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

Kevin, thanks for taking the time to share your stories with us today If you could go back in time do you wish you had started your creative career sooner or later?

That is sort of a loaded question because it is asking to change the past. As we go through life, it has a funny way of teaching us lessons and showing us what we truly want in life.

I absolutely would have loved starting the Chord Progression Podcast right as I got out of high school in 2013. At the time, podcasts were really not a thing but just starting to gain some traction, and many of the biggest bands that I interview today would have been smaller back then, and I would have been able to create those relationships with them. I could have had such a head start beyond where I already am today, that I could easily be one of the biggest, if not the biggest, podcast in the rock and metal music space.

BUT would I want to do it and be successful if I started in 2013 compared to 2018? In that time I had gone to college away from home and from my friends, graduated, got a job, learned how miserable working for someone else made me, and it forced me to find what I would truly love in the creative space, and that was podcasting. If I go back to 2013 and start this, the passion and the drive would likely not be there, and I would have never been able to get through the struggles of a growing creative venture. So no I don’t wish I started earlier in the end, because if I did, I would have quit pretty quickly without learning the life lessons I needed to.

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?

So for everyone to know me, let me give you the synopsis of myself. My name is Kevin Hellestad (what’s up everyone) and I am the founder and host of the Chord Progression Podcast, the podcast inspiring young rock and metal fans to discover new music, help them find a place where they can connect, and feel accepted.

I got into the podcast space as a way for me to find purpose in life after working a full time normal job sucked the life and the will to live out of me. It taught me a lesson that I enjoyed the work in college so much because I was working towards my own goals and what I wanted. As I got into the working world, I started working for someone else’s goals and ambitions. I needed a find a way to do something for myself or face a life where the best years were already behind me.

Now I know what some people might be saying at this point. You might be saying that isn’t true because you still have family and friends, you could still get married, you could still have kids, your best years could still be ahead of you. You are not wrong, but when I was working a full time job exclusively, my mental state was in such despair that any positivity in life would be met with mental contempt when half of my conscious day would be spent in misery and depression.

As I was dealing with the worst part of my life, I was listening to a lot of music to try and simply escape. I was listening to a lot of Thirty Seconds to Mars, Skillet, and my all time favorite in Rise Against. Because when I was in the worst time in life, and music was really my only positivity, I was motivated to find something I could do in that space for myself that would bring that positive mental state back to me.

Hence that is where the podcast got started. First it was just an addition to a music community I was working on, but once I started interviewing new artists in the rock and metal world, something changed. I loved it so much, having random life and music conversations with new bands, and it became infectious. I would be excited to interview them, be full of life during that period of time, and look forward to the edit and release process. I still feel that way 430 episodes later, as the artists keep getting bigger and bigger.

In the end, I think the thing I am most proud of in all of this is that getting in the creative space made me happy in life once again. And when I talk with these artists on the podcast, that energy and positivity comes through. It allows the podcast interviews to create a place where artists can talk about their music in a way where they aren’t being asked the same questions, and are free to open up about whatever is near and dear to them without threat of being misunderstood. I have heard artists open up about personal experiences they have not told anyone, show their frustrations in a constructive way, and show their personality to the world. It helps to give them a more human quality that we might not connect with in our favorite artists, and it allows fans to become closer with their favorite artists more than they would ever expect to be.

Is there something you think non-creatives will struggle to understand about your journey as a creative?

Oh that is good. One of the main things I think non-creatives struggle to understand about my journey is why after almost 5 years and I am still not making enough money to go full time yet, is to why I am still working and driving towards this goal.

And I can tell where that misunderstanding comes from, because it mainly comes from a sociological and economic perspective. Why would I keep driving at something after 5 years if I have not been able to fully go independent with it? What is the opportunity cost of what I am doing in terms of money, savings, travel, relationships, marriage, kids, etc.? What are other people going to think if you are always doing things for your creative passion instead of fostering those relationships with family, friends, or a romantic connection?

And those are all valid things to struggle making the connection with because as humans in our society, we value a lot of those things. So why would I go into the creative space and risk all of that?

And the answer is simple, happiness in life. We only get one shot in life. I tried playing it like everyone else when I graduated college and started working at the beginning of 2017, and misery set in like none other. I would not have been able to effectively take part in all of those activities and life events to the fullest because depression would always have been in my head. Since jumping into the podcast space, my relationships with my family, friends, and artist guests have been stronger than ever. It has led to make life a lot more interesting for me, and created a better overall environment for me and the people around me. It is the fact that I can do better for myself and the people around me being in the creative space than the standard corporate world space that keeps me going.

How did you build your audience on social media?

This is actually something I am working on right now in a new way and I am happy to share it as it is showing early returns in a fantastic way.

I will use the episode I recorded with one of my favorite band, From Ashes To New. I got the interview scheduled on a Monday night, recorded the episode on Tuesday, released it on Thursday, and the band had a new album coming out on Friday. So I don’t have a lot of time, and the fans of the band are already amped up on this band with new music at the end of the week. So how do I build my audience using this opportunity in an interview space?

Here is what I did. I was already a part of the band’s Facebook group which had 13K members. Now if I was not a part of the group, I would find the band’s individual group or a group that would be into their style of music. I made a post in the group introducing myself, and said that I was interviewing one of the members of the band (noting which member it was) and then I asked the fans of the band to submit questions to ask the band member. I also put it in there that I would take the top 2 or 3 based on the number of reactions each question got, so I would ask the top questions. What this does is, it gets the fans to be invested in the episode by being a part of it already, even if they have never heard of me or the podcast.

So the interview happened on Tuesday and I took the top 2 questions, and when I asked each question, I mentioned the person by name so that their favorite artist gets to know their name. And this time, each question got a 10 minute response from the artist so I was happy about that.

So Thursday comes around, the podcast episode was released, and I made a post on the group thanking everyone and saying the episode was live. BUT I didn’t just say that in the post, I tagged the 2 people who had their questions answered in the post. In the comments, I tagged everyone else who liked or commented on my original post to ensure they saw it. I also reached out to an admin asking them to tag @everyone so the whole group would get notified of the post. Well the admin said no because the new album was dropping the next day, and I was fine with it.

What happened then was that the episode had more engagement on it because those where were already invested in the episode were getting their return on it. They were able to watch it, so views went up and so did length of view. Because of that, subscriber count from the group went up on YouTube, and follower count on Facebook went up as well. Having Listener Generated Content drive a part of the episode, and getting people who are invested in the guest invested in the episode before it is even released, that is a cool concept to use.

I have used this for my interviews with Sevendust & Caskets and it worked.

Now I also have episodes with bands like Saliva, Drowning Pool, & Adelitas Way already recorded but I didn’t ask their groups for questions. That is ok. I am providing value to the group in posts that relate to the band and the podcast topics to start buzz around the concept, and then have them invested when the episode releases. It is a cool idea that I am in the early stages of, but it is showing a lot of returns.

Contact Info:

• Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/chordprogressionpodcast/
• Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/chordprogressionpodcast
• Twitter: https://twitter.com/cppodofficial
• Youtube: https://youtube.com/channel/UCqRKZCDMcFHIYbJaLQMfDbQ
• Other: Chord Progression Podcast (Spotify): https://open.spotify.com/show/53XWPGrIUvgavKF5Fm6SLk Chord Progression Podcast (Apple Podcast): https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/chord-progression-podcast-the-gateway-to-new-rock-and-metal-music/id1454876657 Chord Progression Podcast (Amazon): https://music.amazon.com/podcasts/b8dad803-444c-4a73-8aa5-67b4fc43f4ba Chord Progression Podcast (iHeart Radio): https://www.iheart.com/podcast/269-chord-progression-70632531/