Rewrite Your Inner Playlist with Susan Drumm and discover how music and mindset can break old patterns and elevate your leadership.
Summary
If you are ready to rewrite your inner playlist, here is the truth: if you are running an inner track of “I am not enough,” life will keep handing you proof that you are not enough. Until you change the track, nothing changes.
In this episode of Reflect Forward, I sit down with Susan Drumm, CEO advisor, speaker, and author, to explore how our unconscious patterns drive our leadership and lives and how we can disrupt them using something as simple and profound as music.
Meet Susan Drumm
Susan is the bestselling author of The Leaders Playlist and founder of Meritage Leadership. She has spent more than twenty years helping leaders identify the emotional patterns holding them back and replacing them with more empowering ones. She combines neuroscience, the Enneagram, and music to help leaders create new neural pathways and transition into more conscious leadership.
Why Patterns Run the Show
Susan explains that our patterns are not just habits. They are deeply grooved neural highways formed over time, often beginning in childhood. These patterns once protected us, but now they can keep us stuck, repeating the same behaviors even when we know they no longer serve us.
The Enneagram becomes a powerful tool here because it focuses on why we do what we do. When leaders understand their underlying motivation, they stop reading everyone else through their own filter and start leading with clarity, empathy, and purpose.
I share openly about my Type Three pattern of wanting to keep everyone comfortable and how this showed up in my marriage, my divorce, and my leadership. Awareness truly is the first act of liberation.
Music as a Leadership Transformation Tool
Susan’s core method centers on the idea that music accelerates neuroplasticity, making it easier to break old emotional loops and build new ones.
The process is simple and powerful:
1. Name your old playlist (e.g., “I am unworthy”).
2. Choose a pattern interrupt song that captures that old story.
3. Create a new playlist based on an “I am” statement you want to embody.
4. Practice being in that emotional state through movement and repetition.
She shares a story of a high-achieving leader whose identity was completely tied to work. Through playlist work, he reclaimed his sense of freedom and took a six-week vacation for the first time. His company performed better without him micromanaging.
Why This Matters for Leaders
This conversation is for anyone who feels stuck in familiar loops, triggered by the same dynamics, or ready to take full ownership of their inner world.
When you change your internal playlist, you change your leadership. You change your relationships. You change your life.
Key Takeaways
• Your inner playlist shapes your external reality.
• Patterns are neural pathways—once protective, now restrictive.
• The Enneagram helps you understand motivation, not just behavior.
• Music accelerates real emotional and leadership transformation.
• Owning your triggers is an act of power, not blame.
Mic Drop Moments
1. “If you are running a playlist of ‘I am not enough,’ life will keep giving you evidence of that.”
2. “You built the cage—and you are holding the key.”
3. “You are not your title or success. You are your joy, impact, and freedom.
Connect with Kerry
Visit my website, kerrysiggins.com, to explore my book, The Ownership Mindset, and get more leadership resources. Let’s connect on LinkedIn, Instagram, or TikTok!
Find Reflect Forward on YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/@kerrysiggins-reflectforward
Find out more about my book here: https://kerrysiggins.com/the-ownership-mindset/
Connect with me on LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/kerry-siggins/
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Rewrite Your Inner Playlist with Susan Drumm and discover how music and mindset can break old patterns and elevate your leadership.
Summary
If you are ready to rewrite your inner playlist, here is the truth: if you are running an inner track of “I am not enough,” life will keep handing you proof that you are not enough. Until you change the track, nothing changes.
In this episode of Reflect Forward, I sit down with Susan Drumm, CEO advisor, speaker, and author, to explore how our unconscious patterns drive our leadership and lives and how we can disrupt them using something as simple and profound as music.
Meet Susan Drumm
Susan is the bestselling author of The Leaders Playlist and founder of Meritage Leadership. She has spent more than twenty years helping leaders identify the emotional patterns holding them back and replacing them with more empowering ones. She combines neuroscience, the Enneagram, and music to help leaders create new neural pathways and transition into more conscious leadership.
Why Patterns Run the Show
Susan explains that our patterns are not just habits. They are deeply grooved neural highways formed over time, often beginning in childhood. These patterns once protected us, but now they can keep us stuck, repeating the same behaviors even when we know they no longer serve us.
The Enneagram becomes a powerful tool here because it focuses on why we do what we do. When leaders understand their underlying motivation, they stop reading everyone else through their own filter and start leading with clarity, empathy, and purpose.
I share openly about my Type Three pattern of wanting to keep everyone comfortable and how this showed up in my marriage, my divorce, and my leadership. Awareness truly is the first act of liberation.
Music as a Leadership Transformation Tool
Susan’s core method centers on the idea that music accelerates neuroplasticity, making it easier to break old emotional loops and build new ones.
The process is simple and powerful:
1. Name your old playlist (e.g., “I am unworthy”).
2. Choose a pattern interrupt song that captures that old story.
3. Create a new playlist based on an “I am” statement you want to embody.
4. Practice being in that emotional state through movement and repetition.
She shares a story of a high-achieving leader whose identity was completely tied to work. Through playlist work, he reclaimed his sense of freedom and took a six-week vacation for the first time. His company performed better without him micromanaging.
Why This Matters for Leaders
This conversation is for anyone who feels stuck in familiar loops, triggered by the same dynamics, or ready to take full ownership of their inner world.
When you change your internal playlist, you change your leadership. You change your relationships. You change your life.
Key Takeaways
• Your inner playlist shapes your external reality.
• Patterns are neural pathways—once protective, now restrictive.
• The Enneagram helps you understand motivation, not just behavior.
• Music accelerates real emotional and leadership transformation.
• Owning your triggers is an act of power, not blame.
Mic Drop Moments
1. “If you are running a playlist of ‘I am not enough,’ life will keep giving you evidence of that.”
2. “You built the cage—and you are holding the key.”
3. “You are not your title or success. You are your joy, impact, and freedom.
Connect with Kerry
Visit my website, kerrysiggins.com, to explore my book, The Ownership Mindset, and get more leadership resources. Let’s connect on LinkedIn, Instagram, or TikTok!
Find Reflect Forward on YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/@kerrysiggins-reflectforward
Find out more about my book here: https://kerrysiggins.com/the-ownership-mindset/
Connect with me on LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/kerry-siggins/
Control is rooted in fear. Trust is rooted in strength. And when you shift from control to trust, you become a better leader.
Control often stems from a fear of being judged, a fear of things going wrong, or a fear of losing influence. I used to believe that control equals competence. The more I managed outcomes, the more successful we would be. But what I eventually learned is that control does not create confidence; it kills it.
Trust, on the other hand, unlocks potential. It multiplies leadership. It builds teams who think critically, act boldly, and take ownership for results.
In this episode of Reflect Forward, I share how I transformed my leadership by moving from control to trust and why this shift changed everything for me, for StoneAge, and for my team.
The turning point
During the pandemic, everything changed. Suddenly, I was not in the office every day. People could not walk into my office for a quick answer or to bounce ideas off me. At first, it was disorienting. If I were not the glue holding everything together, what value did I bring?
But something surprising happened: my team flourished. They made smart decisions, collaborated effectively, and solved problems without me. That was the moment I realized I had been the roadblock. My need for control, disguised as involvement, had held them back.
It was humbling to realize that control does not build leaders. Trust does.
As Stephen M. R. Covey says, “Control leads to compliance. Trust leads to commitment.” That realization became one of the most important lessons of my leadership journey.
The three dimensions of trust
Over time, I developed a simple framework to guide me in leading with trust instead of control.
1. Competence – Believe in their capability.
Trust that your people can figure things out, even if they do it differently than you.
2. Character – Believe in their integrity.
Know that they will do what is right, even when you are not watching.
3. Connection – Show them they matter.
Why trust matters
According to research by Paul Zak published in Harvard Business Review, employees in high trust companies report 74 percent less stress, 106 percent more energy, and 50 percent higher productivity than those in low trust environments.
Trust is not soft; it is smart. It is the foundation of ownership, performance, and innovation.
As Sheryl Sandberg put it, “Leadership is about making others better as a result of your presence and making sure that impact lasts in your absence.” That is exactly what trust does.
Mic drop moments
• “Control does not build leaders. Trust does.”
• “Ownership and control cannot coexist.”
• “When I stopped trying to control everything, I found something I did not expect: freedom.”
• “Coaching is adding considerations without taking back the decision.”
Key takeaways
1. Control is rooted in fear. Trust is rooted in strength. Check your motives before you step in.
2. You cannot create ownership without giving up control. Ownership requires autonomy.
3. Trust is active, not passive. Equip people, ask better questions, and coach instead of direct.
4. Develop thinkers, not followers. Build people’s confidence in their own judgment.
5. Letting go multiplies your influence. When you lead with trust, leadership spreads.
Connect with Kerry
Visit my website, kerrysiggins.com, to explore my book, The Ownership Mindset, and get more leadership resources. Let’s connect on LinkedIn, Instagram, or TikTok!
Find Reflect Forward on YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/@kerrysiggins-reflectforward
Find out more about my book here: https://kerrysiggins.com/the-ownership-mindset/
Connect with me on LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/kerry-siggins/
Reflect Forward
Rewrite Your Inner Playlist with Susan Drumm and discover how music and mindset can break old patterns and elevate your leadership.
Summary
If you are ready to rewrite your inner playlist, here is the truth: if you are running an inner track of “I am not enough,” life will keep handing you proof that you are not enough. Until you change the track, nothing changes.
In this episode of Reflect Forward, I sit down with Susan Drumm, CEO advisor, speaker, and author, to explore how our unconscious patterns drive our leadership and lives and how we can disrupt them using something as simple and profound as music.
Meet Susan Drumm
Susan is the bestselling author of The Leaders Playlist and founder of Meritage Leadership. She has spent more than twenty years helping leaders identify the emotional patterns holding them back and replacing them with more empowering ones. She combines neuroscience, the Enneagram, and music to help leaders create new neural pathways and transition into more conscious leadership.
Why Patterns Run the Show
Susan explains that our patterns are not just habits. They are deeply grooved neural highways formed over time, often beginning in childhood. These patterns once protected us, but now they can keep us stuck, repeating the same behaviors even when we know they no longer serve us.
The Enneagram becomes a powerful tool here because it focuses on why we do what we do. When leaders understand their underlying motivation, they stop reading everyone else through their own filter and start leading with clarity, empathy, and purpose.
I share openly about my Type Three pattern of wanting to keep everyone comfortable and how this showed up in my marriage, my divorce, and my leadership. Awareness truly is the first act of liberation.
Music as a Leadership Transformation Tool
Susan’s core method centers on the idea that music accelerates neuroplasticity, making it easier to break old emotional loops and build new ones.
The process is simple and powerful:
1. Name your old playlist (e.g., “I am unworthy”).
2. Choose a pattern interrupt song that captures that old story.
3. Create a new playlist based on an “I am” statement you want to embody.
4. Practice being in that emotional state through movement and repetition.
She shares a story of a high-achieving leader whose identity was completely tied to work. Through playlist work, he reclaimed his sense of freedom and took a six-week vacation for the first time. His company performed better without him micromanaging.
Why This Matters for Leaders
This conversation is for anyone who feels stuck in familiar loops, triggered by the same dynamics, or ready to take full ownership of their inner world.
When you change your internal playlist, you change your leadership. You change your relationships. You change your life.
Key Takeaways
• Your inner playlist shapes your external reality.
• Patterns are neural pathways—once protective, now restrictive.
• The Enneagram helps you understand motivation, not just behavior.
• Music accelerates real emotional and leadership transformation.
• Owning your triggers is an act of power, not blame.
Mic Drop Moments
1. “If you are running a playlist of ‘I am not enough,’ life will keep giving you evidence of that.”
2. “You built the cage—and you are holding the key.”
3. “You are not your title or success. You are your joy, impact, and freedom.
Connect with Kerry
Visit my website, kerrysiggins.com, to explore my book, The Ownership Mindset, and get more leadership resources. Let’s connect on LinkedIn, Instagram, or TikTok!
Find Reflect Forward on YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/@kerrysiggins-reflectforward
Find out more about my book here: https://kerrysiggins.com/the-ownership-mindset/
Connect with me on LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/kerry-siggins/
