Today we’d like to introduce you to Kylee O’Donnell.
Hi Kylee, thanks for joining us today. We’d love for you to start by introducing yourself.
Hello! 🙂 I’m Kylee and I’m a professionally trained Classical Flutist, Sound + Energy Healer, and Manifestation + Holistic Life Coach in Austin.
My story in a nutshell… I was always drawn to music, starting piano lessons at 7 and flute at 10.
I didn’t like the piano much, but as soon as I held the flute I was in love.
I was a natural and have been playing for 19 years, receiving my Bachelors and Masters in Flute Performance. My journey involved many exciting experiences, studying in Canada and Italy, many competition successes and orchestra auditions.
Originally my dream was to play in a high-level orchestra. After chasing this dream for many years, I realized that no matter how many hours I spent in the practice room (and probably spent months, if not YEARS of my life practicing), that these auditions were so competitive and there were always dozens of qualified applicants. I felt like it was out of my control.
I was spending money I didn’t have on auditions, playing exceptionally well, and not winning the job.
I moved to Austin after graduate school to ‘by time’ and teach private lessons while I took orchestra auditions, hoping to win one soon.
When I moved to Austin, I was becoming more spiritual every day. During this time, my father was battling stage 4 colon cancer, and it was difficult for me to move across the country to pursue my dreams.
When he passed in January 2021, I decided I really didn’t resonate with 100% only playing classical music anymore. I went through a spiritual awakening during this time, and while meditating one day I asked for guidance on how to combine my musical gifts, spirituality, and desire to help people.
I was listening to music on my phone, and a Native American flute track came on. I felt this intense knowing, and everything just made sense.
I knew I was a sound healer and bought a Native American flute that day in Austin.
I found it on Facebook Marketplace, and when I picked it up the woman said, ”I’ve been waiting for someone to find this flute!”
The past 10 months have been full of amazing opportunities, building my collection of flutes from all over the world, and just really feeling so free to play without music, only from my heart.
I kept teaching while beginning to sprinkle in some of the knowledge that I’ve learned in my spiritual path and professional training to the kids about anxiety, stress, audition nerves, talking nicely to ourselves, that we aren’t ”bad” if we play a wrong note.
I play wrong notes all the time! 😀
I was passionate about making sure they were well rounded children and young adults, not just great flute players. I knew I wouldn’t be teaching forever, so I wanted to give them as much knowledge as I could before I left.
I taught them how to feel anxiety in the body and breath through it, how to journal out their emotions, time management, and much more.
Being a musician is so intertwined with mental health!
I taught them how to visualize themselves playing an audition, feeling how good it felt to sound amazing, and crazy things started to happen- they would actually nail the audition (manifestation)!
I decided to leave my teaching job about a month ago, it was sooner than I was expecting, but I believe everything happens for a reason.
I knew the work I was doing with these students was much more valuable than the public schools were able to see, and I didn’t feel I was being respected or valued in this way.
The opportunity came to leave or stay, and I knew it was time to leave.
My students appreciate the vast work that was done in these lessons, and know they can come to me at any time.
I am now working for myself full time! 🙂 I’m using Reiki and energy healing combined with my flutes and the magic of sound to help people in Austin, and it’s so beautiful.
I also do manifestation and holistic life coaching to inspire people to follow their dreams like I did and truly create their dream life.
Would you say it’s been a smooth road, and if not what are some of the biggest challenges you’ve faced along the way?
The biggest challenge I faced was having to go into a lot of student loan debt to go to college.
I had limiting beliefs about this for a long time, but I feel I’m now seeing the way out and thanking that loan for allowing me to study music.
Money was always tight, so I worked since I was 16 and through college, which made it difficult to balance practicing, school, friends, and work.
After graduate school, I worked 70 hours a week as a delivery driver just to pay my bills.
When I moved to Austin, I didn’t know anyone in the city yet, and only had a few students my first year.
I taught, performed, walked dogs, and did delivery driving, not leaving much free time for a social life or to work on my dreams.
I had to release my limiting beliefs which I heard my whole life numerous times about being a musician- ”You can’t make money in the arts.” ”You’ll never pay off your debt.” ”Pick a new career path!”. ”You can’t make a living as a musician.”
It took a LOT of time working on myself to squash these and build up my self-worth enough to leave the schools and believe something better was waiting for me.
To believe I CAN make money doing what I love.
Alright, so let’s switch gears a bit and talk business. What should we know about your work?
I specialize in healing flutes from around the world and also use my classical flute in my sessions 🙂
I combine sound healing with energy healing and oracle card readings at my home, and I love it so much.
People have experienced out of body experiences, grieving losses, healing emotional wounds, pure bliss, smells, and many other things.
I do private sessions, group sessions, retreats, various events, make sleep tracks, and do live performances on Insight Timer and Zoom.
I’m starting a live Morning Meditation + Sound Bath on Monday and Friday mornings at 10am Central, so no matter where you live you can join 🙂
My Holistic Life Coaching + Manifestation Coaching combines my training as a classical musician, teacher, knowledge of the universe, empathic nature, and more.
I will be launching a group coaching program in January with my dear friend called ‘Finding Love From the Insid3out’.
This is a group for single women or women in relationships looking to heal themselves to either find love or obtain a deeper connection with their current partner.
I also still play classical gigs, as this is a piece of me I can’t leave behind 🙂
A community that really helped with my journey is Insid3Out. It’s a spiritual community in Austin, and I help with their events and have a beautiful team that supports me.
You can contact me directly to schedule a sound + energy healing session, book a card reading, order a sleep track, come to an event, or work with my group or 1:1 coaching program.
Are there any important lessons you’ve learned that you can share with us?
Gratitude. I wanted more money, a nicer car, more opportunities.
I learned a humbling lesson in gratitude when I really looked around at what I currently had.
I realized that no, I wasn’t truly grateful and appreciating everything I had.
I could spend more time with my pets, clean up my beautiful apartment, take care of my body, and appreciate the job and car I already had before asking for more.
It was humbling, but it was a huge wakeup call. That happened maybe two weeks ago and things have just been flowing since then I really did make changes and commit to showing gratitude every day for my current life.
Since writing this a few weeks back and coming to edit, I have manifested a new car 🙂
Contact Info:
- Email: kyleeodonnellflutist@gmail.com
- Website: https://linktr.ee/kyleeodonnellflute
- Instagram: @kyleeodonnellatx
- Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/kyleeodonnellflute
- YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/channel/UC8J_U6Dz8ejAY0sztWjrFyw
- Other: https://insig.ht/PaIKVmkwMkb
