Alright – so today we’ve got the honor of introducing you to Leo Rain. We think you’ll enjoy our conversation, we’ve shared it below.

Hi Leo, thanks for joining us today. It’s always helpful to hear about times when someone’s had to take a risk – how did they think through the decision, why did they take the risk, and what ended up happening. We’d love to hear about a risk you’ve taken.

When I think of risk in verb form, I see it as choosing a situation with potential turmoil and challenge for the possibility of a certain outcome. As a noun, I see risk as a situation where chance and action meet. Whether the percentage of the negative outweighs the positive, or vice versa, risk always presents the opportunity of missing out on something. In my life one of the biggest risks I have made, and am still making, is pursuing music.

Pursuing music for me isn’t just a one time decision but a daily lifestyle. In that daily lifestyle I am investing my time that could be spent on enjoying a normal life for a big “what if” scenario. “What if pursuing music meant breaking out the hamster wheel of corporate America?” Not saying that there’s problem with corporate America. But what I am insinuating is that I am chasing the potential reality that the cliche 9-5 life isn’t for me.

In all honesty, the daily risk in chasing that potential is scary when you aren’t seeing the instant return on investment. I feel like God has more for me than what I am seeing, but I am in the middle of the journey. The risk of taking another step when I haven’t seen my destination or when I don’t know how “good” the destination will be is heavy. It involves a new level of trust in the Lord. It involves an invisible hope on an unforeseen future that may include less security than corporate America.

Yet… for some reason, I feel like the risk is worth it. If you’ve read my other articles in Cavas Rebel or Voyage Dallas, you’ll know I originally never wanted to do music. I was led here. So living out the daily walk towards my unforeseen future has for sure been risk I have faced and I am still am facing.

Leo, 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?

So I never wanted to do music but I felt like God led me here. For years I prayed and sought after the area in my life where my passion and God’s purpose intertwined. I sought after the answer to “what was I put on this earth to do?”

I think the answer to that question will evolve as life goes by. But for right now, I know I am supposed to be singing, writing new music, and audio engineering. And that’s exactly what I am doing! So if you or someone you know, needs help writing a song or needs help getting their music mixed and mastered, I’m your guy!

I think there has been a discipline of pursuit molded in me along this now 3 year journey. With that discipline, I have learned something that will continue to level me up professionally: staying humble to learn.

Aside from the great customer service, timely communication, and an open perspective, the continuous fight for the humility to learn has set my company, DrIVn Dynamics, up to be an amazing company that has helped many artists get the songs that they feel are best. And from a personal artist perspective, that humility to learn has grown my own music’s articulation as well.

Practicing what I preach as an artist, I have been able to help a lot of other artists materialize their visions into tangible artwork. It has been one of the most beautiful things I enjoy in my job and I am very proud to contribute towards that!

We’d love to hear a story of resilience from your journey.

I think the beautiful story in my journey that paints resilience has been the story of my performance career. When I first got into music I got paid as a background singer. That turned into pulling up to many open mic nights and any other free performing opportunities I could find. In those days, And truthfully, I had a couple of performances I felt like I bombed. But through those moments, I learned to accept and grow through failure. I worked my voice and got better. I learned the ins and outs to keeping a crowds attention. I’m honestly still learning so much. But through every one of those lackluster moments, I kept going. Now I’m blessed to perform with a full band, and we have a monthly residency performing at the Dallas Hemp Company’s dinner nights. If I would’ve stopped when I failed, I would’ve never come to the place where I’m now getting paid monthly to perform!

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

A lesson I had to unlearn is not focus on the destination as much as I focus on the journey. The backstory to this is a story that I think may resonate with every reader who reads this.

I was first introduced to this lesson when my mentor told me I was “too ambitious for my own good.” I tended to focus so much on where I wanted to be. So much that I began to compare my life and work to the lives and works of other people in the music industry. I began to curate a castle of stress in my life over time because of this comparison. Truth is, I didn’t realize I was invalidating the hard-fought progress I was earning because it didn’t look like how I expected it to look. I would put myself down to try to encourage myself to go further, and all that did was discourage me and build anxiety within myself.

The only cure for this was to learn to love the journey. In fact, I needed to love the journey more than the destination itself. This is still a concept I am learning to adopt daily. But I think the past mentality of over focusing on the journey has been a pivotal lesson I have had to unlearn.

Contact Info:

• Website: https://linktr.ee/LeoRain
• Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/leorain_/?igshid=YmMyMTA2M2Y%3D
• Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/leo.rain.520/
• Youtube: https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCTYnm3OOcHmtYYBK812Pj5w
• Other: DrIVn Dynamics LLC office email: [email protected] office number: 972-978-4222

Image Credits
Shaun Jackson Mauricio Mireles