Opera America Field Consultant & Former CEO, Minnesota Opera

You did an outstanding job with the [Opera America] Leadership Intensive.  The sessions you led were truly a transformational experience for all of the participants. — Kevin Smith, Opera America Field Consultant and Former CEO, Minnesota Opera

Career Planning for Music Entrepreneurs: Tapping Into Vision and Going for Plan A

The past two weeks, I have had a great time working with the future stars of concert music and talking a lot about how to create a successful career as a musician. First, I spent two days with the Fellows at the Norfolk Chamber Music Festival, located in the picture-perfect hills of Northwest Connecticut on a beautiful estate where the …

How Arts Leaders Manage Challenge: Change Your Perspective

Rising arts leaders face a host of challenges including too much to do with too little time, constant deadlines,  not enough money, time or staff to carry out the great work, conflicting priorities and having to respond to numerous constituencies.   In these situations, it’s easy to focus on the negatives.  Yet happily, there are some very effective strategies to …

Managing Challenge for Arts Leaders: How to Empower Your Leadership by Changing The Situation

This week, I had the honor to work with the 14 participants in Opera America’s Leadership Intensive, a program dedicated to identifying and forming the future leaders of opera by providing them with the skills and contacts that can help them advance in their careers. My role was to teach the “soft” skills of leadership:  how to empower yourself to lead …

Top 10 Public Speaking Tips for Arts Leaders and Music Entrepreneurs

What is the first thing that comes up for you when you think about addressing a group of people, whether it is a wedding toast, a speech to a live audience at a music performance or a presentation at your local charity? If the answer is “fear” or “dread”, you are not alone! Fear of public speaking or glossophobia is …

Clarinetist and DMA, Manhattan School of Music

For the last year, I have had the honor to work one to one with Astrid Baumgardner.  Her coachings have brought clarity to my life, uncovering values and goals, and the importance of aligning efforts with these priorities.  Through this process, I am rediscovering my intuition, reconnecting with what really makes me tick, rather than what should make me tick. …

Clarinetist and Juilliard Graduate

I loved the fact that you made people get out of their comfort zone and share things with the group that they would otherwise have not done. That is something that I admire a lot, and you have a great gift for being able to do that! Bravo! — VD, New York, NY

Associate at Boutique NYC Law Firm

The results of our weekly sessions surpassed all expectations.  In concrete terms, within five months I obtained a new job that permits me to continue being a lawyer – a career path that I was on the verge of quitting despite years of education and hard work – while honoring my values, interests, and creativity and making a good living:  a combination I never thought possible as an attorney in private practice in NYC.  Astrid’s probing questions and value-oriented exercises played a significant role in giving me the focus and courage to identify and pursue my new legal career.  

Attorney and ??????

There seem to be an infinite number of resources available to people looking to make career changes these days, and I think I looked into most of them before I met Astrid. Numerous books advised me to do what I loved.  That sounded good, except that I didn’t know what I loved. A career test provided some insight and long lists of possibly compatible jobs, but ultimately directed me to do what I loved – back to square one.  Another career coach, dispensing with frivolities like love, laid out a practical approach to a career path that objectively made some sense, but I knew in my heart that I would hate it.  I felt deficient for not knowing what I loved, unreasonable for rejecting a sensible path that didn’t appeal, and in general, completely hopeless about my situation.

Assistant Director at Pace University Encore Transitions Program

I was a student in the Pace Encore Transition Program at which Astrid was a presenter. Her Designing Your Encore Life workshop gave me both practical and psychological insights and helped me manage my transition in ways that were unexpected and highly positive. The possibilities of an Encore life were overwhelming to me and, despite my years of corporate employment law, I was now unfocused. Who was I? What had I done that was transferable? What was it I wanted to transfer? What did I really want or think I wanted?

Astrid’s workshop required me to answer those questions and more. She asked about core values, interests, tolerances, passions, work and life experience. She listened carefully to the answers many of the students volunteered, and gave concrete suggestions as to how to develop a plan to move forward in a meaningful way. She did not offer one solution to fit all but, rather, paid careful attention to the needs and desires of each student who chose to share. The experience was empowering.