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

Dean, appreciate you joining us today. Often the greatest growth and the biggest wins come right after a defeat. Other times the failure serves as a lesson that’s helpful later in your journey. We’d appreciate if you could open up about a time you’ve failed.

I do and I firmly believe the most profound lessons are found in our struggles and failures. My biggest failure in business was losing my dream business.

My dream was always to own a commercial recording studio. In 2019 I realized that dream and funded the majority of a company called Playback LA. After a series of personal losses and misfortune, I fell into a dark period of my life around the time of COVID-19.

Things went from bad to worse and I decided to go away to reset and get myself together. After 8 weeks in Costa Rica, I returned to find my partners had changed the locks on the studio and blocked me out of the business. Even though they had alluded to supporting me.

They were not just business partners, I had considered them long-time friends. They would barely communicate with me and I have had to get lawyers involved. As much as it broke my heart to lose the studio and my so-called friends, I just wanted to negotiate a fair exit but unfortunately, my business partners turned out to be massive fraudsters.

What I have learned from this particular failure is to be careful when getting into business with friends. Always have airtight contracts no matter who or how long you’ve known someone.

Be wary of those with inflated egos, they are almost impossible to do business with due to their false sense of superiority.

Look after your mental health it is very important, I looked to my business partners for support and unfortunately, that was a mistake in this scenario. It is better to keep your business and personal life separate when possible.

I write about all this in detail on my substack at https://eldean0.substack.com/p/friends-or-vultures

As always, we appreciate you sharing your insights and we’ve got a few more questions for you, but before we get to all of that can you take a minute to introduce yourself and give our readers some of your back background and context?

I got into music at a very early age. I had cousins who were in some pretty big bands and I was inspired watching them as a I grew up. My cousin Tony was in Irish rock band Aslan and my cousin Steve was in The Buzzcocks.

I learned some instruments and completely fell in love with music. I was not very much into school and ended up leaving at 14. I then found an audio engineering school which was one of the first of its kind in Ireland called Pulse Recording College. They allowed me to start there at 15 and that is how I got into audio engineering and studio work.

I emigrated to the US in 2006 at 19 and started interning at studios. I was an intern at L.T Hutton’s studio and learned a lot about the music industry and the business of music just being there every day.

I love working with raw talent and helping artists find their sound and their path within the industry. I run a management and consulting company called Goldminds Management and we help producers and songwriters connect with labels and artists and just get people in the right rooms.

I am also working with a company called Music Gateway now as a consulting artist manager to help their artists grow. I see a lot of potential in this company and its artists.

I recently started a new e-commerce business that has been doing pretty well from launch and I have been leveraging AI to help maintain and automate the operation and workflow of the business. It’s been a very exciting learning curve.

Right now I am partnering with some influential people to help create a unique community for budding entrepreneurs to get the support and funding they need at the idea stage. Something that can be very challenging. I am very excited about this project and bringing it to fruition.

Can you share a story from your journey that illustrates your resilience?

It is kind of ironic that this is the first question in this section as I have been talking a lot about resilience lately. I think resilience is something that is embedded in us Irish people.

My journey has been filled with many ups and downs, there have been many setbacks along the way. But I never quit. I never gave up. I almost did, and after coming back to find I had been betrayed by my business partners and defrauded out of my investment it almost pushed me back into the dark place I had just emerged from. But I have always held onto a tiny bit of hope and faith. And that is enough to pull you back up.

In this business, you need to be resilient and thick-skinned. Your next success could be just around the corner. Keep going.

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

My current goal and mission in my creative writing mission is to share the lessons I have learned from within my mistakes and help others avoid making the same mistakes.

There is a moment of enlightenment when you snap out of a depressive state and a lot of things become clear. You make a deal with yourself to never go back to that place. I want to share that enlightenment with others on their journeys.

This industry can be cut-throat, and many of us are not lucky enough to have someone guide us through those obstacles. You can save so much time and energy by keeping a clear mind.

I have always found it more rewarding to help others than help myself and sometimes you realize you have to help yourself too. Even after this major betrayal I experienced, it has motivated me to help people even more.

Contact Info:

• Website: https://eldean0.substack.com/
• Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/eldean0/?hl=en
• Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/eldean0/
• Linkedin: https://www.linkedin.com/in/deanearls/
• Twitter: https://twitter.com/elDean0