The Mind Over Finger Podcast - 256 Strong Body, Fearless Stage - Shannon Kiewitt on How Movement Builds the Confidence to Perform at Your Best

Episode Date: April 4, 2026

What if the thing holding back your performance had nothing to do with how many hours you practice? Gunnery Sergeant Shannon Kiewitt, clarinetist with "The President's Own" United States Marine Band and fitness coach for musicians, has spent years performing at the highest level without a single performance-related injury. In this conversation, she shares exactly how fitness transforms not just your body, but your sound, your confidence, and your career. In this episode: ·         Why posture and physical imbalances affect the way you sound ·         The truth about weightlifting and musicians ·         How fitness builds endurance, focus, and mental resilience on stage ·         What a realistic fitness routine looks like for a musician's unpredictable schedule ·         How competing in a bodybuilding show helped Shannon conquer performance anxiety ·         One simple thing you can start doing today   Are you ready to take your playing and career to the next level and create a life that feels purposeful and joyful? If you're ready to step on stage with confidence, perform at your best, and finally feel secure in your playing, join the Musician's Edge Challenge.   Join the Musician's Edge Challenge HERE Book your free consultation with Renée HERE Download the transcript from this episode HERE   SHANNON KIEWITT Bio: https://www.marineband.marines.mil/About/Members/Article/2605066/gunnery-sgt-shannon-kiewitt/ Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/thefitclarinetist/ YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/@shannonfitwit Work with Shannon: https://www.trainerize.me/profile/getfitwithshannonkiewitt/Shannon.Kiewitt?fbclid=IwAR0nBm45UVE4SSUWHRaaAJVgCYpp4rmNFNkxqqTrGmUe9sd37fOreyP1P5A&utm_source=ig&utm_medium=social&utm_content=link_in_bio     Mind Over Finger Click www.mindoverfinger.com/coaching to book your free consultation with me. Visit MindOverFinger.com for my online courses as well as free resources on peak performance. Grab my free workshops and PDF downloads by going to www.mindoverfinger.com/resources. Connect: https://www.youtube.com/@MindOverFinger https://www.facebook.com/mindoverfinger/ https://www.facebook.com/groups/mindoverfinger https://www.instagram.com/mindoverfinger/     THANK YOU: Most sincere thank you to composer Jim Stephenson who graciously provided the show's musical theme:  Concerto #1 for Trumpet and Chamber Orchestra – Movement 2: Allegro con Brio, performed by Jeffrey Work, trumpet, and the Lake Forest Symphony, conducted by Jim Stephenson.

You're listening to the Mind Over Finger podcast. This is episode 256. Welcome to the Mind Over Finger podcast, where we dive into the world of mindful music making, peak performance, and crafting a purpose-driven life and career. I'm your host, violinist, certified performance and life coach for musicians, and your guide to unlocking your full potential, Dr. René-Paul Gaultier. Hi everyone, welcome back to the Mind Over Finger podcast. I'm so happy to be with you. And before we dive in, I have something exciting to share. The Musician's Edge Challenge is back once again, and I am really fired about this. This challenge is for you if you have a goal in front of you, an audition, a competition, a career you're building, and you're

ready to go after it with everything you have. The dream job, the solo career you want, the audition you've been putting off, the next level you know you are meant to reach. Well, if you're serious about creating change and you're ready to stop waiting and start winning, this is your moment. You're going to walk away knowing exactly what's holding you back, what your strengths are, and what your next step is to build the career you want. April 27th through May 2nd, 2026, 10 minutes a day, completely free. And on the final day, I'm going to be live with you to show you how to use everything you uncovered to go after the opportunities you've been working toward. Sign up in the show notes or at mindoverfinger.com. And I really hope to see you there.

now on to today's episode here is a question i want you to sit with for a moment your instrument is your tool you care for it you tune it you protect it but what about the body that holds supports and sustains everything you do as a musician how much thought have you given to that If the answer is not much, this episode is going to change things for you. My guest today is Gunnery Sergeant Shannon Kiewit, clarinetist with the President's Own United States Marine Band, where she's been a member since 2011 and serves in the bass clarinet section. Shannon studied at Indiana University, earning both her bachelor's and master's degrees

in clarinet performance, and she's performed at the White House, across the country on tour, and on international stages. She's also a fitness coach whose entire mission is helping musicians find longevity, health, and resilience through movement. Shannon has spent her career excelling at the absolute highest level of musical performance while building a deep, intentional relationship with fitness. In our conversation, we talk about how fitness directly impacts the way you sound, the way you hold your instrument, your performance anxiety, your endurance on stage, and your mental clarity in the practice room. Sharon shares why so many musicians are afraid of exercise and why that fear is costing them, what a realistic and sustainable fitness routine

looks like for someone with an unpredictable schedule, and how competing in a bodybuilding show helped her conquer the performance anxiety that had followed her for years. This conversation is practical, grounding, and full of things you can actually do starting today. Whether you're dealing with tension, inconsistent energy, or just a nagging sense that your body deserves more attention. Shannon is exactly the guide you need right now. And don't worry about missing a thing. The full transcript and key takeaways are linked in the show notes. So here is my conversation with Shannon Kiewit. Let's go to the show. hi everyone welcome back to the mind over finger podcast i'm so happy to be with you

and before we dive in i have something exciting to share the musician's edge challenge is back once again and i am really fired about this this challenge is for you if you have a goal in front of you, an audition, a competition, a career you're building, and you're ready to go after it with everything you have. The dream job, the solo career you want, the audition you've been putting off, the next level you know you are meant to reach. Well, if you're serious about creating change and you're ready to stop waiting and start winning, this is your moment. You're going to walk away knowing exactly what's holding you back, what your strengths are, and what your next step is to build the career you want. April 27th through May 2nd, 2026, 10 minutes a day,

completely free. And on the final day, I'm going to be live with you to show you how to use everything you uncovered to go after the opportunities you've been working toward. sign up in the show notes or at mindoverfinger.com and I really hope to see you there now on to today's episode here is a question I want you to sit with for a moment your instrument is your tool you care for it you tune it you protect it but what about the body that holds supports, and sustains everything you do as a musician. How much thought have you given to that? If the answer is not much, this episode is going to change things for you. My guest today is gunnery sergeant Shannon Kiewit, clarinetist with the president's own United States Marine Band,

where she's been a member since 2011 and serves in the bass clarinet section. Shannon studied at Indiana University, earning both her bachelor's and master's degrees in clarinet performance, and she's performed at the White House, across the country on tour, and on international stages. She's also a fitness coach whose entire mission is helping musicians find longevity, health, and resilience through movement. Shannon has spent her career excelling at the absolute highest level of musical performance

while building a deep, intentional relationship with fitness. In our conversation, we talk about how fitness directly impacts the way you sound, the way you hold your instrument, your performance anxiety, your endurance on stage, and your mental clarity in the practice room. Sharon shares why so many musicians are afraid of exercise and why that fear is costing them, what a realistic and sustainable fitness routine looks like for someone with an unpredictable schedule, and how competing in a bodybuilding show helped her conquer the performance anxiety that had followed her for years.

This conversation is practical, grounding, and full of things you can actually do starting today. Whether you're dealing with tension, inconsistent energy, or just a nagging sense that your body deserves more attention, Shannon is exactly the guide you need right now. And don't worry about missing a thing. The full transcript and key takeaways are linked in the show notes. So here is my conversation with Shannon Kiewit. Let's go to the show. Shannon Kiewit, I'm so excited to have you on the show. I am very excited to be here. Thank you for having me today. I've been really looking for a conversation. You perform at the highest levels in two different fields. So obviously you have understood a few things about what it takes to excel. Also,

you're very knowledgeable in an area that is often neglected and can be so beneficial for musicians, which is health and fitness. So I'm very excited to talk to you about both today. And I'd like to begin where I start with all of my guests, which is to hear about you and your musical journey, or your journey in general, in your own words. So please tell us about you and about how your path has unfolded. Sure. Well, my name is Janet Kiewit. I am in the President's Own, where I was appointed to the local unit section. And I've been with that group for about 15 years. I can't believe it's actually been that long. Prior to joining the President's Zone, I also have prior service

where I served in the United States Army Field Band, which is a touring group. That was my first job. So I have experience in a number of the military bands, which I think is important in my career, how it ties into what I do as a professional musician and with fitness. Leading up to these jobs, I attended Indiana University, where I studied with Howard Clue. I got both my bachelor's degree and my master's degree there at Indiana University studying clarinet performance. While I was in the military bands, actually, my whole entire, actually, going back, I mean, my whole life, I've been involved with fitness, whether it's team sports or just a love of

fitness in general. But it wasn't until I was in the premier bands where I really started to understand how fitness affected musicians and how it affected our longevity, how it affected our anxiety when we're playing, how it affected how we sound. And I really started to connect the two. So when I was in the Army, I was on our physical training staff. I kind of was seeing how fitness was affecting musicians when they were doing testing. And then when I was in, when I made my journey into the president's own, I really began to see how fitness impacted musicians. My whole career, I've never had a performance related injury.

And I really feel that is because I have done fitness my whole life. And so I became very interested in like, why is it that I, you know, have not had an injury? Why is it that I'm able to overcome some anxiety in my playing? Not always. I have been very anxious when it comes to performing, but why is it that fitness has helped me with that? And so I really have been able to, in the last couple of years, connect my love for music, performing, and that love for fitness.

So now I feel like my niche has been being able to help musicians find longevity in their careers through health and movement and through fitness. So that's where I am now. And I'm loving, loving doing that. It sounds amazing. I'm tempted to tell you just go ahead, lecture us for the whole time. I'd love for you to take this kind of in any direction that you'd like, because you were talking about how you see the impact that it has on musicians. So could we start there? How does it impact?

I have personal experiences that I'd love to share eventually, but I would love to hear from you first. How do you see health and fitness impacting musicians? Absolutely. I mean, anything from fitness impacting our posture. I mean, I talk about that a lot, like noticing how musicians are holding themselves, whether it's holding their instrument or holding themselves on stage and how something as simple as posture has an effect on how we sound and how we feel and how confident we are. And, um, just creating a fitness routine, something small, uh, daily into what we do, how that impacts building better posture. You know, for instance, the exercises we're doing is building better posture so that we can play better.

I see that a lot. I see a lot of imbalances in musicians, depending on what instrument you're playing. So being able to pinpoint those things, you know, musicians don't really notice, why am I having this pain here? Why am I having tension here or whatever? And we're not really focusing on our body. So fitness and exercise helps us to be more at one, you know, be more aware of our body and how we're holding ourselves and where those weaknesses are happening. um so being able to um understand i think understand our body and how it works that is one way that fitness can help with musicians and how we can incorporate that into our practice and how we're playing so hopefully that kind of explains some of some of what i see with musicians in general and why we need to incorporate fitness into our life because for a long time I don't know if you feel this way I feel musicians have been afraid to kind of incorporate some kind of fitness into their routine and like I said I never had any kind of performance related injury

and and I feel musicians have been afraid to do certain kind of exercises maybe like weight lifting and stuff like that in fear that it's going to cause tension in different in different areas but that's not really the case we hear a lot at least in the string world that if you lift weights and you build your muscles too much you're not going to be as flexible what's your take on this yeah like the fine motor control and things like that yeah sure i think you know i think there are certainly certain exercises, um, that musicians can do, uh, based on what instrument you're playing, um, or how you might want to exercise, but I think we shouldn't be fearful of it at all. I see it as, um, you know, a younger musician. I was involved in fitness a

lot and I was in really good shape and I never was hurting. And I realized that the support that I had to at the time was really important because I was working with a trainer for a while and I was very fit, never hurt, never injured. And then I remember my first injury was after I had my son and I didn't have a trainer at the time. And I went back to the gym only a few weeks after giving birth and I was wondering how many push-ups I could do. And then I just pushed really, really hard without any supervision. And you know, when they say talk to your doctor before you start an exercise regimen, definitely did not do that. And really created an injury for myself in my left wrist with this silly idea. So I also see the importance of support when you

go on a health and fitness journey, which is why I love that you are yourself a coach, because that support can be so important. And even before we hit record, I was telling you about my second big injury, which was a few years ago when I thought, oh, I'm going to get back in shape. Got to the gym, was doing some, you know, back extension with some heavy plates and caused some lower back injury. So I think that there's definitely room for the proper support in that journey. Absolutely. Like as musicians, I feel like we really want to dive into things. You know, we want to like, we're competitive. We want to challenge ourselves. And that's great. That's great. But it all comes down to kind of like how your mindset is around that too. I always tell

folks tell musicians uh you know start small with with the exercise because for one our job as musicians is probably one of the most inconsistent ones when it comes to schedules and stuff like we it's very hard to create a routine a fitness routine i find because in my job my hours are not nine to five. They're kind of all over the place. So it's really hard to schedule in. I'm going to work out this time every single day. So I always encourage people to just start small. And one of the things I like to do is just incorporating my exercise into something I already do, such as practicing my instrument. And that sounds kind of interesting. How would I do that but focusing on you know when i'm going to warm up instead of just getting the instrument

out and playing it we have to focus on warming up the body much like an athlete would do you know and warming up the muscles that we're intending to move when we're practicing so for instance just doing simple finger extensions or um i have this band here like talking about wrists you know making sure we're doing this stuff taking a band and and doing extensions this way and this way you know we don't really see folks sitting down into rehearsal and and warming up hands or or shoulders or stuff like that we get our instrument we start playing um so incorporating some kind of movement before we even start to play our instrument i think is really important and then mid-practice doing, making sure that we take a moment to do some mobility or rest,

take a break. I mean, how many musicians don't take a break in their practice? They just push, push, like you said, like jumping into something. That's the tendency with musicians. We jump into things. We want to do something a hundred percent. We want to just go, go, go, go, go. And we don't take a break. And, um, honestly, when we take breaks, that's where we grow, you know, that's where we grow. So like a mid practice, I'd say do some kind of extension over the chair, like focus on, okay. Reminding yourself a better posture. Um, and then after, after practicing doing some type of maybe just some more mobility work or, or cool down just to, um, refocus. I even tell people to get outside and, um, and walk, you know, as musicians too, we say,

I don't have time to do that. I don't have time to take time out. I've got too much stuff to do. I've got too many things to focus on. We're always tense. But honestly, if you just got outside and did some walking as a, like a 20 minute break, you'll come back and get more done. You'll get more done than if you sat there and tried to just hash something out, you

get more done and you'll find you have more time in your day and you're feeling better and you're taking care of yourself it all comes down to taking care of our body because that's what we use to play our best that's what we use to perform and and we need that for a long time and the stronger we are the more we're able to sustain long effort and performance right What do you see as a correlation between performance and fitness? It's like being able to perform like long hours. And there's so much that comes down to that. You know, getting up on stage and performing, whether seated or standing, is very physical.

It's very physical. And there are a couple of things that fitness helps with that. I mean, physically, it's going to help. Things like having good core strength, having good core strength. You're going to be able to also have more lung capacity. But also getting up on stage, the fitness element is going to help with being able to perform for a long longer, you know, having endurance, you know, fitness, cardio, being able to work out a little bit. bit longer that helps with your endurance um it helps with your mindset it helps to you know if you're up there on stage and you're thinking you start to think to yourself i can't do it oh this i'm starting to mess up fitness helps with that so it's more than just a physical thing doing doing uh hard things in the gym or stuff like that helps us to tell ourselves i can do this you know, and believe in ourselves and build that confidence. So I do find that having a set

fitness routine, and I can talk about that later too, like what is a set fitness routine, but having something that you do often will help you to have that endurance you need to get up on stage and perform longer, perform better and perform more focused and be more confident in yourself of that and I feel that to be true for myself as well when I'm consistent with my regimen do you want to go ahead and tell us about that right now what is it it's different for everyone it's obviously going to be different for everyone but I will say that going back to what we're talking about like a musicians having a fear of certain exercise specifically I found lifting weights. I feel like that is so important that we need to be doing, especially as we get

older. Younger musicians who might be listening to this podcast, it's really important to start getting into that and starting small with it. Having a routine that you do, I would say lifting weights, you know, start with like two to three times a week and it doesn't have to be like super crazy intense. We just want to make sure you're doing something, um, that's going to help you stay, keep things strong, keep things strong. Um, thinking about bone health, thinking about, uh, creating muscle that's going to last for a lifetime as you get older, keeping your metabolism healthy, you know, being able to stand on stage. Um, you're going to reduce the chance of having any kind of, um, injuries that start here, go all the way up into your neck and things like this.

Um, when you're taking care of your body, taking care of your body, noticing, um, that not putting off any aches and pains that you're having, but noticing them. And we can fix a lot of these things just by doing these fitness routines. So going back to the routines, I would say, try to add it in two to three times a week. Um, and you can start small. 20 minutes is all I do right now. 20 minutes of like a weight training. I didn't used to do that. I used to do a lot more, but I've learned what balance means too. Um, so like 20, 20, 30 minutes of weights, maybe two to three times a week, get out and walk, get out and walk daily. That's really important. Um, and something else that we really want to focus on too is something called NEAT,

N-E-A-T. It's non-exercise activity thermogenesis. And that is what we do across the day. It's the movement that we do across the day, such as even moving my hands around, walking up and down stairs, parking further away from the store, carrying groceries, choosing to take the stairs over the elevator. This adds up quite a bit. And as musicians, we are sitting a lot in rehearsals, three-hour rehearsals, commuting. My commute's very long, so I'm in the car a lot. So we are not moving a lot. And what that means is we can have weak glutes because we're sitting a lot. Weak glutes, then we start feeling pain in our lower backs, pain in our knees. So simply being aware of your movement across the day, that non-exercise activity thermogenesis

neat. Being aware of that movement across the day is huge. It's a big impact. So if you do that, get in some walking, lift weights, you know, two to three times a week. And as far as like any kind of cardio, I say, what do you like to do? What's your favorite thing to do? There's no set thing, whatever you enjoy doing, make sure you're doing that too. And really, you know, starting small, So you build the habit and you build the routine and work it around your life as a musician, which is, that's probably the hard part there. I think you'll find that you start to notice, wow, I'm actually playing a lot better. My lung capacity is better. I don't feel that shoulder pain I have anymore.

My hands don't hurt. I'm more focused. I'm sleeping better. you know and all this impacts uh our practice how much we're getting done and how how we perform it really fuels oh absolutely it it does feel you you start we always say i don't have time to do it i don't have time to do it but we really don't have time to not do it i mean we've heard that saying before you know that's saying just if you start small with something people always say what should I start doing first? And I think really just that focus of what am I doing across

the day? How much am I moving? I always wear a watch and I'm interested in knowing how many steps am I getting throughout the day? Because that kind of tells me how much am I actually moving. So I like to look at that at the end of the day and say, how much did I move today compared to yesterday or the day before or last week? And how did that relate to my schedule and how busy I was and what was I doing? But yeah, I like to tell people, if you're going to focus on one thing to start, focus on how much movement you're going to across the day. It's very eye opening. I love what you said too about enjoying it. One of the things I say them all the time to my clients is a quote by Gretchen Rubin, make it easy to do right and hard to go wrong.

And I have found that when I do that, when I make it easy to do right, hard to go wrong, I'm more likely to do it. And another thing that I say is like what I mean by this is, you know, if for example, my gym is two minutes, I could walk to my gym, but I drive, of course, but it's two minutes drive. And it's not one of those gyms I used to belong to. Like here, the Lifetime is very popular and the parking lot is huge the lobby is huge the dressing room is far by the you you've been at it for 15 minutes you're not in the waiting room yet like I who has time for this it's overwhelming too yeah yes yes so I now go to a cheap gym and you just walk in and there are the machines right there and it just works really well for me so you know and so and

I have a lot of workout clothes, so I don't have to worry about, do I have something clean? Yes. Do they all look good? No, but they're all clean. So there you go. But also making it enjoyable, I think is so important for me because sometimes, so I love lifting weights. I love it. Love it. But I realized that sometimes I get very ambitious and, you know, I'll maybe buy a training program from someone and actually I was looking at yours I'll probably look into buying that too but but I also realized that I loved Bill Phillips program back in the 2000s you know the body for life thing there was something about that routine that I became very familiar with and it felt very comfortable and I knew it and when I was making things so complex I didn't want to work out anymore and

And then I realized, just get your old sheets out and do that. And I find myself just wanting to go to the gym. And I know the routine. And I just find that I enjoy that routine. So that's the one. Exactly. And building routine, there's something about that. When things get stressful and we get anxiety, we can go back to that routine because it's

something we know. It's comforting. So even something like a fitness routine, like you can go back to and say, I know this. And I know it makes, like you said, I enjoyed lifting weights. It was fun. You go back to it, you enjoy it. It builds that satisfaction and that confidence. We can do this.

It's hard, but I'm up for the challenge to do it. But I also know it. And I know how I'm going to feel when I'm done doing this. I know it's going to make me feel good. It's almost like an old friend. You could go back to, you know, when you're done doing it, you're going to feel good about yourself. And I think a lot of folks too, when we don't work out after a while, we're like, I know I should be doing this. I know I should be doing this routine. I know how good it is for me. Yes, that's interesting that you say that too.

And what you said about the time, I call it time scarcity, where we feel like I don't have time to work out. And I realized whenever I stop, it affects how I feel. I was telling a friend how tired I feel this week. And I was like, I haven't really worked out recently. And I think that's what's happening. I'm tired because I'm not working out. You get sluggish, your mental clarity goes, sleep isn't as good, you don't eat as well. And this all affects how we perform. Yeah. I feel vibrant and energetic when I work out and that goes away real quick when you stop. I agree. Yeah. How did that love of fitness start for you?

I'm curious, going back to... Yeah. Yeah. Well, like I said, I've always, fitness has always been a part of me. I mean, growing up when I was really little, my parents had me in ballet and I've always been competitive in a good way, you know, positive competitiveness, if that's the thing. But I've always been part of like team sports. Um, so I've always had this like habit of exercise is just kind of part of who I am that something I identify with. Um, but as far as like getting into, um, fitness at the level I do now, um, I, let me think I've always been, I think it's been my competitiveness kind of thing. I've

always been curious and wanting to learn more about, I think what the body can do. Um, so one of my goals that I said I wanted to accomplish was I wanted to compete in like, um, a figure competition, a fitness competition, like a bodybuilding on stage. And, um, the interesting thing about that, doing that, um, you'd probably be like, why would a musician want to do that? Like you have to lift heavy weights and stuff. You're going to injure yourself. And how do you balance doing that? And, and your job as a professional musician, I'll be honest, it was very difficult. It was very difficult. But, um, one thing that really spoke to me from that whole experience was how I overcame anxiety by the whole process of doing this competition,

this fitness figure competition on stage, overcoming my anxiety. Um, you know, I'll be honest as a professional musician for most of my career, I had so much performance anxiety, um, you know, fear on stage, fear of what my colleagues thought, how I played, you know, things like that and it was so hard to create because I was always criticizing so what better way to learn to not criticize than to step on stage and be criticized for like your physique it sounds crazy but um I learned so much through the process every day getting in the gym um having the routine, building that confidence, building resiliency, learning how to manage what I was doing for the fitness competition and my life and balance.

And then just from stepping on stage, being critiqued for what I look like, that helped me overcome so much performance anxiety, so much anxiety of what people thought. Because when I stepped on stage after going through the whole process of fitness every day, my routine, I was okay with being told this or that, you know, about me, about me, um, stripped down me, you know? Um, and that whole experience, not just stepping on stage, but the whole experience of going into the gym and just putting something aside and focusing on myself and taking care of myself really helped me overcome the whole anxiety. I still feel anxiety, of course, when I get up and solo and stuff like that, but it's not nearly what it was. And I'm able to be resilient and take

my mind out of any negative thoughts I have because of that. But getting in, that was part of how I really got into fitness and how I really started to see like, how can what I'm learning and what I'm doing, you know, continue to help me in my career and help me get over this performance anxiety. You know, obviously I'm stronger, physically stronger, you know, able to, you know, be stronger in life as I get older, holding my instrument, carrying all these bass clarinets around and stuff like that. But it also affected me mentally. And I thought that was really important. So I got very interested in, um, in molding those two things, my professional life as a musician and fitness. And, um, I continued to get more and more certifications, um, during

my time, uh, in the band, um, and then really started to get a niche about how I could really narrow this down and, and be specific with musicians. And that's kind of how it all came together. Um, I do work with our Marine musicians also, um, in the president's own and I help them, um, with anything they need for longevity in their career when it comes to health and fitness. Um, um, so that's a nice, that's a nice part of my job to know that, um, I'm also encouraging my colleagues to, um, to incorporate health and fitness into their life as well. I love that. I love that performance anxiety component of things. Would you say it came from perhaps, seems to me like it came from, from within, from sort of a radical self-acceptance.

Yeah, I think, you know, maybe so. I, I think I just, I was like, what can I do about this performance anxiety that I'm feeling? You know, what can, what can I do? What's something I can do maybe I need to do something completely different you know maybe I need to and fitness was one of those things um you know not I think as musicians to I said oh I think as musicians but we we tend to kind of overwork what we're doing you know we sit down uh we're anxious about something and we we work on that thing over and over and over and over but it creates more more anxiety um and again going back to talking about okay take a break go do something else and come back to it um I think just taking care of myself um um getting to the root cause of why

am I feeling this anxiety um and just realizing what I could do about it but um I was tired of always criticizing myself in my playing and I just I couldn't create and fitness helps me when I was doing the fitness and and um getting on stage and the whole process of that it was it was a opportunity for me to maybe get to know myself better build confidence in myself have a routine, have structure. All those things really encouraged me to have something I could go back to. Like we were talking about having that routine that you can go back to, that you feel comfortable with, that you feel encouraged by, that you feel that builds that confidence that you need. I hope that

answers what you're getting at. It's interesting because I feel like I'm getting the same thing from all of the work that I do with Mind Over Finger, because I feel, too, that my performance anxiety is almost eradicated. It's not that it's always gone, for sure. But I do feel that all of the work that I do with Mind Over Finger, it, first of all, keeps me very busy. So when I am practicing, I can't just simmer in the same problem for hours. It's like, let's get it better. a little bit today and I'll come back tomorrow. So it has me create all sorts of break points in my work that is actually beneficial over time where I end up learning

things faster. But also I go and I'll write a podcast episode, which makes me feel creatively fulfilled, which, you know, taps into another side of myself. And as a person makes me feel just a little bit more... I don't know what the word in English would be, but well, fulfilled. And now I'm forgetting the word in French for it. I'm having a language blackout. But I think you understand what I'm trying to say, though. I feel much more complex as a person like there there are a lot more things happening there's not just renee the performer and i'm also a mother and a wife and of course and a commuter but um but there's something about exploring a different side of ourselves that like in french i think we

say accompli like accomplished but in the in the sense of uh the term is not coming it will come You understand what I'm trying to say here, I think. Yeah, yeah, definitely. I mean, when I was talking about identifying with things, I think it's really important to have those things that you identify with, because we don't, you're not just a musician, you're not just a professional musician, you know, that shouldn't be all that you do. Um, and with my life, um, out of what I've done, you know, with fitness and music, I've come to identify with something that makes me, uh, me who I am, makes me unique, makes me confident. Um, and it's, it's a fulfilling, something that's fulfilling because I'm able to now take those things that I identify with and that I enjoy and help other people, you know,

And I think that's a really, really important thing about, um, about what, what I'm, what I'm doing and, and fulfillment in my career. I think that's kind of what you were getting at too with that. Yeah, absolutely. I feel more, the French, the French word came back is épanoui, but I don't know what it is in English. I'll Google it. um but let's um let's go in a different direction because something that you mentioned made me think

about that aspect of balance because you're very busy as a performer you have a lot of responsibilities uh you also work with musicians or other humans in in the capacity as a trainer um you talked about commute you have a you know busy life what does that look like balance you talked about how the schedule is never the same. So I have a sense that you're going to say the same thing I tell people, which is like balance does not exist. But what can you tell us about what, what it looks like? Yeah. I mean, I like how you said like balance doesn't really exist. Um, I think the way we create balance is by, um, one of the things is just not taking on too many things not not accepting too many things knowing boundaries um i've learned that over the many

years like i'm a mom too i've got two kids they're pretty much grown now um you know full-time job which is um not nine to five it's all over the place as most musicians are um a long commute um I have a clarinet studio that I do in the evenings I got the fitness business and all these different things going on um so how do I create the balance with that and it has taken me a long time to realize that there was a time where um you know I had my I have the professional musician musician job and then I was getting into fitness and I started the fitness business I mean word of mouth it grew it was supposed to just be a side business and then it was it was this huge thing and um unlike unlike many musicians it was very hard for me to

say no you know no i can't do this or no i can't do that because we care so deeply about what we're doing whether it's music or whatever you find unique to yourself like i do fitness it was very hard for me to say no so going back to um being able to set boundaries and being able to say no of things, I think that's really important creating balance. So with my fitness business, I had to, I had to kind of dwindle it down as much as I didn't want to, but I just had so many clients that was taking over and ended up, uh, making, uh, not to say that fitness wasn't enjoyable, but I didn't, it wasn't as enjoyable because now it was stressful, you know? Um, so I had to create balance there. I had to scale that back, um, to create balance in my life.

And so I, I, I, from my experience, in order to have balance, you have to set boundaries. You have to be able to, um, say no to certain things. Um, so, so that is something that I had to do. Um, so I have a lot going on. How do I, how do I manage it all into one day? Um, and like you said, there really is no, no balance, but we can, we can do our best to create it. So a typical day for me would look like waking up, you know, five, five or five 30. I work out from home. So that's something I changed in order to manage things. I used to go to the gym. Now I just work out from home, 30 minute workout at home, come up, get my, help my son get ready for school. i get ready for work i have a about an hour and a half commute to work a typical week would be if

say it's like a rehearsal week i go into work i have my one and a half hour commute get in there rehearsals are three hours where i'm sitting down for like the two-hour commute the three-hour rehearsal you know i got at least i got that 30-minute workout in that makes me feel good about myself and good about that. And then come home, maybe an hour home, because traffic's not as bad. As soon as I come home, I got to, you know, pick up my son from school. And then I go right into teaching. And I might teach for three hours. And then after that, I got to take my son to his soccer practice, which is 45 minutes away. And then, and that's my day. But I think the way I've, I've learned to balance that is, um, is kind of maybe part of it's just perspective,

just being thankful that, you know, I get to work out. I, I get to go to this awesome job that I love. I get to come home and see my son after school. I get to teach. I love my students, um, mentoring them. I learned just as much from them as I hope they learn from me. and um you know i've i've cultivated this life that that i enjoy and that i know what to expect from um yeah some days some weeks my job is extremely stressful and busy extremely stressful and busy but then there are weeks where it's a lot lighter and learning to um rest on those days or, you know, I think that that's important. Balance, I said the word rest,

and that is something that we don't do enough of. So incorporating rest into your day is crucial to create sustainability and balance. With that, I love your words that you cultivated your life. And I think that's very important. Going with what you said in terms of setting boundaries that allows you to say yes to other things, right? Saying no to certain things allows you to say yes to the things that are meaningful for you. And I think that is such a great example for anyone listening to how to cultivate a life that you love and that makes you feel excited and motivated and interested. Complete control. And I used to always say, I'm so stressed out about all this stuff. And then, you know, I'm in control of that. I don't have to do everything. I don't have to do it all to be accomplished. You know, you don't have to do everything. Do the things that

are meaningful to you, that you enjoy, because you're going to do them better. You know, you're going to be better at what you do by doing the things that you really want to do. So, Shannon, as I'm looking at the time, I'd love to maybe see if we can get a few rapid fire questions before we wrap up. Although I feel like I could sit with you for hours and go back and forth on so many topics. I'm telling you, I feel like we're living parallel lives with different activities,

but very similar conversations because I feel like a lot of people resonate with that, what we're talking about today. Yes. One question I don't ask a lot, but I love is about doubt and resistance, which you've kind of touched on a little bit. But what doubt or resistance, maybe internal or external, do you have to face? Oh, sure. Yeah. Doubt. We all have those. I can't do this. I'm not good enough. Am I going to be good enough? You know, that I think where everyone faces that at some point or another. everyone's going to face that at some point or another and if i if i relate this to fitness

i think that you know just going in with fitness and learning about my body and learning what i can handle and building resilience um through what i've done in fitness going in the gym whatever it is, um, really helped me to, to get rid of a lot of the doubt. I feel definitely, um, just building that, building that routine and just that belief in myself. That's something that fitness has really done for me. And therefore I have a lot less doubt, a lot less of those negative thoughts of you can't do this. You know, I always say my mantra is I'm up for the challenge. And I think that's because of everything I've done with fitness. Love that. I'm up to the challenge. Okay. I'm going to borrow this.

What skills do you think young musicians should acquire in addition to learning to play their instruments? Of course, you got to do this, but. Yeah. Young musicians always tell, I always say to our new musicians, new Marines coming into the band even, but young musicians, I think they really need to be incorporating some type of movement practice that they do off of their instrument, off their instrument to set themselves up for success, to not have injuries, to not have imbalances, just so they have longevity. because our careers as musicians is long. It can be really long. And what we do can create a lot of tension. Even before we touch our instrument, there's tension. So I would just encourage young musicians to get into some movement.

Add in some movement, like I was showing you those exercises earlier. Add some movement in around your practice because what you do off of your instrument is super important for how you play and how you feel and your mindset and performance anxiety. I mean, we take care of our instrument when something happens to it. But if we don't take care of ourself, no matter how well in shape the instrument is, it's not going to do its job if we're not taking care of ourselves. So I would definitely encourage young people to start getting in the habit of doing some movement off their instrument.

With this, yes. I mean, this would never happen, I think, maybe in the dream world, but how different things would be if orchestras hired someone to come and walk the musicians through, you know, a half hour sort of movement-based warmup right before we're in a solo performance. We'd all feel great. Think about it. Yeah. Right. I think it would be a great investment for, you know, sick days, maybe happier musicians. Absolutely. Yeah. No, I totally agree with that. What about a habit that you have that you think contributed to your success? Yes. Well, I, I mean, we've been talking about routines and habit for, for so long. Um, but I think, Hmm, it has to come. There's so many things, but I mean, routine is one, like I've

always had a structured routine. And I think that that's really helpful because like we said earlier, having that routine, it feels like home. It builds confidence. It's something I know. So when things go bad or something goes wrong, I can go back to that routine. Like I've just built that. But as far as like my success, I've always been very, very determined. And I just have a mindset of not giving up. I'm very resilient. You know, if I don't win an audition or something like that. I don't just quit or whatever. Like I go back and say, how can I make this better? How can I make this better versus, you know, I'm able to pull myself out of negative self-talk. And I think that is a very important power, you know, that I've built through the

routine, through fitness, those types of things. I love that. Right. Like I tell clients, I tell myself too at times that if we can change the question from what's wrong with me to what happened, this could be so much better. Exactly. Yeah. I totally agree with that. in closing what is a quick actionable tip that the the listeners could implement today i would encourage folks to i'm just going to go back to the to the movement thing i would encourage folks um because i you know i'm really big on fitness and music and and delving those two loves together and seeing how it has benefited my life and see how I've been able to help other folks. But I would just encourage anyone out, anyone listening to this to incorporate more

types of movements into your day. Start getting into a fitness routine. You know, maybe you go to a group fitness class and you end up meeting other people and creating a structure that way and routine that way. But you will benefit so much from incorporating some kind of movement, some fitness, whatever, into what you do as a musician. Because like we talked about all throughout this podcast, how not only does it build your physical strength, but your mental strength as well. Thank you so much. Shannon, where can people find everything about you? Is it the website? Yeah, well, I think, you know, go to the President's Own. You'll see me there, catch some performances, things like that, where I'll be. I'm on Instagram as thefitclarinetist.

um i also have a private um group on facebook um you can find me there um fitwit forum if you'd like to join that uh daily workouts things like that um yeah you should daily workouts lots of just inspirational posts um ask questions it's a nice community of very positive people and um and then i also have the get fit with shannon kewitt which is where my fitness business resides. Thank you. I'm going to put all these links in the show notes. Shannon, thank you so much for this gift of your time and your wisdom. I feel very inspired and I know that everyone listening. Thanks for having me. It was a lot of fun just having this nice conversation. And there you have it. Thank you so much for spending this time with me today.

If you enjoyed this episode, I'd love it if you'd share with your friends and colleagues. Take a screenshot, post it on social media and tag me. I'm mind over finger everywhere. I always love hearing your favorite takeaways. And if you're ready to take your playing career to the next level, I'd love to invite you to join the Music Mastery Experience. This is my signature group coaching program where we're going to dive deep into building your confidence and mastery and set you up for success and fulfillment in your life and career. You can find all the details at mindoverfinger.com. While you're there, check out the free downloads and online courses available to support your journey even further. And don't forget to subscribe to my newsletter

so you never miss an update or a tool to help you thrive. Again, thank you for being here. Until next time, much love and à bientôt! Thank you.