Artistic Careers with Tiffany Aurora

Mike Feathers and Beth Pacione are the founders and musicians of Common Tone. Common Tone provides music enrichment programming that promotes authentic music exploration for children of all ages. 

As long-time music teachers and performers in the Baltimore area, Mike and Beth know the power of music education. It's transformative. It helps children connect to each other, in a way that's different from talking. It fosters connection...

Grant Kirkhope is an Ivor Novello and World Soundtrack Award winning Scottish composer who has created the soundtrack for video games that have sold in excess of 40 million copies. He's worked on titles such as "GoldenEye," "Banjo-Kazooie," "Viva Piñata," "Donkey Kong," "Kingdoms of Amalur: Reckoning," "Civilization: Beyond Earth," "Mario + Rabies Kingdom Battle," and many more. He also recently scored the feature film, "The King's...

Aaron Jones is an entrepreneur and the owner of Bushelers of Baltimore. In this episode, we talk about how Aaron fell in love with designing and altering clothes, the tension between being an artist and growing a business, how entrepreneurship will test you and force you to grow, and what it looks like to use your business to create a safe space for your customers. 

Annie Marhefka is the Executive Director of Yellow Arrow Publishing, a small, independent publisher in Baltimore. She's also a writer, primarily of non-fiction and poetry. In this episode, we talked about what it's like to work with a small press; how "telling a story that needs to be told" is one of the best ways to make your work stand out; the role of vulnerability in writing; how her own identity as a writer has shifted over th...

Ian Durias is a certified coach and a stand-up comedian. He's the founder of Copious Coaching, where he specializes in working with people who are ready to take the next steps after divorce. In this conversation, we talk about what differentiates a powerful question from other questions; how powerful questions open a conversation and encourage new insights; how to ask more powerful questions and help people lean into their own wisd...

Jessica Henkin is the co-founder of Stoop Storytelling, a Baltimore-based live show and podcast featuring "ordinary" people telling extraordinary, true tales of their lives. Stoop held its first live show back in 2006 and has since welcomed nearly 4,000 people to its stages across Baltimore. In our conversation, Jessica shares about what makes a powerful live story, how to connect with your audience, why being emotionally present i...

Celeste Stacey is a Mental Wellness Coach and entrepreneur who specializes in helping high-achieving individuals identify and recover from chronic overwhelm. In this episode, we discuss the progression from stress to anxiety to chronic overwhelm and ways to notice when you're headed towards burnout; the different ways coaches and consultants serve businesses and business leaders; how to determine whether you need to work with a the...

Cadie Bridges-Palmer and Stephanie Fabian are the founders and co-owners of Yoga Union Baltimore. As long-time yoga teachers in the city of Baltimore, they weren't initially planning to build a growing business - they just wanted to get their community back after the COVID pandemic. But as you'll hear in this interview, these "accidental entrepreneurs" have built a thriving, community-centered yoga studio that is now a staple of th...

Jennia D'Lima is a developmental and line editor and writing coach. She provides professional, personalized, and in-depth editing services for fiction and non-fiction, from middle grade to adult. She also hosts the Writing & Editing podcast. In this conversation, we talk about the different types of editing you need for your manuscript, developing your voice as a writer, killer dialogue, helping your reader feel the emotion of ...

Mikael Dia is the founder and CEO of Funnelytics, a software that allows you to visually map and analyze how people flow through your marketing funnels. On this episode, we talked about strategizing based on the activity trends of power users, whether you should start your company with a co-founder, focusing your time in your zone(s) of genius, and Mikael's go-to question for customers to help him gather insightful, useful data abo...

Angelo Otterbein is the proprietor of Manor Mill, a restored historic grist mill and miller’s house in Monkton, Maryland, a little north of Baltimore. Manor Mill is a creative hub, a chance to be “surrounded by all things creative,” as Angelo says. In this episode, we talk about the importance of being in a state of openness to the people and ideas around you; how everybody is passionate about something, and how there’s magic in cr...

Dr. Tracy Hall, co-founder of Healing Centered Restorative Engagement, talks about wellbeing in the workplace, working as a team from an abundance mindset instead of a scarcity mindset, skills and resources for entrepreneurs to make sure they don't burn out, and much more.

Healing Centered Restorative Engagement: https://www.hcre.info/

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Books mentioned in t...

Michael Amato is an entrepreneur and the founder of Fresh Flow Aquatics. Fresh Flow Aquatics services all-natural freshwater ecosystem aquariums, helping you design and care for a beautiful planted aquarium.  In our conversation, we talked about where Mike goes for inspiration for his aquascaping designs, the joys and stresses of owning a small business, how his personal habits and business services have had to shift as his busines...

Andrew Auseon is an author, writer, and game developer. His most recent novel, Spellbinders: The Not-So-Chosen One, tells the story of Ben, a 12-year-old boy whose parents have recently divorced, he's had to move to a new town, he's feeling kind of lost, and he's longing for someone to remind him that he's still special, the hero of his own story. In this conversation, we talked about intentionally creating space for reader agency ...

New York-based dancer, model, and movement artist Soyeon "Haze" Kim has been exploring street dance for over 10 years, specializing in waving and animation. Her recent work includes global campaigns with PUMA, Converse, FootAction, and Nike x Nordstrom, and Music Videos for Disclosure, Ambar Lucid and Pink Sweat. She has performed at NYFW, Apollo Theatre, NYPL at Lincoln Center, LayeRhythm an...

Mike Drucker is an eight time Emmy-nominated writer and comedian living in New York. He's written for The Tonight Show, Bill Nye Saves the World, and Adam Ruins Everything, as well as serving as head writer and executive producer on Full Frontal with Samantha Bee.

Mike stopped by the podcast this week to chat about life as a stand-up comedian in New York, how to get better (instead of giving up) when you have a rough night, the imp...

Young Vo is an animator, illustrator, and author. His children's book Gibberish is an insightful and moving story about a young boy named Dat who moves to the United States and really struggles, because everything around him sounds like gibberish. 

In this episode, we talked about Young's experience as a children's book author, how he landed his first book deal with Arthur Levine (the U.S. editor of the Harry Potter series), the im...

Emma Snyder, owner of The Ivy Bookshop and Bird in Hand Cafe & Bookstore, joined me this week to discuss her surprising journey to entrepreneurship, her earliest memories with books, how books can build connection and community, the brilliance of a great architectural design, and the feelings of empowerment that arise from learning to ask for help.

Writers and authors: Emma also threw in some tips for ways you can build connect...

Aaron P. Dworkin is a poet, performing artist, social entrepreneur, author, filmmaker, philanthropist, 2005 MacArthur Fellow, and former dean and current Professor of Arts Leadership & Entrepreneurship at the University of Michigan's School of Music, Theatre & Dance.

On this episode, Aaron discussed reckoning with imposter syndrome, using the Lottery Test and Death Test to decide how to spend your time, questions to ask you...