We caught up with the brilliant and insightful Mike Shrout a few weeks ago and have shared our conversation below.

Mike, appreciate you joining us today. Taking care of customers isn’t just good business – it is often one of the main reasons folks went into business in the first place. So, we’d love to get a conversation going around how to best help clients feel appreciated – maybe you can share something you’ve done or seen someone do that’s been really effective at helping a customer feel valued?

As a recording studio owner, (Joint Venture Studios) I provide the creative vehicle to allow the artist to express their art in a relaxed and comfortable environment. My job is to get their ideas to translate how they hear them in their head, out of the speakers. I have worked on projects from all over the world from major projects and artists, to assisting local artists. As an artist myself, I understand how important one’s music is to them. I treat every client the same. Every project is important to me. I do my best to have a very fast turnaround time, even if that means that I am burning the midnight oil to make that happen. I know and understand how excited artists are to get into the studio and record their music professionally. There is a certain magic that happens in the studio. The most important part of the whole process is making the artist feel comfortable enough so that they give you their best performance. I always make sure I have food and beverages. Coffee is a staple for me, so I make sure that I have plenty on hand for those that record here.

I also know first hand how it feels to have someone try to change my vision for a personal project. Music is a very personal thing. While I may offer suggestions, at the end of the day, I am here to serve the artist and their ideas. I try to have everything set up and I work fast so the artist isn’t waiting on me to record them. For drums, I like the drummer to set up the night before so I can get all the mics set up and sound check done. I don’t charge for this. It makes the session run much more smoothly if all they have to do is walk in, sit down, and play.

I have been word of mouth for years. Musicians talk. My business card is all the records that are released that I was blessed to be a part of. I take a lot of pride and care when it comes to customer service and I always bend over backwards to deliver a product clients are proud of. I am humbled that people choose to record here and work with me. I owe it to them to always give them my best. Treating people right is the biggest trait missing in a lot of businesses today. That’s always where I start. Building trust and relationships with clients always brings return business. Be understanding. Have compassion. Just be a good human being.

Mike, 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’m originally from Madison Alabama. I attended college at Lee University in Cleveland, TN as a Music Major. During my first semester, 9/11 happened. I joined the United States Marine Corps on 9/12/01. I spent 4 years traveling the world. I recorded Marines in the barracks and performed with a couple of different Marines during my enlistment. One of which, Ryan McIntosh, and I still make music together today. We released a few singles last year under the name “Mac & Shrout”. We were Djiboution Idols in Eastern Africa and the name just kind of stuck. Our picture is still hanging there today. We played and wrote music together off and on over the years. In January we performed at the House of Blues in Vegas. Super cool experience. We recently started a new 3 piece band bringing on Jake Cohara called “The Rising Sons”. They both recently just moved here from Oregon to Atlanta to be closer so we could continue on our musical journey. Lots of awesome things in store! Please check us out on YouTube and all the major streaming platforms!

My Grandfather was a country music artist that had multiple number ones and countless charted songs. He wrote a lot for the group “Alabama”. One of his first hits was “Cotton Mill Man”, an autobiographical song about his life that was picked up by Jim and Jesse. This song is still played at bluegrass festivals today. My uncle, Dave Miscik (Twitch) played drums with a lot of national acts and worked as a live sound engineer. He attended Full Sail University. I learned a ton from him over the years. Sadly he passed away a few years ago at the age of 49. We had always talked about opening a studio together. Building Joint Venture Studios was my way of holding up my end of the deal and getting a little closure.

I assist artists that record their own music by offering online mixing and mastering as well as tracking in the studio. Over the past few years I have tried to make myself more available to everyone by offering more services. I realize not everyone has the ability to drive or jump on a plane to get here, so it’s just another way I can serve artists.

I think what sets me and my studio apart from a lot of others is that I don’t rush the artist. I’m not hustling them so I can make rent. I own everything so my overhead is low. This gives me the ability to be much more competitive with my prices and also gives me the time to deliver a better product in most cases. Being a private studio also allows for a much more flexible schedule. Artists don’t have to worry about being interrupted in a session. The studio is all theirs when they are here working.

As I said before, I am very humbled to have extremely talented people trust me with their music. Joining them on their journey and seeing how excited they get about the sound of their music is my biggest reward. We have a lot of fun here!

Let’s talk about resilience next – do you have a story you can share with us?

My studio was finished right at the beginning of the COVID 19 pandemic. Mentally this was a tough period in my business venture because I had invested a lot of time and money building the studio and was eager to get artists in to record. I had a brand new beautiful studio that I couldn’t use due to the pandemic restrictions. I am a career fireman as well. I have been a fireman for the past 15 years. I didn’t want to expose anything to my clients or to my family for that matter. I did the best I could to work with artists remotely until things settled down. I was committed and wasn’t going to accept failure. Everything always works out if you have the drive to keep pushing. Mentally that was a tough time for me as I am sure a lot of other people. We are full speed ahead today!

How did you build your audience on social media?

Social media is king when it comes to relevance and marketing yourself and your business. This can be a job all in itself and I know a lot of people that hire companies to take care of all of their social media marketing. I handle all of my own and try to post 2 to 3 times a week and post stories more often. I have found that if you bring something of value, and give your audience something they can use, the results are much better. Make it less about you and more about them. I guess this can be applied to any business communication, It’s just basic psychology. It’s a lot easier to highlight artists that come here, the gear that makes my life easier, and the things that happen in my studio than trying to highlight myself. Everyone has their style. For me, this studio would be nothing if people didn’t come here to record. It’s all about them.

Contact Info:

• Website: jointventurestudios.com
• Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/mike_shrout
• Facebook: http://www.facebook.com/mike.shrout.90
• Youtube: https://youtube.com/user/TracerPhill