Latest / Authentic Living / Tap into Your Heart and Turn Lemons into Lemonade with Peter Katz

Transcript

Tap into Your Heart and Turn Lemons into Lemonade with Peter Katz · Authentic Living

• 0:01
  Welcome to authentic living with Roxanne, a place where we have as conversations about
• 0:08
  things that really matter in our lives.
• 0:11
  And now here's your host, Roxanne Derhodge.
• 0:36
  Everyone, it's, Roxanne Derhodge of authentic living with Roxanne.
• 0:40
  So thanks for tuning in again this week.
• 0:42
  Today, I have, Peter Katz, Peter brings a little bit of a different experience to us,
• 0:47
  having having a Juno nominated musician.
• 0:50
  I would say that that's the first time I've had someone with this background on the he's a
• 0:56
  musician and a storyteller.
• 0:57
  So, Peter, thanks so much for giving us your time today.
• 1:00
  Oh, my pleasure.
• 1:01
  Thanks for having me.
• 1:02
  So, Peter and I, I I was, trying to remember where our paths are crossed, and he had, was
• 1:08
  visiting, the Canadian association of professional speakers that we had realized we
• 1:13
  had met really, really briefly there.
• 1:15
  So let me tell you a little bit about Peter, and we're gonna talk or jump right into what he
• 1:18
  speaks on.
• 1:19
  And, on on the with his keynote kind of, speaking engagements that he does.
• 1:24
  So like I said, he's in a junior Juno Award and Canadian Screen award nominated sing singer
• 1:30
  songwriter as well as one of the country's most in demand keynote speakers.
• 1:35
  He's toured the world in support of his music as sharing the stage with some musicians like,
• 1:41
  Glenn Hansford and Garth Hudson from the band.
• 1:44
  And, he has, has a gift of storytelling, and he's a four time, TEDx fellow.
• 1:52
  So that's, gonna be neat to talk a little bit about.
• 1:54
  He uses his work to inspire people to create create their own path, overcome obstacles and
• 2:00
  find success in whatever they desire.
• 2:03
  So, Peter, tell us, I mean, that's a unique background.
• 2:06
  So I'm gonna assume I'm gonna talk a little bit about, you know, where you got in your path of
• 2:13
  music, because I would think that, you know, that, way of getting into the world could be a
• 2:19
  difficult p path when you're trying to kind of, you know, the music path and then how it got
• 2:23
  you to the point where you started to talk about resilience.
• 2:26
  So maybe tell us a little bit about you and and, how you got into the music world.
• 2:31
  Yeah.
• 2:31
  For sure.
• 2:32
  You know, that music was sort of something I love to do as a kid.
• 2:36
  I, you know, played piano played violin and, you know, started playing guitar.
• 2:40
  And as soon as I started playing guitar, started writing songs that I don't know.
• 2:45
  Those impulses for me were just connected.
• 2:48
  I think there was a simplicity to the guitar that you could just know a few chords, and then
• 2:52
  you could already kind of start creating your own songs.
• 2:57
  So, yeah, I mean, that, you know, the whole story of how I I got into my music career is is
• 3:02
  a is a a long one with many twists and turns, but You know, ultimately, I I kind of committed
• 3:08
  to to to a life as a singer songwriter, back in 2004.
• 3:15
  And soon after that, well, I put up my first, you know, made it in the my friend's laundry
• 3:20
  closet kinda album.
• 3:23
  And, and started, you know, touring across Canada and, you know, sleeping on floors and
• 3:30
  driving through snowstorms and kind of Nice people feeding me and, and I I got myself up to
• 3:38
  between a 150 and 200 shows a year.
• 3:41
  And I did that for for years.
• 3:44
  And then I, you know, started touring in Europe and and the whole idea was just kind of one
• 3:50
  person at a time, one show at a time, you know, shaking hands and kind of building a real
• 3:58
  career.
• 3:59
  And at the same time, in my mind, I also knew that the only way that I was gonna get great at
• 4:05
  it was to do it all the time.
• 4:07
  You know, it it it I was never going to be able to perform at the level that I wanted format or
• 4:15
  right at the level that I wanted to write at or connect at the level that I wanted to connect
• 4:18
  at, if I didn't kinda get my, you know, Malcolm Gladwell's 10000 hours.
• 4:23
  And so as much as those, you know, it was kind of a crazy many, many, many years of doing that
• 4:30
  intensity of of shows, it didn't it didn't matter so much that it it was kinda slow going
• 4:38
  for the 1st many years, and there weren't a lot of people coming because I was like, well, this
• 4:42
  is I'm I'm cutting my teeth here.
• 4:44
  You know, I I'm I I knew that I wasn't as good yet as I wanted to be, and so I didn't expect
• 4:51
  it to work because I was like, well, I'm this is this is me learning how to do this.
• 4:56
  And then, you know, after probably 10 years, I felt like, okay.
• 5:05
  I'm good at this now.
• 5:06
  And now I need to sort of dial it back so that I I'm not devaluing myself by saying yes to
• 5:12
  everything.
• 5:15
  And around the same time as that happened you know, there had been, I sort of hit a critical
• 5:24
  amount of people where I could you know, go across Canada and I could play, you know, 20,
• 5:30
  25 shows, you know, various cities across Canada and get several hundred people out in
• 5:34
  each of places that would come see me and and same in the Netherlands and, you know, couple
• 5:38
  of other European markets.
• 5:39
  It started to it started to look like a thing.
• 5:44
  And one of the things that happened is this mentoring group in Southern Alberta that works
• 5:50
  with youth had been using my songs as part of their curriculum.
• 5:56
  And there's a whole other story there, but essentially, they invited me to come work with
• 6:00
  them, and I I did all this work with youth, and I I still do it.
• 6:03
  I'm not this summer, unfortunately, because of everything's canceled.
• 6:07
  But, But the the reason that's significant to my speaking career is is that they I became
• 6:15
  friends with these people who are all teachers.
• 6:18
  And they had been coming to my shows.
• 6:22
  And my friend Dave pulled me aside one day, and he said, hey.
• 6:25
  The stories that you tell on stage kind of the way that you've lived your life.
• 6:30
  He's like, I think it's a it's an inspiring story to tell and combined with the music.
• 6:34
  He's like, you you need to turn this into a presentation, like a talk.
• 6:40
  And I didn't even I'd never thought of that, but he you know, help me kinda create that
• 6:46
  initial incarnation of it.
• 6:48
  And all of a sudden, I found myself doing this, like, hour long presentation for youth.
• 6:52
  Which kind of got my toe in the in the speaking world.
• 6:56
  And then a couple years later, I was at a event that, you know, our mutual friend Blake Fly was
• 7:05
  was doing.
• 7:06
  And, you know, he knew that I had been doing a of speaking stuff, and he also knew my music.
• 7:11
  And so he said, hey.
• 7:12
  At the end of my event, would you get up and say a little something about what we've all
• 7:17
  just experienced here tonight and then play a song.
• 7:19
  And so I got up and I just do what I do, and I said some things and played a song.
• 7:24
  And there was somebody in the audience who saw me and said, hey.
• 7:30
  I'm involved with this conference called Fireside.
• 7:33
  You need to come give a keynote at this conference.
• 7:38
  And so she pitched me to Fireside, and it just so happened, you know, this is the this is sort
• 7:43
  of these, like, cumulative effect things.
• 7:45
  That the guy that runs Fireside, his favorite song of all time was one of my songs.
• 7:49
  Oh, wow.
• 7:50
  And so he put me as the closing keynote because he thought I was Bono or something.
• 7:56
  You know?
• 7:56
  So he put me as the closing keynote to all 450 delegates, even though there was, you know,
• 8:02
  like, the head of innovation for General Motors and all these CEOs and all these fancy people,
• 8:07
  I I was the Saturday night at 8 PM closing keynote for this conference.
• 8:13
  Amazing.
• 8:14
  It was amazing.
• 8:15
  And so I, again, I recognized that this was a bit of a coup.
• 8:19
  You know, this was kind of a huge opportunity.
• 8:21
  And so I worked with with Blake and and, you know, several of my speaker friends and and and
• 8:27
  built this talk for, you know, entrepreneurs for the and for the more business world and
• 8:33
  delivered this talk and I felt 450 people all at once, like, lean in.
• 8:40
  And I re it was it was the most validating moment of my life where all of the things that
• 8:47
  I've done kinda culminated in this format for what I do.
• 8:53
  And that one talk changed my life because, you know, there was all kinds of fancy people in
• 8:59
  the audience who, immediately pitched me to speaker spotlight, which is, you know, you
• 9:04
  know, the top speaking agency in the country and they became my agent, and then my speaking
• 9:10
  career just kind of was like a rags to riches story and it it it really it worked.
• 9:18
  And it's it's been working, you know, amazingly well.
• 9:21
  And and I I just love it so much.
• 9:24
  It and it's it just it just dovetails so well with my career as an artist, and it it's you
• 9:31
  know, I'm just gonna keep quoting Blake here, but Blake Blake said he's like, you know, your
• 9:34
  music career is your laboratory and your speaking career is where you present your
• 9:38
  results.
• 9:39
  And so I just love having this these two things that work so well together and I can go back to
• 9:49
  the well and write the music and kind of bang my head against the wall and and kind of, you
• 9:54
  know, basically live the stories and the challenges that then make me relevant as a
• 9:59
  speaker.
• 10:01
  And so
• 10:02
  What what a perfect combination of, you know, you know, the skills along with this subsection
• 10:08
  of being ready and and and right place at right time.
• 10:12
  Absolutely.
• 10:13
  And and I've also loved, you know, sort of like I talked about, you know, that I I kinda spent
• 10:18
  my 10 years kind of learning how to be a good sing or songwriter when I and performer, when I
• 10:24
  moved over into the speaking space, again, I I do both.
• 10:28
  I'm about to put on a new album so that the two happening at the same time.
• 10:31
  It's kind of all one career.
• 10:34
  But when I moved over to the speaking side, there was portions of my talk that I could
• 10:40
  immediately do at a world class level, you know, because, like, I I I always play songs as
• 10:44
  part of my talk I always tell stories as part of my talk, and I'm very comfortable doing
• 10:49
  those things because I've played 1500 shows where I do that.
• 10:51
  But then there was the, like, but they're like, okay.
• 10:55
  You know, this company, they have this problem or or this, you know, they need this solution
• 11:01
  or whatever or this is the story that needs to be told or, you know, these are the challenges
• 11:06
  that our employees are facing or this is what we need to celebrate or blah blah blah.
• 11:09
  So I had to learn a new craft as far as I always say that sort of writing a talk is like,
• 11:16
  you know, writing a great talk is like writing a a Seinfeld where, like, this happens and then
• 11:20
  this happens and this happens and they all come together in this great way at the end.
• 11:24
  You know?
• 11:25
  But I I I've loved I've loved that, you know, over the the last several years of of also
• 11:33
  doing professional speaking that I feel like I'm getting better and better and better at it
• 11:37
  and learning and learning and learning.
• 11:38
  And I the way my brain works is I just love that stimulation of of just the challenge of
• 11:45
  solving the riddle of just, you know, how do I connect with this audience?
• 11:50
  It's Mhmm.
• 11:51
  Yeah.
• 11:51
  I I love it.
• 11:52
  So let's talk about resilience, right, because obviously anybody that's trying to make it in,
• 11:59
  you know, the movie industry or the music is industry, the element of resilience, I would
• 12:04
  say, would would be the big r resilience.
• 12:06
  So when you think of resilience, define it for me as you know it, and or more so how you've
• 12:12
  experienced it and what, you know, how you think about resilience when you get out there
• 12:16
  and you kind of, deal with people.
• 12:20
  I mean, I, you know, I always bow down to the feet of Brene Brown, you know, who's kind of as
• 12:25
  soon as I hear the word resilience, I think of Brene.
• 12:27
  But you know, and my my sort of lived experience of it is a fundamental belief or a
• 12:35
  fundamental connection to the sense of I am what I say I am, and I I'm I'm going to do what
• 12:44
  I'm going to do no matter what.
• 12:47
  And and so, you know, like, I I am my sort of purpose in my life is is to connect with people
• 12:57
  and to help people connect with their hearts.
• 12:59
  You know?
• 13:01
  And no matter what, no matter what happens, even if I face rejection because this person
• 13:08
  doesn't book me or or, like, what my life is a see of rejection, you know, like, it's it's
• 13:14
  just constant nose.
• 13:17
  But to me, it's like, well, there is nothing that can knock me off of that path and that
• 13:27
  when you get knocked down, you get back up.
• 13:30
  And I think, you know, when I think of resilience, I also think about about
• 13:33
  vulnerability, about authenticity, I think about you know, that that it's not about being
• 13:40
  resilient is not about being a robot.
• 13:42
  It's about being a human being going through those processes.
• 13:47
  And as you move through the world, the things that happened to you you turn them into wisdom.
• 13:54
  You turn them into strength.
• 13:56
  You go through a really hard thing.
• 13:59
  And that thing makes you realize, wow.
• 14:02
  I can do hard things.
• 14:04
  You have your heart broken and you say, Wow.
• 14:08
  Look at how much I had put my heart out there.
• 14:13
  I I'm gonna do that again.
• 14:15
  Or, like, or I'm gonna I'm gonna learn what I wanna learn from this, need to learn from this,
• 14:20
  but I'm going to, like, you your your cumulative experiences make you bigger,
• 14:27
  stronger, wiser, softer, gentler, you know, it's like when you speak to that old, old, old
• 14:34
  person, and and they're just so wise and and and calm.
• 14:39
  It's it's because they've taken all the experiences in their life and they've it's made
• 14:44
  them just the the most beautiful human self.
• 14:48
  And so I think resilience is is being on that path.
• 14:53
  And, you know, for for me, there's been so many resilience tests, like, through the pandemic
• 15:00
  and and
• 15:01
  So let's talk about that because I've I envision, you know, to get what you where
• 15:07
  you've gotten, like you said, you had to have gotten a whole lot of nose along the way.
• 15:12
  And so if you think of that and most most people, they hear no, and they go, oh,
• 15:19
  goodness.
• 15:20
  I can't I can't take that anymore.
• 15:22
  And you said that you stay connected to your heart amidst this.
• 15:25
  Tell me how you do that because that's that's something that I talk a lot about in leadership
• 15:30
  is is really kind of zoning into why do you do what you do?
• 15:34
  And the more connected you become to yourself and really what inspires you that allows you to
• 15:39
  impact others around you.
• 15:40
  And if you're able to do it, it's like an, you know, an osmosis mostly Moses effect in that.
• 15:46
  If I'm connected and I know what I do, why I do what I do, then I'm able to kind of impart that
• 15:50
  onto others.
• 15:52
  Absolutely.
• 15:53
  I I fully agree with that.
• 15:55
  You know?
• 15:55
  So for for me, you know, this is one of the things I talk about in my talk is is I talk
• 16:01
  about the my this thing I came up with called my head on the pillow rule, which is, you know,
• 16:05
  when I put my head on the pillow at night every night, I always ask myself Have I tried my
• 16:10
  best?
• 16:11
  Have I helped others to do their best?
• 16:13
  And that's that that's just like this nightly connection with my integrity.
• 16:20
  And and it's not an integrity based on anybody else's standards, anybody else's expectations.
• 16:27
  It's just like Peter versus Peter have try my best, have I helped others to do their best?
• 16:32
  And I feel like being connected to our integrity is is is so fundamental because it it
• 16:41
  gives everything that you do.
• 16:43
  It gives it a sense of purpose.
• 16:45
  And so when I have that sense of purpose of knowing what I'm doing and and and and why I'm
• 16:52
  doing it and and how I'm doing it, like, doing it in a way that I'm that I'm proud of, then it
• 16:59
  doesn't matter.
• 17:01
  Like, I don't control the outcomes.
• 17:02
  Right?
• 17:03
  Like, it doesn't matter.
• 17:03
  What matters is is is kind of how I'm showing up.
• 17:07
  And so, you know, I think that muscle was actually built in me.
• 17:11
  I I I'm just thinking of this right now as I'm as I'm talking to you, I think that muscle was
• 17:16
  actually built inside of me through all of the shows that I played when there was nobody
• 17:21
  there.
• 17:21
  You know?
• 17:22
  And I distinctly remember deciding that even though there was nobody there, I was gonna play
• 17:32
  my heart out because it was a matter of of self respect of I drove myself here sometimes for 8
• 17:41
  hours, you know, like, I'm sleeping on a floor tonight, but In this moment, I'm standing on a
• 17:49
  stage, and I'm playing these songs that I wrote, and the dumbest thing that I could do
• 17:56
  right now would be to not show up with integrity to myself of I'm trying my best And
• 18:04
  sometimes there's one person in the audience, and I'm like, I'm giving them the show as if
• 18:09
  I'm playing to 10,000.
• 18:11
  And I can honestly say from my heart, I've played over 1500 shows.
• 18:17
  I have never ever given less than a 110% on stage.
• 18:22
  I know that.
• 18:24
  And so that's what gets me through.
• 18:27
  I think when you lose that sense of self respect.
• 18:29
  When you lose that sense of integrity, you lose that sense of purpose, and then there's just
• 18:35
  nothing in the tank.
• 18:36
  You know?
• 18:37
  So that moral perspective is because I talk a lot about authentic leadership
• 18:41
  and
• 18:42
  that internal GPS, which is that space that you go to,
• 18:46
  and
• 18:46
  you need to check into often when you're when you're getting those rejections.
• 18:50
  And I'm sure you have seen people that have lost that connection, that lose their way.
• 18:55
  Yeah.
• 18:56
  Honestly, it it's it's it's so hard.
• 18:58
  I mean, the the music business is so hard.
• 19:01
  And I I'm seeing it, you know, like, I I could cry right now if I if I shared some of the
• 19:07
  stories about some of my musician friends right now and just what they're going through and And
• 19:11
  I I can't even blame them, you know, but but, you know, it's because it's such a it's there's
• 19:16
  so many musicians out there that were already, like, just getting by.
• 19:22
  They were working so hard and, you know, like, gig to gig to gig and and and, you know, with
• 19:31
  everything shut down, they're they're just sort of done.
• 19:35
  But even pre pandemic, you know, almost every single artist that I kinda started with that we
• 19:45
  were playing with.
• 19:46
  They everybody stopped.
• 19:47
  And I I don't blame anybody for that.
• 19:49
  That's that's not a judgment.
• 19:50
  You know?
• 19:50
  But I I've seen people sort of lose that hope and and it's so hard.
• 19:57
  You know, it's really hard.
• 20:00
  And so I I think, like, well, why am I why am I sort of one of the last man standing is I think
• 20:07
  because of of that, it has been so important to to to constantly go back to to that inner
• 20:15
  connection to myself and to constantly go back to the work to to go back to, okay, pick up the
• 20:24
  guitar, sit down at the piano, like, put on some music that you love and learn it, do the
• 20:29
  thing that you're you say you are.
• 20:32
  I'm a singer songwriter.
• 20:35
  Make sure I'm writing songs and singing them, you know, no matter what, you're a you're a
• 20:39
  speaker, you're a educator, you're a whatever.
• 20:42
  Whatever you're passionate about, most of your time needs to be spent doing the thing and or
• 20:52
  as much as you possibly can.
• 20:53
  And at the same time, you know, I I remember hearing Cheryl Strade who wrote wild and, you
• 20:57
  know, by great books.
• 20:58
  You know, she talked about, okay, you're a writer?
• 21:01
  You're a writer.
• 21:02
  Even if you're a busy parent with 9 kids.
• 21:07
  And and and you only get to write for 1 hour a month every Sunday from 2 to 3 PM.
• 21:14
  You're a writer.
• 21:15
  And and so never never let anybody take that away from you.
• 21:21
  You know, I I love that movie searching for Sugar Man, you know, that I for those who don't
• 21:25
  know the story, you know, this song songwriter named Rodriguez who kind of things didn't ghost
• 21:31
  the way that they were supposed to go in his career.
• 21:33
  And then in his, like, sixties, he realized that his music was actually massive in South
• 21:38
  Africa, and he went to South Africa and literally was playing arenas.
• 21:42
  You know, his music had been, like, the voice of a generation and he was working construction
• 21:48
  in Detroit.
• 21:50
  And I look at that movie and, you know, he didn't have a chip on his shoulder.
• 21:55
  He's like, I'm a singer songwriter.
• 21:58
  I'm a I'm a writer.
• 21:59
  I'm an artist.
• 21:59
  I make music, and I put them out in the world.
• 22:01
  And just because he didn't know it wasn't working doesn't mean it wasn't working.
• 22:07
  And and so I think, like, whatever it is that you're doing it's about showing up for that
• 22:15
  thing, always trying to get better at it, and then obviously, like, that connection to self
• 22:20
  and that, like, integrity and that kind of loving loving kindness that you need to give
• 22:24
  yourself when you face all of the rejection is is essential because it's hard.
• 22:29
  Yeah, that loving kindness, and I often talk, about connecting to what we call in the
• 22:34
  clinical world, the EP, which is the emotional part that deep part within yourself that
• 22:39
  intuitively you get to, Peter, as an artist and also, a speaker, you have to go into a deep
• 22:45
  space within self to listen to that intuitive voice.
• 22:48
  That's so deep, right, which is so elusive
• 22:52
  Oh, gosh.
• 22:52
  Because we have the white noise everywhere.
• 22:54
  Right?
• 22:55
  It's it's like it's like bullhorns in our ears all the time, and and until you can override
• 22:59
  that on an ongoing basis, it becomes difficult to listen.
• 23:04
  But let's talk a little bit about how you stay intuitively connected, and let's also talk
• 23:09
  about the supports that you have around you.
• 23:11
  What kind of support systems?
• 23:13
  Because I think that becomes very key.
• 23:15
  We can do a lot of things for ourselves, but we need we need people around us that kind of even
• 23:19
  when we're self doubting, they become the reflective lens that we need to kind of look
• 23:24
  around even though we not be we'll not be believing in ourselves at that time.
• 23:28
  Yeah.
• 23:28
  Absolutely.
• 23:28
  So I'll sort of take that as a 2 part question because the the, you know, the sort of way that
• 23:33
  I sort of stay connected and make sure that I'm kind of okay to me really comes down to the
• 23:40
  fundamentals and remembering that I'm like this, you know, bag of bones and that that that
• 23:47
  I'm a human.
• 23:48
  And so I need to do fundamental things to keep this human body okay.
• 23:54
  So you know, you can I've just had a workout.
• 23:56
  My hair's a little crazy, right before this interview.
• 23:59
  So, you know, like, seeing exercise and health as a nonnegotiable has been absolutely vital,
• 24:08
  you know, like, you know, I I remember reading the, you know, Barack Obama you know, was
• 24:11
  president of the United States, and he would work out every single morning for an hour no
• 24:15
  matter what.
• 24:15
  So if he has time, we all have time.
• 24:18
  And and and so that it seems like an obvious thing, but I really see health and and and
• 24:26
  fitness and taking that time as another act of self respect.
• 24:31
  Of of I'm worth it.
• 24:33
  And and I used to I used to exercise because I didn't I didn't wanna be overweight.
• 24:40
  That was, like, my initial and that's not that motivating.
• 24:44
  You know?
• 24:44
  It's like it's motivating for a time.
• 24:46
  But it's kind of superficial and it's it's it's you you you kind of give up at a certain point.
• 24:52
  Right?
• 24:53
  But probably 5 or 6 years ago, I I kinda did this shift where I started to see exercise and,
• 25:02
  you know, taking care of my body as this this gift and this thing that was I'm doing this
• 25:12
  just for me.
• 25:13
  I'm not trying to win a race.
• 25:16
  I'm not to I think this is this is my me time.
• 25:19
  This is, like, And I started craving it, like, you would crave a piece of chocolate cake.
• 25:25
  And if I was sitting and I would see somebody running by, I'd be like, Oh, like, I I want
• 25:30
  that too.
• 25:31
  And and as soon as I kind of made that shift, then I fell in love with with that physical
• 25:40
  activity, and it became something that I I love to do.
• 25:44
  And every time I do it, I feel proud of myself.
• 25:48
  I feel my mental health is better.
• 25:50
  Like, everything feels better.
• 25:51
  So that's been such an important thing.
• 25:53
  Same thing goes with with what I eat.
• 25:55
  You know?
• 25:56
  Like, I I I eat whole food plant based, so, you know, vegan diet.
• 26:00
  And again, it's like every time I'm eating, I'm I'm giving love to my body.
• 26:06
  I'm eating things that that that fuel me, that make me feel good, that give me mental clarity,
• 26:12
  that don't There I'm not in conflict with any of my ethics, with any of the planet.
• 26:18
  Like, everything feels aligned with every meal that I eat.
• 26:22
  You know, I I have a a mindfulness coach that I work with and and a therapist that I work with.
• 26:28
  And so, again, those things you know, the it's it's cost money, and I have to work hard to
• 26:35
  make that money, but it it's it's like, it's these are all gifts that I give myself.
• 26:40
  So that I can go do the work that I I wanna do out in the world and and I can have that deep
• 26:45
  well that I can get on stage and I can give of myself or I can drive wherever I need to drive
• 26:51
  or do whatever work I need to do in order to be able to spill over as a performer, as a
• 26:57
  speaker, I need to be filling that well every day.
• 27:02
  Sleep is another one too.
• 27:04
  I mean, these are all just basic things, but if I didn't say them, I would be missing the most
• 27:10
  important things.
• 27:11
  You know?
• 27:13
  And so Those to me are kind of the fundamentals.
• 27:16
  And then as far as support networks, this is actually something that I talk about in my
• 27:19
  talks as I talk about lifelines.
• 27:21
  And lifelines are are those kinda 1 or 2 key people in your life with whom there's no
• 27:26
  disconnect between how you need to be on the outside and what it feels like to be who you
• 27:31
  are on the inside.
• 27:33
  And I feel like those lifeline relationships, they don't just happen.
• 27:37
  Their their relationships that need to be intentionally nurtured.
• 27:43
  And so there's a few key people in my life that I I keep that open lifeline too.
• 27:51
  And if I'm really struggling with something where I've I've faced so much rejection, and
• 27:57
  it's not something that I I feel like I can sort of publicly share because I'm trying to
• 28:02
  sort of have a certain perceived value as a speaker or as an artist or whatever.
• 28:08
  I have somebody, some some key people out there that I know I feel seen by and that they know
• 28:15
  that this is what I'm dealing with.
• 28:18
  And and I also can see them.
• 28:21
  And and that's so, so, so vital.
• 28:25
  You know, in my talk, I go into sort of longer stories about how important lifeline
• 28:29
  connections are.
• 28:30
  But,
• 28:32
  So how do you how did you because that becomes a very important is vulnerability.
• 28:36
  Right?
• 28:36
  Like, here you are.
• 28:37
  Like, you see a perceived value or persona.
• 28:40
  And so there's yes.
• 28:42
  In order to cultivate those lifelines.
• 28:44
  There may have been some things that you had to do a bit differently to be able to let those
• 28:48
  people know.
• 28:49
  Here I am.
• 28:50
  This is Peter.
• 28:50
  This is you know, public persona feeder.
• 28:53
  Yeah.
• 28:53
  And then there's Peter, all encompassing feeder, every element.
• 28:57
  And but that takes a lot of strength to be able to be that vulnerable to people in your life.
• 29:02
  Yeah.
• 29:03
  It does.
• 29:04
  I mean, I think you know, you have to invest in it because it it it in order to really go
• 29:11
  there, you need to build that trust and safety.
• 29:14
  You know, it's like, I don't think you can just run around and, like, kinda overshare with
• 29:19
  everybody and and expect to sort of have that genuine safety.
• 29:24
  I'm not I'm not sort of criticizing people that are, you know, vulnerable publicly or anything
• 29:29
  like that.
• 29:29
  I mean, I I am too.
• 29:31
  But I think that that really core deep sort of scene and be seen kind of experience, I think
• 29:40
  requires an intentional investment of time and energy and and and an intentional statement, as
• 29:49
  well of, hey, Can we be this for each other?
• 29:54
  You know?
• 29:54
  Like, I think you it it grows, but also and so one one little thing that I do with my
• 29:59
  lifelines is we'll we will text each other the words.
• 30:03
  What's your update?
• 30:05
  And what's your update is a queue to say it's different than how's it going.
• 30:12
  Right?
• 30:12
  Because how's it going?
• 30:13
  Well, you know, this happened and that happened and this blah blah blah blah.
• 30:15
  What's your update is, hey.
• 30:18
  I'm available.
• 30:20
  I'm creating a space for you to let me know how you're really doing.
• 30:26
  And I I see on Instagram, great.
• 30:28
  You're doing all these things and blah blah blah, but how are you doing?
• 30:32
  And, you know, there's so many instances that you see of people that are seemingly really
• 30:37
  successful and then, you know, they take their own lives or or or their Yeah.
• 30:42
  Find out that they've been terribly sad behind the scenes, or there's all kinds of things
• 30:47
  happening.
• 30:47
  You're like, well, how How could that happen?
• 30:50
  You know?
• 30:51
  And and I think it it's easy how that could happen.
• 30:56
  And and so I think creating those conduits is is something that that's that's been super
• 31:04
  helpful.
• 31:04
  And and that kinda what's your update thing came out of, a a real moment of crisis for me
• 31:11
  when I I I was kind of in a really intense period and and, you know, kind of had a, like,
• 31:19
  a panic attack essentially.
• 31:20
  And I just was so overworked.
• 31:23
  I had the sleepless night, and I had to drive for 10 hours to play this gig.
• 31:26
  And I just was, you know, and I reached out to my to my 2 kind of key lifelines.
• 31:31
  And it became really clear in that moment that my whole state changed when I felt seen by
• 31:40
  people that I had built safety and trust that I knew could handle it.
• 31:45
  That, you know, that we had that rapport, that it wasn't I wasn't burdening anybody.
• 31:49
  I, like, all of that was in place from the relationship that we had built.
• 31:54
  That I could let my full self be seen.
• 31:58
  And as soon as I reached out to them, I I just sent them an email because it was, like, early
• 32:02
  in the morning.
• 32:03
  I fell asleep and, like, there was this giant relief.
• 32:07
  So it's called to it's really cultivating it because, unfortunately, when we feel as human
• 32:13
  being.
• 32:14
  Yeah.
• 32:14
  You know, and you were, you know, quite open to talking about seeing a therapist.
• 32:17
  A lot of people are free to share that.
• 32:19
  And I often say to them with me being a, you know, a psychologist is that it's really it's
• 32:23
  really, you know, the space that we all need to get to because we are often incapable of seeing
• 32:30
  the unconscious and the replicatable patterns that we persist because it becomes it's kinda
• 32:37
  like a second skin, and we need somebody to kind of, you know, highlight the spots that we
• 32:43
  can gloss over from her conscious brain.
• 32:46
  Right?
• 32:46
  So I think my my my, you know, in choosing the path that I took, you took the music route.
• 32:51
  I took the psychology route is to really have people recognize that we all need the time and
• 32:57
  space to be able to listen to that deep spot And oftentimes you need somebody else to kind
• 33:02
  of, pull it out that has an objective lens.
• 33:07
  Oh, yeah.
• 33:08
  You know, but people are afraid of that because they think of that as, oh, I'm I'm I'm not
• 33:11
  well.
• 33:12
  And that's really not I look at it as, you know, it shows that you are very well when you
• 33:16
  are reaching out in I need.
• 33:18
  I I could not agree more, you know, that, you know, I I I I mentioned I do this mentoring
• 33:24
  work in the summertime with it, the teenagers.
• 33:27
  And, one of one of my I've been doing it for 7 years, and so one of the students that was
• 33:33
  there.
• 33:33
  My 1st year actually became one of the staff members.
• 33:36
  And, long story short, we do this exercise where we talk about masks, you know, and sort
• 33:41
  of taking off our masks.
• 33:42
  Kind of powerful metaphor.
• 33:44
  And we actually build masks.
• 33:45
  So the students have a mask built on their face.
• 33:48
  And and, you know, while they're having the mask built, we're we're prompting them saying
• 33:52
  like, hey.
• 33:52
  What does it feel like to be under a mask?
• 33:54
  It, you know, feels heavy.
• 33:55
  It feels, you know, and we get up on the microphone.
• 33:58
  And as grown ups, we share with them like, hey.
• 34:01
  We also wear masks.
• 34:02
  We don't have it all figured out.
• 34:03
  You know, it's not just because you're a teenager.
• 34:05
  Like, so we are vulnerable with them and we share of ourselves and we share some of the
• 34:09
  masks that we make.
• 34:10
  Anyway, so one of this person who had been my student was now a staff member, she got on the
• 34:15
  microphone, and she said she said, I wear a mask of strength.
• 34:20
  And I was like, You know, because strength is a word that we associate positively.
• 34:26
  You know, like, oh, it's great to be strong.
• 34:28
  And she said I needed to learn to take off my mask of strength so I could let my real
• 34:35
  strength show.
• 34:39
  And I was like, I just got goosebumps again.
• 34:42
  I mean, I I That's profound.
• 34:44
  It is so profound because that's really it.
• 34:47
  It's like if we actually I'm getting emotional.
• 34:50
  If we actually want to be strong, we need to allow ourselves to be seen.
• 34:56
  And because you're not it's just a it's just a house of cards, otherwise, you know, and then
• 35:02
  the wind blows the wrong way, and it's all it all comes crumbling down.
• 35:06
  And so I'll never forget that.
• 35:08
  And I and I I really I admire her so much for saying that, and and been one of my biggest
• 35:15
  lessons, and I I could not agree more.
• 35:16
  I I I think therapy, self care, you know, breaking down and and sharing with with a
• 35:25
  friend that you've built that trust with or or a professional, you know, seeking professional
• 35:30
  help, getting whatever help you need is is is a sign of strength, and it's a sign of wanting to
• 35:41
  get better and and be more solidly fit.
• 35:45
  And the truth is is the more that you're able to do that, you you're stronger.
• 35:53
  You're able to do more.
• 35:54
  You're able to be there for others.
• 35:55
  Able to contribute more, like, all the things that you're trying to be strong for, whether
• 36:00
  it's your family, whether it's, you know, whoever you're more able to be there for them.
• 36:05
  You're more available by by, yeah, allowing for that vulnerability.
• 36:11
  I I couldn't agree more.
• 36:12
  No.
• 36:12
  I know we didn't talk about this, and maybe we can't, but I wonder, is it possible if you had
• 36:16
  to play us something to to close off?
• 36:20
  I I I I I I I would love to.
• 36:24
  I don't this this guitar broken.
• 36:27
  This is electric guitar.
• 36:28
  And, I I actually have a great a great setup.
• 36:32
  Like, this is I'm just on my computer.
• 36:33
  I have an amazing setup upstairs, but I
• 36:35
  could Well, maybe maybe maybe next time.
• 36:37
  Maybe
• 36:37
  next time.
• 36:38
  Yeah.
• 36:38
  Yeah.
• 36:39
  Maybe next time because I think I'm I'm inspired on it.
• 36:41
  You know, for those of you that aren't gonna, see Peter's face, what I'm in tune with is that
• 36:48
  how much how DP goes because he closes his eyes.
• 36:52
  And, hopefully, if you if you listen to this podcast, I would tell you to eventually when it
• 36:56
  gets released on YouTube to go because, I can see the space that you go to, Peter, just be
• 37:02
  because you close your eyes and it's almost like you visualize it in, internally.
• 37:06
  And I, I can just imagine what that must be like with your music, which I have not listened
• 37:11
  to.
• 37:11
  So now I'm going to, I'm going to go listen to one of your one of your songs and, you know,
• 37:16
  this has been really inspiring, for me to listen, and I love to listen to the back
• 37:22
  stories.
• 37:23
  Of, musicians.
• 37:25
  I've, for some reason, I've always had a fascination and, I just listened to Eric
• 37:30
  Clapton's story the other day.
• 37:32
  And I'm always inspired where they get their their inspiration and now entering viewing you.
• 37:38
  It's it really it I could see the depth that you go to to be able to produce these things.
• 37:43
  So I'm, you know, you said you have, you know, 2 things.
• 37:47
  I want you to obviously see anybody that's listening to Peter and wants to reach out to
• 37:51
  him, to be able to have him speak.
• 37:53
  I know we are in a virtual speaking world.
• 37:56
  You can do that or, obviously, conferences are coming up, but also you said you're releasing
• 38:01
  something.
• 38:01
  If you wanted to tell them a little bit about that, and we can also put the link in in the
• 38:05
  show notes so that people can do both.
• 38:08
  So Yeah.
• 38:08
  Yeah.
• 38:09
  Well, thank you.
• 38:09
  If if I if I did have a a working guitar handy right now, the song I would have played is is a
• 38:16
  new song, a mine called paper thin, and it it's it's really it would have been the perfect
• 38:20
  segue, but I I wasn't wasn't prepared.
• 38:22
  But, but, you know, the paper thin is is all about kind of vulnerability and letting that be
• 38:28
  seen.
• 38:28
  And the the lyric in the in the second verse is when your biggest fear it ends up coming true,
• 38:33
  that's when you find out what you have inside of you.
• 38:36
  I'm braver than I ever could have known these days have shown that to me.
• 38:40
  Wow.
• 38:41
  And it's really yeah.
• 38:42
  It's so that would be a a good good song to start with.
• 38:45
  And, of course, yeah, like like you said, I I I, you know, I I give a lot of talks, and I I
• 38:50
  have a a a great set up upstairs, with multi cameras and, you know, kind of a great audio.
• 38:55
  And I've I've actually been I did 11 talks in the last 9 days.
• 39:00
  Wow.
• 39:01
  That's amazing.
• 39:01
  So how did you pivot?
• 39:02
  Because for most people listening, you know that the speaking train world with with, the
• 39:08
  pandemic it got shut down.
• 39:09
  So how did you pivot to get to get, you know, doing as many talks?
• 39:13
  How did you kind of bounce back
• 39:15
  So I I have a very strong survival instinct.
• 39:17
  And, on on March 12th, I gave a talk to RBC, and at in the middle, like, as the person was
• 39:31
  introducing me for that talk, They had to announce to the audience that there had been a
• 39:36
  COVID case on the same floor that all these people worked in.
• 39:38
  So that was my that was my intro.
• 39:42
  And I realized as I was packing up my gear and going home that it was the the gig was up, you
• 39:51
  know, that something, like, I I could just smell it happening.
• 39:55
  And I think that night, the NBA was canceled and kinda everything sort of happen.
• 39:59
  And so I I'm not kidding.
• 40:01
  March 13th, I woke up in the morning, and I said, I need to figure this out.
• 40:07
  And, you know, in the over the next several days, I saw every single booking I had
• 40:11
  canceled.
• 40:12
  I had shows.
• 40:12
  I had so many talks.
• 40:14
  Like, my speaking thing was going amazingly.
• 40:16
  You know, everything got canceled.
• 40:18
  So I came into this basement, this room that I'm in right now.
• 40:22
  And I said, okay.
• 40:24
  I I need to figure this out.
• 40:26
  And I I had two thousand bucks in my bank account, and I bought a camera is not the
• 40:30
  camera I'm using, and then it's set up upstairs.
• 40:33
  And I I started just doing this deep dive.
• 40:36
  And I I don't know.
• 40:39
  I just my instinct was that I need to create something that is not just a lesser version
• 40:49
  than a in person talk.
• 40:50
  I need to create something that is its own great thing and that people aren't experiencing
• 40:57
  as a, okay.
• 40:59
  I I guess I feel bad.
• 41:00
  I'll support this musician or, okay.
• 41:01
  I'll I guess I'll I'll have this guy come, but it's it's, like, it's not gonna be sustainable
• 41:06
  unless it's of a really high quality.
• 41:08
  And so I basically figured out how to have kind of broadcast quality, live music, have multiple
• 41:19
  cameras and lighting and switching and multimedia elements.
• 41:22
  I honestly I think it's my I did my bachelor's degree.
• 41:25
  I did a bachelor of fine arts and theater performance.
• 41:27
  You know, and one of the things we talked about in that program was there's a difference
• 41:31
  between acting on stage and acting on a camera.
• 41:34
  You know, when you when you're on stage, you know, you're like, you're big and your arms are
• 41:38
  out and you're filling a space because there's, you know, thousands of people there, you know,
• 41:43
  and if you whereas when you're on camera, you, like, move an eyebrow and, like, it sends a
• 41:46
  chill down somebody's spine, which would do nothing if you were on stage.
• 41:50
  So I sort of approached my virtual work through that lens of, okay.
• 41:54
  I'm gonna be looking into a camera.
• 41:57
  This these are the parameters.
• 41:58
  And so but I can do things that I can't do live.
• 42:00
  So I could be talking like this, but then I could be really intimately talking on the
• 42:05
  microphone, or I could I could, like, get right up there and and, like, you know, you there's
• 42:10
  things that you can do to to use the medium.
• 42:13
  And so I just did this 3 week deep dive, I was up till 6 in the morning many nights.
• 42:19
  I bought all the gear.
• 42:21
  I just was like, here we go.
• 42:23
  You're opening a restaurant, you gotta buy a bunch of stuff and go into debt and recover it.
• 42:26
  So I was like, well, this is me opening my restaurant.
• 42:29
  And, And I emerged on the other side, you know, capable of doing a really high quality music
• 42:37
  performance, a really high quality talk, and I created I created I learned Adobe Premiere and
• 42:43
  created a reel for myself.
• 42:46
  And it just started working, you know, and there's been it sort of took a second for the
• 42:53
  wider world to start booking things because everybody was just kinda scrambling and And but
• 43:00
  then, you know, at certain point, companies and, you know, associations, everybody, they
• 43:05
  were like, well, we need to we can't ignore our people.
• 43:07
  We still need to bring in educators and and speakers and and as soon as that started
• 43:14
  happening, I was standing there ready to go.
• 43:17
  And, yeah, I I did I did 9 like, I did 11 in the last 10 days, but 9 of those were in 5
• 43:24
  days.
• 43:25
  Oh, wow.
• 43:26
  Wow.
• 43:27
  You know, I I I I in the in the last since COVID, I've I've spoken to over 25,000 people.
• 43:35
  Which is
• 43:35
  kind of amazing.
• 43:37
  And it it truly is.
• 43:38
  And talking about, again, looking at the obstacles, and then going deep and thinking,
• 43:44
  okay.
• 43:45
  How do I need to pivot accordingly?
• 43:48
  And and then just going to what I call the internal GPS and saying, okay.
• 43:52
  What do I need to do?
• 43:54
  I know what I'm about, but then delivering it in in a format that you like you said, Michael
• 44:00
  Gladwell's 10000 hours was already achieved, and it's like, okay.
• 44:04
  Just the platform now needs to adjust accordingly.
• 44:06
  Exactly.
• 44:07
  You know?
• 44:07
  And and, you know, Seth Goden too, you know, he talks about, like, if you really wanna be as
• 44:12
  successful at something, like, make people's lives better, like, focus on the service.
• 44:18
  You know?
• 44:18
  And so that's that that's the lens through which I I approached it.
• 44:24
  I was like, okay.
• 44:26
  I wanna make something that actually makes people's lives better through these times.
• 44:32
  And the the net result and the feedback that I get all the time, people literally say they're
• 44:36
  like, it's like watching Netflix, but the guy is talking back to me in real time.
• 44:40
  You know?
• 44:41
  So, like, picture watching your favorite concert DVD, but the person can talk to you and
• 44:46
  see you.
• 44:48
  And and that's kind of what it's been like and it's been beautiful.
• 44:53
  You know, I I've given these concerts where, like, I also thought about the format I was
• 44:58
  like, okay.
• 44:58
  I don't wanna just be doing a one way communication.
• 45:00
  You know, like, so where do I host these things so that there can be interactivity?
• 45:05
  And I I did this concert, this, like, sort of family and group of friends book me for a
• 45:09
  private concert.
• 45:10
  And, you know, the the mum was in Toronto.
• 45:13
  The grandma was in somewhere in the US.
• 45:15
  The daughter was in New Zealand.
• 45:17
  And they asked if I'd play this song that all of them loved and, you know, they're crying and
• 45:22
  it's like, it's that would never happen in in the like, that wouldn't be possible in the
• 45:28
  physical space.
• 45:29
  So we're creating something of high value, of high emotional impact, high meaning, that's
• 45:36
  uniquely only possible in this format.
• 45:39
  And so it's always about thinking of, like, okay.
• 45:41
  What's the format and what can it do?
• 45:45
  What can it do that nobody's thought of yet?
• 45:48
  So how can I innovate within the space and then build from there?
• 45:52
  Well, I think you and I could keep talking.
• 45:55
  There's so many things that so many so many, variations or of things that you've done so
• 46:00
  far, but, Peter, it's been it's, I've I've enjoyed my time with you.
• 46:03
  And now that I've met you yet again, and I'll have to, you know, thank Blake for, that day
• 46:10
  that he's, spoke at caps that I was able to you were in the room, and now I remember you
• 46:15
  clearly.
• 46:15
  So, again, for anyone This encompasses so many things when you think of resilience.
• 46:21
  And if if anything I'm walking away with, it's the importance of staying connected to that
• 46:27
  moral space within yourself and why you do what you do.
• 46:30
  You know why you started doing what you're doing.
• 46:32
  Stay connected to that.
• 46:34
  Get your lifelines in place, you know, be vulnerable, you know, like your, colleague
• 46:41
  shared at that camp.
• 46:43
  Sometimes things that are viewed as strengths are in fact limitations and trying to push
• 46:48
  yourself to understand what those are.
• 46:50
  So that you can be kind of the best version of who you need to be.
• 46:54
  So, Peter, again, where can people reach you?
• 46:56
  And when we all the links will be in the shown you can you'll be able to link into things, but
• 47:00
  tell us, where we can reach you for either speaking.
• 47:03
  And, we will also, add the link for your new CDs.
• 47:08
  Yeah.
• 47:08
  For sure.
• 47:09
  So petercast.com is is is k a t zed or k a t z for American friends, is that kinda central
• 47:16
  hub.
• 47:16
  There's petercatspeaks.com as well, which it's also linked at petercat.com.
• 47:21
  So, specifically for speaking stuff, petercat speaks.com is is a good place to go, but I'm
• 47:26
  also at Peter Katz Music on Instagram, all the social handles.
• 47:31
  We're even getting on TikTok now.
• 47:31
  So, and, And, so, yeah, at Peter Katz Music is a is a good good place to kinda follow along
• 47:40
  and and, and there's a contact section at petercatspeaks.com, you know, if you're
• 47:45
  interested in you know, doing a talk.
• 47:48
  So, and I'm always I'm always happy to just get on the phone with, you know, clients and just
• 47:53
  see if it's a fit and and just have the discussion of of, you know, what what what are
• 47:58
  you what are you looking for?
• 47:59
  What are the challenges?
• 48:00
  And and if if I'm a good fit, then that becomes evident over the course of the over the course.
• 48:05
  Awesome.
• 48:06
  Well, thanks again.
• 48:07
  And for everyone listening, I'm Roxanne Derhodge of authentic living with Roxanne.
• 48:11
  If you're interested in deep diving further into what it takes to be an authentic leader
• 48:16
  and leading from your heart, you can reach me at Roxanne hodge.com.
• 48:20
  Thanks for tuning in to authentic living with Roxanne, creating the space for positive,
• 48:26
  healthy change.
• 48:27
  Roxanne is a keynote speaker, psychotherapist, and coach to work with Roxanne, visit
• 48:33
  roxannedurhaj.com flash blueprint.
• 48:37
  We'll see you next time on authentic living with Roxanne.