Daily Inspiration: Meet Eric Wagler

Today, we’d like to introduce you to Eric Wagler.

Hi Eric, can you start by introducing yourself? We’d love to learn more about how you got to where you are today.
I grew up in a small rural town called North Adams in Hillsdale County, Michigan. I loved music from a young age, and during High School, started a punk rock band called Maryz Eyez with 2 of my best friends. From that point, I soon learned that I had an entrepreneurial spirit. It seemed I enjoyed or at least endured portions of “Band Life” that the others didn’t enjoy as much. Bookings, marketing, networking, strategic planning, etc.

Playing in an independent band doesn’t always pay the bills, so to generate spending money during college, I worked as a booking agent for a local venue, booked my band all over the tri-state area, and even created a state-wide Battle of the Bands event called the “World Series Of Rock” that featured over 100 bands all from the state of Michigan. My bandmates and I also figured out a unique way to gig-swap with other punk rock bands by creating a tour called “the punkothon tour,” which allowed us to visit new markets and grow our fan base. Eventually Maryz Eyez put out a record, got a MGMT contract w/ Rick Smith of Wild Justice Entertainment and moved to Los Angeles to pursue the dream.

That band changed its name to Trenchtown, and we toured the punk rock underground for the better part of 6 years. During this time, we once again realized that playing in an underground punk rock band didn’t always pay the bills, so after landing a few songs on a 2K Sports video game and receiving a licensing check for several thousand dollars, we dove into the world of sync licensing. My brother and I started a company that pitched independent bands’ songs to advertising agencies, and we were successful enough at this to create and maintain a synch licensing company. Landing songs in commercials for HBO, Lexus, Harley, and FIAT, as well as several movies, video games and TV shows, for several years we toured by the weekend and worked sync deals Monday – Thursday.

Eventually, the band decided to slow down, and my wife and I moved back to the Midwest to start a family. After living in the midwest for just a few months I started meeting other musicians and fell in with a Non-Profit studio called Above Pete’s Garage. I quickly became friends with the owner/operator Pete Bishop and it wasn’t long until Pete asked me to be the VP at APG. APG was doing some amazing work mentoring young artists and I fell in love w/ their mission.  APG exists to help aspiring musicians and it’s a safe place that teaches real world skills all centered around songwriting, audio engineering, and how to be an artist.  I couldn’t help but remember the people that took me under their wing when I was a kid that wanted to play music and it felt incredible to be that person for someone else.

Through these relationships at the studio, my brother and I started another band called 10 Talents, which focuses on mental health and reaching today’s youth. We found an agency (Relevant Speakers Network) that specialized in teaming speakers with bands and providing assembly programs during the day w/ evening concerts and we became a contract band for the agency.

Only six months after joining the agency, we became a full-time band for RSN and eventually took over the booking department. For the first few years 10 Talents would do 100 events per year, currently we do one tour a month averaging 60 events per year. The agency as a whole reaches over 1/2 Million kids every year. Between the agency and the studio I get to combine my love of music with my desire to help people.

Alright, let’s dig a little deeper into the story – has it been an easy path overall, and if not, what challenges have you had to overcome?
Far from smooth, but I wouldn’t change any of it. Starting out it was always peoples outside opinion that being in a band or the music industry would never be a sustainable way to make a living. Then of course it takes a long time and alot of effort to build up your brand to any form of legitimacy.  We’ve always found that you have to “pay your dues” before the benefits come, in the early days of being in a band this meant playing cover gigs and using all the money we earned to “buy-on” to punk rock tours, it meant selling tickets to get the opening slot w/ a nationanal headliner, it meant saving our pennies so we could work with the producer we desired to work with and put out a Legit record, and basically just working hard for every opportunity.  Most of the time this hard word did pay off, after “buying on to tours” we were offered paid tours, selling tickets to open for the nationals proved to the venue we could headline our own “paid” shows, and putting out that Legit Record with the producer we wanted to work w/ ended with a mastering session in New York City w/ Greg Calby (John Lennon’s engineer) who turned around during the session and said “you guys don’t have a mgmt deal”.  He then proceeded to call his friends in the industry which landed us our first MGMT contract.   None of the accomplishments happen without the sacrifice and hard work that proceeded them.

We have also always wanted to help people and being philanthropic doesn’t usually = top rates so we’ve had to learn to be frugal and maintain a DIY mentality. Even today most of our struggles revolve along these same issues but my brother calls this “creative stress” so we embrace every challenge.

Appreciate you sharing that. What else should we know about what you do?
I split most of my time between 3 jobs. A good portion of my time is spent booking our speakers, bands, and programs for RSN. As I stated earlier our agency as a whole reaches over 1/2 million kids per year with essential programs that revolve around mental health, character development, making good choices, and overcoming adversity.  I can’t speak highy enough about the impact RSN and our programs make on the youth, our brand is a trusted brand by thousands of schools all over the country and we employ some of the nations top youth speakers and top independent bands.  It’s been great working with RSN and I love knowing that every gig I book is making a difference in someones life, often times saving lives.

I also love playing music and seeing the impact so I take part in one tour per month through the agency with my band 10 Talents. We have released two full-length records and have performed in front of hundreds of thousands of students over the past seven years.  I’m an artist at heart and love playing at live events so having the opportunity to tour and see the impact is not something I take for granted.  Finally, I play an active role at the non-profit studio “APG audio visual mentoring” or Above Pete’s Garage. For APG, I book our programs, help with program development, and also lead certain classes at schools and Juvenile Detention Centers.  APG is an amazing place that is quickly growing.  Our program will be a part of a music major at Adrian College starting this Fall, we have numerous after school programs in place, and a Grant that helps us to serve Adjudacated youth.  The direct impact that APG makes on a daily basis is nothing short of amazing.

Contact Info:

• Website: 10talentsmusic.com, relevantspeakers.com, abovepetesgarage.com
• Instagram: instagram.com/10talentsmusic
• Youtube: youtube.com/10talentsmusic

Image Credits
Ryan Wagler, Cortney Wagler, and Judah Wagler