Curveballs to Comebacks: Winning at Life with Gail Taylor
Sometimes life throws us a curveball. We can let it knock us down or spin it in the right direction with personal passion and empowerment. Gail Taylor helps people do just that with her music and core messages that inspire personal growth. She is a keynote speaker who has written a new book called Curveballs. Her journey is a testament to resilience and embracing passion. She believes people should believe in themselves and create the lives they want. It is a matter of flipping their inner dialogue and stopping their self-sabotage. She uses the power of music to transform lives and foster positive change in her messaging. Gail came from a successful career in finance to launch a successful musical and speaking career in her 60s. She is now a songwriter and philanthropist. She offers real-life stories and practical tips to navigate life’s unexpected turns. In this episode of Women Road Warriors with Shelley Johnson and Kathy Tuccaro, Gail talks about the power of music on the brain and peak performance tools people can use to turn life’s curveballs into home runs.
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Women Road Warriors, Shelley Johnson, Shelley M. Johnson, Kathy Tuccaro, Gail Taylor, Gail Taylor Music, Performance, Curveballs, Passion, Empowerment, Self-Improvement, Resilience, finding your passion and purpose, healing through music
Transcript
This is Women Road warriors with Shelly Johnson and Kathy Tucaro.
Speaker A:From the corporate office to the cab of a truck, they're here to inspire and empower women in all professions.
Speaker A:So gear down, sit back and enjoy.
Speaker B:Welcome.
Speaker B:We're an award winning show dinner dedicated to empowering women in every profession through inspiring stories and expert insights.
Speaker B:No topics off limits on our show.
Speaker B:We power women on the road to success with expert and celebrity interviews and information you need.
Speaker B:I'm Shelley and Kathy's on assignment.
Speaker B:Music has had a common thread within every human civilization since the beginning of time.
Speaker B:Scientists have shown that it activates various parts of the brain.
Speaker B:It can change our moods, inspire, calm us and influence us.
Speaker B:It can elicit many types of emotions by expressing things that words cannot.
Speaker B:And it's a universal language.
Speaker B:Music can impact us in ways that language can't.
Speaker B:Gail Taylor knows the value of music.
Speaker B:She communicates core messages through music to inspire personal growth.
Speaker B:She believes in the transformative power of music.
Speaker B:Gayle came from a successful career in finance and transitioned into a successful musical and speaking career in her 60s.
Speaker B:She's also a songwriter and philanthropist.
Speaker B:She's written a new book called Curveballs.
Speaker B:Her journey is a testament to resilience and embracing passion.
Speaker B:Her mission is how music offers the unique ability to transform lives and foster positive change.
Speaker B:We wanted to learn more, so we invited Gail on the show.
Speaker B:Welcome, Gail.
Speaker B:Thank you for being on the show.
Speaker C:Oh, no problem.
Speaker C:Thank you so much for having me.
Speaker C:I'm really honored to be here.
Speaker B:Oh, this is terrific.
Speaker B:You have so much insight that I can't wait to dig into, if you will.
Speaker B:Could you start maybe with how you got started with all of this going from finance to music?
Speaker B:That's quite a juxtaposition.
Speaker C:Yeah.
Speaker C:What happened was when I was 58, I started taking piano lessons.
Speaker C:And Shelley, I had no music background.
Speaker C:I had never had a lesson in an instrument in my life.
Speaker C:And so I'm starting from the very beginning learning scales.
Speaker C:CD athletic.
Speaker C:Oh, my God.
Speaker C:I fell in love with it.
Speaker C:I just like music actually came flooding back into my life from a listening.
Speaker C:I didn't even realize that I hadn't been listening to it for 25 years because in the car I was listening to books on economics.
Speaker C:And so, yeah, so I started taking these piano lessons.
Speaker C:And two years into it, I thought, I'm going to retire a little earlier than I had planned and sell my practice and study music full time.
Speaker C:And so at age 61, I sold my practice and I started studying music full time.
Speaker C:And I'm I've got private teachers.
Speaker C:I'm taking bass guitar lessons, keyboard lessons, songwriting ear training.
Speaker C:I'm studying through Berkeley School of Music.
Speaker C:I mean, Berkeley.
Speaker C:Oh, my.
Speaker C:That's a wonderful.
Speaker C:I know, but I didn't have to audition.
Speaker C:It was it.
Speaker C:Because it was an online.
Speaker C:You just had to pay the fee and you got these amazing instructors.
Speaker C:So after two years of this, I thought, I'm going to reinvent myself as a musician.
Speaker C:And when I shared that story to folks, I kept getting the same reaction over and over again.
Speaker C:I kept getting people saying, oh, that's so inspiring.
Speaker C:I'm going to go do something they had put on the back burner.
Speaker C:And I kept hearing this over and over again, and I thought, whoa.
Speaker C:Never mind being a musician.
Speaker C:I'm going to come out of retirement, start Gail Taylor music, become a keynote speaker, and use my music and my stories to help folks become their best selves.
Speaker C:And.
Speaker C:And so that's how I got here.
Speaker B:And you obviously have a natural affinity, a natural talent for music.
Speaker C:Oh, no.
Speaker C:Hours and hours and hours and hours.
Speaker B:A practice.
Speaker C:Sure.
Speaker B:Well, you have to.
Speaker B:It takes a lot of practice to get to Carnegie hall, as we all know.
Speaker C:Oh, yeah.
Speaker C:There's a lot of work involved.
Speaker B:But the insight that you have, realizing that music is a catalyst.
Speaker C:Yeah, yeah.
Speaker C:And, you know, when you were saying that in the introduction about what music can do, it can heal.
Speaker C:Like, music is so powerful.
Speaker C:So right now, my catalog has about 18 songs in it, and it's all inspirational music.
Speaker C:Every song is a story.
Speaker C:Sometimes it's about curveballs that I experienced in life.
Speaker C:And it's a story about, you know, working your way through these things.
Speaker B:Can music help us work through things, you think?
Speaker C:Oh, absolutely.
Speaker C:Absolutely.
Speaker C:It's transcending.
Speaker C:You know, like I had in.
Speaker C:In my book, you mentioned that I had my new book, Curveballs, coming out.
Speaker C:Curveballs is like two genres.
Speaker C:It's memoirs.
Speaker C:It's stories of things that.
Speaker C:That happened to me, challenges that happened in my life, and then personal growth and peak performance.
Speaker C:Tools that I use to get through it.
Speaker C:And then at the end of every chapter, there's a QR code so you can scan it and go and listen to the song that was inspired by that story and watch the lyric video.
Speaker C:I literally put a soundtrack in my book.
Speaker B:I love it.
Speaker C:Yeah.
Speaker C:Yeah.
Speaker C:It's amazing.
Speaker C:And so one of the chapters is called Wings, and Wings is a story about addiction, and it's really a story about trying to help folks that have loved ones that are in addiction to give themselves permission to still be happy.
Speaker C:Right.
Speaker C:You're on a parallel journey with somebody that's really struggling, but you don't get to control their journey.
Speaker C:And you don't have to live in, you know, worry and dysfunction all day, every day because they may the choice of that path.
Speaker C:And so, you know, that song's very emotional.
Speaker C:You need a Kleenex box to go listen to that one.
Speaker C:But, yeah, I've had a lot of feedback from people saying, thank you so much for sharing that.
Speaker C:I really needed it, and it really put me into a calmer place.
Speaker B:Oh, that's excellent.
Speaker B:Sometimes people just need to hear it from someone else to know that they're not alone experiencing some of these things too.
Speaker C:Oh, that's.
Speaker C:Yeah, that's a really powerful comment because that is so true, especially with that topic.
Speaker C:Right.
Speaker C:When you're talking about addiction, Whether you're the addict that's ashamed of it so you don't want to get help, or whether you're a family member of the addict that, you know is embarrassed because their adult son is on this path.
Speaker C:Yeah, it's not.
Speaker C:It's a mental disorder, and there's no reason for there to be any shame or embarrassment.
Speaker C:And when you understand that there's a lot of doctors and lawyers and rock stars and everybody else goes through.
Speaker C:Makes it so much easier for you.
Speaker B:It does.
Speaker B:You aren't stigmatized, and there still is a lot of that.
Speaker B:Yes, there is.
Speaker B:You wouldn't think there would be, but there still is a lot of judgment by other people.
Speaker B:And an addict may want to get help, but then they are shunned and judged.
Speaker C:Yes, but I'm gonna say less than in the.
Speaker C:In the past.
Speaker C:And right now, like, right now, there's an opioid epidemic going on in our countries and.
Speaker C:Right.
Speaker C:It's just like people are.
Speaker C:Are dying.
Speaker B:No, it's terrible.
Speaker B:Deadly.
Speaker C:Yeah, a huge, huge amounts.
Speaker C:And it's really scary.
Speaker C:But, you know, to speak to what you just said, I went to this mental health foundation breakfast a year or so ago, and I was so proud of my city because there were 500 people there, and it was all businessmen, accountants, lawyers, bankers.
Speaker C:And the top was addiction.
Speaker C:And the topic was addiction.
Speaker C:And at the end of the session, we.
Speaker C:One of the facilitators got up and said, you know, you know that there's a lot of people right now that are ODing on opioids.
Speaker C:And there's a table set up in the back where, if you'd like to, you could pick up a naloxone kit.
Speaker C:A Narcan kit and carry it in your briefcase or your purse.
Speaker C:And if you see someone ODing on your way to work, you could save their life.
Speaker C:There was such a big lineup at that table that they ran out of kits.
Speaker C:Wow.
Speaker C:I was shocked.
Speaker C:I was so impressed.
Speaker C:And so.
Speaker C:Oh, I thought, oh, my God, that is so amazing.
Speaker C:Like, you know, picture the business person walking with their suit to work and seeing somebody ODing on the.
Speaker C:On the side of the road and having the actual life saving tool in their briefcase to be able to administer.
Speaker C:That's powerful.
Speaker B:It really is.
Speaker B:I'd heard that this was happening, and it's wonderful that so many people wanted to step up and be a good Samaritan.
Speaker B:I mean, that gives me confidence in society, you know?
Speaker C:Yeah, yeah, me too.
Speaker C:The people are starting to understand more and more that we have a big problem and there should not be a stigma to.
Speaker C:Well, there shouldn't be a stigma to any mental health disorder.
Speaker C:But, you know, unfortunately, we still got a ways to go.
Speaker B:Oh, yes.
Speaker B:People like to judge and label, and it takes a long time to change that kind of mental mindset, if you will.
Speaker B:So you were talking about your book being called Curveballs and the Curveballs in Life.
Speaker B:What kind of curveballs have you gone through?
Speaker B:What kind of curveballs has life thrown you?
Speaker C:Yeah, so we've been talking about one.
Speaker C:Oh, okay.
Speaker C:So what happened to me, where my journey got derailed actually, was when I was 12 years old.
Speaker C:My father died when I was 12.
Speaker C:He was a pilot and he crashed his plane.
Speaker C:And so my mom, with six children in her mid-30s, moved us from a small town to a city.
Speaker C:And unfortunately, I didn't do well.
Speaker C:I mean, I didn't do well with losing my dad.
Speaker C:Talk about trauma.
Speaker C:I pretended he was still alive for two years.
Speaker C:I just said, was a spy for the government, and they had to pretend he was dead to protect us.
Speaker C:And then when we got to the city, I just, I. I couldn't navigate it at all.
Speaker C:So I.
Speaker C:To numb myself, I just turned to drugs and alcohol and reckless behavior.
Speaker C:And this was before my 13th birthday.
Speaker C:And so, yeah, that was the start of it.
Speaker C:And I stayed in active addiction for many years.
Speaker C:It was a decade before I even started to come out the first time.
Speaker B:Wow, I'm sorry to hear of your loss, but that's so often.
Speaker B:And people don't always think about that.
Speaker B:The addiction, the substance a person chooses to use, that's just a symptom.
Speaker B:There are underlying causes for why people are medicating themselves, you know, Often, Often.
Speaker C:Sometimes people just get caught up in the party scene.
Speaker C:Sometimes the addiction comes from something like what I just shared, but sometimes it's just young people partying for a few too many, and then the chemistry of it, they just end up getting addicted to it.
Speaker B:It's so dangerous, so very dangerous.
Speaker C:Yeah.
Speaker C:Yeah, it is.
Speaker B:And I appreciate you sharing that experience.
Speaker B:That's a time.
Speaker C:Well, you know, I heard this on another podcast, and it's so is this is me.
Speaker C:I come from a place of healed scars, not open wounds.
Speaker B:Oh, I like that.
Speaker C:Yeah.
Speaker C:When I heard it, I thought, man, that's me to a T. Right?
Speaker C:Like, I just, I've worked through and the fact that I have, and I had a successful career in Finance for 25 years.
Speaker C:I was managing $130 million.
Speaker C:Like, this is my story that you don't have to stay in.
Speaker C:You know, life throws curveballs at us.
Speaker C:It's not the curveballs that matters.
Speaker C:It's what you do with them.
Speaker C:And you can work through them.
Speaker C:You can work through them, and they don't have to remain holding you back for decades.
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Speaker A:Welcome back to Women Road warriors with Shelly Johnson and Kathy Tucaro.
Speaker B:If you're enjoying this informative episode of Women Road Warriors, I wanted to mention Kathy and I explore all kinds of topics that will power you on the road to success.
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Speaker B:You know, music has been woven into every human culture since the dawn of time.
Speaker B:It's a language that speaks to the soul, sparking emotions words can't quite capture.
Speaker B:Science even shows.
Speaker B:It lights up multiple areas of the brain, changing our moods, calming us or inspiring us to act.
Speaker B:Our guest today, Gail Taylor, knows that power firsthand.
Speaker B:After a thriving career in finance, she boldly stepped into the world of music.
Speaker B:And speaking in her 60s, proving it's never too late to follow your passion.
Speaker B:She's a songwriter, philanthropist, and now the author of Curveballs, a book packed with real life stories and practical tips to navigate life's unexpected turns.
Speaker B:Gail's mission?
Speaker B:To harness music's transformative magic to inspire growth and positive change.
Speaker B:We're diving into Gayle's incredible journey and the lessons she's learned.
Speaker B:Gail, you talk about life's curveballs, and your book's about that.
Speaker B:There's so much information about how we can overcome the curveballs life throws at us.
Speaker B:But it doesn't have to be the end of the world.
Speaker B:And a lot of these curveballs can be an opportunity for growth.
Speaker B:You know, I do believe that life gives us lessons, even lessons we don't.
Speaker C:Want to have a hundred percent, you know, and you have to have curveballs.
Speaker C:Everybody has a version of my story.
Speaker C:You know, it might not be them.
Speaker C:It might be a friend or a sibling or.
Speaker C:But, you know, we all.
Speaker C:You'd have to live in a bubble to not have.
Speaker C:Have curveballs thrown at you.
Speaker C:And for sure, you grow from them.
Speaker B:When you take a risk in life, because that's what life's about.
Speaker B:If you want to grow and you want to achieve a dream, you're going to have to take some risk.
Speaker B:And when you're going through that process, there are going to be some curveballs you got to duck or throw back.
Speaker B:It's like, okay, take that and just keep going.
Speaker B:Right?
Speaker C:Yeah, yeah, absolutely.
Speaker C:What do I do with this one?
Speaker B:So you're a keynote speaker and what do you talk about exactly?
Speaker B:You're really helping a lot of people grow in many different ways in business and in their personal lives, Correct?
Speaker C:Yeah.
Speaker C:So I actually have three different focuses on my topics.
Speaker C:One of them is addiction and helping people understand what's going on, what's going on with their loved ones.
Speaker C:So that's one of my big topics is addiction.
Speaker C:And a second one is empowering women.
Speaker C:And the third one is leveling up.
Speaker C:And that's more for the corporate folks.
Speaker C:I've been studying personal growth and peak performance for 40 years.
Speaker C:In fact, that was one of my turning points, was in the 70s, I started to, you know, figure out there's gotta be more to life than this.
Speaker C:Like, I just woke up one morning and I thought, well, I'm making a mess here.
Speaker C:Not just of my house, of my soul.
Speaker C:There's gotta be more to life than this.
Speaker C:And that sort of thought was a turning point.
Speaker C:And I started with Napoleon Hill's book Think and Grow Rich.
Speaker C:I'm guessing a number of your listeners have either read it or heard of it.
Speaker C:And then I continued to study that whole genre for the next 40 years.
Speaker C:And so all the tools that I talk about in my speeches and my books, they're all different tools that now I didn't reinvent any.
Speaker C:Anything.
Speaker C:I just, you know, heard it over and over again and practiced it.
Speaker C:And, hey, that one works.
Speaker C:That one worked for me.
Speaker C:So this is, you know, the speeches are about, hey, you know, here's some curveballs I had, and here's some tools I used to get through it and hopefully help other people get to their next level.
Speaker B:I love it.
Speaker B:Now you talk about women's empowerment, which is close to our hearts here on the show because we're a women's empowerment show.
Speaker B:I see you talk about believing in yourself and creating the life you want is what it's all about.
Speaker B:That's so powerful.
Speaker B:But I think that's something that eludes a lot of people.
Speaker B:A lot of ladies don't necessarily follow the life they want and they doubt themselves.
Speaker B:The imposter syndrome, it can be huge.
Speaker C:It can.
Speaker C:And it's actually even one of the topics that I do cover is that imposter syndrome.
Speaker C:But one of the biggest tools that I talk about is in this.
Speaker C:In this vein is your yourself, your internal dialogue, right?
Speaker C:Your internal dialogue is everything.
Speaker C:If you can convince yourself, if you can talk to yourself in the positive and not self sabotage, which imposter syndrome does do that self sabotaging.
Speaker C:If you can get.
Speaker C:Get yourself so that you train your brain to.
Speaker C:To keep that internal dialogue positive, that's.
Speaker C:That's key.
Speaker C:When I started doing This, I mean, many, many years ago, if I found myself in my head thinking, oh, I'm not going to be able to do that.
Speaker C:Or then I had, I actually stole this from Gail Uncle.
Speaker C:She was a long distance runner in the 70s and she wrote a book called I think Go for it.
Speaker C:But it was garbage in, garbage out.
Speaker C:So if I'm in my head and I'm thinking, oh, I'm not going to be able to do that.
Speaker C:Garbage in, garbage out.
Speaker C:I yell it.
Speaker C:I, you know, if I'm in the car, I'm yelling, garbage in, garbage out.
Speaker C:And then I reframe it and say, of course I'm going to be able to do that.
Speaker C:And here are some of the steps I can take to do it.
Speaker C:And I bring myself back to that positive place.
Speaker C:And it takes work.
Speaker C:It's like everything else.
Speaker C:If you want to train for a marathon, you're not going to do it overnight.
Speaker C:If you want to retrain the self sabotage you're doing in your brain, then you have to just catch it.
Speaker C:Catch it.
Speaker C:Every time you have the thought that is not creating the energy in the right direction, shut it down right away and move it to the positive one.
Speaker C:And you get to a point where your subconscious just believes in the positive one, even if it hasn't happened yet.
Speaker C:And you can just create your own world.
Speaker B:You're retraining your brain in many ways.
Speaker B:The brain isn't anticipating failure, it's thinking about the possibilities instead.
Speaker B:You know, I have a music background and I'm thinking back on how our brains work.
Speaker B:I remember working on a difficult piece and there was one.
Speaker B:You always have something in the song that is more difficult and harder to master than other areas.
Speaker B:And I remember my teacher saying, don't just go to that section, go back a few measures and start.
Speaker B:And basically what that did, I think is stop my brain from anticipating that problem and I could sail through it eventually, right?
Speaker C:Yeah, yeah, That's a good strategy to look one step back.
Speaker C:The other thing too, with the training your brain and how your brain got to where it is right now is that we all have a map.
Speaker C:Right.
Speaker C:I think it's like a quilt.
Speaker C:And it's all the experiences that we've had so far.
Speaker C:And if you don't set the direction of those experiences, then life will do it for you.
Speaker C:And so you get these experiences that you didn't ask for, but they came your way.
Speaker C:And so now you're thinking, okay, well I can't do that because I tried it before and it didn't work?
Speaker C:Well, no.
Speaker C:Just because you tried it before and it didn't work doesn't mean it won't work when you try it again.
Speaker C:And so you are able to be the director, right?
Speaker C:Be the director and the producer and figure out what it is that you want out of your life and design it.
Speaker C:That's what it's all about.
Speaker C:It's designing your own life, reinventing yourself.
Speaker B:I like that.
Speaker B:Be the master of your own destiny.
Speaker C:Yeah.
Speaker C:Yeah.
Speaker C:Absolutely.
Speaker C:Absolutely.
Speaker B:So now the power of music.
Speaker B:I do believe that it's incredibly powerful.
Speaker B:I mean, it's a time machine.
Speaker B:You listen to a song, and you're back where you were when you were, say, 13 years old listening to that song.
Speaker B:You know, and if you want to get motivated, I know that if I'm cleaning the house or doing something that I don't particularly like, I put on some powerful music, and I'll be dancing around, and all of a sudden it's more fun.
Speaker B:So music can put us in different moods.
Speaker B:It can help us learn.
Speaker B:I mean, we use that as children, too.
Speaker B:The power of music and what it does with our emotions and our brain.
Speaker B:Did you want to talk a little bit about that?
Speaker B:Because you have some peak performance tools in your book, and you associate that and reinforce that with music.
Speaker B:I mean, that's powerful.
Speaker C:Oh, yeah.
Speaker C:And I even quote a Harvard Medical journal from their online site that they talk about how music actually gives you better memory, gives you better focus.
Speaker C:It opens up your mind.
Speaker C:It's a proven fact that music has the ability to elevate your brain.
Speaker C:And the dopamine that's created, it's just.
Speaker C:And I'm like you.
Speaker C:If I'm doing something, even working out, like, I'll go to the gym and put on some old 60s rock and roll Barry, and away I go.
Speaker C:There is no question that music can.
Speaker C:You know, as I brought forward earlier, it's healing, but it has a powerful, powerful effect on our brain.
Speaker B:Well, I can be in a bad mood and put on some music, you know, a song that maybe fits with what I'm trying to accomplish.
Speaker B:I feel better after listening to the song.
Speaker B:If I'm angry or something.
Speaker B:You could get an angry song out and sing it, and you know that I'm gonna do this, and you just feel better.
Speaker B:It does something like you said, the dopamine, all of the interactions, all of the neurochemical reactions in our brain.
Speaker B:I can share something here.
Speaker B:My mother had a disability.
Speaker B:She had herpes encephalitis.
Speaker B:It was actually a cold sore that went to her brain.
Speaker B:Really creepy.
Speaker B:It left her with a disability.
Speaker B:And I was working with her.
Speaker B:We had people helping her.
Speaker B:I got music from when she was in her 20s, and I brought it to the house.
Speaker B:And she liked to dance when she was in her 20s.
Speaker B:And I got her some dance lessons.
Speaker B:And then during the week, when she wasn't dancing at her lesson, she was listening to this music, and I saw an improvement in her.
Speaker B:It was really, really amazing.
Speaker C:Oh, that is so cool.
Speaker C:And good on you.
Speaker C:Kudos for doing that.
Speaker C:That's.
Speaker C:Yeah, yeah, that's exactly.
Speaker C:That's music.
Speaker B:It is.
Speaker B:And you know what was funny?
Speaker B:I went to one of her dance lessons.
Speaker B:I went to a few of them, and I was talking to the owner of the studio, and she was dancing with this young man on the dance floor, and she was leading.
Speaker B:And I.
Speaker C:And I said to the.
Speaker B:The owner of the studio, I said.
Speaker C:What is she doing?
Speaker B:She said, she actually learned a different technique in this ballroom dancing when she was in her 20s.
Speaker B:She's not incorrect.
Speaker B:She's remembering it.
Speaker B:And she's leading the instructor.
Speaker C:Too cute.
Speaker B:Yeah.
Speaker B:So music can reactivate maybe parts of our brain that have even been damaged, you think?
Speaker C:Absolutely.
Speaker C:Yeah, I absolutely believe it can.
Speaker C:And it's also like the movement, the dance movement that you're talking about.
Speaker C:So if you can.
Speaker C:Like, what I try to do with my keynotes is, you know, I'll talk for 10 minutes, and then I'll put one of my songs on.
Speaker C:On the big screen with the video, and I'll get everyone in the room to stand up and dance, or if they can't stand up, do the chair dance, but move.
Speaker C:Because that movement that you do, when you sit down and start listening again, your ability to absorb is higher.
Speaker B:It really is.
Speaker C:Yeah.
Speaker B:Your book, you said you have peak performance tools.
Speaker B:What are those tools?
Speaker B:I'm curious.
Speaker B:I'm sure our listeners would like to know, too.
Speaker C:Yeah, so there's like a ton of them throughout the book.
Speaker C:They weave throughout.
Speaker C:Whatever the chapter is.
Speaker C:Whatever I'm talking about, I did.
Speaker C:It's very.
Speaker C:It's very eclectic in all different areas of life.
Speaker C:Like, I did do a chapter on finance and gave folks a lot of little tools to, you know, if you do.
Speaker C:If you have investments, how to understand what's going on.
Speaker C:If you're just starting up, how to understand not to use credit card debt.
Speaker C:So there's a chapter on that, and then there's one that's staying young, I think this one's called, and it's about the foundation.
Speaker C:And it's about using the tools.
Speaker C:You know, the three main.
Speaker C:The three biggest things in your foundation is nutrition, exercise, and sleep.
Speaker C:Right.
Speaker C:If you can master those three or take them a level higher than what you have them right now, they're game changers.
Speaker C:You know, it's huge how much more energy you can have if you can get those three.
Speaker C:I mean, I always say our body is.
Speaker C:It's the machine that.
Speaker C:That's housing our brain.
Speaker C:And would you give, you know, cheap gas to a luxury car?
Speaker C:I don't think so.
Speaker C:Might not notice it right away, but the knocking's gonna start happening.
Speaker C:Like, you know, don't, don't.
Speaker C:Don't use filler as your food.
Speaker C:It's your fuel.
Speaker C:And so, you know, and I'm not saying the odd bag of chips is gonna make or break your.
Speaker C:Your situation, but.
Speaker C:But those are.
Speaker C:Yeah, those are some of the tools that.
Speaker C:And then.
Speaker C:And then I also talk about different things like follow through.
Speaker C:To me, follow through is what separates the successful people from the not so successful people.
Speaker C:It's not that they.
Speaker C:There's.
Speaker C:They have.
Speaker C:They're any smarter, they're any more connected.
Speaker C:It's that they found their secret sauce to be able to follow through on their ideas and get through the grinds.
Speaker C:You know, you talked about that grind when you're in a piece of music that is really challenging.
Speaker C:And, you know, just doing it so many more times is.
Speaker C:Is.
Speaker C:Is harder now.
Speaker C:It's not so easy because you've been trying so hard, but you gotta stick with it to get that breakthrough.
Speaker C:And so, you know, so that's.
Speaker C:Yeah, I try to.
Speaker C:I try to use all the different.
Speaker C:All those different areas to help people pick out the ones that work for them.
Speaker B:That's good.
Speaker B:Well, it has to be personalized.
Speaker B:And certainly everybody learns at a different level.
Speaker B:And they have likes and dislikes.
Speaker B:No one's alike.
Speaker B:And this is a personal way of approaching things.
Speaker B:But I think all of us can be guilty of.
Speaker B:When we see an obstacle, we will tell ourselves, gee, that's awfully tough.
Speaker B:I don't know if I can do that.
Speaker B:And maybe we adopt a mindset that tells us, like you were saying, that inner voice.
Speaker B:We push that away, we avoid it, we procrastinate, because we think it's going to be tougher than it really is until we really get into the middle of it.
Speaker B:And sometimes music, if you have it in the background, I think it can help.
Speaker C:Oh, yeah.
Speaker C:Especially if you're putting on, like, an example like you just said.
Speaker C:If your inner voice, you need your inner voice to say, of course I can do it, but I can beat that obstacle, then I'm putting on the eye of the tiger or we are the champions.
Speaker C:You know, I'm putting on something that's going to push me through this one.
Speaker B:Sure.
Speaker C:And then what you said, too, about we're all different.
Speaker C:Right.
Speaker C:That's another little technique.
Speaker C:A little tool I talk about in the book is, you know, there was a time where they used to say, you know, you have your strengths and your weaknesses and, you know, try to work on your weaknesses.
Speaker C:But now the thought process is more, delegate your weaknesses and take your strengths and build on them, because that's you.
Speaker C:Those are the things you like.
Speaker C:Those are the things you're good at.
Speaker C:Those are the things that are going to put the bounce in your staff.
Speaker C:And when it comes to living your best life, like, one of my big things is all about passion and purpose.
Speaker C:And I always say, find a job that you like, that you like doing.
Speaker C:Don't just go to the job for the paycheck.
Speaker C:Go to a job that puts a bounce in your step and a twinkle in your eye, and it's a lot easier.
Speaker C:It's a lot easier to do than people think.
Speaker C:Like an example that I give is, my son works in pest control, and he loves his job.
Speaker C:He absolutely loves it.
Speaker C:He loves being able to go into people's houses and explain to them what's going on, whether it's, you know, cockroaches or bed bugs.
Speaker C:He can explain to them what's going on, how he's going to treat it.
Speaker C:They leave their homes for the four hours, and then he does everything, and then they come back and they have peace of mind again.
Speaker C:And that's powerful that he's.
Speaker C:Now, that job would be my worst nightmare.
Speaker B:Oh, I would hate it.
Speaker C:I want to be near those little crazy.
Speaker C:Oh, no, no, no.
Speaker C:Yeah.
Speaker B:I just.
Speaker B:Like, I was going to say better to him than me.
Speaker B:I wouldn't want to do that at all.
Speaker C:That's what I'm saying.
Speaker C:A job that one person has that they love would be a job that another person would hate.
Speaker C:And you could switch jobs.
Speaker C:Like I just say, keep looking, don't settle.
Speaker C:I mean, you can't quit your job if you, you know, you need to pay your rent.
Speaker C:But, you know, while you're on your look for a job that you're going to like and find you spend half your life, sometimes more, half your waking hours at work.
Speaker C:So to me, it makes the most sense to find something you're passionate about.
Speaker C:Find your passion, find your purpose, and just go for it.
Speaker A:Stay tuned for more of Women Road warriors coming up.
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Speaker A:Welcome back to Women Road warriors with Shelly Johnson and Kathy Tucaro.
Speaker B:We've been talking about something that connects every culture, every generation and every heart.
Speaker B:Music.
Speaker B:It's more than just sound.
Speaker B:It's a force that stirs emotion, sparks memories and speaks where words fall short.
Speaker B:Our guest, Gail Taylor, has built her life around that truth.
Speaker B:She shows people how to switch their inner dialogue from self sabotage to empowerment.
Speaker B:After a high powered career in finance, she completely rewrote her story, launching a thriving music and speaking career in her 60s.
Speaker B:She's a songwriter, a philanthropist, and the author of Curveballs, where she shares both inspiring stories and practical tips for facing life's surprises head on.
Speaker B:She talks about the power of music on the brain and peak performance tools that people can use to empower themselves.
Speaker B:She recommends finding our passion and our purpose.
Speaker B:Gail's living proof that music and empowerment can change lives, and she's here to show us how it can change.
Speaker B:Yours too.
Speaker B:Do let's jump back into our conversation.
Speaker B:Gail there's some people who don't necessarily want to follow their passion because they're afraid, so they don't want to switch jobs.
Speaker B:What do you say to somebody?
Speaker B:And I'm sure you run into people like that who say, I have no choice, I can't do that.
Speaker B:I have to pay the bills and this is just my lot in life.
Speaker C:Yeah, so I go back to what I Just finished saying.
Speaker C:So, okay, so I'm a single.
Speaker C:This is.
Speaker C:This is a version of what you just said.
Speaker C:I'm a single mom, and I have three kids, and I have to pay the rent and put the groceries on the table.
Speaker C:I can't go find a job that I like.
Speaker C:And so I'm in this job that I hate because I have to be.
Speaker C:And my answer to that is, typically, you might be an anomaly, but typically, if you're in a job you hate, at the end of the day, when you're going home, you're literally putting one foot in front of the other.
Speaker C:You're emotionally and physically Dr. Because you've been doing something all day, and now you're walking into your home with.
Speaker C:With that energy for your three little kids.
Speaker C:Now, what if you had a job that you absolutely loved and you were bouncing into the house and saying, hey, who wants to play?
Speaker C:Instead of, you know, get in front of the DB while I cook your supper?
Speaker C:Like, I. I think you can't afford not to go after it, you know, instead of saying, I can't afford to do it.
Speaker C:You can't afford not to.
Speaker C:Our culture lets us settle.
Speaker C:So I get where that mindset comes from, but I don't buy it.
Speaker B:People do settle.
Speaker B:You hear it at different times of people's lives.
Speaker B:It's like, well, I'm getting older.
Speaker B:Not that I can do about that.
Speaker B:And it's like, yeah, I hear that, too.
Speaker C:But I. I mean, and even ageism now, right?
Speaker C:A lot of that.
Speaker C:I think that's the stupidest thing I've ever heard of.
Speaker C:I mean, some.
Speaker C:Some cultures understand the wisdom of the elders.
Speaker C:Ours thinks that, you know, you're done if you hit a certain age.
Speaker C:And I also, like, in the music industry, I mean, you.
Speaker C:You know, from.
Speaker C:From your music, like, they hit the age 30 and they think, oh, yeah, no, I didn't make it yet.
Speaker C:So I'm over the hill.
Speaker C:I got to go find a job that I hate and get right out of the industry.
Speaker C:And I'm thinking, well, maybe you can't be in the top 40.
Speaker C:But it's a pretty big industry, and I'm sure you can find a role within it that you're passionate about.
Speaker C:Sure, yeah.
Speaker B:You don't have to look like a teenager.
Speaker B:I mean, part of that is marketing and the mainstream media and the mainstream labels and all of that.
Speaker B:The major labels that have marketed the teenagers because they're marketing to teenagers.
Speaker B:But, yeah, there's a huge market of listeners.
Speaker B:Well, look at all of the Major icons, the music icons.
Speaker B:They're still performing.
Speaker B:A Mick Jagger.
Speaker B:He's in his 80s.
Speaker C:I know.
Speaker C:And he's on tour.
Speaker C:I love it.
Speaker C:I absolutely love it.
Speaker C:Yeah, he's on tour in his 80s.
Speaker C:I mean, look at Willie Nelson.
Speaker C:I mean, Mick Jagger I kind of get.
Speaker C:Because, you know, he's healthy and has exercised all his life.
Speaker C:But you get people like Keith Richards and those two blow me away.
Speaker C:Oh, yeah.
Speaker C:They're an anomaly when it comes to taking care of the foundation.
Speaker C:Right, right.
Speaker C:But they did something they were passionate about all their lives.
Speaker C:And I think that's where it shifts.
Speaker C:Shelley, you know, when I talked about coming from a place of healed scars and not open wounds, I think if you're living a life that is on purpose, that whatever happened in the past can be managed at a whole different level.
Speaker B:Maybe you don't have as much regret.
Speaker C:Yeah, yeah.
Speaker C:You're able to put it in its place and just enjoy the moment.
Speaker B:Yeah.
Speaker B:Because we do.
Speaker B:We can get entrenched with the shoulda woulda coulda's looking back going, if I'd only taken this different route.
Speaker B:And we kick ourselves.
Speaker B:And that's self defeating.
Speaker B:But if you have a passion about what you're doing, you have goals, you leave a legacy.
Speaker B:I mean, we are really all here, and if everyone thought that way, it would be great.
Speaker B:We're all here for a purpose.
Speaker B:We all have a purpose.
Speaker B:And if we go about life with intention, we help other people.
Speaker B:And that should be the legacy we all leave.
Speaker C:Absolutely, absolutely.
Speaker C:And what you just said, like, giving to me is so, so important.
Speaker C:And not just to the person you're giving to, but to yourself.
Speaker C:There's something called a giver's high and being able to look out and, you know, how can I give this person a leg up?
Speaker C:How can I help with this community?
Speaker C:What can I do?
Speaker C:That is just like, to me, that's the ultimate.
Speaker C:That's, you know, that's a very, very powerful place to be in.
Speaker B:Absolutely.
Speaker B:You're impacting others and you're facilitating their success and their legacy, so you're paying it forward.
Speaker B:And that's more powerful than anything you can think of, really.
Speaker B:You have a lot of people who've been out there, who've been stars and everything else, but if they haven't really made a huge impact on others, have they really done anything really?
Speaker B:You know, we don't have to be stars to be stars in our own right.
Speaker C:No, we don't.
Speaker C:We don't.
Speaker C:One of the songs I wrote's Called Home Away from Home.
Speaker C:And it's a real like kind of little rockabilly song about, you know, when you travel, get to know the locals.
Speaker C:They have the magic.
Speaker C:The locals have the magic.
Speaker C:And, you know, some of them are living in hell because of the poverty and some of the other issues in a lot of these.
Speaker C:These countries that have tourist industries.
Speaker C:So, you know, treat them with respect and.
Speaker C:Yeah, yeah.
Speaker C:I just think it's just so important.
Speaker C:It's a global community and they're all our neighbors.
Speaker B:They really are.
Speaker B:So where do people find you and can people find your book on your website and can they reach out to you?
Speaker B:I don't know.
Speaker B:Do you work with people individually or is it primarily keynote speaking to.
Speaker B:To big groups?
Speaker C:Yeah, keynote speaking.
Speaker C:I don't do any coaching or mentoring, but I can be reached on my website, which is just gailtaylormusic.com and Gail is spelled G A I L. Okay.
Speaker C:And so gailtaylormusic.com and then you can get all my social media connections.
Speaker C:But the books, Amazon, Barnes and Nobles, chapters Indigo, you can find the book anywhere you buy a book.
Speaker C:Sure.
Speaker B:And I love the title, Curveballs.
Speaker B:I mean, that pretty much says it all.
Speaker C:Right.
Speaker C:Right.
Speaker C:Yeah.
Speaker C:Well, that's it.
Speaker C:Right?
Speaker C:That's the whole.
Speaker C:It's all about the curveball.
Speaker C:Not the curveballs, but what you do with them.
Speaker C:And like, you brought forward in the beginning of this interview, sometimes it's a good thing to have that curveball because the insight and the growth that you got from experiencing it is really what you needed at that juncture in your life.
Speaker B:Well, the problem solving makes us innovative.
Speaker B:You know, a lot of the big inventions we've had through time were probably because of a curveball.
Speaker B:It's like, how do we solve this?
Speaker C:Yeah, yeah.
Speaker C:And often, especially in the medical profession, they were trying to solve something else, and it was an unintended consequence and it ended up being.
Speaker C:Yeah.
Speaker C:Being the solution.
Speaker C:And the other.
Speaker C:The other thing on that note, too is that.
Speaker C:And I talk about this in the book, the different personality types.
Speaker C:Right?
Speaker C:There's.
Speaker C:There's four different personality types and then there's 16 subtypes.
Speaker C:So you might look at somebody and say, well, you know, I want to be like that person, but I'm not.
Speaker C:Well, I love being on stage and I love doing the keynote speaking, and it just energizes me.
Speaker C:But I have a sister that.
Speaker C:That would.
Speaker C:Her worst nightmare.
Speaker C:She's shy.
Speaker C:She.
Speaker C:She doesn't want to be the center of attention.
Speaker C:You know, it's Just, it's not her personality, it's mine.
Speaker C:And.
Speaker C:And once you, you know, learn what your personality traits is, sometimes it's a good thing to study the four different personality traits, because then you can identify.
Speaker C:Oh, that's why they're different than me.
Speaker C:Right?
Speaker C:It's not that.
Speaker C:It's not that I'm broken.
Speaker C:Like, I actually thought I was broken because I liked attention until I realized that the different personality types and what was going on with my personality type, I thought, oh, you know, like, I was kind of brought up.
Speaker C:You're supposed to be humble and modest and in the background.
Speaker C:And that was the last thing I wanted to do.
Speaker C:You'll see on my website, I even bought myself a keytar so I could be at the front of the stage instead of the back, because the vocalist.
Speaker B:So you broke through the mold and.
Speaker C:You figured out who you are.
Speaker B:And I think that's what all of us need to do.
Speaker B:A lot of us, I think, bounce through life and never really know ourselves.
Speaker B:So this book will get people thinking.
Speaker B:I like it.
Speaker C:Yeah.
Speaker B:Yeah.
Speaker C:Self awareness.
Speaker C:Yeah, you hit it.
Speaker C:Self awareness.
Speaker C:And I don't care how old you are.
Speaker C:You know, you could be 20 years old and you could be 70 years old.
Speaker C:It doesn't matter.
Speaker C:You can still, you know, there's people that.
Speaker C:There's one lady got her PhD when she was 81.
Speaker C:Why not?
Speaker C:Yeah, why not?
Speaker C:Yeah, why not?
Speaker B:Age is just a number on the calendar.
Speaker B:That's all it is.
Speaker C:It's a human concept, right?
Speaker C:There's old people in their 20s, and there's young people in their 80s.
Speaker B:I've met the old people in their 20s.
Speaker B:I've heard things.
Speaker B:It's like, what did you just say?
Speaker B:I'm not as young as I used to be.
Speaker B:What?
Speaker B:Oh, okay.
Speaker C:Yeah, yeah.
Speaker B:It's crazy.
Speaker C:And smile a lot, because smiling actually.
Speaker C:Oh, I actually heard this one from Tony Robbins.
Speaker C:This is a really good one.
Speaker C:If you're all upset about something and so the negative thoughts are going on and you're all upset about something, try getting mad at the person that you're trying to get mad at with a big smile on your face.
Speaker C:You know, vent, vent and whine to me about something.
Speaker C:I'll say, okay, you want to vent to me?
Speaker C:No problem.
Speaker C:But I want you to do it with a smile on your face.
Speaker C:It's impossible because as soon as you smile, your brain thinks that you're happy at home.
Speaker C:Get caught in the wozy wozy me place.
Speaker B:A smile actually creates endorphins.
Speaker C:Yes, it does it?
Speaker C:Absolutely does.
Speaker B:Yeah.
Speaker B:So where do people find you again, Gail, and your book?
Speaker C:Gailtaylormusic.com is my website and my book.
Speaker C:You can get a link to my book on my website, but you can also find my book anywhere that you buy a book.
Speaker C:So Amazon, if you do the E version of the book.
Speaker C:So Kindle and Apple as well.
Speaker C:And I'm almost done the audio version and I'm narrating it myself so you get to listen to my giggles.
Speaker B:Excellent.
Speaker B:This has been a blast talking to you, Gail.
Speaker B:I feel better just talking to you.
Speaker B:This is great.
Speaker C:Thank you.
Speaker C:Thank you.
Speaker C:And I really enjoyed talking to you.
Speaker C:This was pretty cool.
Speaker B:We've covered a lot of topics, but not everything.
Speaker B:Certainly there's so much here that we have to unpack, but I think that we got a good start and we got people maybe thinking in a new way.
Speaker B:So we've accomplished something there.
Speaker B:That's great.
Speaker C:Go for it.
Speaker C:That's what I say.
Speaker B:You got this, you got it.
Speaker B:I love it.
Speaker B:Thank you, Gail.
Speaker B:This has been great.
Speaker C:Oh, thanks for having me.
Speaker B:We hope you've enjoyed this latest episode.
Speaker B:And if you want to hear more episodes of Women Road warriors or learn more about our show, be sure to check out womenroadwarriors.com and please follow us on social media.
Speaker B:And don't forget to subscribe to our podcast on our website.
Speaker B:We also have a selection of podcasts Just for Women.
Speaker B:They're a series of podcasts from different podcasters.
Speaker B:So if you're in the mood for women's podcasts, just click the Power network tab on womenroadwarriors.com youm'll have a variety of shows to listen to anytime you want to.
Speaker B:Podcasts Made for Women Women Road warriors is on all the major podcast channels like Apple, Spotify, Amazon, Audible, YouTube and others.
Speaker B:Check us out and please follow us wherever you listen to podcasts.
Speaker B:Thanks for listening.
Speaker A:You've been listening to Women Road warriors with Shelly Johnson and Kathy Tucaro.
Speaker A:If you want to be a guest on the show or have a topic or feedback, email us@sjohnsonomenroadwarriors.com.
