We recently connected with Brooks The Boy and have shared our conversation below.

Brooks The Boy, thanks for taking the time to share your stories with us today Can you open up about a risk you’ve taken – what it was like taking that risk, why you took the risk and how it turned out?

Early this past year I was offered a full time position to create social media content for an artist. Financially it would’ve been the most I would’ve ever made and given me something I haven’t had before, stability. But it would’ve caused me to put some dreams of mine on the back burner.

At the time it really caused me to question what I valued most. I love helping others bring their vision to life and a stable income sounded incredible when first thinking about it. So to me, turning down this job would be a huge risk.

Turning this job down was a risk because I didn’t have any back up plan other than my own artist project. If I didn’t take the job, I not only wouldn’t make money but I’d also be losing money with the lack of jobs I had lined up.

But I realized the job I would be taking was the very thing I never tried to do for myself. People would pay me to create the content I always would watch and say to myself “I wish someone would do that for me” – and then it hit me “why am I not putting that same effort into myself?”. So that’s exactly what I did.

The first month was very difficult, I was making and posting 2-3 videos a day and nothing was clicking. And days where I would be given offers to film for others and be paid for it I turned down. Because I really wanted to give myself a chance.

Finally one day it clicked, and I started to see growth. People were responding to the content I made and I started to gain a more consistent following.

Today it’s what I do full time. I took one of the biggest risks I could’ve imagined – I bet on myself. And it ended up paying off. I still make content for others as a way of income, but it’s significantly less than I was doing prior to this risk I took. And I couldn’t be happier.

Awesome – so before we get into the rest of our questions, can you briefly introduce yourself to our readers.

I am a Pop-Rock artist under the name “Brooks The Boy” Based out of Nashville, TN. Music & Video was something I always grew up around and was a way to express the creative mind. Early in my life I started making videos and uploading them to YouTube. They were… quite the videos. Just a young kid with braces and abnormally long hair eager to entertain anyone who wanted to watch. And after 10 years of creating videos it’s something I still do today.

But once I started college I took an audio engineering class and fell in love with music. I dove head first into all of it. I was producing some incredible… amateur tracks on the daily. No matter how bad it sounded I was having the time of my life learning this new skill. Then one of those days a couple years later I wrote and produced a song that whoever I showed it to loved it. I was encouraged by my friends and family to release it for the world to hear. And that song was my first ever release titled “Dirt On Your Dress”.

This sparked a fire in me. After that I knew this was something I wanted to do with my life. No matter what scale I achieved I was never going to stop writing and producing songs. But I couldn’t forget about the early parts of my life making videos and being a goofball in front of the camera. I didn’t know which one I wanted to put more time into. So after a lot of deep thoughts and being torn between the two I made the choice that any creator would… I chose to stick with both. Fast forward a couple years and fortunately for me, when pursuing a music career, having the ability to write and produce a song then film and make short form content for the internet is a huge bonus. And that’s what I do full time today.

Over the past year I have gone under the radar working on really finding my sound for this next project and making the kind of music I want people to hear. I am so excited what’s to come. I can’t say too much yet – but anyone who follows me on socials will be the first to hear when this new project is starting.

What’s the most rewarding aspect of being a creative in your experience?

The most rewarding aspect of being an artist is bringing a thought or emotion to life and creating a complete and well rounded song that you’re proud of. The reason I feel this to be the most rewarding is because it’s one of the most difficult parts to complete. It’s not easy sitting down and writing a song that, once finished, you feel like it’s the best song you’ve ever written. But when you have those moments of finishing a song and were able to clearly write down everything you wanted to say, that not only makes sense, but is captivating and has a catchy melody and instrumentation – I feel like these are the most rewarding moments as an artist.

How did you build your audience on social media?

Over the past couple years I was really struggling to find my own approach on what I wanted to put out on social media. Was is music, comedy sketches, travel videos? I couldn’t really commit to one lane, and because of that I now do all those things today as a living. What I took away from this is I couldn’t be someone I’m not – anything I post on social media is a reflection of who I am. Obviously with social media I can’t control how people perceive me but I was going to do my best to be 100% myself.

I truly embraced that this past year and since then I have seen so much more growth on my socials that I have in the bast 5 years. I still have a long way to go but its encouraging seeing the support I’ve been given.

If I were to give any advice, as cliche as it sounds I would say stick with who you are and don’t try to do what someone else is doing just cause its working for them. Being yourself is the most unique approach anyone could take because there is only one “you” in this world. You’d be surprised how quickly things grow when you are yourself.

Contact Info:

• Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/brooksbarry/
• Youtube: http://youtube.com/brooksbarry
• Other: TikTok: https://www.tiktok.com/@brookstheboy

Image Credits
Brooks Barry, Ben Vanmaarth, Rachel Santos