You don't have to be ready for a door before you walk through it.

Connor Warren Smith's plan was a quiet, behind-the-scenes life in one corner of music. When that path closed, he started saying yes to whatever opened, even gigs he didn't yet know how to do. This conversation from the archives is a warm, practical look at how a career gets built one yes, one small gig and one honest phone call at a time. Still true today.

🎧 In this episode

• A steady music career lives in the wide middle between "starving artist" and superstar, and several quality income streams keep you okay when one goes quiet.
• Saying yes before you feel qualified is often how you find out what you're capable of.
• The small gig deserves your full 100%, because you never know who's in the audience.
• Being cut isn't a verdict on your talent. Sometimes you're just not right for that project, and the next one may be yours.

About Connor Warren Smith

In this early-2022 conversation, Connor is an LA-based performer, studio vocalist, arranger and composer whose voice appears in Spider-Man: No Way Home and Mulan, and on shows like American Horror Story and The Blacklist. He signed with Disney Music Group in 2018 and released an album with the a cappella group DCappella, and he reprised the role of Olaf in Disney California Adventure's production of Frozen. He studied music composition and earned a master's in conducting at CBU.

Moments worth your time

• 07:55 — Walking through the doors that are open to you
• 10:45 — "I don't know any Motown, but yes"
• 14:48 — The Nashville plan, and starting completely over
• 24:51 — Back in a room full of singers for Spider-Man
• 27:19 — Signed by Disney, then cut from the group
• 48:10 — How to back out of a gig without burning the bridge
• 50:44 — The unglamorous secret to vocal stamina: water and sleep

"I try to apply the same mentality of giving 100% of yourself to everything that you do, no matter how small you might think it is." — Connor Warren Smith

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