 Oh, what's up? It's Brandon Shawn. And in this video, I want to break down some industry dynamics when it comes to an artist having a team or not, how artists should be thinking about it and how the other side looks at it, right? So you can understand the best steps into thinking that's quality, toxic, positive, optimistic, idealistic, wrong, right? And what have you. I have two other videos when it comes to team dynamics and building a team. I'll put in the description below. And also, you know how YouTube works. At the end, I'll put them up there as well. But let's get started here. Now, in another video, I actually read one of these tweets, but there's two of them, that Music Entrepreneur Neuer Club shared on Instagram. I'm gonna read these two, and then we'll get into reading the comments so you can get the feedback. All right, check this out. Key Open Doors, 21 Savage's manager said, there are millions of talent artists, millions labels and distributors are investing in the ones with great teams. All right. Now, check this out. Someone else, Brian Zisook, founder of DJ Booth, one of the most respected publications when it comes to music journalism and blogging. He said, in multiple meetings this week, we didn't want to work with their team or we didn't want to go into business with their manager where cited as reasons for passing on working with Signing It Act. This is very real. It's very, very real. And I'll tell you why in another video. So I'm not gonna get into that. I want to get deeper into some things that people respond it with and bring some perspective to it. Naughty Biz said, that's the truth. Let's start here. Taran Austin said, but no one is telling us how to build a team before we have the budget to do so. What do you do when you can't pay people yet to be on your team? Let me tell you this. This is why we talk about being an entrepreneur. And as being an entrepreneur, what they will tell you is, you are the number one sales person for your company. You are the number one sales person. And the thing that's gonna help you before you have a lot of money is vision. Vision, vision, vision. You have to sell people on your vision. You have to sell people on their vision in ways that comes from a true standpoint of leadership though. It's not just about you. Where do they fit into your vision? What's for them in your vision? What can they get for them that they already desire? And I'll break that down, but I want to say Kanye West is a great example of you watch his documentary of building a team and to get a vision, right? And how not simple that is, right? How you have to squeeze and hustle at the beginning before you have the money. So go watch his documentary. People can feel how you feel about Kanye, but that is a very, very great example of how to build a team or get something done and bring resources together to achieve a goal the very beginning. I think it's one and maybe episode two, but you as the number one sales person. And when I say leadership comes apart of this as well because leadership is understanding what people are incentivized by. And you're thinking money, but some people aren't incentivized by money or they're only incentivized by money to a certain extent or they have something that's more meaningful to them at the time. Now what do I mean by that? You might have somebody who is trying to get into the industry as well and they want to be a PR person. So they're willing to really like hustle and find them a mentor in PR, right? And you be their primary case study that they're working with because they need an artist to practice their tactics with and use their connections with. There's somebody who wants to be a music exec who might like look at marketing as a way to get in at the very beginning and be your marketer or be your manager, right? So if somebody wants to be in the business themself, right? There's a more like higher likelihood that it's not just, oh, I gotta get paid. Now they have a bigger vision just like you have a bigger vision, but it's for themselves. So you're tapping into that. Anybody outside of that that you have to convince just to buy into you is gonna be a little bit harder because you have to be their engine. You want the people on your team to have that engine. Now how do you find them? There's a lot of different ways, online, meetings, all, you know, wherever you live, there's so many ways to find, but it's not a cut and dry answer because you also gotta meet with personalities and they gotta believe in your vision. So that's number one. Like you have to be the number one salesperson and you want to find people and incentivize them in ways that make sense for them. All right, now let's keep pushing though. I wanna keep going. What if you are your own manager? Do you feel a team is necessary? This is by Argole Dent, I can't even say that. All right, but yeah, do you feel a team is necessary? Right now I'm hiring freelancers to do my promo. Yes, a team is necessary. Yes, a manager is necessary. You being your own manager sounds great, right? This whole DIY culture, it sounds good when you're starting out and that's the hustle that you might need to make happen. But when you get to a certain level, people wanna talk to a manager. They wanna talk to a conduit, right? Not you. Why is that? Because one, as an artist, it's very difficult to not take things personally, right? When people are talking about the value of a situation and what things are worth for the business at large. A lot of artists will hear things and it's hard to separate yourself as the product, right? But not understanding the actual business and what makes the rest of the business tick that you're dealing with. So now you're thinking that they're judging on your value but the fact that they're talking to you past a certain extent probably means that they see value in you. However, understanding their business at large is what's gonna prevent a lot of artists from being able to objectively understand what the other side is thinking, right? So let's break this down. One, let's consider the fact that there's other artists that a label has, right? There's other, like, or that a distributor has, right? They're bringing a certain level of connection to the table. They know that they wanna get a return on their investment. They have a family as well. They feel their business has value as well. And now we're having this conversation where the artist is only looking at their particular value a lot of times. So in your best interest to have a manager that you trust to be able to have those conversations with you and take some of the bite out of that when they communicate it to you. A lot of managers, they're either immature or just don't understand certain things or sometimes are manipulating when they allow the artist to be too deep into those conversations because I can't get into that right now, but your experienced manager will have those conversations for you and bring you in when it's safe to have the next level of conversation and you need to be in it at all. So people wanna talk to managers. People wanna talk to managers. They don't wanna talk to an artist who they know oftentimes will be sensitive about a situation. They just know tough conversations have to happen. That's only one of the reasons that you should have a manager. Let's see. PAC official says it'd be cool if they were to invest more into one woman or one man teams doing it all themselves introduce us to reliable people or coach us on finding them. No, no, right? If my goal, there's different levels of businesses, right? Some businesses literally, like if you're not talking $500 million or above, they don't wanna talk to you. If you're not talking about $5 million or above, they don't wanna talk to you in terms of investment. If you're not talking about $500,000 or above, right? Every business has their level. So one, if you want training, right? On how to find those things, find someone who has a business built on helping people do those things. But in most cases, if like, I'm trying to get millions of dollars in return, I'm just trying to find a team that I can accelerate. A small business that I can accelerate, not a small product, right? And that goes back to being your own manager. You're a small product at that time, not a small business, right? That I can just put some fire on and gas up. So no, I'm not gonna invest and nurture you and then give you this skill set that now lengthens the time between when I can get a return on my investment and I have to get a return on my investment in a set period of time. When I have options to invest in other things, why would I invest in you instead? Especially if you are my son, my daughter, my cousin, my brother, my best friend, my best friend's brother, right? Those are some other situations where you might find people waiting longer or going outside of that. But for the most part, it doesn't make business sense for someone to do all of that extra stuff and increase their risk. It just doesn't, all right? But of course it sounds great, but there are people who might have a business that you could find who they might help you find those types of resources, all right? Now, how to build a great team, exactly. We're kind of talking about some of this as we go. Peso's Bittery says it's easier for a label to control the artist if their team is on the label's payroll. This is a conspiratorial thought process. This skepticism is, although it's some level of truth to the fact that it would be easier, it's a bad mentality to get shared and overshared because the reality is, you hear a lot of people say, hey, the label doesn't really do anything for me. Well, if the label doesn't really do much for you, then who's gonna do something for you? Your team, right? Now, the label's not just trying to control people, right? A lot of times because they're not doing, because what they're not doing for you oftentimes is what they don't have resources to do. And it doesn't make sense for their model. Again, they're trying to accelerate a small business. If they just have the artist and nothing else, there's probably no way they can help you get to the next level, all right? Their resources are more for somebody who's at, let's say, a Cardi B level or Beyonce level, right? When Billie Eilish or something like that, when artists start to get bigger, a lot of their team and resources can take more of a formation and do things for you immediately. But before a certain level and threshold, they're a resource pool for your team to tap into and your team to go do the work and leverage and get things going. So, I hear because of all the things that have happened when it comes to labels, but like, and I'm talking, they can major label in that example I just wrote. I just spoke through, but I hear what you're saying, but today the label is a part of your team for a lot of people, right? It could be an indie team where you have your label and your manager and you created your label together, right? Or you created your label by yourself and brought the manager on. So it doesn't make sense. Hopefully I'll get deeper into that in another part of this stuff. There's a big I in my team, so I won't have anything to worry about that with me. Oh, that's funny. Kill Sound says they don't like teams because it's harder to take advantage of when the artist up on game. Good Lord. Okay, okay. No, in most cases, because people share the same sentiment. In most cases, I can get a better return if you actually have a team. These people are telling you in the tweets, I'm in meetings where people say, I'm not gonna invest in this artist because they don't have a team, but you're saying they don't want the artist to have a team. It doesn't make sense for me to give my money to a team that cannot execute. It doesn't make sense for me to give $500,000 to a single artist who's never done this before, doesn't have anybody to help him to do all the things that it takes to get through and become a success, let alone somebody who is actually experienced and capable and committed to the situation. So you have to get out of the mentality. Of course, there's bad actors. Of course, there's people who are trying to take advantage of people. All those things exist. But from a purely business standpoint, it does not make sense for someone to put all their money at risk for someone who doesn't have a team, a vehicle that can help them take advantage of the resources that I have, right? If you can't, what's the point of me giving you this money if you don't know what to do with it? How many times do you hear people go broke after winning the lottery? Because they don't know what to do with the money. They don't know how to keep the money, all right? So, and even fewer, even fewer, there's some people that actually keep the money. They get a manager and they able to make that money last a lifetime. But how many people do you know when the lottery and you hear about them taking that money and getting more money from that? Let's talk about that for a second, because this really breaks down that scenario. How many people do you hear when the lottery and flip that lottery money to make more money? I don't know of any examples. Maybe there are, right? But a lot of times the story is about people either going broke or the people who are smart because they don't go broke. Making money with that money is the unicorn. And that's what it comes down to when it comes down to having an artist team, right? When they want you to have a team because their goal is not for them to give you money and then you not go broke. No, their goal is to give you money and then you flip that money and help grow that money so they can get a return on their investment. That's the difference of why it's so important to have a great team, the people who have the ability to execute the things that are necessary and also go through the proper decision making that's necessary to execute the right things. That's what the breakdown looks like. All right, now let's put this up and go through just a couple more. I don't want this video to be too long, but this is interesting. This is ridiculous. Good people are hard to find. Everybody has trouble finding good people. Anybody in business is in business of trying to find good people but plenty of people have built successful businesses. Go figure it out. This is how people are gonna think and look at it on the other side of the industry, right? I know a lot of these pages and people are like, oh, artists are having so hard and it's such a struggle and you guys deserve better but let's talk real world here because I'm not good at the fluffy stuff. All right, so all about the crew for real. Let's see if we can find two more. I don't take on all the work for this reason. Some people just aren't a good fit personality-wise. When your team can ruin your dream, this is sad but it's also reality. Have you ever seen a basketball team that has a star player that's off the chain but their team isn't all that good so they don't even go to the playoffs? You see it all the time. You have a number one draft pick, right? And somebody's really good. You send the best player to the worst team because the worst team actually has the number one draft pick and they can't even go to the playoffs. They can't even be that good, right? That's the reality. So how do you find a team, right? The Bron had to wait until he got in a situation and go to Miami where there was a team and a culture already established and then learn that culture as well. So he got championships and he was able to take that winning culture with him as he left. That's the reality. Everybody has to go through it somewhere or another. All right, now let me get one more comment. Let's see. Do we have anybody that brought anything helpful to the table? In this role, which is on the middle ground, the middle of a barbell funnel. Artist 12, Disjo, 3K, absolutely has a bias against Long Wolf. All right, I'll decode this a little bit, all right? They say the artist, there's absolutely a bias against the Long Wolf and the distributors will ask where is the team helping to carry that dream? This is what he means, right? So you already have labels, right? Labels are, they can have a lot of, they have a lot of resources, right? But the distributor, their core model is literally to help you primarily with distribution and then a lot of times they'll get a cut of the tracks that you're distributing towards them and then if there's something working, they'll help amplify that. They have a resource pool of connections, right? But outside of that, literally, they're not doing anything else. So they'll give you some capital, all right? They'll give you all the freedom in the world, right? And they'll give you some of their resources when it comes to play listings and things like that. But they're not taking your masters and they're giving you a pretty good deal in comparison to what labels are doing. So what does that mean? I'm not giving you, I'm not taking so much from you. You get more freedom, but that means I'm gonna do less. And for you to execute your part, I could execute my part. I need you to have a team. That's why distributors especially are not gonna invest in a lone wolf. Because the team in my business model is built on finding good teams with good product that can make stuff happen and me just helping them, right? And I'm not trying to cut their head off and take all ownership of all their masters and things like that. I'm just trying to help them, right? And be more of a partner. That's their business model. So it doesn't make sense for me to invest in somebody any time in resources and somebody who can't get in a situation that I can actually help them in. That's how I distributed things, right? If you can't get this song popping on a playlist and moving organically, then I can't help you with my sink deal situations and get it on TV and pitch it to these or pitch it to these playlists or maybe connect you with somebody else I know in the industry that can do whatever for it. That's how I'm gonna help you. That specifically, I'm not gonna get your train moving. I'm not gonna be your engine. If I was your engine, then I would need more of your situation. I would need a bigger cut. I might need that master son. So because I'm not doing that, I need you to do more. Distributors, that should be a cut and dry example of why the dynamic is the dynamic. And you should, you want that ownership comes more responsibility, right? So I know people are, they talk bad on labels, but, and there was a lot of situations that have been violating back in the day. But to some extent, the amount of work that labels have put in will have put in traditionally and the amount of success that they were responsible for did dictate a lot more ownership in situations than some artists might be comfortable with. Traditionally, now, these new age situations, bro, you are the engine, you should need a label, right? But you have to get in a position where you have leverage. And a part of that leverage is not just a fan base, a part of that leverage is a team. Hopefully this video was helpful. Again, I'm gonna put two other videos where we talk about team. One of them is actually showing you how you should think and build your team, who you should be looking for at what stage. And the other video is just explaining the dynamics of why it makes sense to think about the team, the way that labels and distributors think about the team. So be clear on that because the better you understand the other side, how other people are thinking, the better you can be in terms of an entrepreneur because the biggest risk that artists take and the biggest reason that artists don't find success on the business side of the industry is thinking only from their own interest and not understanding how to sell a team and build a team based on what's interesting to that other person, right? What's in their interest, all right? What incentivizes them? How to understand what incentivizes the label, all right? You can do good business if you understand business. Most artists don't understand business and they end up in bad business situations or they end up in their feelings when they shouldn't be. Because if they were on the other side of the table, they would see it exactly the same. All right, hopefully this video was helpful. We can talk more on this, put comments in the section below if you wanna hear more. That's yet another video, be cool. Peace.