We caught up with the brilliant and insightful Jan Seides a few weeks ago and have shared our conversation below.
Hi Jan, 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?
Frankly, I’ve been through enough setbacks now to have figured out that they are temporary. I have learned to just keep putting one foot in front of the other until change occurs. It’s not an easy lesson, and took more than one episode before I caught on, and sometimes I still forget. But those lapses are shorter than they used to be, I’m pleased to report. I have found one or two tricks for getting myself over the hump. One is that I try to imagine how long it will be before I’m telling this experience to someone as a funny story. The other is that I can now remind myself that every good thing that I’ve ever gotten grew directly out of a disaster that I thought was grim at the time.
Here’s an example: I was in a work relationship that was totally uncomfortable, but I kept to it because I thought I needed it. It finally ended by implosion and I was devastated. I thought about it all the time; mourned the loss all the time. About a year later I was walking down the street and passed the building where “my life fell apart” — and realized that I hadn’t thought about it in months, even though I thought it was so important and the end of the world when it happened. That memory has served me well.
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?
Currently, I am building a new branch to my business, offering music for special events such as weddings, private parties, etc. It’s an area in which I have not participated before now, and I’m very excited about exploring the new opportunity. I’m in the midst of building a website for it, and working out how to attract clients to it, along with how to have the venues that host such events be advocates for my services. I’m having a lot of fun creating videos for the website, and for advertising, so that people can see what I have to offer.
I have years of experience performing, and I’m an award-winning songwriter. I am offering music tailored to the occasion and tastes of the client, and I’m even offering custom songs written for their special event. The website (https://janseides.com/events) has videos, testimonials and the means to schedule a consultation. I’m looking forward to being of service to make someone’s perfect event even more special.
If you had to pick three qualities that are most important to develop, which three would you say matter most?
I once heard Tiffany Haddish say in an interview that one of the main reasons she became a comedian was because she had an ardent desire to connect and communicate, and “if you make it funny, people will listen.” I think I share that with her in the sense that I learned early that if you set it to music, you can capture attention that you might not have otherwise. I started singing when I was three, and started learning to play an instrument when I was four. And in both cases, the driving force was the need to connect and communicate.
I had very good teachers, more than one of whom taught me the necessity of consistent practice. That, in itself, is a skill, but she also taught me how to get the most out of the practice. As a result, I learned patience, diligence and most importantly, how to make myself do it, even on days when I didn’t feel it.
And actually, that’s also the third item. Because I had good teachers who were kind, patient and entirely unwilling to accept excuses, I try to be that kind of teacher myself. After all, I owe the universe for the gifts I received, don’t I.
My advice: Try to see yourself as part of a larger whole. How can you serve it best, with your best self? And be patient and kind with yourself when you feel you fell short. Above all, don’t stop trying.
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?
I *am* looking for people to partner with! I have written a musical based on the songs on my most recent album. The first draft of the script is written, and I would love to have someone to help with the re-writes and tweaks, especially if they have skills that include getting it read/staged/workshopped.
If you’re interested, you can reach me at [email protected] or 512-627-2115. Let me know who and where you are, and I’ll send you a little “deck” with a synopsis of the story, its world, and samples of the music.
Contact Info:
- Website: https://janseides.com
- Instagram: https://instagram.com/janseides
- Facebook: https://facebook.com/janseidesmusic
- Linkedin: https://linkedin.com/janseides
- Twitter: https://twitter.com/janseides
- Youtube: https://youtube.com/janseides
- SoundCloud: https://soundcloud.com/janseides
Image Credits
L. Andrew Sterling
