The “DiVinci” Code of Wisdom

Pictured on far right: Glen “DiVinci” Valencia Jr. Photo by: Jessica Cowart

As a Media Communications student, I found myself in an unlikely room filled with Music Production and Recording Arts students. The speaker is a world renowned producer and performer who has toured with Ms. Lauryn Hill, and has his own group signed to Major Independent. I went with an open mind to find anything relatable to my industry, and was pleasantly surprised. Glen “DiVinci” Valencia Jr had some amazing advice for all Full Sail students.

“DiVinci” he grew up in a small town in Pennsylvania wanting to be an inventor. He wasn’t interested in music because he could always tell what the sounds were and it didn’t stand out, until he heard hip hop. “DiVinci” said when listening to hip hop “the sounds weren’t obvious” they were unique and that piqued his interest. So he moved to Orlando and attended Full Sail University.

“DiVinci” said “Your sense of direction is everything”, when he was attending Full Sail he was here to “get a piece of paper”, even though he gained much more. By the time “DiVinci” graduated, his musical group “Solillaquists of Sound” was signed to Major Independent.

They were touring France, and on the home, “DiVinci” felt like they had hit “the ceiling” and “the deals weren’t getting any better”. At that moment he got a call from Lauryn Hill’s manager asking if he could come play the live drum machine on her tour and he immediately said yes. From there “DiVinci” worked his way from playing live drum machine, to band leader, to head programmer, to sound designer. “DiVinci’s” story sounds like a dream for some people, but he didn’t get there without hard work and being lost.

Here is 5 words of wisdom that “DiVinci” said to inspire you:

1. Shortcuts get you more lost. Don’t take shortcuts, you gain more from going the long way around.

2. Don’t put up a front. You have to be yourself, because there is no time for anything else.

3. Work you wanna do is never hard. Decide what you want to do, knowing your direction is everything.

4. Don’t be in your head too much. When working on a project release it to the public even if it is bad, you want people to see your progress.

5. Success of any type only takes consistency. Consistency is born from sustainability, if you don’t love what you’re doing it is not sustainable.

Make sure to keep checking the Full Sail Events App to keep updated on what panels are going on and when you aren’t busy just go to a panel and you could end up getting some really great insight.

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