"How to Turn Your Dreams into Reality": An Essay by Dani Felt for Women's History Month

Throughout the year, Atwood Magazine invites members of the music industry to participate in a series of essays reflecting on identity, music, culture, inclusion, and more.

•• •• •• ••

Today, recording artist and entrepreneur Dani Felt shares her essay, “How To Turn Your Dreams Into Reality,” consisting of eight strategies to manifest your visions into reality, as a part of Atwood Magazine’s Women’s History Month series.

Ten years ago while just starting out, Felt was a singer/songwriter searching for information and support. She quickly realized there weren’t enough heart-centered coaches or consultants in the industry who understood what creative professionals really wanted and needed, so she set out to develop it. Today, she is an artist coach using her background and 10+ years in the industry to develop personalized brand strategies – evaluating each person’s goals and projected potential.

•• ••

“HOW TO TURN YOUR DREAMS INTO REALITY”

by Dani Felt, Artist Coach

•• ••

Hello my name is Dani Felt. I have been working in the music industry for the past 15 years. Over the years I have learned some powerful techniques to help increase my chances of success with all my career pursuits including my tv show, my music, my music marketing agency and so much more.

Being an artist or entrepreneur is not easy but if we all as creatives wanted an easy job I do not think we would choose the music industry. I love working in music because it’s challenging, full of learning lessons and ways to uplevel in life. It takes a lot of grit, hard work, a strong mindset and a determination like no other to pursue a music career. With all the ups and downs, challenges, and learning lessons I have faced so far, here are some strategies and tools that have helped me. I recommend artists or people in the entrepreneurial space to implement the following strategies and tools to help increase their chances of success.

Tune Out The Doubters: We all have those people in our lives who throw doubt at us. But it doesn’t mean we should listen. As entrepreneurs or creatives we will naturally be surrounded by people who don’t necessarily believe in our vision the same way we do. Now, we could either choose to listen to their doubts and start believing what they tell us we are capable of, or we can learn to tune it out as simply noise. We choose what we give our power to and what we choose to believe is possible for our dreams.

Create a Vision Board: Creating a vision board will help you transform what your ideas are in your mind onto paper or your laptop. This can be used as a tool to magnify your vision of what’s possible in your life and career. Start with locations you want to travel, amount of money you want to bring into your life, the type of career you want, the people you want to meet, any timelines you want, the car or house you want, any emotions you want to feel, any awards you want to win and more. This is one of the most powerful exercises you can do for yourself and it will inspire you to take action once you visually start to see it.

Write A Plan: Thinking about what you want is not enough. You need to turn your ideas into manageable actionable aligned steps. Say you want to release a single. Your first step might be to go write a song. Then record the song. Then get the song mixed and so on. Having a plan will help you get you closer to achieving your goals. So first figure out what you want to achieve or do and then write out the plan. Break it down step by step by step.

Act As If: This is a big one and all the most successful people understand this top secret. If you want to become successful in your career, you need to start acting as if you already are. Meaning, when it comes to your branding, you have professional photos. When it comes to your sound you have professional recordings and work with good mixing engineers. When it comes to your performances, you memorized your music and you have a strong stage presence and music set. When it comes to doing interviews, you prepare ahead of time, research the company and ask for any questions in advance. It also means you start dressing like you’re already that next level version of yourself. You present yourself when you have conversations as that next level of you. You start looking in the mirror and telling yourself you are that next version of you. Soon you will start to embody it and act like it.

Watch Your Words: Your words are so powerful and what you consistently say, your subconscious will run with that story. If you want to be successful, do not talk about not having money all the time, even if you do not have a lot of money at the time. Because if you keep repeating to yourself a story about not having a lot of money all the time, you will have more of that story playing in your subconscious and you will make decisions from that perspective and that will not help you receive more money. Even if you do not have a lot of money, you could say things like “money flows to me easily and effortlessly”, “ I can’t wait for more money to arrive, its on its way”, “money is so much fun to play with”, “ money is my new bff” “ abundance flows in my life all the time in every way”, “ people love to pay me” “ people love to support me”. Try implementing some of these affirmations for 30 days straight. When you start to catch yourself saying something negative about you, replace it with a positive. For example, if you are being down on yourself for making a mistake, you could say, every mistake will help me grow. I love myself anyway, even if I make a mistake.

Tune Into Your Body: Tune into your heart, intuition and body when taking that next step for your career. Ask yourself, what is the next aligned step for me? Do not rush this process. Really sit down in a quiet space and hear your own thoughts. Tune into your body and make sure it feels good when you make the decision. If your body feels anxious or bad, or in pain or stressed, really think about the decision you are about to make. Our bodies speak to us louder and louder when we do not listen. If you feel expanded and excited about a decision, that is a good sign.

Align With Mentors, Consultants and Coaches: Connect with people who are doing what you want to do. When you connect with people who are doing or have done what you are looking to do you will save so much of your time and energy. If you want to get into production, connect with producers. If you want to learn about artist management, befriend other artist managers. If you want to learn how to write hit songs, connect with songwriters who have been credited on successful songs.

Start Taking Action: Sometimes we get stuck not taking action because we want it to be perfect. We will wait to release a song until we feel it is the perfect time. We will wait to call or email or follow up with that client because we are scared. We will get that important email address of someone that can change our trajectories of our careers yet not reach out to them out of fear or self doubt. The most important thing you can do is take imperfect action. You will make mistakes. It will not be perfect and you will be okay. The first step is to make a move. Make the move and then fix and perfect it later. Go reach out to that producer. Go follow up with that venue. Go do the action, you will regret more things you didn’t do then the mistakes you might make going for your dreams. – Dani Felt, Artist Coach

— —