We’re excited to introduce you to the always interesting and insightful Casey Derhak. We hope you’ll enjoy our conversation with Casey below.

Casey, appreciate you joining us today. We’d love to hear the backstory behind a risk you’ve taken – whether big or small, walk us through what it was like and how it ultimately turned out.

The biggest risk that I have taken in my life is deciding to live my life the way that I want to live it. Not letting society norms play a huge factor into my decision making. Making decisions based on what I want and not out of fear. You could go all the way back to 2011 when I decided to move to Nashville and leave my family and friends and life I had in Florida. More recently in 2020 when my wife and I where about ready to buy a home in Nashville but had an opportunity present itself to go live in the mountains of Maine for the summer in an old farm house and be around more family. We kept our apartment in Nashville and stayed there until October that year. Came back to Nashville for the winter and then in the spring we put all our things in storage got rid of our apartment and went back to Maine until December. From there we actually went and stayed the winter down in South Florida and didn’t end up back in Nashville until the spring. We stayed in Nashville for two months and then went back to Maine until November. We have been back in Nashville area now since then. So pretty much we have been flying by the seat of our pants and living in the moment. Our daughter just turned 4 years old and she has been to 23 states. We have made friends that we would have never met and had experiences we never would have had. We have made so many memories that we will always cherish. We figured out a way to make it work because that’s what we wanted to do. Has it always been easy …no. But it always works out. You can’t just believe it’s going to work out because a belief is the absence of knowing. You have to know it will work out even when you have doubtful days. It always works out in the end when you focus on what you want in life. The irony is when you change your mind set nothing you do is really a risk. You just stay in the present and live your life to the fullest and the rest will take care of itself. I wrote a line in my song “Pretty Life” that’s goes, “the biggest risk you take is the risk you didn’t make. One door leads to one more, I keep an open while I’m grateful for it”.

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

I write songs. I really enjoy the creative process of writing music. I have been doing that ever since I can remember in elementary school writing lyrics and coming home and going to my basement and setting up buckets and cans and playing beats and singing melodies. I have always connected with music. I love all kinds of music it doesn’t matter about the genre for me. I played in a punk rock band in high school called Friends With Benefits and we played all the high school parties. I went to college to play baseball and I would freestyle rap at different night clubs and parties but my roommate introduced me to country music as well and I liked the stories. When I got out of college I started a band called Heading For Third and played all the bars and beachside venues in Florida. We played all kinds of music fused together. I moved to Nashville in 2011 and wrote mostly country music. I branched out in 2017 and started traveling to NYC and writing more pop music with touches of my Nashville roots. So basically I’ve always enjoyed trying different things and not staying in one lane or box. Songs that I have had a part of writing that you might know would be Hey Whiskey and Good Ol Days by Smithfield. Bad Day To Be A Budlight by Alec MacGillivray, Kid Anymore by Chris Ruediger. If you want to hear all the different ones I am a writer on my YouTube has a playlist called Songs Written by Casey Derhak. I also sing and release my own songs. Out of those songs my most popular ones are Lost In Someone Else, Road Trippin, I Should Be Back, Party Til The Cops Come, Nashville. My newest song is called Just Like That and it came out May 5. I keep putting out new songs every two months or so. I am very active on FB, Insta, Tik Tok and Youtube. Whatever streaming platform you use you can find my music.

Is there a particular goal or mission driving your creative journey?

One of my goals in this phase of my life is to show my daughter that you can be, do or have anything you want in life. That you can create the life that you want. The only limitations are the ones you set on yourself. How can I tell her one thing and do another. I have to show her that it doesn’t come to you it comes through you. I believe that everyone has the power from within to create the life they want. To be the vision they see. I want my daughter to see that the key to life is life itself…to live our life as your highest self. We have been giving this amazing gift of life so take advantage of it. Like that Disney movie Soul..I want her to see the journey is amazing and just enjoy the ride.

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

I really enjoy consuming information. I am constantly reading or listening to all kinds of things. I think it’s important to be the best version of myself to keep on learning and growing. I also think its important to be a free independent thinker and question ideas or beliefs and take all the pieces and fit it into your own puzzle. Throughout the years I have enjoyed soaking up information from Ryan Tedder, Ross Golan, Wayne Dyer, Esther Hicks, Joe Dispenza, Andrew Huberman, Andrew Southworth, David Sinclair, Eckhart Tolle, Paul Stamets, TB12 Method, These are a few that pop into my head. I want to say that nobody is batting 1000 so I do not agree with every single thing everyone says or believes. I take what vibes with me. I also don’t judge anyone for what they think or believe its their life and I can only live my life.      

Contact Info:

• Website: https://ffm.bio/caseyderhak
• Instagram: https://instagram.com/caseyderhak
• Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/CaseyDerhak.music
• Youtube: https://youtube.com/@caseyderhaksongs
• Tik Tok: https://www.tiktok.com/@caseyderhak

Image Credits
Daniel Howell Lily Harding