 Hey everybody, what's going on, it's your man, Kory. Welcome to the Digital Dash, where I'll be giving you guys tips on how to market your songs and get those numbers. Boom it. Now today, what I want to talk with you guys about is pretty much a personal story or something that I learned from things that I've went through. Now for those of you that have seen my first interview with Sean, you know that before I got into marketing, before I got into this YouTube thing, I managed your artist out here in Atlanta. Now that relationship ended around the same time that I started my marketing business and it was honestly a point in time when I can say I probably learned a lot of things that I know about the music industry now. Like navigating that space with him, trying to figure out certain things, put me on to so much information that I hadn't learned at any of my music industry job. Now of course that situation didn't work out hence the title, but as always I'm the type of person that feels like most people learn from other people's mistakes. So I decided to let you guys get some free game and pretty much learn from mine. So what I want to do is give you guys three things that I learned from that situation. It's pretty much three lessons from a failed music manager. Now before we get into all of that, come and follow me on Instagram. I'll make sure to put my ad name on the screen. Come talk to me. Come engage with me. Come give me some video ideas. All of that good stuff. Now with that being said, let's get right into it. So the first lesson is to get a clear understanding of goals. Now understand that every artist is different. Some artists want label deals. Some artists want to be independent. Some artists want to be big superstars. Some artists just want to be chill songwriters and make their money in the background. As a manager, it is your job to understand what their artist goals is because basically you are the one trying to help them steer the ship to those goals. So in order to know where you need to steer the ship, you got to know what those destinations look like. So I encourage you to have open, honest conversations with your artists about what exactly it is that they're trying to do. What are their goals and what are the things that they are trying to accomplish within pretty much what they're trying to make their career. Now, I will also suggest getting those things and writing. And I know it can be something that's awkward to talk about, especially if the artist is your friend or your family member or someone that you may not have even known for a long time. But it is important to get these things and writing, even taking it a step further and getting contracts, especially if it's a relationship that you guys plan to take seriously, just so there are no problems further down the line when certain disputes come up or when something kind of goes off task, it at least gives you something to reference back to. Now, the second piece of advice I would give is to always educate yourself. As an artist manager, like I said, you're pretty much the captain of the ship. You're the one trying to help them navigate two certain goals. And in order to do those things, in order to help them make the right decisions, you need to be educated on how the game is moving currently and what steps need to be taken. Now, I personally believe that the music industry moves off of three things. That's connections, resources and information. You need the information to know what you need to do. You need the connections to be able to do those things. And then you need the money to be able to pay those connections to make those things get done. So as an artist manager, it is your job to help facilitate that. And the first step in that is always education. Now, obviously, you're already taking that first step in educating yourself by being here on this channel. And those of you who are in the brand man network have decided to take it a little bit further. But we're not the only places where you can gain information. You should be staying on top of other informational YouTube channels, taking courses, reading ebooks, going to seminars, whatever you can do, networking, all of that stuff that is needed in order to stay abreast of what is going on in the music industry. And the third piece of advice I would give is to build yourself up, build your name up. Now, when my relationship with the artist I was managing ended, I had a conversation with my mentor. And this is honestly probably one of the best pieces of advice that I have ever gotten. He told myself that I should start building my own name up. I should start making myself a commodity to a certain extent, because there will be points and times where you'll want to have conversations with people and they may not care about the artist. Like sometimes as artist managers, we tend to lean so heavily on the artist's name or people liking their music or their potential and hoping that people see through that. But the reality of it is not everyone is going to see that and sometimes it takes you opening that door for you to be able to create opportunities for your artist. So by using some of the things that you educate yourself on to kind of build a skill set out, it helps you help other people in certain ways by building up your networking skills. It's just the ability to help other people who come to you outside of what you're doing for your artist becomes a huge benefit to you and your artist in the long run because of the connections that you are able to make and then leverage into opportunities for that person, for whatever the goals that you guys have to find are. So there it is guys. That's pretty much my three takeaways from my situation. Get a clear understanding of your artist goals. Educate yourself on what's going on in the business and build yourself up. Get yourself some leverage outside of the artist. Now for those of you who are currently artist managers right now, I'd love to hear what you think about this in the comment section below or on Instagram or on Twitter. Just come find me and let me know what you think about it. Now as always guys, if you feel like you learned anything today, please like and share this video. Hit those post notifications as well as I wouldn't want you guys to miss anything. Once again, my name is Colbert and I'll see y'all next time.