 What's up everybody, once again it's Brand Man Sean and I'm back with another episode of Inside the Network where we show exclusive content from inside of brandmannetwork.com and this snippet right here is a snippet from an interview I did with Mike Millions who's an artist manager who's been hustling and moving his way up through the game, has a lot of lessons and was really open and willing to share them. In this particular snippet he talks about the value of relationships in the music industry and really how you should look at them in some ways. So when his career started going a little cold in 2016, I was like alright let me do something, let me figure out something else because if he goes cold, it's like a business going bankrupt you feel me, if he goes bankrupt everybody got his own job. So true. Some people just wait until they get to the next job, some people just wait until the company gets back on track, why would I wait, like why would I wait, let's get it popping down, let's figure out something. Especially if you're not like integral, like the one in the main man. I wasn't the main man but it's just like, I really was like man, just like I met you I really could like tomorrow I'm shining you out, I'll be posting your stuff, I'm showing you love because you gave me opportunities so it's like if I see my man's woman and he the friend of my other man, I want to see him win, it's just all about that so even from the moment I met him, I showed him love, I reposed this stuff and he might not even call me, he might not even say thank you but I don't care about the acknowledgement, you feel me, because I want me now. I didn't do this and I just work my way, I show love when it's the right time and I work hard when it's the right time and I realize when it's the right time so it's all about just doing progress, just progressing so and there's industry stuff, relationship matters, not even about the money now. For sure, it's crazy how much relationships matter, at what point did you realize that? 2017, 2017, 18, because I measure my success by years, you feel me, like period, last year, this year to last year, that was kind of rough for me, especially when I was breaking, when me and my first audience fell apart because I could get, I could get, I'm a very loyal person so it could be a downfall to me sometimes especially when people are, people come in, remember when we started talking about when we built a relationship, so people come and they, they could six months, they could be cool for you six months but then the moment you offer a contract or the moment you want some extra money, or the moment you, you do something wrong, that shit switches up so and it's all about relationships and also because when people think you got money, they just gonna try to take all that shit from you, every single penny, like something might be worth 500, 1500, they gonna charge you 1500, you know what I mean, so I was like, and then I knew that I couldn't buy, okay, at one point in time I couldn't get into radio stations, couldn't get into certain studios, I didn't know what was going on, now I know what's going on, I could get into all the radio stations in Atlanta, I could get into all the exciting events in Atlanta and I could walk into all these clubs for free, honestly. So you couldn't get in just because you didn't know anything or you weren't connected, you were just early on or you couldn't get in because you were like blackballed or something like that? I was, I didn't know anything. Okay, gotcha. I didn't know anything, it was early on, it wasn't a time yet, my face wasn't out there, when it comes to being blackballed, I haven't felt like I've been, I don't feel like I'm being blackballed but I also know that, you know, there's people out here that don't like you for who you really are, you know what I mean? You might not even have done that to them. If you're a successful person and people gravitate towards you, they don't like you for that. So and I'm not even going to say I'm successful, I'm just a really good person trying to make it so people don't like you when you're not, you know, when you, when you're doing something positive and it's weird to me because I'm like, if you're doing your thing, shout out to you, my brother, let's work, let's get it, let's win, but they don't like that. And I'm like, I'm just trying to figure out like why, like that's the, that's the negative part of the industry that I don't like, you know what I mean? Like I mean, I mean, I don't, I don't met people from each side of town in Atlanta and it's just like people got their own little squad over here, people got their own little squad over here. We all know each other. High school or just parties and stuff and just even messing with the same females, but it's like you don't like me because of, oh, everybody saying I would shoot oh, you got it in the club and I had a hard time being in the club. Oh, you mess with the same girls. Oh, you, you didn't repost my stuff and oh, you might took my ideas and I'm like, how did I, how did I know it was your idea? You know, we had the similar, similar ideas. Why we didn't, why, why we didn't collaborate? Yeah. If you remember me, instead of competing, it's, it's, it's a way for you, both of me and you to have the same ideas, but we're gonna do it different. We're going to execute it different ways, right? But why not instead of some people who just like hate on you or just don't like you instead of just collaborating, getting the idea to a better ground and just being successful and make a lot of money off it. So, so that was just, that was just really my beginning journey and just knowing that love relationships matter in this industry because you can't get black ball. Can't get black ball, but me, I always say it's not where I can get black ball because I pray for this. You feel me? I pray for this. I got, I work hard for this. And if God don't want me in the room, that's God, not you. Ain't nobody to tell me what I'm about to do. So, ain't nobody close the door. Every time I, every time I wake up, the first prayer I always says, any opportunity is not meant for me. Let me know, God, close those doors. And if this is an opportunity meant for me, open them. And I'm being on stages and being on rooms with them. All right. Now, if you like that snippet, you can check out the full interview on brandmannetwork.com. And the, look, the key things that I want to just draw on are pretty simple from this, right? Relationships can open doors, relationships can close them, right? They can get you in and they can keep you out. And it's something that you do have to keep in mind, right? There are a lot of situations that money cannot buy, right? Your hype, your clout, they can't get you in the door. There are plenty of those situations. So there's a lot of rooms that you might not be in simply because you don't have a relationship to get in them. And sometimes it's not even about that or if anybody's blackballing you or they don't like you. Sometimes you just aren't on their mind. They don't even know you. So building relationships and getting people to know you and keeping yourself top of mind and showing yourself to be quality and relevant to them, that gives them to have the opportunity to say, yo, you know, I'm doing this, I'm in this meeting and I'm, and I'm talking to these people. And when they said they needed this, I thought about you, right? That doesn't happen without you even having a relationship. So there's so much value when it comes to relationship, not just in the music industry, just in business in general and life in general. So keep that in mind. I know you guys might hear it enough, but it's never heard enough, right? It's something that you can always be reminded of because it's that relevant and that vital when it comes to having a successful, sustainable career. And last but not least, people are people, right? He also touched on the standpoint that, yo, look, I'm not trying to create any enemies and I don't want to get outside of myself or go out my way to do something stupid at the same time, right? I'm not going to do anything that I know is going to hurt somebody or I know is going to be looked at a certain way if I don't have to do it, right? And some of that comes with maturity, right? There's sometimes people will be like, yo, you know, I'm not going to change who I am. I'm going to do what I need to do and blah, blah, blah, right? You can get to a certain point in life where you realize, look, man, it's not even that big of a deal. I'm not going to even do this thing, create enemies that I don't need because obviously when we think about relationships that can easily come back to you. So that's also another thing to keep in mind, right? Having the maturity and being able to manage ego has a huge, huge deal to do with success. When I'm telling you like that, I understand managing your ego can be hard and your ego not reacting sometimes can feel like somebody else's ego winning. But trust me, there's been snippets. You can look at Jay-Z interviews and there's so many clips. Matter of fact, Jay-Z had an interview with Suzanne Lowe, right? And they talked about that. Like sometimes you just got to step back and let other people's egos move. Let their egos go to work and doesn't mean that you're losing. It just means you're not participating in that entire game, right? You're not engaging. And sometimes people will feel like you being messy or you feel like you're above or better than it for not playing that game and engaging in that conflict. But you have to realize long game is going to serve you better that way in most instances. So it's another thing to keep in mind. Of course, if you guys want to see the entire interview, you can check it out on brandmannetwork.com. We help artists develop their brand and of course help them build out their marketing infrastructure so they can grow their fan base. If you liked this video, go ahead and like button. If you like it, you might as well share it. And if you're not subscribed, you know what to do. Hit that subscribe button.