February 2024 News with FREE Group Coaching Offer!

Live Your Truth 🥁 🎤

Welcome to another edition of my monthly musings - a little dose of inspiration to fill your cup!

I'm excited to share the latest in my coaching, songwriting, and inspiration of all flavors.

Please share this newsletter with a friend if you find it inspiring.

Onward we go! Dave 🥁 🎤

See my exciting Group Coaching announcement below!

Talking about a Resolution

Today is February 15 and so it is time for a new day’s resolution! See what I did there? According to my 53 years of research, every day contains almost exactly 24 hours, give or take a couple leap seconds.

So how about taking today (and every day) to remember that every day is a gift and chance to renew our perspective on what’s important? That's what I'm aiming to do.

If you’ve been following my songwriting journey, I've promised to release one song per month and I'm tracking very well on this. I've been recording with Jonathan Plum at London Bridge and have 7 songs in the works there.

My February Song: Over the Line

I wrote Over the Line for the songwriting group: Reel Songs. This winter, we decided to write a song inspired by The Big Lebowski. Here’s my blog post with the full lyrics and a few words about why and how I wrote the song.

What's New?

Group Coaching: In March I’m launching a very special FREE group coaching offer: Doubters Anonymous: 8 Billion Strong and Growing

Learn More about Doubters Anonymous with my new page here!

This is a big new thing for me and I am shedding a few skins to make room. I have plenty of self-doubt about if this will be successful. But I have WAY MORE positive vibes telling me to press on and make a difference.

Why am I doing this?

First of all, I really love leading groups. I especially love the learning possible in a group environment as we share and relate to others going through similar challenges. Self-doubt is ubiquitous, often invisible, and rarely discussed with others.

I plan to make this journey less lonely.

Let’s share our learning together.

I’ll share more about my own struggles and learnings that have helped me. And I'll learn from you as well. I'll some "remedies, reframes, and ways to practice" from my book as well as many new tips, tools, and techniques for you to take with you.

Please make sure and sign up (form at bottom of the page) if you are interested. I plan to cap the group at some point but for now am leaving it open.

Announcing My Next Book (Sort Of)

I have two competing ideas for my next book and am currently refereeing a boxing match in my brain to see which one will prevail.

I’m going to share my ideas openly with you here and would love to hear your thoughts. I’m also happy to talk about these in the group coaching sessions and will also share my own self-doubt journey in writing my next mini-tome.

Book Idea 1: The Accidental Executive. How to find our own way in business and life (working title)

This is a book I started years ago as I wrote my Dad’s obituary and speech for his funeral. I realized he passed on a lot of great wisdom over the years and that I had my own take on what he shared. The Accidental Executive (which I was definitely one!) will be a helpful guide to those who need to find their own way to lead, manage, and succeed in business even if they aren’t sure how they got there. I’ll share many lessons that I learned in my travels through Ableton and iZotope juxtaposed next to my father’s old-school wisdom and sometimes hilarious views on how to run a company and carry oneself in the world.

Book Idea 2: A Songwriting Field Guide: Finding yourself in a song. (working title)

I have learned a million things by writing over 20 songs and some of them are quite practical like how to learn enough music theory to move a song forward, how to love the sound of my own voice, how to start a song, and so on. I’m adding to my journal daily with what I’m learning in hopes of helping others as I continue to release at least one new song per month. I truly LOVE songwriting and all the transformation that is possible. My self-doubt says that I have a lot to learn still about writing and releasing songs. But in my heart, I know I have a lot to offer and that there is something special about capturing my beginner mind as I’m working through the common songwriting challenges with the added bonus that I’ve spent decades playing music, collaborating with musicians, and learning through listening to my favorite songwriters.

Speaking of songwriting learning, here are a couple fun shares from the last month:

Here's a quick excerpt from an interview with Greg Allman talking about how he wrote Melissa and how the song “Midnight Rider” took only 45 minutes to compose.

Gregg Allman On The First Song He Wrote | Gregg Allman talks about the first song he wrote. | By AXS TV

Gregg Allman talks about the first song he wrote.

Here's Billy Corgan (Smashing Pumpkins) discussing his own self-doubt in a positive light noting that it has helped propel his success (and also drive him a bit crazy). Sound familiar? The whole interview is worth a listen but fast forward to the 8min mark to hear his inner critic:

Doubt Riding Shotgun Update!

HUGE thank you to those that have reviewed my book! Deep gratitude to all 36 of you generous souls!

It really does help. Sales have picked up a bit and I'm learning a lot about the wild wooly world of Amazon advertising. I would still love a review if you have not done so. It can be very quick. Simply go to the Amazon page, click on the reviews and then click on "write a review" and write a couple words about your thoughts. It does not matter if you have read the entire book. Amazon just wants to know you are happy with your purchase.

I am also exploring how to launch my book in Apple iBooks and Barnes and Noble. It's quite time consuming to navigate all of this.

Again, my reason for writing this book is to help people and I am hearing real-world stories about how it has helped.

Here's an amazing review from a friend writing from his heart:

In my 53 years of life, only two other books have led to an inflection point in the way I live my life. The first was Jon Kabat-Zinn's Full Catastrophe Living and the second was David Burn's famous work, Feeling Good. Well, I have now added a third book to this top shelf - Doubt Riding Shotgun.

As someone who has been trying to finish a career change for five years and an 'aspiring' musician with 17 songs I can't finish, I felt stuck. If I received a favorable view during a work annual review, I felt that I was in the wrong meeting or I have pulled off a great scam on my employer for them to think I was doing good work. I never considered that self-doubt was the culprit.

This book made me realize that I have a highly intrusive 'doubt passenger'. Until I finished the book, I never thought that this self-doubt was something that can be overcome. I always thought it was just a truth and I had to deal with in a brute-force manner. Sometimes that worked, most of the time it did not. The author gives a perfect combination of high-level thoughtfulness, pragmatic advice, and personal anecdotes to help us understand why we suffer from self-doubt and how to overcome and rise above it, while also appreciating its beneficial side (i.e. keeping us out of trouble) Lastly, Dave keeps the reading entertaining and interesting by sharing his own experiences with self-doubt. This will be a book I re-read every year and share with friends - no doubt about that.

I'll treasure that one forever.

Thanks again all and wishing you a great month of love, light and learning!

humbly yours,

Dave

Thanks for riding shotgun with me!

Stay courageous out there 💪,

Dave Hill Jr.,

PCC Certified Executive and Leadership Coach

Learn About My Coaching www.davehilljr.com

Check out my book: Doubt Riding Shotgun www.doubtridingshotgun.com

Connect on LinkedIn

My Link Tree