Alright – so today we’ve got the honor of introducing you to Bruce Wawrzyniak. We think you’ll enjoy our conversation, we’ve shared it below.

Bruce, looking forward to learning from your journey. You’ve got an amazing story and before we dive into that, let’s start with an important building block. Where do you get your work ethic from?
When my brother and sister and I were kids our mother always told us to “shoot for the stars.” That said, we saw how hard our father worked to make sure that we could have everything we needed for school and still participate in extracurricular activities, plus, of course, pay the bills. My mother also had jobs and her father was also an extremely hard worker. I was probably 13 or 14 years old and was already working for him at his produce stand at an open-air market. He set a great example with the way he operated his business and made sure we knew he was our boss when we were there and our grandfather only when it was time to pack up for the day.

Appreciate the insights and wisdom. Before we dig deeper and ask you about the skills that matter and more, maybe you can tell our readers about yourself?
As someone who does a music interview podcast, I often hear guests joke that they “came out of the womb singing.” In my case, I would say that when I was born I was already talking. The thing is, that has served me well as I’ve spent my professional career as a publicist, speaker, broadcaster, and podcaster.
I remember being a little kid and coming home from school and having to call my grandmother to tell her what went on in school that day. You could say I was a little reporter, of sorts.
Once I entered the professional world I wanted to keep telling people what was happening — from working in the PR department for a National Hockey League team for ten seasons to being the VP/Public Relations at the league office for North America’s premier pro indoor lacrosse league for three years, to ten-and-a-half years in the Olympic Movement, to the agency I’ve been running for many years now.
My company, Now Hear This, Inc., initially was founded because I thought other people needed to hear about this great talent (singer) I’d found in church, only to then grow it to other performer clients, and eventually to where it is today, also providing publicist services for authors, entrepreneurs, small business owners, podcasters and yes, still entertainers.
Along the way I started podcasting (Feb. 2014) and haven’t missed a week since, including launching a second show in February 2019.
My grandmother is long gone but you can be assured I call my mother to tell her about the clients I’m working with or the speaking engagements I’m doing and the travels related to all of this.

If you had to pick three qualities that are most important to develop, which three would you say matter most?
Consistency is key. Only a minor technicality disqualified me from being the first student (ever) in my high school to have perfect attendance (grades 9-12). In other words, it’s so important to show up. This is advice that I give to people about social media. You can’t just post once in a while yet expect people to remember you and keep you top of mind.  And you can tell that consistency is important to me since I’ve never missed putting out a new episode of my “Now Hear This Entertainment” podcast for nine-and-a-half years.

Secondly, being present is a great lesson that I learned during my ten-and-a-half years working in the Olympic Movement. The president of our federation would fly halfway around the world just to sit in a meeting for a few hours and then fly all the way back. In not so many words he was sharing with us the idea of “out of sight, out of mind.” He would say, “If I wasn’t there at the meeting, they might forget us and not talk about us and then we won’t get ahead.” So, when you feel you’d rather stay home and pamper yourself because you deserve a day off, remember, ‘you must be present to win.’

Sadly, it IS who you know and not what you know. I remember being a college student and being bound and determined to get ahead because of WHAT I knew and not who I knew. The longer I waded into the pool, however, the more I found that connections are everything. They have opened so many doors for me. I have put a tremendous emphasis on networking and not only getting but staying connected with people. At the same time, you can’t lead with your hand out.

Any advice for folks feeling overwhelmed?
I’ll be the first to admit this is easier said than done, but, quite simply, as many tasks as you might have before you, all you can do is the next thing. Multi-tasking has become such a — dare I say ‘overused’ — buzzword, but the fact of the matter is, you can only do one thing at a time. Well, you can try to do more than one thing at the same time, but something’s going to suffer. Consider if you were on a business call but decided to try to catch up on emails while you’re in that conversation. Either an email (or two) is (are) going to get botched, or you’re going to be caught off guard during the the phone call.
If catching up on your emails is making you feel overwhelmed, all you can do is the next thing, meaning, the first email. And *then* the second. And *then* the third. And so on.
Some people are already starting to slowly pull out Halloween decorations. A costume for that occasion is about the only way you’re going to be Superman. Just do the next thing and you’ll see progress and then your overwhelm will dwindle.