We recently connected with Greg Hoy and have shared our conversation below.

Greg, appreciate you joining us today. Was there an experience or lesson you learned at a previous job that’s benefited your career afterwards?

My dive into tech came later in my career. One of the characteristics of working in ad marketing agencies in my decade in New York City was around ‘the ladder.’ (This was the 2000s and things changed dramatically afterward). So if the job and title was ‘Junior Art Director’, that was what you did until you could be ‘Senior Art Director’.

Coming to California changed all that. Vocational identity wasn’t tied to a job title. So when Facebook hired me to help create a system to hire creative people, it was because they recognized the skillsets and attitude needed were *within* in me, and NOT in the titles or resume of my past work. It was ‘Here’s a corporate credit card – go figure out this problem for the company.’

One of my favorite quotes that I read after Steve Jobs died was this one – ‘Everything around you that you call ‘life’ was made up by people that were no smarter than you, and you can change it.’ Many are raised to think the odds are stacked against us, that the rules are to be followed, and that others know what’s best. All of this is the great lie that helps those in power stay there.

Greg, love having you share your insights with us. Before we ask you more questions, maybe you can take a moment to introduce yourself to our readers who might have missed our earlier conversations?

I dig stories. My education came from music. My mom belonged to a service called the Columbia House Record club. USPS would send a potpourri of rhythms and melodies – Kool & The Gang, Led Zeppelin, Neil Diamond, Dolly Parton, Herb Alpert, James Brown, Huey Lewis & The News. Picture an awestruck 3 year old with giant tan Radio Shack headphones sitting in front of a component record player and you get the idea. Magic, escape, harmony.

Everything that led to that kid’s future success lived within those grooves. Feeling the complementary frequencies between a bass guitar and kick drum. The verse call and response of Etta James with her horn section. Big, beautiful LP art work telling the story of making the recording. All of it a tangible example of people of all colors, sexes, and shapes working together to create something greater than its parts. It taught me to listen, translate, and communicate. It handed me stranger’s stories and perspectives. There was no internet or wikipedia. My mind raced imagining the high of collaborating and creating art.

By the time my sister gave me her acoustic guitar, I was hooked. Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, loved sports, but it also had a gritty undercurrent of rock n roll. The industrial 70s and 80s gave the world classic rock. Big guitars and drums matched my energy. Leaving for my next chapter in New York City had me doing the hustle for over a decade – bartending, graphic designing, ‘man-with-a-van’, songwriting and gigging.

By the time of my third act – moving to California in 2010 to work at some company called Facebook building their first creative team – I was ready to take all that knowledge and put it into hyperdrive. Today, the team-building business I cofounded in 2018 just had its most successful year yet. I’ve released one or two full-length albums every year since 2003 – touring, making videos, and encouraging everyone, to quote John Lennon, to ‘come together’. It’s the same feeling I first had listening to those records all those years ago.

We often hear about learning lessons – but just as important is unlearning lessons. Have you ever had to unlearn a lesson?

The idea of debt is a control mechanism. It distracts from creativity, joy, contentment. The system of our culture benefits the few and penalizes the many. This is contradictory to the human instinct to help, to support, to uplift. The artist in me constantly clashed with the 40-hours+-a-week-to-pay-the-rent me. Then when it was time to make art, I thought it wasn’t good enough. ‘Maybe I’m not starving enough. Maybe I’m not suffering.’ Oh, there was suffering, alright. Suffering is life. And you can’t write a song without a roof over your head, and nourishment in your belly. Learning to create even in the shortest of moments is a delight. It’s what makes us human. Just ask my 3 year old.

Have you ever had to pivot?

I recently learned three lessons for myself. The first could be called ‘failing well is its own art’, and its actually an interesting creative moment. Last year, my grandiose idea was to open a pop-up record and music store here in the California coastal town where I reside. There was a big garage for rent on a great street. I’d park my Airstream in it, then open the garage on weekends to reveal a cute, curated record and musical instrument store under the name ‘Earhopper’ (which is also the name of my song publishing company).

The thing that didn’t occur to me is sitting in some store waiting for people to come by and maybe buy my stuff for hours is… not my jam. AT ALL. And that was the second lesson: ruthless prioritization. My time is too precious. That took me about 6 months of slight denial, and swallowing my pride – along with a financial bath paying too much rent – to realize the dream was not matching the reality.

This led to the third lesson: don’t throw a great idea away all together. It’s like having a great chorus and crappy verses writing a song. Just keep the good stuff. So, I’ve scaled the idea way back, rented a smaller space, and instead I’m going to partner with the people – sponsoring shows at great clubs here in the Bay Area like Bottom of The Hill’s Sunday BBQ with Michael at RWS Presents, and with Sea Jay at Winters Tavern. Sitting watching music on a Sunday and maybe selling a few records in the process is more my speed. Most experiences in life are always better together.

Contact Info:

• Website: www.thegreghoy.com
• Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/thegreghoy/
• Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/greghoyandtheboys/
• Linkedin: https://www.linkedin.com/in/thegreghoy/
• Twitter: https://twitter.com/thegreghoy
• Youtube: https://www.youtube.com/GregHoyOhYeah

Image Credits
Photos: Will Toft, Laura Muus, and some obligatory selfies