ODS Mastermind: Juggling Multiple Passions and Evolving Through The Pandemic

If you’re anything like me, you’ll understand that when it comes to music and entertainment, you’re never short of passions and curiosity in the industry. And with that, comes the question of how to juggle and grow all of these passions. Scott Brio recently came onto Open Door Sessions Mastermind to talk about the hundreds of passions that he has been growing from childhood to his present life. He walked us through how his life journey took him to where he is at now, as an AV director at one of San Francisco’s most well-known nightclub and special event spaces, Halcyon.

Scott has always been involved with music with his friends growing up in Chico. It all started with them rapping and making music together even though they never had any beats that would go with them. It was only natural that he decided to start making those beats for his friend groups when he was only about 19-20 years old and at this point he realized early on that he already had a passion in the music industry. After graduating college, Scott started his first job working an AV position at a hotel. Over the years of moving up the ranks and becoming a director, he had already started to learn so much in audio, visual and music, especially since a majority of his job required him to run huge conferences with microphones, speakers and projectors.

Neon Owl Open Door Sessions Mastermind Scott Brio

After a few years of working at the hotel, Scott wanted to move on and try to find something that he truly wanted to set his heart to. He began working at a recording studio which also led to invaluable experience, but soon he realized that there just isn’t a lot of money in this kind of service anymore because everyone is more likely to be recording at home nowadays. He then started working at one of San Francisco’s larger venues, The Midway, where they are constantly hosting all kinds of music and art events. This eventually led to his current position working at Halcyon SF as their AV director.

Outside of work, Scott has numerous personal projects going on all the time. He jokingly describes the reason being his “ADHD brain” but the way I see it is that when you have so many interests at one time, it’s hard to put them all away and just focus on one. On the side, Scott runs a podcast called Voice of Electronic Music, a mixing and mastering business called Dance Diamond Mastering, a Youtube channel, along with DJing, producing, and doing video creation. One of the reasons that he has always loved creating is that he had always wanted to be able to look back on his life one day and be proud of his progress and journey. He also prides in the fact that he has opened so many opportunities to meet like-minded individuals in the music industry through his Podcast. Many of these projects are still running to this day, but some have actually had to be on pause for a moment due to the COVID-19 pandemic.

Due to the quarantine during the pandemic, Scott had put his podcast on hold because he was recording quite a bit with his access at Halcyon prior. He did a few podcasts over Zoom but otherwise there were too many obstacles and rules to navigate around to do them regularly at Halcyon. In the time being, he did take much of the time to enjoy other hobbies like video games, cars, and crypto, while also putting more time into revamping his website and playing with his studio hardware. Scott also shared a bit about how the pandemic also impacted Halcyon.

The pandemic was a very strange time for everyone in the nightlife industry. For Halcyon, it was a very challenging and nerve-racking time. There were often times he thought that they wouldn’t be making it through the pandemic. The doors had closed and there were several months where no one even went into the place. It didn’t help that delivery times were so slow that it caused even more delays and some longer shifts. By about 7 days before the reopening, they practically had a non-functioning nightclub with nothing on and things broken. After a huge push, they were able to have everything working 2 days before the reopening. It was a very rigorous time but Scott wholeheartedly says he would not have chosen a better crew to go through the pandemic with.

With everything reopening and opportunities back on the rise, Scott is in no doubt going back to continuing building his career and passions. One advice he has when juggling many passions is to focus on what you’re most interested in and decide what you want to grow. “What you focus on, grows” is a concept that he stands by and has written on his little sticky note reminders in his studio. Ultimately, Scott’s goal is to prioritize what he finds most important while still retaining as much of a normal life as he can. For up-and-coming artists, he also advises living by these traits for building longevity: tenacity, devotion, and authenticity. And lastly, if you’re looking to be booked in venues such as Halcyon, focus not only on your talent, but also on giving back to the community. For instance, be a part of the local scene! You can do this by attending the events, connecting, and making it a part of your life. You can also find ways to give back to the community by creating the avenue yourself like hosting your own events or being involved with digital media. Everyone has infinite good ideas and infinite avenues to achieve their goals. Just don’t get stuck in the details and allow yourself to be aggressive about moving forward!

Open Door Sessions is a branch of Neon Owl that focuses on bringing the music community together to CONNECT, CREATE, and ELEVATE. We host in person and virtual music industry networking events, education talks, demo listening parties and showcases. If you are curious about attending one of our future Open Door Sessions events, you can sign up for our e-mail list or check here for the next upcoming event. If you would like to learn more about the Open Door Sessions Mastermind program where we help artists level up to get seen, heard, and signed faster, e-mail [email protected] for more information or to get on the waitlist.