Transformation Through Music: Interview With Author Frank Fitzpatrick

Amplified is a new best-selling book released last week by ExO community member Frank Fitzpatrick. Frank is a successful Hollywood music creative, social entrepreneur, Forbes contributor, and wellness expert on faculty at Exponential Medicine, Singularity University.

In Amplified, he brings together several leading musical visionaries, as well as leading experts from the fields of Neuroscience, Medicine, Tech and Leadership to show how music can truly transform lives. With a unique capability to bring all of these worlds into a singular vision - an Amplified Future - Frank’s is leading the way to (in the worlds of Exponential Medicine Founder Dr. Daniel Kraft “…boldly redefine the future of music as medicine."

In my recent conversation/interview time Frank, he offered a glimpse of what it was like to write a book amid the pandemic lockdowns and what he hopes readers will take away from Amplified.

1. What is this book about?

Amplified is a resource to help individuals unleash their true potential through the power of music.

The book is a culmination of my key takeaways from more than forty years as a music entrepreneur working at the forefront of entertainment, health and wellness, social impact, technology, and human potential.

I wrote it for one purpose: to help people better understand and apply the benefits of music in all areas of their lives—and in the world in which they live. My intention is to help the reader fully tap into the power of music in practical and accessible ways to amplify their potential and live a more vital, creative, and fulfilling life.

2. I read a piece by Herbie Hancock in the opening of the book in which he said, “This book is for musicians and non-musicians alike.” Does someone have to be a musician or have prior knowledge about the workings of music to benefit from the book.

Absolutely not. While the book will benefit even the most experiences of music professionals, it provides a gateway for anyone to redefine and enhance their relationship with music in a ways that can be truly transformative.

Amplified is for anyone looking to use music in time-tested and scientifically validated ways to enhance any area of their life - their performance, their health, their focus and motivation, their relationships, their resilience or recovery, their relationships, and their impact on the world around them. That could be a single mother struggle to raise her kids, a purpose-driven leader wanting to have more engagement with his constituency, or an athlete training to win an Olympic Gold Medal. It could be for concerned parents like you and your wife who struggled with how to help their premature baby in a NICU unit during COVID, or someone trying to manage a relationship with and create a better quality of life for a parent suffering from Dementia. Or a college freshman who needs coping tools to navigate a new world with greater joy and confidence.

If you are reading this, you like music, and you want to up-level your potential and quality of life, the book is for you.

N: After reading the book myself, and working with you in the past, I can see how music can be applied be as a valuable tool for new founders and business leaders trying to stay innovative and sain in a highly disruptive and unpredictable word. I couldn’t agree more with our friend Salim Ismail, Founding Director of SingularityU and Chairman of ExO, who wrote “This book should be part of every entrepreneurs survival kit.”

FF: I did a program in the early days of Singularity U for it’s alumni called The Entrepreneur’s Survival Kit, and music was indeed one of the power tools in the kit.

3. What do you hope readers will take away from reading the book?

I’m committed to transforming the way they think about, experience and use music in their lives in meaningful and practical ways. Not to take anything away from the way they currently use and enjoy music, but just to show them how much they might be missing out on. Most of the approaches and insights I offer, and have learned over the past 40 years, are not taught to us in school.

Ultimately - I want to help the reader to, through music, tap into a level of deep self-knowing and unrealized potential within themselves. To realize that they are the instrument and that new ways of thinking about and applying music, like breath, can help them clarify their purpose, re-connect to their identity, and open up new pathways to fully express their unique, musical awesomeness in the symphony of their life.

4. What did you learn in writing Amplified?

To always go for excellence in my work, no matter what it takes. To not stop short, when we know we have something better to give. I had poured over 5 years of writing, rewriting and extensive research into the book. I thought I was there, then my publishing deal fell apart and I re-read the book. It wasn’t good. I rewrote it again. When Dr. Daniel Levitin -one of my mentors and leading neuroscientists in the field (author of This is Your Brain On Music) offered write the foreword, I was honored. Upon reading the final manuscript, he found 2 pieces of research I had cited (out of hundreds) that lacked scientific integrity. He came back and said he wouldn’t be able to write the foreword with the book as it was written. Taking his advice, I had another top neuroscientists and music therapist go back and vet the book. I then rewrote those sections again, citing new and more credible studies. Daniel went on to write a beautiful foreword, and I was bless to be able to stand proudly among my colleagues with true integrity, knowing I had done all the work and had the gift of important learning along the way.

The other thing that became more and more clear to me as I wrote the book was my recognition that I am just a vehicle to bring forth the knowledge and experience that I have been gifted by my the amazing people I’ve been blessed to work with

5. How did the pandemic affect writing the book?

In addition to giving me more focused time to rewrite the book, the pandemic made it even more clear how much the resource was needed in the world. It helped me double down on my commitment to my purpose and calling, if you will. Because of my work in health and wellness, and in coaching high-performing leaders, I spoke at a number of leadership forums in the beginning of COVID about the pending mental health pandemic. I lost a couple of children near and dear to me because they didn’t have the tools and resources, or training on how to use them, to deal with the mental health challenges that the conditions a COVID world imposed. I continued to look across the world at what kind of tools were being offered to help people cope, and saw that music - other than as entertainment - was being left out of the mix. Very few people and organizations fully understand the powerful applications of music. Music therapy is not funded; health care providers, parents and educators are not taught how they can use it to truly help people, and to help people help themselves. This gap - in the fields of wellness, mental health and education - is one that I can’t stand back and watch. There is a tremendous opportunity to shift the future of health and wellness through the power of music, sound, and technology. While I only touch lightly on the how exponential technologies like Hearables come into play in the book, people can read more about mind-boggling opportunity we have there in my Forbes column at AmplifiedFuture.com.

Still, I recommend that people start with the book. From there they can reimagine and recreate their own future, and a better path forward for the ones they love.

N: You say that Amplified is more that a book - that it is a movement to “transform the way the world experiences and uses music.” I can see you have been dedicated to that as a social entrepreneur and philanthropist for many years through your organization EarthTones.org. By the way, I loved the video of Quincy sharing his personal story of how music saved his life - the same story you include in the chapter The Secret Sauce of Success”, and the trailer for the documentary you made about using music to provide Social and Emotional Learning for disenfranchised kids.

Besides what you are writing for Forbes, how are you leveraging the expertise and experience you have pulled together for Amplified in the worlds of business and technology?

I am advising a number of founders and organizations to help them understand where the emerging technology and opporutities are as well has how they can better integrate sound and or music into their ventures and teams. I have gathered some of the most brilliant minds in the space together. I can really divulge what we will be building together, but I can assure you there are some incredible opportunities awaiting those who are interest in looking through a new lens.

The book is available on Amazon or Barnes & Noble. You can learn more, read endorsements by some of the luminaries, or purchase directly (using your Amazon account) through AmplifiedBook.com