 What's up everybody once again it's the brand man Sean and I got a very special guest for you guys today once again it is Lady J you probably know her from IG at Lady J Bookums. She drops a lot of great information she brings a lot of great insights you guys should go ahead and follow our Instagram page I'm gonna tell you that now but I think if you aren't convinced by me telling you then you'll be convinced by the end of the interview so I'm gonna hop right into it and let you guys get to know her as we go all right so what's up Lady J? What's going on? Just to start things off let's give everybody an idea of like what do you do how do you what do you consider yourself in the game are you still trying to figure it out are you just a general business person PR? I wouldn't say PR you know I'm an entrepreneur so it's not that I'm still trying to figure it out but I am still evolving and growing and learning but basically what I do I do like many things and I wear many hats when it comes to the industry I work a lot with independent artists so you know I help them to establish themselves as artists help them learn how to promote their music some marketing you know branding getting their image together when it comes to like you know on social media their presence and also knowing the things that it takes to actually just build a career as an independent artist so a lot of times like you said on Instagram you know I do drop a lot of information on Instagram I also have courses that I create and I offer to independent artists so it's different courses just about putting together a successful campaign or a campaign in general focusing on a specific single things of that nature and then I also do more broad type of courses for like any influencer or entrepreneur artists whoever model and I do like Instagram courses as well so really I start to develop these courses because I get a lot of people who just ask me all these questions so I'm like let me put together a how-to because I don't have time to really sit there and answer everybody's question at one time so yeah I put the courses put it out there and people just been eating it up right I know exactly how you feel that's how I started to create like little products and things like that just to help them out but I can't I can't help everybody out individually I get it so I think that's dope that you're immediately still trying to figure certain things out because so many people just act like they know exactly what they're doing or they are the man or the woman at this point or wherever they are right so many pieces just like on an artist side on a business side like there's all these new things you like you think oh I could do this and then you learn about this new part of the game you like oh I didn't even know about this like every day it seems like right so what what part of the game do you say that you are strong at right now that you just or that you've taken a strong liking to in terms of how you're helping artists out I would think I would just say it's more of the education for me you know I've been working with independent artists since like 2012 like really establishing myself with independent artists because I come from working in studios interning all that different stuff so 2012 is when I really stepped out from other people's shadow and I started to do my own thing I started to throw showcases in Atlanta so I was doing all kinds of showcases we was doing strip club tours we like anywhere I can have artists performing I started to do that and that's really how I started to build myself but that really like drew me into the indie scene more so than like majors because it's like you know we all start indie as whatever we're doing doesn't matter what you're doing you're all start out as that beginning person so I was always kind of drawn to that aspect of the industry so now my main thing is just about education here in Texas you know we have a multimedia studio so we have a recording studio here we have a photo studio here so we're constantly around just entertainers different types of creatives and I think the thing that kind of keeps me on my toes is the fact that it's like it is like you said it's always something new going on so it's always something new to learn and even just by me getting asked questions some things that I don't even know you know when people ask me certain things and I literally got to be like I be on Google you know trying to figure it out I'll buy a book and stuff like that so for me it's just all about knowledge because I really want to just help my artists my indie artists win and just help them understand that we're just in a time where like internet is popping media is popping you can really get so many things done without having that dream of being like signed you know yeah so that's my main thing to just get in everybody the education so that they don't have no excuses or they don't have no you know only if I had this or only if I can do this like I want to eliminate that you know yeah we're getting to the point where that won't be an excuse for a lot of people were putting that information out there now you touched on the fact you were running them showcases and things like that that's a specific experience that I would love more insight on in terms of what did you what did you learn when you were running those showcases like where you wanted to make people who are marketing and showcases setting it up what was that lifestyle like I learned like business from doing that because when I got into it like you know in Atlanta I was working at a recording studio called hot beats recording studio so it's like hot beats is a more prominent studio in Atlanta you'll hear it in like Drake songs and different people songs so when I got there you know that was probably the first time I really was exposed to like all these major people they had a major clientele but I worked there for about four years you know moved up and I ended up getting fired just by having like a dispute with the owner which were really cool and it was one of those like fired that like touched my soul so I'm like you know I'm not going back he didn't really mean it and I think he waited for me to come back and be like you gonna get my job back but I never did so when that happened I was like super devastated because that had become my life like I literally was in the studio from Sun Up to Sun Down you know around all these celebrities so I met someone just out at a networking event that was like hey I do these shows you know I work with artists you know basically was like you want to do this with me like run promotion so I'm like sure so that's kind of how I got into it with this person and you know we started running shows but I quickly realized like I'm doing all the work like I'm out here networking I'm talking to everybody yeah because you know now I'm like I'm trying to build something here and we once we did like the first show we had a nice amount of artists I started to really hit the scene just going out to different showcases just talking to every single artist that came off the stage and the more we did it the more that I've realized like this person like I don't even need you because like you're not doing as much as I'm doing but you're expecting all this money so I started to really learn about how to conduct business you know dealing with a so-called partner dealing with money dealing with responsibility dealing with attitudes and personalities because now I'm juggling like all these artists so it it kind of like started building me as that entrepreneur so as I broke off from this person you know I started to just do my own shows so from that point on I always did it by myself now I always had people included like I would reach out to different sponsors because a lot of my shows were like contest based so you know I'll reach out to different sponsors who will be offering everything from like interviews to spinning music on different like online radio stations where the BDS was getting tracked just whatever I can find of value to offer to like a contestant a winner yeah I would just reach out to all these people so I started to just really be get like popular in Atlanta from from doing these shows and as I started more I'm like okay artists they want to start performing in the strip club so I started to go to the promoters and we started setting up strip club tours where they would do like a three strip club tour you know in Atlanta just three different clubs they would get a bottle they would get a table it was like a package deal yeah yeah before you get go for farther how did you connect with the promoters for the strip clubs just going and popping up okay and I tell people like networking is as simple as opening your mouth just you know when I go to places and this is one thing that I teach in my course is what my artists I always tell them like to do some research first if you if there's an event then you can find out ahead of time who is throwing an event who's a part of it who's the DJ who everybody that has a role you can really figure out who these people are so that by the time you get there you already know who you need to talk to you can talk to all the random people around but you need to talk to the key people so that the next time they throw an event your name comes up because now they made a connection with you or keep going to their events so now they start to know you so for me I had to start going to the strip club that's the one reason why I started to go to the strip club because I never was like a strip club type of girl before that but I started to go to the strip clubs just to kind of connect with the promoters and just see what the scene was like and that's how I realized like okay a lot of these artists like performing in the strip club and then I got into the strip club scene so one thing led to another I just started talking to one of like a promoter out there that's like really known you know he's like a big he was like big a big deal around us he still is but I went to him and I talked I'm like look what do I got to do to get artists in here on a consistent basis so we put together a package he was like I'll charge you this much so I'm like okay you gonna charge me this much me which means I got to charge this much and then boom we gonna rent it so then we started to do that I had artists coming in you know it was like stipulations they had to throw money at the girls while they're performing and but they got a bottle they got a table you know I had people in there with the camera to you know just kept capture footage and you know just different things but I learned how to do it better you know because it was certain things that I couldn't control like when they would perform you know what time they will perform so it was like certain things that would happen out of my control and I was like you know it's always evolving but you're like if you do it again you know how to make get better value out of it for the artist right okay that's I mean that's a dope business I mean I know a lot of artists definitely do like to perform in the strip club it's because it makes them look good that's that whole social thing you know in Atlanta it's it's a cool thing I think it depends on what city was in Atlanta around the time that I was doing it showcases were like really big now now it's like the showcasing kind of died down out there but when I was doing it it was a real big thing they were having showcases like Monday at least like Monday through Wednesday sometimes Thursday was normally during the week but it kind of died down but back then it was really popping like yeah artists are out on the scene you know in Atlanta it's like you always can see like famous people in a strip club so when I think about showcases I always get questions from artists and you know about showcases because there's a negative with showcases me too I did a video on it you know should artists pay to perform I did a video on my Instagram about it and you know I got a lot of like I gotta hear your perspective since you did showcase yourself what's your perspective on showcase so for me I think it's a yes and no so in my video I say this it depends on you know where you are as an artist for a lot of new artists and you know some people they've been recording music for a while but they're still new because they don't really know what they're doing they still haven't excelled at all so you still knew right so for those type of artists it's good to do showcases because that's where you're going to get practice that's where you you know get your feet in the door to kind of network build relationships with audience start to build relationships with the promoters the DJs you know one thing that I my favorite line is the best relationships are built through transactions I think independent artists have a lot of you know animosity or they or they always feel a way about having to pay for things but they don't understand that when you spend money with people they will spend something on you too you know so for me I do showcases and I definitely charge artists but one thing that I learned because when I started to throw showcases it was just only what I knew from what I seen so I was just charging artists it still wasn't a lot but I was just charging them as I started to do more it was like a big thing for me to give value instead of just take money and there's showcases just you pay your $50 a 25 whatever it is you get on stage for a couple minutes and you out of there so that's you know the value may not be there depends on you you like I said if you scope the scene you know who's gonna be there you know who you need to talk to you know that's how you start to benefit from it a lot of artists just get on stage and perform whether they're paying to perform or not and that's where they mess up you know you got to have a goal when you're doing anything so my shows has evolved even I do shows in Texas here so my show actually come with a full package so you get a photo shoot you get a promo video you get edited pictures you get edited like an artist reel and the performance is like the icing on the cake and it's not like 20 artists it's like 10 artists so it's really for you guys so what's your that package that you pay for is really for the services that you get because you walk out of here with professional pictures you walk out of here with your artists reel that you can use to promote you walk out of here with it like an in-studio video you know you walk out of here with value and that's how my shows kind of evolved over the years because I just wanted to give value so I think when it comes to artists performing you just got to know what you're paying for and figure out how to use it to your best ability you know and I that's just where it's at because it's big artists that still pay to get on these big tours that's true a lot of people a lot of artists that you know they're not like a B or C-Lister but they might be like that B you know they in there but they ain't in there they still pan to get on these big these big tours at first until they can get in the door and you know not have to pay no more so I don't know it just it can it's a yes and it's a no it just depends on you I understand what you're saying you have to analyze a situation individually for yourself you know you just generalize all showcases some might be more opportunity opportunity to other but I do my most common answer for me personally is to practice thing like if you can't find any shows I mean in place where there's a whole bunch of open mics that actually makes sense you know pay to get in front of a crowd people pay to go to the gym and practice that you know like it's all the same thing that's just like I think the disconnect is when people expect to like blow up or get signed off of showcases or get right okay but another thing that I tell people is like you know first of all if you ain't getting booked then you won't have to pay somebody but if you feel as though you don't want to pay for a show I tell them that you know put on your own show you know but when you put on your own show you'll see why people have to charge you because now you're paying for a venue now you're for promotion now you have people under you that you have to you know monitor and you know you have all these responsibilities and things have to be paid for nothing it's free so now you will realize why somebody got to pay you something for it to make sense you know most artists can't even show up with ten people to support them yeah so you know I tell them like hey if you don't want to perform take on I mean if you don't want to pay to perform take on that responsibility yourself and then you see how difficult it is to put a show together especially when nobody know you anyway you know and see how that goes yeah I think yeah I think more artists should try that that's I think that's a great recommendation outside of the fact that once you do that you get a little bit more business savvy helps art organization what's the name of your company buddy by the way again for everybody out there um so my company when it comes to my promotion itself is the indie artist blueprint so you'll normally see me tag that you'll normally see all of my courses and everything are under the indie artist blueprint now our business that we have here I'm deaf it's definitely never satisfied production so that is our our studios never satisfied productions we do events I am an event coordinator also which I deal more with corporate events but never satisfied is definitely the home team which you see me this is one of our jackets and in my videos on Instagram you'll see me in a lot of our logo stuff we do have an online store we do like many things so you'll always see me in that so never satisfied is definitely it though though so I want to switch gears real quick and talk a little bit more about your journey personally because uh we know we had a short minute of speak you were talking about how you went from Atlanta I mean from Maryland to Atlanta you were went to our institute you dropped out I want to give that picture of you finding yourself because I know a lot of people are they get thrown into the industry they're trying to fill their way throughout the industry so right like talk more about you getting kicked out of college first well let me say so first you know I did graduate one college for business management in Pennsylvania so I moved from Maryland to Pennsylvania graduated went to college in Pennsylvania and then I moved to Atlanta so the thing was and it's I'm really glad that I didn't finish but because one thing that artists do or just certain people they don't really know what they want to go for so I went to school for audio engineering because like I said I was in music I write music okay also so for me it was like I want to learn as much as I can so that I don't have to rely on people so you know I was writing music but then I always had to like wait for engineer one of my brothers or somebody to like record me and make it sound good because I didn't know a lot about how to record myself so that's what maybe one to you know go to school for audio engineering so that's why I moved to Atlanta so I was in school you know I'm in Atlanta for the first time I'm like I'm a height you know coming from Pennsylvania or come just coming from up north you know never been to the south before so I was in school for about like three months everything was going good I was in my classes and everything but I actually ended up getting kicked out of college because I couldn't get any more loans now for anybody who went to the Art Institute the Art Institute is really like famous for people getting kicked out of school because of this whole loan situation it's a really expensive school so I got kicked out and I was I actually like moved out of my apartment back home so you know it's like when I got kicked out it was like yo I can't go back home because I don't I don't even have my own apartment no more so I literally had to make a choice like you know okay am I gonna go back up north and live with my mom and try to figure things out or I'm just dug it out so what I did was I moved all my stuff out my dorm I made like great great connections with people while I was there in those little three months so I literally started like hopping from dorm to dorm from people who would just let me stay so and that's because right before I got kicked out is when I started working at the studio so it was like I was working there and I'm like I ain't trying to leave here I've been seeing a famous person every day since I started working here I've been I was learning stuff so I'm like yo I gotta stay in Atlanta so I literally was like living dorm to dorm anybody who would let me stay you know they would give me keys and I would just be good and that's how I lived for like the first two years of me being Atlanta and I was just kicking it I was working at the studio but I was really be like just still figuring out life when I first moved to Atlanta I was just I was like 21 you know so yeah you know me getting kicked out of school was probably like the best thing because I I really didn't need to go to school for audio engineering when I started working at Hotbeats it was more of the hands-on experience and I think that's what a lot of artists need or just people who want to be in the industry they more so need that hands-on like you need to be in the field and I'm not telling nobody don't go to school you know I get it just a completely different field in the college live me in a classroom actually being amongst people seeing how people think I operate right exactly because even in those first month I was like man when are we gonna get to like when are we gonna get in the studio we you know they was taking us through all this like math and all this other stuff that I didn't come here for you know so you know me getting in the studio was like they actually like well what is it that you want to do what is it that you want to learn so they start letting you you know sit in on sessions and just kind of be under the engineers and all the different producers that came through and just starting to build a rapport with artists you know you got famous people that nobody really gets to see on a daily basis that know your name you know so now I'm like sitting in sessions with future and you know I met Drake and all these different people so I actually really got to learn way more being in that studio and then you know doing all the other things that I did after that but school yeah it kicked me out it was like oh you got to go and I'm like where I'm supposed to go I don't know but you got to get out this dorm you can't come back class I was like oh my god so what brought you to Texas then so after being in Atlanta for a while you know I was kind of getting antsy like I want to do something but my I had two brothers who have been living in Texas for a while so my younger brother you know yet he was a part of never satisfied like building up never satisfied along with the CEO you know they've been best friends for years so not only do we have never satisfied but like I said we have a partner company which is more our family company which deals with corporate events but my brother was like man you know I want you to come here I want you to be more part like I feel like we can get things popping here you know a lot of my siblings are just entrepreneurs you know they just build stuff on their own so I was like you know what I'm gonna come so I came and I was out here for a few months I was like back and forth to Atlanta and literally a few months after it wasn't even a year after I moved here you know my brother is getting me just caught up with everything that's going he's teaching me stuff you know we press a lot of our own clothes every he's just teaching me everything and we actually ended up getting into a car accident out here on the highway so it was September 2016 we got into we got hit by a tractor trailer and my brother ended up getting injured you know I had like bruises and swelling and stuff but you know my brother he something hit him in the head so he ended up in the hospital for like five days and he actually passed away after five days so it was like you know I came here because you wanted me to come here and then you know we get into the accident passes away after like a month of me being here so I literally had to make the decision because my oldest brother moved to Atlanta when I was moving here so it was just my younger brother so I had to make a decision like you know either I'm gonna stay here because my brother just built a lot of things up everything that's here he was kind of like the heart of this company so it was like if I don't stay here the owner he was so hurt you know he was gonna shut everything down you know because my brother wasn't here anymore so I just made the choice and at you know at the time I kind of felt more obligated than anything else and and even more connected because you know this like I walk these halls and he's everywhere if I took the computer through the hallway you would see paintings of him like everywhere but I made the choice to stay here you know even though he passed away and I basically like stepped into his shoes here and brought a little or a little bit of you know the things that I do so I actually just started like a whole bunch of new stuff here you know I started doing my shows something that they weren't used to you know having here at the shows here I started bringing new clients in and and just kind of finding my way and that's what kind of just got me to Texas and kept me in Texas I should say oh man that's that's a hell of a story that's a hell of a story I'm sorry to hear about your brother too thank you so a lot um so with that being said I mean you one thing I've heard at least twice in this interview is choice right you seem to take that very seriously are you um I don't know are you very like spiritual and focused and how you approach your work I am I say spiritual I don't know if I would say spiritual but you know I I do believe like God don't make no mistakes and I don't really believe in consequence like not consequence but um I don't believe in things happening by accident you know I think that things are things happen because they're meant to be and based on the the choice that you make you know you always have a path that can go this way and go can go this way and I feel like you know depending on which way you go you know the things that happen is just set you know so for me even coming here when I had to go through that whole situation of losing my brother you know that was probably the worst thing that I've ever been through in life and and my brother was like you know my ace you know very very close so going through that situation I had a period where it was real dark for me and that's not really my personality to be sad I'll probably be like angry before I'm sad but I had to get to a place where I could not justify what was going on but just tell myself like you know this had to happen you know and when I think of the events even me moving here I feel like you know God brought me here it allowed me to spend these last months with my brother because I was living in Atlanta he was living in here so it's not like we saw each other all the time but it really gave me the opportunity to spend the last moments with my brother you know and it was like he was training me and we didn't even know it he was training me to take over everything that he was doing and even add my own spin to it so that's why when I look at it you know we can choose to remain in a in a sad place or we can choose to to see like the positive in it and choose to do something about it you know and so I just chose to look at the situation like you know I was meant to come here like my brother was going to die regardless because that was just and that was just a part of his life the way I look at it I felt like it was just or you know it was already ordered so I feel blessed that I was able to come here that he was able to spend time with me he was able to teach me we were able to build you know those last moments and I was able to keep something going after him passing that meant so much to him so I always feel like it was just meant to be at the end of the day so I think that perspective is amazing just because so many people especially like artists and people just moving within the music industry are always dealing with ups and downs you know outside of just work they have the life but the work brings enough ups and downs and a lot of setbacks so I think that's definitely going to help some people out there I'm glad you shared that when I'm just to switch gears real quick now you're a woman in the music industry I've gotten asked quite a bit about women how do you go about networking how do you go about networking and being taken seriously because they always talk about hey you know these are the abilities relationship but I don't want to be perceived as like I'm trying to build a personal intimate relationship all these things right you know the experience far better than I could ever imagine tell me give me some tips right well first of all always tell people like people are going to treat you the way you treat yourself okay so you know if you are a female and you step into the room treating treating yourself a certain way and when I when I say that I mean you know the way that you look the way that you carry yourself the way that you're speaking to people people will judge you off of that and determine how they want to treat you based off of those things now this is not even just with with women I tell artists in general you know I get a lot of artists that contact me I never respond to people who curse in their message like you don't even know me but you're cursing while you're emailing me or texting me that lets me know that you're not professional you know I curse on my personal time but you never see me curse on my videos and everything because I want you to have a certain standard for me so you're going to treat me the way you see me treat myself so I think for women it's very important to treat yourself walk through the door with a certain aura you know not like bougie like you know I'm bougie or whatever but but it doesn't matter what type of man you it doesn't matter if he is super hood super professional whatever people will see your aura off that and they will treat you accordingly now since I mean certain circumstances where it is just is what it is but I've been in this industry around nothing but men way more men than female and you know as a female I don't even think it has nothing to do with you being an attractive female I think you know you're just a female so you're going to get all kinds of stuff coming your way you know but I think it's all about how you present it I never never have men disrespect me every time someone meets me it's always just yo she is just too she cool you know so it's like it just eliminates everything I think it's about how you carry yourself man how you present yourself how you talk to people you know your body language how you touch people you know a lot of that comes into play and I think with females you have to be real careful of how you present yourself you know even down to what you're wearing if you come in with something super short even I'm gonna look you know so it's like you have to you gotta expect certain things so if if you're talking about networking you're going to a network event you need to dress accordingly act accordingly speak accordingly talk accordingly have have things already ready and people will look at you like oh okay she about business you know and then you gotta just practice on how to curve people professionally you got example of that I would I would love to so when I'm out and people say you know network events or whatever and people like you know well can I get your number I said no thank you so they don't know how to take it because you said no thank you like what some people just be like no no no you know you gotta say that you know say what it's not I'll just say no thank you and he'd be looking at me like that just threw me off you know but I'm like let's follow each other on instagram that's the new phone number like if you hit people back with a joke you know especially men because men feel you know you turn them down they kind of fill away but it's just like you gotta learn how to curve people in the right way you don't have to be angry because somebody is trying to approach you on some other stuff that's just life you know you just gotta learn how to curve people and the more you network the more you put yourself out there the more you will learn okay you just gotta get out there start having certain things that you want to talk to people when I go to a networking event it's already certain questions I know I can ask everybody what do you do how can I follow you you know are you performing it's just general questions that are like openness so I think for artists when you go to a networking event you need to have a set of general questions or general topics that you can bring up with everybody that you meet you can always ask somebody what it is that they do and based off of what they say or I'm an artist next question okay well do you sing a rap or both and then they'll say that okay well you got some music where can I find you you know it's like those opener questions that will take people's mind off of how you look you know I want to talk to you know it gets them back into the business frame of why we're here in the first place okay perfect I love that answer man that was um like what I think is interesting about what you said is one just kind of holding in on the fact that when you're networking you're marketing yourself out to people right so really you're branding yourself and that's the same thing we basically tell artists so a brand is essentially you have to put out the expectations of how people perceive you right so first piece like you you got to brand yourself right treat yourself how you want to be treated I guess you as you exactly and then I also recommend for people to speak to people first especially females don't wait until someone approaches you when you come into a network event just go up to people first because if you let a man approach you first it's normally going to be about because of how you look or you know something like that but if you go up to someone first and you start that conversation you say hey my name is such and such you know it's a networking event so we all must be an artist or something like that you know so you start the conversation first have a business card in your hand you know and pass them a business card like start it off first so you control the conversation control the conversation yeah okay so control the conversation on top of branding yourself how you want to be perceived and then also make sure you have a curve in the chamber but right a kind a kind curve yeah kind curve right lose some pillows to fall on right okay but that's I think that's going to be really helpful for people well I don't want to keep you for too long you've got a lot of valuable information and I as we said at the beginning Lady J Bookums is her IG that's going to be all over on the screen all that good stuff now though is there some final words that you would like to leave people with or where you would like to leave them to um well you know for my independent artists you know I just want everyone to know that you know it's so many possible things out here for you guys like I said in the beginning my my whole thing is this about knowledge the more that you know the more you can succeed okay the more that you know the more that you can get things done on your own or the more that you understand what people around you are supposed to be doing so I just want to you know keep encouraging you guys to do your thing um to to just learn more grow more and you know hopefully definitely be successful beautiful well thank you for having me no problem of course you're doing your thing and I definitely would love to just thought people would find a lot of value out of you and I know I guarantee you they did so as always people you know if you got some comments put that in the description below hopefully Lady J will be so kind as to uh check out the comments and respond to anything she sees when it drops and other than that if you like this video go ahead hit that like button if you like it might as well share it and if you're not subscribed you know what to do hit that subscribe but