Shownotes
Are you looking to discover unconventional strategies and out-of-the-box thinking to stand out in competitive industries while still prioritizing your personal life? Do you want to hear some “real talk” about inspiration, creativity, and connection?
This is Thrive Differently with Coach Nicole- the weekly business and mindset podcast dedicated to exploring the stories and strategies of successful individuals who have made an impact in their industries by embracing their differences.
In this second episode, I interview the One-of-a-kind Christian Stalnecker, a Grammy nominated writer and producer, industry expert, and family man. I can’t wait for you to hear how this dude is cracking the code on balancing success in the music business with a Thriving family life.
Christian Stalnecker is a #1 country music producer with his recent hit “Thank God,” by Kane Brown and Katelyn Brown. He is versatile in a multitude of genres including Christian, Pop, R&B, Hip Hop, and Country. Notable credits include Snoop Dogg, Jordan Knight, El Debarge, Donnie Wahlberg, Boys II Men, 50 cent, Michelle Williams, Warren G, Travis Barker, Aubrey O’Day, Montel Jordan, Quincy, French Montana, Eric Benet, Lil Wayne, Day 26, Ludacris, T-Pain, Rick Ross, Wale, Kane Brown, Chris Young and many more.
Key a-ha moments include:
- How experiences can fuel creative thinking and innovation
- How successful leaders and their management styles can serve as valuable coaches
- Why taking a holistic approach to strategy can bring more synergy between life and business
- How to apply creative processes that genuinely serve you and your clients
- The difference between managing & coaching- “Management can’t come in hot, if they don’t coach up and see what they got.”
- Why being attracted to the process leads to progress.
For exclusive content, guest opportunities, and to schedule a free curiosity call, head over to our website at ThriveDifferently.com or follow us on Instagram @Thrive_Differently.
*** Bonus Content: Listen to songs by Christian Stalnecker. Link in episode.
Transcripts
[00:00:59] Coach Nicole: Since moving to Nashville, Christian has collaborated with artists such as T-Payne, Rick Ross, Wale, Kane Brown, Chris Young, and many, more. But his most significant success is as a husband to his beautiful wife and as a father to four amazing girls. I am so freaking pumped and honored to have you and your crazy self here, Christian.
[:[00:01:33] Christian Stalnecker: I think you just said it all, and that's about it. I'm a dad, like you said got girls that are all in sports, basketball, soccer, and running. Jayden is what, she's finishing her senior year this year. I think she's six in the state and third in small schools as a runner. She just got a D1 scholarship to college.
[:[00:02:15] Christian Stalnecker: So I've always said that I wanted a painting in my house that had a bust and a neck, and then no head, and then five hats ,because I don't really have a head, but I wear a bunch of hats.
[:[00:02:37] Coach Nicole: I would love to talk about your personal experiences and insight with both the rewards and the challenges of balancing your family with this versatile music production career. I guess let's kick off from the start. What really led you to follow this path full-time in the music industry?
[:[00:03:10] Christian Stalnecker: I was born in church revival. My parents were in music. My grandmother and my grandfather are in music. They were all in Christian music. My grandmother's the only woman inducted in the Hall of Faith with Billy Graham and Jerry Falwell. My grandfather was on the board of the Southern Baptist Convention. My father, my mother and my aunt, my uncle had a band and they were signed Christian artists. My dad wrote some notable Christian records and did that whole thing.
[:[00:04:04] Christian Stalnecker: It was just kinda always gonna go that way. I was six years old singing in front of 40,000 people a night on tour with Carmen, who was a humongous Christian artist in the eighties, my dad was his musical director. Carmen thought it was cool that I was six and I would come out and sing a little solo to open his show and stand on a big amble flight case in front of 40, 50,000 amphitheaters... stadiums... they were just revivals, crazy Christian stuff in the eighties.
[:[00:04:44] Christian Stalnecker: The reality is, even hearing you say oh, he started his career in Christian music, I never really thought of that as my career. It's just my faith. I love the Lord. And I feel like, God gave me my talents. I don't think I remember wanting to be in Christian music.
[:[00:05:30] Christian Stalnecker: That's my testimony and I'm always a Christian wherever I go. But even with the newest Kane Brown single that I had the pleasure of writing with some buddies, "Thank God". How many non-Christians do you have thanking God for their, spouse or their significant other in this song every night in an amphitheater? So if the point is to get the message out, and he blessed you with that person that's in your life, I think I've reached more than a lot of Christian writers, right now.
[:[00:06:19] Christian Stalnecker: Yeah.
[:[00:06:23] Coach Nicole: You've lived in so many different places and I would love to talk about influences coming from LA then Nashville, from family to what you're experiencing. What are some of the things that are influencing your production, the music, and the words that you write?
[:[00:07:10] Christian Stalnecker: I, love that about myself, but I also hate it about myself, cuz I'm always listening for things or thinking about things. I'm halfway into some, conversation... I'm halfway somewhere else in my head. But I love it. I love it.
[:[00:07:37] Christian Stalnecker: Vibes... there are good vibes and there are negative vibes. That's more of what I'm doing these days... it used to be harder before, but now there's a lot of great vibes and it's about staying away from the negative vibes.
[:[00:08:26] Christian Stalnecker: Yeah no, it's never always like that. You know that. That it's, never always like that. And I don't know how it is for other people, but for me, I'm known to stay in things and just ride it into the ground and I hate to admit that more negative things have caused positive things in my life. You know what I mean? If that makes any sense.
[:[00:08:58] Christian Stalnecker: There you go. That's, exactly what I'm saying I'm, loyal to friendships, relationships business relationships, traits, me as a person.
[:[00:09:42] Coach Nicole: Yeah, No, I love it. On the show there's a lot of creatives that come on because I think that the creative mind just has so many beautiful ways to express- you being in the music and producing people who are in the film industry, or preaching, or international speakers.
[:[00:10:27] Christian Stalnecker: Oh, 100%. If we ever figure out how to do that and get on one page, we're gonna be just unstoppable. That's why you need managers... that's why you need accountants and CPAs and CFOs and this, that and the other. Because creatives don't build the box and the guy guys that build the box aren't creative. You need 'em both
[:[00:11:07] Coach Nicole: I think normal is boring. Who's gonna say, "Hey, I remember that really normal guy. Do you remember him?" No. No. There's something about somebody that you remember. The other thing that you said.... I'm a creative. I'm gonna come up with amazing ideas that are gonna move different types of people. I'm gonna figure out what genre it needs to fit in, but I'm not managing... I'm not doing the accounting... and at the end of the day, that's what coaching is, right?
[:[00:11:56] Christian Stalnecker: Yeah... all along the way. And everyone is either influencing you in a way that you wanna change yourself or influencing you in a way that is affirmation that you're doing it right and they're not.
[:[00:13:01] Christian Stalnecker: I've got another guy who has been a financial partner, an uncle if you will, an older brother. His name is Jim. He's out of Seattle. He's got ranches all over Hawaii. Anytime I feel like stressed or whatever, he flies me and my whole family to Hawaii or to the Montana Ranch or something. Every time I ask him about a business decision I'm going through, the first thing he says is, how's the family?
[:[00:13:51] Christian Stalnecker: I am attracted to success. And I don't mean success necessarily financially as much as I just mean life-wise, success. And that's who I'm looking at. Entrepreneur success comes from their lineup of priorities. Their talent is managing life.
[:[00:14:28] Christian Stalnecker: You could be a fucking wreck, excuse me, I can't ...oh, no....
[:[00:14:33] Christian Stalnecker: Cool. Yeah, yeah.
[:[00:14:45] Christian Stalnecker: As you are attracted to the men and women that have the obstacles similar to you. We're not all supposed to be fitting in the same box. There's a bunch of beautiful boxes, and we're supposed to respect every box.
[:[00:15:01] Coach Nicole: To me, one of the biggest things for businesses is to take more of a holistic approach. When you take a holistic approach to business, it means that there's a synergy between life and business. And I think those who are really successful do it, in a really kick ass way... like you said, your friend Jim- the first question a multi-billionaire millionaire asks of you is, how's your family? That shows that at the North Star, his impact is on people. If you act like that on the daily, of course your messaging is going to come out that way. You're gonna show the authenticity.
[:[00:15:56] Coach Nicole: How did you balance all of this? And how can you help others do it too?
[:[00:16:17] Christian Stalnecker: But, I do just feel like you gotta have a little bit of no quit. You gotta have a whole lot of grace. You gotta have a lot of understanding outside of yourself and a lot of apologetic posture, for yourself. I will say that it's not me. You gotta pick the right person.
[:[00:17:14] Christian Stalnecker: I've been told that I communicate way more than a lot of dudes communicate. I think that might be because I'm a, creative person, but I need to know what's going on... and how do we feel about this... and what are we doing about that. Then I still have the bull in the China factory approach, even after I've communicated, but at least they know I'm about to fuck this China cabinet up. You know what I mean?
[:[00:18:32] Christian Stalnecker: This second go around of my career, I've really been playing a little game to make sure that I don't get bigheaded or cocky. Or take it for granted. And I just keep my head down and be humble and appreciative. Like it's just, I'm a totally different person than when I blew up in my twenties... have my run, if I should say not blew up, but...
[:[00:19:04] Coach Nicole: You could just tell when someone has that something extra and you have that. But you also are 100% a bull in a China shop ready to fuck shit up... In "norm," those two don't fit together. You, love breaking boundaries in just the most crazy, beautiful ways that are also just trying to make people feel good and coming from a sense of love and from something beyond you.
[:[00:20:09] Christian Stalnecker: i, honestly don't know. At, a certain point you just, it's a gift. And I don't say that to sound like I have a gift. I'm just trying to be a good steward of what I don't know that I do. It's so funny cuz I talked to John and Gallo and everybody over at Reservoir, there's a person in me that would love to know how I do what I do so that I could plan my day better or balance it, or channel it. But, the whole lightning in a bottle concept, It doesn't always work out.
[:[00:21:17] Christian Stalnecker: It just aligned for, us because the eighties just started to get like electric music and electric synths and programming drums. Once computers started to come into music, you started to learn how to work with those things. And then when nineties came around, it was like, all right, the computers are here to stay they're, definitely here. We're using them to do everything. Auto-tune came out. I got to play around with even the T-Pain stuff in the late nineties, early two thousands. I just feel like I had all the best resources to play with, to, really cultivate my craft of melody.
[:[00:22:19] Christian Stalnecker: And in the music industry, the same thing has happened. There's unbelievable breakthroughs with computers and technology that taught you how to cultivate that twitch of creating melody. Because there's only seven chords. You know what I mean? There's only so many melodies you can come up with. You gotta find ways to do it.
[:[00:22:49] Christian Stalnecker: I'm with a lot of writers that come in, they can go nameless right now, but they come in and write the same song over and over again, no matter who's in the room. Whereas for me, I'm already confident that I can do that, if I need a plan B. But plan A is to come in and just take whatever craziness is being thrown in this room and try to paint a new picture. I just love to come in new every day. I really do.
[:[00:23:33] Christian Stalnecker: Okay.
[:[00:23:35] Coach Nicole: So I want you to talk through... you step in a room and you're watching what's going on in the room. You're not trying to take yourself and insert into it. You're trying to take what these people are...
[:[00:23:46] Coach Nicole: Or what their situation is... and their authenticity... and create it into a hit song. If you were to put us through that process, right now, on this podcast, can you tell the listeners what you'd be looking at if we're writing a song about what's going on right now?
[:[00:24:03] Coach Nicole: Yeah. Like how would you translate something like this into a hit song?
[:[00:24:40] Christian Stalnecker: I always say that. I'm always like, what have you not said yet? I don't wanna do what anyone else has already done, if I can help it. What's undone in your life? Music to me is fucking therapy. If we end up hugging it out and you're crying and you needed to get something off your chest, whether or not we write that as the song... It, was about the relationship to me before anything else.
[:[00:25:14] Christian Stalnecker: But it's to find, a direction, a broad direction first. You know what I mean? Do we need to up tempo? As a writer, I love to write mid tempo ballad. That's just my thing. I'm good at it. It's just enough of a story, but it doesn't slow down too much, you're not gonna have a crying fest, hopefully. It's just a feel good. It's a pause in the day and some feel good. And I think it's because that's just where I'm at in my life at this point- it's a feel good, but it has a bit of a meaning to it. It's got an aftertaste, so I like to write those.
[:[00:26:03] Coach Nicole: "Give Me a Sign." Oh, he's putting a little plug in.
[:[00:26:29] Christian Stalnecker: I've been doing this now probably, what, 25 years or so from professionally signed. Professionally signed at 17 and now being 43. I don't know. You do the math, whatever that is...
[:[00:26:42] Christian Stalnecker: Yeah, 20 something years. Almost three decades... Number one album in three different genres. The thing is, I'm only as good as the artist in the room.
[:[00:27:16] Coach Nicole: You talking about the artists and just saying that you're only as good as the artist. It is that other centered because you're really writing the music and the lyrics and all the different things for this artist. You're getting in there and connecting with who they are at the core.
[:[00:28:15] Christian Stalnecker: And, don't get me wrong, that works for me. There are people that come in and pride themselves on being what you need. Who they are and what song they're gonna write, is what you need. Whereas, I have just played the numbers game and felt like there's enough of those dudes out there that I'd rather be the guy you want, then the guy you need.
[:[00:29:05] Christian Stalnecker: There was a meme on Instagram, little picture of a leader, and one of 'em was like the guy in the front, dragging the whole people behind them and pointing this way... or there was a guy behind all the people like whipping all the people like to go this way. There's a driving force and then there's an I'll show you, just follow me. I think this is my second wind, because I used to walk in and feel like you came to me, so you must need me to just give you something you don't know you have. And so that was the first part of my career.
[:[00:30:09] Coach Nicole: And it's the difference between managing and coaching, right? Managing is basically, here are the directives, here are the certain goals that we have to hit, now go do it. Coaching is taking and saying, Hey, what's unique about you? How do I bring that out to augment anything that we're going towards and make it even better than you or I thought was possible because we're now doing this in collaboration.
[:[00:30:49] Christian Stalnecker: Yeah and I think, the beautiful, full process of that, would be if you can coach into management, which is which way you need to end up heading, but you need to make sure you've got everyone in order to head that way.
[:[00:31:32] Christian Stalnecker: I think you get the full fold if you're doing it the right way. Because management can't come in hot if they don't coach up and see what they got.
[:[00:31:47] Christian Stalnecker: They, don't coach up and see what they got, bro.
[:[00:31:57] Christian Stalnecker: That could be two different people. Our human nature is codependency. You don't have to be both of those people in the room, but you gotta have both of those people in the room. But if you gotta be that person, you definitely gotta lead with the coaching first before you can manage. The only way you can be a good manager is if you allow for that coaching room. You know what I mean?
[:[00:32:53] Christian Stalnecker: If you lose sight of the thing that you're both looking at, and start looking at each other, that's when shit fucks up. And you can battle through lyrics. You can high five through lyrics in a studio. You can say, this shit didn't work out. You can try things, run up a track, come back the track. As long as you see you're both looking at the same thing, you're not looking at each other. That's how you gotta approach problems. That's how you gotta approach successes and failures and, differences and everything else. There is a thing and it's not you and it's not me, it's a thing.
[:[00:33:42] Christian Stalnecker: Absolutely.
[:[00:34:02] Coach Nicole: Not to throw all the different terms at you on the business side- there's visionaries and implementers and they could be two different people entirely, or they can switch roles depending on the nature of the situation. Where your visionary is, your creative go-getter, push the boundaries, see how far we can go. And your implementers like, fuck yeah, I got you. Let's make this shit happen.
[:[00:34:25] Coach Nicole: This beautiful mixture of visionary and implementation happening on the daily when you guys are in a studio or kicking off a project.
[:[00:34:40] Christian Stalnecker: A lot of people come in and they write a song this way... or LA writes a song, melody first... Nashville writes a song, story first... Rap and urban pop music writes a song, track first... whereas rock might write a song, riff first.
[:[00:35:25] Christian Stalnecker: The bottom line is, I think there's an order to the chaos. You wanna shake it up and find some new visionary stuff, but you definitely need that before you can implement it, you gotta have a vision. Whereas sometimes we like to stand backwards, upside down on the top of my couch and come up with a lyric.
[:[00:35:55] Christian Stalnecker: You gotta walk in. And understand that, like going back to what I was saying, that there's a thing in the room there's a problem, there's a issue, there's a goal, there's a something. You gotta come in coaching first before you're leading, because the people in that room and what they bring to that room that day has to be checked, before you can even move forward. You know what I mean?
[:[00:36:49] Coach Nicole: I think that's the problem with a lot of coaches is that in any realm whether it's you're calling your coaches, managers, or you're calling them accountants, whatever they are, it's I don't think you could just say there's only one way to do something.
[:[00:37:15] Christian Stalnecker: Yeah.
[:[00:37:29] Christian Stalnecker: I don't know if it was Bruce Lee or somebody said it best a master is someone that can teach it to you however many different ways until you get it. I think a master is called a master, not because they've mastered anything, except the fact that they can give it to you multiple ways, until you understand it, we won't be moving forward.
[:[00:38:10] Coach Nicole: I do, a discovery with my clients, where we're building as we go and as I'm hearing information I'm building, then creating visuals, because sometimes you might say it, but when you see it it doesn't make sense anymore.
[:[00:38:25] Coach Nicole: Yeah, say for instance, you as Christian, I'll use you an example.
[:[00:38:49] Coach Nicole: Does this actually make sense in alignment with you or not? Let's figure out your strategy behind which way you will go. Because sometimes you might say, I am 50 50 on both sides. If you look at what the data is saying from the past and you realize all the different changes that you might have to make, it may not feel good. It may not be easy. And so how do you mix what feels good, which also is gonna give you success, push you and financially move you in the positive direction?
[:[00:39:35] Christian Stalnecker: I think the only reason I'm pretty good at hearing things before they're done is because I've just done so many things. What do they say? Lost more times than you've tried. I think that's it. I've just written so many songs . Like people only see the successful, that have been a handful, but thousands of songs I've written so...
[:[00:40:09] Christian Stalnecker: And then that's the other thing too for me, I'm just built different. There's a lot of people that want to be rich. There's a lot of people that want to get there. I just never came at it like that. The money follows the art, you know what I'm saying? The fame follows the work. And so the process is what I was attracted to.
[:[00:40:40] Coach Nicole: You're very quotable.
[:[00:40:42] Christian Stalnecker: I have been told that. I talk in, song terms. So...
[:[00:40:46] Christian Stalnecker: I talk in metaphors and lyric and everything else.
[:[00:40:54] Coach Nicole: I have so enjoyed all this time, but before we wrap up I, love to ask my guests five rapid questions and they're called Thrive in Five. Are you down to answer some quickies for me?
[:[00:41:10] Coach Nicole: All right, so number one, how do you bring your quirk into work?
[:[00:41:25] Coach Nicole: I love it.
[:[00:41:32] Christian Stalnecker: Wow. My buddy Mames with Prime- he's shaking up boxing right now with the whole like influencers boxing against old fighters. I just love everybody. I just think we're in such a cool time. I love that everyone is just switching it up and just seeing where it lands. And I think it's a fun time. I think there's an aura and a vibe of just doing it different. You know what I'm saying?
[:[00:42:28] Coach Nicole: All right, here's another one. When was the last time you did something for the first time?
[:[00:43:05] Christian Stalnecker: I get at, my kids a little bit. Because it's bro, you literally can type in eighth grade soccer workout and go outside with your tablet and do everything. Like you have no excuse. No one has any excuse anymore. I'm big on that though. I am Ricky Bobby's dad. You ain't first your last on your own kind of deal.
[:[00:43:43] Christian Stalnecker: It's the truth though. If we work hard and listen even harder... the path is laid out, so I try something new all the time.
[:[00:44:03] Christian Stalnecker: It's not over.
[:[00:44:13] Christian Stalnecker: What does it mean to me to Thrive Differently? Man, there's so much there. I think it's to definitely be switching it up. I hope that we realize and we see that doing stuff differently isn't throwing away what has worked. We need to stand on shoulders. We don't need to cut a new path. We need to, just reinvent the path. Once you respect those things, truly, respect what was done and how it was done, only then can you be successful in thriving differently.
[:[00:45:02] Christian Stalnecker: One of the most craziest things to me, cuz I'm always just in my head all the time, it's like I don't understand how people don't see the contradiction. If there's not just one way of doing things, there's gotta be room for everybody. Like that whole joke, your offense is offending me. You know what I'm saying? You can't throw it all the way out. You have to add to it. You gotta stand on it. Ultimately if we do that with love, then that's the way we thrive differently and it actually grows. Otherwise it won't.
[:[00:45:54] Christian Stalnecker: They do all of it is just the thing. It's whatever the thing is. Whether it's music, whether it's fucking stocks.. It's still being pushed forward. The thing is being pushed forward by people that have emotions, that have love, that have strengths, that have weaknesses. So at the end of the day, we're all doing the same thing.
[:[00:46:15] Coach Nicole: Absolutely. I love it. So before we sign out here, where can people find out more about Christian Stalnecker? Tell us where we can find you or maybe some things that we could look out for too.
[:[00:46:44] Christian Stalnecker: Other than that pretty normal guy and try to stay out of the limelight, which might be changing soon, but we'll see.
[:[00:47:03] Christian Stalnecker: Yeah. There's a few things going on.
[:[00:47:20] Christian Stalnecker: Thank you so much. I feel the same about you, and I just think that you're finally stepping... you probably were stepping into your column before, but I think coaching as a whole for what we need for the soul... is something that's out there and, definitely needed. And I hope you're shining your light everywhere.
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