Long, long ago, in a far away land, a percussion enthusiast was masquerading as a coffee bean merchant…
Ok, ok. Let’s be real.
This ‘far away land’ was, you guessed it, Melbourne, and this ‘merchant’ wasn’t masquerading at all.
Surprise, surprise, it was me! And everyone knew full well that drums were my life.
I mean, it was pretty obvious.
As you walked into my 200sqm warehouse, and before you saw anything ‘Rumble Coffee’ related, you were greeted by my full kit, set up in all its glory.
And what a sight, too!
Let’s just say my business partners were VERY tolerant.
And just to make sure we cover our bases here, for those that don’t know, alongside my 27yr journey on the drums, I also built up and ran a couple of very successful businesses in the coffee industry, which served me quite well.
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My introduction to hospitality started very young, when I was just 11yrs old. A full 2 years before I’d even picked up my first pair of drum sticks.
This came about as my grandparents owned a café (Robert Harris) in Taupō, which is based in the central north island of New Zealand.
Due to its large lake, the snowy mountains close by, frequent sporting events etc, Taupo was a tourist hotspot and truly a magical place.
This constant flow of people through the city meant my grandparents’ café was always busy, and from the day I turned 11, I was there every weekend, clearing tables and washing dishes.
I remember the first couple of weeks being pretty rough. They started me on a hearty 5hrs both Saturday and Sunday, and man, come Sunday afternoon, I was absolutely cooked!
I even went over to my grandmother’s house one afternoon, not long after having started there, and demanded she reduce my hours as I had no time for a social life.
(Fancy that, thinking I had a social life at 11, haha).
Gaining this type of work ethic at such a young age, and through hospitality, ended up serving me extremely well over the coming years.
Firstly, as a young creative, no one wants to pay for your services because at that age you actually have no value yet.
So, working in an industry that doesn’t require a piece of paper to back you up, yet the skill can move you from business to business, city to city, and even country to country (which it did for me), was VERY handy.
Then secondly, in my late teens, I became a parent, and having that solid foundation of hospitality behind me made things much easier to navigate whilst I was pursuing my drumming. This was due to having a steady income.
Anyway, condensing my 20-year-plus hospitality arc into a single paragraph, it went like this –
Dishy to Barista
Barista to Head Barista
Head barista to Café Manager
Café Manager to Café Owner
Café Owner to Wholesale Coffee Roaster
Done. Phew! That was easy.
And all this whilst still pursuing my drumming to its fullest, too, as that was my true creative outlet. My purpose.
Tours, albums, sessions, teaching, content creation, I never stopped pushing, as ‘stopping’ just never factored in.
If life threw something at me, I’d assess, and then crack the code to make it work.
Progress wasn’t optional. It was essential.
By the time I got to the Rumble Coffee chapter of my story, simultaneously, things were really starting to explode on the drumming front.
Just prior to this period, I had actually pulled back from gigs and touring in quite a major way. This was primarily due to wanting to spend more time with the family while my kids were young, but also meant I was able to focus on building up my coffee business, too.
Coincidentally, Facebook showed me a memory just today, on the 12th of February 2016, this very date, when I announced I was pulling back from touring –
That’s kind of crazy, right? Writing this newsletter and telling this story on the very day that I pulled back from touring. Weird.
Anyway, the byproduct of this decision was having MUCH more time to practice, which to be honest, I loved, and because I wasn’t playing many shows during this period, I started using social media as a way to cater to my ‘performance’ itch.
This period led to some pretty big discoveries with my single kick development, and my facility around the kit too.
I came up with unique and interesting ways to work on both of these areas, specifically, ways that I still teach to this day. They get results.
All my ‘drumming time’ in my late 20s and early 30s, was basically going 100% to practice. That’s it.
This then led to more and more success on social media, which led to greater support from the companies I endorsed, which in turn, got me to a wider audience.
Then came drum clinics and drum festival offers, more high profile ‘fill in’ shows, and then finally catching the attention of none other than Jared Falk himself, the CEO of Drumeo.
Jared reached out, asked me to come on Drumeo, and boom, the rest is history.
It’s that simple. A clear path almost.
As I had mentioned earlier, over this 20-year-arc, I taught drums, too. Sometimes this was more often than other times, but it was always in some shape or form.
During this initial online boom, I started getting teaching requests via my social media. Drummers from all over the world were asking me if I could teach them. It was fantastic!
The requests just started coming in, and I started facilitating them.
It was quite a great arrangement.
Anyway, one day I received a message from a ‘Joven’, based in the Philippines.
It was a brief message, but it basically stated that in a months’ time, Joven was going to be in Melbourne for a short visit with some friends, and was wondering if he could book a lesson with me.
This was a relatively normal request at that point and I replied saying, yes, absolutely.
We went back and forward a couple more times, locked in the details, and then left it there.
So a month passes by, and it’s now a Saturday at 12:59pm. Joven is (should be) moments away from arriving.
Sure enough, right on time, I get a knock at the door, and am greeted with a handshake by polite young Joven.
In the message exchange leading up to this, Joven had expressed he was looking for some help with his single kick and ‘chops’, but was also interested in some of the lifestyle concepts I talked about and shared online.
This is about 7 or 8 yrs ago now, but even back then I was already heavily integrating my personal philosophy and beliefs in my content. Things such as the benefits of early mornings, exercise, showing up daily, being consistent etc etc.
That’s a lot to try to cover in an hour, but as my goal is to always deliver as much value as possible, I would certainly do my best.
Now, like with all my lessons, and to break the ice, I would walk my students over to my espresso machine, and make them a coffee of choice.
I had been a barista for years prior to this, and did all the barista training for my wholesale customers, too.
This training included every aspect of making coffee (I actually wrote the training program), as well as a heavy focus on latte art – because people are such visual creatures.
Joven asked for a latte, to which I obliged.
I grabbed the steamed milk jug, gave it a swirl, and ever so carefully slotted back into my previous life, and poured out your quintessential Rosetta design, onto his coffee.
Needless to say, Joven was VERY impressed.
Great! We got off to a good start.
Whilst enjoying our coffees, and making small talk, I asked “what kit do you have back home?”.
Joven told me about his acoustic Pearl kit, which he uses for gigs and teaching etc, but also mentioned (as a side note), that he had just sold his electric kit.
I asked him what E-Kit he had, and why he decided to sell it. That’s when the hammer dropped…
Joven said, “I had a Roland but sold it, so I could come here”.
Hang on, what? Did I hear that correctly?
I replied, “what do you mean you sold it to come here?”
You see, Joven had flown over with some friends, so I assumed what he meant was he sold E-Kit, so he could afford a holiday with his friends.
But no, that was not the case…
He then said, “I sold it, so I could come get a lesson from you.”
“What!!! Come again???”
I said, “You’re meaning to tell me you sold your E-Kit so you could fly all the way to Melbourne for a lesson, with me?”
“Yes”, said Joven.
Wow. Ok. Hold the phone. We may need to reassess the situation here.
I had Joven booked in for 60minutes, but given what he had just told me, there was absolutely no way I was going to only give him just 1 hour.
I was floored by all this, to say the least.
I then said to Joven, “Ok man, well since you’ve made all this effort to get here, we’re going to go deep man. Forget the clock. Let’s just make sure you get exactly what you came for. We’re going in”
Joven was over the moon.
We started with a 20minute chat, to get on the level, and to make a long story short, essentially what came out is Joven was feeling unmotivated, was lacking creativity, and was basically just a bit lost.
And what’s interesting about this, is, by all metrics, he was a successful, full-time drummer.
He played in two corporate bands, had an original band, had 30 students on his roster, had a girlfriend, but even with all this, felt completely uninspired every time he sat behind the kit, and basically, in turn, wasn’t enjoying his life situation either.
Not a good place to be.
So, where to begin…
Well, at the time, I was indoor rowing a lot.
I had a Concept 2 indoor rower in one of the rooms, and use to row 21kms, most days.
I’ll say too, as a little ‘fyi’ for you all, in all my years of experience, the indoor rower is hands down the best bang for your buck, when it comes to overall health. I swear by them.
I took Joven and over to the rower and basically gave him a rundown on the benefits of daily exercise, how it impacts your mental health, your creativity, your physical health, your confidence, your self-worth… literally EVERYTHING.
I then put him on the rower for 10 minutes, showed him the correct form and technique, and told him that the moment he got back home, he needed to join a gym, or find a rower. He agreed.
Alright, next…
We went over to the practice pad, I assessed his playing, and then proceeded to give him a full mechanics reset, making sure we did not leave any stone unturned.
He was a good player, he had good feel, but was lacking dynamics and control. A common problem.
We worked through it all, piece by piece, as dynamics and control can only truly be attained by breaking things down to the basics, and starting again.
With this, I wrote him a full plan to work on daily. He agreed.
We then spent some time on his doubles, his single kick technique, and then moved on to facility, or ‘chops’. I serioulsy gave him enough information to keep him busy for the next 6 years! Ha
This was all well and good, but there was still the problem of him not actually feeling that inspired to play. He was worried once he got home, nothing would happen.
His creative juices were completely shot.
I asked Joven to come join me at the communal table we had at the roastery, as I had some hard truths to lay out.
Basically, I told him that he had caused this issue by over-commoditising his creative outlet. (Also a common problem).
In the pursuit of being a ‘full-time’ drummer, and by taking on all these students and corporate work, he had now taken on so much ‘work’ that he no longer enjoyed playing.
His ‘creativity pool’ was all dried up.
Now this may seem obvious as you read it, I get it, but for Joven, this idea was a revelation.
He then said, “but what should I do then?”
I said, “If your creativity is the most important thing to you, and your ‘love for the craft’, then you need to cut your students in half (at least), drop one (if not both) corporate bands, and you need to go and supplement your income through other means.
“Doing what?”, he said.
Whatever it takes, man. I don’t care. Do café work, labour work, pouring drinks at a bar, anything. Figure it out, and make it work.
Your priority, with supplementing, is –
A. Pay your bills, and
B. Nurturing your creativity
It’s that simple.
We ended up spending 4 hours together that afternoon, and at no extra cost either. It was the least I could do.
Joven left with lots on his mind, and potentially some pretty big life decisions to make. Exciting times.
So, 5 months went by, and to be honest, aside from the odd thought here and there, I hadn’t really thought much about Joven. Life just continued on, as it does.
Then one day, out of the blue, I get a reply from him, and it read like this…
“Dear Stan,
I just want to reach out to let you know that I took your advice, and the moment I got back home I made some hard, but necessary changes.
I quit both corporate bands, I cut my students down to 10, and I took up some work at a local restaurant during the day.
This has been a game changer as I now look forward to playing the drums again, and in general, life feels much better.
I also joined a gym, have been going daily, and feel amazing. It’s fair to say I’m in the best shape of my life. 🙂
My original band is now doing better too, as I’m much more focused, 10x more inspired, and generally the morale is just better.
And to top it all off, I am now engaged to my girlfriend, and we are getting married next summer!
So I just wanted to say thanks for everything, as none of this would have happened had we not had our conversation. I was too deep in my routine to see any way out.
Take care.
All the best,
Joven”
Wow. What a read, right?
But just think, what if I was wrong??? Haha. What if he made all these changes, based on my suggestions, and it all turned to custard and he was now unhappier than ever???
Geez. Thank god that didn’t happen. Phew!
There are no guaranteed solutions here, with any of this sort of stuff, but you have to at least try, right? Otherwise you’ll never know.
You have to ask yourself what’s important to you, be honest, and then make any and all necessary adjustments.
Joven did exactly that, and his life went to the next level.
I truly think that in most cases, adjustments like this would get similar results, but I think it comes down to the ego, and whether it can handle the idea and/or the perception of those types of changes.
People put a lot of weight and value on how they are perceived by others, even when those ‘others’ actually have nothing to do with their development of personal progress.
Essentially, it’s none of their business, yet we still care. Odd, right?
It’s all just perception and opinions at the end of the day, and we need to just be strong, and let it all go.
It’s time to be free.
Remember, sometimes you can’t just think outside the box, you actually need to remove yourself from it completely to gain true perspective.
And when you do, you never know, your life TOO might just go to that ‘next level’. Actually, I’m sure it will.
So ask yourself –
Have You Boxed Yourself In?
Food for thought.
Stay Hungry, see you next week.
Stan
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