Have you ever thought of yourself as more than a musician? Do you see possibilities beyond the song others don’t see?
In this episode of The New Music Industry Podcast, I pass the mic with author, entrepreneur, musician Andy Seth (A-Luv). He shares about his new book and album, Bling, his content marketing agency Flow, his meditation practice, and a great deal more.
Podcast Highlights:
00:27 – The Antidote & Spirit Searcher Vol. 1
01:14 – Publishing to Medium for 365 consecutive days
01:42 – Comedic tribute to the 80s music project
02:08 – Something special for episode 200?
03:15 – Growing up in a motel in L.A.
05:35 – The life-changing power of spirituality
10:04 – “Safety net” advice and whether to take it
17:32 – What is Flow?
25:29 – Bling
33:01 – What’s the last YouTube video you watched?
33:09 – What is Andy’s daily routine like?
35:19 – Is there a connection between meditation and success in business?
39:52 – What is the biggest challenge Andy has overcome?
43:36 – Andy’s greatest victory
47:15 – Andy’s book recommendations
51:32 – Andy’s special offer for you
53:28 – David’s three key takeaways
54:41 – News and updates
55:37 – Listener comments?
57:18 – Get in touch with David
Transcription:
David Andrew Wiebe: Hey, it's David Andrew Wiebe with The New Music Industry Podcast.
Following up with some of the news items from last week. Episode 435 of The Antidote podcast is live. I mentioned last week that I would be on the show, and you can now hear the interview at TheAntidoteRadio.com.
I was on the show with my friends Carla Olive and Frederick Tamagi. I think it turned out great. They featured some of our music there. Apparently, it's syndicated to something like 60 FM radio stations. Excited to see what the results of that might be.
So, if the Spirit Searcher, Vol. 1 compilation is something you're interested in, I would love for you to go and have a listen. I'm sure you can find it anywhere. Spotify, Deezer, TIDAL, Amazon. Wherever you look, you should be able to find it.
I continue to plug away at my coursework, of course, and I just made the commitment to publish something new to Medium every single day for the next 365 days beginning July 28. That's insane.
This is something I'll probably be sharing more about in an upcoming episode but if you'd like to follow along and see what happens, you can find me on Medium at medium.com/@davidawiebe. It's kind of like my Twitter handle.
With my current musical project, which I also touched on last time, it's a comedic tribute to the 80s. I've started working on the David Bowie style track.
There are a few other tracks, you know, that are the style of Robert Palmer or Van Halen or what have you. Of course, I'm not looking to create something that's so close to source material that I end up in a lawsuit. That's not the goal. But I'm always putting my spin on things and I think it's going to be pretty cool when all is said and done.
Okay. So, for today's show, some of you probably noticed that this is Episode 200. And you might be asking yourself, “Okay, D.A., aren't you going to do something special for Episode 200?” And the answer is, honestly, today's episode is special. It's special enough. It's more than special.
You may have heard me refer to myself as an author, entrepreneur, musician. Right? That is a true statement. Though, if I really wanted to, I could give myself a different tagline. The thing is, I can't think of a better tagline that better encompasses everything I do.
So, I know I'm building this up quite a bit, but I found another person who identifies as an author, entrepreneur, musician. Super cool! And because we had a lot in common, obviously, that proved to be fertile ground for discussion.
And to use a fancy word, “extrapolation,” which I like to think of as the process of taking an idea and imagining what isn't already there, we obviously had a lot to share. So, Episode 200 is special. And I hope you'll soak up every minute of it. Let's get into the interview.
Interview with Andy Seth
Today, I'm chatting with award winning entrepreneur and all round, fascinating human, Andy Seth. How are you today, Andy?
Andy Seth: Fantastic.
David Andrew Wiebe: Awesome. Love your enthusiastic response. Sounds like we have a lot in common. And so, this can be an exciting conversation. You grew up in a motel in LA from the ages of zero to 14, your family went bankrupt. And this is where you discover that following the status quo wasn't going to serve you. I think entrepreneurs often have that moment of clarity but what was it specifically that wasn't working for you?
Andy Seth: Well, there was a lot packed into there. Growing up in a motel and being Indian, first of all, you might think we owned it, we did not. We just lived in it. I grew up there for 14 years of my life from zero to 14. The kinds of things that you're around and what's happening in life that you would live in a place where you pay rent week to week, you know, I think there's a lot that I saw and experienced that made me realise pretty young the difference between just even having money, not having money, having safety and security. We saw a lot of people who were abused come live in the motel. You can imagine what we saw, right?
David Andrew Wiebe: Yeah.
Andy Seth: I think for the most part, childhood was innocent until it wasn't. And when we went bankrupt, that's really when it wasn't. I was lying to creditors and saying my parents weren't available. I would see that when they would call to collect and see the letters and stuff. I think that's really what woke me up to oh man, something's wrong. I just didn't know any different before. Things kind of sucked but I didn't know that it sucked until we went bankrupt. I realised that something's wrong. I'd say that was a pretty pivotal moment in my life.
David Andrew Wiebe: Yeah. I think you expressed it very well. In my understanding of human psychology, at some point we all have that wow-there's-something-wrong-here moment. Oftentimes, early in childhood. Maybe somewhere between four and six. Eventually, you have that realisation. It could be something small but suddenly you have that awakening that, “Huh. Everything's not quite right.”
Andy Seth: Ah-huh. Yeah.
David Andrew Wiebe: Now, on your about page, it says education, entrepreneurship, and spirituality showed you a life you never knew existed. I love the statement. The part that caught my attention the most was spirituality. So, what was it about spirituality that was so life changing for you?
Andy Seth: I think I've probably gone through a number of fits and starts when it comes to spirituality. I grew up in a house that was Hindu but my parents, like, they were really open about me exploring religion. And so, I mean, my educational path, I did end up going to a Lutheran School for a little bit before I went to Boston College, which was a Catholic school. I’ve obviously been around the Hindu faith for quite a while. And so, I've been around religion but it wasn't until 201 when I had sold my last company, it was the biggest exit I had had. I went through like this time of I've got money, I've got time, and I've got the ability to do a lot of things but I felt like this is it. I know it was cliche today and I knew it was cliche then. I was like, I know everyone's told me money isn't everything, and it's not, but at the same time, there's a great deal of happiness that does come when you have resources. There is truth to that. It's just that when I finished this work, I had nothing left. I didn't have this next purpose. And so, I really felt empty.
I was unfortunate. My family is from India but we're specifically from a place called Rishikesh, which is the birthplace of yoga. I still have family there. One of my uncle's is a really, really successful businessman. He's also quite spiritual. And so, I went back to India, really, just to kind of take some time and do a little bit of asking questions of my uncle. Like, how does he balance this world of being really materially successful, but yet he's got this vibe where like, if he lost it all, somehow, you knew he'd be okay with that. There's something about him. I was like, I got to learn how to do it. And so, I went to talk with him. And you know, when the student is ready the teacher appears type of situation. That's totally what happened. He's sat on this wisdom for all this time and never really brought it to me but I wasn't really ready until that moment. He helped me connect a lot of dots that I was struggling with.
The biggest dot that I struggled with was, how can I be so aggressive and ambitious? In some ways, I'm a monster when it comes to the goals and ambitions. I don’t mean monster, like I’m mean. I mean, I've just got that drive. It's innate and it's fired level. It's not that tame. And I enjoy letting that out. And yet, at the same time, I don't want to be suffering for what I've achieved or not yet achieved. And that's what was happening. I was driving, I was suffering. How do I get rid of the suffer piece? That's what my uncle helped guide me along and really showed me. It was so transformative that that's actually the influence for the book that I ended up writing. It's a parable but the main character is influenced by me. And then the guide is influenced by my uncle.
David Andrew Wiebe: There's so much there, I could say by way of comment. I guess I relate to the spiritual journey a little bit. I'll start there. I was brought up in a Christian home and went to church for the first 30 years of my life. Things started changing a little bit after that. I don't know how to quite express it in a way that people would be able to relate necessarily but I just started digging. I started looking for something more than the confines I had been brought up in. And then,
