Meet the Team
A Big hello!
I'm Jeff Nelsen.
FOUNDER & CEO
I get really scared when I perform. Do you? I’ve learned that most people do, and wayyyy more than we realize. Whether it’s on stage, in the classroom, or just in challenging conversations, I can freak out when I don’t expect it. When I do expect it, I freak out even more! This has been rough for me because I’ve been a professional performing musician for thirty years, and a professor of music for fifteen.
In spite of my massive performance anxiety, I’ve figured out how to perform well enough to be a member of Canadian Brass, win multiple orchestral auditions, and become a Professor of Music at the prestigious Indiana University Jacobs School of Music.
All my success and struggles inform my methods because it’s hard to teach that which you haven’t had to learn. Since I believe teaching and playing music are deeply valuable ways of contributing to society, I’ve kept performing, and I've got to help thousands of people, all around the world, to find their solutions to their performance anxiety.
Wanna know what REALLY lights me up? Helping people who have had enough of getting slowed down by their fear. I've been there! I’m still there! I know how hard this can be! I’m living proof that we can learn our way past our fears, eventually making habits of embracing opportunities rather than just being right (and upset) about what might go wrong.
I serve people who want to perform as well as they know they can, even when it’s a pressure-filled performance situation. I train all levels of performers, from magicians, to TED Talkers, to amateur musicians, to performers who have won their auditions for orchestras like the Chicago Symphony and Cleveland Orchestra. I speak about excellence through my fear replacement training systems, on the TED Talk stage, in keynote addresses, in my podcast, and in my favorite milieu of one-on-one consultations.
I’d love to help you…it’s all about you getting to really know yourself. We can talk about your goals, your fears, past work on performance excellence, and your optimal next steps.
Want a better life? Ask better questions.
I’ll ask you the questions that can show you your way forward to setting and reaching goals that are great for you.
about me
AMBIENT LIGHTING ♥︎♥︎♥︎
YOGA ♥︎♥︎♡
FORTNITE ♥︎♥︎♥︎
DARK CHOCOLATE ♡♡♡
fave
PRACTICE TOOL
ANYTUNE
PRACTICE APP
silliest
FEAR
UNCHARGED PERSONAL DEVICES
next
BOOK TO READ
THINK AGAIN
BY ADAM GRANT
THE NUMBER OF
PETS I HAVE
welcome!
I'm Dr. Katy Webb
CREATIVE & MANAGING DIRECTOR
I’m a musician, cognitive science researcher, and educator. An introvert at heart: I love nothing more than sitting down with a rich cup of espresso to practice, research, and create. Well, nothing more… except performing!
I wasn’t always able to find confidence in my voice on stage.
In fact, just a few years ago, you could find me wearing a pair of sweatpants, exhausted in my stuffy, windowless practice room, practicing into the late evening after ANOTHER performance gone wrong.
Failure can be an incredible motivator to dive in and find answers, can’t it? And wow did I do a lot of diving... into books, research studies, and brilliant minds. I broadened my doctoral performance curriculum to formally and extensively study skill acquisition. Along the way, I sought mentorships with experts in music cognition, cognitive science, and, yes, an actual Olympic diving coach - though I never had to swap out my sweatpants for a swimsuit, phew!!
My research merges the psychological, developmental, and neurolinguistic underpinnings of music performance and was awarded by the Presser Foundation in 2020. Passionately committed to efficiency and expertise, my method fusing the principles of deliberate practice and self-regulation theory has enabled me inside the practice room and out. I've worked through psychological performance blocks brought on by injury and made a major technical shift to bring my good enough freelance career to great. I've also learned how to be a graphic designer, create album covers and merchandise for Canadian Brass, serve as a business consultant, produce a podcast, and film the cinematic videos you’ll see in our online courses and membership.
What truly sets my heart on fire is translating research findings about our fantastically complex minds into simple and innovative frameworks to help performers like you. With knowledge, support, and a handy system or two, I firmly believe everyone can overcome their limitations and share their gifts with confidence. We don't have to shrink under the psychological impact of performance injuries, be immobilized by cycles of self-doubt, or question whether we'll ever get unstuck.
Whatever that thing is you want to change, you are not stuck. You just haven't figured it out, yet. It's my deepest honour to work with future performer figure-outers of all kinds.
Let's get you there.
DANCE ♥︎♥︎♥︎
BAKING ♥︎♥︎♡
EVENING RUNS ♥︎♥︎♥︎
PICKLES ♡♡♡
fave
PRACTICE TOOL
SHURE MV88 MIC FOR iOS
silliest
FEAR
OPENING A CAN OF
PILLSBURY DOUGH
next
BOOK TO READ
THE STRANGE THEORY
OF LIGHT AND MATTER
THE NUMBER OF
PETS I HAVE
LET'S BE
PEN PALS
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