Champion Women: Why Music Powerhouse Carla Ondrasik Wants You to Stop Trying

Carla Ondrasik, the former vice president of Creative Writer Development at EMI Music Publishing, shares invaluable advice for young women seeking their dreams.

Carla Ondrasik doesn’t want you to try.

In fact, that’s the premise of her upcoming book, “Stop Trying!: The Life-Transforming Power of Trying Less and Doing More,” which will be released on September 23, 2025.

“My book is all about not trying,” Ondrasik told IW Features. “You can’t try to do anything. You can’t half heart your effort.”

What success really requires, she added, is “a strong, determined mindset with strong, determined action.”

Carla Ondrasik - Stop Trying — Credit: Carla Ondrasik

Ondrasik knows a thing or two about success. She’s had an impressive career in the music industry, having worked with some of the world’s most famous artists, including Cher, Barbara Streisand, Christina Aguilera, and Mariah Carey, to name a few, as the vice president of Creative Writer Development at EMI Music Publishing.

“If there’s anything that you want to do, what I’ve learned is that you have to give it your all,” Ondrasik said. “You have to be fearless because there’s a lot of fear. So you have to face those fears and get through them.”

Carla Ondrasik sitting in the living room — Credit: Michael Blank for IW Features

Carla Ondrasik walking outside — Credit: Michael Blank for IW Features

Ondrasik’s career began back in the 1980s, when she heard her friend Joe Mele’s song “To Sing” and knew she wanted to hear it play on the radio. So, Ondrasik ventured into the music industry by purchasing a book on music publishing and brainstorming who she’d have to meet in order to have Mele’s song play on the radio.

“I don’t even think about what you have to do to get there. I just know that I have my end game,” Ondrasik told IW Features.

Article in a book about Carla — Credit: Michael Blank for IW Features

Today, people might refer to her strategy as manifestation. But no matter what colloquialism is used, Ondrasik’s approach was fairly simple: she defined her goal and gave it her all to achieve it. In fact, the first day she took Mele’s songs to a publisher, Ondrasik said one publisher bit, recorded a song, and it ended up being “a big hit” in several countries, adding that it was recorded in half a dozen languages besides English.

“I think probably the best piece of advice that I would give anybody that wants to embark on a career, to have something, to be something, to do something would be: create your own back door,” Ondrasik said.

“Everyone’s doing it the same way,” she continued. Instead, aspiring professionals should focus on creating their own way “that’s unique and surprising.”

“Come in through your own entrance, create your own entrance,” Ondrasik added.

Carla Ondrasik sitting outside — Credit: Michael Blank for IW Features

Carla Ondrasik standing in front of a piano — Credit: Michael Blank for IW Features

That’s exactly what Ondrasik did.

“Instead of just pitching directly to record labels, I would go to attorneys. No one had ever done that. If you give an attorney a song for Prince, they’re going to have to give it to their client. So I just created a new way to do what it was that everybody else was doing,” Ondrasik said.

The music industry didn’t just spawn a career for Ondrasik. When she was attending a meeting at Motown Records in 1995, Ondrasik said she heard through the wall a voice she described as “the most beautiful, unique sound I’ve heard in a long time.”

Carla Ondrasik with her family on the beach — Credit: Carla Ondrasik

“And I asked the guy [I was meeting with], ‘Who is that? Where can I buy that?’ And he said, ‘Oh, that’s the secretary’s friend [John]. She plays his cassette all day long and he’s got nothing going on,’” Ondrasik said. “Of course, I got my hot little hands on that cassette, and I contacted the guy that produced it and said, ‘I need to see this artist because if he can perform, I can help him.’”

That voice belonged to music icon John Ondrasik.

After seeing John perform in person, Ondrasik felt confident she could get him a record deal.

“So, I introduced myself and I eventually signed him to EMI. He was my first signing, and I developed him as a writer, and then I shopped him for a record deal and got him his record deal,” Ondrasik said.

Now, Ondrasik has been married to John Ondrasik of Five for Fighting for nearly three decades. The two live in southern California and have two children.

Carla Ondrasik sitting at her desk and recording an interview — Credit: Michael Blank for IW Features

When asked what her advice would be to young women seeking their own dreams, Ondrasik said the first and most important thing is to “begin.”

“Get out of your head and stop thinking about what you want to do. Identify what it is and start doing it. Just jump right into the deep end,” Ondrasik said. “Become the thing that you want to be or the thing that you want to do.”

Carla Ondrasik sitting outside on the patio — Credit: Michael Blank for IW Features

And don’t be afraid to “fake it till you make it,” Ondrasik added, noting that she “started advertising for songs as if I was a publisher before I even worked for a publisher. I became that person.”

Ondrasik also emphasized that success often is “all about people and connections.”

“That is one of the number one, top things I would recommend. Any young woman that is embarking on a new career—meet the people in your field, offer to take them to lunch, and if they’re too busy, offer to bring them lunch,” she said.

Los Angeles Times article on Carla — Credit: Michael Blank for IW Feature

And most importantly, Ondrasik said, “find your own unique way.”

“Think outside of the box,” she continued. “There’s so many tools, but the biggest one would be you can’t try. You have to just take that word out of your vocabulary and say, ‘I am doing this.’ And that’s going to redirect your mind, your brain, and your actions, and you’ll go and you’ll start on the path to doing.”