We were lucky to catch up with Skyler recently and have shared our conversation below.

Alright, Skyler thanks for taking the time to share your stories and insights with us today. We’d love to hear the backstory behind a risk you’ve taken – whether big or small, walk us through what it was like and how it ultimately turned out.

In 2015 I was 18 years old and in my first year of college. It was also my first year living on my own. Almost everything that I did that year was a risk but the biggest one that I took was taking all of my savings and traveling to Atlanta Georgia to record my first EP entitled 16 Days. I called it 16 Days because that’s the amount of time I spent over there. It was a major risk because I spent through my savings to do so but it was the best learning experience for me. The risk didn’t turn into a high reward because I lacked knowledge on how to promote music. I spent all of my time and resources to create the music so by the time I was ready to release the music I had nothing left to promote with. I don’t regret it at all though because I learned from the mistake and it pushed me to do more research into how to promote. No one really listened to that EP and I’m okay with that. My next releases ended up going much better than I had planned because I had more understanding of what to do with the finished product. This is an example of a high risk with low reward but one I had to take to learn.

Skyler, 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?

My name is “Skyler.”. I’m an artist, songwriter, and producer. Growing up I always had a love for music, listening to all different types of music from Al Green and Michael Jackson, to Tupac, to Bach and Beethoven. The versatility in the music that I listened to growing up helped me develop into a musical space where I can created nearly any genre of music. I played basketball in high school and it was my world. I eventually figured that I wasn’t going to grow any taller than 5’7 haha and decided to take music more seriously. Music quickly became my number one because it was also a great outlet away from my daily life living at the group home. To date I’ve produced and written thousands of songs. Most have never been heard before by others but in due time I will peel back the layers of my life and allow everyone to truly hear what I’ve been doing over the years. I know that there’s a bit of mysteriousness behind my name and my brand. In due time people will not only be able to see what I’ve been up to but also really learn who I am as a person.

Can you share a story from your journey that illustrates your resilience?

My entire existence has been one of resilience! From growing up without a father, to my mother being sentenced to prison when I was 8, to making it through the foster care system, to numerous times of homelessness, and dealing with the untimely murder of my 25 year old brother Quincy in 2020. I feel as though every corner I turn there are more and more tests of my resilience. My personal belief though is that if you wake up every day and find a reason to smile you’re undefeated when it comes to trials and tribulations. I’m blessed to still be here pushing my career and finding a reason to smile each day.

We’d love to hear the story of how you built up your social media audience?

I began utilizing Facebook in my early days of music, around 9th grade. There I would post really bad clips of me trying to sing. Eventually I moved over to using Instagram. Over the years I’ve grown to understand and like Instagram the most because of the different types of sharing capabilities. With me being a musical artist, a blog type of platform like twitter isn’t the best for showcasing my talent. I began posting videos of myself singing and playing guitar when I was in about the 10th grade. From there I just tried my best to stay consistent with posting content and coming up with new ideas. Advice that I would give to someone just starting to build a social media presence is to use Facebook and Instagram Reels. Also you never know what consumers will be into so just put it out there!

Contact Info:

• Instagram: https://instagram.com/justxskyler?igshid=NmNmNjAwNzg=
• Facebook: https://m.facebook.com/watch/101849581775078/
• Twitter: https://mobile.twitter.com/justxskyler
• Youtube: https://youtube.com/channel/UC6Ry3S6Q9I1RfH__N48PEjA
• Other: https://open.spotify.com/artist/4kNUfAcilofWKxl7ta4idn?si=ZH1wIe2QTpupHFs_oZbs-Q https://music.apple.com/us/artist/skyler/1476883355

Image Credits
Billy Van Tran