I’ve spent the past five years studying what happens when people can’t speak up in the music industry. I’ve documented the fear, the burnout, the silence. I’ve collected the data, written the reports, built the programs.
And recently, I realized I was doing all of it while quietly experiencing the same thing.
Stress. Burnout. Constantly feeling like an outsider.
I’ve invested significant time, energy, and resources into understanding this industry and offering something useful in return. And what I keep encountering is a kind of invisible wall. Not hostility exactly, more like a quiet signal that unless I am willing to go along with the way things have always been done, I’m not entirely welcome.
Few people I meet want to talk about the tangible opportunities for more efficient, more effective impact. There is low appetite for exploring new ways of working, and a fairly entrenched set of habits and gatekeepers protecting the status quo.
What strikes me most is the gap between the public and private conversations.
In private, people tell me everything. The frustration. The exhaustion. The anger and fear. The sense that the same dysfunctional patterns keep recycling with no consequence. That real change is being blocked by the same small group of people with the most to lose from it. That known bad actors continue to operate without accountability, their behaviour an open secret that everyone references in hushed tones and nobody addresses directly. That people are being harmed, repeatedly, by the same individuals, in the same ways, and the industry has collectively decided that is just the cost of doing business. That speaking up feels pointless because nothing ever actually shifts.
But in public? “Everything’s great around here.” Smiles. Carefully worded optimism. The performance of an industry that has it together. “If you don’t like it, this isn’t the business for you!” Shift all responsibility on the individual. Protect the infrastructure.
I’ve been seeing, and living, exactly what the Soundcheck data documents. Ninety-four percent of music industry workers say mental health challenges are widespread. Only ten percent feel their leaders are doing anything about it. People are struggling in plain sight, and the industry has gotten very good at looking away.
And the researcher has become the subject.
I’m sharing this not because I have it all figured out. I most certainly haven’t. This mental-health-at-work stuff is complicated. And, it’s not my responsibility to figure it all out. I’m sharing because I suspect I’m not the only one carrying this weight. And I think the reason so many of us stay quiet, whether we’re artists, crew, managers, or the people trying to change the system from within, is the same.
It’s not that we don’t care. It’s that we don’t have the skills to have the conversations that need to happen. Or we’ve tried before and nothing changed. Or the cost of speaking honestly feels higher than the cost of staying quiet. Or we’re just.so.damned.tired.of.it.
And so we default to habit. To momentum. To “everything’s great.”
What’s actually needed is something deceptively simple: open, honest, curious, courageous conversations about what’s really going on. Not venting. Not blame. Structured, skilled dialogue that creates room for truth without destroying relationships or careers.
That’s not a personality trait. It’s a learnable skill. And most people in this industry, at every level, have never been taught it.
That’s not a criticism. It’s an opportunity.
That’s why I wrote Leading in Stereo. The young professionals I’ve been teaching and coaching and talking with across the country keep asking for a resource to help them navigate this industry, and one didn’t exist. So I tied the new research with the frameworks I had been teaching outside the industry for years, and I wrote the book they were asking for.
If you’re an individual who is tired of editing yourself, or a team that keeps having the same unresolved conversations, or an organization that knows something needs to change but isn’t sure how to start, this is exactly the work I do.
I work with individuals and groups to build the knowledge and know-how to have the conversations that actually matter. Not just once, but as a sustainable practice that changes how a team or organization operates.
