Leaving a Mark in this World
This episode walks through Elizabeth Bachman's remarkable career. From the world of opera to businesswomen, keynote speaker, communications coach, and leader. Elizabeth is a graduate of Wesleyan University, where she majored in Theater and French. She is a Certified Public Speaker and Presentation Skills Trainer through the Public Speaker Association and Thrive Academy.
Elizabeth shares how her early family life and love of the arts and languages set the foundation for a career in the arts. Her experiences in university with the intent to pursue acting, and how that changed to directing, are covered.
We talk about her early post-graduate years, including her move to New York City, where she developed her career in opera. There are many conversations stemming from the various roles she had in this industry, all leading to becoming a director. In this role, Elizabeth takes the listener behind the scenes of an opera production. She offers insight into the creative, economic, and business side of this industry.
She shares her personal development as a mentor, teacher, and business person. Her move across the country to San Francisco highlights the differences between living on the two coasts. She talks about her motivation to start and run her own opera company, the Tyrolean Opera Program, or TOP Opera, in Austria.
We talk extensively about this opera company she started and built in Austria. The various roles in this position include working with performers and locals to build a community to support this venture. We talk about reinventing herself, her new skills in public speaking, with a focus on fundraising. Eventually, burnout leads to her career change. This is where she talks about taking her new skill, public speaking, and starting her firm, “Strategic Speaking for RESULTS”.
The foundation of Elizabeth's business is to help women and minorities be heard. We cover how she works with clients. She provides examples from her portfolio of workplace communication issues. She highlights tools to tell better stories that capture an audience. Her mastermind program, called “The Visible and Valued Leadership Program,” and what it entails is discussed.
This interview will interest listeners with a career in the arts, especially opera. It will appeal to others who may want to pursue such a career or are interested in this industry. We cover career change and communication, how to be heard, how to present oneself, and how to listen better.
This episode is about leadership as well. It is how Elizabeth's mission to leave a mark in the world developed from her past experiences. She is an example of how we can all do better through giving everybody space and room to be heard. It is about growing, learning, and following our passion with our eyes and ears wide open. It is in learning how to pass this on, a quality of leaders that Elizabeth embodies.