Meet Coltyn Vondeylen

We caught up with the brilliant and insightful Coltyn Vondeylen a few weeks ago and have shared our conversation below.

Coltyn, first a big thank you for taking the time to share your thoughts and insights with us today. I’m sure many of our readers will benefit from your wisdom, and one of the areas where we think your insight might be most helpful is related to imposter syndrome. Imposter syndrome is holding so many people back from reaching their true and highest potential and so we’d love to hear about your journey and how you overcame imposter syndrome.

Surprisingly enough it was pretty easy. Since I went to college for music and work full time in music I initially had a lot of trouble with this. I was always average compared to those around me and had to work hard to reach the same level as them. Eventually I felt that I was on par with those around me and then suddenly I was out working full time in the real world. In the real world, however, very few people are as skilled as the people I worked with. In fact, only the others working full time had that skill level. Its hard to feel like an imposter when the only people you see being on par with yourself or better are a small percentage of the population. I by no means think I’m the best, but there are just so few musicians who stick with it for years without giving up that I only know of a handful in my entire city.

Appreciate the insights and wisdom. Before we dig deeper and ask you about the skills that matter and more, maybe you can tell our readers about yourself?

I am a singer and teacher of singing. I run a website called milwaukeesinginglessons.com and create vocal technique blogs and videos for my students and the general public. I also record audiobooks and other speaking roles for authors and businesses worldwide. I’m trying to advance to the point where I can hire additional voice teachers to work with me in teaching all of my students as well as write a book on vocal technique that would be a “how-to” for complete beginners.

If you had to pick three qualities that are most important to develop, which three would you say matter most?

The biggest skills were marketing, simplifying, and social media skills. You cannot gain students or get hired as a performer without marketing yourself. Unless you are lucky (or unlucky depending on your opinion) enough to be managed you will probably have to do this entirely on your own. As a teacher, being able to simplify anything is critical to being effective and getting word of mouth recommendations. Finally, social media is important for sharing events and getting people who you may never have had contact with in conversations about your business.

Thanks so much for sharing all these insights with us today. Before we go, is there a book that’s played in important role in your development?

The book is called “What Every Singer Needs to Know About the Body” and it is a masterpiece of singing instruction. Its definitely geared towards people who like anatomy and explains everything so incredibly in depth that its hard not to understand how it all works after reading it. I essentially learned the best ways to teach by using this book.

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