Here is a testimonial from our most recent client. We had a successful teambuilding program held in Nashville, Tennessee.
Team Building
When I first settled in South Florida after a long stint in Nashville, I struggled to find my creative tribe. I had left the songwriting capital of the world, a musical ecosystem built around daily collaboration, to run a large, non-profit dog rescue in Wellington. The opportunity to build a new team, create a revitalized culture and save the lives of man’s best friend was too tempting for me not to give it a whirl. I realized quickly that my experience as the Founder and Lead Facilitator of THE Song Team would not only still be relevant in this new venture, but rather would remain front and center in every professional setting I encountered moving forward.
Corporate team building in Florida, whether at the music-themed hotels Margaritaville, or The Hard Rock Guitar Hotel is more important than ever. Leaders who don’t have blinders on, recognize the value and set aside a budget to intentionally create programs and space for free-form collaborations. It’s the same stuff that created Apple or Google, that created hit songs of a lifetime such as any Lennon & McCartney tune, or the latest #1 hit for today’s country stars.
While I am always happy to get back to Nashville for our self-titled “Nashville style team-building, what I have found is that Musical Team Building in Florida can be every bit as relevant as it was in Music City USA. When we go through the process of ideating a song-concept that molds to the current narrative of an organization or company going through the continual process of evolving in this “Post-Covid” landscape, the excitement and revelatory expressions we see in participants faces for our songwriting/team building programs in Miami, Fort Lauderdale or Orlando are every bit as poignant as they are when we do these programs in Nashville.
Corporate team building workshops or our larger, experiential keynotes where we put notes to the page to form chords, and then combine those chords into an instantly hummable melody for the client are so effective in communicating new initiatives and products, combining corporate cultures after a merger, or launching a new service. Remember, we’re also organically teaching organizational story-telling. It’s this storytelling that connects with all of us out there searching for connection to the products and services we most frequently think we want or need.
So clear a wall in the common space of your workplace, paint it in chalkboard paint to create a collaboration wall, OR keep large, blank POST-IT pads in supply on that wall, or a large, dry erase board. Either way, encourage those ideas, and those re-vamped ideas, and those revisions of the revamped ideas… to keep coming. Encourage and reward the idea process. It’s what’s going to engage your employees and it’s what’s likely to give birth to the most unique new products and services that differentiate your organization from that of your competitors. Now and always. And remember, this is a fluid and ongoing process. Whether it’s Florida Team-building, Nashville team-building, or Denver team-building…it’s all the same. Notes in a chord, and chords and lyrics together…make up the song. Your song. Your Sound. Your story.
A CANVASREBEL FEATURE
Meet Jeff Jacob
We recently connected with Jeff Jacob and have shared our conversation below.
Jeff, thanks for joining us, excited to have you contributing your stories and insights. We’d love to hear about a project that you’ve worked on that’s meant a lot to you.
As a songwriter, by the time I reached my mid-thirties I had realized (at least sub-consciously) that more and more of my writing moving forward, needed to be purpose-driven. This wasn’t a decision, rather it was a pulling…a tugging of the spiritual and creative energies. Looking in the rearview now, I can see the shift and actually follow the path! From 2005 through 2008, having lived in Nashville for several years already trying to “make it” as a commercial songwriter I began working part-time as a “Staff Songwriter” for The Songs of Love Foundation based in NYC. Our task in this role was to write fully personalized, customized for seriously ill children and their families. TSOLF teamed up with healthcare providers around the country to provide song profile sheets to families in crisis. These sheets included space for favorite hobbies, pets, friends, dreams, etc of the children facing illness. As songwriters we’d turn these profiles into songs produced “radio ready” within 25 days of assignment. To this day, I still have a few of the letters parents wrote me in thanks for their personalized song. When a parent expresses that they play this song on the way to little _____’s chemo each time, to get ready….it does far more than choke one up as the writer. A few years later I was working as a songwriter and volunteer marketing director for a local non-profit when we produced and implemented a program called “Songwriters for Soldiers.” Collaborating with war vets (and their families) battling PTSD along with their families and therapists, each veteran was assigned a hit, Nashville Songwriter to work on telling their own stories through song. This was done over the course of a weekend in the woods west of Nashville. One of the most impactful weekends of my life, are words I’d use to describe that experience and the follow up benefit concert and album that resulted from this project. Down the line I’d lead “Face the Music Foundation” as we grew our therapeutic songwriting and music programs beyond Florida into Nashville and Austin, and I can trace the path back through earlier projects. Today, the songwriting and recording I still do when not leading a non-profit through transitional phases is nearly all intentional and tied to a cause. This includes 2 songs and music videos we are currently producing as advocacy and awareness tools for organizations that work in the fields of Mental Health, SUDS, and homelessness.
As always, we appreciate you sharing your insights and we’ve got a few more questions for you, but before we get to all of that can you take a minute to introduce yourself and give our readers some of your back background and context?
Somewhere along the way the phrase “connecting the dots” became a moniker of mine. I didn’t invent it for certain, but it truly resonated with how I’ve lived my life for the most part. Earlier on, I can’t pretend I was intentionally seeking the connective tissue that existed between different aspects of how I was occupying myself. But certainly by my mid-30’s, that habit of drawing the lines between the chapters became more purposeful. Almost strategic at times. (at least from the outside looking in.)
I first got into public/corporate speaking as a “hobby” or avocation back around 2011. I had been managing the offices of a successful Motivational Speaker as well as helping run and grow his notorious, beautiful recording studio in the hills just south of Nashville. Franklin, TN to be specific. Combining my passions of songwriting, collaboration and speaking or facilitating programs had been germinating for a bit, when I was preparing to book my boss as the primary Keynote Speaker for a conference at The University of Indiana. The meeting planner and I had become friendly during the months leading up to this point, and once we’d agreed on a deal she shared with me that she was now looking to book/fill her “under-sessions”, or “breakouts.” I told her that my program “Write-A-Song-Build-A-Team” was new and still evolving but that I’d love to offer it at the conference. With no website, and no promo video either, our relationship and the description of this newly formed program got the gig!
With her help we brought in a two-camera shoot from the University AV department and our first promo video was shot and then edited. That became the centerpiece to launching a website, and turning a hobby into something more substantial. The program has certainly evolved over the years (and continues to do so whenever a client asks us if we can tweak this, or add a wrinkle to that.)
It was also around 2012 or 13 when I started volunteering in the non-profit space, in particular animal rescue and faith-based sectors far more avidly. Those two pieces of my “life-pie” combined to move me out of Nashville around 2014 to take the reins as Director of Operations for “Big Dog Ranch Rescue” in Wellington, Florida. This is the largest, cage-free no kill dog rescue east of the Mississippi. They hired me due to the combination of my team-building experience and my animal rescue volunteer experience primarily. In other words, my ability to connect the dots really assisted in landing this first professional role in non-profit management. I suppose that’s one of the things of which I’m most proud.
These days, no matter which non-profit I’m assisting as Executive Director, I’m always still leading my programs with team-mates who are hit songwriters at The Song Team. Whether it’s leading these programs in a recording studio for a think tank of 20 cross-industry CEO’s, or facilitating a customized, Songwriting, Keynote Experience for 1000 people at a company or industry conference…these programs are always a blast for the attendees and for us as facilitators. The fact that I was asked to turn this program into a TEDX talk, also really tickled my funny bone. That was an exceptionally rewarding experience.
Still writing songs, still recording ocassionally when the fancy strikes and when there is an opportunity to use the music to advance a cause for which I’m passionate. That’s me…a dot-connecting, non-profit leading, songwriting, collaboration and community type guy. Plus, gotta have a dog nearby. Part of the deal 🙂
What do you think is the goal or mission that drives your creative journey?
These days my creative efforts are nearly always driven by a mission or purpose. For example, with some musical friends I’m currently in the studio working on 2 songs and corresponding videos. Each song is aligned with a non-profit charged with tackling crucial social issues. The first one is a newly formed non-profit that primarily works to combat the epidemic of suicide. It’s such a needed service (s) they are providing, and the issue is still so misunderstood by many. The video we’re creating is half-music video, and half infomercial to be used to advocate for the non-profit, while spreading general awareness of the cause and resources available to help those in need. That song is called “Holdin’ Onto Hope”, and the non-profit is “Deerfield Beach Community Cares.” The 2nd song is called “The Love Wins Revival” and deals primarily with homelessness as a societal ill. We have not yet aligned with a non-profit for this part of the project, but it’s in the works, and we’ll have been in the studio already working on the song by the time this piece goes to press. 🙂 Very excited about this project. We received funding from a supporter for the first two numbers here, and we hope to turn it into a bigger, longer term intersection of music and non-profits that we’ll call “Songs on Purpose.”
Have any books or other resources had a big impact on you?
“Begging for Change” by Robert Egger, the Steve Jobs Biography by Walter Isaacson, and “Do the Kind Thing” by Daniel Lubetzky have all been very informative books on my journey. Also, “Evolve or Die” by Robin Crow.
Contact Info:
- Website: https://www.thesongteam.com
- Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/thesongteam
- Linkedin: https://www.linkedin.com/in/jeffjacobteambuilder/
- Twitter: jeffjacob@thesongteam
This original article can be found here.
It’s National Help a Horse Day
Jeff Jacob, Founder & Lead Facilitator at The Song Team as well as Executive Director of Alaqua Animal Refuge was featured yesterday, April 26th, 2021 on News Channel 7’s morning segment called: “It’s National Help a Horse Day.”
Jeff explains the bond between human and animal and how they can both benefit from one another. Specifically animals can help with treatment for those with underlying health issues such as PTSD, addiction, depression and so forth. Alqua is diversifying many ways to how rescue animals can help.
Help support the cause today by donating here.
The original news story can be found here.
Get in Tune!
When you’re building something special, the beginnings rarely look anything like the “end-product.” For example, this old shipping pallet, partially torn apart over a weekend…hammer, saw, pry bar…trial and error…measuring… certainly doesn’t look anything like what it’s parts will evolve into, as I turn them into something that looks a LOT better than the old wallpaper they are starting to cover up in the kitchen in the new house.
Similarly, the glitzy moments such as here where I’m fortunate enough to be hanging out backstage with legendary Music Producer Butch Vig (Nirvana, Green Day, Smashing Pumpkins, Soul Asylum) and Recovery Unplugged Co-Founder Andrew Sossin at a Benefit Concert for Face The Music Foundation, at The famed Riviera Theatre in Chicago…these moments are not really what it’s about. Rather, it’s about moments like this other picture here where I’m with our resident maestro on fiddle, Carl Schmid, and Roosevelt from a local Boys & Girls Club that we recently teamed up with for one of our educational programs…“Get In Tune!” (looking for funding by the way, just saying!) These sessions work towards breaking the cycle of addiction through music. Early on, before the disease can take root… On the streets, where it’s real, just watch the music heal.
Whether your re-purposing old wood shipping pallets, and trying to find just the right size board, the right color tone, the right texture, or trying to assemble a first class Board of Directors, or Creative Team, it’s all about patience, open-mindedness, creativity, vision, heart. That’s how you turn the individual notes, into a beautiful chord of music.
Butch Vig Of Garbage And Filter’s Richard Patrick On Power Of Music At Face The Music Foundation Benefit
PHOTO BY BARRY BRECHEISEN
Amidst the opioid crisis in a world where music and the arts continue to disappear from American classrooms, Face The Music Foundation and Recovery Unplugged place a premium on music as a critical part of the recovery process.
Garbage drummer and producer Butch Vig performs during the Face The Music Foundation benefit concert in Chicago. Monday, May 20, 2019 at the Riviera Theatre
PHOTO BY BARRY BRECHEISEN
“These type of events remind us of how much energy and passion can be galvanized by something as unifying as music,” said Face The Music Foundation Executive Director Jeff Jacob Monday night in Chicago backstage at the Riviera Theatre prior to the Face The Music Foundation benefit concert. “Music is one of the only universal languages. So we believe that it not only brings people together but that it has healing properties. There’s proof to show that music can actually put someone on a positive path and help them sort of put a new foundation under them of solid ground.”
Founded in 2014, as the non-profit arm of Recovery Unplugged, the Foundation seeks to generate the resources necessary to help those who might otherwise not be able to afford to enter substance abuse treatment by creating treatment scholarships.
Recovery Unplugged takes things further, directly integrating music into the recovery process, with a stated mission “to provide hope and healing for individuals affected by addiction using the power of music.”
“It’s rare still that type of therapy. But I think it’s one of the best types of therapy that people can go through,” said producer and Garbage drummer Butch Vig. “I’ve been playing music all my life and it’s therapy for me. I think it’s a pretty incredible program where music is part of the recovery process.”
Monday night in Chicago, Vig performed with Garbage as the benefit’s headlining act, working with dkmedia and Charity Bomb alongside openers Slow Mass and Jam Alker Band to raise awareness and funds for both charitable groups.
“I myself am a recovering addict. Five years ago, I was killing myself shooting heroin on the west side of Chicago. Now I’m part of an event that is raising money to get people into treatment that is music based,” said Jam Alker. “I started playing music again when I was in treatment just over four and a half years ago and it changed my life. I began to heal some of the deepest wounds inside of me by using music as a way to express and process the underlying trauma that had led to my addiction. It’s something that’s been a passion of mine and so I got involved with Face the Music Foundation.”
Garbage’s touring bass player, former Jane’s Addiction bassist Eric Avery, is also a recovering addict. Like many musicians, Garbage see the impact the disease can have on a daily basis.
“I hope that the event can bring awareness and bring an acute sense of urgency to absolutely every single one of the attendees. Because we all know that we are less than one degree away from someone with an invisible disease,” said event director, dkmedia principal and owner David Kinsler. “It’s indisputable: Music creates emotion. It evokes. And that’s what it was always meant to do.”
PHOTO BY BARRY BRECHEISEN
Richard Patrick of industrial alternative rockers Filter made a special opening appearance Monday night as well, singing one of Filter’s biggest hits, “Take a Picture,” with backing from Chicago-based Jam Alker Band.
Back to work with Filter co-founding member Brian Liesegang for the first time in more than twenty years on the forthcoming album Rebus, Patrick spoke candidly before the show about the role music can play in the recovery process.
“When you hear the perfect kind of music for the mood you’re in, it can bring pleasure, happiness, anger and exhilaration that only a few things can. So I think it’s important to have music in recovery,” he said. “But at the same time, it’s also important just to even hear this is an actual possibility that you can get sober and you can be happy.”
Monday night over the course of about ninety minutes, Garbage hit upon virtually every corner of their recorded catalog, placing most focus on their 1998 album Version 2.0 following a tour last year which featured full performances of the album in recognition of it’s 20th anniversary.
The group worked a snippet of Depeche Mode’s “Personal Jesus” into “Wicked Ways” early and vocalist Shirley Manson gave the fans a choice later, letting them decide by show of applause whether the band would close the show with “Bleed Like Me” or “When I Grow Up.” “It pleases me to f-ck with my band,” said the vocalist of her process as the crowd roared its approval for the latter.
“Sometimes you hear about bands that say they want to change the world with their music. And there is some truth to that. Because a song can affect someone’s personal life in a way that is way beyond what the artist intended,” said Vig. “When we make music, we record and write and go through the whole process kind of in a bubble. We do it for ourselves as our own form of therapy. And when you put music into the world, how it affects people, you never know really what’s going to happen. But it’s very gratifying to hear that kind of connection with people – that the music has a healing power.”
PHOTO BY BARRY BRECHEISEN
Manson went onto decry the lack of a union for musicians on stage Monday in Chicago, ultimately praising the work of groups like Recovery Unplugged and Face The Music Foundation. For his part, during turbulent times in America, Vig sees real value in the role of the musician.
“I think the most important thing that an artist can do, whether it’s conscious or unconscious, is get people to think,” he said. “I don’t think any music fan wants to get hit over the head with slogans or be told what to do. But a great song can reach out to you on an emotional level, or even a sociopolitical level, and make you think about the world that we live in.”
According to the National Survey on Drug Use and Health, “In 2016, an estimated twenty-one million people aged 12 or older needed substance use treatment,” translating to nearly 1 in 13 people. As the opioid crisis continues in America, the work of groups like Face The Music Foundationand Recovery Unplugged is more important than ever.
Raising awareness of the fact that recovery is even a real possibility is crucial to Richard Patrick.
“It’s a disease. I never wanted it. I woke up and I was way in – really deep into addiction. And now I’m a healthy, contributing member of society that can help other people. And that’s the best part of it – helping other people,” Patrick said. “I get all these people who say, ‘Is this real? Can I really get sober?’ Well I did it. And I can only speak for myself but if you can believe in yourself just a little bit, you can do it. I’m just spreading the message that you can get sober. Literally you can save people’s lives just by being a good example.”
Jim Ryan is a Chicago based writer/broadcaster who’s interviewed a Ramone and a Rolling Stone. Follow him on Twitter @RadioJimRyan or visit online at radiojimryan.com. radiojimryan@gmail.com.
Find the original article here.