Last night I did karaoke with four virtual strangers. When we arrived at the place, we said some quick hellos and then awkwardly walked down the hallway to get to our private room where a couch, two mics, an electric tambourine (I know!!! I didn’t know that even existed either!), three songbooks, and a flat screen TV were waiting for us. Everyone was kind of shy at first. “Oh no…I can’t sing, I’ve never done this before, I’m tone deaf,” etc etc. So I broke the ice with a little Joan Jett. Rocker stance and all. Hand motions. Hair flipping. The mood started to soften. Joan Jett turned into Bon Jovi and before I knew it, the shy girls were up and Vogue-ing to Madonna and we were all doing gang vocals to “Livin On A Prayer.” And of course, as you know by now, I started thinking about how you could apply this to business. Or relationships. And this is what I came up with…

One…creating a cool vibe and a safe space is SOOO important in order for people to feel comfortable opening up (in both biz and bed). In karaoke, if no one had stepped up to do the first song, make it fun and silly and lighthearted, the vibe would have stayed weird and awkward the whole time. Same in biz…you have to create a space where your clients want to be, in order for them to want to work with you. In relationships…it’s all about vibe. If your partner has a weird vibe, you’re going to feel it and then get weird, and then he’s going to feel it and get weirder, creating a downward spiral of weirdness. In that situation, one of you just needs to step up to lighten the mood and bring to the surface whatever is really going on.

Two…in karaoke, you gotta just let it all go and let it all hang out. You might not be the best singer in the world, you might be afraid you’ll suck (you might actually suck), but who cares? If you just let it go, by the end of the night you’ll be singing Pat Benetar without a care in the world, and feel amazing for having done so. In love, it’s easy to not put yourself out there, tell yourself you’re protecting your heart, but if you want to live a full and rich life, you just have to go for it. Same for business. You have to take risks in order for anything cool to happen. Safety is boring. And it doesn’t make you money. And it won’t grow your business. Things are way more fun when you just throw caution to the wind and belt out Metallica and air-guitar during the solos. That’s how I want to live my life. You??

Anyway, I had fun. My voice is almost gone. And I think I want to go there again, by myself, and practice my moves. It beats sitting on the couch checking my Google analytics all night. ☺

Leave me a comment and tell me some of your favorite Karaoke songs or stories!