Mike Posner offers invaluable advice at the second annual Hollywood & Mind Summit

“I became famous when I was 22, and it was quite a roller coaster,” Posner said. “It was very overwhelming at first, but I see it now as a blessing because it helped me become who I am now. I love who I am now.” Like most people, Posner believed that achieving certain goals, including launching a successful music career and reaching a certain tax bracket, would make him happy. “But when you achieve that and it doesn't solve your problems, hope disappears and then disappointment sets in,” he said. “And disappointment is not a bad thing in itself. It's really what we do with frustration. … I set out on a quest. I thought, “Well, okay, these things that I thought—fame and money and popularity and all those things—that I thought would change my moment-to-moment experience in life didn't. If not this, then what?' And this is the second chapter of my life.”

In 2019, Posner reached a major turning point. “I felt the pain of not understanding that equation, right—having all this outward success and knowing that 'I have everything, but deep down, I somehow know that I have nothing.' “Crazy”, he decided to walk across America. “It was quite a departure, quite a left turn, from the things that were on my resume before that, which was being a pop star,” he says. The trip “changed my life,” he said. “I'm not saying that everyone here has to walk in America, but sometimes there's an inner walk that we have to take. There is an inner feeling that there is more inside of me than I let out. There's an element of waiting sometimes that I've felt in life, like there's this beautiful part of me that I'm keeping to myself and I'll let it out when the time is right. And what I learned on this trip is that the moment is never right. The time is now. You don't want to have a life steeped in waiting for later. The reason I think some artists see me that way is because I had everything and I left.”

1,797 miles into his walk across America, Posner was bitten by a rattlesnake. He took it as a profoundly significant sign. “I was on a journey to shed a layer of skin. not to show people who I was, but to find out who I would become on this journey,” he says. “I was hurt and hurt by a thing that also sheds layers of skin. And I look back on that poison coursing through my veins as the most powerful medicine I've ever taken. I've been on some strong drugs and this is my favorite.' Posner spent five nights in the hospital and nearly lost his leg, if not his life, as his leg swelled to the size of a “deaf elephant.” But then, after a long recovery, he picked up right where he left off and walked the remaining 1,000-plus miles. “It was the only way for me to become the version of myself that I know I should be [was] to finish this walk.”

When asked by Applefeld how the music industry can help creative people realize their journey, Posner emphasized that artists need to understand their own company. “I don't like the 'I'm an artist and my record company and my manager made me do all this' kind of narrative.” They didn't force you to do anything. They work for you. Sorry. And you can always say no. If you don't feel like you can say no, you need to learn. And that's no one's fault but yours. … I think an industry where more people are healthy, happy and satisfied is ultimately probably an industry with more abundance. You have better artworks that are made over a longer period of time, and I think that results in prosperity for everyone.”

Posner has more than 775,000 followers on Instagram, not that he's likely to know that. When asked how he deals with anonymous keyboard warriors endlessly trying to take down celebrities, Posner joked, “I have this hack. It says not to read the comments. It's pretty cool.” Posner, who goes deep into his Instagram, writes whatever he wants to post and hands it to his team and they post it to him. “I don't have the actual apps on my phone,” he says, acknowledging that this is a privilege that most people don't have. “These things are a little addictive,” he said of social media. “And that's why algorithms work. There's a part of me, and I suspect, that other people in this room, he really loves the drama of someone saying something bad about me. … There's a really addictive nature to the depression, the cynicism, the self-pity. I mean, anyone who's spent time in these spirals knows there's one part of you that kind of likes it, like it wants to go there. And so, for me, it's been a practice to love that part of me, but not let it steer the ship of my life.”

Posner is releasing a new album, which he says will serve as a “soundtrack” to his spiritual journey, and is also writing a book about his walk across America. To show exactly how far he's come in his search, he ended his session by playing “I Took a Pill in Ibiza” on acoustic, which really brought out the song's painful, painful lyrics about feeling like he's been through 20, sabotaging all his relationships and finding nothing but emptiness in spending all his money on “girls and shoes”. He then played a song from his new album, the touching, hopeful 'It's a Beautiful Day to Be Alive'. He also led the room in a breathing exercise and, as parting advice, added: “There are some people in this room who are dealing with something real, challenging. I want to remind you that this is only the beginning and you are exactly where you are supposed to be.”