Soundwaves of Success: Cliff Beach's Path from Musician to Beauty Tech Executive

In this dynamic episode of Living the Dream with Curveball, we are joined by Cliff Beach, an award-winning musician, beauty tech executive, and author. Cliff takes us on a journey through his life, starting from his roots in Washington, D.C., to his over two decades of experience in Los Angeles. He shares his transformative experience on *American Idol*, revealing how it became a catalyst for his musical career rather than a setback. Cliff discusses the importance of resilience in the face of adversity and how to harness criticism as a tool for growth. He also delves into his dual career in music and the beauty industry, explaining how he balances both passions while emphasizing the entrepreneurial spirit of modern musicians. Listeners will gain valuable insights from Cliff’s health journey, including how he reversed type 2 diabetes and lost 50 pounds, along with practical advice on making sustainable lifestyle changes. Tune in to discover his upcoming projects, including his latest book, *The Daily Grind*, and his ongoing passion for helping others through music and wellness. This episode is a treasure trove of inspiration for anyone looking to pursue their dreams and overcome obstacles in their path!
Want to be a guest on Living the Dream with Curveball? Send Curtis Jackson a message on PodMatch, here: https://www.podmatch.com/hostdetailpreview/1628631536976x919760049303001600
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Transcript

>> Curtis Jackson (also known as DJ Curveball): 0:00

Welcome to the Living the Dream podcast with Curveball. If you believe you can achieve. Welcome to the Living the Dream with Curveball podcast, a show where I interview guests that teach, motivate and inspire. Today I am joined by award winning musician, beauty tech executive and author, Cliff Beach. We're going to be talking to Cliff, about his career and how he got started. And he also played on American Idol, and once he got off American Idol, that's when his path started. So we're going to be talking to Cliff about his story and everything that he's up to and gonna be up to. So, Cliff, thank you for joining me.

>> Cliff Beach: 0:56

Hopefully, no curveballs. Happy to be here.

>> Curtis Jackson (also known as DJ Curveball): 0:58

Why don't you start off by telling everybody a little bit about yourself?

>> Cliff Beach: 1:02

Sure. I grew up in Washington, D.C. maryland, the DMV area. But I've lived in Los Angeles for over 20 years. So I grew up, in, a home of all ministers. I'm one of the only ones in my family that isn't a, the current minister at a church. But I love the, the, the joy that I grew up in the household. Lots of music around, all different types of music. Lots, of gospel music, Christian music. But as I would hear the radio I grew up on, fm, AM radio, just had a love of sound, a love of listening to people speak, great orators, people who had very strong opinions in D.C. the government and things that were around me. so I was a very voracious reader growing up. went through all of elementary, middle, high school in D.C. and then decided to pursue music full time, at Berkeley College of Music in my teens in Boston. And so sight unseen, I went to Boston. I had never lived outside of Maryland. And wow, when you get to, I tell people, it's like when you grew up with just the crayons, the box of just eight, and then you meet someone who has this box of 64. That's how I felt like Berkeley was for me, where I met all these creative people which now, quote, unquote, people would say are a little weird, but I think the world needs more weirdos like me. what happened is that I was able to get all this other color palettes right. You look into these crayons and you're like, I have green, yellow. And someone's like, and I also have yellow, green. And to a person who's not aware, they sound almost identical. But an artist with that palette realizes how you can mix them together and what the subtle nuances and differences are. So by being Able to start to study and learn music at a higher level. Very much like the movie Whiplash, except for I wasn't the Rocky Balboa, you know, getting into a crash and fighting to get to the gig. But there is a lot of that. There's a lot of just, I think the discipline that it cultivated in me taking piano lessons as a kid growing up, I didn't always love it. I wasn't always the best behaved kid, but I was very curious about the world and I carried that into adulthood. but I think for most musicians, figuring out after college and rising my way through the ranks. So if you can make it with musicians and win them over, then that's like the most particular persnickety crowd you can do. there were three main hubs after Boston for music, New York, Nashville and Los Angeles. And I always knew growing up I wanted to be in California. I, love the sun, I love the weather and just the vibe of seeing the red carpets. Grammys, Emmys, Oscars. Everything seemed like it was just the buzzy place to be. I came about almost 23 years ago to LA and I've been here ever since. And, you know, it's just like New York, New York. If you can make it in la, you can make it anywhere. So when you get to talking about, you know, how I got into American Idol and doing that in la, it was tough, you know, to be able to get a few rounds in, but then you get cut on national TV and then you just have this like, oh, my God, what do I do now? and there's two paths. I want to let everyone know, like, there's two clear paths. And I've seen it both ways. I've seen people whose dreams are literally crushed and they never do it again. And then the people who use, it as a catalyst that gets so angry, they say, I'm going to do my thing. And that was the path that I took, by the way. But, but yeah, it can happen either way. And I think that taught me a valuable lesson to never let someone dream your dream for you, you have to do it. But more importantly, I think as people, we do need to be more careful of what we say to artists as they're growing and developing. Because sometimes it can be very hurtful, even if it's feedback in the guise of criticism. You know, your words are very powerful. And, there's a lot of art and things we could have had if people actually supported some who may have not had the temperament or the Strength, the inner strength, the grit to be able to, to, to push through. But I, I feel for me, I've just curated a life that I love and I love talking about it. So any questions you have to be able to help you or your audience be able to learn more about me. I want my story to influence their story, where they can learn to actually go and do some interesting cool things.

>> Curtis Jackson (also known as DJ Curveball): 5:39

Well, you're a beauty tech executive, so talk to the listeners about that, aspect of your career.

>> Cliff Beach: 5:47

Yeah, so, I've written a book in the last couple of years called Side Hustle and Flow. And it basically goes through how as a working musician you obviously have to sustain yourself. So I have always worked full time and also worked on music full time. So I have these two parallel tracks in life, that don't always intersect, but I love the world of beauty. so after Berkeley, I worked in corporate America. I worked for a Skechers shoe company for a couple of years, building up my first band. My first band disbanded. that was from 2003 to 2007. Disbanded. We put out two records. It was amazing. I learned a lot writing for them, having a group. I wasn't ready to go solo at that point. And then I did music on Holland America line for about a year after that. In 2008, I decided, okay, I don't want to float through life. What do I want to do next? And I realized I want to learn about business. Because what I know I didn't learn. Even though I studied music business management at Berkeley College of Music, they never told me that I was a business first. They said I was a musician first. But technically now all musicians are entrepreneurs. They're solopreneurs. You have to, you are responsible to be able to get your career off the ground. There isn't as much of the getting signed and the record label taking care of you. And even if they do, you owe a lot of money to them, when you do it that way. So I wanted to go back to school and learn about business. So I did at Pepperdine in Malibu. And I got my mba, my master's in business administration. And that's when I finally started to realize, okay, you're a business. And then I got out and it was during the, you know, 2008 ish recession, the mortgage crisis that was happening. So by 2010 we were still feeling a little bit of that. And I saw this amazing article and it said one industry that's really recession proof is the beauty industry. They call it the Lipstick effect. They said, learn the buying habits of women and women will spend their last dime to something that makes them feel beautiful. And I knew nothing as a man about that. And so I was like, that's interesting because I had been mentored on the radio for music by Akon. And one of the things he told me is he said, if you make the music and you know, around the psychology of women, you'll have a career. And I said, that's so interesting. So let me go and learn about women and what they think and how they, they do what they do. You know, I love women, but I didn't know the psychology behind it. So I joined a small beauty company working on their e commerce website. And, it was cool because I had worked on some websites and things like that, but, not to that level. And so I was able to learn on the job, not even in school, but I was able to kind of teach it to myself. So this was kind of like when Shopify was coming around, things like that. I got a free tutorial, because I wanted to put on my resume that I knew Shopify. So I think everyone should do that. If you can meet someone, talk to them, don't be afraid to say, I know how to do that, because you will get a lot of on job training. So I grew in the trenches with that brand. That brand kept getting bigger and bigger and bigger, starting to become a household name and getting into retail stores and eventually got bought out from the original owner, by a larger, larger Fortune 500 company. And so I worked for that company for a number of years and then left and consulted for a while. And then I came into now where I've been the last six years at a company called Beauty Tap. And so I've just been able to bring all that in house knowledge together of, learning how people do what they do and then building systems. So what I've learned for music or anything else is that you live and die by the systems that you create. So the more rent and repeatable it is, you know, you can create a money machine. I wanted, to embrace technology, you know, that we've seen in the music industry that sometimes they fight against the technology. I'm sure people are fighting against AI now. You know, before it was fighting against dreaming and then fighting against, all the other companies before. And we see things like Tower Records, they disappear because they don't change with the times. And I like the who. there's a thing they say in my generation, I hope I die Before I get old. What they mean is that I don't want to get old. In my mentality and my mindset, I want to still stay relevant and the artists that I love do so I see that beauty, tech and music have a lot of synergies and similarities. And I think by being able to create and curate a life where I can sustain myself and have the money and the autonomy to do what I want, when I want that. When I work on music, I can be selective about the projects that I take and what I do. because I knew that I didn't want to do any project, I knew that I didn't want to do any gig. I really wanted to do what I wanted to do and I think that's what people want. No matter if you're a musician or any other industry, I think you want to have the autonomy to call your own shots. I think you want to be the captain of your own ship and the master of your own fate. And whether you fail or not, you want to say, look, I, I decided. I made the choices and did and lived the life that I wanted, not the life that someone else dictated or wanted for me.

>> Curtis Jackson (also known as DJ Curveball): 11:19

Well, you also was a radio show host. Tell people about, if you have any current radio shows out there.

>> Cliff Beach: 11:27

Yeah, I had a podcast for a number of years in the Pandemic called Deeper Grooves that's now being turned into a book. that eventually led to a radio show called Deeper Groove which is on the SoCal sound. We are just celebrating, going over 250 episodes and still going strong. we have also interviewed a bunch of different artists for the radio station there. So I love curating. Every week, Saturday 10pm to 11, we take you to heaven and back. We play all types of groove music. And I still am a learner of music and what I love so much, I have a, Friends episode coming out. I'm going to do all indie self released music of people that I've worked with and people that I love and people that I like that are, I can call friends. And why I do that is because I amplify and broadcast. When I'm able to kick open a door and find a way to do something interesting, whether it's in television or radio or speaking in conferences, whatever it is, I'm always looking, who can I help? Who can I help as an audience? But who can I help in my circle? Because when they can say that a triple A format, large metropolitan area radio station is playing, spinning their record when it's coming out that helps their pr, that helps their package. And I know how difficult it was for me to be able to forge those relationships. But I'm not stingy with my content or my, contacts or my platform. Again, I want to be able to help millions of people. And if you help enough, people will get what they want. You can get what you want. And what I want is to always, as MLK said, you know who. What are you doing to serve others? What are you doing to help others? And so I love radio. I think radio, even in 2026, is still very relevant. I think there are things like NPR and Tiny Desk. I just saw Olayla music playing one that I had toured with her, with so Far Sounds, a few years ago during the pandemic or right after the pandemic. And so seeing these people come up, seeing people from that arena, win Grammys and do stuff like that, it's just. It's just an amazing experience to know that, like, you're in the arena. It doesn't mean, you know, I haven't necessarily won a Grammy yet, but it doesn't. But you're in the. You're in the arena. You're in the thing, right? You're in it to win it. You have to. To have any awards or anything, you have to put yourself out there. And so I'm very happy for all the success I've had, but I'm even happier to be able to shine a light on other people who may not have had their success yet and then people that have, so it stays balanced. But I love radio. They've taught me so much. I think the biggest thing for me is when I was offered to do it and, eventually getting rookie of the year for my first year was, I said yes, even though I didn't know at the time how to do it. I did not know anything about radio when I started. I didn't know anything when I was a house band leader on TV for Discovery Channel for Josh Gates. Tonight, when that producer asked me, would you be this band? I just have to be able to say yes and figure it out. Whenever I'm creating a music video or anything, I say yes to it. And then I know that it can be done. It can be figured out if I put enough money and time and effort and good minds around it. You know, I don't have to be the smartest in the room. and you don't have to be great to start, but you have to start to ever become great. And so that's really so all of those mediums that I use, whether it's books or TV or film, at the end of the day, I don't see them as completely widely different because I view everything about life as storytelling. This podcast is storytelling. I'm just talking to you one, and you'll amplify that message to many. But I'm giving everybody that, that one on one attention and time. And so the radio show is just an extension of my love of listening to a lot of music and curating a lot of music. And I know that when I'm discovering something and then I get to show that to the audience, many of them are hearing it for the first time through me because most people don't listen to the insane, crazy amount of music that I do. But that's how I, I see the world. I see the world through sound.

>> Curtis Jackson (also known as DJ Curveball): 17:22

Well, you, recently lost a lot of weight and reversed some serious health challenges. So talk to the listeners about that and how you're trying to help others who need to do so do the same.

>> Cliff Beach: 17:33

Yeah, you know, it's like all these great things that I did, I call that hustle culture. and in the book side, Hustle and the Flow, I really focused on the first one of how you get these dreams out there, creating goals. And those building blocks were all great. But when I went through the health journey of, figuring out, okay, I have type 2 diabetes, I wanted to get off medication, what could I do? Working with a nutritionist, I mean, I think definitely some of the disciplines I learned through music and through business carried, forward into setting those goals. But it was great because by the end of it, you never know how heavy you are until you become weightless. Dropping 50 pounds in five months and seeing my body in a different way, the energy and vitality, you can hustle harder, healthier. And I didn't know that until I went on that journey. So then people were like, what did you do? What did you do? And I'm still on that journey. And so I wanted to be able to document that. I was excited when we were able to win an Anthem Award for health, for the second book. And now the third book, the Daily Grind, is coming out where people can just take bite sized chunks to do micro shifts to make many changes in their life. And, so, yeah, I'm trying to help people know at any age, any background, ethnicity, socioeconomic status, you can still do better. If I just succumb to the disease, I'm a victim, not a victor. What happens is that if I say, okay, I have diabetes, it's in my family genes, there's nothing I can do, then I'm helpless. There's. There's nothing I can do. But if I believe, oh, there is things I can do. I can work with a nutritionist, I can drink, more water, I can lose weight. I can know how food metabolizes in my body. I can do practices like qigong and tai chi and yoga and breath work and meditation, and try to, eliminate chronic stress in my life. I, I have options. It's not that you're going to always be able to slam dunk everything you do, but you want to have options. You want to be able to diversify and at least check the boxes that you've tried. But I think the issue is that when people do that, like, sometimes you'll talk to a person who feels very defeated and they'll say, I've tried everything. Well, we know humanly, statistically possible that's not true. But beyond that, if you've tried it and it wasn't effective, then you need to shake the dust and try again. If you have not lost the weight, there's something else to do. If you're trying to do that. There is a difference between thinking about it and doing it. There's a difference between trying and doing. There was a scenario where a person came up to this jazz musician playing piano on the hotel lobby, and they said after the set, I've always wanted to play piano. And the pianist told this patron, you don't. And the person was like, that's rude. I've always wanted to do that. How? I just told you that I've always wanted to do that. And the pianist said bluntly, you don't. If you wanted to do it, you'd be doing it. That's the difference of trying and doing. And if you're trying, it's not effective, then you need to try something else, because again, you want to be able to have those options. And so I don't. I, I don't think that there's a situation where there's nothing you can do. There's something you can do. And if you've exhausted everything, then you can at least feel confident that you've exhausted, truly exhausted everything. But I think you owe it to yourself to try and to try again and to try harder and to just try more things, because often enough I think there is more that you can do that could be very beneficial to your health.

>> Curtis Jackson (also known as DJ Curveball): 21:34

Tell us about any upcoming projects that you're working on that listeners need to be aware of.

>> Cliff Beach: 21:40

Yeah, well, like I said, the Daily Grind book is coming out. I'm very excited about it. The third in the trilogy of side Hustle and Flow, which completes the thought. So we went from setting up your goals and getting your passion projects out there and having more purpose in life to figuring out how you can hustle harder, healthier by focusing on your. Your mind, body, soul and spirit health. And then now micro changes, micro shifts, little things that move the needle. You can read a page a day in 15, 30 seconds. So it's not like a heavy commitment. You can literally start any chapter, any day, and there'll be something beneficial to gnaw on, to think about, to ruminate on. And I think that's one of the best ways to be able to underwhelm yourself, to actually follow through. And then beyond the book, we're working on a new recording called Recovering. It's a covers record, with my band. So we're in the studio doing some overdub and stuff for that. Very excited to just always be working on new projects. I remember when I said in 2013 I was going to make 10 projects in 10 years, which we did by 2022. And then we kept going. We just keep going. So now we're probably up to 14 records now with this one. So I'm excited just to be in the studio. I still think of myself as a musician more than anything else. I love to sing, I love to play, I love to perform, I love to talk about music. I sleep, I dream, I eat music. and then from there, we do have another book, about the Deeper Groove podcast called Listen and Learn that it's pretty much done. We're just editing the audiobook, but the book is done. And it's great because I call it the Cliff Notes. Sometimes Cliff Beach. But essentially, I get to be able to go through every artist and find the through lines, about their treks, about their journeys. These informational interviews that became podcasts were for me to be able to understand, what else could I do, but also just knowing that it's not linear and every journey is different. But success did leave clues. And these people who, are Grammy winners or Grammy nominees or just doing the content and getting it out there, it's a miracle. Anytime I'm able to bring something from an idea to fruition, when I look at my books and I can hold it in front of my face, I pulled it out of my mind, out of my mouth, in front of other people to be able to see in a tangible medium, it's a miracle. And to be able to do that multiple times at any budget, at any scale is not easy. More people, probably 80, 90% of people at some point say they wish they wrote a book, and less than 1% do it because it's hard and it's not for the faint of heart. And the first one is the hardest. The second one got easier, the third one even easier, the fourth one even easier. So I think that you just have to stick with it. You have to persevere, you have to have grit, you have to keep doing it when you don't want to do it. You have to force yourself to do things because all that growth is going to happen outside the comfort zone. And then obviously doing more speaking engagements, getting in front of people, whether it be podcasts. I just got done doing the NAMM conference and we'll put out some footage around that. But it was great to be able to start telling the musicians of the next generations, planting those seeds in them, that they can do more. And learn from my mistakes, learn from the 20 years that I've been here and what I didn't know, what I wish I knew. And now you can have a leg up having someone that's been in the industry 25 years to tell you do this and do this fast and focus this way and prioritize that way. So I'm just enjoying the journey. And like I said, I don't think I know everything and I'm not done yet. So just keep going.

>> Curtis Jackson (also known as DJ Curveball): 25:34

What? Throw out your contact info so people can keep up with everything that you're up to.

>> Cliff Beach: 25:40

everyone can DM me or find me on any social media platform at ClubBeach Music. You can find me at,@ClubBeach Music for YouTube, Blue Sky, Twitter, Instagram, which I use the most. Facebook as well. All of them will work. You can also find my blog side Hustle and flow dot net. we put out five articles every week for free. You check those out, you can email me there. Cliffside, hustleandflow.net as well. and then the radio station, the SoCalFound.org every Saturday night, 10pm you can find deeper grooves for an hour of the best groove music. And all of the music is under Cliff beach on all streaming platforms. All the books are under the author Cliff beach or the titles side Hustle and Flow on Amazon, Audible, Barnes and Noble and where other fine books are sold.

>> Curtis Jackson (also known as DJ Curveball): 26:33

Close us out with some final thoughts. Maybe if that was something I forgot to talk about that you would like to touch on or, any final thoughts you have for the listeners.

>> Cliff Beach: 26:42

Yeah, I mean, my final thoughts, I have so many. But I would just say don't let the fear hold you back. Do it scared. Do it afraid. Because fear is not something to fear. Most of the time the fears that you have are just in your mind and they don't actually materialize or realize or they're not as bad as you think. And the mind is trying to protect you. And from a therapy aspect, you have to tell your mind, thank you. No, you're thanking the brain for protecting you. But you have to know that unless I get this dream out there, it's not going to get out there. I tell people all the time there are people who, they have hard drive projects, projects that they've started, created, and no one has heard them, no one has seen them because they're afraid to push the trigger. Mel Robbins, who had a book Let Them Theory and a bunch of other books and talks, she talks about in one of her speeches that she had content to talk about being a public speaker two years sitting in her social media as drafts. She would start them, draft them. She'd never push the button because she was afraid of what people would say or people would think or what do you know about anything? Or your life's a train wreck. Why would you do that? But your mess can become your message. But ultimately you have to put it out there. Unfortunately, we don't live in a world where people buy osmosis are going to be able to know how great you are. The only way we can know that and you can ever become great is to start the journey in the path. You have to start making the baby steps. Martin Luther King said, you do not have have to see the whole staircase to make one step, make the baby step, the one step to stop inertia and to get it out there, even if it's the minimal viable product, even if it doesn't have all the bells and whistles, even if it isn't perfect, good enough conquers waiting to make great every day, every time.

>> Curtis Jackson (also known as DJ Curveball): 28:58

And that's a great message. And that's what I did, for my podcast and almost six, years ago. And I'm glad that I done it. So, ladies and gentlemen, definitely take that message to heart and keep up with everything that Cliff is up to. Check out the music, the books, the radio show, and anything else that comes from Cliff. Cliff is great. Also make sure that you follow Ray review Share this episode to as many people as possible. Sign up for that email newsletter@www.craveball337.com. Share the show with everybody you know, and also the ads. You know, maybe, if you're not interested in a particular ad that you hear in the show, please share it to, somebody else, who you might think is interested. And thank you for listening and supporting the show. And Cliff, thank you for all that you do. And thank you for joining me.

>> Cliff Beach: 29:53

Thank you, Curtis, and thank you for know Curveball. We'll check you out again anytime. Happy to talk to you.

>> Curtis Jackson (also known as DJ Curveball): 29:59

For more information on the Living the Dream with Curveball podcast, visit www.curveball337.com. Until next time, keep living the Dr.