Today we’d like to introduce you to Audrey Callahan.
Hi Audrey, thanks for sharing your story with us. To start, maybe you can tell our readers some of your backstory.
Ever since I was two years old, I knew I wanted to be a singer.
But somewhere between childhood and adulthood, a lot of us learn to trade the things we dream about for the things that seem practical.
I grew up with a strong military influence. Both of my parents worked in the medical field, and I admired them tremendously. Naturally, for a while I thought I would follow in their footsteps and join the military too.
But the closer I got to actually being shipped off to boot camp, the louder this little voice inside me became. It was a wonderful path for many people, but deep down, I knew it wasn’t mine.
So there I was in college, studying my backup plan, biotechnology, seemingly on my way toward the kind of “degreed and stable” life we’re taught to want.
And then, much to the surprise of pretty much my entire family, I dropped out.
Something kept tugging at me, telling me this wasn’t my path.
I joined a band and dove headfirst into experiencing life and getting to know myself outside of who I thought I was supposed to be. I explored every creative avenue that interested me and, for the first time, really gave myself permission to let my creative inclinations flourish and lead me wherever they wanted to go.
If I wasn’t singing, I was in Photoshop designing show flyers for myself and my various bands. This was also the MySpace era, and I became fascinated with the idea that I could use the internet to shape how I presented myself as an artist. I would stay up until the wee hours of the morning “Google schooling” myself in HTML and CSS, learning enough code to completely customize my profile and make my little corner of the internet feel like *me*.
Without realizing it, while I was chasing one creative dream, I was developing an entirely new creative skill set.
During this sabbatical from school, I auditioned for everything from American Idol and The Voice to Las Vegas shows, cover bands, and anything else that might give me a way in. I was singing more than ever, but I still wasn’t quite fulfilled, and I definitely wasn’t making the kind of money I needed to build a life.
As the years went on, and the setbacks and “no’s” started to pile up, the dream of making singing my actual career started to feel more and more impossible.
Eventually, I reached a point where I stopped believing it was going to happen. Deflated and ready to accept that music simply wasn’t going to be my career, I let the dream go and went back to school, this time for another backup plan: web & graphic design.
I figured if I couldn’t make a career out of my first love, music, maybe I could build one around this new love I had discovered during the Myspace era: creating things online through code, graphics, and design.
Fast forward and while I was waiting tables to put myself through school, the recession hit.
My husband and I lived in a tourist town, and seemingly overnight, the income that had been enough to sustain us disappeared. We were both let go from our jobs around the same time, and to make matters worse, a loan re-modification company had just scammed us out of the last of our savings while we were desperately trying to save our house from foreclosing.
We eventually lost the house, and the whole experience brought us to our knees.
It was sink or swim time.
So we swam.
My husband went out and sold a website before I technically even knew how to build one. I didn’t even own the computer I needed to build it on yet.
But we had a client. We needed the money. So we figured it out. I went to after school hours to build the site with my teacher’s help and I built utilizing the computers in the school library.
That became the beginning of our web development business.
During that period, we both dove heavily into personal development. We were hanging on for dear life, and diving headfirst into books, mindset work, and anything that could help us believe we were capable of turning things around.
And slowly, we did.
The mindset, resilience, resourcefulness, and willingness to figure things out that were forged during one of the hardest periods of our lives began to pay off. That web development business we had started as a desperate lifeline grew into a six-figure company in just two years.
And I’ll never forget sitting in the office space that our once-fledgling little company could now afford to rent, looking around at everything we had built from essentially nothing.
And that’s when it hit me:
If I could do all of this for my “backup plan”, what could happen if I gave my actual dream this much of me?
We hadn’t known how to build a company when we started. I hadn’t even known how to build that first website when when my husband sold it.
We figured it out because we had decided we had to.
For years, I had treated music differently. I thought I needed someone to choose me. A record label. A television show. The right audition. The right opportunity. Some gatekeeper who would finally open the door and make my dream a legitimate career.
But building that business had taught me something much bigger:
I didn’t have to wait to be chosen. I could build the door myself.
For the first time, I had the courage to find out what would happen if I approached my childhood dream with the same determination I had given my survival.
So we sold the web development business, and I went all in on music.
That decision opened up an entirely different life for me.
With the sale of the web development business, I had 3 months to ‘figure it out’, so I began working professionally as a session vocalist, singing for video games, movies, television, animated films and more.
Over the years, I’ve recorded thousands of songs and built a career completely outside of the traditional music-industry path. I’ve had my voice and music show up in some of the coolest places I never could have predicted. I started gaining so much business that I eventually needed to create a vocal house with other singers to help me complete the work.
And eventually, I found myself with my SECOND six-figure business.
Except this time, I had built it with my voice.
As cool as this all was, I knew it wasn’t the finish line. I had learned so much along the way and felt a deep desire to put those lessons into song: the power of perseverance, mindset, self-belief, and intentionally creating a life you love.
So I started creating my own music with a very specific purpose. I call what I make High Vibe Soul Pop: music built around affirmations, personal growth, self-belief, and becoming the person capable of creating the life you actually want.
Today, I think of myself as an INNERtainer. Entertainment is the vehicle, but the INNER work is the point.
Whether I’m making a song, speaking on a stage, or helping my community turn their dreams into action through tools, guidance, and accountability, the thread running through all of it is the same: helping people get clear on the life they actually want, believe that more is possible for them, and then take action toward creating it.
My life has taught me that the dreams we have as children don’t necessarily disappear when we grow up. Sometimes they just get buried underneath practicality, expectations, fear, and all the evidence we collect about why they probably won’t work.
But that’s the thing about your calling, it will keep calling you until you answer.
Can you talk to us a bit about the challenges and lessons you’ve learned along the way. Looking back would you say it’s been easy or smooth in retrospect?
Definitely not a smooth road, but I’m not sure I’d want it to have been.
There have been plenty of obvious challenges along the way: financial struggles, losing our home, years of rejection in music, building businesses from scratch, starting over, and learning how to make a living in an industry that doesn’t exactly come with a roadmap.
But I think one of the harder challenges has actually been learning how to keep evolving once something does work.
Session singing became the dream I once thought was impossible. I built a successful career with my voice, worked on incredible projects, and proved to myself that I could make a living doing what I loved.
And then, eventually, I wanted more.
There’s a strange kind of courage required to admit that something you worked incredibly hard to achieve may no longer be the final destination. It would be very easy to stay where I’m comfortable and successful. Instead, I’m once again asking myself what the next, truest version of my life looks like and having the courage to build toward it.
I’ve also learned that no matter how intentional you are about creating your life, life still gets a vote. There have been seasons of loss, health challenges, unexpected pauses, and moments when my carefully laid plans had to be completely rewritten.
Those seasons have taught me that perseverance isn’t always about pushing harder. Sometimes it’s adapting. Sometimes it’s resting. Sometimes it’s letting go of the timeline while refusing to let go of the vision.
I think that’s probably the biggest lesson the obstacles have given me: the path can change without the destination having to.
Thanks for sharing that. So, maybe next you can tell us a bit more about your work?
Today, I describe myself as an INNERtainer. Entertainment is the vehicle, but the INNER work is the point.
Personal development and affirmations have carried me through some of the hardest seasons of my life. When things fell apart, when plans didn’t work out, when I questioned myself or had to start over, I learned to dig deeper. To pay attention to the way I was speaking to myself. To question the beliefs that were keeping me stuck. To intentionally choose thoughts that helped me keep moving forward.
I genuinely don’t think I would be where I am today if I hadn’t gone down that road.
That’s why I’m so passionate about putting those ideas into music.
You can read the book. You can listen to the podcast. You can write the affirmation on your mirror.
But what happens when you put that affirmation into a song you genuinely love and find yourself singing it over and over without even trying?
That’s the space I’m fascinated by.
I want the things I create to be fun, catchy, uplifting, and entertaining, but I also want them to do something. I want the song stuck in your head to be reminding you that you’re capable. I want my community and the people who listen to my music to feel inspired, supported, and empowered to get clear on what they want and actually take action toward creating it.
What I’m most proud of though, isn’t any particular song, award, milestone, or accomplishment.
I’m most proud that I haven’t given up.
I’ve kept questioning. I’ve kept evolving. I’ve kept allowing myself to want something bigger, even when I’ve had those same thoughts so many people have: Maybe it’s too late. Maybe I should be further along by now. Maybe I missed my chance.
But I refuse to believe that.
I’m still building my dream life in real time. I’m still figuring things out, still becoming, still seeing how far I can take this.
I want to inspire my listeners to do the INNER work, take the scary steps, celebrate the wins, navigate the setbacks, and keep becoming the people capable of creating the lives we imagine.
What are your plans for the future?
I feel like everything I’ve been building is starting to converge into one bigger vision.
A huge part of that is Dream Forge, the community I’m creating for people who don’t just want to dream about a different life, but actually want to build it.
Dream Forge is centered around something I’ve learned over and over in my own life: clarity is powerful, but at some point you have to take action. And doing that alongside other people who are also actively creating, evolving, and moving toward something makes the whole process so much more powerful.
Inside Dream Forge, we’ll combine the INNER work with the actual work: getting clear on what you want, breaking those dreams into actionable steps, working alongside each other, having real accountability, and celebrating the wins together.
We’re putting the finishing touches on it now, and anyone who wants to know when we officially open can join my mailing list (https://audreymusic.com/vibetribe/).
Beyond the online community, I want to bring this message out into the world in a much bigger way.
I’m dreaming up intentional live shows, pop-ups, and experiences where we’re not just standing in a room watching a performance. We’re actually elevating together in real time.
I want people singing affirmations at the top of their lungs. I want us talking about the lives we’re creating. I want people walking into these experiences carrying one version of what they believe is possible for themselves and leaving with that ceiling raised a little higher.
Ultimately, I want to take everything I’ve learned through music, personal development, entrepreneurship, failure, reinvention, and starting over and use it to create something much bigger than myself.
Whether that happens through a song in someone’s headphones, co-working with me in Dream Forge, or a room full of people singing together, the vision is the same:
I want to create spaces where we don’t just talk about the lives we want. We actively become the people who create them.
Contact Info:
- Website: https://www.audreymusic.com
- Instagram: https://instagram.com/audreymusic
- Facebook: https://facebook.com/audreymusic
- Youtube: https://youtube.com/audreymusic
