We recently connected with Mack Borys and have shared our conversation below.
Hi Mack, great to have you with us today and excited to have you share your wisdom with our readers. Over the years, after speaking with countless do-ers, makers, builders, entrepreneurs, artists and more we’ve noticed that the ability to take risks is central to almost all stories of triumph and so we’re really interested in hearing about your journey with risk and how you developed your risk-taking ability.
Are you living the life you want to live right now?
That’s a question I ask myself on a daily basis.
If the answer is no, then it doesn’t matter what the risk is, I have to take it if it means I could live the life I want to. While the risk might be large, and have consequences… if I don’t at least give it an honest shot, I’m only ever going to think “What If?”
That’s the first step. I can live with trying and failing.
The second step however is not believing in failure… only learning a way not to do something. With that mindset, the life I want to live is one I will live, but with life’s setbacks, and external factors, maybe it will take 5 years, maybe 25 years, maybe I’ll achieve it tomorrow, and then my ideal life will change in a week, and I’ll have to work towards that new change.
As a result, “risk” could mean sacrificing nice meals for months, sacrificing travelling (which I love) for years, or sacrificing ideal living quarters, but I know, sooner or later, it will all work out, and if doesn’t work out… it’s not the end.
So how did I develop my ability to take risks? It’s simple. Not settling for something good, when I know something great exists. Beyond that, it’s understanding that many hardships will occur from those risks, (health problems, financial issues, isolation, etc) but that’s just all part of the journey for the reward after the risk.
Great, so let’s take a few minutes and cover your story. What should folks know about you and what you do?
Growing up, I was always that awkward kid that wouldn’t listen to any music, like… WHAT?!?! I know I know… Nothing better than driving in silence… I was weird okay…
BUT… I had a glow up (at least mindset wise LOL),
I found music!!
You see… I was going through a darker time in my life, unsure of what I wanted to do, or who I wanted to be. During this uncertainty in my life, I found music, Avicii in particular, and more specifically “Hey Brother” by Avicii.
I would listen to that track 200+ times a day!!!
Something about it just really resonated with me, and healed me. Since then, I’ve been listening to music everyday, for as long as I can (some days even over 12 hours).
But I don’t want to get too ahead of myself…
I knew NOTHING about music, all I knew was Avicii, and shortly after… Avicii (Tim) passed away…
I had never met him, or knew him really (apart from his music), yet his passing hit me extremely hard, because to me, he was music. He was all I knew music was, and now, the person who saved me through his music was gone.
Knowing how much music can save people (as it saved me), I wanted to learn more.
Around this time, my close friends (who I still talk to almost every day) were forming a band. They were performing in coffee shops, in churches, and other small gigs, around town.
I thought they were really talented, always putting on a great show, and pleasing the crowd. I couldn’t understand why when I would turn on the radio I was hearing the same style of music, and same artists all day, everyday, on repeat, when there were bands like my friend’s band that were really good, but not getting any grand exposure.
So, me, still not really knowing anything about the music business wanted to try and support and empower independent artists and bands.
At the time I was finishing my business degree at University, so it was the perfect time to start my career.
With no connections in the music industry, no music business degree, and again… no knowledge about the music industry, naive me wanted to try and disrupt the music business, by empowering aspiring artists & bands to actualize their dreams, and so… my journey in the music industry officially began.
Originally, I hosted online music competitions, and rewarded the winner with mentoring from two professionals that I was able to connect with via Reddit, after sharing my vision for wanting to empower artists.
However… after just a few competitions, I decided to abandon that model, because at the time we were getting about 50 entrants, and while all entrants would get exposure, only the winner was receiving mentoring, meaning the other 49 entrants could still be falling into industry pitfalls.
Thus, I pivoted the model to a mentoring program, to accept all musicians, songwriters, producers, vocalists, artists, etc.
The only problem… I couldn’t mentor them, because I still knew very little, and so… I spent my time listening to music podcasts / interviews all day, every day and reaching out to guests of those podcasts that both achieved incredible feats in the music business, but also… had the ability to teach / mentor, as that is a trait of its own.
Reaching out involved finding their contact details online, and sending cold emails, (or sometimes even cold calls), in which I would share my vision for what I wanted to achieve. Through doing this, I was able to build up a great network of music professionals that shared a vision of wanting to see independent artists / bands reach the levels of success they deserved, and not have to be subject to the BS of the business.
With this, Musician Guidance was launched, now making it possible for artists, songwriters, producers, vocalists etc. to chat 1 on 1, (via video call) with highly regarded professionals for guidance, connections and opportunities, essentially removing the middlemen and gatekeepers in the music industry.
With the launch of the company now behind me, it was time to double down, and so while I was going full force ahead growing the mentorship side of the company, I finished my bachelors of business and administration, (with a major in marketing), and was astonished at how many independent artists (as well as major music companies) were quite simply… awful at marketing themselves….
Now… having a decent sized network of highly regarded professionals, and tightly knit community of music creatives, I wanted to branch out into marketing.
Between launching the company and offering our marketing services however, was 3 years… 3 years of me learning the music business inside and out from the most prominent figures… including multi-Grammy winners, international touring artists, record label CEOs and many more renowned professionals.
With my previous experience marketing (from self-employed business ventures), my textbook knowledge of marketing, and now understanding the music business, there was no better time to begin offering marketing services to music creatives.
I launched the service with a complete spin on how artists were currently marketing themselves, designed to get loyal listeners and long-term fans, by leveraging algorithms. I pitched this model to my network of artists, and companies.
Within just a couple of months, it spread like wildfire (keep in mind, I was pitching it to about 6 – 10 people a day). Now, just about 1 year after launching the service, we have run marketing campaigns for…
1) A recording artist with 20+ million followers
2) Artists with 15+ million monthly listeners
3) Multiple winners / finalists of AGT, BGT, American Idol and The Voice.
4) Artist with over 2 billion streams (on one song alone)
5) Artists with over 500 million views
6) Multi-platinum and Grammy winning artists
7) Artists that tour with the biggest artists and bands in the world (over 100,000,000 monthly listeners on Spotify).
The journey has been a long one, with twists, turns, speed bumps and setbacks, and there is only more to come, but it’s been the ride of the lifetime.
The best part? Working with artists / their teams that I have been listening to, long before they became clients. From being a fan originally, to then being a fan that works with them has been surreal.
If you had to pick three qualities that are most important to develop, which three would you say matter most?
1) Being completely naive to the mountain of a task that was ahead of me, of building a business and gaining trust in the music industry.
While the industry is filled with passion, it has more scams than any other industry I have worked in. It is also filled with corruption and greed, that I have to deal with on a daily basis.
I did not know just how hard it would be, and my oh my… it was hard. From getting stalked, to harassed (not just online troll harassment, but real life harassment), being told to F off more times than I can count, and most notably… being called a scam, because what we offered in many artist’s eyes, was too good to be true. Building that trust was nothing short of a miracle and if I knew how hard it would be, I may have never started… so my ignorance to the challenges of the music industry was without a doubt, my blessing.
2) Being open to learn.
I can be stubborn, like really stubborn, but I knew to have a fighting chance in the music business, I had to be honest with myself that I knew nothing, and soak up as much information and knowledge as possible.
Whenever I had the opportunity to chat with artists, or music business professionals, I would take notes, ask inquisitive questions, and really, really, really try to learn as much as possible. What this meant was swallowing my pride, and asking many questions which I “should have known” the answers to, already.
While I embarrassed myself hundreds of times, it gave me knowledge I so desperately needed. I would chat with anyone and anyone that was willing to give me their time, and sometimes this meant chatting with music professionals across the world, at 3am. Sleep was definitely put second to learning.
3) Knowing my place in the room.
Look… I’ve made it clear I knew nothing about music, but I knew about business, and I knew what the professionals I connected with wanted (whether that was an intrinsic feeling, or something else…. I did my research), and so… I leveraged that in my value proposition to them, when chatting.
They didn’t care I knew nothing about music, because I was not the one providing any music services, they were, I was simply providing them what they wanted, and through a similar vision with them offering their experience, and me growing the business to help them, it was the perfect partnership.
In terms of advice… always be honest with yourself. The truth will always come out, so rather than try and fake something, bring your strengths to the table, and find those that are better than yourself in certain areas. No one has ever succeeded completely on their own, and no one ever will.
While you’ll have to do much of the work yourself when starting out, if you want to go far, go together. Build the team, to build the dream!
Before we go, any advice you can share with people who are feeling overwhelmed?
Growing up, I prayed for the feeling of being overwhelmed.
I hated having nothing to do. In my eyes, having nothing to do is the worst thing possible. It’s always better to be busy, than have nothing to do. Having nothing to do either gets you in trouble, or rots your brain.
As a result, I would always try to find things to do. I would give my number out, saying whatever you need, count on me, (hoping someone would ask me for something)… now I regret giving my number out to certain people… but that’s beside the point lol.
I would also spend nights trying new things when I had “nothing” to do. One night I even wrote a 100 page screenplay, because I was bored. I ended up working on it for 6 months and got some great traction, but then Covid hit…
Anyway, being overwhelmed is a feeling I enjoy. While it’s not always pleasant, I enjoy it, so crazy enough, when I’m overwhelmed is when I’m most thankful.
In terms of what I do when I get overwhelmed…
It usually starts with a big sigh, before leaping up, doing a quick lap around my office, getting some snacks, and then sitting down for the long haul of the tasks ahead of me that I need to overcome.
My best advice for those that get overwhelmed is to just quickly dissociate yourself from everything, even for just a couple minutes, let any emotions that may be present settle, and then tell yourself “you got this, let’s get to work.”
Contact Info:
- Website: https://www.MusicianGuidance.com
- Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/musicianguidance/ & https://www.instagram.com/mack.b.music/
- Linkedin: https://www.linkedin.com/in/mack-borys/
- Youtube: https://m.youtube.com/@MusicianGuidance
Image Credits
1) Mack (leaning against beam). (Photographer: Ann Poole Creations)
2) Mack at Piano (Photographer: Ann Poole Creations)
3) Ben (maroon shirt) & Mack (black hoodie). (Photographer: Ann Poole Creations)
4) Mack (at computer) & Donald (pink blazer)
so if you or someone you know deserves recognition please let us know here.
