We’re excited to introduce you to the always interesting and insightful Shaun Moore. We hope you’ll enjoy our conversation with Shaun below.
Shaun , 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?
My work ethic started at a very young age. My parents saw that I was a very active child and provided me opportunities within music and outside of music to foster my growth and development. One activity outside of music that I began was Karate. In doing so, I quickly developed the discipline to go to class every week. I would train hard in class and kept that regiment going outside of class to prepare for my next session. I learned accountability, self-control, patience, and resilience in this process. As I trained, I was preparing to enter into competitions that took place locally and in the surrounding areas of where I was living at the time. Once I started competing, I began to see the hard work pay off. I was winning my matches at these competitions. I realized that my diligent efforts in training and preparing to compete were allowing me to be successful. That’s when I learned that when you work hard for something and really focus, you can achieve success. The reward from being successful was something that I wanted to continue, and in doing that, I understood that I had to maintain a high work ethic to achieve this. In time, I transferred the learnings from Karate to music and applied this approach to my practicing habits, my study habits, and my performance habits. I quickly saw tremendous success in music as a young child by doing this, and I never stopped the process. The foundation that I built through my activities in and around music very early in my life is what helped set in motion the tools and habits that allowed me to achieve the success that I have been fortunate to have over the years so far.
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?
Well, to begin, I am a professional Music Producer. I was a 17 year old student in the eleventh grade of high school when I decided that I wanted to enter into the professional music business. During my time in high school, I was fortunate to have had tremendous success in music all throughout my years. So much success, that by the eleventh grade, I had earned eleven full-music scholarships to colleges across the country. I knew for sure that my next move was to go to college and study music. Once I entered into college, I quickly became a student ambassador for the university in my area of study. I was participating in all the ensembles and traveling the country performing as well. I earned many awards and accolades through this process and even earned the chance to perform professionally still a student. As far as music producing goes; I started producing music, with equipment my parents helped me get, right out of my dorm room. I would send my music to contacts that I had back home and they would record songs to my productions. I kept this up all my years in college. When it came time for me to graduate college; my work ethic and discipline had paid off. I not only graduated with a 4.0 gpa, but I had also caught the attention of some well known figures in the professional music business in Atlanta as well. The next step for me was to come back home and see about getting into the professional music business scene.
Once I got back to Atlanta, I started working on projects with local Atlanta talent and that was one way to get my name out there. In addition to that, I was working and networking with the connections that I had already established. Through this process, I ended up meeting a very well known music executive and he gave me a chance to work at a successful studio. As a Music Producer, I got the chance to contribute musically to the success of that studio and build even more relationships with others in the business. From there, I continued to work on different projects and build my catalog as a Producer. The more I worked and built my relationships, the more opportunities I was able to obtain in my career. One achievement that I am excited about was that I became a Voting Member of the Recording Academy/GRAMMYs, as a Music Producer. I had always seen the award show on TV and heard about Artists/Producers/Engineers/etc win GRAMMY Awards and thought that it would really be awesome to be a member of the organization responsible for this happening, and even try and win one myself. Now, in my career as a Music Producer, I have actually had the opportunity to be in the First Round of voting for a GRAMMY Awards. Presently, I am currently focused on producing with GRAMMY Award-Winning singer/songwriters & producers as well as Multi-Platinum songwriters & producers. One thing for me is that I have always been a team player and in the music business, I think that goes along way. I have always been a person to work with others in a win-win situation to achieve successful outcomes. Having said that, those are some of the personal attributes that I bring to the table that have given me the chance to build really good relationships with others over the years in this business which has contributed to my longevity and success. Even with that though, I think I am just getting started!
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?
Looking back, I would say patience as a quality would be first. Even though I grew up very talented and was blessed with many opportunities from childhood to adulthood, I had to have patience because some times you had to give situations time to develop and it doesn’t happen overnight. Next, I would say always being a student. For me, I am constantly studying my craft and business on a regular to ensure that I am at least informed with new changes in the industry, laws, or technologies that may affect how I operate or conduct business as a Music Producer. Lastly, I would say your knowledge in networking or relationship building. Many people have their own idiosyncrasy about them and in the beginning when you meet someone you may not pick up on that. I always try and make someone feel comfortable around me so they are more willing to open up and from that you can learn cool things about them. This is good in any sense of relationship building because you never know how you may be able to help that person or, on the other hand, how that person may be able to help you.
For someone early in their journey, I think some good ways to develop these types of skill sets and qualities would definitely be to one, engage in events that cause you to talk with people. This practice will allow you to learn how to read a room and figure out ways to introduce yourself to people of whom you do not know. Next, being a student may consist of literally finding time each week to set aside to study your craft and your business. I still practice this now and it is very helpful and useful. What happens in this process is that you learn how to become more of value to others and it allows you to add value in all that you do whether it be in conversation or in actively doing business with someone. As far as patience goes, that’s something you develop over time. Learning to be flexible with a given timeline that your working with can be a start especially if you know you are not totally in control of the outcome. That situation may just take time to develop.
Before we go, maybe you can tell us a bit about your parents and what you feel was the most impactful thing they did for you?
The most impactful thing my parents did for me was to literally support all my endeavors from birth to adulthood. Presently, to this day, they have never stopped. I’ve been blessed with great parents. At a very young age they saw and recognized my natural gifts and talents in music at the age of 7 or 8. They were the ones who supported me joining the elementary school music program. They were the ones who took me to my auditions, band/orchestra rehearsals, recitals, lessons, concerts, etc. They were the ones who helped me get my first instruments to practice on, and my first pieces of equipment to start producing on. My parents were the ones who allowed me to dream big and taught me the importance of hard work, dedication, and perseverance. Not only did they teach me about these necessary skill sets, they also lead by example. I watched my parents excel in their respective professional careers and they poured into me the belief that if you believe in yourself and focus, that you can achieve whatever you put your mind to. Every step of the way, my parents have been there without hesitation to be supportive in my progression in the music space. So, it goes without saying that I am more than extremely grateful for the amount of support that my parents have given me to pursue my dreams and goals in life.
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