Audio engineer Pete Rodriguez is beyond experienced. With so much experience comes the quality of his craft . EvenRights began managing Pete, helping create versatile content in order to expand the marketing of his services and continue the building of his brand. Opening up, Pete tells EvenRights how he feels about creativity, equality, and optimism which are the bases of our mission.
EvenRights: How do you feel creativity and optimism is important to our generation?
Pete: Optimism is crucial to the creative process. When you are on an up, it’s a blessing to share that with the world. Even when things are down, it’s that spirit that will not let you lose.
EvenRights: How have you overcome any trials and/or tribulations as a company using creativity and optimism?
Pete: Just understanding that music is always evolving gives me the mindset to make sure I look at the process from all relevant angles. I’m still learning as I transition from studio owner to freelance engineering. But again, keeping that optimistic spirit allows me to move through challenges as smoothly as possible.
EvenRights: What are your beliefs of how we can all be characterized as equal beings? As humans we all have the ability to be creative and optimistic.
Pete: It’s definitely a must. It carries over into music. You may have some of your most prolific moments working with an artist who has little or no experience. We all breathe the same air and all can benefit from the dedication to the craft. I was taught as a kid to treat the janitor with the same respect you’d treat the CEO and back then I didn’t really understand it. But as an adult it’s stuck with me. While someone may be more talented or have more money than somebody else, that doesn’t make them worth more as a person.
EvenRights: How hard is it to stay creative and what would you say to somebody experiencing this same issue?
Pete: I’ll be honest, I am mostly creative when working directly with someone or a team. I find it hard for me to create alone. It’s not that I can’t, it’s I just prefer the energy of real-time human interaction.
EvenRights: If there were three things you could have done different, earlier, or better while building your brand. What would it have been?
Pete: I would have to say that I wish I would have taken more risk and truly grasped my strengths. Sometimes the best advice can come from your instincts, and often we find ways to overthink them. You can’t be afraid to fail. Taking those risks are the only way to get out of your comfort zone and really progress as a person and as a brand.
EvenRights: Taking the time to cater to a primarily adult audience, what can we teach our adult audience to do in order to be examples of equality for our youth?
Pete: Making sure we all know that we are the ones feeding the culture to the youth. If we keep giving them depraved material, then we put them at a disadvantage. The change starts with us and continues to build with them.
EvenRights: Do believe in the right to bear arms & how important do you think it is to be able to do so in this day and age.
Pete: I definitely believe in the 2nd amendment. Protection of family and our rights as human beings is a necessity of life.
EvenRights: Do you think educational tutorials for police officers of equality, creativity and optimism may be able to better decision making officers are forced to make in the field.
Pete: It’s something that has to be ongoing as this is a daily task.
EvenRights: The tobacco industry is constantly frowned upon in commercials. Do you think people have a choice whether to smoke tobacco? Or do you think there's something that influences them beyond measure to even become addicted?
Pete: Honestly it comes down to strong parenting and mentoring. There is always depraved imagery in the media, and we must do what we can to let the youngsters know the truth. They’re going to follow in the footsteps of whoever they look up to. As I stated earlier, the culture we feed to them is the culture that’s going to ultimately mold them into adults.
EvenRights: How can we strengthen the curriculum of schools with more life awareness skills and strategies.
Pete: There needs to be outreach from the local music creators/engineers/publishers/ etc to the school districts in order to allow them to learn from our experiences in that school setting.
Creativity in physical fitness, optimism during quarantines. Staying active is a way of life for Greg Stewart. Sometimes it’s safe to say nothing is impossible. With a tenacious and motivated attitude as exemplified by Greg continues to be shown. 30 years of age Greg continues to go further in his mogul mindset, characterizing himself as an upstanding, determined man from Oakland CA.
As we went through the process of gathering content we had Greg answer some questions.
EvenRights: How do you feel creativity and optimism is important to our generation?
Greg: I’m deeply passionate about creativity, especially when it comes to our youth. This generation needs more outlets to express themselves. I’m grateful for the opportunity to reach out to the youth and give them one of those outlets.
Over time Greg has had to mold himself into who he wanted to be . It’s interesting to see how comfortable he is with wearing so many hats .
EvenRights: How have you overcome any trials and tribulations using creativity and optimism?
Greg: As a student at the Academy of Arts, I quickly learned how to tap into my creativity and expand my imagination due to the hands-on nature of the school. I majored in communication and learned to shoot, edit, and share my own videos. As optimistic as I was, it was challenging to adapt to not only shooting the videos, but actually being on camera myself. I truly believe taking these classes taught me to develop my creative thinking process.
EvenRights: How hard is it to stay creative and what would you say to somebody experiencing this same issue.
Greg: It’s really easy to fall out of a creative space when you don’t surround yourself around people who think outside of the box similarly to how you think. It’s something I’ve struggled with and continue to struggle with at times. I’ve found that creativity comes from thinking about goals you want to achieve and visions you have. It’s important to stay up to date with the world and develop different ideas to enhance one’s creativeness.
EvenRights: Will equality be something your brand will promote after this blog/interview ?
Greg: Yes, of course equality is something I strongly believe in. Coming from a poverty stricken area in the poor parts of Oakland being able to help someone else to have the same opportunities I was lucky to have been given is something I strive to accomplish.
Sometimes we learn things later in life that could have put us in better positions to be ahead of the curve.
EvenRights: If there were three things you could have done differently, earlier , or better while building your brand . What would they have been.
Greg: I’m still in the process of building my brand and am constantly learning. So far I’ve learned you have to always have the business mindset and remain disciplined. When building a business it’s important to make clients and potential clients feel as though they’re your main concern. One of the most important lessons I’ve learned is things aren’t always going to go your way. There are going to be a lot of bumps in the road, such as not achieving the clientele numbers you’d like in whatever time frame you found feasible, but you have to continue pushing forward. As long as you never give up and keep working to achieve your goals, you’ll get there.
EvenRights: Taking the time to cater to a primarily adult audience, what can we teach our adult audience to do in order to be examples of equality for our youth?
Greg: I think it’s really important to place an emphasis on how we as adults interact with the youth. Helping adults, especially parents, learn how to process their own emotions when they’re upset with their kids before addressing the situation at hand can completely change what the child takes from the conversation. Being able to provide constructive criticism as opposed to constantly tearing the youth down not only builds their self esteem, but it also allows them to feel comfortable to learn through their own mistakes without the fear of how their parents will react.
EvenRights: Do believe in the right to bear arms & how important do you think it is to be able to do so in this day and age.
Greg: I do in fact believe in the right to bear arms. I think it’s important to be able to protect yourself and your family in any climate, but especially in today’s age. There are too many people in the world whose morals are deeply lacking and I couldn’t imagine not being able to protect my child.
The recent tragedy of Ahmaud Arbery, in which this 25 year old young man was murdered by a retired police officer sheds light on areas we as a whole are lacking.
There are multiple ways police officers can deal with situations that are thought of after tragedies.
EvenRights: Do you think educational tutorials for police officers of how equality, creativity and optimism may be able to better decision making officers are forced to make in the field.
Greg: I absolutely think videos will help. The more we educate them on the importance of equality, creativity, and optimism the more they will retain it. A lot of it may seem like common sense to most, but there are really a lot of people who weren’t raised that way and are truly ignorant to their way of thinking.
EvenRights has a strong belief of having a choice . Everyone no matter financial state, sex, race or disability. We strongly believe that everyone has a choice.
EvenRights: The tobacco industry is constantly frowned upon in commercials. Do you think people have a choice whether to smoke tobacco. Or is there something that influences them beyond measure to become addicted?
Greg: I believe that there is an outside influence on just about everything people do. So of course tobacco habits have some type of influence whether it’s peer pressure, a coping mechanism, or replacement of a worse habit. A wise man once told me it’s cool to be a copycat as long as you’re copying the right cat. I also believe smoking tobacco is ultimately a personal choice. I think it’s very unlikely that someone is forced to start smoking cigarettes. I personally don’t smoke, but I have family members who have been smoking for years and have seen how addictive they are.
It starts at home , that’s where a child will learn most. However, teachers have a huge influence on our children’s minds.
EvenRights: How can we strengthen the curriculum of schools with more life awareness skills and strategies .
Greg: I think schools need to incorporate more classes that are based on real life situations such as social skills, financing and credit, real estate, taxes, etc. We make kids take so many classes over the years, yet they graduate high school and even college completely unprepared for the real world. It’s hard to allow your creativity to prosper when you have no clue how to maneuver through life.
In 2014 EvenRights was created to promote equality, optimism, and creativity. Since then EvenRights has taken a stance on bringing awareness to various issues that affect our day to day lives. EvenRights has used their brand to be able to promote not only unity but break barriers by bringing awareness through merchandise, management,collaborations and projects. By doing so Crystal Florida Vice President and Laron Bailey President, have created a structure that breaks stereotypical barriers and demonstrates the importance of unity while using individual creativity to convey powerful messages. With 2020 getting off to a rocky start with multiple issues such as coronavirus, murder and drug abuse among youth at the forefront EvenRights has made it its mission to bring awareness. EvenRights took a stance in showing how powerful messages are when done with unity. A message not from EvenRights but one most notable they showed support for was the “kick the cup” campaign. Detailing the effect of rappers realizing their actions in promoting drug abuse on our youth. “Kick the cup” was an extremely powerful movement that occurred which deserved more light shed. Promoting that “Lean” sippers in a young generation kick their habit of drinking promethazine. The brand believed that embracing “solutions” was the best moral principle to instill not only into our youth but have morals and principles reflect that as a company. The 29 year old crystal Florida prides herself on being optimistic along with a creative way of thinking. Being a bay area broker she’s gathered resources to fulfill her family’s legacy in the real estate industry.Crystal Florida born in the Bay Area California, has grown to be exactly who she wants to be graduating from UC Irvine. It’s safe to say versatility has been embedded in her way of life.
We asked Crystal a few questions.
ER: How do you feel creativity and optimism are important to our generation?
Crystal: “ I think there’s a lot of negativity in the news and on social media and staying optimistic and creative is the best positive outlet for this. Staying positive helps everyone focus better on achieving goals and striving for more and not settling”.
ER: How have you overcome a trial and tribulation as a company using creativity and optimism?
Crystal: “Recently I completed a pretty big project by sub-contracting everything out for a rental party. I had to bring a lot of things up to code and ended up taking on a much bigger project than originally expected. By staying optimistic and surrounding myself with positivity I was able to get through it”
ER: How hard is it to stay creative and what would you say to somebody experiencing this same issue?
Crystal: “Take time to figure out what truly makes you happy, whether it’s work a side job or a hobby. Make sure you have something to look forward to that allows you to be your true authentic self. By doing this it makes getting through tough times in other aspects of life a lot easier”.
ER: Will equality be something your brand will promote after this blog/interview?
Crystal: “We always promote equality, my team is not typical at all in my industry. We’re all young people of color in an industry where the norm is older while people. We’ll continue to do what we do and work hard as young professionals.”
ER: Name and business partners and team members of your brand. What it takes to function your operation.
Crystal: “I have 2 part-time assistants and 4 real estate agents on my team. Being a realtor is a very independent line of work. We all have a work ethic and drive to get creative, when it comes to generating business for ourselves. My job is to help my team members through difficult situations and hold them accountable. We hang out together and lucky for them, I never get tired of talking about real estate. It’s a great time for us to learn from each other when we get together.”
ER: If there were three things you could have done different, earlier, or better while building your brand. What would it have been?
Crystal: “I would’ve hired an assistant earlier.Taking the time to cater to a primarily adult audience. What can we teach our adult audience to do to be examples of equality for our youth? Always continue to learn, I feel I’m never going to stop learning as long as I’m working. Some people forget to continue to educate themselves and I think that’s the key for our youth to succeed mentally in this society.”
ER: Do you believe in the right to bear arms and how important do you think it is to be able to do so in this day and age?
Crystal: “I don’t feel strongly about the subject but I do believe in the right to bear arms. It saddens me to think about all of the shootings that have taken place in the past years. I don’t necessarily believe in the right to bear automatic weapons, I think they’re unnecessary outside of war”
Peace is another key to survival, taking the proper steps to have healthy lifestyle align with being creative and optimistic.
ER: How can we strengthen the curriculum of schools with more life awareness skills and strategies?
Crystal: “I think every school needs to teach financial literacy. It wouldn’t be a bad idea to start in middle school and continue in high school. There’s a lot of classes we take growing up but that’s the curriculum I think would be the most impactful."
-EvenRights We can all be characterized as equal due to the fact no matter sex, race, disability or financial status. We all have qualities of creativity and optimism.
