Meet Maya Songbird

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

Maya , thank you so much for joining us today. Let’s jump right into something we’re really interested in hearing about from you – being the only one in the room. So many of us find ourselves as the only woman in the room, the only immigrant or the only artist in the room, etc. Can you talk to us about how you have learned to be effective and successful in situations where you are the only one in the room like you?

Something about walking in to a room full of strangers and literally feel the energy stop and shift. It is so many projections and judgement on who I am before I can even speak. You have people that don’t want to be mean and instantly walk up friendly and curious about the alien in the room. Then you have the not so nice people who instantly have their cruel lingo and are ready with their tongue daggers to take me down! Mostly I know personally that I am probably the most unique person you will ever meet in your life so I understand mixed reviews and unsolicited comments because wow SHE IS STRANGE! I love that about me so it makes me powerful and my power empowers others regardless on how they perceive me. Based on life experience I have realized people are going to look at me no matter what but it’s true I am special and born to change perceptions of many and inspire. My presence is life changing.

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?

Hi My name is Maya Songbird and I believe in magic! I am from San Francisco CA and I grew up in a magical place called the Castro. Growing up in the CASTRO taught me how cool it is to be yourself. That and being a SF Native. I am a Musician/Artist/Healer. I am the proud owner of Maya’s Magic Shop with two Brick n Mortar locations and a occasional pop up shop in the East Bay. The Magic Shop started out as my merch for the Maya Songbird brand and the rest is history. People loved the magic shop and so we grew from a table to a suitcase to the very first underground Brick n Mortar where you had to be a friend of a friend to get in, which was in the front room of a basement I was living in, in the West Oakland Bottoms.
As a Musician and Artist I love to bring the world together with healing arts and positivity. I am a Sagittarius with lots of sag houses in my chart so my optimism is super contagious and I love to spread it.

Right now what I am excited about is soon the launching of my own entertainment company called Wired Weird Entertainment which will the main portal for all future music releases and more. I imagined Wired Weird many moons ago like back in 2012 and then originally launched in 2016 but The ghost ship fire happened at the end of 2016 and put a pause to Wired Weird because my friend who played a major part in Wired Weird passed away in the fire as well as a lot of my loved ones so Wired Weird has been on the back burner for a long time. I also was misplaced every year since 2017 which makes it hard to set in stone new ventures but now I can center myself and pick up the pieces and open up a new Utopia. Between me and you I relaunch Wired Weird 6/18 of this year and why did I pick this day?!?! Its my favorite cats birthday and her name is Magic so all the good vibes!

I am also really excited for the magic shop. I am adding some new exciting things to our new Chico Location. I love how the magic shop became something that grounded me and taught me healthy boundaries within my own life in how I support others. Hosting the Magic pop up install inside of Slurp art gallery for two years during the pandemic bought so much joy and support to local artist who lost work and resources during the pandemic so holding space and supporting the community with block parties and having a safe space for local musicians to play shows during such an intense time was pretty awesome.

There is so much advice out there about all the different skills and qualities folks need to develop in order to succeed in today’s highly competitive environment and often it can feel overwhelming. So, if we had to break it down to just the three that matter most, which three skills or qualities would you focus on?

I would say first appreciate the journey. Back in 2012 a friend gave me this book and the first sentence was “The journey is as important as the destination” and so I wrote that on my wall but also not knowing just how many mountains were apart of my actual journey so I learned to appreciate the importance of why those mountains were there and tell the full story of the journey literally the ups and downs. Secondly, Compassion with boundaries is so important with all you do. It is to be said that our world has become a very cold and brutal place with the coldness in communication and the loss of love and massive amounts of hate. But what if we choose compassion. Just imagine what goodness our world would be no matter what. I still believe in the power of love and of course Magic so please be kind and compassionate to each other but with boundaries because you can be all of the above but shield yourself. Lastly and its literally Integrity, “Never lose your soul for silver and gold”…What others might be doing to get ahead is not how you should. Hold on to your morals and self respect and you will go far. With integrity, morals, honesty and self respect you are UNSTOPPABLE.

Alright, so before we go we want to ask you to take a moment to reflect and share what you think you would do if you somehow knew you only had a decade of life left?

People are Jealous of me and it hurts because I genuinely love people wholeheartedly with my whole heart. Its literally mind boggling why people operate from anything other than a place of love. Well jealousy is scary for me and it has been very brutal to the point where I isolate myself because I am terrified of peoples actions. Where as I moved with integrity it is applauded and sometimes also met with aggressive jealousy. It is not my problem and I honestly hate to be placed in it. Jealousy is brutal and harms all parties involved so I will say do better because that energy of having daggers in your eyes for me harms you more than anything because you aren’t focused on you or your well being. I am all good over here where I am at in the sunshine. So yeah it is what it is. Envy me.

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Image Credits

Santiago Sanchez

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