Building a Community: A Conversation with Ash Maher and Andrew Montez

**SPEAKER_2** (0:03)
The Bliss Business Podcast, the show about empathy, connection and consciousness in business. Today's episode is brought to you by Zero Company, your paid search, social media, and programmatic ad experts.

**Steven Scass** (0:17)
Welcome back to The Bliss Business Podcast. I'm your host, Steven Scass, joined with Tulio Siragusa, and we've got a couple of guests today. Today, we're diving into a topic that's at the heart of every successful movement, building a community. And we couldn't have better guests in this conversation than our own Ash Maher and Andrew Montez, co-founders of the Awaken Radio Club. Hello. How's it going, guys?
Their work focuses on fostering meaningful connections through music, storytelling and art. Awaken Radio Club is more than just a community. It's a space for people to come together, awaken their potential and support one another on their journeys. Tulio, why don't you tell us a little bit more about Ash and Andrew?

**Tulio Siragusa** (1:05)
Yes, thanks, Stephen. Ash, it's good to have you, not as a host, but as a guest today.
So you're in the hot seat with your co-founder, Andrew, there. So let's talk about you a little bit. Ash is a visionary leader with a passion for creative, inclusive, growth-oriented communities. You might know him as a marketer, but he's also a community builder. And he's joined by Andrew Montez, who is also an aspiring producer and techno DJ with a family legacy steeped in musical talent. He actually worked with EDM artist Skrillex and developed a love for producing music at a very early age. Together, they've built Awaken Radio Club. I love that name. It's very cool. And Awaken Radio Club is a dynamic platform where people from diverse backgrounds can connect, share, and grow through creative expression. Who knows, maybe they'll grow into something else, label maybe. Anyway, Ash and Andrew, it's really an honor to have you both with us today. And to get us started, why don't we get you guys to share what inspired you to create Awaken Radio Club and how that journey has led you to the point where you are today?

**Ash Maher** (2:16)
Well, absolutely. Well, thank you, Scalable, for having us, Steve and Tulio. It's an honor to be here. So a little bit of the story of how Awaken all began.
I think it's safe to share or fair to say that each person sharing their individual stories makes the most sense because as this community has built, each person had their own perspective and angle that they brought in, which created a very inclusive community. So my story began with the fact that I had decided in 2023 that I wanted to do this music thing. And it happened, it stemmed from me having a family background of artists and musicians. My grandma was actually a performer in Iran. So towards the latter end of her life, as she was passing, we had our last conversation. And one of the things I shared with her was that, hey, grandma, I want to do this music thing just like you did. Now, I had no concept of how I was going to approach this or how we were going to do it. The clocks hit 2024, and I just go head deep into this. Now, as Andrew had mentioned earlier, there was a promotional company that was looking for DJs at the time. It was called Mad Events, and we found them on social media. I showed up to one of their, a couple of their events, and we ended up getting involved in what was originally a promotional community, but the individuals involved, well, at least some of the individuals involved, were there with the attention of becoming DJs themselves, producers, artists themselves. So from that process of being super involved in a community, with the purpose of trying to DJ, I found that one, there was multiple gatekeepers, it was super cutthroat, and the individuals within the community, which is sometimes very common in LA, were always looking out for themselves and looking for ways where they could put themselves up and not others. So if there was ever an opportunity, it was like that person would jump on it, even if they had to step on someone else's shoulder or step on someone else to achieve that, they would do it. So it was interesting that we had an opportunity that opened up. It was essentially an open deck. This was the moment for the DJs to get what they wanted after spending maybe a month, maybe a month or two, helping this company promote itself and grow as a community. It was like, okay, when is it going to be our turn? Well, the opportunity came. It was an open deck down over in downtown LA. We were told at the time that it was all going to be handled by the promotional company. We just have to send our mixes in and they'll get us all connected. It was one random person that said, hey, do you think we should reach out to the venue maybe to make sure our spots are locked in? Well, I first off thought that was silly. I'm like, hey, this is how you get in trouble or this is how you get kicked out of blacklisted from a group. You're trying to step over people's shoulders or step over people.