Meet Lance Waste | Publicist and content presenter for Heart Riot

We had the good fortune of connecting with Lance Waste and we’ve shared our conversation below.

Hi Lance, alright, let’s jump in with a deep one – what’s you’re definition for success?
Thought Process:

I’ve been in a band since 2003. When we decided to start touring full time, I realized a 9-5 wasn’t going to work for me. I started offering other bands services as I learned how to do them for our band. My first company was a Record Label that I ran for a few years before I sold it to a larger label. I then did the same thing with an artist management company before I launched Heart Riot, which is a PR and Media firm.

Community help:
Our goal is to help underground artists tell their story and get their message out to the world. So our impact to the world is done by assisting artists in making THEIR impact.

Risk taking:
I have always been a massive risk taker. I try to say yes to almost any opportunity that I think might help my business grow. I’ve lived abroad to help grow my brand and at age 21, I sold my car and most of my belongings to open up a music venue, just to network with other bands in the scene.

Parenting:
I am a parent to two great little girls. Nora, age 7 and Livie, age 2. The most important thing I’ve ever done is purchase a home in a great community. Having a homebase is such a huge thing for us. My wife works with me at Heart Riot and we both work from home, so we are able to be there for our girls whenever we need to be.

Sucess:
The thing I hear the most about Heart Riot from clients, is they appreciate our communication and honesty. I’ve never been a good salesperson, and I don’t tend to like salespeople. So I’ve always had the approach of “underpromise and overdeliver”. We are very upfront and honest and set expectations with each client. We stay in constant communication and we don’t make any excuses.

On whether to keep going or give up:
I’ve never wanted to give up on entrepreneurship because the pros outweigh the cons by miles. I’m a self-starter and can hold myself accountable, so I’m really built to be my own boss. I also don’t care for bosses or things like office politics. I also like that my pay is a direct result of how much effort I put in. I’m not just collecting a paycheck and punching a clock.

Work/Life balance:
This has actually changed a lot over the years for me. For several years, I let work really consume me. Then, I swung too far the other way and would only work between 10am and 6pm and refused to answer an email on the weekend. These days I think we’ve found a good balance. We work off of a daily checklist. We make it every night before bed and plow through it the next day. I make sure to spend time with my daughters in the morning and then again from dinner to bed. Then, if we are done for the day I get some free time. If not, we finish up work before bed. It’s long days but it’s fun and rewarding work.

What makes you happy?
I take a lot of pride in my company and providing quality. My kids make me happy. In my free time i Dungeon Master a weekly Dungeons and Dragons campaign. And my band still tours a couple of times a year. I feel very fortunate to be at my age and have the best of both worlds, between a rewarding career, a family, friends, and my band. I know 25 year old me would be proud.

Why an artist career?
It’s never really been a choice for me. Over the years I’ve tried non-music related careers. I worked at a college test prep service for a bit, I even tried to be a car salesman once. This is just the only thing that I know a lot about, am passionate about, and seem to be good at. When my band is on tour and doing radio interviews, we always get asked something along the lines of “Why go you tour so much?” or “How hard is to be together after 15 years?” and we always answer ” We don’t know what else to do. This is what we know.” I feel the same about my company. I don’t really know how to do anything else.

How do you define success?
I’ve thought about this a lot my entire life. What is my finish line? With my band, people sometimes say “It’s a bummer you didn’t make it.” But to me we did. We’ve played 1,300 shows in 11 countries and made 8 albums. I feel like that’s making it, you know? But as far as Heart Riot goes, I keep it simple, we pay all of our bills and live comfortably off of this single source of income. The company provides my family the life we have and we have been growing year over year for 8 years.

Can you give our readers an introduction to your business? Maybe you can share a bit about what you do and what sets you apart from others?
Heart Riot is a pr agency and media firm. We help artists get heard by pitching their story to media and also through content we create directly.

(I think I covered most of this in the questions from the previous page. But am happy to go into more detail if needed)

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.
Is this for Denver? I’m from Cleveland. If this is for Cleveland, here’s what you need to do.

I’m a Westsider, so this list is pretty West Side-specific.

For breakfast, you can’t beat Borderline Cafe in Lakewood. Then pick up some great comics at Carol and Johns in Kamm’s Corners. We can go check out the vendors at Westside Market on west 25th before grabbing lunch at Bario in Tremont.

Then you can hop over to Gordon Square to get a haircut from my guy Ryan at Black Cat Barbershop, sharpest in the city. It’s one of the best spots in Cleveland to talk underground music. Then, depending on the night, you can hit up The 5 O’clock for a free show or see what Mahall’s (bowling alley and venue) or Happy Dog (hot dog bar and venue) has going on.

Cap off your night with a craft cocktail at the literary-themed Cloak and Dagger!

The Shoutout series is all about recognizing that our success and where we are in life is at least somewhat thanks to the efforts, support, mentorship, love and encouragement of others. So is there someone that you want to dedicate your shoutout to?
For me there is very simple and obvious person for The Shoutout. My friend Jesea Lee from High Road PR (and just his ever-growing media empire haha). For YEARS he would say “Why are you an artist manager? You should be a publicist?” or “Why don’t you grow some Spotify playlists?, You’d be good at it” or “You should have a TikTok. I think you’d be good on there.” I should have listened to him years earlier.

And a very close second is my lovely wife Sabrina. She has always allowed me to pursue Heart Riot, even when I was chickening out and thinking I should get an office job for the secure pay and health insurance. She has always believed in what we do at Heart Riot and she runs a tight ship, taking care of all of the business and financial parts of running a business.

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