We recently connected with Seth Mosley and have shared our conversation below.

Alright, Seth thanks for taking the time to share your stories and insights with us today. Have you been able to earn a full-time living from your creative work? If so, can you walk us through your journey and how you made it happen? Was it like that from day one? If not, what were some of the major steps and milestones and do you think you could have sped up the process somehow knowing what you know now?

Yes, I’m grateful to say that I’ve been able to earn a full time living since leaving high school in 2005. I started songwriting and producing with a little studio setup in my parents basement when I was in high school where I started recording records for my friend’s bands. One of those projects was heard by a studio owner in Columbus, Ohio, and he liked what he heard and ended up hiring me full time to help run his studio for a couple of years.

After that I decided to start my own band, and from that standpoint, I definitely didn’t make a full time living. If anything, I lost a lot of money on that. But while I was doing that I was able to pay the little bills I had by doing production work for other independent artist clients on the side. I literally produced records in the back of the can, in dressing rooms, before shows, and anywhere else you might be able to imagine. Eventually, one of those projects was with an artist who didn’t really have a name for themself yet but who was working with a big manager in the music business. That manager ended up hiring me to work on a big name band I had known since I was a kid and that was really the first time that I had my creative work heard on a national level, ultimately topping charts and winning awards which is what opened the door for other work with labels and managers and ultimately got me my first publishing deal. It really is a word of mouth industry, and so it was that first project that turned into a lot of work on other projects.

There was about a solid 6 years between starting to work on records in my parents basement as a sophomore in high school to that first really commercially successful record in 2010 when I started seeing my work pay back in a real way. There really is nothing you can do to speed up the process other than be prolific in your work. Your skills will increase over time with more you do. I look at it as the more swings you have at bat, the more chance you have at making a full time living at it. As part of the Academy that I run for songwriters, we have a podcast called the Made It In Music Podcast where we interview music industry professionals. After having hundreds of these interviews, I can verify from other people’s journeys as well that there really is no shortcut. It’s the same for everyone.

In Nashville, we often say that it’s a ten year town, so if anything my 6 years was really short. But however long or short it might take you, in the moment it can feel really long and so you have to make sure that you really love what you do, that you have a community around you that supports you, and that you live below your means. All of this is why I created our online community of songwriters called Song Chasers and the Academy in general. Because once again, it’s hard to make a full time living at music and even when you do, you need a community around you.

Seth, love having you share your insights with us. Before we ask you more questions, maybe you can take a moment to introduce yourself to our readers who might have missed our earlier conversations?

Like I mentioned before, I’m a songwriter and producer and started back in high school in my parent’s basement. I’ve been fortunate to find success across multiple genres, from Christian and country to film, TV, and rock. I think that what truly sets me apart as a collaborator is the way that I really try to be a servant in the creative process. I try to be easy to work with and someone who is truly invested in the work we create together.

I also have an online Academy where I get to resource and empower up and coming songwriters, artists, and producers through a variety of events, courses, and an online community of songwriters called Song Chasers where I get the chance to share about what’s going on in the music industry in real time and bring on other professionals to do the same.

What’s a lesson you had to unlearn and what’s the backstory?

I think one of the biggest things I’ve had to unlearn is spreading myself too thin (which will also tie a little bit into my next story).

I have this entrepreneurial side of my brain that wants to scale and grow, and so around 2017, my wife and I decided not only to start the Academy but also a music publishing company and record label all in the same year and in hindsight, that was not a great idea.

We had to eventually make the decision to close down a couple of those units that were not performing as well and the big lesson for me in the course of those four or five years of trying to do all of those things at once while also songwriting and producing was what it means to be passionate about doing something and that anything that is worth doing is going to be hard. There’s no field, especially no creative field, that’s going to be an easy journey. There’s going to be friction no matter what you choose to do, and so you have to be inherently passionate about it.

There’s so much friction that’s faced in getting a new venture off the ground, and so for me with the publishing company and record label, the friction wore down on the initial excitement and all that was left after was the passion that was still there. And what I realized in that was that my passion was really more in the creative and wasn’t so much in wearing the business hat and managing other creatives which for me was a valuable lesson. Nothing’s going to be easy and so you should really pick one or two things at max and over time if the passion is really there, you will keep doing whatever it is despite the friction and hardship.

Can you tell us about a time you’ve had to pivot?

I talked about this in the previous part, but I hit a season where I was just stretched too thin. In addition to my time being stretched thin in all of these ventures, we were also bootstrapped and it just got to a point where our personal finances and my time got to a place where the full plate started to take a toll on my creative work which is what I needed to do in the first place to really sustain the other things. So I had to pivot by shutting down the label and publishing company which was really hard because it meant letting people go and restructuring and breaking contracts and really just being okay cutting losses. But what it ultimately did was open my bandwidth back up for me to do more again of what I really love which is songwriting and producing and helping others find their way through mentoring and demystifying the process for people through the Academy.

Contact Info:

• Website: https://thesethmosley.com, https://fullcirclemusic.com
• Instagram: @thesethmosley @officialfcmusic @songchasers
• Youtube: @OfficialFCMusic
• Other: To check out our podcast, go https://madeitinmusic.com
  If you would like to join our online community of songwriters, go to https://fullcirclemusic.com/song-chasers