“What if you’re already ready.” — Niiamah
Join Niiamah (@niiamahashong) and Kelsie Furst, executive and artistic director of Loveland Opera Theater.
Kelsie never set out to run an opera company. She came up through the chorus, auditioned pregnant, said yes every time she was asked, and rose. Now she wants to make something nobody will ask her for. This conversation is about the gap between the leader everyone recruits and the artist waiting for permission to start her own work.
What you’ll take away:
– Why the question of “enough experience” is the wrong question for a leader who has never qualified in advance
– How the constraints you carry from your old game quietly rewrite the rules of your new one
– The difference between a project that drains you and one that pays you back
Timestamps:
00:00 – Welcome to the Outlier’s Edge Podcast
00:33 – From Nutcracker to opera director
04:59 – Asked to lead the company
17:37 – What life changing would require
21:31 – You already know the answer
22:32 – The movie opera she wants
26:22 – Her fear of vanity
31:22 – Too nervous to start
32:39 – Experience is the wrong question
43:45 – Energy is not limited
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