Meet Isaak Elker

We were lucky to catch up with Isaak Elker recently and have shared our conversation below.

Isaak, looking forward to learning from your journey. You’ve got an amazing story and before we dive into that, let’s start with an important building block. Where do you get your work ethic from?

Work ethic was definitely something I had to develop in myself. When I was in my teens I wouldn’t have said I had an extremely high work ethic, but that changed when we started our band Good Morning Bedlam.

When we first decided to try to go on a tour I had to try booking shows at venues all across the country. I was twenty years old, and it was the first time I truly felt the very real feeling that “I was the only one who was going to make it happen.” I wanted to play shows and be on the road so bad that I became obsessed. I sent hundreds of emails and made calls. I had absolutely no idea what I was doing, but slowly over time I began to learn. That all started with hard work. As I tried working hard, I started seeing results, which helped me develop my skills. I started to really value work ethic once I realized that when I really put my mind to something I could learn the skills to make it happen. This started spreading over my entire life from learning how to set up music gear, write songs, record music, edit videos, and also in my personal life; working hard to eat healthy, and take care of my mental and physical health.

Work ethic itself is something that can be learned! I had to get truly passionate to learn it, but once I saw the effects I started applying it to all aspects of my life!

Let’s take a small detour – maybe you can share a bit about yourself before we dive back into some of the other questions we had for you?

I play in a professional folk band called Good Morning Bedlam with my wife Tori. Getting to create art together and travel around the country has been such a special thing for us.

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?

Failure is good: I think every time that you fail at something it gives you the ability to adjust and learn, and makes it a little less scary. Less fear of failure you have the more willing you are to take risks.

Be Generous: Share knowledge and help other people that are not as far along professionaly. When I was younger I was stuck in a “famine” mindset. I felt like if I gave away my venue contacts, or other things I learned in the industry that people would take advantage of my kindness. Now I believe that all ships rise. If you are able to give freely to people that need it, it changes you for the better, and it also helps your career.

Make time for rest: It’s hard to rest when you are working on your passion. Take time to do nothing. I had to learn that by burning out one too many times!

If you knew you only had a decade of life left, how would you spend that decade?

I would spend my time with my family. I chased my career blindly for so many years, and it was not until recently that I realized that my family is the only thing that is truly important in my life.

Life is short and I have the ability to spend it with the people I love. I don’t want to miss that.

Contact Info:

• Website: https://www.goodmorningbedlam.com
• Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/goodmorningbedlamofficial/
• Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/goodmorningbedlam
• Youtube: https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCaiELnWCbTbS01_tpngFlow?view_as=subscriber
• Other: https://www.tiktok.com/@goodmorningbedlam

  https://open.spotify.com/artist/76Rnjxk1gBlp85HTEwR48R

Image Credits

Toms Smouse