We recently connected with Athena Hiotis and have shared our conversation below.

Athena, thanks for taking the time to share your stories with us today Parents play a huge role in our development as youngsters and sometimes that impact follows us into adulthood and into our lives and careers. Looking back, what’s something you think you parents did right?

My parents were immigrants from Greece; they both came at a young age. As with most immigrants, they worked exceptionally hard to integrate into their new surroundings and cultivate a fruitful life. They taught that perseverance to my brother and me, really teaching us that sometimes you have to just put your head down and work together what you want, even if that means sacrificing temporarily or working twice as hard as the next person.

The way that mentality has helped me is that, as a female business owner and as someone who has OCD and ADHD, I have to work twice as hard as the next person. I still have to show up and quite frankly, I don’t want to be good enough “for a woman” or be good enough “for someone with OCD/ADHD”. I want to be good enough because the work and I were good enough. I’m not entirely sure I would have had that mentality if it weren’t for my parents, but I am sure that it has allowed me to claim opportunities rather than be fearful of them.

Athena, before we move on to more of these sorts of questions, can you take some time to bring our readers up to speed on you and what you do?

I own a couple of businesses here in Maryland, one of which is a boutique music label called PopRiot Music Group. Music is a huge passion of mine and I’ve been fortunate to have some wild experiences with my bands as well, working with Hollywood actor Steve Agee (Sarah Silverman Program, Guardians of the Galaxy), and touring internationally. We’ve always been people that marched to our own beat and while we have a long way to go, we’re super proud of what we’ve been able to accomplish.

The truth is that even with that, we didn’t get there without a lot of mistakes being made. And what really was upsetting is that a lot of those mistakes could have been prevented if we had changed the way we viewed our project. Unfortunately as musicians, we are sold this narrative that we shouldn’t be thinking about business at all, and we should only worry about our art which has led to some detrimental deals for those with that narrative in place. It’s this reality that has pushed our label to work on a music industry educational hub called The Cadence Labs, where we will be able to teach people how to turn their art and music into a profitable business with long term, sustainable success.

Especially after the Covid-19 pandemic, it is imperative that musicians start looking at themselves as business owners. We really feel strongly that we can help with that mental shift.

How’d you build such a strong reputation within your market?

Being in music and especially music marketing, it’s easy to fade away into the background with all the oversaturation of “marketers” on instagram and facebook. A lot of these people only talk about social media advertising, which, while vital to th equation, is only ONE part of the equation. The truth is that success in the music industry is a wholistic approach from start to finish and you can’t create a long-term sustainable career in music with just advertising. And you’ll notice the phrase that we use often is “long-term, sustainable success”. We’re not interested in blips and short-lived spikes. Those aren’t predictable and they aren’t financially dependable.

Taking all that into account, our approach to teaching classes and gearing up to marketing the launch of our hub has always been built on the pillar of honesty, transparency, and respect. If we don’t know something, we will say it, and we will do the research to learn it. People appreciate that. If we are conveying an opinion, we will note that, instead of taking our opinions and trying to package them as facts.

The most success sales is rooted in the concepts of time and choice. No one likes the used car salesman approach. We believe that our approach shows people that we are here for them when and if they want to come to us. Yes, that may be a slower ramp up, but it’s a more dependable and long-term one.

Are there any books, videos, essays or other resources that have significantly impacted your management and entrepreneurial thinking and philosophy?

I really enjoyed “High Performance Habits” by Brendon Burchard and “The Code of the Extraordinary Mind” by Vishen Lakhiani. The wonderful thing about personally development and professional performance books is that, for the most part, they aren’t saying unique things. The concepts are generally alike or related but what’s powerful is the how, the language that’s used. I think that both Brendon’s and Vishen’s genuine and unique styles of explanation and thinking made such an impact on me. Each book challenged me to think of myself in a purer way that truly resonated with me.

Contact Info:

• Website: www.popriotmusic.com
• Instagram: www.instagram.com/ahiotis

Image Credits
-Tré -Ian Jared Bell -Edgar David Nazario