Meet William Zimmerman

We caught up with the brilliant and insightful William Zimmerman a few weeks ago and have shared our conversation below.

William, so many exciting things to discuss, we can’t wait. Thanks for joining us and we appreciate you sharing your wisdom with our readers. So, maybe we can start by discussing optimism and where your optimism comes from?

There’s a quote from Winston Churchill that goes, “Pessimists see difficulty in every opportunity. Optimist’s see opportunity in every difficulty”. I try to live life by that philosophy both personally and professionally. I don’t look at the concept of “failure” the way many people do. Instead of viewing failure with a sense of finality, I view it as cyclical. In other words, “failure” is just another point in the journey. At the same time, failure and challenges shouldn’t be feared. We should welcome them. Because that’s how we learn. Without challenges, there’s no progress. Without darkness there is no light. I just find that it’s a lot easier to go through life as an optimist rather than a pessimist. The glass is “half full” not “half empty”.

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?

I started Moon Coil Media several years ago after a name change. Presently, what we offer are PR and artist management services to artists primarily in the goth/industrial/darkwave/post-punk and related genres. My story in this industry actually goes back quite a number of years.

After blogging for some months, I met the owners of a PR company based in Iowa. They started showing me “the ropes” of doing PR for artists and in a very organic, hands-on way. This included creating press releases and pitches and maintaining spreadsheets of contacts. After some time, I decided to branch out on my own and start my own company. Everything was part time until February 9th, 2021.

After working over 12 years in the healthcare industry and driving 45 mins each way to and from work, I found a job 5 mins from my house working five hours less a week and earning more money than I ever had previously. Long story short, I found the company to have a very hostile environment with very poor leadership and deceptive practices. The breaking point came after one month. After being chewed out during a meeting and being asked to perform a task that amounted to interstate fraud, I knew I had to leave.

So, at the height of an unprecedented time (the pandemic) and into total uncertainty, I walked in on the morning of February 9th, 2021, grabbed what personal items I had in my office, told one of the bosses I wanted no part in the fraud they wanted me to participate in and I walked out. Fortunately, I’d been building a good reputation as an ethical and community-minded businessman doing PR part time for the previous few years. This allowed me to maintain a steady income and help my family stay afloat during a crazy time. Three and a half years later, I’m still doing PR and artist management full-time and there are no signs of slowing down.

We’ve done a lot of traditional PR / artist management jobs. But we’re now looking into building the team and marketing things like EPKs(electronic press kits), marketing strategies and other music related marketing tools. There’s a lot of other things in our vision presently as well.

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

When I was in graduate school completing a Master’s degree in strategic leadership, one of the things that we studied was “servant leadership. At it’s core, servant leadership is leading by example and finding and nurturing the strengths of the people who follow us. That’s the first thing. It’s the difference between being a manager and being a leader.

That kind of blends in with the “strategic leadership” concept. I always tell people the difference between a Masters in Business Administration and a Master’s in Strategic Leadership is basically “outside the box” thinking. Managers work “inside the box”. Leaders figure out how the “box” was built and create a vision on how to expand it or rebuild it while nurturing the relationships they have with their followers. So that would be the second area of knowledge and practice.

The third most important thing in business that I’ve learned is being “transformational” rather than simply transactional. Sure, business relies on transactions, money changing hands. But it’s the relationships with the customers and colleagues that keep the machine running and advancing.

Alright so to wrap up, who deserves credit for helping you overcome challenges or build some of the essential skills you’ve needed?

My family. It’s always been that way. They’ve always been the reason I wake up in the morning. They’ve always inspired me as a person and they’ve always given me a reason to continue to try to improve, to make each day better than the previous. Without that sort of base and reason for being, it’s much harder – perhaps even impossible to be truly successful.

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