Story & Lesson Highlights with Patrick Avard of Roswell

Patrick Avard shared their story and experiences with us recently and you can find our conversation below.

Good morning Patrick, it’s such a great way to kick off the day – I think our readers will love hearing your stories, experiences and about how you think about life and work. Let’s jump right in? What do the first 90 minutes of your day look like?
I’m an early riser and I’m up around 5 a.m.-5:30 a.m. After I get ready for the day, I come down into my studio and start working. I check my email first, then I look at the business deposits and I go over my calendar for the day. I also write out a plan, by hand. It’s my task list for how to attack the day, and I prioritize what I need to accomplish.

Then, I turn to the tasks that require the greatest focus and the least amount of interruptions, and I do those first. These tasks might be sales, production or creative projects from day to day, but I focus first on the ones that require me to have the highest energy level.

I’m usually up and working before the rest of my staff, before they start calling and emailing. That allows me to hit the ground running and tackle the most intense things on my list, uninterrupted, within the first 90 minutes of my day.

Can you briefly introduce yourself and share what makes you or your brand unique?
I’m an award-winning music producer and entrepreneur in the specialized industry of competitive cheer music. When I started in 2000, people in the industry called me CheerMusicPro, and that’s what they still call me today.

Then, 15 years ago, I expanded the business into New Level Music, which includes me and 17 other producers who produce custom, original music for competitive cheerleading teams to use when they compete.

Our industry, by nature, is very niche and specialized, and I think our brand is unique within the market because we’re made up of a team of producers, each with their own brand, creative style and sound, and their own identity. So it gives our clients extreme versatility. I don’t think many other companies are set up this way.

Another reason we’re unique is that we designed our own system at New Level Music called the New Level Control Room that connects management, staff, producers and clients, and that streamlines the process. Our system makes it efficient and easy to carry out the creation of professional cheerleading music and to expertly serve our clients in this very fast-paced industry. We’ve essentially optimized a way to give our clients championship-caliber music within a two-week turnaround.

When I first started producing cheer music 25 years ago, there was no such thing as cheer music producers. There were really just 1-2 guys, and I was one of the first few to make a business out of this. I’ve always loved music, and I was a competitive cheerleader in both high school and college. I have a passion for the sport of cheer, and I found a way to start a business and develop a career around it.

When I started out, I wasn’t necessarily the best producer. But I decided early on that I wanted to be known as the hardest working producer in the industry. So I set out to build strong relationships, and I always look to collaborate with my clients. I also added talented people to work all around me, and that has helped me learn and grow my skillset. Over time, my skills have caught up with my creative ideas, and the rest is history, I guess.

But that wasn’t the end. Every time I reach a milestone, I still want to grow, learn, evolve, and take my music to the next level. That’s where I got the name for my company, New Level Music—I want to take my work to a new level each and every year.

I had no idea how successful the company would be when I started it. I was just following my passion. But then later down the road I realized, man, this is getting pretty big.

I really love that I’ve been able to expand and bring in other talented people, and to show them how to make a living at this and to grow and expand the industry. And I’ve done it through my own struggles and the things I learned over the years.

It’s a cool thing now, seeing the popularity of the sport of cheer grow into mainstream culture. I got to license music for the Netflix series CHEER, and also created and licensed custom tracks to America’s Got Talent.

Now, New Level Music has now done a sync licensing deal with FloCheer, which covers and streams live events all over the country, including the world championships each April. This year, every single mix created by New Level Music will be broadcast on their live events.

I’m also currently working on another TV series about cheer—its pilot was just approved—and I’ve been approached to create music for it. So that’s something exciting that’s coming up.

All of this really blows my mind—I’ve personally created music for 116 World Champions and for 292 of the World’s medal winners.

Mainstream streaming platforms have also really latched onto cheer music today. Six years ago I decided to introduce all my most popular cheer mixes on Spotify, Apple Music, and other streaming platforms, and by doing this, it has essentially made cheer its own genre of music. Now my music has over 200 million views and streams on various platforms. On YouTube, I’m getting close to 100,000 subscribers and my views are approaching 100 million; and there are another 40 million on Soundcloud.

Right now, I’m working on music for the 2025-2026 cheer season, and I’m looking to bring a new, fresh approach to the music. There will be new releases for people to hear by late September.

Amazing, so let’s take a moment to go back in time. Who taught you the most about work?
My dad, John Avard. He was a West Point grad and served in the military, and then he left and went into the restaurant business for 26 years. Even in the private sector, he was still all about maintaining discipline and structure.

So I grew up with him working in the restaurant business, and I learned a lot from him. He approached his day very routine-oriented, very detailed-oriented. And I do that same thing in my field.

He also taught me that it’s important to say what you mean and do what you say. If you make a promise to a customer or someone in general, you need to deliver and hold up your end of the commitment. I still carry those principles with me today.

I saw my dad get up every morning and go to work to provide for our family. He was a great example of how to work, run a business, and be successful. I’m lucky to have such an amazing father who set such a great example for me.

What did suffering teach you that success never could?
It’s more than a saying, life truly has peaks and valleys, ebbs and flows, and ups and downs. And I firmly believe you learn more in the valleys than on the peaks. It’s easy to keep going when people are patting your back and telling you how great you are. But it’s very, very difficult to keep going when things are bad and you run into unexpected adversity.

Over the years I’ve had my share of ups and downs, just like everybody else. In the moment it feels like it’s never going to end. I’ve felt before like I was counting the seconds and the minutes throughout the days.

But in those moments you have to take a look at the situation you’re in and realize that this too shall pass. The pain is only temporary and things will get better. As you get older, you learn to keep going. Keep working your way through it. Keep working to improve and find solutions. You can’t just give up, because then things definitely will get worse.

I’ve had moments where I’ve gone through different things, and where I was trying to block the outside noise and put things into perspective. In those moments, I’ve tried to find out what the lesson is I’m supposed to learn.

You just have to have faith and the discipline to keep going.

So a lot of these questions go deep, but if you are open to it, we’ve got a few more questions that we’d love to get your take on. What would your closest friends say really matters to you?
My friends would say that my family really matters to me, and that spending time building friendships and relationships—and cultivating them—really matters to me.

They’d say I care about my work and the people who work for me and with me. I try to lead by example, and for anybody who joins us, I want their lives to be better because of it.

On the outside, a funny side, anybody who’s my friend knows that Auburn sports matters to me. I’m an avid fan. I go to as many games as possible. I guess you could say my mom brainwashed me from birth. My grandparents were lifelong, loyal fans too, and we all contribute to the university as much as possible.

Okay, so let’s keep going with one more question that means a lot to us: If you retired tomorrow, what would your customers miss most?
I think my customers would miss the phone calls and the creative collaboration. And hopefully they would miss the excitement that I bring to the music I produce, and the joy it gives to their teams and athletes.

A lot of my customers are my close friends today, so I like to think I’d maintain those relationships if I retired.

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Image Credits
Images courtesy of Patrick Avard.

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