Today we’d like to introduce you to Chris Floren.
1. Can you tell us a story about what brought you to this specific career path?
Chris Floren – I have always been a silent person, difficult to open up to people about my issues or what at a certain time I’d be going through. The far behind I can remember is when I was somewhere 12-15 years old, I started writing down music, things that were going on with me and around me. Music has always been an escape from this life, a basement where I will be myself and speak my, mind as I wish.
2. Can you share the most interesting story that happened to you since you started this career?
Chris Floren – The most interesting story ever since I started writing music has been when I wrote a song for my father. Back while in high school I released an EP, in which there was a track to my father’s title “No Soy Un Gangster”. Back then my friends and I when to a tattoo place and tattooed ourselves when I got back home my dad asked me to remove the tattoos or I have to move out of his house. Weeks later wrote that song telling him that just the fact of having the tattoo did not make me a gangster. Then later on people would play the song when he is around just to make him listen to it until he forgot about my tattoos and never talk about them again.
3. Can you share a story about the funniest mistake you made when you were first starting? Can you tell us what lesson you learned from that?
Chris Floren – The finniest mistake I have ever made in this career was writing music for people for free until I knew about royalties.
4. What are some of the most interesting or exciting projects you are working on now?
Chris Floren – The exciting project I’m working on now is my album “The Inner Me” which has so many people tracks that I can wait to share with the world, a lot of creativity. I’m also working on other projects besides the album, I can’t talk about it now but it will be released before the album, that project is heart-melting I’m sure a lot of people are going to relate to it.
5. Who are some of the most interesting people you have interacted with? What was that like? Do you have any stories?
Chris Floren – I have been interacting with other people a lot lately, people I’m working with on some of my projects, and the people I’m collaborating with now and then.
6. Which tips would you recommend to your colleagues in your industry to help them to thrive and not “burn out”?
Chris Floren – My best recommendation is to do everything to put yourself out there, always try to be visible to be found by your specific audience, and more importantly make sure you contain are relatable to others.
7. You have been blessed with success in a career path that can be challenging. Do you have any words of advice for others who may want to embark on this career path, but seem daunted by the prospect of failure?
Chris Floren – The advice I can give t anyone is that failing is part of the process. Never give up one of your dreams or on anything you want to do no matter how many times you fail, or how many times people talk down to your ideas. There’s not a successful person that never failed. Always find a positive point each time you fail on something, and try it again. There’s a said that goes like this “if you don’t like how the table is set, turn it around”. If something did not go the way you planned it, do it differently next time, but never stop trying to do it better.
8. Can you share with our readers any self-care routines, practices, or treatments that you do to help your body, mind, or heart to thrive? Kindly share a story or an example for each.
Chris Floren – Every morning I go for a run or do some exercises, then after shower drink some tea while reading the news. In the afternoon every day, I tend to do some reading for at least an hour, I’m always trying to feed my mind with new things. Then I do some brain exercises every day by always trying to focus my brain to concentrate on only one activity at a time, because that way it performs at its best, such as if I’m working on something I won’t be checking my phone or social media.
9. What are your “5 things I wish someone told me when I first started” and why. Please share a story or example for each.
Chris Floren – Well, there are not many things I wish someone would have told me back when I started writing and composing music. Because back home in Equatorial Guinea music is not considered a career, it’s just a hobby for many starts as no one can make a living as a musician. I’d have had all the information needed to make it as a musician and still not. Everything I know so far in this industry I have learned it by myself looking up to people that have done the same things as Jay-Z when he couldn’t get a label deal. I have followed the steps, step by step up to a point of founding my own small record label just to control my royalties and be able to put my music out there to all major music platforms, and now trying to appear on articles and news so I can be found.
10. Can you please give us your favorite “Life Lesson Quote”? Can you share how that was relevant to you in your life?
Chris Floren – I have so many life quotes, but the one I have in mind all the time is by Oscar Wilde “Anyone who lives within their possibilities suffers from lack of imagination”. I keep this quote present in my day-to-day life, it makes me not feel comfortable with anything, always trying to improve on anything I do, or make things better anywhere I may be.
11. None of us are able to achieve success without some help along the way. Is there a particular person who you are grateful towards who helped get you to where you are? Can you share a story about that?
Chris Floren – Yes, there are a lot of people I will be forever grateful to. I’m grateful to everyone I admire, for the work they did, to prove to many of us that everything is possible. I’m grateful for those around me who have the courage to tell me I’m wrong when I do not see things through instead of telling them to others on my back.
12. You are a person of enormous influence. If you could start a movement that would bring the most amount of good to the most amount of people, what would that be? You never know what your idea can trigger. 🙂
Chris Floren – Justice.
13. We are very blessed that some of the biggest names in Business, VC funding, Sports, and Entertainment read this column. Is there a person in the world, or in the US with whom you would love to have a private breakfast or lunch, and why? He or she might see this. 🙂
Chris Floren – Most definitely there is one person I’d like to meet one day, and his name is Shawn ‘Jay- Z’ Carter.
14. How can our readers follow you online?
Chris Floren – I can be followed on Instagram @JustChrisFloren, Facebook @JustChrisFloren, Twitter @JustChrisFloren, TikTok @JustChrisFloren, YouTube: Chris Floren