S3E3: Responsibility For The Rhythm with Elliott Obermaier

In this episode, host Leslie Pagel interviews Elliott Obermaier, guitarist for the indie rock/indie pop band Six Foot Blonde. Elliott describes stepping away from a traditional career path after graduating college to making music his profession. He discusses reactions to being a professional touring musician and shares how doubts were eased through the band’s tight-knit community and love of playing guitar. Elliott shares guiding beliefs: working hardest at what he loves (inspired by IU professor Glen Gass and his Beatles expertise) and a family metaphor of being a disciplined, “green” leaf in the wind - open to life’s direction while maintaining health, discipline, and self-care. He speaks about staying grounded by calling friends outside the music world, and reframing touring as something he “gets to do.” He advises listeners to start small and stay consistent, be honest yet forgiving, seek inspiration actively, and build consistency through habits. The episode closes with Elliott encouraging listeners to listen to and share music and attend shows.

00:00 Welcome to Purpose Project + Meet Elliott Obermaier (Six Foot Blonde)
01:06 Choosing Music Over the “Safe” Career Path
02:21 From Anthropology to Building a Music Community in College
06:08 Graduation Curveball: Losing the 9–5 Offer & Saying Yes to Touring
08:10 Balancing the Grain: Remote Work to Fund the Band Life
10:05 “You’re Actually in a Band?” Reactions, Skepticism, and Credibility
14:47 Doubts & What Kept Him Going
16:23 Who Is Six Foot Blonde? Origin Story, Tours, and a Healthy Road Culture
19:28 Beliefs That Shaped the Path: Do What You Love + “Leaf in the Wind”
23:29 Discipline + Self-Care to Let Life Happen (The “Green Leaf” Mindset)
24:34 Finding What You Love Early vs. “Do What You Love” Advice
26:31 Letting Go of Control When Life Throws a Curveball
28:07 Living in Alignment: Noticing When You’re Off-Center
29:26 Touring Highs, Ego Traps & the Reminder: “You Get to Do This”
32:37 Staying Grounded on the Road: Friends, Perspective & Honest Check-Ins
33:50 Advice for Going Against the Grain: Start Small, Stay Consistent
36:54 Slumps & Burnout: Rest vs. Excuses + How to Find Inspiration Again
41:48 Closing Reflections: Responsibility, Community, and Purpose 

Be sure to check out Six Foot Blonde: https://www.sixftblonde.com/

Purpose Project is a research study on the topic of life’s purpose. You can follow along in the making of Purpose Project:
Instagram: @purpose.project
LinkedIn: @purposeproject-media
TikTok: @purpose.project

Captions are auto generated.

Purpose Project is a research study on the topic of life's purpose. You can follow along in the making of Purpose Project:
Instagram: @purpose.project
LinkedIn: @purposeproject-media
TikTok: @purpose.project

Captions are auto-generated.

Transcript

Leslie: 0:04

Welcome back to Purpose Project. I'm your host, Leslie Pagel, and this season we are exploring what it means to live to the beat of our own drum. In today's episode, I sit down with Elliott Obermaier. He's a guitar player for the up and coming amazing band, Six Foot Blonde Elliottt shares his journey of stepping away from a more traditional professional career path choosing to pursue music. This conversation is about what it really means to commit to your path. Let's take a listen.

0:41

Elliott, thank you so much for being on Purpose Project Season three of the podcast is all about speaking with people who are living life to the beat of their own drum and learning as much as I can from their experiences, and I'm looking forward to digging into this with you today. Yeah. Oh, I'm so excited to be here. Thank you so much for having me. Wonderful. So part of living life to the beat of our own drum is pushing up against social norms or expectations that others have. How might you have pushed up against social norms or expectations of others? Yeah. I think the main thing is just my career path. I am a professional musician which I'm incredibly, incredibly grateful to do, but that was not what I studied in college. That's not what anybody in my family did that. I wouldn't say that that's on LinkedIn's, like top 10 most viable and successful ways to find work out of college or as a, as a career is borrow or, or pay. So, yeah, I, I definitely think that that in and of itself goes against the grain and the way that I fell and stumbled into that was through, through passion and through a lot of different trial and error methods in college of figuring out what I wanted to do and what engaged me the most. Yeah. And it's a abnormal lifestyle. I still have some day job stuff that I do at times as well. And it's, very much. All over the board with schedule and travel and different kinds of things and different personalities. It's not a, certainly not a typical nine to five. But I love it. Yeah. And it's makes really happy. So did you go to college to be a musician? I did not, no. I went into college as an anthropology major and graduated with an anthropology degree. Along the way I realized that like the ratio of field work to requesting and writing grants and academic work was not as ideal as I wanted to be for as an anthropology professor. So I started looking around for other things, landed on business, ironically, out of the blue. And that was really fun and a lot more practical, but I didn't. It didn't scratch, I think some of the passion itch or their curiosity itch that anthropology had. And I'd always grown up playing music and I played violin as a kid from five to 15, and then picked up guitar when I stopped playing violin. But it just never seemed viable as a career route. Right? Like my parents hadn't done it. I think music as a it's a route that people don't know a lot about as far as the professional side. Like I think it's a hard industry to break into unless you've had. Personal exposure or connection to it. You don't realize how many roles there are just from a backend standpoint, whether you could be a booking agent or a talent buyer for a venue or an audio engineer, right? There's so many more career paths than just being the person on stage playing an instrument. That I didn't know about either going into college, so I didn't really pick that up. But then in school, I. Was looking for people to play music with all the time and did, couldn't find it initially, even though IU had a phenomenal music program and was a big school. It was just hard to find. And eventually when I did meet some people that played music with, our initial goal was not to just play in a band or play music together, but was to create kind of an environment. That was community oriented about giving people a space to just find people, right? Like the initial goal was, it's like, why isn't there like a forum, like a chat forum for ways that musicians could just play pickup basketball together in, in its own roundabout way, if you just show up and say, this is what I'm looking for, this is the skill level that I'm at, and are there musicians that kind of meet those different criterion? So ended up building that organization out in college. Once I started doing that, it was like, oh my gosh, I'm in, started working on the backend, working with different venues, different festivals, different audio engineering teams, different bands, things like that, and then started playing in my own band, and that band ended up having a lot of success and I was fortunate to now I get a tour in the country with them, so, yeah. Nice. Wow. Okay, so you go to college for an anthropology. While there, you start exploring interests and discover some side of the business. But alongside of all your schoolwork, you're searching for your tribe and an outlet for you to explore what you love music. And in doing that, realize an opportunity to create a community that brings musicians together. And I think that that is truly like still at the core. My favorite part about music and my favorite part about I think kind of going against the grain is I think the most important way to go against the grain. Is to do so with community still. I love music because every show is a communal event for the people in the audience. Every time that I get to play with my band, it's a communal event to be with five other people that I love and hold their dear to my heart. And so if you're going against the social norm, it feels a lot better to do that with other people that you're taking those risks with. Like I say all the time, I don't. I don't think I would've ever pursued a career in music had I not had a band to do it with. A solo career was never of interest to me I wanted to work with an agency with other agents at one point, right when I was figuring out and thinking about the business side of music as a viable option. So yeah, I do think that the community aspect of just having other people to do it with and having other people that you can share in the experience of, oh, this is, this is different than. Going outta college and getting a nine to five somewhere. Right. So can you walk us through that process? You're coming outta college. I'm imagining you have this choice of what to do, and one is the traditional nine to five path, the other is not. How did that look for you? Yeah, it was honestly out of my own control in some ways. I had a very much a nine to five thing lined up for the majority of my senior year. I was gonna be doing some arts development work and for a company in San Antonio, and I was very excited. It was through a fellowship program, fellowship program, lost funding, and I wasn't able to do some of the nine to five, that that specific job didn't end up getting posted that I thought was gonna, that was said that I was gonna have posted for a long time. And with that company, and that was like about two weeks before graduation. Wow. So definitely took the rug from under me when I was the senior. But right around that same time, the group that I had been playing with all my senior year started getting requests and opportunities to play music outside of our hometown we were getting asked to play in Indianapolis, getting to play in Chicago, places like that. And so. You know, the gears started turning of like, all right, maybe, maybe it's time to look for something and try and create something a little bit more unique. And when else am I gonna have kind of the freedom and the flexibility to explore this with no real, real stakes outside of time? Mm-hmm. And time sacrificed. So, yeah, that was how I ended up, pursuing the musical side. And I, I always knew that I wanted to end up there. I just didn't know how I was gonna take that initial step. I thought that when I was gonna be in San Antonio, I was gonna be working. With an arts development company. And eventually that would lead me into music, right? I would be able to meet those people and then it was, oh, I guess if I play music I'll meet the people in the music world and the music industry that might, that might also be a viable option now. So that's how I fell into that. And like I said, I was able to very quickly find like a remote job that was great and has helped support me as I've tr transitioned into doing more and more music. And that job has been just so, so incredible. So, yeah, I think that. I think that while going against the grain, it's also important to remember why a lot of people do go with the grain and the importance of doing that at times and being willing to sacrifice some, maybe some of the freedom of the offbeat personality and on the offbeat career path or just in general to still say, okay, it's worth sticking with some parts, going with the grain in order to create a more full and robust version of yourself and opportunities outside of that. Yeah. Yeah, that's a great point. In some ways some of the grains exist for a reason. A healthy, absolutely. society and Yeah, yeah. Yeah. Nine to five like is still a really good schedule. You get more sleep, you wake up with the sun, right? You go to bed with the salad. I go there. Definitely A lot of pros to it, you know? I think, yeah, that was always something that was important to me was even as like choosing a career path that was a little bit more off the beaten path. It was still, all right, what are the, what are some of the ways that still make sense, right? Mm-hmm. That I should still try and incorporate that in my life. Like, yeah, why not have a little bit of both. So right now you have a remote job, but really it's primarily to support you so that you can. Do the the, yeah. The band I touring. Yeah. It gives me the lifestyle that I want. Yeah. Yeah. It gives me the lifestyle that I want. I was fortunate, I think, to co to grow up in a time period with the pandemic, a awful as that was to be in college when the pandemic hit. It, it just really reframed remote work is something that I liked doing and just gave me a lot more flexibility to do. Both the nine to five and my own thing, right, is if, if I have the remote job, I can flex hours a lot more. I can do it from anywhere, right? Mm-hmm. And have those options. And that was something that immediately was like, all right, I really like this because I know that I like having kind of the freedom and the flexibility to do my own thing and live life in the fullest, in my own way. But this is something that seems a lot more appealing to try and have a remote job that fits that in. And then. Able to do that with touring really, really well, which is very nice. Mm-hmm. Yeah. So when you tell people what you do, the touring, the band Yeah. What's their reaction? That's a question. Or the range of reactions. Yeah. I think for some people it's really fascinating right away. I think for most people it's interesting. Definitely. Right? Like, I think they hear about it. I think, and it's just different right there. It's a job that. It's a job that simultaneously people understand really well and can very easily visualize, right? Mm-hmm. Like when I tell people I play guitar professionally and get paid to tour and do all that, they can very easily picture me standing on a stage playing a guitar, right? Right. There's, there's an, an behind me, there's a guitar in my hand, there's a singer to my right, there's a bass player to my left, right? Like you, you can understand that. But simultaneously people don't also know the lifestyle. So there's a lot of questions still that people have. And then the other one is just like the level of seriousness, right? Like when we were first take taking time to say, we're a band, you're, you're a college band, you're practicing in a garage, people have questions, you're playing at your college bar and not like a real venue. And then, and to some people, that's what it is. And then we would like, they would say, oh, that's really fun. That's cute, right? That you're doing this, this is awesome. And then eventually you're like, oh no, actually. This is how I pay my rent now. Right? Mm-hmm. And this is how certain things, I think some people develop a more serious, you know, they take it more seriously, if you will. I think that that's that's been one of the interesting things is to see some people, it takes them finding out a little bit more about the degree that we're doing it to take it seriously versus others are immediately bought in and curious and really supportive. But for some people there, there is a healthy dose of skepticism, which is mm-hmm. Probably fair in a lot of ways. But then, it's like we're signed, we're, if you Google, like, you can Google us there's a lot there. It's like, oh, this is real, right? Like, I think that's a common reaction. I do get a lot of just like, oh, you're like actually in a band, right? Not like you're in a band. It's like, oh no, you're real. And like I, we always joke of like, you know, if you put out new music or if you release a music video or something. When someone hits you with the compliment of oh, you guys are actually really good. I listened to your music and you, I actually liked it. And you're like, you realize that that's kind of a backhanded compliment, but at the same time it's so much more genuine because you know that they were going in with a healthy dose of skepticism and actually did like it. So, you know, it's like, oh, sweet. Like you, you did, we did do our job and we won you over, but, and you believe us now. But it's still is like, okay, like it's still a bad kind of compliment at times. So I think that, that, those are some of the reactions often. Yeah. Well, what I didn't hear there that I thought I would hear is a reaction of how are you gonna make a living doing that? How are you gonna make that work for you? Yeah, totally. I think some people have, but you know, I, once I described. The healthiness and the balance that I've gone about it with both the remote job, but then also like the fact that, you know, we take it really seriously and that there's so much that it is offering and supporting us and like our bass player he doesn't need another job. This is his job right now. And that's, but once people see that there is a level of like, okay, sweet. I get it. Like that it, that does work for you and you know. We do have enough, I think, credibility under our belts now to where that's not typically the response. Mm-hmm. People are more just caught off guard by like, oh, that's funny. I haven't met a lot of people that do that. Seriously. Right. Yeah. Yeah. Well that's good. It sounds like, although catching by surprise, still supportive and not'cause because one of my hypotheses is that when we go against the grain, we hear a response from people that unintentionally to them might hold us back. Like Totally. You're never gonna be able to make a living doing that. And then you get in your head with that and it festers, but it's, I I definitely think I, I think I did initially more really. Right. I, I think we're fortunate that we're at the place now to where that's not nearly as common. But initially, there were enough questions to where it was like, oh yeah, am I making the right choice by doing this? I'm not too sure. Mm-hmm. I also think that I had the advantage of being 22 when I start, I'm 25 now, but being 22 when this career choice started and you know, in 22 there is a little bit of, I think life flexibility of oh, you're allowed three years to screw up. Five years to screw up and still can restart as a 27-year-old or a 30-year-old. And it's not like, oh, you've you're pursuing a band as a 30 5-year-old with a kid, right? That, that was not my scenario. So I think that. I think I was really fortunate in that way where it's like, okay, there was a lot of flexibility. Yeah. And a little bit of a grace gr starting it in a grace period more. Yeah. Yeah. Was there ever a moment where you did wonder, am I making the right choice? Oh, yeah. How did you get through that? That's a great question. I think the, just the people in the band that you're in, right? Like it's a very, it is its own microorganism of a community, right? Of five people that you rely on, that you're, that you literally co-own a business with, right? Six FB Entertainment. LLC is, we're all six partners in that, right? We have shared property together, but then also I think the weird part about music is you, you work with people to create a really strong and personal motive bond, right? And in order to write music authentically and honestly, you have to share a lot with it. And even when there were definitely a lot of doubts in my mind, that feeling and that like kind of loyalty and connectivity to them was definitely something that. I didn't wanna sacrifice. Right. Yeah. Despite certain moments like that was really meaningful. And then eventually, you start having those kinds of connections with an audience. Mm-hmm. And you start realizing that people are using your shows for community or listening to your music to get you through, to get them through hard times. And ultimately, those started really. I think drawing me to always wanna stay with it and know that it was like at that point a little bit bigger than myself and my own career interests. Right? There were five other people and now more than that, that had a vested interest in my stake in the whole thing. Yeah. So that kind of got me through. And I love playing guitar like Yeah. To do, to love playing guitar. Yeah. Like simple as that. I really love doing that. So that kind of. It's pretty hard to turn that down always. Yeah. Yeah. So tell us a little bit about your band. The group is called Six Foot Blonde, our lead singer. She is a six foot blonde, and the whole idea was to subvert the narrative of what people normally assume a six foot blonde is or should be. And give her the own independence to take ownership of that. And then, it was also, it was a really great way to empower her, which is always really fun. Where a six piece indie rock, indie pop band. From Bloomington originally. Now we're based outta Chicago. And yeah, we all met accidentally. It was just gonna be a for fun thing my senior year of college. And then eventually it started gaining a following in school and more and more people started showing up to shows. And then we got asked to play in Indy. And when we played in Indy, despite my best guess, people showed up too there and don't know how they heard of us, but they had heard of us. Started coming out more and that just expanded regionally to Chicago and did like our first mini tour in 2023 and then did our first national tour in 2024. And then 2025 had been on a national tour throughout, released a record in 2024, our first record. And yeah it just started spiraling. It's a very, it's a fun group of people. It's a very dynamic live show and that's really. I think a lot of our focus is to really bring community through the live side especially in a world that feels a lot more disjointed and mm-hmm. Disconnected and online. Right. I grew up in a very online age. Um. To be a, to be at a concert is one of the least online and most present things you can do. Yeah. So we definitely have a really strong live show and connection to the live show. Yeah. And it's, it's just so much fun. It is. It's a family of people, right? You spend countless hours in a band together. You get really, really close. There are pretty much no conversational topics that are off limits. You see people in the best of times and the worst times. It's a group of people that I really love because they're very attentive and they take a lot of care of me and encourage each other to take a lot of care of them and do the band in a healthy way. Going back to your earlier question, I think of like why people aren't as skeptical or meet it with this negative responses. Like we're really responsible band in that we don't fit a lot of musical stereotypes of play, hard party, hard rockstar things. That's not our goal is to be musicians that have a sustainable income. Playing music and playing music with each other and supporting each other and taking care of each other on the road. So, a lot of people will go on, runs together. We'll all try and cook vegan food or vegetarian food together on the road and make sure that everyone is having a good time and checking in and not, not trying to live in extremes with that. Yeah, yeah, yeah. Where where would someone find you? What's the website? Yeah. Or the website is six foot blonde.com. If you just Google Six Foot Blonde Instagram, TikTok, Facebook. Okay. Spotify, apple Music title. I mean, we're everywhere at this point. Yeah. I'll drop some links in the show notes for people. Oh, that'd be awesome to appreciate that. Make it easy for him. Cool. Yeah. Yeah. And then we're, odds are high that we'll be at a show near you at some point, so, yeah. Yeah. It's always, we're always moving around there. So I'd love to dig into some of the beliefs that you have Yeah. That might have led you down this path. Are there certain beliefs that you hold that you leaned into as a way of living out your life this way? Yeah, absolutely. There are a couple of parables and just anecdotes that kinda led me to believe a lot of things and obviously some incredible people. I think the first was knowing the importance of doing what I loved and for me as a person, it was really easy to work hard. At things that I loved. It was really hard to work hard at things that I did not care about. Yeah, right. I loved English and social studies even as an eight, as an 8-year-old and then as a high schooler, and that was not hard to read those books. And even when they were long and thick in class, it was really fun to write those essays. I really enjoyed it. I hated math. I would not do homework, right? Like it was like that level of just like it. If I didn't love it, it was hard, so I knew. In order to get the best out of me, both for the people that I'm working with in the future, like I have to do something that I love. Mm-hmm. Um, but I didn't know to what extent that could be. Right. Is it, do I love 20% of this job and therefore I love enough of it to put effort in, or do I love a hundred percent. And I remember going to college, I had a professor Glen Gas, who was a music history professor, and specifically he was a rock history. I did get a minor in music in school, so I picked it up a little bit later down the road. But he was a rock history professor specifically, and he went to school originally for Com music composition and classical music. But when he was growing up, he was peak Beatlemania and he loved the Beatles more than anything in the world. And he became the world's foremost expert on the Beatles. He knows Ringo Star, he knows Paul McCartney. Like he just did that, right? Because he loved the Beatles so much as a kid and loved that music, and that music meant the world to him. And then he decided to teach generations of people about the Beatles and how important they were. And I love The Beatles too. Not nearly as much as him and that, but what was so important about that class was seeing like firsthand an example of someone that loves something so much and said, you know what? I'm gonna make this work. Right. Never in his life did he work because he loved that The Beatles so much. Right. And then made that his job. And that was just the most mindboggling experience and the person that I actually started the music organization with in college, he and I really met in that class and we were both shared, like the inspiration of, oh my gosh, Glen is so inspiring in that he just is a constant epitome of this is why you should work, to do what you love, and worked really hard to do what you love. And so that, that was really, really inspiring. And that became a doctrine of just like I will absolutely. Find something that is meaningful to me, and that has to be how I spend my life and how I do my work. Mm-hmm. And make sure that that level of living and living intentionally is present. And then on, on the flip side of that, I think something that my mom always talked about and described was like this idea of being a leaf in the wind and like really enjoying being a leaf in the wind and like letting life take you where it's gonna take you. You know, you can't have too much control. To quote the Beatles, right. John Lennon was, the whole thing of life is what happens when you're busy making other plans. Like I think that that's really true of if you try and if you try and choose your direction too much you're gonna miss out on a lot of really busy things. Right? Right. Like, and so that's, I don't, I think going against the grain sometimes is not necessarily going with the grain, but just letting other pieces of life Oh, explore that interestingly. But I think one of the things about that leaf metaphor that I always really loved that my mom and I would talk about was. This idea of you can be a leaf in the wind only if you're strong and disciplined in a healthy leaf and not a leaf that is crumbling, right? If you're a leaf in fall, that is dead and decaying. If you're a leaf in the wind, you're not gonna be a leaf in the wind for really long, right? Life's not gonna take you a lot of places'cause you're gonna crumble immediately. But if you're a green spring leaf that's really fresh and really well kept, you can float for a really long time in the breeze. And you can go all kinds of places. So I think that that's another philosophy of going against the grain that I think it's not just about. Always being a contrarian or mm-hmm. Having a discipline of just exploring, it's like I need to be really disciplined and hyperfocused to make sure that I'm healthy in the day to day. Yeah. And taking care of myself so I can let life take me where I want to go. If I want to be a professional musician and see how that career ends up, I also have to make sure that I'm taking care of myself mentally so I can think about music in the best way. I have to make sure. That as a band member, in order to be the best band member for my people, I have to practice individually all the time. Yeah. So I can become a better guitar player. Um, I think, and that's something that's really stood out to me of just I love letting life happen, but I also know that in order for me to enjoy it the most, I have to be independent, disciplined. Yeah. Um, and still have to maintain a strong sense of my own self. But in a way that is not necessarily against the grain, right? Mm-hmm. Sometimes it's about taking a remote job and making sure that I have finances taken care of so I can let opportunities happen, right? And things like that. So, right. I think that's one of that's a philosophy that stuck with me a lot as I've gotten more. Yeah, I love that. As you were talking about, focusing in on what you love to do. I found myself thinking how many families out there? Are raising their kids in a way that's like, just do it. Like focus in on what you love, like really hone in on what you love versus, go down this career path or this education path to then get your degree to go do this job. And, you know. Totally. Yeah. And I, I think I told people this often with music. I got. I got exceptionally lucky to figure out what it was that I loved early on. Mm, mm-hmm. Right. I think a lot of people, it takes a long time, right? Yeah. It takes a long time. And I was fortunate enough to be raised in a house with a professor who loved what she studied and you know, that made a huge difference seeing my mom all the time doing what she loved, you know, I was fortunate to see that and she was, she had relative stability through doing what she loved. You know, I didn't grow up in a house where I saw the negatives of someone that did what they loved and couldn't let things go because of that. Right. Or didn't create a good home environment. Right. My mom could work to create a good home environment, and so that was something that I think I was really fortunate about. I think that it is harder to just say, do what you love and see the fruitful actions when you're raising somebody or encouraging somebody to do that. Um, so I got lucky and I know that I'm very fortunate in that way. I think that that contributed to me being where I'm at now. Mm-hmm. But yeah, I do think it is still really important to, no matter where you're at in life, always be thinking about what do I love? Yeah. Right. And how do I get more of that in my life? Yeah. Maybe you love your person, right? Maybe you love your partner. Maybe you really love your dog. Maybe you really love to cook. How do you get more of that and have a really healthy relationship with it? Right? Yeah. I think that's something that people don't, that is a lot more easily perceivable than necessarily saying, oh, you have make a career in what you love. Right? Yeah. Yeah. Absolutely. And then the other, the leaf in the wind that feels a lot like letting go of control and just allowing for for life to lead you down the path. And, you shared a key moment when two weeks before graduation life threw you a curve ball and life kinda had other plans for me. Yeah, for sure. And, but I think that. If you're open to that, right? Like you have to be open to letting that happen and not try and force your way into a worse situation, as a response. Yeah. Yeah, yeah. And I can imagine, one way to respond to that is to kind of spiral, like, now what am I gonna do? And instead of just like, okay, well this is what it is and now I'm just gonna. Move forward and, and don't worry, I had my week of spiraling. Okay. For sure. Yeah. That was not it. I was not a time understandable night of decision. Yeah. But it's a week, you know, not like a year and, you know, just letting it totally fester, I guess. Yeah. And then I love the idea of the green leaf, versus a leaf that's crumbling and, and really taking responsibility for yourself and. Yeah. Yeah, I, yeah, I think that like, I really do believe that like in order to be the best version of yourself, whether you're going against the grain or whether you're really pushing to do something that is very, very normal and very typical, and doing that in the best way, it's like you have to take care of. Being healthy in every capacity and every facet that that comes first and foremost for sure. Absolutely. Yeah. Yeah. So one of the things that I learned in Season one of Purpose Project is that to live a life of purpose, it's about an alignment. And the alignment is, understanding who you are and, and your actions being in alignment with who you are. And then those actions being a way of making a difference in the world. Mm-hmm. And so season three is really about that first part of the alignment on understanding who I am and showing up in a way that's authentic to who I am. Yeah, I, when I hear your story, Elliott, I hear a lot of, a lot of that, of this like living in alignment with I know what I love to do and I'm gonna pursue that. Yeah. Are there moments though when you feel like you're out of alignment Totally. I think that that's, that's always gonna happen, right? Sometimes beyond your control. I think it's, I think it's more about how you respond to identify that, oh, that's not, you know, it's okay when that happens, but it's like, oh, that wasn't, that wasn't really who I am. I don't want to keep doing that. Right? Um, how do I, how do I get back to my core? How do I center myself? How do I regulate and kind of self-assess a lot? Um, I think that that's something that I try and do a lot. Right? Especially. Being on the road is hard. It's really, really fun. But it's really hard because I always describe it as like you, a lot of people's best nights of the year when they go to a concert, right. And they get that five, five times a year. If you go to a lot of concerts, I get that five times a week when I'm touring, right? Yeah. You know, it's like, and then for a month and sometimes two months, right? Like you get a pretty constant sense of gratification of that. And, you know, I don't think. I don't play music to be self gratified. Um, so I, you know, like that's an just an example of like, that's not why music is fun, is for, is not is to me, it's the community that makes it really fun. It's the space between the musicians, it's the emotive expression and not necessarily like the, the excitement of like, oh, I'm around a bunch of people that are buzzing, singing lyrics. You know, there's a lot of that. Right. And that's. Yeah. Like, yeah. Yeah. I have to check myself, right, of just like, yeah. Oh, the crowd wasn't big tonight, man, this is awful. Like this. Like we, we didn't do as well in Philly as I thought we were gonna do. Right. That's not why you do it. Right. You don't do it to have a thousand people come out. Right. So like there are moments like that where I definitely have to just remind myself of like, okay, who are you? Mm-hmm. Reassess. Why are you doing this? Was this still a positive experience? Yeah, it absolutely was. I had a. I had a friend that I met, um, and right before our first tour, and they described this like the first national tour we did. And I remember going to that tour, it was really, really interesting because it was all self-book. We were independent at that time. We weren't signed to any agent or label or anything like that. And we, it was gonna be really fun where it was like, all right, I'm going into this tour and this will either be the first tour and only tour that I ever do, and therefore that's a really unique experience. Or it's gonna be the launching pad. Right. You know, a year out. Looking back on that, that was totally the launching patent. It's how we met our agent. It's how we made a lot of fans. It's went to a bunch of new cities and sold a lot of tickets and did really well. But one thing that that friend told me like a couple weeks before that tour started, they, I remember looking at me and being like, you get to do this. You never have to, you always get to, and that like, and that experience has like been something that's like, I'm like, I want that to be a core part of myself. Yeah, not, not ever any of the other elements. And so that's something that I always try and check in on of like, oh, have I thought about that? I get to do this Uhhuh. Like if it's been like a month since I thought that I get to do this, that's probably not good. You know, I should try and think about that pretty regularly, right? Yeah. So when you feel like out of alignment, how do you know? How? I feel worse. Yeah, right. Feeling I guess, that you get Yeah, I think that it's, yeah, it's a lot more negativity. It's easier to be upset by things, right? Like it's easy to lose perspective, it's easy to get pissed off here and there, a little annoyed about things. Don't have that big of a deal. Right? Like if I, if I get upset that we're late to a soundcheck, even though we had a five hour drive. Mm-hmm. And, you know, I'm worried about the flow of this or that something about the day is wrong. It's like that, that's not hurting anybody. That's not a big deal. Right. Like, why am I upset about this? It's like, oh, probably because there are other things that I'm not aligned with. Yeah. Right. That, that's going on more, more seriously. Yeah. So checking in with how you're feeling and listening Yeah. And listening to it. Yeah. And, and talking to other people. A huge thing that I always try and do when I'm on the road is talk to and call, like after soundcheck, like I always, I, I, I run a lot, so I like to go on a run after soundcheck and then call, um, someone that's not at all connected to. My life professionally. Right? Like some of my best friends are in cities, thousands of miles away. My sister lives in Hawaii. Yeah. She's very much not in the music world. Right. Um, I, I like to check in on that because I think that's a good reminder and a good perspective moment of like, oh, you're, you're not who you are right now. You're not who you need to be. And so I think having other people in your life that can kind of keep you, keep you honest is always important. Yeah. And even when you're feeling good and bad, checking with them regularly because then that kind of establishes a little bit of homeostasis in not only your friendship with them, but how they know you. Right. And so they're gonna be able to call you out when you're doing good or bad, right? Yep. Absolutely. I think that's the important. Don't call friends when you're good. Don't call friends when you're bad. Just call your friends. Always. Love it. That's, that's a big, that's a big belief of mine. Yeah. That's awesome. So, let's take advice for someone out there wanting to pursue something, that goes against the grain, but they're, they're worried about going against the grain. Any advice for that person? Yeah, start small, but be consistent. I think that that is. The number one way of like, don't, don't be extreme, be realistic. I see so many people, they're like, oh, I want to be a professional musician. I'm not though, so I'm not gonna do it. Or like, oh, like how come I'm not playing to a hundred people? Or how come I'm not playing to a thousand people yet? Right. Why do I only have 10,000 monthly listeners on Spotify? It's like, no, that's start small. Like why of any, any initial start is good. And I think the importance of those are staying consistent and staying, staying true to yourself. And like consistency is also what makes you better at things. Um, way more than just, you know, doing things once or twice and making a really big effort push to go against the social norm. Like, you know, I think that's the challenge for a lot of people is it's, it's really fun when they get inspired, but then it's how do you keep the stoke on that fire going or how do you keep stoking that inspiration? Right. Um, so I think the consistency is really the important part and mm-hmm. That's, you know, that goes back to, I think, the discipline side of, you gotta be a healthy leaf, but can be disciplined enough to stay consistent and to still feel prepared and really good for those things. And then I think when more and more opportunities come, then if you've been consistent, you'll, you'll do better. Right. An analogy that we talk about a lot in the music industry right now, especially with social media, a lot more bands have the potential to blow up from just a marketing side of things, right? Like you can get discovered on for, for a viral video that you posted from your bedroom. And if you're not doing that consistently, if you just got lucky, like people have seen that all the time, where the, where that video is just a moment, right? Of someone that's not done that regularly for years, they're not ready. And so it doesn't go well. Even when they have all the opportunity in the platform to launch into a full career versus someone that, you know, has toured for a long time or practiced every day and spent that time really, really consistently building it up. You know, that career is a lot more sustainable because that person kind of knows what they're getting themselves into. Um, so yeah, I think that that's the biggest form of advice and just be forgiving, but be honest. Right. I think that that's another really important thing is just to. Be honest when you're not doing enough. Right. Okay. If you, if you want more to, if you really do want to go against the social grain, it's gonna take a lot of work, right. Um, yeah. Right. Like it's part of why social norms exist is because a lot of the times it's the path at least common resistance or, or the least amount of resistance. Um. So I think that being, being honest of like, am I putting in enough is important, but like be forgiving. You're not always gonna be able to be putting in enough. Right. Right. I don't ever, you know, I've never put put a hundred percent in, from three and a half years of being a professional musician. I have not put a hundred percent in every day. Right. Right. Yeah. That's totally part of it. Mm-hmm. So I hear you talked a lot about consistency and um, that makes a lot of sense. And, but what's going on in my mind is like, what do you do the days when you just don't feel like putting in, or it feels like it's a slug, and how do you stay consistent at, at all times? Yeah. Um, I think it's really important to remember that you're not always gonna be consistent at all times of just like, mm-hmm. Oh, yeah. Like some days you're not gonna feel it, but knowing the difference between a day where you're like, all right, I actually can't do anything. Right. I do not need to play guitar today. I have played guitar for three months straight for five hours a day, or two hours a day, depending on two. Right? Like, I don't need to play guitar today. I am kind of burnt out. That's okay. But the days where it's like, yeah, no, I've been playing guitar enough. I, I don't need to right now. That's, that's a bad day. That those are the days that I think you kind of have to revert and do better. Um, so I think that that's like a, that's like the challenge. And then I think just like looking to other sources of inspiration, right? If I'm not feeling inspired personally, right? If I can't just look at my instrument, pick it up and feel like I wanna play something on it, do read a, read a book. Re watch, watch a TV show. Look at pictures of places that are just really, really beautiful in the world, and what inspires you about them. Listen to some of your favorite artists read, like, listen to some podcasts that are really inspiring. Like, that's honestly like a, a huge part of why I wanted to do this was I like a huge source of inspiration for me as a musician. Was listening to some of my favorite musicians on podcasts. Talk about some of the strategies that they use to break out of slumps or practice routines and things like that. You, you can always find inspiration, I think, if you're willing to look for it. Right. I think a lot of inspirational drought comes from when you're not even willing to look for inspiration. Yeah. So I think that's always something that I try and remind myself to do when I'm not feeling consistent is have I actually looked for inspiration that day? Mm-hmm. Right. And that's that responsibility side. The green leaf side is, yeah. You know? Exactly. Yeah. And I think too, like, you know, having, I think having consistency in other aspects of your life is also really important. Um, yeah. You know, success compounds is something that is very, very apparent to me. The, the more, the more deep I get into the musical world and the older I get, the more I see of successful habits compound, right? So like I try and run every day. That's, if I can do that, I can probably start. That definitely impacts how I practice guitar every day, right? Mm-hmm. Or like, I try and write out certain things and certain goals each week, and if I can keep doing that every week. Whether that's related to, you know what, this week like I really don't wanna spend any money on going out to eat. Right. If I can meet that goal, then I'm probably gonna be a lot more likely to meet some of the other goals than going against the grain. Yeah. Nice. Yeah. Love it. Yeah, absolutely. Any other things that you'd like to share with our audience? Oh man. Listen to music. Share music with people, go to shows. Um, I think that it is one of the most beautifully founded communities and roots of people. Whether you're looking for experiences and finding communities that are against the grain. Music is a really, really incredible place to find that. Whether you're looking for large crowds and excitement, music is an incredible place to find it. Or if you're looking to sit alone and cry to a record, music is like. Of the best places. I think that, I think I, I do truly believe that, and that's definitely my favorite part of my job is getting to see how music connects people and centers people and grounds people. So I think that I will always encourage people to have a deeper, and to try and create deeper relationships with music in their life. Love it. Love it. Yeah. Anything else? Listen to the purpose projects. That's the other one. I think that it's a really, I think it's a really cool thing to try and be intentional and add a lot of purpose, right? I think going against the grain often is about trying to look for purpose and trying to look for what you really find. And that's, um, yeah. I, I I think that's where a lot of people fall short is it gets really easy outta certain point in life to be like, eh, I don't really wanna look anymore Uhhuh. No, that's not fulfilling. Just you kind of gotta always keep looking, doesn't mean you have to be, yeah. Uber aggressive about it or ruin your life or tell yourself that you have a bad life if you don't have it. Mm-hmm. But just keep looking in every way. Right. What brings you joy? Try and try and explore that. Love it. Love it. Well, Elliott, thank you for being on Purpose project and for going against the grain, and thank you for having me and, um, bringing your music out into the world. Thank you so much. I really appreciate it and really, really enjoyed just all of the intent behind the project that you're giving. It's, it is really special and beautiful. So. Yeah. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you for having me. Yeah, absolutely. Yay.

Leslie: 41:48

As I reflect on this conversation with Elliott, there are two things that really stand out for me. The first is. The sense of responsibility that Elliott takes. He talks about keeping himself well, it's keeping that leaf bright and green so that it can flow throughout our lives journey. The other thing that stands out for me is it's never just about the thing, and for Elliott, the thing is playing guitar, which he loves to do, but it's, it's not just about that. It's about something so much bigger. It's about creating a sense of community and creating a connection between the audience and the music. Living the beat of our drum isn't just about doing what we love, it's about understanding why it matters and who it matters for. Elliott, thank you for being on Purpose Project, and thanks to all of you for tuning in. Keep listening to your beat and taking responsibility for where it leads you. Purpose Project is brought to you for education and for entertainment purposes. This podcast is not intended to replace the advice that you would receive from a licensed therapist or doctor or any other qualified professional.