COACHING

we will do it together

Pieter Schoonderwoerd

Pieter Schoonderwoerd
Personal coaching for driven jazz artists looking for transformative career development.

Working one-on-one with a coach who is committed to your growth and understands your work field is a powerful and transformational asset that will have a profound impact on your music career and life.

Through this coaching service for jazz artists, I aim to help high-performing musicians to grow even further– musically, personally, professionally and financially.

When you work with me, you are not simply buying my time by the hour. I see coaching as a partnership where you will have somebody that has your back and who will do whatever it takes to help you succeed.

The process is highly personal. I see it as my role to ask you the right questions, to challenge your paradigms, to help you dream bigger, and to create better ways forward.

Coaching For Who?

This coaching program is specifically designed for high-performing jazz artists that need somebody to work with to reach their next level of success. 

Being an artist doesn’t mean that your artistic compass is always pointing True North. The hustle of making a living sometimes obscures and distracts people from their best work. Why did you love making music again? What is your art for? What album do you need to make? Sometimes we all need somebody that challenges our status quo, clarifies our mind, realligns our purpose and puts us back on course to create our greatest work to date.

My own journey went from being a professional drummer – teaching 30+ students and weekly performances – to becoming the person that facilitates the magic behind the curtains. It was in my second year studying music at 27 years that I realized my ‘zone of genius’ lies in combining my creative & organizational skills. In 2007, I started volunteering at the local jazz club in Maastricht (NL) and after barely three months in got the opportunity to organize their two-day jazz festival with headliners such as Gino Vannelli, Brad Mehldau and Philip Catherine. It was a crazy intense rollercoaster, but I somehow managed to not burn the theatre down, and I never looked back since. Being the one that made those magical moments possible for the artists and audience to experience together is what drives me.

As your career grows, as I myself discovered in my mid-thirties, so do your opportunities. In my case, I became director of a jazz organisation, board-member of a national jazz association, chair of an international thinktank for Higher Music Education, and founder and coordinator of a music entrepreneurship program at a conservatory. All at the same time. Yes, I loved every single project, met amazing people and made a difference in people’s lives. However, I also completely lost track of myself. I was working 60+ hours per week and hardly saw my friends or family. My priorities, my health, my social life, … They all got shelved for my future-self to deal with. In the present, I was following my passion and I didn’t learn yet the power of ‘saying no’. The power of slowing down to speed up. Until I hit the wall and simply had no other option but to change. That’s how Your Jazz Career became a reality.

Sometimes you need to slow down in order to speed up.

As a high-performing artist, you know what I am talking about. You’re maybe in this tornado of opportunities and exciting projects right now. Well, take a deep breath and ask yourself some reflective questions.

Where, who and what do you want to be? How does your ideal life look like? How do you get there?

We all need ‘me time’. Time to unwind. And funny enough, in my experience it is precisely in THOSE moments of relaxation that the magic happens. Things shift, ideas come and clarity occurs. Those moments of insight where suddenly something ‘clicks’. Do you have enough ‘me time’? Does your agenda have enough ‘white space’?

All these needs, dreams, questions, mind shifts and more are what we will work on together. Aligning your work with your purpose and personality. Creating more meaningful and amazing art. Making a sustainable living by doing YOU. Not only reaching your goals but enjoying the journey in the process.

Moving your career forward one powerful insight at a time. That’s what makes me tick and gets me out of bed in the morning. That’s what I love and how I can be of service to you.

Let’s create magic together!

P.S. Due to my other work responsibilities the number of possible clients on a weekly basis is limited. Furthermore, I want to provide the coachee with my full focus to optimize their progress. Therefore, I only work with 3-5 clients per week.

The Goal

As your coach, it is my promise to you that you will:

  • Dream bigger than you’ve ever dreamt.
  • Have a clear roadmap with achievable steps to focus and act upon.
  • Grow your career exponentially.
  • Infuse your work and career with more personality and purpose.
  • Go from creating good work to more great work.
  • Keep your compass pointing True North.
  • Answer more uncomfortable questions than ever before. Tough questions which are necessary for honest reflection and meaningful growth.

The Process

We’re both looking for a productive match. A partnership of kindred spirits that understand eachothers worldview and values.

As a coach, I’m looking for somebody that wants to invest in themselves, has clear ambitions and the work ethic to realize his or her goals. You, as a high-performing artist, will want to know that I ‘get’ you and be certain that I can help you move your life and career forward. The only way we can both know this for sure is simply by working together. By trying it out.

That’s why the first session is always a free two-hour exploratory coaching session. During this session, you will experience my coaching style and we will get to know eachother. The aim is to affirm that us working together is productive for us both. There is of course no obligation what so ever to book any further coaching afterwards. Even better, you might even be ‘done’ after these two hours and ready to hit the ground running!

After this initial session, and with mutual agreement to continue working together, we could meet on a regular basis. The length and frequency of the coaching program depends on your needs and progression. My emphasis in coaching lies on insight. The power of the right insight at the right moment is something I strongly believe in. I’ve experienced it myself, and seen its impact on the lives of clients I serve. How many insights do you need to achieve your dreams?

The Location

Coaching sessions can take place in Utrecht (NL) where I will suggest an inspiring location, or through online media such as Skype or Zoom. I don’t do coaching sessions by telephone, because non-verbal communication is a vital part of a true coaching experience.

The Costs

Do your dreams have a pricetag? Dreaming is free, however the road to reach them will take investments in your side in time and money.

A standard session is two hours and €160 (excl. VAT for Dutch people/businesses). Two hours has proven to be most effective to getting to the core of the challenge, creating goals and strategies to move forward and to formulate tangible to-do’s.

The fee includes all preparation on my side, follow-up emails, shared Google Drive documents and other necessary actions between sessions. However, partnerships can take different shapes and forms. Some artists prefer working together for a full year. Others want to achieve a specific result and work for instance on their artistic identity, career strategy or a specific project (cg. album release). Tailormade packages that match your ambitions with a specific coaching/consultancy trajectory are in those cases a better fit.

Your Jazz Career offers three specifically designed coaching packages to put your career in a higher gear. Read more about them below.

3 Fast-Track Packages​

Artistic Identity

A strong and remarkable artist brand is the foundation for success. Together we will infuse your communication to fans, press and music industry professionals with more YOU. This package will result in you realising a personal artist brand book and implementing lessons learned in real-time in your current socials, presskit, website and so on.

Process
Six two hour sessions x €160 = €960
You receive 10% package discount.

Costs: €860

Career Strategy

Where to go next?
How do you realize your dreams and ambitions? This career strategy service focusses on creating :

  • A sustainable business model that enables you to create more great art.
  • A 3-year career plan built on the above that provides you with clarity, clear priorities and tangible to-do’s.

Process
Seven two hour sessions x €160 = €1.120.
You receive 10% package discount.

Costs: €1.000

Dream-Project

How do you turn your dream into a realizible project?

Do you need someone to create an action plan with? A sparring-partner with over a decade of experience in the music industry? Contact me about your goal and let’s reach it together!

Process
Six two hour sessions x €160.
You receive 10% package discount.

Costs: €860

General Terms

Please pay within 14 days of the invoice date. The rates for coaching are indexed annually.
‍You can cancel a call free of charge up to 48 hours before the appointment, after which the call will be charged.

For independent entrepreneurs, coaching is usually tax deductible. Many employers reimburse coaching as part of the benefits package or from the training budget.