MARCH 2, 2026What song has shaped you as a coach?
Back in 2014, while working as a librarian in Springfield, Missouri, I cofounded a musical book club. We wanted to explore what happens when one creative work inspires another, so some colleagues and I called on local musicians to read the month's book selection, write an original song in response, and perform it live at Lindberg's Tavern (a format pioneered by the Bushwick Book Club).
We named it Wild Bob's Musical Book Club, after a minor character in our first book, Slaughterhouse-Five. Twelve years and hundreds of songs later, an expanded community of musicians still gathers to perform for crowds. On stage, each person shares their song and what sparked it from the book. Sometimes it's a specific scene or a character, other times a feeling evoked. Same source material, wonderfully (and wildly) different meaning-making. That's what made it worthwhile, and in part, why I believe strongly in team and group coaching. What we can see together is always wider, deeper, and more useful than what any one of us can see alone.
There's so much I could share about those early musical book club days. How the format returned people to books and songwriting, or kindled a love of reading for the first time. How meaningful it was to become part of a local music scene, tightening existing bonds and creating on-ramps for others. There was a creative aliveness that threaded us all together and opened up formative conversations. I even performed a song of my own at one of our shows as a way to work through a difficult life experience, the way only creating art and meaning-making can (a story for another time).
The same current runs through music and coaching, song lyrics and reflective inquiry. Neither tells you what to think, and they have a profound way of opening you up to take a look at things for yourself. They stir something from within and create conditions in which what's latent becomes audible. From there, new possibilities emerge.
I've been especially fired up lately by Priya Parker's recent Group Life sessions on music and gatherings: her learning lab on how to use music to change a gathering (where we sang together in a segment led by James Sills of Sofa Singers), and her conversation on listening bars with Cornelius Byrd of ALL BLUES. In fact, last week I went with a friend to the Shibuya HiFi Listening Bar here in Seattle. It was an intimate and reverent atmosphere, and it felt good to give a John Coltrane album our full attention (another story for another time).
So what's a song that's shaped who you are as a coach or business owner, or holds particular meaning for your practice? I'd love to know.
For me that song is River Flows In You by Yiruma. I'll leave it there (for now!). We're kicking off the first group session of Thoughtful with this question as a way of getting to know each other.
What's your song? And how does music show up in your coaching, or could it? There's nothing I love more than coming a few minutes early to a training or group coaching session with an intentional playlist welcoming us in.
Alright, let's get to it. Hope you have a great week.
Mallory
P.S. Last Call: It's not too late to join us for Thoughtful. Our first session is April 1st (no jokes) and I'm offering a pilot rate for this first run. Hit reply if you're curious, or to get on the waitlist for the next cohort.
