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

Zach, thanks for taking the time to share your stories with us today Can you open up about a risk you’ve taken – what it was like taking that risk, why you took the risk and how it turned out?

My whole life has been full of risks. One that comes to mind occurred when I was fresh out of college. I was working 60+ hours a week as an Algebra teacher for the public school system dealing with insane working conditions and realized that I needed a change in my life. Feeling trapped because my degree was in education, I didn’t know what to do.

One Christmas, my mother gifted me a Dave Ramsey book. I’d never heard of the guy, but oh boy, he changed my life.
The book helped me create a strict plan to get rid of student debt, build up my savings, and begin making my money grow. This financial freedom allowed me to quit teaching and explore other opportunities, which led me to pursuing my biggest passion, music, and starting up multiple businesses that I own today.

I moved from Nashville, TN to the mountains of beautiful Colorado where I took a part time tutoring job. Working part time allowed me to search for opportunities to fulfill gaps in the needs of the local market. I started up a silent disco business two weeks before the pandemic hit. At a time when most of the entertainment industry was suffering, my business saw exponential growth because we were able to provide and present our services as safe, socially distance events. Again, fulfilling a need in the market.

That success allowed me to establish and grow the business into its present state that now includes silent discos, photo booth rentals, event planning, and a talent agency for bands and DJ’s. We have served festivals, weddings, ski resorts, private events, and much more. I’ve worked to employe people to help run the day to day responsibilities, which financially has allowed me to spend my time pursing my biggest passion, music.

My philosophy is that life is too short to spend time doing things that don’t bring joy and happiness to our lives. While risks may be uncomfortable, uncertain, and scary, I believe they’re worth ounce of energy.

Zach, 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 Zach Gilliam and I am an entrepreneur and musician among many other things. A few years back, I was chatting on the phone with a good friend who owns a company that provides DJ services and silent discos. He mentioned that he just purchased new silent disco headphones and was selling the old ones to someone online. I did some research and found that no one was offering those services in my area. So I made him a proposal, ship the headphones out to me for 6 months and I’ll give him a percentage of all revenue generated and he would still maintain sole ownership of the headphones. This gave him the option to either sell his existing asset for a one time fee or put the asset to work to bring him monthly revenue.

In those first 6 months, I created my own brand (Vail Valley Silent Discos), built relationships with loyal cliental, and saved enough money to purchase the headphones after the term agreement was over. We have expanded the company to also provide Photo Booth rentals, and talent agency services. These services are now a part of our umbrella company, Vail Valley Entertainment, and now cover a large gap that the local market was missing or needed more of.

I am most proud of our team and the ability to navigate change. We continually strive to provide high quality, unique, and memorable experiences for our clients.

On the music side of things, I play bass and sing for The Runaway Grooms. We are a nationally touring 4 piece Roots Rock/Jam band from the Colorado rockies. We just released our 3rd studio album this year. I believe we bring a unique take to the jam band scene offering up a strong foundation in songwriting melded with instrumental conversations.

People should know that The Runaway Grooms are guided by our passion for music as a language and its ability to form a wide array of connections to one another. Personally, Im proud of everything we do as a group. We continuously perform at stellar venues and festivals across the country and just added our very first international show to our resume.

Musically, our last album, This Road, stands out as a gem to me. It’s full of harmonizing guitars, melodic piano/organ riffs, and thoughtful lyrical compositions.

For you, what’s the most rewarding aspect of being a creative?

Being a creative is rewarding in many ways. I deeply appreciate the ability to form my own schedule and to spend time working towards creating music. It isn’t always glorious and has plenty of challenges, but at the end of the day, Im doing what I love the most.

Have any books or other resources had a big impact on you?

Most definitely. Books are the reason I started pursing music, entrepreneurial endeavors, and quit the rat race. They are the reason Im debt free and learned how to make money work for me and not the other way around.

The most influential books in my life are Think and Grow Rich by Napoleon Hill, Rich Dad Poor Dad by Robert Kiyosaki, Awakening Joy by James Baraz, and Total Money Makeover by Dave Ramsey.

Gary Vaynerchuck, Ken Coleman, and Dave Ramsey have been some of the most influential people on my journey and all have fantastic podcasts and social media presence.   

Contact Info:

• Website: https://vailvalleyentertainment.com and https://therunawaygrooms.com
• Instagram: instagram.com/therunawaygrooms
• Facebook: www.facebook.com/theruanwaygrooms www.facebook.com/vailvalleysilentdiscos
• Twitter: www.twitter.com/GroomsRunaway
• Youtube: www.youtube.com/therunawaygrooms

Image Credits
Arthur Wessel