We recently connected with Stormie Cueto and have shared our conversation below.
Stormie , thanks so much for taking the time to share your insights and lessons with us today. We’re particularly interested in hearing about how you became such a resilient person. Where do you get your resilience from?
Growing up I was diagnosed with dyslexia and ADHD at a young age. Although it came with a lot of trial and error discovering how I learn differently from others, it inspired me. Being aware that like myself, other people learn differently showed me how there’s always ways to move forward, sometimes you just need to examine things from a different angle. At the age of 16 years old I was diagnosed with polycystic ovarian disease (PCOS) and endometriosis (ENDO) which are two chronic illnesses that effect both the body as well as the mind. These conditions come with some burdens that are impossible to control such as unstable hormones, mental fog and daily pain or discomfort. When your body doesn’t give you a choice you tend to fall into fight or flight and maybe it comes from my roots of being raised by veteran (mom air force, father army ranger and stepdad marine) but I refused to let these illnesses steal my life from me. I’ve tried my best to use my illness and other obstacles as reminders that we must cherish the little joys, the good days and the blessings no matter the size because the truth is there’s so many factors in life that we have no control over…but being grateful long enough for the next best thing (which there is always one) is worth the wait. So long answer short, my resilience comes from my love of life and excitement for the next experience around the corner.
Thanks for sharing that. So, before we get any further into our conversation, can you tell our readers a bit about yourself and what you’re working on?
They say if you enjoy what you do, you’ll never have to work a day in your life and I defiantly took that to heart. I’ve been lucky enough to turn my passions and what I believe my calling is into a career. Growing up in the entertainment industry I knew I wanted to be involved somehow. The idea that I could be involved with playing pretend and creating art as an adult was the driving force in me trying so many different things and gaining as much skills as I could so that in one way or another, I could be part of the fun. Music, singing to be specific was always the thing that stuck. While in college I started working at a performing arts studio where I was constantly surrounded by the arts and got into teaching singing and acting (ages 3 – 75). Vocal coaching combined my love for music and helping people. I love being a part of someone’s journey in connecting with music and themselves in a new way. Learning to sing involves so much in connecting with one’s self that it can be a very vulnerable process. I love being there to be the cheerleader and motivator because seeing people reach their goals or do something, they didn’t see as possible makes my heart happy. I’ve taken my experience growing up with dyslexia and applied it to my teaching. I make sure to have a discussion with my clients early on about how they learn so that I can build an experience for them. Being able to connect with people and help them is while still exploring my passion is what drives me. Which brings me to how spiritualism and tarot became not just a part of my life but also a part of my career. I’m a third-generation tarot card reader on my mother’s side and was given my own deck on my 10th birthday so I could begin learning about the art of tarot. Connecting with the universe and understanding energy was taught to me very early on so none of it ever seemed scary or taboo. If anything, it felt safe, comforting even. I went on to do readings for myself, family and friends throughout the years. Using my intuition frequently from such a young age I feel has a lot to do with why I’m so good at both tarot and vocal coaching. I will say vocal coaching I worked toward and really set goals for unlike tarot I feel I have been more so chosen to do. In the last few years, it’s become a part of my career because the opportunities have found me more or less. As far as where my career is as of now, I’m continuing to vocal coach many amazing different people from entertainers to first time singers. I love that each student comes with different challenges and experiences it keeps it interesting which is I love. My clients constantly remind me that performing and connecting with your art is a forever growing process. Tarot as well keeps me on my toes, every client has a different with a different story and connecting with them is great and has been very impactful to me. Within the last year I’m proud to report I’ve done hundreds of tarot reading including having the opportunity to give Bob DeCastro a reading on Fox 11 News’s Good Day LA at one of my favorite historical and haunted locations The Queen Mary. Currently my goal is to of course continue helping people but more specifically take my love for film/entertainment and my knowledge of tarot to help marry the two in a way that isn’t horror clickbait but that’s informative and shows the true magic of the craft. My career as a whole motivates me to continue explore life and I love that!
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?
Three qualities that have been most impactful on my journey so far have to be adaptability, being optimistic and continue working on kindness. Adaptability I’ve learned about from life experience that I had no control over such as coming from divorced parents, have learning disabilities (dyslexia and ADHD) and having health issues (poly cystic ovarian syndrome and endometriosis). These were all things I had no choice in and if I wanted to experience life, I’d have to learn how to adapt to the difficulties so that I could experience the parts of life worth being grateful for. Being optimistic comes from my natural way of looking at things for multiple angles to better understand them. Once you start being grateful for the small things and finding joy in them life becomes a lot more magical. Last but not least kindness, when I say kindness this is not just to other but also to yourself. I believe connecting with others and one’s self are two huge factors in the human experience. Learning to be kind to other leaves a positive imprint on the universe and changes the energy which leads to more positive things. Learning to be kind to one’s self helps us find purpose and see the universe and the beauties it has more clearly.
One of our goals is to help like-minded folks with similar goals connect and so before we go we want to ask if you are looking to partner or collab with others – and if so, what would make the ideal collaborator or partner?
Going into 2025 I’m excited to collaborate with people in both my fields and hopefully bring the two together at some point. Musically I continue to want to work with people at all levels vocally weather it’s teaching someone who’s never tried singing but always wanted to, helping an artist prepare for a big tour or performance or having the opportunity myself to use my voice in bringing someone creations to life. Tarot wise I really wanting to work with people who want to bring tarot to a wider audience and truly show the art of it. Tarot thus far has been used for shock value and since some already see it to be intimidating or taboo they naturally fear it. Throughout my life I’ve seen how beautiful, impactful and helpful it has been in not only my life but so many peoples. I’d love to work with some tv and film makers on bringing the true art of tarot to the screen or even stage.
Contact Info:
- Website: https://stormiecuetooffici.wixsite.com/vocallessons
- Instagram: @thestormiegayle @vocalcoachstormiecueto @spookyghoultarot
- Other: TikTok: @spookyghoulstormie @spookyghoultarot @vocalcoachstormie
so if you or someone you know deserves recognition please let us know here.
