Meet Jillian Warman

We’re excited to introduce you to the always interesting and insightful Jillian Warman. We hope you’ll enjoy our conversation with Jillian below.

Jillian , so great to have you with us and we want to jump right into a really important question. In recent years, it’s become so clear that we’re living through a time where so many folks are lacking self-confidence and self-esteem. So, we’d love to hear about your journey and how you developed your self-confidence and self-esteem.

Many people think that if you’re a performer, you’re automatically the most confident person in the room. But, I can tell you from personal experience, that’s simply not true. I have been a musician since age 5 and a professional musician since age 9. Although I’ve always loved and thrived on performing, my battle with anxiety began rearing its ugly head at around age 7. For me, my anxiety was rooted in my fear of failure–my fear that I wouldn’t be perfect enough. But few people really knew my internal struggle because I could perform at a very high level despite how I was feeling. For years, I wouldn’t address the anxiety because I thought that as long as I was successful, my struggle was irrelevant. But the problem with anxiety is that even if you are “successful” at what you do, you’re not experiencing the joy that comes with it. As someone who has always prioritized my faith in God, I took a really long look in the mirror after college and decided it was time to start my journey to healing. Through fervent prayer and helpful books, I began working on my thought patterns and slowly recalibrating how I perceived success, purpose, performing, and who I am as a person apart from being a performer. The change wasn’t instant, but I eventually discovered that success isn’t found in never failing, but rather in truly enjoying your gift and sharing it with others. I believe God gave me the gift of music to be a blessing and that has become my sole focus. Now that I’m on the other side of the struggle, I can honestly say that I am a genuinely confident person and musician–not because I never make mistakes–but because being perfect is no longer my goal; being a blessing is. Each time I take the stage and sing or play an instrument, I want to share the joy that music brings; that is what I believe God created me to do.

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?

Being a musician has been one of my greatest adventures. One of my first professional music jobs was at age 9. I was hired to be the piano accompanist for a school’s choir concert and although part of me was terrified, I also loved the challenge and felt so proud to be trusted with such a lofty task. Through the years, I studied classical piano, violin, and viola at a music conservatory and taught myself guitar, mandolin, ukulele, and harmonica. Growing up, I didn’t know where music would ultimately take me, but my passion for it and desire to honor God with the gifts he’s given me motivated me to continue honing my craft with excellence. Some of the music jobs I’ve had the privilege of doing include playing violin in professional symphonies, teaching strings at a university, playing and singing with grammy nominated artists and musicians, leading worship at churches across the country, and writing and recording my own original music. In addition to performing, I own/operate an online music school and get to share the gift of music with my amazing students. Being able to share the joy that music brings with my students is such a privilege. Although music has given me a very full life already, I have a feeling that my best days are still to come. Music truly is the gift that keeps on giving.

Looking back, what do you think were the three qualities, skills, or areas of knowledge that were most impactful in your journey? What advice do you have for folks who are early in their journey in terms of how they can best develop or improve on these?

There are so many things that have impacted my journey, but if I had to name the most foundational qualities that have helped me get to where I am today, they’d be humility, generosity, and hard work. Humility is paramount for anyone wanting to succeed at their craft. Always be willing to serve, always be willing to take the back seat and work your way up. And always look for ways to build others up, not yourself…which leads me to generosity. Being a generous person means that you give instead of take, encourage instead of criticize, love instead of hate. I truly believe success follows a generous person and I live by the scripture, “A generous person will prosper; whoever refreshes others will be refreshed” (Proverbs 11:25). And lastly, a foundational quality for anyone wanting to succeed is good, old fashioned hard work. My parents taught me from a young age to always be the hardest working person in the room. Be the first one there, the last one to leave, and do your work with excellence. If you live by that code, you will be a magnet for success, I assure you. In summary, I believe the humble, generous, hard working person will inevitably thrive and prosper.

Any advice for folks feeling overwhelmed?

I have ample advice concerning feeling overwhelmed because I’ve felt overwhelmed so many times in my life. Until I discovered how to handle it, overwhelming circumstances would send me into a a vicious cycle of spiraling thoughts, worry, and anxiety. But through trial and error, I’ve discovered the best ways for me to handle feeling overwhelmed. First, I face whatever is overwhelming me head on and ask myself, “Can I change this?” If the answer is “yes,” I already feel slightly less stressed and begin thinking of the changes I can make to get ahead of the situation. If the answer is “No, I can’t change this,” then I have to ask myself why I’m worrying if I can’t change the situation anyway. Another vital strategy that helps me feel less overwhelmed is when I split the task at hand into small, more manageable tasks. I always ask myself, “How do you eat an elephant? One bite at a time.” Simply put, don’t try to do everything at once; rather, decide what you can do first and do that. Then move on to the next task and so on. Often times, we become overwhelmed because we think we have to do everything in 5 minutes. But if we do one thing at a time–build the wall brick by brick–we will accomplish the goal and feel far less overwhelmed on the journey.

Contact Info:

• Website: jillianwarman.com and jwlessons.online
• Instagram: @jillianwarmanmusic
• Other: TikTok: @jillianwarmanmusic

Image Credits

Michael Diamante