We were lucky to catch up with Swam Lewis recently and have shared our conversation below.
Swam , so many exciting things to discuss, we can’t wait. Thanks for joining us and we appreciate you sharing your wisdom with our readers. So, maybe we can start by discussing optimism and where your optimism comes from?
As a child I always had a positive outlook on life, over the years as I grew up the world just seemed to always work in my favor when I would try/learn new things. I think a lot of that positivity came from the support of my family and friends. When I would tell my loved ones about things I wanted to create or dreams I wanted to chase, they always had a supportive response. That support as I grew up slowly programmed me to believe that my vision could become my reality if I truly put my time and energy in. Now as an adult, whether I have success or failure in business & my music career I try to hold on to that sense of optimism that I’ve had since a kid.
Appreciate the insights and wisdom. Before we dig deeper and ask you about the skills that matter and more, maybe you can tell our readers about yourself?
I’m a full time music artist, audio engineer and videographer from Detroit Michigan. Originally I started out writing and recording music just as a hobby when I was younger. After high school I started to take music and art more seriously and wanted to make a career out of it. As time passed I taught myself how to engineer, shoot/edit video, and design graphics.. while working a full-time job. In the beginning of 2020 I had finally saved enough money to truly start my business and move to Los Angeles. I only knew one person in LA so moving there meant I had to start fresh and create a whole new life for myself. That move was one giant step toward being a full time artist..and it changed the direction of my life immensely. As I built my business and connected with other creatives I was able to gain some traction with artists and brands as clients. Everything kept falling into place and for the first time I was able to support myself with income 100% from my creative work. Now I’ve been in LA for 5 years, working with many well known artists and brands. It truly is a blessing to be self employed and able to make a living off of my creative work, all while bringing others and my vision to life.
Looking back, what do you think were the three qualities, skills, or areas of knowledge that were most impactful in your journey? What advice do you have for folks who are early in their journey in terms of how they can best develop or improve on these?
Over the years some qualities that truly made a difference on my journey; consistance, faith and confidence. Just fully leaning into whatever it is that you want to do with life and never looking back is a must! Even with having dreams that are “far fetched” to a lot of other people you must have faith in yourself and fully trust the process. Everything that is meant to happen will happen as long as you’re consistent and your heart is in the right place. I know that it sounds kinda corny.. but you must find your own confidence & believe in yourself and what you’re doing if you want to be taken seriously and succeed.
Alright, so before we go we want to ask you to take a moment to reflect and share what you think you would do if you somehow knew you only had a decade of life left?
Right now things have been very stressful and challenging. A few months ago my dad was diagnosed with stage 4 lung cancer. I am extremely close with my family so it truly hurt to hear that he is sick. All of my family still lives in Michigan so being that far away doesn’t feel good. Deep down I knew I couldn’t just stay in LA while this was going on so I decided to come to Michigan for a while until we figure out the next steps and see how things go with his treatment. Currently I am bouncing back and forth between LA and Detroit to make sure I can be there for my family but also still trying to work/focus on my music & business.
Contact Info:
- Website: https://open.spotify.com/artist/3zfp37IYJsHupQiaQ8PHqe
- Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/swamlewis/
- Youtube: https://www.youtube.com/c/SwamLewis
Image Credits
Ashley Crichton
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