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

Elan, thanks for joining us, excited to have you contributing your stories and insights. Did you always know you wanted to pursue a creative or artistic career? When did you first know?

I first knew I wanted to pursue a Creative/Artistic Path when I was fairly young. Something about the arts/Entertainment field has always peaked my interest and I dabbled in acting when I was around 12 years old for a few years.

What sort of sparked my interest again in my later years was being the percussionist in my band Apathy in which I played in for about 10 years,  from around 2000 to 2010. During this time I was also working up a career/professional orientated corporate path.  I put around 10 years of my life in the engineering and finance field and was laid off a few times due to “company downsizing” At this point I decided it was time to move into music/marketing, promotions and talent buying full time. I was tired of living someone elses dream and I was ready to put time and effort into pursing my OWN dreams and making them a reality!

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

First and foremost thank you for having me as your guest!  I am Elan Schwartz CEO of B4B Talent and Entertainment. A quick synapse of my company and how I would define what it is we do would be simple. We offer Talent Buying services across the region. I also market and promote as well as run each and every show I invest in from the ground up. One thing that separates my company B4b Talent and Entertainment from many others is the simple fact I do everything from start to finish with no outside investors.  I hire people as needed but it has always been built from the ground up by myself. In addition to doing shows we offer consulting for both venues and musicians, and additionally we provide management, merchandising and P.R work for our clients!

Let’s talk about resilience next – do you have a story you can share with us?

One story I would love to share with the readers is kind of how this whole thing started. I was about to have a child back in 2009 which is when my daughter was born. I was laid off for a 2nd time after putting in years and years at a particular engineering firm that I will not mention the name. When I was given my last date of employment, I received a small severance to live on and I decided to take these funds and invest it into this company full time. I basically spent every penny down to about $50 dollars and took a huge leap of faith. There were many many times I felt as if I would go broke doing this, but through perseverance and dedication I some how survived a very tough industry that most know who are in related professions,  how this can be naturally a difficult career to survive and have longevity in,   especially if you are relying solely on the income of this type of business alone.  All in all it is very challenging but on the same note insanely gratifying when things do work out in your favor.

Is there mission driving your creative journey?

One of my goals in this journey is to honestly first foremost being there for my family.  Then specifically in the field I truly enjoy helping the under dog. I have always believed there has and always will be so much talent out there in the world that nobody knows and or hears about unless there are companies like mine to help shine a bright light on what our state/region is doing. It is kind of a two part thing when it comes to a company like mine. 1. Shining a light on your state/region and continuing as an independent promoter to bring shows across the front range and 2. Building up other artists and musicians and providing a platform so they can share their story, music and talents.

We can’t wait to hear from you and truly hope to see you out at one of our next B4b events!

Contact Info:

• Website: under construction
• Instagram: @bands4bandsentertainment
• Facebook: www.facebook.com/b4btalentandentertainment
• Twitter: @concertsanddenver