We caught up with the brilliant and insightful D.D. Star a few weeks ago and have shared our conversation below.

Alright, D.D. thanks for taking the time to share your stories and insights with us today. Risking taking is a huge part of most people’s story but too often society overlooks those risks and only focuses on where you are today. Can you talk to us about a risk you’ve taken – it could be a big risk or a small one – but walk us through the backstory.

Today I found myself on a balcony looking over a landscape of dust, twigs, and tumble-weeds mirroring the sunrise of a brisk Autumn morning in Belgium. A short journey North to Rotterdam, Netherlands for another fiery night fueled by rock n roll awaits for me. This is just another typical day in the life of a small town Jersey boy like myself. Sometimes I wake up wondering, “How did I end up here?”

(Flashback one year ago)

Melting away as waterfalls of sweat plunged out of every pour of my body, there I was, standing up against 450 degrees of smoldering heat emanating off an out-dated McDonalds grill. I can remember counting down the seconds to this everlasting 10 hour shift begging the clock to move faster. “Get me out of here” I thought, “I’ll do anything to get to band practice faster.” Then suddenly I heard words whisper from the lips of an angel… “Take out the trash and you can leave. While you’re at it unclog the toilet in the women’s restroom ‘cause I can smell it from here”. It was at that exact moment in time I took off my greasy crew hat and walked out the front door.

That was the last time I saw any type of “real job”. Besides, in a months time, I’d have a gig at the world famous Whisky A Go-Go in Hollywood California, and I’d get to travel across America on my first tour. I didn’t know if I was going to make any money, or if this tour would stay together, or what I was even venturing out into. All I knew was I was trying to build a business and a brand at the grassroots level in a time when there are no record labels ready to invest in a local band trying to develop, people aren’t buying your music, and the outlets available to get your art out there are not artist friendly, at least financially anyway. So, while staring at this mountain I’m preparing to climb, I strapped on my hiking boots, grabbed my guitar and band, and gave it a shot. I saw my dreams coming true, my name would be in lights, the whole nine yards. What could go wrong? While risk is my middle name, you can call me Risky. So we set out on this adventure, and what a ride it was for almost two months. We drove just over 9,000 miles, went across America and back, walked through a snowstorm in the Grand Canyon, saw the lights of Las Vegas, the nostalgia of the Sunset Strip in Hollywood, played in a town in Arizona just 12 miles from the Mexican border, and tailgated with some Steelers fans at the last home game of their season. We made new friends, new fans of our music, forged a network with venues and booking agents, and have laid a foundation to build something on going forward. I still don’ know where this project will go or if it will succeed (according to my definition of success), bit in a weird way, I kind of miss the free burgers from time to time, and the fries. Maybe it’s because that’s a safe place for me, but if don’t take any risk, then I’ll always be safe, and safe isn’t a place I feel comfortable right now. I think it was AC/DC who said, ‘it’s a long way to the top if you wanna rock n roll”.

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.

I was introduced to music at a young age following the likes of my grandfather. As I shoot down memory lane, I can recall jumping around and screaming to ‘Pop Pop’ playing guitar and singing Johnny Cash tunes he barely knew the words too. If I am going to be totally honest I still don’t know the words, but that is besides the point. I learned very quickly what I wanted to do with my life and luckily, with the support of my parents, I was gifted a drum kit at the age of five. From then on I proceeded to deafen the ears of not only myself but anyone within range of the fierce beating flowing from my new drums. I practiced day in and day out to make sure I could play proper drums in order for ’Pop Pop’ to have a solid foundation to play his guitar too. Unfortunately before we ever got the chance to play together he passed away, and from that day forward I promised myself I would continue to play music for the rest of my living days. Now at the age 22, I have picked up the guitar, bass, piano, and learned a few things about singing and songwriting too. I am certainly still learning, and have a lot to learn, but I strive to create a sound that is unique to me, something that is mine, no matter the instrument or lyrics I have in front of me.

When I was younger I joined a music program, called Rock University, allowing me to play with other musicians in a group format and forcing me to become used to playing in a band, not just as an individual. A few years into this program I formed a band of my own with two of the other students in my class. We were called ‘Scarlet Sunrise’ and we produced one professionally recorded album entitled “Silver storm” which you can still find and listen to on all music streaming platforms. If you are lucky, you can find physical copies of the record floating around Southern New Jersey. As I listen to that project now, I can hear how raw and unpolished I was, and how much growth has taken place since that time, both in my songwriting, vocals, and instrumentation. I mean, I was only 15 years-old when that first produced content was published. This group lasted a few years until I decided to move on and form ‘Zenora’. I wanted this new band to be different from anything I have ever done before. I was sick and tired of being a kid in a local band. I wanted to be like the rockers whose posters covered my bedroom walls. All these bands that I looked up to had one thing in common… A record deal. I began studying what record labels do behind the scenes and how this directly influences the way bands were perceived by people all around the world. Is it really the music that makes a band famous? Is it the modern superstar purposefully shaped to fit a specific agenda? How do people all around the world become aware of a newly released song and why didn’t they hear my song? I was far from being a candidate for a record label to be interested in. So I created my own, Zentertainment, and signed myself. It was not smooth sailing from their on out, so don’t be fooled. Just because my band was now represented by the company I own doesn’t make me an overnight sensation. Trust me, I checked. There is so much to learn, and being a do-it-yourself label and artist is certainly a humbling experience. You are your own machine, and you need to study up on things like marketing, social media, booking, promotion, networking, all the things experienced labels would do for an artist. So much to learn for a kid who was only 19 years-old at the time. Since then, I have released 3 professionally recorded albums, written scripts for a plethora of music videos, featured in a vast collection of media outlets, and shared the stage with countless major label artists including Quiet Riot, E’nuff Z ‘Nuff, Steven Adler of Gun’s n Roses, Autograph, and many more. As of now I am currently booking the acoustic, Fall-N-Win-Tour, alongside the East Coast of the United States, and it is set to begin immediately after I return from Europe. The little downtime I have is spent writing songs and recording demos for a new album, continuing to learn how to market and build a brand, and learning how to implement strategies so that my business has a chance to grow, oh and also making sure my business stays compliant with all that necessary stuff, you know, like taxes (boring)!

Do you have any insights you can share related to maintaining high team morale?

I think this question applies to me as an individual first, then as a member of of larger team. For me as an individual, maintaining a high morale, or energy, to keep pursuing my goals is not so easy. Ask anyone who has tried to start a business, whether it’s trying to build a career in music as an artist, starting a software company, or any business venture, you run into a lot of closed doors as well as failed attempts when trying to execute on a strategy. As I am sure many entrepreneurs may tell you, it can be demoralizing sometimes. But you need to understand that failure is huge part of the entrepreneurial equation – without failure, you cannot succeed. I’m not going to lie, I’ve struggled to stay motivated at times, and the easy solution would be to quit. But for me, doing everything I can do to try and realize my goals is larger than some temporary setback, and I need to sometimes remind myself that this is marathon and not a sprint. Something I do to keep myself motivated is to look back at all of the successes I’ve had in my short time pursuing my objectives, to keep reminding myself that i’ve achieved certain things already. This helps to re-focus and re-energize me to get back on track and follow my plans. I also try to surround myself with like-minded people, people who are positively energized to put the work in, contribute ideas, and share the same enthusiasm to achieve greatness. These same strategies apply to working together as a team, whether we define team as those directly around us helping to drive towards the same goals, or those people that we network with to leverage their experience. In the end it is the energy that I bring to the table that will define the culture that surrounds all of us. You need to be opened to ideas, be willing to change, and also be willing to disagree. You need to be encouraging, self-aware, have emotional intelligence, but also be willing to say no when it makes sense. Listen, trying to succeed as a young, independent artist or band in today’s environment takes extreme focus and drive, combined with a clear strategy and a team of people that are all-in and driving in the same direction. It takes a village, you can’t do this alone. There is no “self-made” here, you need to build a team, and you need to be one of many team members creating the vision and setting up a sustainable culture so everyone can thrive. Sometimes being the leader can be lonely, but that is only if you choose to be alone. You have the power to build the village you need, but it will only succeed if you build that village on trust, honesty, and shared visions.

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

In the beginning of my career, the excitement and thrill of starting a business made it possible for premature decisions to be made. I just wanted to get the ball rolling and bring my ideas to life. At the time, every decision I made felt like the best idea in the world. In the blink of an eye I would begin putting the framework of my brilliant ideas into action. News flash, those decisions I thought were brilliant quickly taught me to think before I act, map out a reasonable time frame to visualize when work needs to be done by, and make sure to set realistic goals. Around this time my father saw an advertisement for the Music Industry Blueprint created by Rick Barker, former manager for global pop sensation Taylor Swift, and asked me if I wanted be get serious and turn this pipe dream into a sustainable career. At first I was confused and thought to myself, “pipe dream? you’re joking,” but soon realized the jokes were off. My life changed that day. We connected with Rick and thus began my journey of learning what serious marketing looked like, and the building blocks for creating a brand had started (If you want to shift your creative goals and business into high gear, Rick Barker is the man to learn from). I also began to immerse myself in learning how network and connected with various other resources available to independent artist to learn how to make those connections and how to leverage the available resources to get my brand out there. I have to say that my dad also joined this learning journey with me, and with his business background, was able to help me translate many ideas into actionable items that have started to pave a path for me to continue to grow and learn from. If it wasn’t for the love and support of my family, I would not be the person I am today. I thank them everyday for the sacrifices they made to ensure I had the opportunity to follow my dreams. No one knew if this would end up working out, but a wise man once told me, “You can’t win the lottery if you don’t buy a ticket. Don’t be let down when you don’t win. Go buy another ticket and get me one too. You are likely going to fail a few times before you win, but you gotta keep getting up. It doesn’t matter where you came from… It matters where you are going.” To say the I still have a lot to learn about how to run my business would be an understatement. Owning and operating a company changed my perspective on and opened my eyes up to new ways of thinking about how to create ideas, grow them, and put them into action. If there is one thing I learned at my young age it’s that I still have so much to learn, and that you have to be open to trying new things and taking risk or you’ll never have a chance to realize your dream. I might not realize it, yes it might fail, but If I don’t try I might always ask “what if”. Remember, you can’t win the lottery if you don’t buy a ticket. A mandatory thank you is dedicated to my Mom and Dad for taking a risk, and pushing me to be a better person.

Contact Info:

• Website: https://zenoramusic.com
• Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/zenora_band_official/
• Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/ZenoraBandOfficial/
• Youtube: https://www.youtube.com/@zenora