Life Lessons: Phoebe Ryan on Why 'You Have to Be a Little Crazy' to Realize Your Dreams

The stakes are higher than ever for a new artist in today's tough music industry, but Phoebe Ryan says that new experiences—no matter how wacky—all get you one step closer to your dream. For the latest episode of Life Lessons, get your #MondayMotivation from the "Chronic" singer-songwriter:

"My friends were like 'Do you want to play piano in our Grateful Dead cover band?' And I was like, 'Sure!' I showed up to rehearsal, they were all jamming super hard and I was like, 'Okay, I'm going to sing!'

"The next thing you know, I'm in a blues band where we wrote our own songs, but it was just straight-up blues—that was it. When I got to college, I experimented with a lot of different stuff like K-pop, screamo—that was the most fun thing ever—and I was also in an experimental folk band for three years."

Ryan's go-to advice is that "you have to be a little crazy" to accomplish those dreams. "You have to believe in yourself so much that it freaks other people out."