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

Hunter, thanks for taking the time to share your stories with us today How did you learn to do what you do? Knowing what you know now, what could you have done to speed up your learning process? What skills do you think were most essential? What obstacles stood in the way of learning more?

Knowledge is power. There is no way around that. Practice is the basis of everything, but “focused” practice looks different for everybody. Is your skill woodwork, do you know the weight and maneuverability of your saw? Do you understand the difference between hardness of woods? Are you a basketball player, have you mastered the amount of push and finesse it takes for a free throw?

For me, my craft is songwriting. I spend my mornings creating melodies, and finding new ways to tell timeless tales. I crave to learn about everything, so that I can understand. I want to know what compressor ratio is best for a vocal chain, and which mics make the punchiest snare hits, but… that is somebody else’s kingdom. I want to learn to grow, but seek to master of only my own realm.

My goal is to write the most songs that consistently connect with and excite listeners.

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.

Hey, I’m Hunter Reece. I love smoothie bowls and sunshine, skateboards and songs. I am far from the most naturally gifted musician, but love to work hard. My career in performing began as far back as a kid pretending to be the Backstreet Boys performing “I Want It That Way” for my family in the backyard. They were such good sports. I had messed around with a few instruments for fun, but didn’t take any seriously until around 13 when I moved from the east coast out to Colorado. Along with my best friend, Xac, together we learned how to play the entire Alkaline Trio catalog on guitar. I spent nights by myself playing along to John Mayer albums, imagining performing them at Red Rocks, my all time favorite venue.

I hope to keep that spirit alive as I continue to move forth through my music career. My music has been streamed over a million times, and that makes me very proud. But the success of it all to me, is staying true to that dreamer playing dress up and singing pop songs to his family.

Learning and unlearning are both critical parts of growth – can you share a story of a time when you had to unlearn a lesson?

That’s a good question. I got to think about that. We all grow at different speeds. We all learn from different teachers. That could be an in-person mentor, or somebody you admire through a TV screen. All we know is what we experienced ourselves.

When I first starting taking vocal lessons, I thought I was pretty far ahead and just seeking a little bit of oomph into the next level. Boy was I shocked when my vocal coach had to start from the negatives with my learning. We weren’t starting from zero, but the first thing he had to teach me was how to “unlearn” what I was doing already. His attempts weren’t to criticize my journey, or my style, but to provide the best foundation of technique for singing success. This not only helped my vocal performance, but it unlocked something deeper.

You cannot grow if you are too stubborn to change. There will be times in all of our adventures, business or creative, when a pivot is necessary. It can be scary, it can be confusing. But I think the strongest people, are actually the most flexible. Know your core, your worth, and your value; but at the same time understand there could be something much more rewarding ahead, you just have to be willing to try,

We’d love to hear the story of how you built up your social media audience?

Don’t be fooled, I am no where near reaching my social media goals, but I think I can help someone looking to grow, and feeling intimidated by the challenge.

1) Do NOT compare reach / views / success to others. Social media is the equivalent of showing a perfectly crystal clear singular spot, and hiding the rain stained insect cemetery of a window surrounding it.

2) Be consistent. This is easy to say, hard to do. Find a way that works for yourself where you can balance consistency without burning out. For me, this looks like mixing music based videos with other lifestyle videos (ex: bartending). I still use my music in the video so it promotes my overall goal, but it allows me to flex a different muscle. Once you find a rhythm that works, try posting at consistent times on consistent days. This allows your audience to start to understand where they should expect your posts, which gives you a better chance for early engagement.

3) Be authentic. The reason people will follow you on socials is that they like you. You can chase trends, and maybe get a nice little pop of attention, but this won’t retain any followers. Showing your true self will draw in others who are like you.

4) When seeking new content ideas, remember your audience. “People like us, do things like this.” – Seth Godin. It’s the main principle behind why Starbucks uses the word Venti instead of Large, people like us do this, it creates a sense of community.

5) Batch film content. Take 1-2 days a week, and film as much as possible that one time period. This will help with your consistency, and allow you to post for multiple days without the “WHAT DO I POST?” headache every morning.

6) Be patient.

Contact Info:

• Website: www.iamHunterReece.com
• Instagram: www.instagram.com/iamHunterReece
• Facebook: https://www.tiktok.com/@iamhunterreece
• Linkedin: https://www.tiktok.com/@iamhunterreece
• Twitter: https://www.tiktok.com/@iamhunterreece
• Youtube: https://youtube.com/@iamhunterreece?si=TkSj9QFTuJc0tGxR
• Yelp: https://www.tiktok.com/@iamhunterreece
• Other: https://www.tiktok.com/@iamhunterreece

Image Credits
Dillon J Shook Juan Oropin