Dom Root
- Jun 26, 2020
- 2 min read

Being independent can be rugged and exhausting, but is it worth it? Russ says, YEAH!

On the 25th of June Russ dropped some gems and a bit of motivation for emerging creative artists. We love anything in the spirit of entrepreneurship and we definitely love success stories. In this, we learn the journey of going from $40/month to near $300k/month through music, is WORTH IT.

My big take away is the emphasis on "STICK WITH IT." For many of us out here, we've been on the journey for so long and the days are seeming to just fly by. Most days, we spend grinding, keeping our head down with ten toes in the dirt. But it's hard to do everything, right? We spend all day working our asses off, then have to turn around a figure out how to market ourselves, set-up licenses, distribute, research, pay producers/vendors, etc. The shit can get over-whelming and it's good for artists who have made it (like Russ) or artists that are further along in their journey, to toss out some gems that will help the ones who learn best from watching/listening to others. We all have/had those days where we look up or step back to assess the progress and we feel like there is none. It's pretty normal to feel like "you don't have support" or "nobody is checking for your music" or "you don't know which direction to go" or even that "you are just a few opportunities, from a big break" -- the reality is that all of those things can be true and you could still end up coming out on top or [not]. Anyways, these are just my thoughts, check it out and give me yours.

IG @russ 06.25.2020

(See Screenshots Below)

"For inspirational purposes. My come up. OWNERSHIP. Ups and downs is all part of the journey. STICK WITH IT. The big dip in fall of 2016 is when I partnered and moved my main earners over to Columbia cuz I wanted them on my debut album. I stopped it at 2017 cuz I don’t need y’all fully in my pockets like that 😂😂 but also, every dollar on this I kept (except taxes) cuz as some have liked to laugh at, I produced mixed mastered engineered and wrote all of this. I been laughing the whole time!!! 🤣🤣🤣 TAG AN ARTIST WHO NEEDS TO SEE THIS"