Unknown Speaker 1:04
thanks for joining us on the make a move podcasts. This is Riley. We've got Kirk and we're joined by the myth, the man the legend himself. Luke mills.
Unknown Speaker 1:16
Well, thanks for having
Unknown Speaker 1:17
me. No, no, I just rendered you speech. Yeah, that's what I thought I did, Maximilian. How's it going today?
Unknown Speaker 1:27
I think it's going really great. Yeah.
Unknown Speaker 1:28
I'm doing great. Thanks. Happy to be here. Happy to have Luke in town and looking forward to the concert.
Unknown Speaker 1:33
Yeah. So yeah, we're gonna have the concert later tonight. So what we're going to do is a little episode, and we wanted to, you know, talk to Luke about making a move since his song make a move is actually in the intro and is kind of
Unknown Speaker 1:52
like the theme song. Yeah. Podcast. Now,
Unknown Speaker 1:55
it wasn't necessarily like, oh, it looks got the song, make a move. And that's what we're gonna name or thing. That's not actually what happened. I was working on a different project for the chamber. Yeah. And try and it was, we're doing the revitalize downtown stuff. And I was coming up with like, I want to do like a video series about, you know, building new businesses and revitalizing old ones. And I had this concept of like, we got to make a move. And so I'm like, trying to figure out how putting this together in my head. And of course, knowing Luke's music, all sudden, I was I was getting video clips. I started going to make moves. And I was like, Huh. So I went and I grabbed the song. And I started mixing it and edit. And I was like this is it. Yeah. And so and then the song just for us make a move is, you know, Kirk and I both we have many ventures, we go from one job and clock out and clock. Right around the clock. We roll. Yeah. And so we want to inspire people to like just because you got to do a job, or you have to punch in for a boss does not mean you can't live your dream. You can't live your dreams. And there's no better time. And in my opinion, as people we no longer have excuses to not do anything,
Unknown Speaker 3:22
right. Yeah, you can work from home now
Unknown Speaker 3:25
work from home. Yeah, you have the University of YouTube the app. Yeah. And you can literally learn anything from the palm of your hand. Yeah. And if, if you're not doing something, it's on you.
Unknown Speaker 3:39
And it levels the playing field. You don't have to live in Los Angeles in New York or Boston, or whatever you can, you can do it right here in rural Nebraska. You can do it anywhere with YouTube University and self study, and you can basically get on and live your dreams.
Unknown Speaker 3:51
Exactly. Yeah. So with all that in mind, that's where Kirk and I kind of came up with the maker move podcast. But what I want to know is where did make the maker move the song originate? Good coils?
Unknown Speaker 4:04
Yeah, that's a great question. And first off, let me say, I'm honored. And I feel privileged that you guys would take my song to be a part of this is just really cool. Thank you. Um, yeah, so when I first was working on that song, what was happening was is we wanted to try to get something that would get people at shows to interact, almost like a call to respond with the band, because our show is been in a Oh, a state of being reformatted and growing and changing and evolving. Gosh, for the last almost six years, I mean, even even some of our original members are not with us and things have morphed into different things. And one thing we really wanted to do was try to get more crowd participation. And so we were at a show, and we and we done the show and everything was done at the end of the night. was working on the song. And I didn't have the chorus yet. But I was like, man, I was like, I just want to do something that will get these people to make a move, thinking more along, like, let's get people on the dance floor. Right, right. No, like, come up and join us. And, you know, you start wondering, is the music annoying? Is it too loud? Like, what's keeping it going? And most people really enjoy the show. I mean, I mean, we get the numbers, it shows and it's fun. And it's like, well, what are we? What do we got to do? And? And really, it was like, No, we got to show them how to interact with us. And we had to make a move. And then of course, so the song lyrics go into, you know, you've worked all week, you know, everybody works all week, or at least they're supposed to. And, and you, you're working, why, you know, do you work just to go to work? I don't, I work to get money to do the things that I would like to do outside of what are your dreams, yeah, to live your dream. And so it was just like, outside of calling people into interacting with us on a, on a stage and enjoying the show with us and being a part of the show at an actual concert. You know, a lot of this stuff is like, it goes right along with what you're doing with this podcast, it goes into, you have to make a movie, you just can't sit there like a bump on the log and expect the universe to bring you your dreams. Like no one is going to give you anything in this world. And you can meet people along the way that will come alongside you. And there's, you know, mutual benefits of people working together. But no one's giving anybody anything, you know? And, and so yeah, you're riding on the right track. So it's like a double edged sword with that song
Unknown Speaker 6:42
like, Yeah, I mean, definitely, when we listen to it, and when I'm like, how, what am I gonna put in this intro? And we're talking about it? And like, it definitely was like, Man, this just it feels so right.
Unknown Speaker 6:53
It does. Yeah. Just yeah. And I think there's a common theme between what you were saying and kind of the the whole spirit and thought process behind the podcast of, you know, don't wait for things to happen, make them happen. Get off the sofa. I definitely like
Unknown Speaker 7:08
what you said that, like, people will come alongside you. And they've got mutual goals, but they're not giving anything for free. And I think that's a lot of people don't realize, like, they'll be like, we're going to charge me? No, yeah. We don't do this for free.
Unknown Speaker 7:27
And you know, and just so we're clear to you, sometimes charging somebody isn't charging them money. Sometimes it's charging each other time, you know, for resources, you know, my entire crew, everything about from the players on the stage, to the guys running the show, doing the lights, the sound, you know, as we were building this thing into what it is now, and it's going to just keep building, that live production is set a new tone for all of us. But it took getting guys at the beginning, you know, shows weren't paying that much money. And you know, to do this kind of production, takes guys learning hours and hours of software, and gizmos, and lights and all these things. And then the time to come load and set it up. So your guys would just, hey, we want to be a part of this. We want to come along and help build this. And I'll just pick on one guy in particular in our group is Dean Schaefer, and his brother and him running the production crew. Yeah, he started on this, basically with nothing. And now he he gets paid pretty well, but not like what he probably should. But he's also investing into this now. So it is a mutual partnership with all of us. And as it's grown, we have, you know, compensated each other, you know, even financially sometimes. But I know, it's it's a thing, but it started somewhere, you know, you had to we had to start, we had to sit down. In fact, I remember when we started doing everything we're doing now, the song making move fits perfectly because we were we actually stopped, we regrouped. And we figured out what our goal is going to be. And then then we had to figure out, well, Dean, and I had to figure out, does this work for us to do this? And can we do this, and then we basically empowered each other to work in our individual crafting. So now I get to focus on putting on a show with the music and the instruments. And I've empowered him to take that concept and do the thing with the sound and the lights. And that sound and lights is a whole nother instrument, you know, so they're basically part of the band. But yeah, yeah, but you have to start, you have to just start and then make a plan, and then see where it goes. And you won't ever know if you don't start.
Unknown Speaker 9:44
Yeah, very true. And that that kind of segues right into the other side of the coin for me, you have to move. I mean, I here's that this is why we did a little test run of the podcasts and it was just for fun and editing you know, like what works, what doesn't work and I was like, Kirk, do you realize that we're wanting to put together something that is being critical of sitting around and talking? So we've developed a product that is us sitting around the IRA. But I mean, you people go to conferences, and, you know, what would you call the thing we went to in Lincoln the other day where you meet new, small groups? And, you know, like, yeah, that mixer title
Unknown Speaker 10:32
was that was a startup summit me I was a mixer, everybody
Unknown Speaker 10:35
important, absolutely important. But if that's all you ever do, no, and you sit and just, Oh, you got to learn from that. I'm going to build a restaurant. And I've been talking about it for 20 years.
Unknown Speaker 10:48
I'm going to talk about how you got to actually get on with it have to
Unknown Speaker 10:51
be brave enough to leap forward and fail. Yeah, absolutely. And I think society does. Yeah. Don't you dare fail? Yeah. And I think that's a mistake. Oh,
Unknown Speaker 11:07
yeah. Well, I think also, I mean, how much? How much actual sitting around and talking on these microphones? Do you actually do very little at a time or this even started? You guys are moving around this place? Like crazy getting things ready to go? Yeah. But you know, yeah, there's, there's so much behind the scenes that that happens. And gosh, it's just fun to watch people start to, once they start making the move, and they start making choices and working at something, watching it evolve. You know, like, you might think you started out one way, but then it just starts doing something else. And you just kind of go with it.
Unknown Speaker 11:46
Right? Yeah. Yeah, can't be worried about it not being perfect. Either. People get hung up on that. And they're like, it's not ready. It's not ready yet, where
Unknown Speaker 11:54
they get hung up on like, here was my original goal. So I got to stick to the original goal. And in reality, with entrepreneurship, with the entertainment business with almost any creative endeavor, you got to have a direction. But you're fine tuning that all along the way. And you got to be willing to like adapt.
Unknown Speaker 12:09
Oh, gosh, I mean, I've been playing music now for over 25 years. I mean, when I was in junior high, you know, it was already
Unknown Speaker 12:18
and it wasn't all country was No, it wasn't
Unknown Speaker 12:22
a lot of things. I mean, I'm I'm really when it comes down to I'm a fan of music, right? Like I love all kinds of music. I even like some opera music, which is most of it's very strange to me. But I can get into some of it. And just watching some of the productions. I just like art. Yeah, I like seeing people take things and do things with them. But I have failed, I can tell you a million ways you should not do this music industry. I can tell you a million ways the like how you should not react in situations. And guess what that means I'm knocking down all the things I shouldn't do, finding the things that I should do. And there's there's only a few and, and the thing that you got to also learn to is when you're building anything or working towards something over time, sir, what worked yesterday might not work tomorrow, it's gonna evolve. It's constantly evolving. And you really have to be patient with other people, you have to be patient with yourself. And but that doesn't mean being patient with yourself doesn't mean you stop. No, you really have to keep pushing. And it's heartbreaking sometimes, you know, you think you had something going and you find out it just really wasn't working. Or it was just going the wrong direction. Yeah, you know, maybe it was really going somewhere, but you're like, not the right way.
Unknown Speaker 13:41
And I could definitely speak to that. Because I know that what I started out doing originally wasn't where I'm at today, but I would not change a thing. Because I have taking I've taken aspects of every single thing I've done that has, you know, built to me to where I am today. You know, working with car and stuff in Ohio, Man, that guy taught me so much you need to we need to interview CR maybe he's like, you know, he he was a big influence on me. And, and but you know, it was time to change paths. And I went on to something new and the moment it might You might feel sad about that. Like, oh, man, I was really hoping this was gonna go further. I had this vision in my head or what it might be. But this stuff that we're doing today isn't where we're at without that guy and right before him. Yeah, in different scenarios that have just said don't ever just because what you thought was your dream. Don't be scared to change it. manipulate it in some way to like, go a different path.
Unknown Speaker 14:58
That's not a sign of weakness. or whatever to change your dream. And then when people might try to say, Oh, you're inconsistent, I thought you wanted to do this. And yeah, you're saying you want to do this. It's like, it evolves. I mean, I think we have a vision for what we want to do, we have kind of a hazy dream. And that just becomes more and more clear with time through through the experiences on the journey to get there. So
Unknown Speaker 15:18
yep, yeah. If I had to sum up Riley's business plan of what he does, yeah, it very simplistically, it would be to figure out this works, this doesn't 86 This and duplicate this, and then just keep replicating that over and over again. And, you know, if it doesn't work, and it doesn't work, yeah.
Unknown Speaker 15:40
So you know, and also with that, I think our society today, and it's an I've even struggled with this is like, we define our value off of successes and failures. And, you know, really deep down as individuals are self worth, should not come from either of those things. No, you know, really shouldn't, which if you start thinking like that, and not worrying about your success or failure, defining who you are, but the fact that you are trying something, like, the thing I would encourage everyone to do is like when you start to feel that little, like little bit of fear, or sad or some, like, start looking at it as an opportunity. Start looking at that as this could be something cooler. These, and then what it does is it makes you fearless.
Unknown Speaker 16:27
Yeah, yeah. You're embracing that. Yeah. feeling and acting on it.
Unknown Speaker 16:33
Yeah, I've found that most of the people that I really respect, I've, once I'm starting to hang out with them. Maybe I their, you know, their ex successes or failures have caught my attention. And even some people's failures actually intrigues me. Mm hmm. And, and I want to know, like, what was the what were they trying to do? How was this or their successes? How did you do that? But once I get to know certain people, I find out that I don't like them because of what they've done. I usually end up liking people, because because of who they are. Yeah. And and how they respond to failing, yeah, or to succeeding is what attracted me to PHP, but yeah,
Unknown Speaker 17:15
they are really truly. And the other thing I think we're all guilty of, and you kind of have to shy away from doing is defining your successes relative to other people, you really have to find your successes and failures. And even if you don't want to defer to them, I mean, you know, accomplishments, however you want to say it relative to your former self and relative to what you were doing before. Because you can always find somebody who's more successful, who's better than what you know, one thing that you do, and if you get too hung up on that, you know, it's it's just doesn't go well, you're just gonna stunt your own growth. Exactly.
Unknown Speaker 17:46
Exactly. Compare yourself to who you were yesterday, not to who someone else is today.
Unknown Speaker 17:52
Yeah, very well said. Jordan Peters. Official plug for Jordan Peterson.
Unknown Speaker 18:01
I had that like in my head waiting for him to finish to say like, and most people don't compare their elections. They're they're thinking about? Well, I wish I had that. Why can I have thought one lottery? Yeah, you know?
Unknown Speaker 18:18
Yeah. And some of that's just outrageous. I mean, if if, you know, not to get on a spiritual kick or anything, but you, everybody consider out everyone consider and be like, woe is me, how come that person's works out for that person, but not for me, you know, it's like, I know that every person that I've ever felt that way about even in my journey of life, is when you actually nothing just happens for anybody. I mean, maybe maybe you were in the right place at the right time. But what got that person in the right place at the right time. It's a lot of work that you'd never saw or heard. People just being in that right place and right time, took a long time to get to that right place, and right and on
Unknown Speaker 19:02
top of that, which nobody ever thinks about this. And this is actually a personal thing to me, because I was at one time having one of those moments myself where I was like, why am I not where I need to be? Why am I always never I'm always behind. And I was having this little pity party in my head to myself. And somebody stopped out to our place. And they were like, wow, this is your Dude, your place is awesome. I wish I had this and that in that moment. It was like, hey, hey, dude. Yeah, shut up. Crying you it was like God shined his light on me and said, Son, stop being a baby.
Unknown Speaker 19:53
Shut up and do your thing. Yeah.
Unknown Speaker 19:55
And so that was like one of those moments where I was like, wow, okay, got it. Yeah, point taken, you know, there's always somebody that wishes they were where you're not wanting to be.
Unknown Speaker 20:08
Yeah. I've been there.
Unknown Speaker 20:14
Oh, man. So yeah, so I know, you're getting ready to head to Nashville, you got some new music you're gonna get on.
Unknown Speaker 20:22
I mean, the last. Well, I mean, the last 15, almost 20 years of my life has been this, this quest for recording and writing, I mean writing, most of everyone that knows me or follows me knows that writing is kind of my bag. Like, I would rather write songs all day, even for other artists and go perform them myself. But I do like to perform. And there's that aspect I do like, but if I had to choose between one or the other, I would definitely much rather write. But on this quest has been to keep being it goes with what you said being better than I was yesterday, I want the next set of songs and the next recording to be a level up from what I did before. And so that journey has taken me from recording on our own, and myself and writing and recording instrumentation, learning to play my own instrument, or instruments. And then then moving to Columbus, Ohio for a season and recording in Columbus, Ohio, with CR learning a whole new way to record and write songs in a basically a small garage. So I've been doing this shoestring budget, you know, recording thing for years, because, yeah, I don't I've never had, you know, $50,000 to go do a Yeah, I'm record, you know. And then, as time has gone on some of the better studios, I've just built into the next phase every time. So I ended up in Colorado, in Denver with Joshua Olson, who produced some of the last couple songs. And now I'm headed down early on Sunday morning, to go to Nashville to work with the insanely awesome Grammy nominated Stokes Nielsen. Cool, so I'm gonna be doing some stuff with him. Sounds like we're going to do a lot of things down there this next week, but my most favorite thing I'm excited to go do is to sit down with some top writers and write a song with some of those awesome, nice cuz I learned something every time I move Yeah, different thing. I learned a new little trick or something else. And so who knows I'm still working on. I'm still working on shoestring budgets. I haven't got the the the $100,000 deal or the $50,000 deal. But But yeah, everything we've done, I've been independent. I've never been signed. I've gotten to play with some of the biggest hitters in Nashville and in the rock and roll. I mean, we were out with hinder this last summer we'll call played with Buckcherry awesome Don't ask me how the country thing goes, but a lot of country artists, and there's gonna be a lot more of that. Yeah, yeah.
Unknown Speaker 23:10
Cool. So now, obviously, music has kind of changed and evolved a little bit where bands used to go in and record a full length project, you're going to just be doing probably a couple songs,
Unknown Speaker 23:19
you know? So yes, I've kind of been doing a couple songs everywhere that I can go working with lots of different people still, still keeping true to the Luke Mills vibe, but getting, you know, extra set of ears, meeting new people learning more tricks, but I was just having this conversation with my keyboard player today, Jimmy. And yeah, the plan for a while, which I've been doing for last couple years is just released a single every once in a while and put that out. But now enough songs are coming up that I'm reconsidering putting out a full length as we get into this, like, well, we could I'll be honest, I don't know what's going to happen. But yet new songs are coming. We just released answers on the wind a little less than a month ago. Last spring, we released love another day. Both of those tunes have we've definitely leveled up and and we have worked out some new content that is helping. So we'll we'll see where these next ones go. It's going to get excellent. Excellent.
Unknown Speaker 24:27
Sweet and yeah, so the only thing I was gonna think of his with this whole you know, we were talking about me and Kirk, we're always doing something and off to the next. When you're not doing music and rocking the world. You're What are you doing?
Unknown Speaker 24:44
Oh gosh, lots of things. I do. My My dad taught me a trade years ago, and we just lost him a couple weeks ago. But yeah, so I I own and operate a flooring installation remodeling company. We've evolved, we've grown in the last 10 years into a place where we've got some really great employees doing some really great things. So every once in a while, you'll see I'm doing a backsplash or I'm remodeling a bathroom and the off time, I just got to keep money coming in. You just got to keep working. It's not you don't just get to see the two hours on stage and then go make a million dollars. That's not how it works now, a lot of rain we
Unknown Speaker 25:33
have to work.
Unknown Speaker 25:37
What do you think about the other day? Thinking about? Yeah, yeah, you want to share that?
Unknown Speaker 25:41
Yeah. So I, you know, I hope this guy never sees this. So you we go to this little mixer thing, and there's people and, and and to be honest, that's not my comfort zone. Yeah. It's like, you want to go to this? And in my mind, I'm like, no. But he did. But I was like, You know what? You know, Dance Moms. He's got a podcast. Oh, yeah. Yeah. And one of the things I really like to steal from him that he says on his is stay uncomfortable. Yeah, I love that. Because that is so true. If you are keeping yourself when it's what we all try to do, we do not want to be uncomfortable. But we need to be because we're not telling grow. We're not growing and uncomfortable. And it's not to say that going and hanging out and talking to people makes me uncomfortable. I can talk to a tree. I will talk to you all night long. Yeah. But in a I don't know, what do you want to you know, just like a formal type thing. You know? I have to put on pants. That's what I'm talking about. So I'm just kind of hanging out. Kurt is the king. We went with one of Kirk's Associates, and he's like, Okay, watch this. He's going to talk to everybody in this room. He's not going to eat any of this food that's here. And it was amazing. Food is awesome. Free. And he's not going to eat any of it. And as soon as he gets done talking to every single person in this room, he's gonna go man, I'm famished. It's true. Let's go get a job. Let's go to the drive thru. I told me there's a great Mexican food place. Literally, literally literally what happened. And so he's doing his thing and networking like crazy madman. And I'm, you know, just kind of like, tagging along. I don't want to be like his little lost puppy. I'm like, trying to like, not be like on his coattail. And so I'm kind of hanging around my own little area. And this dude comes and starts talking to me. And I'm like, Hey, man, cool, you know, and, and he's, uh, he's a college kid. And he's like, I'm like, Oh, what are you? What are you going to school for? He's like, I don't know. I feel like everything I've been studying. It's just been a waste of my time. I don't think I need any of it. And I'm like, well, that's not good. What are you What are you doing? And what do you want to do? Yeah, he says, I don't want to work. And so I want to be my own boss. So I don't have to do anything. And I said, Well, I hate to be the one to ruin your day. But you have a very flawed perception of being your own boss, because that means you're going to work harder than everybody else and everybody in the room. So I hate to pop your millennial bubble here. But dude, you better to reconsider.
Unknown Speaker 28:35
It's one of those things where, yeah, bro. We live in a social media age where everybody just posts our best stuff. Some of the biggest entrepreneurs that I follow. I mean, I'm a I am. I'm a big old Grant Cardone fan. Oh, yeah. My son loves him, too. I got inspired by his show that he did with the undercover billionaire. I love that. I, I have some of my thoughts on all that stuff. But that guy seeing him be a normal person. Unknown, couldn't use any of his contacts, you know, and I know it's part I'm sure part of its produced. But, but when you're really thinking about that, what was inspiring was like, the concept of that whole thing was right, this guy has already done it. And he took away his name. And he took away all his tools. And he started from scratch. And how watching the struggle of all those people on that show at the beginning, was grueling, even for me, but it was inspiring because I'm like, these guys are starting out with literally $100 and a car. And then that's it, and a phone with no contacts in it. And, and I'm sitting there looking at this and watching them build these things on these episodes. I'm like, I have way more than $100 I have way more than zero content. Yeah. You know exactly. I don't have any excuse. I have no excuse. and, and and you
Unknown Speaker 30:02
have a shelter over your head, you have house and you've got
Unknown Speaker 30:06
food, you know, right, all these basic things and and so getting back to the working to be a boss and think that you're just going to like sit Grant Cardone does not do this, he shows that he's grinding. I mean, he's doing things all the time. But but other people are like trying to show you their money, show you their car, show you their house, and and then they're on the beach with some beautiful girls or their family or they're hiking up a mountain, which who has time for that, right? And it's like, and somehow long the the message got messed up that being a boss means you're just going to go have fun. And that's not and it's not that way. I'm the owner of two businesses. And my wife will tell you, like, it never stops, and you have to manage it. And I've learned a lot about managing my time. And because I'm managing my time still doesn't mean that I'm not doing anything we just pulled into town. I'm the singer of the band, right?
Unknown Speaker 31:03
And you're helping with everybody else, I'm sure well,
Unknown Speaker 31:06
there's there's situations, every buildings different. Yeah. And my production manager knows that. I'm kind of particular about the way certain things look. And I want flow and the way that the vision of the show needs to be. So I've got to be there. So we got to put in trash. There's only so many guys, let's get things moving. You know, you're going to pick up a bag, you're going to pick up a guitar, you're going to pick up some trussing you're going to do all these things. I just went and had to fix a shower pan this week from my other company. One of the guys that used to work for me, did a really good job, but he screwed up a drain. But to keep those customers happy to keep that money coming in, you've us personally did we got to personally go and do it. Yeah. And it's things like that you want it maybe it's putting out fires all the time. It doesn't have to be that. But yeah, to your buddy that you met. There's no such thing as is where you're gonna, what you're gonna do is you're gonna schedule your breaks right now. You're going to try to anyway,
Unknown Speaker 32:10
yeah, and then not know emergencies come up and spoil those scheduled breaks.
Unknown Speaker 32:14
Yeah. And you know what, I do the same thing. You go to my Instagram, you go to my Facebook, I'm going to post the greatest looking things that I'm doing. Of course, I'm going to do that. But don't for a minute anyone out there listening to this think that we're just sitting around telling people what to do. That's not how this works at all. And I don't think there's any major entrepreneur or super successful business person in the world that was a diner or entertainer you know, that's, I was gonna go on a tirade there. But you're absolutely right. Every major entertainer, I know they're working 24/7 It's not. They didn't just wake up and get out of bed and roll over
Unknown Speaker 32:51
they're hustling just like the rest
Unknown Speaker 32:53
on stage. Now maybe Motley Crue, I read the book. Except maybe there's a couple guys that exception. Sounds like they had quite the time but I think somebody was feeding that.
Unknown Speaker 33:09
Yeah, probably. Probably a motley crew. But
Unknown Speaker 33:13
Tommy Lee has a ball somewhere. But no, you're gonna work. You're gonna work hard. If you want to be the boss, you're gonna work harder than everyone. Yeah,
Unknown Speaker 33:23
absolutely. Agree. Absolutely agree. Yeah. Yeah, in many ways. I feel like you're kind of the poster child for the essence of what makes a move. It's about you know, your, your hustle. And during the day making it happen with your business and you know, living your dream of being an entertainer. Like, when did you start kind of living that life?
Unknown Speaker 33:43
Well, I started trying to live it probably probably even when I was still in high school, okay. I mean, I really wanted to be an entertainer, we were we were trying to get on bigger shows. I mean, Riley knows been pushing the music thing a long time. It's a passion of mine. I just love creating, but probably only really started to enjoy it more. When I started working more, to be honest, interesting, because there's no safety net. So you guys know this, like the certain things you go in you invest all you have into an idea or to a project. And if it doesn't work out, you lose it, right? Maybe you gain some knowledge, and that could be pretty beneficial later. But you start figuring out, I probably started figuring out probably about, oh, probably about 15 years ago, that I was gonna have to quit comparing myself to other entertainers and trying to be a rock star and start figuring out how to create my own safety net. So making better decisions, like not just, I'm gonna go, I'm gonna go to the Pepsi center near Denver and put on a show 10 years ago, no one knows who I am, who the heck is going to come to that show? That would be a stupid decision to do. And go, I'm gonna take $20,000 and run out the Pepsi center, and we're gonna throw a show, and it's gonna be awesome. No, I did that. concept like that, almost five years ago, booked an entire tour, I'm just gonna tell you what happened. I took my own money, I saved up about 15k. And I went and I rented out my own venues. And we did two shows a weekend for about was probably close to like five weekends, okay, and tried to get 10 of them done. And had my new song come out and had a band that was ready to go. And we booked the things. I bought radio advertising, I, you know, the stuff you do, right, did it all yourself, and didn't market the dang thing at all. And halfway through that run, two of the shows didn't sell any tickets at all, and we just cut them. But here's the thing, I prepaid my band, and the production, and the venues, you're out. You're out that money and you're buying for you're paying for their time. So they get paid whether you do it or not or not. Yeah. So when it was all done, my poor wife I, I I lost almost when it all came down to almost $20,000. And back, you know, five years ago for almost a newlywed couple that says a lot of money. Yeah. And my wife was so gracious. She was bad. She was upset, let's not get my decision making. But man, that that showed me a lot about what really needs to happen when you're doing anything. Then I swore I would never do that again. You know, I was like, I'm never going to lose money ever again. And how do you do that? I figured out the things that I do in my life that make money. So I've got two business for sure. I'm actually on the verge of launching two more companies. And they are going they create my income, my base and you budget out and you save and you take time. And then when I go on my musical adventures, I tried to make way better decisions. I've learned a lot in the last five years about marketing and who the people I need to talk to you are. And that's another thing I would tell anybody working is also not being afraid to go talk to anybody which that's yes, by you, you got to talk to everybody. You do you never know who you're going to meet.
Unknown Speaker 37:43
And a lot of times, you know, people make decisions based on appearance or perceptions. And oftentimes they're wrong. Yeah. I mean, there's many different times that I've met potential clients, and you know, the ones that probably that's probably not gonna work out, you know, and you're tempted to not spend any time with those people, but to go and try to spend time with everybody. And oftentimes, you're not right, you know, the person you're like, Okay, I'll spend some time talking to him probably never go anywhere. So those have been some of our best clients for one of my business, the ones that I thought would never go anywhere. And some of the ones that just seem so promising. They're saying all the right things, oh, this is clicking, it's gonna happen. Nothing ever happens. Yeah. So you really have to get out there, you have to talk to everybody after network, you have to be willing to sell yourself. And you can't expect anybody to sell you. So you know, sell you. I mean, you're a musician, you could think oh, I'll just get an you know, some kind of agent and they'll go out there and they'll sell, they'll sell and they'll make it happen for me. I think that's a mistake. A lot of entertainers make Yeah, whether you know, you're a musician and actor or whatever, the Dishoom all of them, you know, have somebody take care of all that for me now. You got to get out there, you got to meet people, people want to know you. And even when you know, I'm doing stuff for the movie, most people that just, you know, do an audition. That's it. I want to meet that I want to meet the actor, I want to know can I work with that person, if I'm going to be on the set with that person for days and days and days? You can actually work with that person, you know, you want to know him and so you got to you got to be willing to get out there because there's people like me they're gonna want to meet you they're gonna want to know what kind of person is Luke Mills, but you do it I know you do it I've seen you do it. And that's that's the kind of thing that you know people have this misconception about the entertainment industry is that you're kind of all removed from it all and you don't really talk to anybody and say books a gig for you and you do it. That's not how it works for you
Unknown Speaker 39:19
right now. No, it's constant communication. My phone literally does not stop
Unknown Speaker 39:25
it's on it's on silent right now. We probably been interrupted three or four or five or six times by now the guys
Unknown Speaker 39:31
are probably waiting for me to come sound
Unknown Speaker 39:34
like totally gotten the radio silent. Right?
Unknown Speaker 39:37
It's yeah, it's it's so starting. Yeah. And enjoying like I said, I enjoy it more now that I'm working and doing these things. I am looking forward to the day when I can. The thing that I don't do and I sometimes I'll be honest, I run a little ragged and I think most business I think we all do, we we get so into it. that we run ourselves ragged. Yep. And you're trying to do so much. And my next goal for the next? Well, at least the next year, my wife and I've been talking about this is to schedule out and stick to the schedule of the free time. Mm hmm. You've got to decompress, you've got to stop. And if you don't, you're gonna, you're gonna burn out, and you're gonna get angry. And you'll be sitting there like I was a couple years ago. Gosh, I don't know how many conversations I've had with Rylie Rome, like, the world is done, and I'm done. And you're gonna get there, everybody. If you're out there listening to this, and you're in a spot where you're like, I just want to take golf in the back alley and shoot myself in the head. That we've all been there.
Unknown Speaker 40:49
I'm gonna sent you went that far. I'm sure I can say this in the confidence that it's okay. There's he was saying these he said stuff to me. And there's been days where I've talked to him on the phone. He's like, Hey, man, how's it going? Well, if a semi takes me out, I'm not gonna try to avoid it. I'm not gonna do it. But if it happens, hey, happens. Yeah.
Unknown Speaker 41:16
Oh, we all have those days. And I think it's so easy. That's another lesson. I think with all this entrepreneurship and writing companies and stuff is there are those days, we all have those days, no matter what stage you're at, and you know, your career, your progression, your evolution, we all have those days. And I've had some recently, you know, we've had a lot going on to the business as well. And that got down to dust yourself up and get up and do it again. See, people think
Unknown Speaker 41:40
that emotions tell us the truth. And we we always are on this roller coaster of highs and lows. Yeah, that's normal. Yeah. And when you're in the lowest of the low, and you're sitting there saying, This doesn't feel right. Yeah. Well, of course it doesn't. You know, I there was one of the times when I've said and sometimes the right decision doesn't feel good. No, that's true. You know, it's just like working out, you know, I would much rather sit and have a pizza versus going to the gym. That's which one's gonna feel better. I can tell you which
Unknown Speaker 42:17
having that beats gonna feel. Good. Gosh, darn it. Yeah.
Unknown Speaker 42:20
Not for Kurt.
Unknown Speaker 42:23
I'm gluten free, dairy free. soy nuts. Might feel good when I'm eating it. But three or four hours later, would disaster.
Unknown Speaker 42:30
But point being is sometimes in our lives, we say, oh, there's this decision. And I've had done this before where I've said, I've called a friend and been like, I, I know, this is what I have to do. But it doesn't feel right. And that friend said to me, that's because emotions lie to you. And it was like,
Unknown Speaker 42:51
Whoa, yeah, that but it's so true, though. And I was like,
Unknown Speaker 42:55
No, he said, emotions betray us. Yeah. And I was better. And, and that was another turning point in my life to understand. I'm down right now. And I don't feel good. And this feels like crap. But I know if I just hang on and grit my teeth and bite my lip through this. Tomorrow is going to be different. Yeah, it always is. And it might not feel like it's gonna be, but it will pass. Yeah. And it's gonna come back around to. So
Unknown Speaker 43:27
Luke, you got any of those moments you want to share with us? Or you kind of get yourself off there as a business owner or as an or as an entertainer? Both?
Unknown Speaker 43:35
I mean, like, as an entertainer, I mean, the dusting myself off five years ago. That was a rough one. Yeah, no, you're you took all the money that you had, and you threw it at this thing. And you get took a gamble, and you lost it? Oh, yeah. And yeah, I was sitting at home of trying to figure out how am I going to get out of this? You know, like, I mean, 20 grands? A lot of money. You know, and, and with that, you know, luckily had some people at the time on the outside, not knowing what how everything was on the inside. I think that, you know, Dude, that was a pretty ballsy move. You know, like, you really tried to do this and it looked, it looked good, but just didn't get the numbers. So how you're really on the right track? You're doing something the social media look great. Mm hmm. You know, everything was great. But, yeah, there was a good two weeks there where I was ready to sell everything, get out of music completely and just let you know, this isn't my bag. And it was it took a friend of mine to just call me up and encourage me like no, he's like, you're on the right track. You just did it wrong. But you've got the right concept. You just have to plan better, you know? Yeah. Gosh, there's been jobs on the On the flooring and installation side remodeling side where I'll be honest, a lot of people are hard to deal with when you're dealing with other people who think they are artists to in their home. And when you have a lot of knowledge about products, and some people, they don't care, they just want this product. And they want you to form it to something that is not meant for that product. Right? And, yeah, you just want and when it's all done, it doesn't work. Right. It doesn't look right. And, and, and I've made mistakes, too. I thought things should work and ate my words, I have replaced things before. I've always made it right, you know. But yeah, people are hard. And you just want it sometimes there's been multiple times I've come home from work. And my wife is sitting there and I'm like, You know what, let's sell all vehicles for the business. Let's sell all the tools. And let's go build a little shack in the mountains. And I will fish and hunt. Like caveman and we will be happy. Nice, but no, you just you there's always something that you can control. You can't control your entire situation. But there's always something in this situation that all of us can do better. Even if you think the whole world against you, there's still something else that you can do to push forward. And you got to push through those moments and just know that there's that what's the quote right now the big one that's on all the memes is your success. And everything you want to be doing is on the on the other side of all the stuff you don't want to do. Yeah, no. And and that's true. Once you just sit down and you just start breaking us guys, we like to we kind of, I feel like guys can do this easier than girls can a little bit because we compartmentalize. Mm hmm. So we can actually take a messy table and have a tons of different stuff on it that's just out of control. And we can like, do this one here and get that and then we can move to this. And I want to encourage everyone, whether you're a man or woman, when you can start dissecting your situation or your mess. It's okay. It's okay. It doesn't matter how long it's going to take as long as you start and you make a move into fixing something. One thing I think is Jordan Peterson says find a room in your house. Oh yeah, yeah. Or if you can't find a room, find a corner. You know, and just start there. Yeah, and when one thing beautiful, make one thing beautiful. Fix it and you're going to start over the course of time, nothing's gonna happen. And tomorrow, I am not going to be a rich, famous rock star in the next 24 hours is not going to happen. Probably not going to happen in the next four to five years. But you can start
Unknown Speaker 48:03
Hey Riley here. Thanks for listening to this episode of Make a move podcast. For more content. Check us out on all major social media platforms and make a move podcast.com Until next time, get off your butt and make a move
Transcribed by https://otter.ai
#People #entertainer #Song #Started #Business #work #Money #Music #Successes #podcast #Failure #Learned #Dream #move #makeamove
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