We caught up with the brilliant and insightful Amari Alexander a few weeks ago and have shared our conversation below.
Hi Amari, appreciate you sitting with us today to share your wisdom with our readers. So, let’s start with resilience – where do you get your resilience from?
There have been many times in my life where I’ve had to be resilient due to different situations and experiences. In 2017, I experienced a health situation that left me in the hospital for 2 weeks & unable to walk for nearly 2 months after a failed procedure on my spine. I had to use a wheelchair and then a walker until I was able to walk on my own again, and I had to undergo weekly physical therapy for months. There were many days when I didn’t necessarily feel like going to physical therapy and working through the pain and I honestly wanted to give up and stop trying. I was often confused and discouraged by my situation and wondered why it happened to me, and the entire situation had me feeling down for a while.
I had to really change my mindset and think positively and tell myself not to give up, not quit, and to keep going. Along with shifting my mindset, I had to pray, have faith, trust God that I would get better, and also put in the work on my end to get better and walk again. This was one of the toughest times in my life, mentally and physically, but it showed me that I can truly overcome anything.
Another experience was during my time in college when I dealt with having low confidence, low self-esteem, self-doubts, and not feeling that I was good enough or talented enough. I had goals of performing, doing my own shows, and recording original music when I began, but I started to let those things affect me and hold me back from actually doing it. One day I decided I wasn’t going to let those things stop me anymore. I had to change my mindset, believe in myself, and tell myself that I was good enough, talented, able, and capable as an artist, and to do everything I wanted to do musically.
As I began to build my confidence and self-esteem and put myself out there, I began receiving opportunities to do shows, and I started working on my music with a band I put together. With my determination and a positive mindset, I was able to do multiple shows under my own name, recorded music for two of my projects, and graduated having accomplished my goals.
Those experiences have shown me just how resilient I am, and I believe my resilience comes from my determination never to give up or quit, having a positive mindset, a lot of hard work, prayer, and faith, and my determination to accomplish all of my goals.
Let’s take a small detour – maybe you can share a bit about yourself before we dive back into some of the other questions we had for you?
I started singing at a very early age and have been singing ever since. I started singing in church, which is where I received most of my initial training and experience. As my love for music continued to grow, I began songwriting and producing music as well. I attended Berklee College of Music in Boston, MA, and graduated this past May with a Bachelor of Music in Performance.
I recently completed and released my debut EP titled “The Intro To Love”. The EP is all about experiencing and falling in love for the first time, and the songs on the project are all from my heart and mean a lot to me. I started the project in 2021 and the entire process from writing, rehearsing, recording, and releasing the music has been so amazing.
Currently, I am focused on recording my full-length album. I started recording the album earlier this year and I was blessed to record the majority of the music for it in the studio with my entire live band. The songs on my album are really special and I’m excited to share and release it next year 2024.
If you had to pick three qualities that are most important to develop, which three would you say matter most?
The three most important qualities, skills, or areas of Knowledge that have been most impactful in my journey are determination, time management skills, and my work ethic.
I know for a fact how important it is to have determination in your journey. If you have goals you want to accomplish or if you have a vision you want to see come to life, you have to have determination. On the road to accomplishing your goals, there will most likely be some challenges and unexpected situations that may arise that can hinder or stop you from accomplishing those goals, but if you truly have determination you won’t let anything stop you. There are still so many goals that I’ve set out to accomplish and I know that I have to continue to be determined to accomplish those goals.
Having good time management is a skill that has truly been important in my journey. I haven’t always had good time management skills, but I’ve learned just how important it is as I started to put more on my plate. Over the past year, I’ve been managing the completion of my musical projects, booking studio sessions and rehearsals, scheduling and coordinating with multiple musicians, rehearsing for shows, rehearsing for studio recordings, leading those rehearsals & sessions, doing gigs and shows, attending classes, having an internship and then having a job, and taking time out to have a personal life. All of that has required good time management skills and I don’t believe I could have done all that at one time without it. Making to-do lists, prioritizing my tasks, and sticking to what was on my to-do lists is the main reason my time management improved and something I would recommend everybody do to help with that.
Another quality that has been important for my journey is my work ethic. Over the past few years, my work ethic skills have significantly improved. With all the goals I’ve accomplished so far, I’ve had to develop a strong work ethic and work really hard, sometimes harder than I initially thought I would, to accomplish those goals. If you want to do something or accomplish something, you have to put in the work, time, and effort to make it happen. Along with being a hard worker, I’ve also had to learn, and am still learning how to balance working hard and also resting. It’s important to work hard and do your best, but it’s also important to take time for yourself to rest and recharge and not feel guilty about resting, as we all need it to continue and give our all to whatever it is we’re doing.
My overall advice for people early in their journey would be to first really create and know what goals you have, have a vision and purpose for your life, and put it in your mind that you’re going to accomplish those goals. Be determined on your journey, organize yourself and your goals, and make to-do lists to help improve your time management skills, put in the work necessary to accomplish your goals, and also have fun in the process.
Looking back over the past 12 months or so, what do you think has been your biggest area of improvement or growth?
I think my biggest area of growth or improvement in the past 12 months has been my mindset and my confidence. These past 12 months I’ve grown and improved so much as I’ve actively been working on believing in myself and fully being confident in myself and my musical abilities. Those are things I’ve struggled with a lot in the past and it’s something I’ve been actively working on. Within these past 12 months, I recorded and released my debut EP, performed in shows under my own name and with different bands, recorded music for my album, and still in the process of recording the album that I’ve always dreamed of making. I know that my mindset and confidence have improved and grown significantly as I know I wouldn’t have been able to do any of those things unless I believed in myself and started being confident in myself and in the talent and gifts God gave me. Some days I still struggle with being confident and believing in myself, and I’m constantly working on that, but I’ve definitely grown and improved in that area in the past 12 months.
Contact Info:
- Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/amarialexandermusic/
- Linkedin: https://www.linkedin.com/in/amari-richardson-89b441276/
- Other: Link to music: lnk.to/amarialexander
Image Credits
Joe Davis (Images 1 & 5) Kervens Boutin (Images 2 & 3) Rachel Profiling (Image 4)
