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Everybody Else is a podcast about the invisible people who make life happen. What began as conversations with behind-the-scenes builders in the music industry has grown into a broader exploration of how people think, work, and carry responsibility across industries and across disciplines. Hosted by Wes Luttrell, the show centers on thoughtful dialogue with creatives, leaders, and operators whose work often goes unseen but shapes the world we live in. New episodes streaming every Tuesday.
Wesley Luttrell (00:01.762)
This is the Everybody Else Podcast. There are those in the spotlight, and then there's Everybody Else.
Wesley Luttrell (00:14.456)
About six months ago, I started this podcast and the first episode was really, really short, a couple minutes, and it was the painting of a picture of a man who was inspiring me at the time. His name was Jules Stein and he was the founder of MCA, Music Corporation of America, which is still around as a brand today, a label. And during that initial podcast episode, I depicted Jules Stein
as someone whose philosophy was embedded in being an invisible behind the scenes builder, architect of visible entertainment icons. He started his career. He was being trained in college, to school, medical school. He was training to become an ophthalmologist.
He was a violin player, but not a career musician who was finding himself gigging to make a little extra cash and soon realized, he began to see that there was systems missing within the Chicago music scene where entities like restaurants and venues were looking for musicians. They wanted a regular supply of talent.
And then there was the musicians themselves who would love a regular supply of opportunities to work, to play their instruments, and to get paid. And Jules saw the middle ground where I will book bands, they will play the gigs, I will take a percentage of the booking for that, for arranging that gig. And then he begins to do this over time in scales and then brings on other agents to do the same thing. And what it got me thinking about was that underneath Jules, you know, his training,
as an ophthalmologist into being a booking agent is that the, being able to see systems, being able to manage risk, being able to stay professionally invisible while the results of your work, they speak in the outcomes of your work, not in the ego, not in what you say, not in what you, the persona you exemplify, but it really is the outcomes of the people you serve, well, that's the work.
Wesley Luttrell (02:35.118)
So you know, the character of the person underneath the way that this person thinks and acts, this is what in essence matters. And now if we take a look at the podcast, Zoom Out, it's really never been about music or just music or just the jobs or the activities of the job in music, but more so about the person and how they think and how they relate to their work.
you know, it's just become a through line over the course of, you know, more than 30 episodes that the best conversations stem from a personal connection or a trustworthy, honest connection that me and this guest have where lessons and ways of thinking bubble up that you wouldn't normally have had just by seeing this person on Instagram or some other, you know, it's like the dialogue itself creates an understanding that's worth sharing.
And we're going somewhere with this, but first I want to explain or articulate to the best of my ability the journey that I've been on, because the point itself isn't the story that I'm about to tell, but it's the clearest way that I can explain why the podcast itself is opening up. And so this adventure really began about, I would say March of last year, April of last year. I hired my first business coach, my first success coach.
And I thought I was hiring her and her husband to help me scale a record label. That's what I essentially thought I was signing up for. And I really intended that and they had, I mean, they thought so too. After two meetings, it became clear to them as they reflected back to me, like what is the most valuable aspect of your work? What do you think is resonating with the clients that you serve? Of all the artists that you work with through the capacity of production, writing, management, promotion through the label.
polyopus that I'd built, what do you think the real through line, the real underlying essence of the work is? So I started asking. Because at first when they asked me, I'm like, oh, it's the tools, it's the distribution network, it's the partners, it's the studio equipment. And really, those are all downstream. Those are all secondary to what's really going on in the work. And what we uncovered, or what the journey then began was,
Wesley Luttrell (05:01.652)
months of self-discovery that I didn't really understand that I was doing. Shortly after I began this coaching adventure, the podcast comes up as a natural place to learn from others, to have a content piece that's long form, it resonates with who I am as a person. I love podcasts and it was also a great way to build my network in music. It's gonna be a music podcast. It's gonna be called Everybody Else.
This is what it is. And I'm gonna interview the invisible people working behind the scenes to make the modern music industry tick. And it's been great. But the thing is, in my own real life, as all of this is unfolding over months and months, and I'm realizing that the essence of my work is not necessarily in the music, but after asking the artist, it's about the personal connection that we develop.
It's about the helping them understand what their work means in context of their life and into the greater picture of the world or the people listening to it. It's about the support provided through the complicated journey of putting together a record or putting together a tour or branding a project from start to finish. I'm not gifted. I'm not, you know, uniquely gifted at any one of those things and any one of those tangible things, but it seems to be
the underlying ability to connect with people on an emotional, trusted level where we can really unlock what's the truth, what really matters here, what are we really trying to say? And so this seems to be the pattern that emerged after a dozen or more conversations with people that I've worked with. And so if this is the truth, then okay, I'm gonna hold this as I continue moving forth. Well then.
I start finding myself in other rooms. This is where my actual real life work evolves. I start finding myself in rooms where I'm being asked questions with work or talking to people outside of the music industry and I'm asking questions and what's coming forth, what's surfacing is really no different than when I'm sitting in the studio with an artist asking, know, that's a cool line, but what are you really trying to say?
Wesley Luttrell (07:24.706)
Well, you're trying to buy back some freedom in your business and not be so bogged down in the day to day. You you're spread thin. What's the real core activity that you need to be doing at this point in your journey? You know, we're having this similar conversation. And so I started thinking about myself as an advisor, as a producer of people within artistry, business, church organizations, a real estate agent, a business leader.
I'm finding myself working with these people in the exact same capacity that I'm working with artists. And really letting go of sort of the early stage development of artist projects and entering into a place where I can work with people who already have stuff going on. They have a lot of complexity. They have a lot of chaos that needs curated into clarity. They need, or maybe they have, maybe they're in a transition stage from one part of their career to the next, but it really, there's like a lot of weight and there's a lot of,
It's critical. There's a lot of cost involved in making this transition smooth and being a sounding board and a mirror for helping them curate their identity and their thoughts through this process to step into the next place. This is really where the work now lies and this is what gets me super jacked about waking up tomorrow like I did today and doing my routine and getting myself ready because I want to fucking rock.
I want to be sharp as hell whenever the next thing comes or if I step into an existing relationship or a container, I want to be ready to rock. And this doesn't mean I'm actually working with an artist in this exact capacity where he's transitioning from one stage of his career to the next. And there's a lot of excitement around different opportunities, but he really is focused on original identity. We want to land on this because the first part of his career went great. On paper, it's a success. In his heart, he knows that there's more.
And this is about unlocking originality and finding fit versus just finding success for success's sake. And being with him in this process is exactly the support that he's asked for. That's exactly the support I'm offering. The same with, and this is what I think is, it's almost like surrendering, surrendering to what's really happening in front of you. And this is what I feel like I've been doing. I've been letting go of my restrictive attachment, sort of.
Wesley Luttrell (09:43.902)
I've been detaching myself or uncoupling myself from the identity that I only work in music, I only serve certain people and really opening myself up to I serve where I'm needed. I show up where I am called and I find myself just in these situations where I'm like, wow, this really aligns. This is interesting. Huh, huh. I found myself last week presenting a slideshow that
really is a conceptual framework for how a group that I'm working with can think. So it's a larger organization, it's older, they've been stagnant for about 10 years in terms of evolution. And I found myself in the room and then within a couple of months, I find myself giving a presentation on this framework I've developed. And then by the end of the meeting,
Everybody's clapping because they're so damn excited to have a little clarity around this foggy, unclear path that they've been just kind of stumbling down for years to find some clarity. like I told my wife, if that's the output of this work, I don't give a shit if it's with a church, if it's with a record label, if it's with a restaurant, it's with a... It doesn't matter. It's the outcome.
and it's people who are on the search for truth and through mission, okay, let's talk, let's talk. Because seeing people light up when they find clarity, it's the most rewarding outlet of work where creativity meets connection, meets purpose, meets shared understanding. This, this is a pursuit worth dedicating my entire life to. But anyway, this is where I find myself today. And so,
I was laying in yoga two weeks ago and after the holidays and I'm thinking, huh, everybody else. And I thought, you know, I really have enjoyed conversations I've been having lately with just anyone who is connected to, you know, enthusiastically doing quality work. And I thought, everybody else? Huh, why have I just been restricting this to music people?
Wesley Luttrell (12:03.928)
Why have I just been restricting this to the industry that I know? Well, it makes sense. I mean, that was where I had access and that's where I was holding interest six months ago, primarily, but things have evolved. Things have shifted over the last period of time, over that period of time. so, and then this is a Rick Rubin thing. Rick Rubin says, if three different people send me the same album, I know I'm supposed to listen to it or something like that. That's a paraphrase. I look for the same signals in my life. I had that thought in yoga.
I sat down in a meeting right after that with a friend. He reflects back to me this idea about the podcast. He's like, have you ever thought of talking to other people besides just music people? And I'm like, that's really funny you say that. The next day, I shit you not, I'm having a coffee with a different friend who I've known my whole life. And he says, I was curious, are you ever gonna interview people beyond music people? And I'm like, wow.
Great, that's what I needed because I've been thinking this and I guess everybody else has been thinking it too. So, the realization with the podcast is that just like Jules Stein, underneath the surface, really the through line of the podcast has been a pursuit of unpacking the thinking and the relationship with someone's work, the relationship that they have with
the meaning of their work and the meaning of what that work does for society, of what that work provides their family, provides themselves, how their story informs this entire journey. This is what everybody else is. It's ultimately what it's always been. The essence of it has been to unpack the person, the invisible person behind the work. So I'm super excited. I am super excited to...
begin rolling out the next phase, the next evolution of the Everybody Else podcast by understanding the invisible people who make life happen. Thanks for listening and we'll be back again soon.