Buzz Magazine Austin

This is a great question. There is so much to share, but I will keep it short. My journey began when I was left in Texas at 16 years old on my own to raise my daughter. I stayed in an empty apartment with no food, electricity, furniture, or anything. The only lights that I had were the lights that lit up my apartment complex hallway, and I would open up the blinds at night, so I wasn’t completely sleeping in the dark. I would get up and go to school because It was therapeutic. I was an honor student and a star athlete. I was recruited to play football by a D1 university, Texas Christian University. I had to turn it down because they told me that they could not take my girlfriend and daughter, but they could take me. I did not want to leave my family because they were all that I had. I was devastated because football was my ticket out. I felt suicidal because life was already hard, and this news pushed me to the ledge. I said to myself, “I feel like I’m in “hell,” so I might as well go there physically.” I felt that I didn’t have a purpose or a reason to live anymore, although I had my daughter. I felt as if I let them down and losing at all cost. However, tables begin to turn when I was asked to speak about being a teenage father in front of Greg Abbot, the Attorney General of Texas, at a huge conference in Austin, TX. After I spoke, I received a standing ovation and sat and had lunch with Greg Abbot. At that moment, I found my purpose, and my life changed forever. Years later, I’m now a Certified Motivational Speaker, 3x Author, and a Successful business owner. There was Purpose in my Pain.

My name is Mike Oellrich and I am a former Drummer, Rapper, Producer and Global Marketing Specialist at Sony Records. I have ALWAYS enjoyed making music, but my skills were limited in what I could create (aka I was mediocre at all those endeavors). My true skill and What I knew I always had at a very young age was a special ear for talent, for new trends in genres, and being able to dig and find up and coming musicians. I was an A&R at heart, but as the music industry started to shift and YouTube became the new A&R, I had to find another way to show off my talent. Thus, creating Drippy K song of the Day. The goal was simple, a song a day, every day to help new artists really shine. Eliminating the clutter of other blogs who make 15-20 posts a day or a new music Friday style playlist where an emerging artist has to share their single with 120 other songs at a time. People give back to their communities in all types of ways, I felt that helping out emerging artists was my way to give back. I enjoy the excited DM or Tweet I get when I tell an artists they are getting a full day feature. I love music, I love sharing music and I like watching an artist blow up and being like, yeahhhh – saw that one coming!

I started with dreams of becoming an actor, but that’s one of those professions that everyone tells you is a dream that’s impossible to achieve. I gave up on the dream for something more “practical,” studying psychology and eventually going to law school. I knew the actual day-to-day of being a lawyer wasn’t for me, but I understood that people would likely take me more seriously if I was a “lawyer.” After law school, I jumped into real estate investor and flipping houses in Austin, Texas, which I truly love. Renovating homes is the perfect combination art and business. It’s not just about the numbers, it’s about the emotions the buyer feels when they enter their future home.

I focused on tiny homes and vintage trailers, renovating them with sustainable, upcycled materials. Then I started seeing the vanlife trend and realized that a cargo van could be thoughtfully designed to be a beautiful, fully off-grid home. I renovated a Nissan NV2500 camper van and it was my home for 2 years. I was a full-time wanderer, exploring the nooks and crannies of this vast country. I worked as an interior design consultant as a traveled and have invested in rental properties in Austin, Texas and Tucson, Arizona.

I received a camera when I was 10 years old. I fell in love with making photographs. It was always just a hobby so I proceeded to earn an MA is psychology, an MS in hydrogeology – then while in the doldrums of academia as a PhD student in hydrogeology I had a realization. Academia is a wasteland. So I dropped out and began working at a new restaurant that was starting up in Austin – Odd Duck. I loved their concept of farm to table and the food was amazing – so I stuck around. Then I decided to become a photographer after the encouragement from a friend.