IAM1087- Musical Artist-entrepreneur Makes You Rave

KADE is a musical artist-entrepreneur, electronic music producer, session drummer and educator, and is one half of the rising Asian-Canadian EDM duo “Alex Kade”. To describe Alex Kade in a nutshell – they're two Asians making you rave, and you can still enjoy their EDM show even if you forget to bring your drugs. Since debuting this project in July of 2020, KADE has been rapidly building a name for himself and Alex Kade during the COVID pandemic with a quickly growing list of artists he's worked with, including Emily Vu, Tray Little, Cayley Spivey, and Double A-Ron.

• CEO Hack: Planning the day and hours
• CEO Nugget: (i) Take care of your health (ii) Success comes from finding other people's successes
• CEO Defined: Knowing and working towards your objective

Website: https://alexkademusic.com/

Instagram: https://instagram.com/AlexKadeMusic
YouTube: https://youtube.com/AlexKadeMusic
TikTok: https://tiktok.com/@AlexKadeMusic
Facebook: https://facebook.com/AlexKadeMusic

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Transcription

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00:13 – Intro

Are you ready to hear business stories and learn effective ways to build relationships, generate sales, and level up your business from awesome CEOs, entrepreneurs, and founders without listening to a long, long, long interview? If so, you've come to the right place. Gresh values your time and is ready to share with you the valuable info you're in search of. This is the I AM CEO podcast.

00:40 – Gresham Harkless

Hello. Hello. Hello. This is Gresh from the I Am CEO podcast, and I have a very special guest on the show today. I have Kenneth Wong of Alex Cade. Kenneth, it's great to have you on the show.

00:48 – Kenneth Wong

Thank you so much for having me, Gresh.

00:50 – Gresham Harkless

Super excited to have you on. And before we jump into the interview, I want to read a little bit more about Kenneth so you can hear about all the awesome things that he's doing. Kade is a musical artist, entrepreneur, electron electronic music producer, session drummer, and educator, and is one half of the rising Asian Canadian e d EDM duo, Alex Cade. To describe Alex Cade in a nutshell, two Asians are making you rave, and you can still enjoy their EDM show even if you forget to bring your drugs. And since debuting this project in July of twenty, Cade has been rapidly building a name for himself and Alex Cade during the COVID pandemic with a quickly growing list of artists he's worked with including Emily Vu, Trey Little, Kaley Spivey, and Double Aaron. Kenneth, great to have you on the show. Are you ready to speak to the I AM CEO community?

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01:37 – Kenneth Wong

Dude, that was such a nice intro. Yes. I am so, so ready.

01:40 – Gresham Harkless

Yes. Absolutely. Well, let's do it then. You're doing phenomenal things. So what I wanted to do is just rewind the clock a little bit, hear a little bit more about how you got started, what I call your quote, unquote CEO story.

01:50 – Kenneth Wong

Man, so I have my parents who are from Hong Kong. They immigrated here in nineteen ninety-one. I was born ninety-six. So being raised, I was always kinda in that stereotypical Asian parent kinda environment where it's like, do well in school, do well in university, become a doctor or a lawyer, or you're a failure. That's what I grew up with. Except, you know, I  never really did that. I was always just doing my own thing. I liked music way more than most people. I was forced into piano lessons as a kid, but then when I think that when the video game rock band came out and I started playing drums on that video game, that's when I'm like, oh, music's fun to play, just not piano. And then when I turned eighteen, I finally learned how to enjoy piano.

But in high school, I had two great music teachers who pushed, us as students to become the best musicians possible. And one of them was a touring musician before he became a teacher. So just seeing that be like having that person as a mentor, showed me that I could make this a career. And then when I turned seventeen, I got drafted into this Chinese pop band. It was weird, but we were just playing music for old people, old Asian people because nowhere else in Toronto or Canada, I think, has, like, a band of just, like, twenty-somethings playing this old sixties, seventies Hong Kong music for Hong Kong people. So that's why we were able to make some money.

And then when my parents saw this, they were like, what? You can you can make money through music? What? And I was like, Yes. We can. So I just kept I kept pushing it. I ended up getting a scholarship to York University in Toronto, and then I switched over to another university called Humber College, and then I dropped out because I just felt schooling just wasn't it. I just didn't need it to keep on pursuing what I wanted to do. They were training us to be, like, musicians to go find jobs. Right? Like, a drummer to be hired by artists or commercials or whatever.

But for me, I always played drums for a lot of people, and then after a while, I just wanted to stop being in the background, and I wanted to, you know, be the owner of my own business. I wanted to be an artist. I wanted to be my CEO. Right? And so that's kinda how Alex Kada and all this, my producing, my education, and all that stuff. That's how it started.

04:17 – Gresham Harkless

Yeah. Well, I appreciate you sharing that. It's so funny you telling the story about your parents, like, making sure you're being good at school. I feel like my parents are part Asian as well because that's what they're always telling me to do as well as take care of your schools. But I love the evolutionary process of everything that you've been able to kinda come to and how, I feel like so many times and you probably can speak to this more than anybody. Like, in so many different industries and the world as a whole, there are so many opportunities that sometimes we don't necessarily see until we kinda lean into the passions, the things that we're interested in, and then sometimes entirely new trails, like, open up from there.

04:50 – Kenneth Wong

With the Internet, like, nothing's been easier to be to to learn. Nothing's been easier to learn. All all these skills, sales, music production, all that stuff. You don't need to, like, go to school or, like, formal schooling for all this stuff. If you wanna become a do doctor or a lawyer, then, yes, like, you can. But if you wanna be an entrepreneur, everything is just free on Google for you to learn.

05:11 – Gresham Harkless

Yeah. And that's the kind of the crazy time, as you said so well, of this time in history, I guess, that you get the opportunity to kind of have something you're interested in, go to YouTube, go to Google University or YouTube, college, and get to, like, see and read and view how to do it and continue to kinda work on your craft without needing to necessarily go through a course or a class in the, I guess, old school traditional way, maybe.

05:35 – Kenneth Wong

Yeah. I did end up taking, one course. So this is after I dropped out of school. Like, I think, like, two years after I dropped out of school. I took one course at a university where it was actually, like, an entrepreneur, a guy who started his own business, and it was just five weeks of him teaching us how he did it, how we should do it, how to fail fast, how to fail forward. So it was just like, it's there's very, very few courses like that. A lot of the schooling out there right now is still kind of that old traditional way to get a job, play it safe. But this guy was just all about if you're gonna fail fast, learn from it, and just, like, keep on failing until you find something that works.

06:10 – Gresham Harkless

I know we touched on a little bit about how you're working with your clients and how that project goes. Could you take us through a little bit more on what you're doing and how you've been able to build all the awesome things you're doing?

06:20 – Kenneth Wong

So all my production work started coming about just last year in twenty-twenty when the pandemic hit. So or Alex Cade, we planned to do some touring, do some live shows, that kind of traditional artist route. But then with the pandemic, everything got closed down. So I had to take my energy that all this energy, all this time I had to pursue shows, I took that time and energy and put it into our online presence. And then I went on TikTok, which was, like which is the best thing that a musician can do right now if you're an independent artist is getting on TikTok, which is going on TikTok, surrounding myself in such a fast-growing music environment.

And the great thing about TikTok is it's super, super easy to reach out to all these big artists. Not, like, super, super big. You can't reach out to, like, Dua Lipa or something. Or you could. You just have to be lucky. But for the artists that I worked with, Emily Vu, and Trey Little, both have a million plus followers, but they responded to my comments when I made a video of them to get that production job. They responded to my DMs on Instagram. With TikTok, it's just it's just so organic as opposed to Instagram where it's very, very superficial. Just so many aesthetics, and people just trying to flex, whereas TikTok is just so much more organic, and so much more of a community aspect.

And with sales, so much of that so much of sales relies on relationships, being organic, being a human selling to a human. Right? And so I think that's why I was able to get all these clients to work with all these artists because, through TikTok, I was able to just show, yo, I'm not just trying to profit off of you. I'm trying to give you something of value, and here it is. And here's my TikTok video, and you can see that, you know, I put in the work. And if you watch my other TikTok, you can see I'm a human, and I'm working towards something, and I have passion. Whereas on Instagram, if you're just getting those people who are like, yo. I'll make you a beat. I'll do this for you. I'll do that for you. It's just it's just words. Whereas on TikTok, you can show them, and they can even see more of who you are as a person because it's so hard to be fake on TikTok.

08:23 – Gresham Harkless

So, I wanted to ask you now for what I call your secret sauce, and this could be for yourself or the business, everything you're doing. But what do you feel kinda sets you apart and makes you unique?

08:33 – Kenneth Wong

Man. There there's so many things, but I think for me, my two biggest ones are finding mentors and surrounding yourself with like-minded people. So with mentors, twenty nineteen, I was lucky enough to be part of a program called Canada's Music Incubator, they're a nonprofit organization that is just focused on helping Canadian artists and managers build up their businesses in the music industry. So very little, how to write better music, but most of what they focus on is, like, how to do business. And so I was able to take part in their program, and they, like, lit a fire under my butt, and, like, they just got me started. I'm like, yo. You gotta think of you gotta be super, super entrepreneurial, super, super, super business minded.

You're not gonna make it if you're not thinking about this like a business. And so I talked to those guys at, Canada's music music incubator all the time. And then it's just finding other people who are just where I wanna be and then messaging them, adding value to their lives, and hopefully getting some pieces of advice. One of my main mentors for my songwriting is this guy called Tee. He's written with Drake, Alessia Cara, EXO, and Meghan Trainor. He's an amazing producer and amazing songwriter, and I'm taking lessons with him, and he's just always there for me. He's teaching me how to become a better musician, how to become a better producer, and, also, how to become a better human, navigating this environment.

So mentors just being able to find mentors is so important or even not even, like, such big ones too. Like, even someone who's just a couple steps ahead of you, maybe, like, a year or a few months ahead of your development, that helps out so much to a lot of my friends that I surround myself with. So this is, like, kind of the, you know, surrounding yourself with like-minded people. Right. A lot of them, we've all kinda we're all on the same path, but some of us have done, like, these things differently. Some of us have done, like, this before. This other person has, and it's just connecting all of our ideas and successes and stories and just learning from other people's mistakes, especially your friends, it's it saves you so much time. It saves you so much headache. And having that kinda hustle, everyone's hustling toward the same goal.

So by surrounding yourself with that, it's like when you feel like you're slacking off, you just see what your friends are doing, ask them for advice, ask them for some quick motivation. They're always there for you, and you just get you know, when you're in your downs, like, your friends just come up and just set you back up, and you're you're ready to start killing it again. So, yeah, mentors and surrounding yourself with like-minded people. Those are my secret sauces. And I think you could find that on Google too. I'm sure you could find that advice on Google, but it's I think success is simple. It's just you gotta put in the work.

11:09 – Gresham Harkless

Appreciate you, for sharing that. And so I wanted to switch gears a little bit, and I wanted to ask you for what I call a CEO hack. So this could be like an Apple book or a habit that you have, but what's something that makes you more effective and efficient?

11:22 – Kenneth Wong

Planning your days. Just planning your days whether it's, like, first thing in the morning, right before the week, planning the times at which you're gonna do things, setting timers. This is stuff that I do, like, sixty to seventy percent of the time. And when I do it, I get so much done, but then there's always those forty percent of the time where I'm just like, nah, and then I Slack and stuff. But for those sixty to seventy percent of the time, just plan your day, plan your hours, set your goals, and then plan towards those goals or work backward from those goals to see how you can get them.

And just having, you know, having a to-do list and just checking things off. Things are so much easier when you have things planned out and you can just check things off, and it just feels so rewarding to physically, put that check mark down. Like, yeah. I did it, and all those things, like, as opposed to celebrating the big win. Now every time you do a little check mark, right, go upstairs, eat upstairs, eat a banana, eat something sweet, treat yourself.

Now you're celebrating the little wins, and it just keeps you so much more mentally healthy. And by by planning, you're not kinda just like you're not in the fog anymore. You know exactly what you need to do for the day, and you don't worry about you don't worry about anything else other than those tasks until, like, 05:00 or 6 PM hits. And then after that, you're like, you're done for the day. Next day, alright. What do I gotta do?

12:36 – Gresham Harkless

Awesome. So would you consider that to be what I would like to call a CEO nugget, which is kind of a word of wisdom or a piece of advice? It could be something you would tell somebody maybe in the industry getting started or something you would tell your younger business self.

12:48 – Kenneth Wong

Yeah. There there's just so many nuggets of advice I wanna give. Like, I can't think of all of them off the top of my head, but I think, like, just taking care of your mental health, taking care of your health, health over everything. That you cannot work if you are not healthy, whether it's mentally or physically. So health over everything, and success comes from finding other people's success. Those are my two nuggets.

13:08 – Gresham Harkless

Awesome. Awesome. Awesome. Well, now I wanted to ask you my absolute favorite question, which is the definition of what it means to be a CEO. We're open to our different quote,-unquote CEOs on this show. So, Kenneth, what does being a CEO mean to you?

13:18 – Kenneth Wong

Oh, man. Oh, man. You should you should have sent me this question earlier. Okay. Now I gotta think. The definition of CEO is just knowing your objective, working towards your objective, and leading your team toward that objective. That I think that is what being a CEO is.

13:40 – Gresham Harkless

Yeah. Love that. And I think, as we talk about realizing, like, what your why is, what the thing is that you're trying to do it, and working towards that is so huge. And and realizing, as you said so well, it's not just about, you know, us. It's not just about the leaders. It's about the team as well too. And what are you doing to kinda help empower the team and help the team?

13:58 – Kenneth Wong

Yeah.

13:59 – Gresham Harkless

To kinda roll that boat towards that success is huge.

14:02 – Kenneth Wong

That's it. Working with other people. Like, I work a lot by myself, but in the times that I do work with other people, like, when you or when you have to lead other people, when you just treat them well, they end up working so much harder for you, and you just end up hitting your goal so much quicker when you just buying them a coffee, giving them some extra gas money or something. Just treat your teammates, and your employees better, and then, like, everyone's just so much happier to work with you.

14:30 – Gresham Harkless

Yeah. Absolutely. And it reminded me of a quote people don't care how much you know till they know how much you care. And I think so many times in business, we forget about the human aspect of business and that connection, that opportunity to help somebody reach their goal as well too as we talked about. But once we start to lean into that and understand that to develop real relationships and connections, as you said, that's when you start to go to another level and you get to crush those goals.

14:55 – Kenneth Wong

That's deep. I love that. Another nugget. Thank you. Thanks for blessing me with that.

14:59 – Gresham Harkless

Yes. Absolutely. It was a blessing to me, so I always try to repeat it. So, Kenneth, truly appreciate that, and I appreciate your time even more. What I wanted to do is just pass you the mic, so to speak, just to see if there's anything additional that you can let our readers and listeners know and, of course, how best they can get a hold of you and find about all the awesome things you're working on.

15:16 – Kenneth Wong
You can best get ahold of me on Instagram at Alex Kade Music or on YouTube or TikTok. It's just at Alex Kade Music. That's my band. But if you wanna talk to me personally, I check my DMs very, very often. It's music by Kade. So I forgot to mention this, but my stage name is Kade. But I go by either Kenneth or Kade. And just everyone, you know, take care of yourselves. If you're listening to this, I know you're properly an entrepreneur. Take care of yourself. Work hard. I know success like, it's hard to come by, but when you get there, man, it's gonna feel so good. So just, like, keep on working hard.

15:51 – Gresham Harkless

Yeah. Absolutely. It's so important to make sure that when you reach success you have the health and so many different aspects to enjoy it. So I appreciate that, Kenneth. We will have the links and information in the show notes as well too so that everybody can follow up with you, or Kade if you're performing. And I appreciate you, my friend, and I hope you have a phenomenal rest of the day.

16:10 – Outro

Thank you for listening to the I AM CEO Podcast powered by Blue 16 Media. Tune in next time and visit us at iamceo.co I AM CEO is not just a phrase, it's a community. Be sure to follow us on social media and subscribe to our podcast on iTunes Google Play and everywhere you listen to podcasts, SUBSCRIBE, and leave us a five-star rating grab CEO gear at www.ceogear.co. This has been the I AM CEO Podcast with Gresham Harkless. Thank you for listening.

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