Today we’d like to introduce you to Cole Connor.
Cole, we appreciate you taking the time to share your story with us today. Where does your story begin?
I grew up in the woods of Dalzell, SC where I spent most of my time adventuring, reading, playing sports and writing.
At 15, I found a desire to want to start making videos and write and at 17, I figured out how to turn my poems into rap songs.
I didn’t really know what I was doing with either, but I just had a gut feeling to keep doing. After injuring my ACL on the football field, I went all into making music.
I went to Clemson for a year before dropping out to further pursue it. Rap and women were all I could think about. I made mixtapes and found a little success locally and on blogs.
At 20, I made a big leap and moved to Columbia, SC for more opportunities. I connected with my mentor, hip-hop artist and entrepreneur, FatRat Da Czar. We were a part of the collective, NewSC with other talented Columbia artists.
I dropped two solo albums and participated in 2 albums with NewSC from 2013-2016. My 2016 album SODA was one of the FreeTime’s top SC albums.I performed at SXSW, Spartanburg Spring Fling and Love, Peace & Hip-Hop festivals as well as opened for artists such as Ghostface, Mobb Deep, KRS One, Kid-N-Play, Slick Rick and Jack & Jack. All the while, I was struggling to make money with various jobs I tried over the years.
Investing in my dreams became pretty difficult as I spent more and more time in music, and at 23, once I realized I could learn a skill and make money off of it as an entrepreneur, I quit working as a server, pizza delivery driver and part-time social media strategist for a Columbia based PR firm, to found Apollo’s Bow Strategies, a marketing agency with a niche in real estate photo and video.
I struggled for about two years before being relatively stable, but I fell in love with entrepreneurship and making money to fund my creative ventures.
My focus shifted out of necessity to making money, and I released less music.
Over the next three years, I grew my business to six figures, hired people, started releasing music again and started a Youtube channel to record the journey and teach other creatives along the way. I also started to do small film projects as both director, editor and actor.
The more I fell in love with the arts, I felt in my gut I needed to move to a city like LA to surround myself with creative people and resources to make my goals and dreams happen.
In 2020, I moved to Los Angeles to pursue my dreams of music, acting and film. With the pandemic and some internal business corruption, my business fell apart, and I had to start over in a way. It was devastating.
I moved to Beaufort, SC to begin again where my mother and step-father lives. I restarted my business, and it grew so much faster than it did the first time around. I found success, kept doing YouTube, making music and by 2021, I launched the Creative Survival Guide, a course/coaching program and community designed to help creatives go from starving artists to creative entrepreneurs.
I also decided with my partner to move to LA again and give these things another shot. We moved in August 2021. I struggled for the first year to feel settled and stabilize my business, but the second year has been so fulfilling.
In 2022, I quadrupled my real estate marketing business, Bow Los Angeles, and launched the production company Apollo’s Bow, where I’ll be focused on telling stories to challenge the norm and inspire. I took acting classes, met amazing people, grown my YouTube channel significantly and started working on new music.
And finally, 2023 is the year I’m really seeing all the work start to come together. I’m working on organizing the Creative Survival Guide to help all types of creatives, telling the stories I’ve always wanted to tell with Apollo’s Bow, auditioning for all types of films and working on some really exciting things with music.
My motto is “No Niche”. I can’t pick just one creative outlet, and honestly, I don’t want to. I feel excited about what’s to come. LA is a big part of that. It’s scary coming somewhere new and starting over. You feel isolated. I did at least. I’m thankful to have a great support system, friends and the will to keep pushing. I’m proud that I even got this far. It’s wild.
Alright, so let’s dig a little deeper into the story – has it been an easy path overall and if not, what were the challenges you’ve had to overcome?
Ha. It has not been smooth. There have been too many obstacles to name, but to name the biggest, I’d have to say there’s always a struggle of balance, money, mental strength, acceptance and being open to love and relationships. Particularly to me, I had some major setbacks in momentum a few times, but I like to believe they were necessary for my growth. Leaving school was tough. I separated from the collective, which was tough. And a partner I had joined my business ended up stealing the business from me at one point. That was tough.
I really have to believe that these things happen to make me stronger and help me appreciate where I’ve come from. The obstacles make the wins feel so special. What I’ve found is that no matter how low I get knocked down, I always come back stronger and move “up” much faster than I did before.
I could write a book on all the obstacles, but ultimately, we just keep going and keep creating. I won’t stop.
Alright, so let’s switch gears a bit and talk business. What should we know about your work?
I’m a hip-hop artist, actor, filmmaker, entrepreneur and Youtube creator. I have the most experience in music, but over the past seven years, I’ve learned a lot about film, entrepreneurship and Youtube, which has helped me a lot in business.
I love to create art that makes me feel something that I can get excited about and that I feel like will inspire people. I want to challenge perspective and have people question what they believe.
I’m the most proud of not giving up. 13 years into my life as an artist. Through it all, I’m still here and better than ever. That’s beautiful.
I think what sets me apart from others is getting very good at everything I do. I am not perfect and have a lot to learn, but I just keep trying and learning and getting better. I can confidently be a videographer, artist, actor and filmmaker. They are related in a lot of ways so it’s not crazy to imagine I can do them all, but I do feel like it’s unique, especially where I come from. Ultimately, we are all just people, and I hope to inspire others as I’ve been inspired by so many. Being inspired by others keeps me going. I love that about humans. We push each other.
Where do you see things going in the next 5-10 years?
It all changes so fast. It’s interesting to see the new waves of things every year from Tiktok to NFTs to AI. I just don’t know. All I know is I’ll be here trying to keep up and understand it all. It’s a challenge to stay up to date, but it’s also fun to see us grow. So… who knows.
I do like to think of the future in a positive light. With hope. So wherever it all goes, I think it will be better than it is now. Truly.
Contact Info:
- Website: https://coleconnor.com/
- Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/thecoleconnor/
- Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/TheColeConnor
- Youtube: https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCmqe0lYOIUKfOkV-xXCxmYA
Image Credits
Larry Frazier Richardson Reigart Christo Dimassis
