Do What You Love

About Do What You Love

Most music professionals are told to choose. Chase the stage, or chase a steady income. Play for love, or play for a living. That choice is a myth, and it's cost too many talented people their careers. The industry runs on people who've turned their craft into a career. Artists who tour and teach. Producers who build studios. Coaches who mentor the next generation. That's the real path, and almost no one talks about how it's built. The industry is fragmented, and the old education models were never built to bridge the gap. Academia teaches theory, DIY leaves you to figure it out alone, and neither gets you there. Welcome to Inside Music Valley, where artists are made and careers are built. For over 17 years, I've been building one of Australia's leading music businesses from the ground up. Now I'm pulling back the curtain. The wins, the failures, the systems, and everything in between. I sit down with my team, artists, coaches, producers, and music business leaders for raw, unfiltered conversations about what actually works. How they built sustainable careers. How they monetise their skill, knowledge, and experience. What they'd do differently if they started today. No filters. No fluff. Just real people, real stories, and real results. If you're a musician, artist, producer, coach, or business owner, ready to build a real career in music, and our mission and values resonate with you, I'd love to connect. Connect with me on Instagram at www.instagram.com/steve.jaz and let's explore ways we can work together. Thanks for tuning in. I'm Steve Jaz, Founder and CEO of Music Valley. Let's get into it. Ready to find your path in the music industry? Book a free call with Music Valley https://musicvalley.com.au Recorded at Music Valley Studios, Point Cook, Melbourne, Australia.

Publisher

Steve Jaz | Music Valley Studios

Category

business

Language

en

Explicit

Yes

First episode

18 Feb 2018

Latest episode

26 Aug 2026

Latest episodes

36 episodes in the feed.

1. 

   26 Aug 2026

   Hiring Talent: Rebuilding a Team Without Losing the Business

   Two key staff departures. One brutal hiring grind. And a founder pulled straight back into the trenches when he'd spent years building past that. In this episode, I break down what actually happened in May when a staff member gave notice sooner than expected, and why the timing hit harder than it should have. I get into why hiring in this industry is nothing like a normal search: the timetabling puzzle, the gig economy reality, and the irony that the best candidates are busy trying to build their own practice. Around the same time, my offshore rep of two years also finished up, and I had to step back onto the front lines myself: sales, follow-ups, enrolments. That pulled me away from marketing, the actual lifeblood of this business. I walk through how I patched the gaps, what I learned about building resilience into the team, and why no single person should ever be the one point of failure in your business. No filters. No fluff. Just real people, real stories, and real results. Ready to find your path in the music industry? Book a free call with Music Valley www.musicvalley.com.au

2. 

   19 Aug 2026

   Music Was Never The Hard Part: A New Kind Of Conversion

   I built Music Valley without a business degree, without a mentor, and without anyone telling me how to actually run the thing once the music stopped being the hard part. Turns out, playing your instrument was never going to be the hard part. In this episode, I'm pulling back the curtain on the gap nobody warns you about — the one between mastering your craft and actually building a career from it. I trace it back to my own Conservatorium training, a double life split with a full-time telecommunications job, and the moment in 2014 I had to close a second studio because the systems underneath it weren't strong enough to carry the growth. This also marks a different kind of conversation on the show. Some weeks it's just me. Other weeks, teammates like Martin, Gene, and Leon join in, bringing whatever they're actually living that week to the table. What's actually on your mind in your business right now? Drop it in the comments — it shapes what we dig into next. No filters. No fluff. Just real people, real stories, and real results. Ready to find your path in the music industry? Book a free call with Music Valley www.musicvalley.com.au

3. 

   5 Aug 2026

   Lorenzo: Effort Over Talent, 20 Years of Building a Music Academy

   20 years. One student to eighteen staff. Lorenzo built his academy (www.musicea.com.au) from a shoebox with no piano to a studio he painted himself, with his dad and son beside him. Steve sits down with an old conservatorium friend to unpack the ultimatum that built his work ethic, the cancer diagnosis that gave him his why, and the free trial system that's driven growth for two decades. They also get into hiring, letting people go, and the one skill that matters more than talent. Ready to find your path in the music industry? Book a free call with Music Valley at www.musicvalley.com.au

Reach and audience

Public platform figures. Ratings count people who left a rating, not total listeners.

Spotify

5.0 / 5

3 ratings

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Guest appearances

Books guests

Based on episode analysis; this does not confirm that the show is currently accepting guests.