We recently connected with Austin Hull and have shared our conversation below.
Austin, 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?
My entire career has been built from taking risks. While it may seem terrifying in the moment, taking risks seems to be the only way to truly scale up in any field. No one just happens to fall into a perfect job where they are happy, financially comfortable, and fulfilled. They have to push their own boundaries, get out of their comfort zones, and take risks.
I can break my entire career up to this point down into three main chunks, each beginning with a massive risk.
The story of how I became a full-time, freelance, independent music producer would not be a story at all if I didn’t take the initial risk of quitting my job and going full-time with my creative ventures. I went full-time in April of 2016. At that time, I was 21 years old, married, in college to become a high school English teacher, and I was working at Barnes and Noble. I had been producing music for fun and as a side-hustle for about 3 years at this point. I had hundreds of demos I had made by myself while I was working on my craft, and I had a few paid projects here and there that hired me for my services. I also ran a small Facebook group dedicated to producers and songwriters who focused on pop music. I had the opportunity to work at a local studio in town and I tried that for a couple months but it wasn’t a great fit. Finally, my wife convinced me to just take the jump and try out being a full-time producer and songwriter. I had a year left in college, I wasn’t making much money at the bookstore anyway, and now seemed like the right time to give it a shot. I had a small list of steady artists and clients, and I was also able to do some graphic design work on the side. I quit my retail job, but stayed in school, and I decided I would give myself one year to test drive the idea of being a full-time producer. In my first month of being self-employed I made triple my initial goal, gained a handful of new clients and artists, grew my Facebook community by 60%, and felt happier than ever. This initial success never really died out and I just started getting project after project. By the end of the first year, I was making over double what I would have made as a teacher, but I decided to graduate anyway just so I had the degree in my back pocket. I worked like this for about two and a half years before I took my next big risk.
The second big risk came in September of 2018. My production business was going great, I had a really successful Facebook group and a small YouTube following, and I could see that there would most likely never be a time that I couldn’t support myself and a family with my career. However, I was starting to hit my ceiling of how much time I had to dedicate to projects, and I was fast approaching my success threshold for my situation at the time. During this time, my wife, Miranda, had graduated college with a marketing degree and she had been working at a marketing firm in Boca Raton. Our lease on our apartment was ending and we decided that we wanted to move up to Orlando. However, she didn’t love her marketing job in Boca Raton, and she didn’t particularly want to be on a job hunt for months in a new city as a recent graduate. She had the idea to come on board and work with me, handling content editing, marketing strategies, project management, etc for my production business and the communities I was growing, Make Pop Music. To be fair, I was making enough already to support us for about 6 months to give this a shot so that’s exactly what we did. We moved to Orlando in October of 2018 and she began working with me full-time. This massive risk paid off exponentially. By bringing her on board, we were able to begin making weekly YouTube videos, curate our communities better, I was able to focus more on the creative side of my job rather than the backend side, and we grew ridiculously fast. Within the first year, we tripled our house hold income. She is the main reason that my production business, and our business Make Pop Music have continued to be so successful over the past three and a half years.
The last major risk that we’ve taken came mid 2020. In the midst of the pandemic, I was burnt out, tired, and ready for a change. Thankfully business didn’t slow down at all during the period, but I was finding myself unfulfilled. At this time, I was still taking tons of freelance work, around 200-250 projects a year, running Make Pop Music with my wife, a video a week and several product releases a year, and it was feeling like too much. I didn’t love a lot of the music I was making, and even though money was great, and both business were soaring, I needed a change. I cut way back on the amount of freelance productions I was taking, and I decided to focus a lot of that time into doing more projects that fulfilled me, even if it meant sacrificing some upfront cash. I started connecting more with larger artists working under labels, and I started doing more collaborations. When you’re a freelancer, it’s really easy to charge a lump sum of cash upfront, but when you’re doing label projects, you typically get paid from royalties and splits when the song comes out, IF the song comes out. It was a bit scary to not have thousands of dollars of definite cash coming in every week, but at this time our business Make Pop Music was doing enough in passive income from ad revenue, sales on our websites, sponsorships, etc for me to take the risk. Once I cut back on busy work and cash projects, I started feeling more confident in my work again, I started enjoying the process more, and I started feeling fulfilled. In hindsight, this was one of the best decisions I ever made.
At the moment, everything is still going well. I am working on the biggest songs I’ve ever had the opportunity to work on, our business is constantly beating sales goals, our YouTube channel and Facebook community are gaining followers every day, and life is good. My wife and I both feel extremely fortunate that every single risk we have taken has worked out for us, and we accept that there may be risks we take that don’t pan out. But all in all, I wouldn’t even be here doing this article if I hadn’t taken hundreds, if not thousands of risks ranging from minuscule, to completely life altering.
Great, appreciate you sharing that with us. Before we ask you to share more of your insights, can you take a moment to introduce yourself and how you got to where you are today to our readers
My name is Austin Hull. I am a 27 year old music producer, songwriter, business owner, and content creator based out of Orlando, Florida. I spend my time divided between producing music for artists and making videos, products, and educational content for producers learning the craft. I am currently working with a handful of artists, independent and signed, on upcoming releases and I’m handling everything ranging from songwriting, production, mixing, post production, and consulting. I am also currently working on upcoming content, including videos, new products, and events for the business that I own with my wife, Make Pop Music.
For you, what’s the most rewarding aspect of being a creative?
I love that I get to create and help others every single day. Art and music have always been engrained in my core being, and the fact that I get to experience it every day truly feels like a blessing. I love being able to learn every single day, and teach every single day. As I learn and grow, I try to share my experiences and my insights with anyone who may be open to hearing them.
Can you tell us about what’s worked well for you in terms of growing your clientele?
The thing that has helped me find new artists and clients throughout my journey is the concepts of just being a great person, being easy to communicate with, being consistent and reliable, and being open and honest.
Every time I work on a project, I want to give it 110% because that project could lead to one, or two, or ten new projects. Word of mouth is still king in the music industry, and word of mouth relies on doing a great job every single time. I also think that consistently putting myself out there and being honest in my journey, musical approaches and styles, and mindsets has made artists feel comfortable about potentially working with me. By making weekly YouTube videos showing my personality, my style, and my skill level, there is no guess work when an artist wants to work with me, or a client wants to hire me.
Overall, my job is to make the best music possible with whatever collaborators and boundaries an individual project may bring, and if I can make the entire experience smooth, comfortable, and enjoyable while delivering great work, there is no doubt in my mind that I can continue to be successful.
Contact Info:
- Website: https://austinhull.com & https://makepopmusic.com
- Instagram: austinhull23 & makepopmusic
- Facebook: https://facebook.com/groups/MakePopMusic
- Youtube: https://youtube.com/makepopmusic
- Other: Podcast: https://rss.com/podcasts/thesoundtable/ Spotify Playlist Of My Work: https://open.spotify.com/playlist/6nZu0Y806p4yemJuUzHZFA?si=41ec836b6eef4775 My Own Music: https://open.spotify.com/artist/25Z6vIqzd69qFdyNCvDMhs?si=Pa-FgDg_Q02kDlcimCDjvQ