We caught up with the brilliant and insightful Lance Rogers a few weeks ago and have shared our conversation below.
Hi Lance, thanks for joining us today. We’d love to have you retell us the story behind how you came up with the idea for your business, I think our audience would really enjoy hearing the backstory.
Hey there, my name is Lance Rogers… a Dad, small business owner, and singer songwriter from Berea, Ky. I got a little bit of a late start on this path I’m walking currently, writing my first song in 2017 and playing my first gig the next year.
The way that I got started was a combination of having some time to kill and needing a productive way to manage my stress, a therapy if you will.
Writing and singing became a daily passion of mine and I quickly sank into it, giving it a place of importance in my life because of the way it made me feel alive and it’s effect on others when they would hear my songs.
Lance, before we move on to more of these sorts of questions, can you take some time to bring our readers up to speed on you and what you do?
I had a series of unfortunate things happen in my personal life, including working a few stressful jobs, which would include layoffs at times. It was a struggle to make ends meet, but as a family we were still making it. There was this job I got laid off from one time because the business itself was sold to another company. It was at this time I had decided to attempt starting my own business, Frontier Refrigeration/HVAC.
For the first few months, work was sporadic and I had a lot of down time.
I decided to go buy a guitar, a cheap one, so that I could learn a few songs in my free time.
Also, I had purchased an old motorcycle to try and fix up and flip, so I was spending a lot of my downtime out in the garage working on that project and listening to Pandora.
I had been introduced to Robert Earl Keen’s music and made a station that was opening my mind to a new style of music that I had never heard before, but was so fulfilling to listen to…Americana.
Many of the songs I learned early on were of REK, Chris Knight, and Jason Isbell.
When I decided to try and write one for myself, these were my inspiration.
How did you build your audience on social media?
After having my eyes and ears opened to what “Real music” sounded like, I pretty much stopped listening to the radio. I began going to any live music show I could that was close by by these new artists I had discovered, and began to make friends with a lot of folks feeling the same way I did.
I had put out a few songs on social media and I began to pick up some followers. Surprised that they actually like my stuff, I was fueled by the reactions I was getting.
After landing a couple gigs, I learned how to self promote to try and get the word out as to where I would be next. I began to educate myself on music trends, best practices regarding performing and dealing with venues and management.
Social media became the primary tool to spread my songs around and it’s one that I’m still learning how to use efficiently.
We often hear about learning lessons – but just as important is unlearning lessons. Have you ever had to unlearn a lesson?
I was raised in a very high control religion and tried my best to be an example. We were taught to always obey and to be concerned with our relationship with God, to be fearful of displeasing him. Living this way began to slowly drive me crazy, affecting how I was treating those closest to me. I felt as if I could never be good enough for anybody, including God. I couldn’t take it anymore, the hypocrisy that I saw first hand, the politics, the constant fear. So I walked away from it.
After waking up, unplugging from the matrix as I call it, I had to unlearn a lot of anxiety inducing rules and ways of thinking.
I had never been allowed to pursue any personal dream before. This wasn’t the real life…The real life was in the new world, which we would help build after God destroyed all wicked people.
It was a lot. I struggled with guilt of focusing on myself.
I didn’t really know who I was, even in my late 30’s. But this felt right.
Music helped me to have a framework to build on,
One that gave me structure and a place to go as I was being rejected by the majority of my friends and family for leaving the organization that I was raised in.
Contact Info:
- Website: https://www.lancerogersmusic.com/
- Instagram: lancerogersmusic
- Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/lancerogersmusic?mibextid=kFxxJD
- Youtube: https://youtube.com/@lancerogersmusic?si=1vPLbMH1wcfS318j
- Other: TikTok https://www.tiktok.com/@lancerogersmusic1?_t=8izzpfaYoXO&_r=1
Image Credits
First pic (green shirt and cowboy hat) : Courtney Sultan Of the next 5: Pic 3 – Justin Skeens Pic 4- Angela King Belleville Pic 5- Karly Driftwood