welcome to daring to dream a show of hope inspiration and practical advice for living the life of your dreams i'm susie's by the end i work with people who are ready for transformation in their lives they may be in a transition between jobs or relationships or maybe changing their season of life as a transformation coach i help people get really clear about what they most desire what their true gifts are and how they can share those gifts with the world and once the dream is crystal clear i work with them to take action on their dream and make it happen do you have a long held dream that you've given up on or you've convinced yourself that you're just too old to pursue it or can never happen at this point in your life well we'll be talking to a man today who beat those odds and made his dream a reality at the age of fifty rick scott tino aka kid cock had a dream of living a tropical free flowing kind of lifestyle making and playing music full time with a home base in key west he finally took the plunge about a year ago and devoted himself full time to creating his dream his way and he's now living that dream at the age of fifty touring the country and releasing his first cd this fall now that staring to dream so stay tuned to find out how rick overcame the obstacles and created his dream life it just might inspire you to believe in your dream again and again taking action to make it happen if rick can do it so can you daring dreamer rick spent thirty years working as a graphic designer copywriter and business entrepreneur helping other people build successful businesses i met rick in two thousand and seven when i was starting my coaching practice and rick was looking for a coach to get some clarity around what he really wanted to do with his life the clarity came through our work together and his dream was to make a living as a musician and live in a beautiful tropical setting like key west it took six years and a lot of hard work to really reach the point of living that dream but he's doing it now and i'm very proud to have him on the show today welcome rick thank you sue thank you for being here on your world wide well national tour first ever glad to be here the timing is perfect so before we kind of get into what you're doing now i'd like for you to share a little bit of your journey of kind of where where you were and where where you were when we met in two thousand and seven and some of the things you were you were working with in trying to figure out and well i was  doing you know graphics and web development copywriting kind of a wide range of marketing stuff and my specialty was kind of working with start up companies you know people pretty much starting you know on their kitchen table or out of the woodshed you know and i had done something similar myself i had started a magazine a long time ago and ran that for about five years and which was she was in the music business yeah right and yeah and and it's funny because i you know i wanted to be musician and i saw that as a way into the business and i ended up doing a lot more music business and a lot less music playing right because i was so involved in magazine but it was fun and you know and it was an exciting life you know for the five years yeah yeah and so you know you were you were successful doing the work you were doing in graphic design and marketing in copywriting but you know when we met you there was a there was a feeling of dissatisfaction and really wanting to to get some clarity around what did you most want to do and how or how you were going to get there and you know i remember from from the beginning playing music was always part of the dream and something that you always kind of came back to in our talks about what you really wanted to make happen yeah i remember when we would talk i would kind of push it aside even in our conversations like you know i want to do this but the music business is it really doesn't it's dysfunctional it's not for me i'll just do a part time while i do other stuff right right and it was al let's make sure we work that in making time yeah he's it's a passionate least and i can you know he's had the sort of you know i can always tell that you sort of didn't agree with me and you like why not just do the music you  know like well because doesn't pay in the music business is gravy and it's right and you know another thing was you know i i spent all he is doing all this other stuff so i'm not quite as experienced as i should be now and i think he said something to the effect of you know it's it's not your job to figure out how to do it how to make it all happen it's your job to be the best musician you can be and show up and be ready he know exactly and i really took that to heart and you know i worked really really hard it singing and writing and learning what i needed to learn you know right right well i remember you know at that at that point during the time we worked together you were ready to make a move to another part of the country and we were trying to figure out what would be the best spot you know for particularly for music and and we're even iran iran member i was looking back at my notes i remember you were working on your song list you know and that was something i kept pushing you know it's like make sure you know like you have your song was down and you can perform whenever you have an opportunity and so  looking back at that time what do you feel like were some of the obstacles that that stood in your way from you making the decision to really go for your dream well the obviously obvious one always is you know having to pay the rent yeah you know you got to make money and and you you don't just step in the music business say here i am you know send me a paycheck you know so you know it just workaholic in that some time left over and that's what needed to happen exactly i need to i need to really focus all my spare time on being a musician right right and you know i know i know a lot of people out there kind of feel that way they feel trapped they feel like you know yeah sure i have this dream i want to be a musician or a photographer or you know whatever it may be but i have responsibilities you know i have to earn a living in so you know i can't i can't try to make that dream happen and the other interesting thing is i didn't sing until i was you know forty four something i eat every once in a loud squeak something out of microphone playing with a band as a harmony or something but as a front lead singer recording artist songwriter i didn't and and it's all because  the third summer beginning of fifth grade music teacher put my singing down it took me thirty five years to get over that interesting because i came out of that summer want to be michael jackson you know i discovered rock and roll music and you know i went back to music class and at the end of the first music class she pulls me aside and she was what happened used to sing so nice and it took me thirty five years to get over that yeah but i you know i think that happens to so many people you know when you're in school and and so clearly you know with that young age you that dream was there you know yeah it  became a passion instantly and i just one day i heard it you know yeah i heard was michael jackson or you know might have been donny osmond who knows i was you know in fifth grade at the time and right that's what i wanted to  and isn't it interesting how one calm it yes can squash a dream yes yeah yeah and so what finally allowed you to come back to that and take that risk of you know saying well maybe i need hands saying i had been in so many bands you know throughout the years that i'm a workaholic when it comes to the craft and i put in hundreds and thousands and thousands of hours into some of these acts learning crafting parts and then they break up you know because that's what happens the band you know if you don't think they missed the break up you do you get famous you break up you know right eventually but anyway so i finally said you know the only way i'm not going to break up is if i do it myself you know i do this if i can walk into a club with a guitar and sing the songs i don't need anybody else i'll never waste my time right you know right so i spent you know tens or is probably in the past seven years you know learning like one hundred fifty songs you know covers and writing you know i've got hours worth of original music some of it written with friends and you know collaborators all right but yeah i put a ton of time in so that how did you how did you get over that fear of that little voice saying you can't sing i think i just started to realize i can it just took a while when i moved to san diego which is where i went after the magazine i had wanted to live someplace nice in san diego just seemed to be the nicest place i could think of so right but when i moved there i found that every time every party people break out instruments and start singing it's just like in the movies you know california beach parties and parties everybody starts singing you know right so i really loved it i loved that whole sing along atmosphere ice and i had i hadn't known an acoustic guitar in many many years since i had learned when i was a little kid twelve years old so i bought an acoustic guitar and i started going to the singalongs at parties and sing and you know beatles songs and rolling stones song and stuff and i was like this is awesome it's like church to write you know i have a room full of people all sing at the same time is like church you know and so i that's kind of that kind got me into it that whole singalong atmosphere right so that kind of an environment gave you kind of a safe space to build your confidence to to know that you really you could saying yeah yeah you could perform yeah yeah and even you know that to be able to sing in a party with a bunch of people to sing along is one thing to be able to you know make a world class recording as a vocalist there's a whole other ball game and so many years of hard work you know yeah and i'm you know i'm kind of a do it yourself or so i didn't go and you know find a coach for boucle and stuff you know i've just been singing and singing and singing you know getting better and better and recording and really really helps because when you record oh my god i thought it was good right you know it began to work harder from right i got to be better i'm going to be better than this you know and i'm i finally get to the point where i can like watch a video of a show and not cringe you know and i'm a perfectionist and i'm really hard on myself and there's a lot of people said oh you have a great voice and stuff but now that i'm to the point where i'm happy with it and i can watch an entire formats and not really feel bad about any particular spot in it you know i feel really good about that right and you know it one thing i remember too and working with you was that you had a lot of interests and you had a lot of talents and you were you were brilliant at coming up with new business ideas and i know that that was difficult at one point to make a choice  yeah and how did you how did you work through that because i know you did explore several different side is it is sometimes the way you get on the right track is you get knocked off the wrong track over and over and over you know and i'm not a businessman i don't like red tape i don't like bureaucracy i don't like the things that go with having employees i don't like you know financial juggling and you know yeah i like a nice simple life i mean i spent the last year living in a cottage you know on the gulf of florida gulf of mexico in florida and you know very very simple life you know and that's how i like to it and you know interestingly i mean when when we first started working together one of your goals was financial security and you you had a dream  of being very successful financially like that was and so it's interesting that you were able to let go of that in one sense for now yeah you know and make a choice what's most important for me is to live a simple out uncomplicated life yeah i am i think i can have both you know yeah and i have all confidence that you know the financial security will come right you know i'm i'm not retirement oriented never have been yeah and now for the first time my life of that doesn't concern me because i can do what i do until the day i die we  right right you know if i can't sing i can play if i can't play i can write right you know so my sort of business plan right now is to is to become a great writer right and that's what's going to bring in the money it's always a songwriter that makes the money sure and i haven't written i've written much stuff but you know stuff that i've recorded the first two things i've recorded and have gotten the attention of some people are very impressed so i think you know with a few more years of songwriting experience i have no doubt that i'll be able to you know write songs that big artists will record but i think it's important that people you know understand that you can't go from you know zero to a thousand you know any deity you do have to make some choices of what's most important and i think a lot of people who that financial security and a certain level a certain standard of living is most important that's a serious trap because if you're not willing to for a period of time you know choose a simpler lifestyle it is going to be difficult to make a dramatic change in pursue your dreams so you know it comes down to what's most important to you  yeah right now the perfect example you know i am you know traveling the country and i'm a fairly unknown artist so it's not like i go you know and get up on the stage of paradise and walk away with a three thousand dollars paycheck you know i write you know the money i make put gas in my tank and food in my stomach gets me to the next show right and i understand that this year that's what it's about you know scrape by right lay the foundation you know yeah and then next year is going to be a lot different than and wh gave you the courage and the trust to take that plunge because that is you know like letting go of your businesses that continued to earn you money and just taking that flying to say i'm going for this like what did it take to get to that point it's you know it's a gradual process you have to you know you have to get a point were you confident that you can make some money doing the thing that you love right and it's funny because you know when i found you one of my goals was to be a coach but for self employed people as i said my specialty in marketing is people who start their own business right so i became a coach that gave me some extra income it took a little bit of time away from the marketing so i started doing something i was more interested in right to tell my clients you know the whole thing about do what you love in the money will follow it's kind of a myth you know really what you need to do is do something you're interested in and then make money and use the money to do something you love because that's what i was doing and i thought that was the right way to do it and it sort of was a good plan but then i you know i realized you can make money doing what you love so there was a things that made me have the courage to answer your question was the ability to make a little bit of money doing other stuff have more time to make music become a little better at it had encourage men from you know people saying you know really love what you're doing and you know i sound great or whatever dream of living and you know the tropical climate and you know please like us in the caribbean and right and kicking back and going out listen to music every night you know that's that's sort of the atmosphere and it's extremely supportive and encouraging music business is crazy you know doesn't make any money and blah blah blah well you know i'm saving a thousand dollars a month and rent and electricity and stuff that's that's thousand dollars i'm making by doing what i'm doing right because very generous very supportive very encouraging and that all started about a year ago which is a whole nother sort of story you know and i yeah i'm going to but how did that fall into place last summer  i wanted to get out of florida is really really hot in florida and you know i want to travel that's my thing music and travel are my two things and so i went to san diego for the summer and i just played sporadic gigs there  i have a friend there who used to play in a band together who came out to florida right after that so i played a few shows with him and then we went to this music festival in key west so by playing with him i met some more people who do these house concert things we did some shows on the way down called pit stop parties were just bands stop in all day long and do a twenty minute set and then at key west i was able to sit in with you know like a dozen different bands yeah because i've spent many many years as a lead guitar player whereas most people are singer songwriters they're not legal to hire players and when they're singing and whatever they can play lead anyway right so it really got me in in at this festival and by the end of the festival it's called that meeting of the min s i had made like hundreds more friends you know write my facebook friends living like this and then little by little that community just adopted me and i knew when i got there this is i fit here i know right so it's like knowing the area you were on the right path yeah and they thing in the right direction yeah you know i saw that there's there's a perfect spot right here for me and you know i mean i don't know how  describe it i fit perfectly in this little vacancy in the trop rock community you know i don't sound like everybody else kind of my own thing going on you know great but it borders a little bit on everybody else you know a little bit a little bit that right but really prepare to pursue your dream so there were there were years that went into preparing and building up your skills and your knowledge base and and your confidence you to be able to do it and in surrounding yourself with a community that supports you and encourages you and then it sounds like it just led you in this is you know when when i coach people you know i talk about when you when you start doing what you really love and what you feel like you are you're here to do in some form god the universe takes care of you so i call it you know breadcrumbs in the universe it's like when you're when you're moving in the direction that you're meant to be moving things following your path yeah and when you pick them up and take the next step you're continually led in you know things will appear and as you're saying you met people who were doing the house concerts and so it kind of like you know unfolded it sounds yeah absolutely yeah definitely  yeah and like i said this is thing about getting knocked off the wrong track and even once you're on the right track sometimes you think you need to do this or you think you need to do that and and you hit obstacles and know get right back to you know i need to do just this you know and by example i started to i needed to make a recording you know because i'm kind of a new artistic i'm a new name the kid conch thing which is another  story so i needed to do some recording i put aside like fifteen hundred dollars and i hired a producer and went through all this and i'm a big perfectionist so i ended up blowing through the fifteen hundred dollars before i even had you know the i have the drums and the bass guitar and  mourning and so i know i knew i need to do my recording myself because i need spent hours and hours and hours being with a perfectionist that i had locked myself in my cottage for the entire winter and nobody saw me except for maybe once a week for a couple hours and i'd be like it's him to get back to the cottage but i learned how to record you know i learned i watched videos on you tube and i spent hours and hours just tweaking and trying in and i spent probably after that fifteen hundred dollars i probably put another three hundred fifty hours of time into this first song that i released yeah but it got radio airplay right away and and that was great so i did another one and then took about two hundred  fifty hours and started getting radio airplay and all over the country and so another one so little by little i realized you know i've got fans all over the country i was planning on maybe going to boston for a couple of months standi two hundred of right and the radio support that i'm gay and god bless the radiations yeah yeah that's so wonderful well i'm just i'm so proud of you for you know following your dream and it's you know i realize it's taken a while you know but you've continued you've been persistent and you've you've done it your way which i love you know you haven't you haven't tried to force it into a mold or go the path that most people would tell you oh you have to do it this way i stopped banging on all the doors and just started right being as great as i could be right you know it's about quality you know yeah becoming a quality you know product for lack of a better word you know and really i mean you've been true to yourself yeah you know you've really followed your ass and take path and you're you've been authentic with yourself in how you perceive the dream and i think that's what it takes if there if there were three things that you would recommend to people who may be watching this and thinking yeah well i have a dream but you know i just don't think i can do it what advice would you would you offer first and foremost smash your television sorry i really you know you do a t v show and stuff but you know i can kind of zagged exaggerating but people spend you know if you spend three hours a day watching t v that's a thousand hours a year so you know it's  the second one is you know use that time wisely you know so they kind of go hand in hand and stop wasting your time to use it wisely you know and the third is educate yourself you know  and a lot of people think a stumbling block is that you know school is expensive or equipment is expensive you know what i mean if you're doing video production there's there's hundreds of thousands of dollars worth of gear around us you  know but you don't need that you know go to you tube watch the videos that are made by the people that make that gear that show you how to use that here because everybody makes gear makes videos now yeah and not everybody's career path is about gear but it's about some kind of you need to learn stuff with human right painter or race car driver or whatever any time you can't be actually doing it you should be learning about it right reading magazines about it watch it shows about it just get you know entrenched  how to do it great that's great advice as well if you would like to know more about kid conk is c d s coming up this fall about the tour you can visit his website of it and i can't wait to watch it unfold and see you reach the level of success that you deserve and you want for so we got some great advice here today about following your dreams no matter what point of life year at what you're doing just start today start doing something that you're passionate about and allow yourself to be led you know by what what shows up so here's to living your dreams and dreaming big and i'll see you next time on daring to dream