Serik Slobodskoy:
Once you get it to that professional caliber and are able to just approach every idea from this professional standpoint, you have commercial viability, you have polish, you've got shine, you've got all that good stuff. That still doesn't mean that your song is going to convey emotion and resonate with people. And so sometimes having different people for different types of feedback can be really helpful for me.

Michael Walker:
It's easy to get lost in today's music industry with constantly changing technology and where anyone with a computer can release their own music. I'm going to share with you why this is the best time to be an independent musician and it's only getting better. If you have high quality music, but you just don't know the best way to promote yourself so that you can reach the right people, generate sustainable income with your music.

Michael Walker:
We're going to show you the best strategies that we're using right now to reach millions of new listeners every month without spending 10 hours a day on social media. We're creating a revolution of today's music industry, and this is your invitation to join me. I'm your host, Michael Walker. All right. I'm excited to be here today with Serik, A.K.A. Hyperbits. Serik is a world class producer who's produced for industry giants like Beyonce, Nick Jonas, Tove Lo, as well as being supported by some of the world's biggest artists like the Chainsmokers.

Michael Walker:
His music personally has been streamed over 52 million times. But even more impressively, he's taken his knowledge and he's really been able to pass it forward and really serve and help a ton of producers to get their music streamed over a billion times on Spotify alone. And so, his artists that he's worked with, his producers have worked with nearly every prominent DJ like Schrillex, David Guetta, and tons more. And so, this is a guy who has personal experience being successful with his own production and also taking that knowledge and being able to pass it forward in a huge way.

Michael Walker:
So, I'm really excited to connect with them today and be able to geek out a little bit on... For anyone who's listening or watching this right now, as an independent musician and or producer, what are some of the most important tips and tricks and things that they should take into account when it comes to building successful music career and really honing their craft? So, Serik, thanks so much for taking the time to be here today.

Serik Slobodskoy:
Yeah, pumped to be here, man. And you're coming out firing and not a you're coming right after it for the serious questions here. As far as tips and tricks, I actually have a mentality that I don't really believe that there's any sort of one individual thing that's going to make that big of a difference. And actually, this is just through my own experience. When I first started making music on a computer, I struggled so much.

Serik Slobodskoy:
I had been in bands before, so I was like, "Man, I know how to compose. I know how to write, but why does my stuff not sound as professional and as good as everything that I'm listening to?" And I got pretty lucky because one of my coworkers at the time, his college buddies is Chris Zane, who's the producer of Passion Pit, and Friendly Fires, and Holy Ghosts, and a bunch of super big artists. And this was at the height of Passion Pit's success. This is like 2010, 2011 or something.

Serik Slobodskoy:
And so, I got to connect with him and send him some of my music. And he basically was just like, "Dude, it's okay if I wasn't doing this for a friend, I probably would've just listened and moved on." And I was just like, "Ooh, ouch. Tough start." But he basically went on to say a few things that I've really embodied. And one of those was that there is no one thing, there is no one tip or trick that can make your music sound incredible.

Serik Slobodskoy:
It's actually a combination of hundreds, maybe even thousands of just tiny little maneuvers and tips and tricks I guess that all do add up into something special. And when I thought about that, I was like, damn, he's basically saying that he's been producing for 10 years. 10 years, and just starting to get good.

Serik Slobodskoy:
And I was like, wow, maybe music production isn't about forcing your way into anything. It's more just about acquiring all of those little tiny details and just letting that thing build up over time. And then through the process of finishing music, you start to come up with something special.

Michael Walker:
That's so good. Yeah, and it makes a lot of sense to it. It seems like this one thing that comes up a lot when I'm talking with people like you who have invested the time and honed their craft and achieved the master in something is that they're reluctant to talk too much about tactics or hacks or tricks. Because those things can be interesting and fun, but ultimately, it's really usually the fundamentals.

Michael Walker:
It's usually the things that are so normal that you just got to go deep on. And it sounds like what you're saying is that it's really a collection of a lot of things that you can pick up. It's not necessarily one or two big things that's going to really move the needle. So, that being said, what would you say are some of the biggest, you just brought up one of them, maybe a misconception when it comes to...

Michael Walker:
Let's say that we're speaking to an artist who is here right now, who is where you were at when you approached your friend, where you've started to get your chops together, but maybe you're still pretty early on. And you're listening, you're like, "Yeah, I think this sounds pretty awesome." But at the same time it doesn't sound professional like the other things I'm listening to, what's missing? How can I reach that point? What do you think are some of the biggest stakes or challenges that you see artists struggling with when it comes to just getting started?

Serik Slobodskoy:
I think a lot of people think that you can sit down and create this idea and maybe it doesn't match quite up to their standards or whatever. They think that they can just keep tweaking it, and fiddling with it, and manipulating it, and spending months and months trying to change this idea or tweak this idea so that it gets to be professional.

Serik Slobodskoy:
And I actually don't believe that at all. I think that what I'm a big proponent of is quantity over quality. Meaning you're going to achieve quality through quantity. I think you should be finishing a song every single week. Because it's through the practice of finishing and getting into the habit of doing this more and more often that you'll develop those professional habits and professional tendencies in this song.

Serik Slobodskoy:
And sometimes I feel like people believe that artists go into this hole and then they come out with this album and that's what we're supposed to do. It's like they're actually trying consistently and creating thousands of songs and we're just hearing the 10 or 20 that get released on the album. And I think a good analogy or a good way to think about it outside of music is what short story writer is going to do a better job.

Serik Slobodskoy:
The one who wrote one short story in the course of a year, or the dude who wrote 365 short stories every single day wrote one new story? I really think at the end of that year, that person who's been practicing it every single day is going to come out a better writer than the one who just kept fiddling on one story the whole time.

Michael Walker:
That's such a good answer. And for relief too. I feel like for a lot of us as musicians, there's this feeling of, I don't know, perfectionism or we really want to keep tweaking or ituring on something to a point that we get sick of the song. So, giving yourself permission, so okay, enough is enough. I'm going to put this out and keep moving on. And keeping that flow going, seems like something that could be relief

Serik Slobodskoy:
I think there's this misconception that spending more time on something is going to make it better. But think about all those times when you sat down to write something and it just flowed out of you. And sometimes it happens five minutes and you're like, "Whoa, did I even write that?" And you even have to check the melodies. I've heard this before or something. It has nothing to do with how much more time you spend on things. I think most things in life you can get better and better at them the more time you spend at them.

Serik Slobodskoy:
So, people think that's going to be the case in music, but it's not always the case. And that doesn't mean that there isn't occasionally a moment where you need to spend more time on a song to get it right or something. But generally speaking, you come up with one idea, spending six months on that one idea isn't going to result in that much of a better end result than spending a week on it or two weeks or whatever.

Michael Walker:
It's a great lesson. Yeah, it's like the law of diminishing returns. Where it's at a certain point, the more time they spend on it, you just get diminishing returns and you might be better off doing what you're saying. Just moving on to the next one so you don't get those diminished returns. When you're talking about that quantity versus quality, there's a study that I heard at one point about a teacher who taught a pottery class and was essentially testing that exact model that you're talking about quantity versus quality. Have you heard of that study?

Serik Slobodskoy:
No, I'm super fascinated about it.

Michael Walker:
Yeah. So, I'll give a brief synopsis of it. But essentially it was just a study that proved exactly what you're saying. And there's a teacher who is teaching pottery and he split up the class into two different segments. And he had one half of the class focus the whole semester on perfecting this one pot and just making it as perfect of a pot as possible. They could take as much time as they wanted and a crazy amount of their grade was based on this one project. And then the other half they said, create as many as possible and we're just going to choose one at the end that we grade you on the final product.

Michael Walker:
And they found that the second group that did it based on quantity, it was leaps and bounds above the other group that was just focused on perfecting that one. Because they had so much practice at crafting these pots that have just turned-out way better. It's probably been a year or so since I've seen that study, so I might have a little bit. But for anyone who wanted, just watch it. If you could Google it, everybody you could find it and check it out.

Serik Slobodskoy:
Yeah, first thing I'm going to do after this interview is Google this to this study, because that goes right in line with what I believe and what I've experienced. And it also meant you casually quickly said, "Oh, it takes the pressure off." It does. Imagine just being in that class, a guy nervous thinking about this one pot. What if you mess it up? What if it's just not the best starting point? That first pot is just, I don't know, there seems to be so much more pressure in that than being able to, I don't know, just separate out how many attempts you get at.

Serik Slobodskoy:
And in music, I think a lot of times people put a lot of pressure on themselves. One, it's at the end of the day, we're actually just doing this because it's fun. It's actually not that high pressure. We're not running into burning buildings and saving children. We're not doing something that's necessary to some degree for society. And I think that lack of pressure is what makes music so chill and such a good time and fun.

Michael Walker:
Yeah, that's a really good point. And I'd love to dig a little bit more into that too, because that's something that I see a lot is people who really drag their feet. And they don't want to put out their first album, for example, because they're just waiting for the right moments. So, they want to have the perfect release strategy or they think that they need to have all these things in place before they put out their first album. But what would your advice be for someone who maybe they want to pursue their music career more seriously?

Michael Walker:
And if at that stage where they want to start releasing something and they're planning a new release, how would you recommend that they consider their production and their music? What's that balance point of quantity, getting it out the door, just creating as much as possible, versus pulling back and thinking, okay, I do want to do this and I want to perfect my strategy?

Serik Slobodskoy:
Yeah, that's a tough question because I think that at the end of the day, you can't force your music out onto the world. It does have to be some sort of a response back. I think the analogy that I've come across, I actually forget where this is from, but it's putting something into a note into a bottle out to the sea, and then you just keep putting them out there. And then, eventually they come back to you in the form of maybe a record deal or in the form of a concert or a gig or something.

Serik Slobodskoy:
But you basically can't release everything that you've ever created, but you do have to find some form of way to determine what's getting the best results. And so for me, the way that I go about this is, is that I have a trusted, very small, kind of tight knit group of people that I can rely on for some feedback. So, this is very different from hosting on forums, for example, or submitting your track to some sort of listening party or something.

Serik Slobodskoy:
Because those people can have a completely different agenda and don't necessarily always know what it is that I'm even trying to accomplish, or maybe they're just into different styles or something like that. And that doesn't mean you can't get valuable bits of feedback from individuals like that. But generally speaking, I want somebody who knows production but can also step back and be objectively, "Hey, I'm listening to the song. I'm not telling you to tweak your kick drum or something."

Serik Slobodskoy:
Because honestly, I've found that the mixing stuff, once you get it to that professional caliber and are able to just approach every idea from this professional standpoint, you have commercial viability, you have polish, you've got shine, you've got all that good stuff, that still doesn't mean that your song is going to convey emotion and resonate with people. And so, sometimes having different people for different types of feedback can be really helpful for me.

Michael Walker:
All right, let's take a quick break from the podcast. So, I can tell you about a free special offer that we're doing right now exclusively for our podcast listeners. So, if you get a ton of value from the show, but you want to take your music career to the next level, connect with the community of driven musicians and connect with the music mentors directly that we have on this podcast. Or if you just want to know the best way to market your music and grow an audience right now, then this is going to be perfect for you.

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Michael Walker:
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Serik Slobodskoy:
I don't know if that totally answers your question.

Michael Walker:
Yeah, no, that's super helpful. It sounds like what you're saying is that it's truly important to be intentional with who you surround yourself with and the kind of feedback that you get. And to really curate a group that you can rely on to be able to share these things so they can get feedback without necessarily having to put in the time the energy and just throw it out to everybody. In that way you can have a little bit of a filter to decide, okay, what songs do I want to lean a little bit more into and release publicly?

Michael Walker:
So, the followup question of that, because I think I hear that over and over again. And I know in my own life that's been one of the most important things is figuring out how to surround myself with people that are smarter than I am, cooler than I am, just better than I am in whatever areas I want to improve in. It's find those people and try to nudge myself next to them and connect with them.

Michael Walker:
So, the question is then what would you recommend for someone who maybe they don't have a close friend or close connection yet who is like a role model for them that they can personally connect with, but they want to start building that peer group? What are some good starting points to be able to start surround themselves with the right people?

Serik Slobodskoy:
I think that most things in life that are worth pursuing or doing do take time. And there isn't necessarily a fast way to garner an incredible network or to have these reliable people in your life. I think it all starts, for me, and I hope this isn't too roundabout answer, but for me it all starts with being a genuine human and just showing interest in other people. And if you come at somebody and say, I need feedback, I need help, I need something from you.

Serik Slobodskoy:
My initial response is to pull back and be like, "Hey, I don't know you yet, man. Chill. Why would I provide that for you?" Whereas if you come at them and say, "Hey, I've really loved some of your music. I would be so amazed at learning something that you've created. Here's all my skill sets, here's things that I can provide to you." I'll start to listen a little bit more and I'll start to be aware of, hey, this is a person that maybe I can connect with.

Serik Slobodskoy:
So, building a relationship takes intention and takes that individual touchpoint. There's no way to just outsource this or develop it without being a genuine human to other people. And so, it's a slow process or it can be, and there's some things you can do to speed it up, like joining a mentorship program or finding like-minded people in a specific community. There's lots of ways to find those communities. But I think at the end of the day, it really boils down to just being like, "Hey, I want to reach out to this human being. Give them love and attention, hear them out." And then you can form those relationships as-

Michael Walker:
Absolutely. Yep, that's a great answer. And this another thing that I hear, one of the things I'm so grateful for is just having this platform where I get to connect with people like you and a ton of successful people. Because the things they start to say, there's patterns, there's patterns to success. And one of the patterns is everyone says exactly what you're talking about is you have to show up and just focus on providing value and serving.

Michael Walker:
It's not necessarily the thing that comes intuitively. Because as humans, it's easy to think about ourselves and think about me and what can I take from this, what can I get from this? But if you can flip the script and you can really think about the other person and what do they find valuable and how can I serve them and how can I provide value?

Michael Walker:
Then it sounds like what you're saying that's really the best way to approach building a relationship. It's not necessarily a quick and easy type of thing. But if you just show up and be a genuine person and focus on providing value, then it does tend to come back to you over time.

Serik Slobodskoy:
Yeah, totally. You do a great job of summarizing my answers with better vocabulary, more articulate. Yeah, good stuff.

Michael Walker:
No, I could just be a mirror and just refresh exactly what you're saying. But awesome. It seems like one thing that you've honed your craft, you've invested the time and the energy to be able to become incredibly skilled in your domain. And having invested that time, you've also brought up how it is possible to spend less time and get better results if you're focused on doing the things in a smaller time that lead to greater results as well.

Michael Walker:
So, I guess I'm curious in terms of the main goal of creating high quality music and improving my production, of course there's not necessarily a hack where it's like, tomorrow you're going to wake up, just be amazing. But I'm curious what you think are really some of the best habits? Or what do you think are the things that are big time savers for someone who's listening to this right now?

Michael Walker:
One person could spend 20 years trying to do this and they wouldn't be successful, but if this other person really put their head down and just focused on doing the X, Y, Z, it might take a fraction of the time. What do you think are some of those habits that are worth pursuing?

Serik Slobodskoy:
I think that deadlines are one of the most underrated... And it's a very simplistic answer, but how many people actually treat music production like a job with firm deadlines, with accountability. There's something about, okay, you give yourself an arbitrary deadline and then you don't meet it and there's no repercussions and then you're less likely to stick to that. But if you join an accountability group of some sort or have another buddy in which you're just meeting once a week to share music or something, you have a habit of getting those deadlines actually met.

Serik Slobodskoy:
I feel like that really, really just help you grow and help you get better faster. And it's not just about meeting those deadlines, it's actually taking feedback and then implementing it and trying to improve each time that you sit down doing something. It doesn't necessarily have to be focusing on all the different things all at once. Hey, if you're working on a track every week, maybe this song, you focus a little bit more on sound design.

Serik Slobodskoy:
Maybe the next one you focus a little bit more on, I don't know, manipulating LFOs or something. And then the next week you finish or you just focus on the mastering section or the mix. But you don't have to do all of these things at once, but over time they will start to add up into something as long as you are getting feedback and then implementing it and trying to improve each week.

Serik Slobodskoy:
So, deadlines and accountability is probably the thing that jumps out at me most. But the other thing that jumps out at me is just this idea that you don't need to do everything from scratch. And I'm sure that a lot of people have, I don't know, come on to this podcast and just talked about how these samples exist for a reason and there's nothing wrong with using them. It's like guitarists don't try to reinvent guitars every time they use them. And so, why do music producers, electronic music producers try to feel the need to invent a new sound every single time they sit down?

Serik Slobodskoy:
It just seems a little unnecessary. And yeah, I just think that on the sample front and on the sound design front, you can use sounds that exist. You can even steal chord progressions, you can borrow tons of information from people and it'll still be yours. It'll still be, at the end of the day, something that's unique to you as long as you're manipulating it, tweaking it. And I think a lot of this stuff comes from Austin Cleon, steal Like an artist.

Serik Slobodskoy:
One of the most impactful books I've ever read. It just put into words that everything is a remix. There is no such thing as an original idea. And if you do want to get original, you can just study your influencers. If you love an artist, who influenced him? And then you start looking at it and you're like, wow, there's eight different artists here that I didn't even know. And you start borrowing a little bit from all these different guys and it formulates your sound. But yeah, this idea that you have to recreate the wheel or whatever that expression is each time is just so unnecessary.

Michael Walker:
That's super helpful. And it is interesting because, well you just talked about, goes along with a book that I just finished reading by this guy Spinoza and he had a book called Ethics and this was a book from the 1700. So, it was pretty dense and it was hard to get to.

Serik Slobodskoy:
Nice. Dig deep.

Michael Walker:
Albert Einstein was like, when he was asked about his religious beliefs, he said, I believe in the God Spinoza, and Spinoza is like of philosopher. But the bottom line is that one of his main takeaways in the book was that everything has a cause. And that the cause also has a cause and there's this infinite chain of causes. And so, as humans, we're really good at creating stories or explaining things that we don't understand the causes of.

Michael Walker:
When we didn't understand the sun, we were like, "Oh, there's Hermes that would carry the sun across." So, we're good at creating these stories. But ultimately, everything has a cause. So, to your point about influences, as artists, we feel like we need to create something totally new and original that's never existed before. But the truth is that we don't live in a vacuum. We live as a part of nature and a part of the universe and everything.

Michael Walker:
Who we are is because of our parents and because of our culture and society and there are causes to everything. And so, it really is true that you don't have to create something new that exists outside the bounds of life as we know it. But you can take these different things and recreate them. You can take two different parties and have a baby together and create something new from that baby. That's both the other things, but it's also something new as a baby. And it takes a lot of pressure off because maybe you can have a little bit more freedom to play and just explore, "Oh I love that idea. I'm going to do something like that in my own."

Serik Slobodskoy:
Yeah, totally. That opens the door for me into things like predeterminism and all sorts of concepts that probably cannot talk about on this podcast today. But it does open the door to a lot of different things. Actually there's this quote that I think this is relevant, but one of my former students who is my go-to human being for all things spiritual, he's the first person I reach out to. He's just a spiritually brilliant and woke person. His name is Ashish, his artist project's called Sheshe.

Serik Slobodskoy:
But he just posted this on his Instagram the other day. And he just wrote, "People allow every passing thought or emotion to influence their behavior with no investigation and call it being authentic. Believing every story your mind creates is not authenticity, it's disassociation. Real authenticity is the silent presence underneath all of our stories." Just hinting at, right? It's a good one, but he's getting out.

Serik Slobodskoy:
We assign stories to so many things and we don't need to do that. And if you just look at the music process as this non-judgment free zone, you can have a lot of fun and play with a lot of different avenues. And it's just so much lighter and less serious that way. I hope that makes sense, but I think it does.

Michael Walker:
Totally makes sense. I feel like I might have to go follow your friend. Because that quote was like, dang man got goosebumps. Awesome. Gosh, where can we go from here? So, I guess what are some other things that you found that maybe along the lines of what we just talked about there, stories or beliefs that people might have that you see coming up? Or maybe our misconceptions or things that are holding them back when it comes to being "authentic" or really expressing themselves and having fun in a way that allows them to also move towards their goals. What do you think are some of the biggest obstacles or mistakes that are making?

Serik Slobodskoy:
I feel like a lot of people claim to be open to feedback but actually aren't. And they get very defensive and feel like it's attacking their ego. Again, this isn't everybody. I've just seen a lot of this where you try to be helpful and you try to offer feedback and then somebody gets super almost angry or defensive. And that doesn't mean that you also have to listen to all feedback. You can totally just ignore it sometimes.

Serik Slobodskoy:
But truly being open to receiving this information is completely different than being guarded and uptight. Even just talking about these different kind of states convey a completely different emotion. And I think, yeah, if you can come into making music with this curiosity, this less sense of self almost, like this ego not driving the decision making. A lot of times I think the music answers things for me. I don't always create stuff in my head and then try to get it out.

Serik Slobodskoy:
Sometimes I just play with sounds and then it does talking for me. It does the writing for me in a way. We've all had those happy accidents from making music where it's just you accidentally moved something or played the wrong chord and you're like, whoa, that was way better than what I was going to come up with. So, who came up with that? And it was an accident. So, did you come up with it or did it just exist and you just happen to stumble on it? I feel like the music does give you a lot of the answers if you just focus on that and let it come to you.

Michael Walker:
That's so true and it is something that you hear a lot from the greatest creators of all time is that when they're really in the flow, it's almost like they just have to get out of their own way. It's like they're plugged in, you're channeling something greater than them. And it's just coming through them and it's a state of being plugged in and being connected. So, it sounds like what you're saying is that we can get in our own way sometimes and overthink things.

Michael Walker:
And if you allow yourself to totally show up and have fun with it and let it happen through even if there's a mistake or something that can play with it. Super helpful. One thing that you had mentioned brought up a question around this idea of getting feedback and knowing how to digest that feedback in a way that's productive. And that can be such a challenge for all of us because we're humans. And especially our music, it can feel like it's so personal and it's about who we are.

Michael Walker:
And so, someone says, "I don't like that or it's not good." We're can't take that eternally and say, "I'm not good enough for it." And so, it makes sense that we can get defensive of it. But at the same time that that's how we learn and grow is through that kind of feedback. So, I guess when it comes to using feedback in a way that's constructive, how would you recommend that someone does take... Because there's different kinds of feedback too.

Michael Walker:
There might be, I don't know, a troll or someone like that, you suck, your music's terrible, I don't like you. And then there might be some really high-quality feedback from a successful role model or a mentor or someone that you might want to take a little bit more seriously. So, how would you recommend building a practice of intentionally getting the right kinds of feedback and knowing when it's a good kind of feedback and when it's not the right kind of feedback?

Serik Slobodskoy:
Yeah, I've seen some tough questions here. I think that search is something that we're always going to having to be conscious of. I don't know if there is necessarily always a correct answer. And definitely the trolls, first of all, just on the internet, when enough people exist at something, there's always just going to be slightly crazy people or just haters for whatever reason. I think we all know intuitively to ignore that.

Serik Slobodskoy:
But I think when it comes from a place of going back to my earlier point about being genuine, when you get feedback that feels like somebody took the time and really is trying to offer you some sort of wisdom. Or took the time really was careful with their words, I think we all have some sort of intuitive sense of hey, that's the type of stuff that I want to surround myself with. And then we've all had this dismissive feedback where it's like, hey, yeah, its good man, but it wasn't digging this section.

Serik Slobodskoy:
If somebody didn't put enough that much effort into feedback, then why would I listen to that to begin with? Also doesn't mean that you can't pick up on trends if you do open it up to a lot of people and still take that into account. But generally speaking, I do believe that we have this intuitive sense. And not just in feedback, this kind of goes more almost into human connection and relationships. Do you feel good listening to this person? Do you feel good talking to them?

Serik Slobodskoy:
And that's been my sort almost like metric for navigating relationships in life. All types of relationships is, hey, after I speak to you and spend time with you, do I feel better or do I feel worse? If I feel worse, I'm not going to surround myself with that person. Seems to have gotten me into some pretty good networks of humans. That's like my guiding principle.

Michael Walker:
It's great lesson. It's great too that it's so simple, but it's also something that it takes awareness or it takes consciousness to stay focused on how am I really feeling after talking to this person? And it's almost insane to not separate yourself away from people who bring you down or who you don't feel good after you connect with them or they're toxic in some way. But obviously, it's not always that easy to people who are in abusive relationships or they're in some sort toxic relationships.

Michael Walker:
Sometimes they feel like they get something out of it. So, maybe we could talk a little bit... I know before when we were kind in the green room before we started this and we talked a little bit about health and about your cold plunges that you're doing and whatnot. And yeah, I think that kind of stuff is really kind of at the foundation of how we feel as human beings.

Michael Walker:
And how we are able to relate with other people as well is a lot of times if we're not sleeping well or eating well or just physically, we're not taking care of ourselves, then that comes across and we just don't feel very good. So, maybe we can talk a little bit about this fundamental piece to it that's really about just being a healthy overall human and how that plays into your craft and your music and everything else. I know it's not necessarily what you're probably expected coming into this.

Serik Slobodskoy:
Yeah, no, let me see if I can speak to that a little bit. And honestly, I'd love to hear your thoughts about it too. But I think that a lot of artists have a little bit of that self-destructive mentality. And then there's this weird belief that you have to be miserable to create real art or that things are going to pour out of you when you're a little bit more broken or in pain or something. And I don't subscribe to that at all.

Serik Slobodskoy:
And that's not to say that when you're heartbroken or something's wrong with in your life that you can't pour out that emotion into a song. But I think you can still tap into that stuff even when you're in a healthy state if you have even a little bit of empathy and understanding of where all of that stuff came from. And so for me, my health practices come first before anything. Because I can't show up as an artist, or as an instructor, or a business owner, unless I'm operating out close to my optimal level.

Serik Slobodskoy:
The worst version of me who's tired and didn't sleep well and isn't exercising, that version sucks sometimes. It's pretty irritable. I don't think most people want to be around that version of me. So, I try to optimize my life as much as I can so I can show up for other people. And the cold plunge is a little bit of just, I think, yeah, there are some physical benefits to it for sure. And it invigorates you, it wakes you up. It's really exciting to get in there and get out of there and it's very challenging.

Serik Slobodskoy:
But I think the coolest benefit to something like a cold plunge or cold exposure in general is that you're training your mind to stay and fight. So, if you have any sort of tendencies to be a little bit more of a fight or flight on the flight side of things, you run away from issues or you try to avoid things. When you get into that could plunge and it's set at 38 degrees and you're just sitting there, it is excruciatingly awful, honestly. It doesn't feel good in the moment. But you're training your mind and your brain to say, "Hey, I got this. I'm going to stay here."

Serik Slobodskoy:
And you actually build a little bit more like resistance and strength, I think. I've been doing this for about six to eight months or something along those lines, fairly consistently trying to go every day, but it probably ends up being four to five days a week. It's funneling into other aspects of my life where I can feel myself being a little bit more confident. I can feel myself showing up a little bit more and fighting in those other circumstances in life.

Michael Walker:
That's super interesting. Yeah, so there's both kind of the mental benefit of doing it. It's almost like weight training for your mind, for your mental muscle to show up and to lean into the discomfort. But at the same time, it's not just discomfort for discomfort's sake, but there actually is health benefits. There's a lot of studies that are going around to just how physically this actually invigorates our body. It makes us healthy.

Michael Walker:
I find that super interesting. I'd love to hear what you got to get that rig at your home. But I also want to speak to that point that you brought up that I think is so relevant. For a lot of musicians, it's this feeling that those negative emotions or those feelings, that those are necessary in order to create the art and create high quality art that we need to be broken to do that. Because that's just toxic of the belief to have. If you believe that, then you're going to hold onto that stuff and it's going to be resistant to let it go.

Michael Walker:
And that's not going to truly benefit you or the world if you're holding onto that. And the truth is, you can create amazing music from there, or you can create amazing music from being joyful and happy. It's just the music that you cerate's going to come out differently. Maybe you'll be sad and depressed and end in sad music if you're not feeling good.

Michael Walker:
How many examples are there of amazing musicians and artists that are creating from a state of pure joy? What a wonderful world is one of the greatest songs of all time. And I remember when I had my first kid and holding them in my arms. And that song suddenly clicked into gear for me, and there's so much joy and love that came out of it. And yeah, there's just different frequencies. There's different frequencies of creation that you can have.

Michael Walker:
And the truth is that you can create amazing music regardless of what your frequency you're at, but it's just more of a difference of how you feel personally in your relationships, what you're bringing to the world. And even your music has these ripple effects and it influences other people. You're literally, you're creating this ripple effect with your songs.

Michael Walker:
So, it is interesting how if you do that inner work that you're talking about, and you're able to heal and just become a healthier person overall, not only does that help you, but your music that comes out and the expression that you make that actually is going to ripple out to all of your audience. And so, your close connections and everyone too. So, it's pretty powerful thing to focus on.

Serik Slobodskoy:
Yeah, totally. And thank you for sharing all of that. Even that moment about your first son or first kid, I felt that. I felt that love and that excitement. And even something as simple as taking care of your kid, you can do a much better job if you take care of yourself first. It's like that oxygen mask analogy in the airplanes. You put it on yourself first and then you can help whoever.

Serik Slobodskoy:
But yeah, it doesn't change the fact that it's a never-ending struggle, a never-ending battle to keep your head up to stay positive. I think Winston Churchill, I believe said something along the lines of, "I'm an optimist because I see there to be no reason to be otherwise." Or something along those lines. If I had to choose, I'm going to choose to be happy every chance I get.

Serik Slobodskoy:
And yeah, I think as artists, we're already a little bit more emotional. We're already a little bit probably more sensitive. That's probably why we're drawn to art to begin with. So, I think it holds more true for artists maybe then I could have ever even imagined when I really thought about it.

Michael Walker:
That's so good. Yeah, that idea that, was it Henry Ford who said, "Whether do you think you can or can't, you're right." And the idea that you get to choose your beliefs and you get to choose whether you're an optimist or a pessimist. You can choose what you believe in. Whether you think you can or you can't, like it's going to ultimately change how you show up and what you do. So, reclaiming the ability to decide what our narrative is and reframe things seems like something that is really the root of being able to create real change in your own life is reframing who you are and being able to step into that.

Serik Slobodskoy:
Yeah, I love that, man. That's well said.

Michael Walker:
Cool. Anyways, so this conversation definitely went down a little bit of a different route than I was thinking, but I geek out about this stuff. And this is something that a lot of the people I connect with that are my mentors, and the people that I look up to, and the most successful people that I know. It seems like a lot of the stuff that we're talking about is a part of what made them great is really being able to focus on the core kind of inner work and how that ripples out.

Michael Walker:
So, I appreciate you geek it out with me and going down some of those paths and let's like get ready to wrap up the interview for today. Serik, thank you so much for taking the time to come on here and for doing what you do just in general. I think that it's one thing to achieve success yourself, which is awesome and you're able to make a huge impact doing that. But then also having the generosity to take what you learned and be able to create an even bigger ripple effect by helping other people make that same kind of impact.

Michael Walker:
It's pretty dang cool. Thank you for doing what you do. And for anyone who's listening or watching this right now who is interested in learning more and maybe improving their production or learning more about the communities that you've built and what you offer, what's the best place for them to go to dive deeper?

Serik Slobodskoy:
We run the Hyperbits Masterclass, which is essentially a lifetime mentorship program. It's pretty intensive, it offers a lot. But what I would recommend doing is actually just going to Hyperbits.com/free, and we have all sorts of just free resources. So, PDFs, learning tools, sample packs, workshops, or long form workshops where we go deep into very specific topics that you can just check out for free. And if things resonate with you, and if you have questions, just hit me up at Serik.hyperbits.com.

Serik Slobodskoy:
And yeah, feel free to contact us at any time. And if there's anything we can do to help your music and to help you gain that maybe last 30%, 20% of professionalism, if you're struggling with that specifically. That's probably the thing that I think we do more so than anything. So, yeah, just feel free to reach out and hopefully we can help.

Michael Walker:
Awesome. Yep. So, always, we'll put the links in the show notes for everything for easy access. And Serik, thanks again so much. It's been awesome.

Serik Slobodskoy:
Yeah, thank you, man. This is great.

Michael Walker:
Hey, it's Michael here. I hope that you got a ton of value at this episode. Make sure to check out the show notes to learn more about the guest today. And if you want to support the podcast, then there's a few ways to help us grow. First, if you hit subscribe, then I'll make sure you don't miss a new episode. Secondly, if you share it with your friends or on your social media, tag us that really helps us out. And third, best of all, if you believe it's an honest review, it's going to help us reach more musicians like you who want to take their music careers to the next level. It's time to be a modern musicians now, and I look forward to seeing you on our next episode.