We had the good fortune of connecting with Richard Peña and we’ve shared our conversation below.
Hi Richard, alright, let’s jump in with a deep one – what’s you’re definition for success?
I believe that success is a very personal state of mind. To some, success means having lots of money. To others, it could mean having great communication in their relationships. To me, success means being able to live my “Ikigai”, which is music. The Ikigai is a Japanese concept referring to something that gives a person a sense of purpose, a reason for living. As long as I’m making music, I can do what I love, what I’m good at, what the world needs, and what I get paid for.
Alright, so let’s move onto what keeps you busy professionally?
As a Jazz Guitarist and Educational Content Creator, I’m very proud to be able to provide reliable jazz guitar lessons to a community of over 200k followers across platforms. It’s exciting to be able to teach what I love and create music for a living, every day I wake up and get to pursue my dreams and make them a reality.
Getting to this point was not easy, one of the biggest challenges to overcome was the constant struggle with burnout. It’s very easy in the creative world to feel this, especially when you’re doing it for hours every single day for 12 months straight. The modern musician faces a multitude of tasks, such as videography, marketing, management, bookings, lesson planning, producing, scripting, and notating…just to name a few. To this day, I still struggle with burnout. But one thing that has helped me is setting work boundaries. I restrict myself to working certain hours and set clear times for me to have personal time. If you don’t respect your own time, no one will.
Let’s say your best friend was visiting the area and you wanted to show them the best time ever. Where would you take them? Give us a little itinerary – say it was a week long trip, where would you eat, drink, visit, hang out, etc.
If my best friend was visiting Puerto Rico, we would do the following:
1. Visit Flamenco Beach in Culebra
2. Eat traditional Puertorican food at The Placita de Santurce
3. See live music at the C Note Jazz Club or El Boricua.
And repeat this process over the weekend between other clubs, beaches, and restaurants.
Shoutout is all about shouting out others who you feel deserve additional recognition and exposure. Who would you like to shoutout?
I’d love to give a shoutout to my family and friends, and to my mentor Fernando Mattina. Without him, I wouldn’t be the guitarist I am today
Website: www.richardpenamusic.com
Instagram: www.instagram.com/richardpenamusic
Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/richardpenamusic
Youtube: https://youtube.com/richardpenamusicpr
Other: All other links: https://linktr.ee/richardpenamusic