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

Wesley, appreciate you joining us today. We’d love to hear about when you first realized that you wanted to pursue a creative path professionally.

I’ve always dreamed of being an “artist” in some way or another, however in 2013, when I was in my third year of Studying Economics I had an experience that completely changed my perspective on what was achievable. My now friend, EDX, a well known artist and DJ from Switzerland ran a contest, which I won. He invited me to join him on tour to his hometown Zurich, after which we took a private jet to Ibiza where he played at Ushuaïa with Avicii.

One weekend that completely opened my eyes of what was possible, and gave me the clarity and motivation to push through and believe in my dreams and turn them into goals. I realised what was possible, and since that day everything in my life changed to focus on becoming just that, a professional artist and label owner.

Wesley, 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?

Wesley Verhey, 33 years old, music producer, artist and DJ under the stage name “UOAK”. I’ve been making electronic dance music for over 10 years, and since 2016 started releasing music as “UOAK”. The sub-genres are called melodic house & techno, progressive and deep house, to be more specific. My music has gained over 25million streams on Spotify alone, I’ve played in cities like Amsterdam, Berlin, London to name a few.

In 2018 I’ve founded my record label “Sekora” that has quickly grown to one of the leading melodic house & techno labels in the electronic music scene. “Where nature meets electronic music” is our motto, since the label is heavily based around nature. Blending organic sounds with electronic beats.

Over time Sekora has become more of a community where we bring people together through events, or the worldwide radio show “Sekora Radio”. With me as the presenter of the radio show, and UOAK as the leading artist on the label. I strive to create a unique experience through the music we release, the stories that we share, and the events and radio show that we host.

We often hear about learning lessons – but just as important is unlearning lessons. Have you ever had to unlearn a lesson?

Outcome dependancy is something I’ve had to unlearn as an artist. Trusting the process is key, which is exactly how I started my music career, without even knowing it.

Over time as we become more successful as a creative, the stakes become higher too. Especially when you’ve made the decision to go “full-time” as a musician, the emphasis on performing increases. When your income is dependant on how much you put out, or you get influenced by the numbers. Likes on social media, streams on Spotify, royalties and money in the bank, it starts to tell your subconscious mind to always deliver. More, more, more results, always better than the previous. This puts the focus on the results, and creates outcome dependancy.

The problem however, is that in creative arts, you can not predict the outcome, nor should you want to. You can only trust the process. Loving the journey, the process, having faith that the result will eventually come. This is initially how I started as an artist, simply loving the experience and making music, without thinking if and how many people would “like”, stream or buy my songs.

I’ve recently had to unlearn my bad habit of focussing on the outcome, and went back to loving the process.

How about pivoting – can you share the story of a time you’ve had to pivot?

When I started out running my record label I used to do everything myself. Produce the songs, make artworks, distribute, mix & master and market and sell the music. I did it all. Over time as things grew I started to notice more and more people wanted to work with me, and my label grew at a pace I couldn’t keep up by myself. I needed help, I needed to outsource and delegate.

At moments it pushed me to the point where I wanted to quit, drop it all and just be done with it. However, I couldn’t simply let go so I had to find another way. This helped me pivot and forced me to adapt and learn how to delegate instead. Expanding the Sekora team. The amazing people at Sekora have helped the label grow, but more importantly helped me grow as a person and a business owner.

Contact Info:

• Website: sekoramusic.com
• Instagram: instagram.com/uoakmusic
• Linkedin: https://www.linkedin.com/in/wesleyverhey/
• Youtube: https://www.youtube.com/@UOAK
• Other: https://open.spotify.com/artist/4hYS3fIqfvtmZPbbggczYk