Meet Dr. Deanna Swoboda | Associate Professor of Music, Arizona State University

We had the good fortune of connecting with Dr. Deanna Swoboda and we’ve shared our conversation below.

Hi Dr. Deanna, what habits do you feel helped you succeed?
The habits of passion, self-motivation, and consistently developing positive relationships helped me succeed. These continue to steer my work as an artist, teacher and mentor.

Passion may not sound like a familiar habit but continually developing and realizing your passion is. When you’re doing something that you’re passionate about, it’s easy to dedicate every waking moment to that thing; develop it, improve it, to find the right customers, discover opportunities, to create success. In order to discover and nurture your passion, you have to start with “why”. It’s important to know why you’re doing it, who you’re doing it for and what impact you want to make. Dream it. Write it down through daily journaling. Talk about it with friends. Continually get feedback about the idea. Discovering your passion and knowing “why” you’re doing it will help steer toward your success. If something is not in line with your passion it’s okay to pivot, to change what you’re doing so that it matches what you’re passionate about and who you’re passionate about helping.

Self-motivation can be associated success. As a human, self motivation is something we can develop as a habit. When I don’t feel like doing the work (related to the success that I envision) I rely first on my daily routine, the thing that I know must be consistent. It’s non-negotiable. I know that in order to accomplish the thing I’m doing, I must do something associated with that everyday in order to keep everything moving forward. I may set a timer and focus on one thing for a short amount of time. Usually, if I sit down and “just start” I will find the motivation. Or sometimes, when I don’t feel motivated, I cue up a favorite podcast to help me get my head back in the game. Or I might find a new work space (different surroundings) to ignite motivation. I’ve also learned not to be so hard on myself if one day goes by without doing “the work.” Be kind to yourself along the way.

Success is never achieved alone. Developing and maintaining positive relationships is a habit worth developing. Each person you meet could be a new friendship, a new colleague, a new partner, a new collaborator or a new resource. Surround yourself with people who can lift you up when you need lifting, people who will be honest with you when you need it most and those who have other skill sets and who can effectively contribute to the success of the product or project. I schedule weekly time to reach out to friends, to reconnect. Likewise, I schedule time to meet with someone I don’t know very well yet but would like to know better.

Let’s talk shop? Tell us more about your career, what can you share with our community?
As an artist / creative I wear many hats. Currently, I teach at Arizona State University in Tempe, AZ. I teach tuba, euphonium and music entrepreneurship. I have taught music at the college level for 19 years and as a musician, I play the tuba and I have played for 40 years. As an educator I guide my students to discover themselves as citizens who contribute positively to society and as artists developing their skills sets and passions. As an administrator I help facilitate the current systems and inspire future organizational goals. As a creative artist musician I design programs and perform. As a musician entrepreneur, I identify what’s missing and create opportunities. I problem solve using my skills as an artist / creative. I am proud that I have succeeded in a classical music career and have done so in a non-traditional way. I have toured the world as a performing musician, served as President of the International Tuba Euphonium Association, currently serve on the board for the International Women’s Brass Conference, have recorded seven CDs and several educational videos, written and edited music related books, recipient of the Excellence in Teaching Award from the International Tuba Euphonium Association, I perform with the premiere all women brass band – Athena Brass Band (performing in Japan in August and the UK in January), and in addition to Associate Professor of tuba and euphonium, I serve as Assistant Director of Graduate Studies in Music at Arizona State University.

The first 10 years of my young music life were dedicated to the art of practice and improving skill sets, dedicated to being the best. I knew that being a woman in a male dominated field meant that I had to work extra hard to be successful. I definitely stood out as being the only girl, but in order to succeed I had to be better. I discovered along the way that there is more to being a successful musician than simply playing my instrument well; that it’s important to be entrepreneurial. That can mean many things but for me it meant designing something new, developing a personal brand, developing a strategy for success, and developing business acumen. I designed a music recruiting program and toured the United States (every state multiple times) performing the program. I became known as “The Tuba Lady.” My supporters were music educators and my channels were local music stores and instrument makers. I made an impact for public school music programs around the country, helping music educators recruit students for their programs. All of this work inspired a solo career performing solo tuba with bands and orchestras, and touring with a group called Dallas Brass. These endeavors lead to developing related products such as CDs, videos and educational books.

There were definitely challenges along the way. I attribute much of my success to perseverance and to developing a resilient and growth mindset. There were many times I felt like a failure as a result of a bad performance or not achieving my initial goal. But failure is how I learned about success. I’ve treated each failure or setback in my life as an opportunity to learn, to adjust my compass and move forward. Throughout my career I have learned about love, compassion, resilience, perseverance, kindness and growth mindset. I’ve learned that having a positive mindset and surrounding yourself with a community of people of who care about you and the work you’re doing is a tremendous gift.

Any places to eat or things to do that you can share with our readers? If they have a friend visiting town, what are some spots they could take them to?
Favorite Eats –
Over Easy for breakfast (Gilbert or Queen Creek locations)
First Watch for breakfast
Postino’s for lunch or happy hour – Gilbert or Tempe
Zin Burger Gilbert has a good M-Th happy hour
Nando’s for Mexican food dinner – Gilbert

Favorite things to do
Music Instrument Museum – you can visit for a short time or all day. There is a nice cafe there as well
Butterfly Museum – so great!
Arizona Diamondback games
Phoenix Mercury games
Usery Mountain Regional Park – good trails and easy access
Papago Park, Phoenix Zoo and the Botanical Gardens are all favorites
Gammage Auditorium Broadway shows (ASU campus)
Mesa Center for the Arts – music, dance, theatre shows
Phoenician Resort – day pass (great spa too, excellent services)
Westin Kierlands Resort – day pass

The Shoutout series is all about recognizing that our success and where we are in life is at least somewhat thanks to the efforts, support, mentorship, love and encouragement of others. So is there someone that you want to dedicate your shoutout to?
I want to dedicate my shoutout to my parents, Janis and Harvey Swoboda and my husband Scott Hanson. I love them all so much and without them, I would not be where I am today. I was a kid who got involved in music at an early age. I started playing the clarinet in the fourth grade and I chose clarinet because my mom had played the instrument when she was in school. I switched to tuba in the eighth grade because my dad had played the tuba while he was in school. Actually, my motivation to switch to tuba was to sit next to a boy in the band who I had a crush on! In any case, both of my parents continually encouraged me, helped me practice, drove me to every music event, attended my concerts and supported me when I decided to major in music (3 degrees in music performance!). They also paid for the purchase of my first tuba, which was and still is a big investment. Without this support early on, I probably would have taken a very different path. I loved music and loved the thrill of performing. While in graduate school I also discovered an entrepreneurial path, a way to be different and make an impact. I also Shoutout to my husband Scott because he is the absolute best and he means the world to me. I appreciate his support, his pep talks and all of the patience he shows with my crazy schedule. He too is a musician and educator and always shares important perspective. We relax together going to Arizona Cardinal Football games! A book that inspired me early on in high school is The Positive Principle Today by Norman Vincent Peale. I read it in the 10th grade and it changed my perspective on life.

Website: http://deannaswoboda.com/

Instagram: @deannaswoboda

Youtube: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VI67Fsgcn_8

Other: dswobod@asu.edu

Image Credits
Main photo credit – Eastman Music Company (I am an Eastman Music Company Tuba Artist)