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Jonathan Azu Full Interview (2nd Appearance) · The Steve Harvey Morning Show

• 0:03
  Speaker 1: What's Right with Sean McDonald. Welcome to my show, Money
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  Speaker 1: that information. When I talked to them about their careers,
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  Speaker 1: what's motivating them, what's what are they promoting, and how
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  Speaker 1: they live about his life, then they revealed to me
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  Speaker 1: their secrets to success. But next guest is a two
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  Speaker 1: time Billboard forty Under forty power player. In his career,
• 1:03
  Speaker 1: he has overseen the development of many notable artists and brands,
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  Speaker 1: including Anita Baker, Emily Keene, Corey, Henry Luke, James and
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  Speaker 1: Ryl Willems, Miguel Cooling the Game, the Crazy Leon Thomas,
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  Speaker 1: festivals like Outside Lands Music Festival, and many more. He's
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  Speaker 1: an artist manager, founder of Culture Collective and Culture Collective Records.
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  Speaker 1: Please welcome back to Money Making Conversations, my man, Jonathan A. Zool, Hey,
• 1:32
  Speaker 1: how are you doing? It's a The intro only gets
• 1:36
  Speaker 1: bigger every time you come on the show. Appreciate to
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  Speaker 1: the show speaking with you. Well, you know, the great
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  Speaker 1: thing about watching your brand and and it's all about
• 1:49
  Speaker 1: reinventing yourself. You know, you're doing this, this this process
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  Speaker 1: and then all of sayd you see an opportunity, but
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  Speaker 1: there's always a possibility that ship may not work. In
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  Speaker 1: the process of how you're building your branding and leading talent,
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  Speaker 1: but also recognizing that you are a brand any talent too,
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  Speaker 1: how do you separate the difference? You know, it's interesting.
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  Speaker 1: I mean I've always considered myself personally a brand, right,
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  Speaker 1: and and you know, people asking what do you do,
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  Speaker 1: and I usually say, well, I'm a long hard right,
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  Speaker 1: but I'm an artist manager and I apply that market
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  Speaker 1: that approach to marketing as a rate to my my
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  Speaker 1: ideas with my clients, but also as relates to myself
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  Speaker 1: as a brand. And I used to always think about
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  Speaker 1: myself like a blank cereal bo right and walking down
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  Speaker 1: by a grocery store. You know, what are the what
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  Speaker 1: are these things? What are the images of colors? What's
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  Speaker 1: on the side of the packaging that is going to
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  Speaker 1: make so to say I want to I want to
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  Speaker 1: buy that, I want to do business with that person.
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  Speaker 1: And um, you know, if you got one of the
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  Speaker 1: elements that make up Jonathan has you what are the
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  Speaker 1: elements that make up culture collective? And I think about
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  Speaker 1: that packaging and the thing that we want to apply
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  Speaker 1: to it, and that's all marketing, that's all marketing, that's
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  Speaker 1: all brand development. Um. And we applied that. We played
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  Speaker 1: that s sim approach to working with our clients as
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  Speaker 1: well as ourselves. Well you know the good thing about
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  Speaker 1: I know a lot of your clients. And just a
• 3:07
  Speaker 1: little side note, Anita Baker giving you the best that
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  Speaker 1: I got. My wife and I got married on that song.
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  Speaker 1: It was our song at our wedding. So you know,
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  Speaker 1: I always wanted to tell a need whenever I meet
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  Speaker 1: I'm Hugging said, thirty or two years later, we steered together,
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  Speaker 1: Nita and your song. Your song helped us out. And
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  Speaker 1: so but thank you, thank you. It really I appreciate
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  Speaker 1: what you're doing. Let's let's let's define what uh from
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  Speaker 1: one of my research you founded Culture Collective in twent
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  Speaker 1: and eighteen. Importance of Culture Collective regards to urban artists
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  Speaker 1: make up less than one percent of the client base
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  Speaker 1: at Station's uh A top firms nationwide. So just a
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  Speaker 1: drive to understand that that urban artists are underrepresented in
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  Speaker 1: the field that they may dominate. And so that's what
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  Speaker 1: the basis of your development, correct, Yeah, yeah, absolutely. I
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  Speaker 1: mean it's somebody that's got a top of major organizations
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  Speaker 1: and had an opportunity to look down at you know what,
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  Speaker 1: what's what's coming up next with what's having a cultural impact,
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  Speaker 1: but then also who's working on it. I saw this
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  Speaker 1: massive lack of diversity and inclusion um within the corporate
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  Speaker 1: ranks of these bigger companies um. And then in addition
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  Speaker 1: to that, you know, you look at the artists that
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  Speaker 1: are that are the trend setters and winning the pavement
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  Speaker 1: in today's generation, and you know they look like us, right,
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  Speaker 1: and people that are representing them do not not that
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  Speaker 1: that it's it's necessarily a race thing, but ultimately the
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  Speaker 1: cultural perspective, you want to be able to look across
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  Speaker 1: the table and know that you're that you're you're you know,
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  Speaker 1: somebody really connects with what you're doing. So I started
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  Speaker 1: Culture Collective with that mindset of permission statement, where diversity
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  Speaker 1: inclusion is how we think about who we work with
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  Speaker 1: and how we hire. My goal is to really really
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  Speaker 1: have a well represented that team members that can fit
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  Speaker 1: with our clients and come up with the concerts an
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  Speaker 1: idea to build their career and now a both the
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  Speaker 1: Culture Collective. Uh, and you know, I'm having a lot
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  Speaker 1: of fun. It's been Olmos the year. As we last spoke,
• 5:06
  Speaker 1: I joke that we still have a new car smell
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  Speaker 1: you know, right, So we're in but we're you know,
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  Speaker 1: we're having We're having a lot of fun and and
• 5:14
  Speaker 1: being entrepreneurs, we get an opportunity to work at opportunity
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  Speaker 1: spaces that um that need to be filled and within that,
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  Speaker 1: we have some clients that were in between record labels. Uh,
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  Speaker 1: they didn't have partners to put out music, but they
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  Speaker 1: have very very forcing careers and touring and other other
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  Speaker 1: aspects of what they were doing, but they didn't have
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  Speaker 1: a partner without music, and I started to look at
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  Speaker 1: why why can't we put out that music and what
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  Speaker 1: are the various entries of us putting out that music?
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  Speaker 1: UM and UM you know, we started calling collective records
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  Speaker 1: with that mine and we we partnered with in Groups,
• 5:50
  Speaker 1: which is a universal company, to help make sure that
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  Speaker 1: our artist music is available across all digital service providers
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  Speaker 1: and we were closely with their team on the marketing
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  Speaker 1: promotion of those artists and Blue James is a long
• 6:04
  Speaker 1: time client, is the first artists to be released through
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  Speaker 1: this new venture. UM. A new album, To Feel Loved,
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  Speaker 1: was released on January thirty one. UM to Feel Loved
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  Speaker 1: exterials Readurn January thirty one and uh, we're not gonna
• 6:19
  Speaker 1: wait on the managers fly, but now we're probably the
• 6:22
  Speaker 1: Rector label folds. Well. You know the interesting part of
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  Speaker 1: why I maintain a relationship with you because of the
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  Speaker 1: visionary relationship that I feel that you're bringing to the industry.
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  Speaker 1: When you're talking about the limited recognition of you know,
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  Speaker 1: urban talent, the African American talent, the talent of color
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  Speaker 1: how we participate, but we seem to be bottled in.
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  Speaker 1: You know know I know that for a fact because
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  Speaker 1: I executive produced and create co created the Steve Harmonning
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  Speaker 1: Show and I was on there from two thousands, So
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  Speaker 1: I know how the music industry can industry can play
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  Speaker 1: itself out. And what I'm what I'm getting at, it's like,
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  Speaker 1: you know, we always get underrepresented fences. We have June
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  Speaker 1: is our Black music month. You know, June is Black
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  Speaker 1: music month. Okay, then you look at the music made
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  Speaker 1: for everybody else. You have the Grammys, you have American
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  Speaker 1: Music Ward, Yeah, bill Boards, you know how our radio
• 7:06
  Speaker 1: were even talk about culch and Western and then BT
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  Speaker 1: Music Award is basically our watch you when we should
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  Speaker 1: have more, you know we You know, that's the area
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  Speaker 1: that I really want to start talking to you about.
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  Speaker 1: How can we get more visual representation in our ward
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  Speaker 1: shows on television because that is necessary. We have to
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  Speaker 1: have more than just be two awards? Am I mistaken?
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  Speaker 1: When I say that? Jonathan? I agree, and I think
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  Speaker 1: it's interesting. It's interesting point because they think that part
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  Speaker 1: of that more is our culture in in brands coming
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  Speaker 1: to life, um in more ways than just you know
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  Speaker 1: our Workshop and D two Awards, I mean one of
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  Speaker 1: the most cognitive awards shows ever. UM, you know the
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  Speaker 1: Hip Hop Awards as well, and when we look at
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  Speaker 1: the Grammys and Amys and all these other shows, it's
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  Speaker 1: important for us to be able to have a presence
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  Speaker 1: within those environments to um and not be underrepresentating. That's
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  Speaker 1: part of that is making sure that we do have
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  Speaker 1: people that represent our culture within the executive rings to
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  Speaker 1: these companies so they could hire the right folks and
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  Speaker 1: being the right room for these conversations to come to life.
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  Speaker 1: And this is about business because one of the big
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  Speaker 1: things about the Grammars this year was diversity, and uh
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  Speaker 1: he did. He made a big deal on stage doing
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  Speaker 1: his speech about diversity. Now explain to that people, was
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  Speaker 1: it important to have diversity in music behind you know,
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  Speaker 1: behind the performance, behind the talent. I think so. I mean,
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  Speaker 1: I'm gonna go back to last grade is because it's
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  Speaker 1: just something that was that was that was well talked about,
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  Speaker 1: not not this past graends, not two doouns in between
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  Speaker 1: the two thousand nineteen and there was Amazing Town. There's
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  Speaker 1: a Motown tribute. A lot of people had a lot
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  Speaker 1: to say about and most of that was around the
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  Speaker 1: fact that we want well represented within that tribute, Okay,
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  Speaker 1: And I think that sometimes that can happen if we
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  Speaker 1: don't have the right people in the rooms to make
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  Speaker 1: sure that our culture is really really represented the wrong
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  Speaker 1: people singing motown hits right the wrong just because you're
• 9:04
  Speaker 1: trying to get a hit. Don't just throw somebody out
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  Speaker 1: there singing something that there's not there's not that there
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  Speaker 1: shouldn't be singing it correct, Yeah, or or or has
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  Speaker 1: no has no real time, has no real tie to
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  Speaker 1: the to the to the history of motowns. So you know,
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  Speaker 1: I think, um, you know, I think it's it's super
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  Speaker 1: important at the end of the day, and and you know,
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  Speaker 1: creating Culture Collective it's just my way of helping to
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  Speaker 1: break that cycle um and really developed the next executive.
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  Speaker 1: And we focus a lot around hiring young talent and
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  Speaker 1: hiring interns and mentoring the folks. I always say that
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  Speaker 1: the ways, the ways into the world of Jonathan Azou
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  Speaker 1: and Culture Collective are at high touch of negotiating um deals, uh,
• 9:48
  Speaker 1: partnering on on deals, on doubt to just inspiring each other. Well,
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  Speaker 1: you know, it's really it's so special when I talk
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  Speaker 1: to you, Jonathan, Jonathan, and the fact that you know,
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  Speaker 1: I am meeting talking to so many minds like you,
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  Speaker 1: you know, whether it's a Charles King and Mac Crow
• 10:06
  Speaker 1: now he's starting the management division of his company and
• 10:09
  Speaker 1: you know your visionary and I know that this year
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  Speaker 1: we're all going to meet in the room because because
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  Speaker 1: it's it's it's you know, we have to talk to
• 10:18
  Speaker 1: this conversation. Even what Byron Allen is doing, you know,
• 10:21
  Speaker 1: you know he's talking about you know, it's a it's
• 10:23
  Speaker 1: a group of people make a decision for everybody, don't
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  Speaker 1: look like everybody and so and I'm not trying to
• 10:28
  Speaker 1: turn this call into a war path call, but it's
• 10:31
  Speaker 1: an information call about the fact that if you really
• 10:35
  Speaker 1: want to be successful in any business, you have to
• 10:37
  Speaker 1: be allowed to participate. And so that's what you're trying
• 10:41
  Speaker 1: to get and that's what you're saying and starting the
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  Speaker 1: management firm that you have and what you've done all
• 10:45
  Speaker 1: your life. Correct, Yeah, right, recently on the King that
• 10:51
  Speaker 1: I got together, um about twenty the last minute thing
• 10:55
  Speaker 1: you know I'm supposed to be traveling on that day
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  Speaker 1: started was absolutely be watching Angela don't on handing my
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  Speaker 1: shot out of an email about thirty or so both
• 11:06
  Speaker 1: within my network. Um um, you know, senior level executives
• 11:10
  Speaker 1: at the company all and down to two interns instead.
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  Speaker 1: You know, I want to I want to cheat everybody
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  Speaker 1: to dinner and let's get in the room, close the door,
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  Speaker 1: and let's have a conversation how we can miss ourselves right, Um,
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  Speaker 1: an open conversation. And it was a beautiful thing. And
• 11:26
  Speaker 1: it's something that needs to happen more, not just on
• 11:29
  Speaker 1: HML King Bead, that needs to happen every single day. Uh,
• 11:33
  Speaker 1: for us to be able to share with each other
• 11:35
  Speaker 1: and the insight, guidance knowledge that we have in the
• 11:38
  Speaker 1: struggles of how we lift ourselves with an entertainment oftentimes.
• 11:43
  Speaker 1: You know, one of the things that came out in
• 11:44
  Speaker 1: that in that conversation when people are like, well, it's
• 11:46
  Speaker 1: not just in my head, you know, uh, there's other,
• 11:49
  Speaker 1: there's other you know, leading leading voice in that spaces
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  Speaker 1: is creating the same challenges. So I'm not crazy, right
• 11:57
  Speaker 1: because when in the environments and you're the only one
• 12:00
  Speaker 1: of color, you as to how do you think that
• 12:04
  Speaker 1: it's just me? Right? Cool? We're talking to Jonathan Azoo
• 12:07
  Speaker 1: he's the founder of a culture collective started in twenty
• 12:10
  Speaker 1: and eighteen and guess what he's rolling with partnerships he's
• 12:13
  Speaker 1: created with in grooves. We'll be back with more on
• 12:15
  Speaker 1: money making conversation. This is awesome again. Collective minds, collective
• 12:19
  Speaker 1: thoughts generate success. We'll be right back with more from
• 12:23
  Speaker 1: Marsiana McDonald and money making conversations. Don't touch that down
• 12:28
  Speaker 1: I did for Sean McDonald And you're listening to money
• 12:30
  Speaker 1: making conversation. I'm talking to Jonathan Azoo. Uh. He founded
• 12:33
  Speaker 1: uh culture Collective eighteen and right now I want to
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  Speaker 1: talk about the current artist roster includes Emily King, Luke, James,
• 12:42
  Speaker 1: Leon Thomas and my favorite person and good friend, Michelle Weeves.
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  Speaker 1: Talk about your roster and why are those particular people
• 12:49
  Speaker 1: on your roster? Uh? You know, for me, I got
• 12:53
  Speaker 1: into this business because I have a passion for it,
• 12:55
  Speaker 1: and um I was able to take a passion or
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  Speaker 1: into profession and includes the arts that work with. I'm fan.
• 13:00
  Speaker 1: I'm a fan everyone I've ever worked with in my
• 13:03
  Speaker 1: career I've been a fan of. I've never once worked
• 13:06
  Speaker 1: with somebody that I was like handed working on this.
• 13:11
  Speaker 1: I know you're not into it, right, I'm passionately, passionately
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  Speaker 1: a fan. And each one of those artists that you mentioned,
• 13:18
  Speaker 1: um are, I've aloys been on my playlist. So it's exciting.
• 13:23
  Speaker 1: It's excited to be to be working with him, and
• 13:25
  Speaker 1: it's exciting experience growth. And you know, as you know,
• 13:27
  Speaker 1: being an entrepreneur and successful business executive yourself, growth is
• 13:33
  Speaker 1: a is A is A is a powerful world word.
• 13:36
  Speaker 1: Um And you know, we develop a lot of really
• 13:40
  Speaker 1: great blueprints and road maps to help to help help
• 13:44
  Speaker 1: help growth. Right. And that's from the bottom line standpoint,
• 13:47
  Speaker 1: that's from an audience trea standpoint, that's from a streaming standpoint,
• 13:50
  Speaker 1: from a ticket sales standpoint. Uh, And each one of
• 13:52
  Speaker 1: those artists has had great growth or their their their
• 13:55
  Speaker 1: careers working with us. Well, it's really important when I'm
• 13:57
  Speaker 1: looking at you when I when I introduce you, was
• 14:00
  Speaker 1: talking about your ther brands that you've seen, overseen the
• 14:02
  Speaker 1: development or need a banker, Emily king in, Luke James
• 14:05
  Speaker 1: and share with Miguel cooling the game look crazy. That's
• 14:08
  Speaker 1: my man right there. So that's that's gospel gospel. As
• 14:12
  Speaker 1: Miguel as hip hop cous in the game. You know,
• 14:14
  Speaker 1: there's R and B and need the Banker. That's social
• 14:16
  Speaker 1: all and B. You know, okay, that's that's a love
• 14:19
  Speaker 1: of fair music. That means your playlist is like you
• 14:22
  Speaker 1: grooving and you're popping and then you're praising the law. Yeah, totally. Um,
• 14:30
  Speaker 1: you know it's again social in some form of fashion, right,
• 14:34
  Speaker 1: and it's really really important that. So what do you
• 14:36
  Speaker 1: see the direction of music? Like I was. I was
• 14:38
  Speaker 1: in NAPTY that's a National Associatior Television program and program executives.
• 14:42
  Speaker 1: And podcasts was just the rage you know, we know
• 14:45
  Speaker 1: streaming out there came out and explode it and uh
• 14:48
  Speaker 1: not podcast is the rage of not just the audio
• 14:51
  Speaker 1: version of but the video version of podcasts. Next level
• 14:54
  Speaker 1: with that, you you'll see that more and more being
• 14:57
  Speaker 1: being spoken about because they realized the generation really don't
• 15:00
  Speaker 1: care about screen on the wall. They care about what's
• 15:03
  Speaker 1: in their hands. And right now, what's the hand is
• 15:06
  Speaker 1: things they are willing to download, willing to play, will
• 15:09
  Speaker 1: to care with them. What does the future of music
• 15:12
  Speaker 1: in that in that particular era or that particular space
• 15:15
  Speaker 1: or does it stay the same, Yeah, I think you know.
• 15:19
  Speaker 1: And then just to just to build on what you're saying.
• 15:22
  Speaker 1: They wanted when we wanted wherever they're are right right.
• 15:26
  Speaker 1: So so if I want to listen to do a podcast,
• 15:30
  Speaker 1: I don't. I don't want to have to schedule it.
• 15:32
  Speaker 1: If I want to, if I'm sitting on the bus
• 15:34
  Speaker 1: on the way home, like full look on my phone,
• 15:36
  Speaker 1: whether it be audio or visual, at that time, that's
• 15:39
  Speaker 1: the time that they wanted. And it's almost like you know, music,
• 15:41
  Speaker 1: music and it's in in stream. Music really was the
• 15:46
  Speaker 1: leader in that behavior, the adopts that behavior. You know,
• 15:50
  Speaker 1: you know, what I want, what I want when I want. UM,
• 15:53
  Speaker 1: and now you've seen you start that to the later
• 15:55
  Speaker 1: through other forms of media. UM, as far as you know,
• 15:58
  Speaker 1: you know, music streamings iviously beginning to have an aggressive growth.
• 16:03
  Speaker 1: When at first Haming T T to POI and UM.
• 16:08
  Speaker 1: You know, there was a lot of different companies trying
• 16:10
  Speaker 1: to figure out streaming, and I always felt that once
• 16:12
  Speaker 1: it was all said and done, there would be a
• 16:14
  Speaker 1: handful left, maybe a few. It was reproven that to
• 16:17
  Speaker 1: be the case between Amazon, iTunes, and Spotify, and now
• 16:20
  Speaker 1: we kind of had the three, the big three for
• 16:23
  Speaker 1: the most part. Um, there's a couple of other small
• 16:25
  Speaker 1: one within that that the that fourth and to the
• 16:27
  Speaker 1: sixth position. But ultimately this is how people consume music.
• 16:31
  Speaker 1: And now you're starting to see you know, as uh,
• 16:34
  Speaker 1: you know, as as as as older older audience to
• 16:38
  Speaker 1: get older and the young artists that starts to come
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  Speaker 1: into the consumption mix stream won't only get bigger and bigger.
• 16:44
  Speaker 1: You know, there's really inter look at your resume. You're
• 16:46
  Speaker 1: tied to festivals? Are you tied to festival as a
• 16:48
  Speaker 1: person who's a blast talent or as a producer? So I,
• 16:53
  Speaker 1: after many years working in the radio myself, I went
• 16:56
  Speaker 1: over to a company called super Fly, which was which
• 16:59
  Speaker 1: was a group of of of guys that graduated in
• 17:02
  Speaker 1: Julian that had come up with the concept of putting
• 17:04
  Speaker 1: a large scale USU festival together in the United States
• 17:08
  Speaker 1: that was built off of the Glastonberry So what happens
• 17:12
  Speaker 1: when you do really dropped sixty seventy eight thousand people
• 17:15
  Speaker 1: into a field and you build multiple stages and multiple
• 17:19
  Speaker 1: experiences within that environment and live on live on that
• 17:22
  Speaker 1: property for that site for for three to four days.
• 17:26
  Speaker 1: And that was the birth of Bonnaroo. And I went
• 17:28
  Speaker 1: into work with the team that actually put that festival together.
• 17:31
  Speaker 1: I wasn't on the talent buying side. I was more
• 17:33
  Speaker 1: on the operational side, but all aspects of the festival
• 17:37
  Speaker 1: fall underneath operations, so we had a very very good
• 17:40
  Speaker 1: preview of of of of talent and who's coming up.
• 17:43
  Speaker 1: One of the funner things that I do around my
• 17:45
  Speaker 1: house is I have all the old posters from all
• 17:48
  Speaker 1: the shows that we produced, and you know, you know,
• 17:51
  Speaker 1: you know, you know, billing for for the show or
• 17:54
  Speaker 1: the fight of like who's at the top of the poster,
• 17:55
  Speaker 1: Who's at the bottom of the poster? Right? Um? And
• 17:58
  Speaker 1: I just need to look at the bottom of the
• 18:00
  Speaker 1: oaster of these previous years and looking at the artists
• 18:02
  Speaker 1: that are down there. Uh that of mouth, you know,
• 18:05
  Speaker 1: a ride to the top of the Yeah, like Miguel
• 18:11
  Speaker 1: way back. Yeah, you know, I'm saying, wow, I think
• 18:14
  Speaker 1: Drake about the Breakers record or something on airplay or
• 18:18
  Speaker 1: something like that. It's really amazing money. When when when
• 18:21
  Speaker 1: when the first tour I did with with Miguel h
• 18:24
  Speaker 1: A schip remember the year but Miguel was direct support
• 18:28
  Speaker 1: to Drink right, so Drink of the headline it was
• 18:31
  Speaker 1: it was would you like a tour? Right? Drake and
• 18:34
  Speaker 1: drink is the headline, and Miguel opened in Future was
• 18:38
  Speaker 1: the was the was the first act to chick out.
• 18:44
  Speaker 1: Oh my god. You know, that's the beauty of seeing
• 18:47
  Speaker 1: the beginning and watch it come to the end and
• 18:49
  Speaker 1: watched the path of growth and you go, you know,
• 18:51
  Speaker 1: because you know, everybody has that hustle at hustle, that hustle,
• 18:54
  Speaker 1: and you like, I met Miguel because it inside of
• 18:56
  Speaker 1: the l A when Steve and I was doing local
• 18:59
  Speaker 1: radio hip hop and R and B, when he was
• 19:01
  Speaker 1: when he was, when he when he was trying to
• 19:03
  Speaker 1: find his bars, getting his music out there, and I
• 19:04
  Speaker 1: was looking at him now and go, wow, it's been
• 19:06
  Speaker 1: that many years and he's still got the passion to win.
• 19:09
  Speaker 1: He still has the passion to say, I'm gonna be
• 19:12
  Speaker 1: number one, I'm gonna be successful. That's a drive when
• 19:15
  Speaker 1: you when you manage talent. I always tell people, like,
• 19:18
  Speaker 1: right now, manage that Steven A. Smith. You know, for
• 19:20
  Speaker 1: many years people have known me to Twitter, but actually
• 19:22
  Speaker 1: sixteen or twenty years I managed Steve Harvey and built
• 19:25
  Speaker 1: his brand to the Media Media, international media brand. But
• 19:28
  Speaker 1: it's a lot of work when you manage talent, a
• 19:31
  Speaker 1: lot of people don't understand that talk about your version
• 19:34
  Speaker 1: or your skills or other things that you put in
• 19:37
  Speaker 1: place so you can manage the different talent that you have. Yeah,
• 19:40
  Speaker 1: I think for me, you know, I met an interesting
• 19:43
  Speaker 1: intersection because I spent many years in media, you know,
• 19:47
  Speaker 1: essentially doing label relations um and developing interesting partnerships for
• 19:51
  Speaker 1: CBS Radio corporately. So we had a hundred any radio stations,
• 19:54
  Speaker 1: fifty program directors, and then I leave that world. I
• 19:57
  Speaker 1: go into the life of that festival business with tessels
• 19:59
  Speaker 1: were just starting to take off in the United States, right,
• 20:01
  Speaker 1: you're pioneers in that space. And now you see a
• 20:04
  Speaker 1: lot of festivals out there, but we were the first
• 20:05
  Speaker 1: to be there and then to jump over and help
• 20:08
  Speaker 1: help to run Red Light, which you know eventually became
• 20:11
  Speaker 1: one of the biggest management companies in the world. You know,
• 20:13
  Speaker 1: I had this like I see it. This is an
• 20:14
  Speaker 1: interesting intersection where I had the ability to be able
• 20:17
  Speaker 1: to go in there and work with artists and when
• 20:21
  Speaker 1: things come up as right to their career on one
• 20:24
  Speaker 1: phote call away from you know, you know, figuring something
• 20:27
  Speaker 1: out and the life and that's space in the media space,
• 20:29
  Speaker 1: technology space, and when the managers have been around there,
• 20:31
  Speaker 1: I've been are always places. So one of the things
• 20:33
  Speaker 1: that I always try to be stone upon the young
• 20:36
  Speaker 1: executives that work on my team, And let's get you
• 20:38
  Speaker 1: as diversified as possible right in your skill set and
• 20:41
  Speaker 1: your ability to be able to um speak from a
• 20:44
  Speaker 1: strong standpoint of various topics of business because you have
• 20:48
  Speaker 1: experience within those worlds. And you mentioned it, you said,
• 20:51
  Speaker 1: I hear you radio red Light. You talk about management,
• 20:55
  Speaker 1: which means you see contracts, which means you you're dealing
• 20:57
  Speaker 1: with decision making situates. When you talk about the festivals,
• 21:01
  Speaker 1: you talked about the operational end. You know that those
• 21:04
  Speaker 1: those things like really help you out. I'm a sitcom writer,
• 21:08
  Speaker 1: just myself. I'm the stand up comments. I understand talent,
• 21:10
  Speaker 1: I'm gonna go. I managed shows, I produce shows, So
• 21:13
  Speaker 1: when I walk in the room, there's a lot of
• 21:15
  Speaker 1: information that I can absorb rapidly and make decisions associated
• 21:19
  Speaker 1: with it. And that's all you're saying to young people
• 21:21
  Speaker 1: as they come into are being mentored by you. The
• 21:24
  Speaker 1: more you know, the more diversified your palities for information
• 21:27
  Speaker 1: that you've absorbed through experience. That's how you have longevity
• 21:31
  Speaker 1: in this business and respect in this business. Correct, Jonathan,
• 21:35
  Speaker 1: That's absolutely right. You know, that's absolutely right. And in
• 21:38
  Speaker 1: respect to the big thing, and you want to you know,
• 21:41
  Speaker 1: conduct and character and respect. Ultimately it's all businesses, but
• 21:45
  Speaker 1: especially within entertainment, especially as a minority with entertainment, you
• 21:49
  Speaker 1: want to make sure you preserve that in investment possible.
• 21:51
  Speaker 1: So conducting yourself in the most positive, upbeat, respected, professional
• 21:56
  Speaker 1: manner possible, you can do nothing but grow. Friend, Just
• 22:02
  Speaker 1: recap a little bit about your partnership with in Groove
• 22:04
  Speaker 1: before we wrap up the interview, Uh that you you
• 22:07
  Speaker 1: have Culture Collective Records. You have a partnership with in Grooves.
• 22:10
  Speaker 1: Talked to us about again while I was that launching
• 22:12
  Speaker 1: that marinner and what's the future? Yeah, Luke and Luke
• 22:15
  Speaker 1: James isn't a client that we've worked with for many years.
• 22:18
  Speaker 1: In Luke um was a former major label artist and
• 22:21
  Speaker 1: for various reasons, Ted left the Island Records um UH label,
• 22:27
  Speaker 1: which is a major record label. And here here you
• 22:29
  Speaker 1: was sitting with a bank of beautiful music to put
• 22:33
  Speaker 1: out and nobody to partner with to do it. Um
• 22:37
  Speaker 1: and you know we're as his managers dealing with him
• 22:41
  Speaker 1: on a daily basis on developing his road map in
• 22:43
  Speaker 1: his career. That well, what if we just developed a
• 22:45
  Speaker 1: strategical relationship and let's work with the music out, we'll
• 22:48
  Speaker 1: be the labeled right. Um. And I've done to work
• 22:51
  Speaker 1: with Injuries in the past, a lot of great success
• 22:53
  Speaker 1: with them. And when I sat with them and launched
• 22:56
  Speaker 1: Culture Collective a little less than a year ago, I
• 22:57
  Speaker 1: went into their officers and share the vision in missive
• 22:59
  Speaker 1: state that the company it thought it was great. They
• 23:02
  Speaker 1: thought it was very much meeting in the business and
• 23:05
  Speaker 1: at the same time as if there's any way in
• 23:06
  Speaker 1: which we can be helpful um to you or your clients,
• 23:10
  Speaker 1: we should have a larger conversation. And that was you know,
• 23:13
  Speaker 1: the birth of our first uh you know, you know,
• 23:16
  Speaker 1: brainstorms around coming together to develop a pipeline for us
• 23:20
  Speaker 1: to be able to put the music out through their system.
• 23:22
  Speaker 1: So fast forward eight months later, you know, Leuchames is
• 23:26
  Speaker 1: putting out his release through the the INJURWS Universal pipeline
• 23:30
  Speaker 1: in to digital service providers. Um, we are that we
• 23:33
  Speaker 1: are the you know working with in Grews on all
• 23:36
  Speaker 1: aspects of this release, and uh, it's been great It's
• 23:39
  Speaker 1: been a great, great relationship, awesome as always, articulate, formative,
• 23:43
  Speaker 1: and uh spewing out the knowledge we all need to hear. John,
• 23:47
  Speaker 1: Thanks for coming back on mynd making conversation. We talk
• 23:49
  Speaker 1: again to say another six months? Is that cool? Absolutely?
• 23:52
  Speaker 1: I appreciate your brother talk.