We recently connected with William Gunn and have shared our conversation below.
William, thank you so much for joining us. You are such a positive person and it’s something we really admire and so we wanted to start by asking you where you think your optimism comes from?
I’ve always been a cup half full type of guy. I think I was taught from an early age that there’s no reason that you can’t do something if you put the time and effort in, and most importantly have the patience for celebrating the small wins. I also think that being pushed on stage at a young age allowed me to gain affirmation and validation from strangers too. My parents would always push me out of my comfort zone, signing me up for acting camps, musicals, or classical music showcases, so I was enticed to be on stage and in the spotlight many times growing up. I think the combination of the hard work, patience, and time that was required to perform these pieces in front of large crowds, forced me to constantly think “you’re going to do great” in order to perform my best. That mindset of “there’s a bigger reason I have to do these boring drills that will eventually pay off” had to be my mindset to get to where I wanted to go. I think I’ve just always subconsciously known that the only way to achieve big dreams, was to stay positive and work as hard as I could.
Appreciate the insights and wisdom. Before we dig deeper and ask you about the skills that matter and more, maybe you can tell our readers about yourself?
With a background in being a musician and athlete simultaneously, I learned the importance of balance, aspiration, hard work, and dreaming big very early on in my career. I ended up playing division 1 lacrosse at Lehigh University for 4 years, and then shortly after moving to NYC for a job in Finance. After 5 years in finance, I realized how precious time was, and that I didn’t feel the same aspirational opportunity I had throughout my life; constantly chasing lofty goals. I realized I wanted to risk it all to be happy. So I quit my job to pursue music, something that had been in my life constantly, but never an option in my mind. In this new chapter, I met LANDO, an emerging alternative rap artist in NYC, which lead me to become his manager over the past year.
Since making this leap, I’ve grown my expertise within artist management/development, producing & songwriting, and playing fiddle in a folk band called Banson. Without diving more into detail, I have developed my brand into a creative Swiss Army knife, working with many different artists, bands, producers, and music industry professionals. With both highs and lows, this journey is just beginning, and for anyone curious where it’s arrived after 1 year, check out Rain by LANDO , a special project to both us that is my first song I co-wrote and co-produced with the talented singer-songwriter.
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?
determination, optimism, and a one step at a time mentality have all massively helped me achieve success and maneuver obstacles throughout my journey. Determination has been a constant driver of personal growth and high achievement. The biggest thing with my determination through life is finding my “why”, because once I find my why for a task, goal, adventure, etc, everything else makes sense and there’s no looking back because you know WHY you’re doing something, which makes you question yourself and each step less. Optimism that everything will work out the way it’s supposed to has also been massive. If I got rejected, well there’s always another opportunity. If I get into an argument with a business partner, well let’s see how we feel tomorrow and things will work themselves out. No matter whether I achieve the goal I start out aspiring towards, my optimism allows me to know that even if I don’t get there, I learned a ton of valuable tools and skills on the way. Finally, the one step at a time mentality has massively helped my efficiency and result output. I truly believe in the science of momentum, so I always set small todo tasks that I can achieve easily at the beginning of the day to roll me into the bigger tasks, and that way I always know I”m getting something accomplished that will lead to the bigger things being accomplished as well.
To close, maybe we can chat about your parents and what they did that was particularly impactful for you?
I am where I am because of my parents’ support, which I’m very lucky and proud to say. The most impactful thing my parents did for me was never tell me “I can’t do something”. If I wanted to be an astronaut, they told me sign up for AP Physics. When I wanted to play division one lacrosse, they drove me to Denver (3 hours each way) 2x a week for multiple Fall seasons to play at the highest level I could in Colorado. My mom would also always submit my violin auditions to high level music festivals, teachers, colleges etc. All of this being said, they taught me through their support that there was never anything wrong to aspire to be, and that it would always take time, hard work, patience, and sacrifice, but doing that would get me as close as I could to achieving that goal, and if I didn’t, there was always another opportunity. Shoot for the stars, land on the moon.
Contact Info:
- Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/gunnrson_music/reels/
- Linkedin: https://www.linkedin.com/in/will-gunn-79886b108/
Image Credits
Ben Devenezia
