How Bobby Leigh of MOkSHA Entertainment Is Helping To Make the Entertainment Industry More Diverse…

How Bobby Leigh of MOkSHA Entertainment Is Helping To Make the Entertainment Industry More Diverse and Representative

I think that Leadership is not about being the best. It’s about helping everyone around you become better. To inspire people on all levels and to try new things in different innovative ways. To create a new path.

As a part of my series about leaders helping to make the entertainment industry more diverse and representative, I had the distinct pleasure of interviewing Bobby Leigh.

Bobby Leigh is a Multi-Platinum, Award-Winning Actor, Filmmaker and Music is a Multi-Platinum, Award-Winning Actor, Filmmaker and Music Manager and has over thirty years in the music and entertainment industry. His company, MOkSHA Entertainment is a boutique cutting-edge artistic development entertainment company, dedicated to producing innovative quality entertainment that serves a greater purpose to uplift the human spirit through entertainment via music and film.

Thank you so much for joining us in this interview series! Can you tell us a story about what brought you to this specific career path?

Thank you for talking to me and inviting me to be a part of this cool series. This is a great question, I’m glad you asked it. I have always considered myself as a very spiritual person, not a religious guy I would say, but would like to think I live a very spiritual path. I get that from my Mum. She thought my everything. I love our industry but sometimes think it can be very shallow and ego driven. I wanted to offer the world an alternative with our music and film, a more positive and authentic view where it’s not just about me or us, but it’s about you and not about “what can you do for me”, but “what can I do for you”.

Can you share the most interesting story that happened to you since you began your career?

Sure, well, when I first left home, I was 16 years old, living on a park bench and busking with my guitar for pennies, nickles and dimes, when a guy, who was a drummer in a touring band, came into the music store I was playing in front of and asked the guy working there if they knew of any sound people? The store worker said “why don’t you ask him, he’s always here”. I said “of course I can do that”. I left on tour that night. I had no idea what or how I was going to do that. I knew I was at a crossroads or the edge of a cliff and I had to jump and have faith in myself.

Can you share a story about the funniest mistake you made when you were first starting? Can you tell us what lesson you learned from that?

Haha. While I was on that first tour, every thing was set up for me it sounded great. I fit in with everyone and all was good. Then it went to my head. I thought I was all that. Then, I started to touch things and actually thought that I knew what I was doing. I didn’t. It began sounding really crappy very fast. We started getting complaints. I had to come clean and admit I sort of BS-ed my way onto the tour and into the job. By that time the band already liked me, so Donnie, the guitar player started teaching me what to do. I soaked up everything I could learn about my job. I later went to a 12-week summer course & then finally years later went to university to study sound engineering for four years. I knew I could not be just good, I had to be great.

The lesson I learned from that was sometimes one must go to the edge of the cliff, have faith and believe in yourself that you really can fly. I have used that same theory throughout my life and career.

Ok, thank you for all that. Let’s now jump to the main focus of our discussion. Can you describe how you are helping to make popular culture more representative of the US population?

I try not to limit myself and the artists I represent solely to the US market. This world is a big place and I’d like think that I have more of a global vision. I do not consciously have a plan to make popular culture more representative of the US. I follow my intuition and from there and with lots of work and action it all sort of unfolds as it should. I work wth artists not only from the USA but also from all over the world.

Can you tell us a story about a particular individual who was impacted by the work you are doing?

I don’t think that I can think of one particular person, however I discover an individual, also busking on a sidewalk, (I totally relate to those people), I helped her out, found her a band, a record deal and she has impacted millions of people through her music. So indirectly I guess, I sorta had a helping hand.

As an insider, this might be obvious to you, but I think it’s instructive to articulate this for the public who might not have the same inside knowledge. Can you share three reasons with our readers about why it’s really important to have diversity represented in Entertainment and its potential effects on our culture?

It’s really important to have diversity represented in Entertainment because diversity makes everything more interesting. Otherwise it would be boring without diversity.

Diversity exposes people to things they don’t know and may not be familiar with, it expands their knowledge of our big beautiful world. It expands their consciousness and experiences.

Diversity unifies us and makes us stronger and helps make our huge world more accessible to all.

Can you recommend three things the community/society/the industry can do to help address the root of the diversity issues in the entertainment business?

It’s been said that we may have different religions, different languages, different colored skin, but we all belong to the same human race. It’s crucial not only for diversity to flourish in our communities and society and also our industry but also inclusion and belonging for diversity by itself is not enough. I love Mahatma Gandhi’s quote “Our ability to reach unity in diversity is the beauty and test of our civilization.”

I think it’s kinda important to embrace all different people, cultures and things into our lives that are unfamiliar to us, and get rid of the fear of what seams foreign or unfamiliar and weird, but to embrace everyone own uniqueness. Without diversity life would be boring and probably suck. With diversity life is like a beautiful bouquet of flowers. At the end of the day we are all just walking each other home.

How do you define “Leadership”? Can you explain what you mean or give an example?

I think that Leadership is not about being the best. It’s about helping everyone around you become better. To inspire people on all levels and to try new things in different innovative ways. To create a new path.

It’s really simple actually. I try to know as much as I can about the people around me, what drives them, what they are doing, their dreams and objectives and I help them to gain momentum to take the mad jump off the cliff and into the unknown where they soar.

I also believe in paying people not what their experience is worth but more. Because then they will work their butt off for me and do their best. I believe in paying it forward and giving others that chance that was given to that same 16 year kid that was me busking on a street corner. I think that is what real Leadership is. Giving back.

What are your “5 things I wish someone told me when I first started” and why? Please share a story or example for each.

Wow, that’s a hard one. Ok, I get it.

“Don’t let your ego get in your way.” I sort of already talked about that.

“You get a lot more bees with honey than with vinegar”. Be kind and nice to others.

“Be true to myself and to others”. Follow my heart.

“A change in life requires a change in perception”.

“Most of the important things in life are invisible to the human eye”. However, we can feel them with one’s inner intuition and in one’s heart.

You are a person of enormous influence. If you could inspire a movement that would bring the most amount of good to the most amount of people, what would that be? You never know what your idea can trigger. 🙂

If I could inspire a movement that would bring the most good to most amount of people I would like to ask all people to open their hearts, to allow love to enter all of our hearts for all living beings, to be kind and to help each other along our journey in life. For people to drop down from their minds into their hearts and follow it. I believe when people follow their hearts, which is the roadmap of their desires and dreams, they become liberated and happy. We are all on this trip on Planet Earth together. I also think that no matter how high you climb you still will never know everything. Life is a mystery that evolves as we evolve in life.

Can you please give us your favorite “Life Lesson Quote”? Can you share how that was relevant to you in your life?

Oh that’s easy because it’s posted on the wall I my office. My favorite Quote is by Steve Jobs: “ Your time is limited, so don’t waste it living someone else’s life. Don’t be trapped by dogma — which is living with the results of other people’s thinking. Don’t let the noise of others’ opinion drown out your own inner voice. And most important, have the courage to follow your heart and intuition.”

Is there a person in the world, or in the US whom you would love to have a private breakfast or lunch with, and why? He or she might just see this, especially if we tag them. 🙂

Yes! Richard Branston. He is such an inspiration to me and I love what he has accomplished and how much he has done. He built an empire out of a record shop and is a philanthropist who has pledged to give away half his fortune to charity. I actually met him once, many years ago in the Virgin lounge at Heathrow. He strike me as someone who is totally authentic and just is a super cool dude.

How can our readers follow you on social media?

Bobby Leigh Social Media and external links:

Instagram: @bobby_leigh_official,

https://www.instagram.com/bobby_leigh_official/

TikTOK: @bobbyleigh00,

https://www.tiktok.com/@bobbyleigh00

FaceBook: @bobbyleighOfficial,

https://www.facebook.com/bobbyleighOfficial

IMDb:

https://www.imdb.com/name/nm2437064/

BobbyLeigh.com

https://www.bobbyleigh.com/