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/
Workplace drama is everywhere because people are everywhere. But just because it is common does not mean it is acceptable. Left unchecked, drama can become a cultural quicksand. It slows progress, fractures trust and kills momentum.
In this episode of Reflect Forward, I break down why drama exists, how leaders unknowingly contribute to it, and most importantly, how to stop it in its tracks. This is not just about managing others. Leaders must be willing to hold up a mirror and ask, 'Am I contributing to this or helping solve it?'
We will explore the roots of drama, how storytelling and emotional triggers create chaos, and the exact steps leaders can take to build a culture grounded in ownership, trust, and clean conflict resolution. I also share a personal story about how I created drama in my own company through unclear communication and what I learned about taking responsibility.
What You Will Learn
• The true definition of workplace drama and how it shows up in your culture
• Why gossip, blame, and storytelling feel good in the moment but cost your team dearly
• How to help your employees recognize and own their emotional triggers
• What it means for leaders to model emotional regulation
• Five strategies to shut down drama and create a healthier, more focused culture
Key Takeaways
1. Drama is a distraction from growth. Recognize it and name it before it spreads.
2. Your culture is shaped by how you and your team handle hard emotions and hard conversations.
3. Leaders must model emotional regulation. You are the mirror.
4. Help people shift from blame to ownership by asking what role they played and what they can do.
5. Teach your team to question their stories. Ask, Is this true? What else could be true? Why does this bother me so much.
Reflect Forward Challenge
Where are you tolerating or contributing to workplace drama?
What is one action you can take today to shift the tone?
If this episode resonates with you, share it with someone who is navigating workplace drama. When leaders choose ownership over reactivity, we all win. Subscribe on YouTube, Apple Podcasts, or your favorite podcast platform. And if you have not yet, check out my book The Ownership Mindset for more practical leadership tools like these.
Let us lead well and lead with intention.
Timestamps
00:00 Why workplace drama is normal but dangerous
03:15 My own misstep and how unclear communication caused chaos
06:50 Defining drama and why it matters
09:05 What Cy Wakeman teaches about drama and psychological safety
10:35 The hidden cost of drama at work
12:20 Root causes from unclear expectations to inconsistent leadership
15:10 The real issue beneath it all is storytelling
17:00 Strategy one: Name it immediately
18:20 Strategy two: Encourage ownership thinking
20:00 Strategy three: Teach trigger awareness
25:00 Strategy four: Set clear cultural norms
27:00 Strategy five: Model clean conflict resolution
30:10 How leaders get sucked in and why accountability matters
32:50 Stay above the swirl through curiosity and emotional discipline
36:00 Surrounding yourself with truth tellers
37:30 Final reflection on integrity and leadership
If you liked this…
Don’t forget to subscribe to Reflect Forward on your favorite podcast platform or YouTube. 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/