LJ Malberg: Expander Energy

“The most challenging parts of the music and entertainment industries aren’t the music and the entertainment,” CoMuse CEO LJ Malberg says. “The most challenging parts are the relationships that we have with each other and ourselves.”

LJ knows. In her two decades of industry experience straddling creativity and capitalism, she earned her stripes onstage as a vocalist and dancer, behind the scenes as talent agent, and in the front office at Eventbrite, Indiegogo and Ticketmaster.

In founding CoMuse in 2018, LJ focussed on helping to cultivate and develop holistic workplace cultures in which the welfare of the individuals and the bottom line aren’t mutually exclusive.

It provides a unique vantage point in a historical, post-COVID moment.

“Everyone is looking to dive right back in hoping that things are going to be exactly how they were before,” she says. “But we’ve been traumatized. There’s this low level buzz of anxiety that people are experiencing now that they didn’t have before – on top of any anxieties that they did have before.”

So what’s the salve?

Gratitude.

“You can’t be afraid and be grateful at the same time,” she says. “The brain doesn’t work like that. So if you can focus on what you’re grateful for, the fear will subside. Gratitude fills you up; it’s an expander of energy. And who doesn’t want that?”

In our wide-ranging conversation on this week’s episode of the Friends & Neighbors podcast, LJ and I go deep on cultivating compassion, finding connection, getting uncomfortable, and letting go. Listen on Apple, Spotify or wherever you find podcasts.