We caught up with the brilliant and insightful Travis LeRoy a few weeks ago and have shared our conversation below.
Alright, so we’re so thrilled to have Travis with us today – welcome and maybe we can jump right into it with a question about one of your qualities that we most admire. How did you develop your work ethic? Where do you think you get it from?
I give much of the credit to my parents. They both worked very hard to achieve success. They instilled a strong work ethic in me at a pretty young age. I’m very grateful for that.
Great, so let’s take a few minutes and cover your story. What should folks know about you and what you do?
In my current role, I am the founder, bassist and vocalist for That Eighties Band. We are an 80’s tribute band. We just celebrated our 20 year anniversary. That is an extremely rare milestone in the music industry. We are based in Denver, CO. We perform up to 100 shows per year all over the United States.
There is so much advice out there about all the different skills and qualities folks need to develop in order to succeed in today’s highly competitive environment and often it can feel overwhelming. So, if we had to break it down to just the three that matter most, which three skills or qualities would you focus on?
1. Hard work. It is unlikely you will achieve true success without it. 2. Passion. If you don’t absolutely love what you do, people can sense that. Passion is what energizes you while you are doing the hard work. 3. Gratitude. In my industry, that means appreciating the people who come to our concerts, the people who hire us, and the other musicians I get to work with.
We’ve all got limited resources, time, energy, focus etc – so if you had to choose between going all in on your strengths or working on areas where you aren’t as strong, what would you choose?
This is an interesting question. I’ve tried both strategies. When I first started in music, I was a bass player. For about 8 years, I would practice daily, up to 12 hours at a time. I was obsessed and wanted to be the absolute best player I could be. As a result of this dedication, I earned a good reputation as a bassist. However, that was really all I could do. Eventually, I wanted to be more “well rounded” as you put it. I started singing. I formed and managed my own bands. I started writing music and making videos. This made me more versatile but left less time to practice bass.
After all these years, here is what I would suggest. Step 1. Become really good, or even great at something, Without that, you probably won’t reach a high-level of success. By the way, this step will likely take a long time, and the journey never really stops, so make sure you truly enjoy whatever you are doing. Step 2. Decide if you want to expand your skill set and become more well rounded, or continue to focus on your primary talent, and become more elite in your field. Either way can be good. It really depends on what you are hoping to achieve.
Contact Info:
- Website: www.eightiesband.net
- Instagram: www.instagram.com/eightiesband
- Facebook: www.facebook.com/thateightiesband
- Youtube: www.youtube.com/@travisleroy
- Other: www.travisleroy.com
Image Credits
Scott Boyer
