Meet Steve Kopanski

We’re excited to introduce you to the always interesting and insightful Steve Kopanski. We hope you’ll enjoy our conversation with Steve below.

Steve, thanks so much for taking the time to share your insights and lessons with us today. We’re particularly interested in hearing about how you became such a resilient person. Where do you get your resilience from?

I think resilience is something that I learned from studying those who came before me and in doing so, I’ve found that resilience is a hugely common trait or theme in those who end up succeeding in putting their mark on the world.

I didn’t really have many great role models growing up, at least not for the various things I felt I wanted to do with my life, so I really relied on (and continue to rely upon) studying people who I feel have achieved what I feel I want to achieve in one form or another. I love watching interviews or reading books about not just great artists and creators, like musicians and artists but also other people who’ve crushed it in other areas and mediums like actors, directors, entrepreneurs, coaches, etc. It can be really insightful and potentially even renew your commitment to whatever it is that you’re doing when you hear about the people who went through it before, hit the same challenges and experienced the same feelings, and found a way to navigate it successfully.

I think it’s important to know, accept, and even embrace that if you’re going to take on the unknown in the form of something new and/or challenging, a requirement for success is that you’re going to have to fail a lot.

And it takes a lot of thoughtful determination and persistence to break through the barriers where most people quit.

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’m a Philadelphia-based music artist and producer.

I release music under the monicker Lolife and I make mostly alternative hip hop and “bedroom pop” music in the vein of artists like Joji, Nick Murphy, Toro y Moi, and Verzache. You might enjoy it best on a late night drive home or walk through the park. Or one your more reflective, introspective days. My music also has a kind of cinematic atmosphere to it, which makes sense since I’m big into movies and film.

For me, 2024 has been an experiment in releasing a lot more new music and content and it’s been an interesting journey seeing what resonates with people. Right now, I’m primarily focused on putting out more creative work this year, both on my own and with new, up-and-coming artists and producers.

I also run a small, boutique creative media agency called Steez Digital where I help brands get to the heart of their “story” and help them bring that story to life in different ways for their audience.

I’ve worked with brands in a variety of capacities over the last 10 years, but primarily, Steez Digital is focused on media production (audio, photo, video, design) and consulting projects.

What really excites me is that I’m currently toying with the idea of combining my work in music and media production to also take on more on creative projects and partnerships with a small handful of brands that I love. To be continued 🙂

Otherwise, I’m always posting new music and content on my Instagram and social media, and always open to meeting and chatting with new or established brands, artists, and producers to work with on music or digital storytelling projects.

If you had to pick three qualities that are most important to develop, which three would you say matter most?

1. Know yourself. Self-awareness is a huge for people like myself who are are multi-hyphenated creatives. I try to observe myself and/or get feedback on what I can be truly great at versus where I’m most likely going to remain average. And still, it can be easy to get sold on the idea that you can be great at all things, but I personally think there are very few people who are or even can be great at several, let alone numerous things. You can’t be all things to all people so focus on what you do best and good things should happen.

2. Don’t get caught up in the details. One thing I still struggle with is getting caught up in the details of perfectionism. Be mindful that most (not all) small details don’t matter, will be overlooked, and/or can be reversed or improved upon in the future. Don’t let the small things hold up big next steps in whatever you’re working through.

3. Push yourself and don’t let others define your potential. A lot of times, your true potential can be artificially limited if you’re overly influenced by what other people think you’re capable of or what they feel is possible. I think others’ advice and opinion is almost always more indicative of their self-image and self-interest. I also think it’s helpful to start with your vision of what you want and only THEN give thought to how you can make it happen. I think you get very limiting results when you go the other way around.

What do you do when you feel overwhelmed? Any advice or strategies?

The world is noisier now than it’s ever been so I think most people can relate with the daunting feeling of how much they have going on, what they want/need to do, etc.

For me, subtraction and balance are the two key tools to battling or minimizing overwhelm.

For me, overwhelm typically creeps in when I’m drowning in a bunch of things that I neither want or truly need to be doing to begin with.

I’m always looking for the things that can and probably should be subtracted from the equation altogether. Focus on the essential things that yield the results you want then scrap or reduce everything else.

In most other cases, I think overwhelm and burnout comes from being out of balance by simply overworking. At that stage, it’s easy to feel like you can’t afford the time to rest and reset. In my opinion, it’s not only healthy; it is straight-up productive to get additional rest when needed to really recharge ourselves because when you get back in the saddle, you’re going to be that much more effective and efficient.

As a rule of thumb, I try to monitor and balance my levels of “hard work” with equal amounts of “decompression” on the other side of that work. If you’ve been grinding for days/weeks on end, you might need more than just one good night’s sleep to rest and reset.

My current ambition is to find the right daily/weekly balance across the various things I do or need to do so that I can remain consistent in those things because I think that’s what drives great results: consistent action on really big, cool things.

Contact Info:

• Website: https://linktr.ee/lolife.wav
• Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/lolife.wav
• Other: contact: lolifesounds@gmail.com