We were lucky to catch up with Aaron Evins recently and have shared our conversation below.
Aaron, looking forward to hearing all of your stories today. It’s always helpful to hear about times when someone’s had to take a risk – how did they think through the decision, why did they take the risk, and what ended up happening. We’d love to hear about a risk you’ve taken.
I recently took the risk of leaving my 14 year career in the Air Force in order to be able to be a full time musician! 2 years ago, I was making the most money I ever had, but was also the most unhappy i’ve ever been. When it got to the point where I was in tears driving to work, I knew i needed to chase my dreams or my adult job was going to kill the artist in me by molding me to conform just to survive. From the point where the switch flipped in my head, I dedicated all of my off time to making the dream happen to include city hopping after work to catch shows to strict 4am wake-ups to get music done before work and even selling my house to liquidate as many assets as possible. What came out of this risk was 2 episodes on “Artisan Air’, which is a TV show that shows the talents and backstories of 32 various Air and Space Force members! You can catch all episodes on theaflive.com and download the app on ALL DSPs.
Aaron, 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?
My name is Aaron Evins, A.E. on stage and I’m a musician, songwriter and show curator specializing in creating vibes for people that love music with a message. I’ve been a studio performer for 16 years and worldwide performing artist for 10 years with areas spanning from Texas, Arizona, South Korea, Italy, etc. My most recent and proud of piece of work can be found on “Artisan Air” which is a show highlighting a select 32 United States Air and Space Force creators stories and displays our various art forms. The ingredient to my success is my innate ability to instill the discipline and core values that have been acquired during my 14 years of Air Force service and combine it with witty subject matter and production to deliver a polished project while also fusing genres together to make for a unique listening experience. Now that i’m a veteran, my mission and goal is to help those serious about giving their people moments and music that can live and last forever
What’s the most rewarding aspect of being a creative in your experience?
Bringing out the light in others around you is by far my favorite part about being an artist. You tend to find pieces of yourself in each and every encounter you make along the journey and the stories you hear from your supporters are often mindblowing. As you grow as an artist, you grow as a leader to people whom lean on you to supply your creativeness for their therapy and that in turn gives us the opportunity to connect and bring out lights that others might be hiding. Those moments are soo surreal when they do happen but that is the most rewarding part to me as you never know who might be needing to hear that message.
How did you build your audience on social media?
I organically grew my instagram following +2,242 in 2 and a half years and documented the process via post. When I realized that having a strong following was a necessary tool to be an artist, I started working on actively finding my audience. What I did was dedicate everyday looking up hashtags that were relavent to what I was doing and finding people within my niche and becoming fans of their work. I’d make it a point to do this at lease 4 times a week reaching out to more than 10 people at a time. When I was out and about, I took advantage of my Popl band, which is a wristband that you program with your socials and you can instantly share your information once you tap on the back of peoples phones. This elevated my engagement to an average of 15 followers when I went out to social events. While doing this, I was also strategically posting 3 times during the week and feeding my story to keep engagement with fans up. Now with my following at 3,943, I no longer actively focus on growing as the snowball effect has happened and i’m averaging over 100 followers a month. 
Contact Info:
- Website: https://official-mrae.herokuapp.com/
- Instagram: instagram.com/officialmrae
- Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/officialmraee
- Linkedin: https://www.linkedin.com/in/aaron-evins-2bb806264/
- Twitter: https://twitter.com/kidklasick
- Youtube: https://www.youtube.com/@officialmrae
Image Credits
MontaVega Media Kai Faktor