bookings for the fall by December. I am in the living room of a mentor of mine with about a dozen other people in Dallas, texas, with a big, giant tear pad with two gigs on it for all of 2020. My husband's a teacher, I'm the primary earner and I just I looked at that list and I started crying. I said I don't know how I'm going to do this. All the residuals of everything I'd booked when I was still in my corporate, I had all. It was all gone.
Rising After Falling
Speaker 2And now I was completely on my own and a friend of mine, a mentor, rex, said make a list of any relationship that you have and rank them ABC in terms of the extent to which they could potentially help and position you. And I opened a spreadsheet and I just started making lists. I started grabbing coffee with people and I would. I took any amount of money anyone would give me to speak at anything. I needed momentum. So I start to build momentum. By the time March hits, I've already booked two thirds of my corporate salary for the year and I am crushing. I'm like this is amazing. I can't believe this is 2020, right, march of 2020. Yep, joke's coming. So then pandemic hits and 85% of that is poof by gone.
Speaker 2And then, six weeks later, my husband and I are out on a run and I get hit by a pickup truck. And what are you thinking? Oh, I was conscious the whole time, but it happened in slow motion and I remember lying in the trauma room and my husband couldn't be there with me because of COVID, all the protocols, and didn't even have my cell phone. So I, you know, I'm just under blinking lights and beeping noises and people coming in and out, and the radiologist comes up to me and he's just very stoic, says so, there's a fracture, and I knew it was in my back because of how I'd been hit and I never felt so alone as I did in that moment. I'm genuinely terrified because I'm an active person and I was like I'm 35 when this happened and at the same time, I remember lying there thinking to myself there's something here about rising up when we get knocked down. I'm going to use and I had already been speaking about building hope and resilience in the midst of uncertainty because of my burnout experience and because of the pandemic, and so two days after the accident, I'm in a back brace which looks like a backpack, just like this on Zoom giving a presentation to 50 HR leaders about building hope and resilience in the midst of uncertainty.
Speaker 2I needed to take a break, but I didn't feel like I could, because my business was already basically wiped out and I was starting from nothing, and so I had to just show up when I had nothing. I had like nothing to give. I had to. Just I had to pull it out of the deepest part of my soul to be able to show up for other people and energize other people when I was like, so done. But I did it. You know, I did it. I kept showing up and I did it and I got booked. I had my best year ever in 2021. I probably did a hundred virtual events and I had a story that was compelling and people remembered it and it was. It was relevant. Every you know you make a joke. People say I ever felt like I got hit by a truck. I'm like pick a different metaphor, yeah.
Speaker 1Pick a different one there.
Speaker 2But yeah, I get it. Everyone felt like they had, in the spring of 2020, metaphorically been hit by a truck, and I'm like I'm not wasting this. I like to say, even though I didn't choose it, I'm going to find a way to use it.
Speaker 1I love that. Yeah, so it didn't stop. You is the key thing, and I think that's something that comes up for well, this happened, so I backburned it, or this happened and so I moved what I was hoping to be focused on just till next year. And I'm not saying that sometimes plans change or things don't need to be moved because they do based on what you're seeing, but far too often what I see is people actually back burner and it never comes back to the front. It becomes something that, oh, someday when I get this, or when I become, or when I make enough, or when I retire, and the when I retire and the when I's just really bother me. I love what you just said, though in the sense of like it didn't stop you. You're like how do I use it? Right, so now you actually, if we think about your worlds coming together the world of music and the world of motivation and inspiration and wellness, and knowing that you're worthy, how did you start to integrate them both together on stage and what does that look like?
Speaker 2Well, during the pandemic, I would do these things where people log down right away, because most people thought virtual experiences were terrible. Right, and I've done about 350 virtual experiences at this point and I really enjoy delivering them. And so I would start an experience by inviting people to take a vote on. You know which of these songs best describes how you're feeling right now? I would do, I would put up some like options to pick from and I have to recall, right now I would do things like don't you know I'm still standing better than I ever did? Or do you kind of feel like Hakuna Matata what a wonderful phrase. Or do you feel like you know I'm a survivor, you know? So I would put these things up and that people vote. Or here comes the sun, and I would have them do that just to start. So I would throw it in that way, just very as a fun way to different way to initiate something.
Integrating Music with Speaking
Speaker 2And then you know I, six months after the accident happened, I was still feeling really stuck. I just started seeing a somatic therapist who was helping me to process what had happened, you know, in my body, mentally, emotionally, and I needed a release because I couldn't exercise the way that I wanted to. I had to be very careful with my body. When you have a fracture in your back, it needs quite a while to heal. Yeah, you got to be very gentle and and I was scared. I was scared of hurting myself again, so I was extra careful. I was like I need something. I was scared of hurting myself again, so I was extra careful. I was like I need something, I need an outlet. And I thought back to the little girl who found so much joy in music and I reached out to. I found a voice teacher and every Monday at three o'clock we get together on zoom and I would practice songs for really no purpose other than to share random videos on LinkedIn. That was the extent of the purpose of me doing that.
Speaker 1And that's where we met. I think that's where I came Like we connected in 22, somewhere around in there.
Speaker 2That would have been. When I started doing that, I had already started sharing the gospel choir audition story as part of my keynotes, singing the lyric, because the lyric was this morning when I rose I didn't have no doubt, which that's like literally exactly the message I'm trying to reinforce here. So I had already started doing that and I felt comfortable to do the acapella and it was jarring for people, but I always got really great response to it. And then I started to think about you know, what else do I want to do? And a coach that I work with on LinkedIn in summer of 22 said Rachel, you should start recording music videos and release them. And I said music videos of what? And she goes oh, covers, you know. I thought, okay, I guess I'll find someone who can help me do that. Sounds more complicated than you're making it sound. And so I found a guy that I go to church with. He had just graduated from college with a degree in music composition. He was a musician, a singer, a composer, and I said I want to record some covers, leroy. So I get together with him for my first session in his basement studio. He looks at me and he says so what do you want to write your first song about now? Unlike you, I cannot read music. I have never in my life been able to play an instrument and I don't have any background in songwriting. So he's asking me this question and I'm like I think you're misinformed about why I'm here.
Speaker 2But the night night before I had watched this documentary called Bully on Netflix and it's about kids that were bullied, harassed. It's a devastating documentary. At the end of it one of the fathers who lost a son his name was Kirk Smalley, his son was Ty. He started a nonprofit called Stand for the Silent and they would hand out these silicone bracelets at their events that said I am somebody in the bracelets Because so many of these kids just didn't feel like they were and even though I wasn't like bullied and harassed, I was excluded and I felt different and I felt other and I knew what that felt like. My whole life I was trying to prove that I was somebody. That's what all my ambition and effort was about, about right.
Speaker 2So I said to Leroy I said if I were to write a song, I would want to write a song about being somebody, because all of us want to feel like we are and so many people feel like they aren't. And so he starts playing this haunting melody on the piano. I mean, it's so beautiful. And he starts playing that. And I'm like you just made that up. And he starts playing that, and I'm like you just made that up.
Speaker 2And then we go back and forth and we come up with the first verse and I'm like I didn't even know I could do that. And I get home and I'm obsessed. I can think of nothing else. It was a Friday, I had work to do, I did not care, I just kept writing more and more lyrics and I sent him that day, I sent him the chorus. Of course you are somebody, you matter, you are enough, because at the end of the song and for five months we worked together back and forth and I had no idea I was wildly unqualified to do this, but there was something deep inside of me that knew that this is what, something I was meant to do with my life.
Speaker 1Yeah, well, you felt unqualified and you had actually gone in right to do covers and you ended up writing your own song.
Speaker 2Yes, and so five months later January 26, 2023, I pulled up on myself on Spotify at midnight for the first time ever and I lost my flipping mind.
Speaker 1In the sense of seeing yourself on Spotify, seeing your song there, knowing that the impact that it was going to have. What did that feel like in that moment? Because you know, just a couple months ago you'd felt unqualified to even, maybe even sing a cover, let alone your own music. And here it is, and now you have multiple, multiple songs that are on Spotify.
Speaker 2I lost. I mean, I literally lost my mind. I saw it because I kept certain. What happens is like the song drops at midnight. You know everywhere. And I searched and at midnight didn't show up, at 12.01. I was like, oh my gosh. I told all these people my song is coming out, I hope it's coming out. And so I see it for the first time. And I was like, oh my God, oh my God, oh my God, and and and then I, I just, I like, drew my hand to my mouth and I just started sobbing. I, I so alive, I was giddy, I was flapping my arms like a chicken. I was so alive in that moment.
Songwriter Journey: "I Am Somebody"
Speaker 2And then people are texting me and sending me screenshots and videos of them listening to other people, and I start getting. The next day my dad sends me a text message. He's always my greatest mentor and the text message said there you were on Pandora this morning. Follow your dreams, peanut. It made me cry, so proud of you.
Speaker 2Oh, and for me, like you asked about what the risk or the cost is when we hold ourselves back, when we mute ourselves, we rob the world of the contribution that only we can give, and I didn't realize it.
Speaker 2But when I had someone send me a text message or send me a DM and say I shared this with my daughter, I sent this to a coaching client. I listened to your song. A 54 year old man came on my live release show and he said he was in tears it's my whole life. All anyone ever told me is I was gonna never amount to anything. And I get emotional about this because it really it breaks my heart that there are people that feel this way and there's a lot of people that feel that way. And he said but your song was like the first time I've really heard and got the message that I am somebody. And I thought what if my doubt and insecurity had prevented that moment from happening? And that's what we don't realize the price that we are paying when we are holding ourselves back for ourselves and others.
Speaker 1Right, yeah, so that's what you're getting at there. It's like there's even a deeper cost that we don't even think about by not taking the step or staying in the same space, or believing what someone has shared, or believing what you even think that you've thought your whole life Right. So breaking out of that is is hard to do. So you have a new book coming up, and so next year 2026, so psyched to hear about this and a model that you use. Tell us a little bit about the book and how it's coming together as you're forming it up, and the particular framework you've created.
Speaker 2Yeah, so for the book. It's certainly parts of my story lots of other people's stories of people who have accepted invitations, people who have done have unmuted themselves, people who have shared stories of how they were holding back, they were doubting themselves, but they took a risk and they stepped forward and the payoff that it had. Some of these people are accountants, real estate professionals and entrepreneurs. It's just a wide range of all different kinds of people and stories that are claiming their worth and stepping into what they are capable of is really at the core of it, and very practical because, coming from corporate and like a training and facilitator background, I'm like I want to be very actionable for people Like here's the thing you can go.
Speaker 1do Not just some deep book that you can't get through and there's no activities, but like, how do I apply it? What do I do? How do I learn Right?
Speaker 2Yes. So I'm giving lots of that and you know the framework around. What I talk about is, you know, helping people to identify the void. So it's a voice method. What's the void? What's the area where something is lacking or missing or numb or feels off? And sometimes we're in denial about that for a long time and sometimes it takes a catastrophe for us to pay attention to it Burnout, for instance. Often it has to be painful enough to get our attention Right and then we step into the opportunity. So the opportunity is what becomes possible if. So what becomes possible if I am no longer bound by the fear and doubt that is keeping me stuck in the void and we start to imagine what could be, what is the best case scenario, what could it look like if it were just right, and we start to allow ourselves to imagine. And then the I is illumination. So illumination is identifying what are all of these strengths and capabilities we have inside of ourselves, and I give people different ways that they can do that, steps that they can take to get clarity, like self-concept clarity, understanding of what they do well, sometimes reflected back from other people, borrowing other people's belief in us and taking assessments. There's all different ways we can do that.
Speaker 2And then the c invoice is the catalyst. So there's a moment that tips the domino. The moment could be an invitation, a conversation, could be listening to a podcast like this. Maybe this podcast is going to be a catalyst for somebody to make a change or make a bold move. It could be a closed door, it could be a rejection that redirects your path entirely. So the catalyst is something that could happen externally or inside of yourself. It could be a knowing, a sense of conviction that I've got to do something about this. And then the E is the expression what is the brave, bold step that you're going to take? The action that you're going to take to unmute yourself, to show up with more fulfillment and alignment and courage so you don't live with regret.
The VOICE Method and Upcoming Book
Speaker 1Awesome. So as people go through that and if someone's out there listening right now and they're kind of leaning in and one of the things that you say that I liked a little bit of alliteration but you positively provoke through curiosity what guidance would you give them right now to just get curious, to take the step to think about what's possible? What's one thing they can do today to start themselves in motion towards the future of who they want to be or truly are already? That just don't know it.
Speaker 2I mean, we've touched on a little bit today, but I would say the two opening questions to ask is what is we talked about? The cost of inaction If things continue as they are and I do not move forward in this way, that I want to move forward, that I'm thinking about moving forward, what does my life look like a year from now, three years from now, five years from now, what does it look like if I don't take any action? And how do I feel inside? Feelings can be very motivating for us to connect to the pain of regrets or shame. You don't want to be motivated by shame, but like to get people to feel the pain of if you don't take action in this. So for me, you know. If I don't want to be motivated by shame, but like to get people to feel the pain of if you don't take action in this, so for me, you know, if I don't move forward and do anything with that music after that suggestion, well, what is the what's the cost to me? What's the price I'm paying while I'm sacrificing joy? But I like more joy in my life? Yes, because 2020 was a non-joyful year in many, many ways for me. So to be thinking about. What is the cost, what is the cost of not doing this, potentially to me and to those that I am potentially meant to impact? So not just about you, but to others as well. And then the what becomes possible, if what becomes possible if I take this step in that direction, what could be? Let me make a list of all of the potential scenarios that could happen, not just the worst case. What are all the potential things that could happen? And you know, I think for a lot of people we can get so caught up in the negativity bias and stuck in the fear, and that is so commanding. Fear is just so. It really gets us. It can stop us. It can stop us.
Speaker 2For me, one thing that's been very motivating is Dan Pink's book the Power of Regret. One of the things he talks about are the four regrets that we most commonly have in our lives, and one of the biggest regrets we have are boldness regrets. If only I had taken the chance. Why didn't I? I should have. And Bronnie Ware, palliative care nurse, write five regrets of the dying, the top regret. I wish I had the courage to live a life true to myself, not the life others expected of me. Brushed with death. You don't have to completely burn out and like feel like you've lost everything in your life. Sometimes you do have to if you're stubborn.
Speaker 1But we say please don't, please learn from us.
Speaker 2Please don't get to that part. But like you have one, you have one life, and what I would say to people is look, do you know the number of things that had to go right for you to exist over 2000 years ago? Certain people that had to meet at such a time, somebody that was in your ancestry, that you will never know, and then the next set of people had to meet, for people to not realize what the stakes are here. I mean, you have one shot here. You've got one shot.
Speaker 2The fact that you exist is literally a miracle. The fact that any of us made it is a miracle. And if you are here, there's purpose for you being here and you are not meant to feel burned out and resentful and frustrated and depressed. It is not the life you are meant to live. You are meant to be invigorated and exhilarated and alive and free and even thinking through for yourself. When's the time I've ever felt that way, when's the time I ever felt any of those really expansive emotions, and what's one way I can take an action in that direction today?
Speaker 1It's one step. You can be a tiny step, just take the step right. I just want people to hear that in different ways and through other people's bold journeys and you certainly are someone who walks the talk and puts it out there vulnerability and all for people to hear and see and feel and you're changing lives. So thank you so much for helping people see the possibilities that exist and you're here for a reason and to cultivate that, and more so through your gifts and expertise. And, like I always say, once you know what your gift is or someone shares, or you kind of feel that moment like you have a responsibility now to share it with the world because it's making a positive difference and yeah very thankful for you for that on many levels.
Episode Wrap Up and Call to Action
Speaker 1Thanks, lee, I appreciate it. Yeah, so all the information is below to contact Rachel, her website, find out, keep in the in the know about her new book coming out as well. I'm so excited about that and speaking and the things that you do in workshops, et cetera. So thank you so much for being on the bold lounge and for sharing your bold journey. Thanks, lee, appreciate it. Thank you for listening to the bold lounge podcast. Through the continuum of bold stories vulnerability to taking a leap you will meet more extraordinary people making a positive impact for others through their unique and important story. By highlighting these stories, we hope to inspire others and share the journey of those with a bold mindset. We hope you've enjoyed this podcast and look forward to sharing the next bold journey.
