We’re excited to introduce you to the always interesting and insightful James Hooper. We hope you’ll enjoy our conversation with James below.
James, thanks for taking the time to share your stories with us today Folks often look at a successful business and imagine it was an overnight success, but from what we’ve seen this is often far from the truth. We’d love to hear your scaling up story – walk us through how you grew over time – what were some of the big things you had to do to grow and what was that scaling up journey like?
One of the things that heard the most in regards to my music is that “I must have always been able to sing/had the natural talent.” When I first got involved with any form of the entertainment industry, it was through dance. I watched a YouTube video of a song by Jacob Latimore (one of my favorite artists/inspirations to this day), and from that moment, I was inspired to pursue a career in music. Singing was not something I had realistically ever thought of pursuing, but I slowly developed a deep passion for the creative process. From recording, to performing, I fell in love with the experience and gained a lot confidence throughout the journey. I say all this to elaborate on the point that music never really came naturally to me, so I’ve always felt like I’ve had to work much harder to get the results that I wanted for myself. Once I became comfortable with the challenge of pushing myself forward in the industry, I expanded into different avenues that I knew would help me be more successful within the same industry. Never having acted before, I took a leap of faith in 2016 by auditioning for an agency that signed me on the spot, and by the grace of God, I landed my first supporting role in the feature film “A Question of Faith” alongside an all-star cast. In 2019, I founded my brand “Elevate”. I developed a website where I could, not only promote my music, but sell merchandise (Elevate Hats). The brand, represented by the signature “arrow”, symbolizes “growth” and comes from a time in my life where I felt I had to overcome the biggest struggles I had endured. It’s now 2022 and not only do I run my website, sell merchandise, perform, and write/engineer my entire catalog of music, but I also serve as a producer and songwriter for a number of other artists. I do all of this while keeping the bigger picture of becoming a successful solo artist in mind. The journey has not been easy, and over time, I’ve learned what my strong-suits are, as well as what I’m not so good at. The goal is not to be “incredible” at everything, but it’s to find where you best fit in in an industry that is constantly changing and developing. And the successes definitely don’t happen overnight, but keeping the consistency in everything you do will land you exactly where you want to be. And the biggest part for any artist, is to INVEST; to make sure that you are investing the time and money into the areas that you desire to see growth. You get back what you put in, so if you’re dedicating a lot of time and money (strategically and responsibly) into your craft/career, the ROI will mirror those efforts. Once I started to invest in the quality of my music/music videos/marketing, my business started to grow.
James, 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 first got started in the music/entertainment industry by wanting to learn how to dance. I was at my homecoming dance in 10th grade of high school thinking, “man I wish I could breakdance like seemingly “everyone” at my school (or at least in my friend group). Fast forward a bit, and I not only wanted to dance, but I wanted to learn how to produce music to dance to. Eventually, I realized I wanted to be upfront on stage, so I took to singing pretty quickly, spending every day singing non stop wherever I was to get better. Being a self-taught vocalist has it challenges, but I was able to develop my sound fairly quickly, with inspirations such as Chris Brown, The Weeknd, and Mario playing a huge part in that development. Once I became more confident in my sound, I started performing, featuring, attending workshops, and building my network to give myself the boost in the industry that I needed.
I believe that the biggest thing I have to offer people as an artist, outside of solely entertainment, is inspiration. Being that I started on this journey from scratch at 17 years old, I wanted to, and still to this day, desire to show people that any goal is achievable with the right mindset, drive, and most important, CONSISTENCY. Just like the (Elevate) arrow represents, growth is key. Overcoming setbacks is important in achieving your goals; remembering not to get discouraged based on where you are. Allowing the results not only to gauge where you are on your journey, but to motivate you in the areas that you may be struggling in.
I would say what I’m most proud of, is being able to look back over the last few years to see how far I’ve come and all the things I’ve achieved within the past 10 years. From flying out to Bermuda to speak on the film I was in, to the number of shows I’ve performed, songs I’ve written, and music videos I’ve made, I have put in an undeniable amount of work. Not only do I get to share my creativity with the world, but through my art, the world gets to learn a little more me; my mind, thoughts, emotions, everything.
Any insights you can share with us about how you built up your social media presence?
I can’t emphasize this enough, the key to anything business-related is CONSISTENCY! The best and most effective way to build an audience on social media is to “consistently” post! I’ve been working on building my social media presence for the past eight years or so and I know to this day, my biggest setback is that I’m not active enough on social media, especially when it comes to posting and updating my followers. The goal when it comes to social media is to be present EVERYWHERE. You want your content/brand in front of as many people (in regards to your target audience) as possible, and it is super important to pinpoint who exactly you’re trying to reach in regards to your audience. I am always working to build my social media presence by, not only be “ present” on social media, but by making genuine, real, in-person connections as well. If you can create a memorable, genuinely relatable experience for just a single person, then that person will most likely share your content with others, and your presence will have the potential to grow tremendously.
The way that I’ve personally focused on building my presence is through my music videos and merchandise. When people feel as if they are receiving or viewing something of high value, they will want more of it. People have typically been drawn into my music videos, live performances, and my merchandise..
Can you tell us about what’s worked well for you in terms of growing your clientele?
The best thing I could have ever done for myself is showing up, even when I don’t want to. Being in the right rooms, surrounded by the right people is an opportunity that rarely comes along for most people, whether you’re chasing a dream or building a business. When I say “showing up”, I simply mean leaving “open availability” for things you might not necessarily have the time for. It’s all about prioritizing your goals, and making sacrifices here and there with the end results in mind. My fan base started to grow immensely when I was performing nearly 2-3x a week (I’m referencing showcase performances where I might not have been on stage until 1-2am). Also, my network grew when I started spending more time at the studio. Shoutout to one of my close friends/mentors in the industry, Ashton Combs. Every studio session that I would attend (and still attend), I would meet 1 or 2 new people, whether it be artists, managers, producers, promoters, songwriters, I was always getting plugged in with someone new. So showing up, being present, and most important, leaving a good impression plays a huge part in growing your network. I also can’t leave out investing. Invest, invest, invest! Whether that be time, money, energy; make sure that you are investing into the people that you want to invest in you.
Contact Info:
- Website: https://www.jameshooperelevate.com/
- Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/jameshooperiii/?hl=en
- Facebook: https://m.facebook.com/JamesHooperIIIMusic/
- Twitter: https://twitter.com/jameshooperiii?lang=en
- Youtube: https://youtube.com/user/JamesHooperIII
- Other: https://music.apple.com/us/artist/james-hooper/26515306 https://open.spotify.com/artist/44ybguGNhv3lYeiQyTaaIB
Image Credits
Broderick Armbrister Makenzie Eddy The Kodak K Wil “Flexx” Fernandez