We were lucky to catch up with Ryan Ploch recently and have shared our conversation below.
Ryan, so good to have you with us today. We’ve always been impressed with folks who have a very clear sense of purpose and so maybe we can jump right in and talk about how you found your purpose?
I found my purpose in life when I was at my lowest. I found it when I had a last minute decision to make about my whole life. But looking back it was developed slowly over my whole life, and it makes perfect sense once I committed to it and was able to reflect back at my life through that new path and perspective. Music is my purpose. Making music, recording music, writing music. Without a doubt Music is what I was put on this earth to do. But the whole part of my life before that realization, I was dead set on leading a whole different career life. When I was in my teens I learned about this concept in Japanese culture called ikigai. It more or less means ‘a purpose for living’. It is represented by 4 circles in a ven digram. The different circles are what you love (your passion), what the world needs (your mission), what you are good at (your vocation), and what you can get paid for (your profession). This to me is the definition of what our purpose is on earth. But it took me a strange path to find mine.
I had been good at school my whole life without having to apply myself too hard. I had over a 4.0 gpa throughout the first two years of high school, and before that I breezed through middle school. My junior year I got a bad concussion skateboarding to school, and it through a giant fork in my whole life’s plan to go to college and do business or engineering. I fell behind in school. Subjects I would need to use in these potential career paths were a foreign language and knowledge wasn’t sticking the way it used to. The head injury sparked a chain reaction of mental health issues, and my small mental ticks became big mental health problems. Looking back it ended up being some kismet identity crisis that made me focus on any part of life that didn’t bring me down. I lost interest in school and started missing a lot of days because it got so bad. But in the darkness there is a light if you allow yourself to look for it.
Fast-forward to my last semester of high school. I was planning on graduating early and getting out of high school as fast as i could because it was very clear it was no longer for me and i was on all sorts of meds and routines just to get me through the days. It no longer felt like my purpose to be there. Anyway, I had this zany, whacky Econ teacher that was rich and successful in life on his own merit and literally chose to teach out of the love of passing down knowledge and helping the next generation. So a really great man who was authentic and a bit of a nut. He would jokingly yell out to kids in the halls who were late to class and he would play ‘don’t worry, be happy’ during every quiz whether you liked it or not. (I didn’t really like it, I couldn’t focus well already haha). And I was barely scraping by in this class by the way. But every Tuesday he would do a life lesson for the first 20 min of class. A gem from his book of wisdom from his own successful life.
And on the week we all had to decide our major and schools, I was on the fence of whether or not to pursue music production or to do business major. BIG HUGE LIFE DECISION TIME!
I had been learning and watching my older neighbor friend for the last few years doing music and had started to really take it seriously. I loved it, it made sense for my life. I had grown up playing instruments and it was the only thing my adhd could focus on for hours and hours on end. And for some reason I’m always up for a challenge so why not pick one of the hardest industries possible (haha).
My parents obviously were leaning me toward a business major as engineering no longer made sense since I was failing physics and math the whole previous year. Anyway, this zany teacher’s life lesson on that fated day was “Do what you love and the money will come.” Simple, yet broadly wise advice to a 18 year old deciding whether to bet on himself or play it safe in the midst of a full mental health crisis. But boy did he make a great case.
I think my whole life growing up there was always this big narrative around getting good grades, getting any scholarship money I could, and going to college, getting a job and then have a family. Basically, the typical American lifestyle…
And I think that’s the life my grandparents wanted for my parents, and I think that’s the life my parents wanted for me. I think growing up through school I always wanted to find my own way to still live this life but conform it to how I want to do it because I was always very restless and talkative and distracted. I come from very strict parents who come from poor families who went to college and got good jobs and were able to build a great life and so that’s what worked for them and that’s what was taught to me. And I think because of this dynamic there were a lot of rules and limitations put on me and not as many creative outlets as an ADHD kid like me might’ve needed. In school they weren’t talking about what your purpose was, what you’re put on this earth to do, what you love, etc. There was never a teacher who would say the things that econ teacher said. It was more like, what do you like to do? What do you think you can make money off of? And are you smart enough to do it? Which I found out quickly I was not smart enough or interested enough in what I thought I was going to do for my life.
But I’ll tell you that day changed my life. I almost missed that class! But From that point on, music wasn’t just a hobby. It was my new life. I opened a studio with my good friend and new partners about 2 or 3 months later and then just kept slowly learning and improving very slowly. I was bad for years, but blind faith and loving it kept me going strong every day. Now 8 year later we are working with some of the biggest names in music working out of two different state-of-the-art studios in Chicago and frequently traveling around to LA and Atlanta.
If i can offer any advice or words to any person of any age trying to find or refind their purpose, it would be to find the things you love. Find the things that fill you up and make you feel like you belong. Find the things that make you not look at the clock. Go out and find your purpose. Dont be passive about it, dont be disouraged by how hard it is or how long it will take. Because living your IKIGAI is something you deserve too. And the world deserves to be blessed by it.
Thanks for sharing that. So, before we get any further into our conversation, can you tell our readers a bit about yourself and what you’re working on?
I’ve been an audio engineer and music producer for the better part of 8 years now. I started when I was 17/18 and it’s been nothing but fun and learning every day since. In the entertainment industry I professionally go by ‘RunitbackRyan.’ I work with a team of amazing talent called Studio KAI. We’ve been a studio and music group around Chicago since 2016. We work with some of the biggest artists and brands in the world to make great authentic products. Myself, Vernon Hill, and Eric ‘Lazy E’ Martinez founded the studio and have grown it to be a recognized brand on the music scene. We have a full production staff and several interns/apprentices. And we did it all ourselves! I am very proud of our journey and the connections, accomplishments, and music we’ve made. We never had any major support from labels or investors or bigger names in the industry when we started. Just a couple of dropouts in the back of Vernon’s moms house trying to figure out what the greats did and how we can do it too.
We started by building locally in our community. We took on any and all musical or audio projects we could such as Local musicians, bands, and companies. We did some local charity work raising thousands of dollars and collecting hundreds of instruments for underfunded districts.
As the years went on we kept learning and upgrading and connecting dots amongst people we knew. A couple years in we met an entertainment manager Kenneth Monroe who would become our mentor and our big brother and our family. I can never repay or thank that man enough for the direction and opportunities he has given us. With his guidance we excelled and continued to rack up placements and credits in the industry. More recently we have partnered with gold medalist and national wnba champion Angel McCoughtry to build a talent agency of some of the best entertainers and athletes in the world. We have also recently opened and partnered with a new recording studio in the city with longtime friend of ours. We plan to build a new prosperous culture around music in the city working with big names offering them a premier and hospitable space and team. We get to wakeup every day and work in beautiful spaces with talented people. Living out this dream with my closest friends has been the biggest blessing in my life. It came with tough times and tough situations, but worth every step of the way. This year will be one of our biggest years yet. If you’d like to be a part and work with our team feel free to reach out through emails or messaging provided on our social medias. Our handle is @studiokaimusicgroup and my personal handle is @run1tbackryan . All i can say about this journey and life is that I am blessed and grateful to have been able to pursue my purpose and help others with theirs.
If you had to pick three qualities that are most important to develop, which three would you say matter most?
Reflecting on my career so far, there are definitely some stand-out qualities that i can pin point as a reason for things working out for me how they did. One of the qualities is workabiltiy. Not even sure if its a real word but its something my parents raised me with, in addition to the other strong lessons and traits they held strictly in our house. To me workability means compromise and problem solving and psychology. It means trying 3 or 4 different angles or approaches to find the one that fits best. It especially means finding a mutual solution despite stubborness or pushback from others around you. It’s important to stay open and not lose your head in this industry. The scenerios and situaitions ive been in would test anyone’s might. But making sure you find the best solution and everyone involved feels good with the conclusion isn’t always easy when mixed in with chaos. So being able to analyze situations and read people’s vibe is huge in my field of work. I see engineers all the time who aren’t very tapped in with who they are working with and some major details or requests go right over the engineers head because they weren’t focused on being workable and collaboraive but instead based in ego and selfishness. Working with a team all these years has deinfitely taugh me this one tenfold. But having a team is the best part of workabiltiy. Because collaboration leads you down roads you could have never found alone. So making it work with people you trust just ends up making it all work in the end. Being able to pivot for the better is crucial. Sitting and fretting never beats finding another way.
Another trait along the journey that has helped would be psychology and sociology. Reading people isn’t easy. It takes practice and failure and plenty of awkward situations to learn. Being tapped in with my own emotions and the emotions of those around me really helps me curate the right vibe and atmosphere for the project. For example, often times a session with a woman singer might require different setup or curation than a rock band of guys. Making a comfortable setting can be half the battle of getting good performances out of talent. Making sure it smells good and the lighting is good and theres snacks and waters ready might be perfect for a woman singer coming in for a session alone. But for a band making sure theres ash trays and beers and dark lighting and everything is ready fast is more of the vibe usually. But either way, asking questions and gathering accurate information is the real part of this trait. Going an extra mile to make sure people are comfortable or happy is a trait that is useful in all parts of life. Ever had a partner come home from a tough day? Theres ways to make sure that goes good and theres ways to avoid so it doesnt go bad (haha).
The third trait i would say has helped me a lot is just blind faith and optimism. If you really think you can do what you are setting out to do, dont let the self doubt 3 days into it change your faith of the entire endeavor. Belief is the strongest tool in the human mind. Believing you can or cant do something is powerful because chances are either way your’re right. Which means, if you think you cant, you probably wont, and if you think you can relentlessly you will find a way. For some reason i thought i could become good at this music stuff. I was trash when i started making music. Whacky instumentals with no feeling or taste. But i could see what those better than me were doing and dedicated my mind to understanding it. I was committed to this career so blindly. It had to work, there was no other plan b worth my mental space. But blind optimism creates some of the most hard working people in history. It will probably make no sense to anyone else until you’re 8 years in and you start making records on your friend’s favorite artists albums 😉 .
Okay, so before we go, is there anyone you’d like to shoutout for the role they’ve played in helping you develop the essential skills or overcome challenges along the way?
They say it takes a village to raise a child. Which to me, means a community of different people and different role models leads to a healthier cultured child as opposed to just traditional two parent or one parent household. Or to be less metaphorical; having different people and a community around you will help you in life more than if you are alone.
My whole music career I’ve been on a team of likeminded people with a common goal and common morals. But every team needs a leader (or a few) and our original founder and starter-of-the-band that is Studio Kai, Vernon Hill, has been the reason we are all where we are today. Vern and I grew up together since I moved to the area when I was 7 and he was 9. So I’ve known him and been good friends with him as long as I can remember really. But when I joined on in his mission to start a studio back in 2016 he really took me under his wing and showed me everything he knew as he learned it. And more importantly he’s someone I can always socratically talk out problems or challenges in life. He’s alway been a big brother to me in a way a big brother could never be. We plan business together we plot and meet a few times a week to get each other’s survey of the field and we consistently look to help each other with whatever blindspots we’re not seeing in ourselves or in life. This took years of arguing and tough conversations and going through a lot of crazy stuff together. He has helped me step into shoes I wasn’t ready to fill time and time again simply by caring enough to help me grow and pushing me to be who I didn’t even know I could be.
I say it all the time; you need to surround yourself with a community of people on a similar mission. Doing anything alone in life is more challenging than learning to work with others ever will be. And what comes from having trusting people who are not afraid to tell you whats on your mind around you, is priceless and irreplaceable. Vern alone (not to mention my whole other team) has helped me develop essential skills needed in this industry that not a lot of people put enough emphasis on. Such as hospitality and personality. And of course other qualities like trusting your opinion, speaking up, confidence, and being able to foster a highly creative vibe for talent to vulnerably get the best performances and feelings out of a project.
I have this rule with myself that’s something along the lines of: I only fight with family. And at first that can sound harsh or misleading, but what it really means is that anyone I don’t care for deeply isn’t worth my time or effort to argue or have a tough conversation with. I only have heartfelt and tough conversations with people I grow with and love. In life, we are dealt family by blood and then we have the family you choose if you decide to. I can say with full confidence the family I chose has helped me in ways I didn’t know I even needed. We win together and we lose together and we learn together.
Contact Info:
- Instagram: @run1tbackryan
- Linkedin: Ryan Ploch
- Youtube: Studio KAI
Image Credits
Caroline Gehrke Nico Zanzucchi
