Lessons

Lesson Info

Introduction

All right folks uh first off let me welcome everybody here first off the folks in the studio audience here today great to have you here you love talking to people that are interested in the music business and it's a lot of fun so thanks to all you folks for showing up and for coming from wherever you have won but guy from new orleans so that's a long haul I want to thank my new friends evelyn the lovely evelyn over here he's going all rock for us today I love that all right uh but what you're saying they don't normally wear the heels and the leather pants this's good take note way by the way you have a you have a license to do that all the time you not so much for us okay no leather pants okay makes me like yeah so anyway I want to say thanks to all you guys ahead of time they got an important role over here folks because I've done this view these web shows before and what makes it really, really great for me is when people are participating so these folks I can see right here all the ...

folks online I can't see you but I can feel you and I know you're out there and this whole program is about networking it's about finding ways to get two people that can help you do something great in your life so if you're just going to sit out there and watch you're not gonna learn anything so be a part of this whole thing and let these people get some questions so let's get some good ones out of these folks today. Secondly I wanted to have some good manners here today so I want to thank all of the folks here att creative live for inviting me up here to do this I'm a big fan of streaming I'm a big fan of of technology and how it helps people communicate people that are looking to find something out for people that are looking to share and so they got something great going on here first and foremost I want to thank my friend mr finma canty who is somewhere up here in the bowels of korea he's up here behind the fourth wall creative lives you know they fin is a musician himself he's a heavy metal dude lots of tattoos didn't see that the first time I met him but he's helped shepherd me through this whole process of hey we'd love to have you come up and do a presentation for eight hours about the music business and specifically networking so he's been hand holding me he's been kind of my manager if you will for the last month and he's he's earning his pay today's jarvis if you're watching bonus for that man of were being brave I also want to thank a gentleman by the name of mika salmi folks probably don't know but it's actually a great example of this whole concept of networking and meeting people in and having them come back in your life. Mika and I mean, you used to work in the record because he's the ceo of creative live and we worked briefly together it's sony music way back in the day and I'll talk about that in a little bit he uh he and I connected on linked in recently he told me he was working here. I'd heard about this great website this great idea of called creative lives so we managed to hook up again. He invited me up to these lovely studios we have up here in san francisco and I'm happy to be here today and so what they say thank you to make and I hope I do you proud? Also I had a chance when I was up here for the grand opening of the studios to meet a gentleman by the name of chase jarvis and he's a photographer when I first heard about the site somebody you know knew what I was doing these webcasts and doing this kind of online mentoring and somebody sent me a note that he ran use to check out this site creative life. So I came to the site it was poking around and I and I was hearing the story of how this whole thing came together to photographers who I just met his partner out here today I had a love for talking about photography and they love sharing their ideas with people so they decided to put a couple of wacky videos up online and kind of little how two bit and in it seemed to catch on and people liked it and so then one of one of those two geniuses aside well maybe we should do a webcast right and and they started doing some webcast is I was reading the history of the company I sat there and thought, wow, this is same story of kind of rent me an m b but just from a photographer's point of view so I want to say to chase jarvis you're doing great things out there and I want to thank him for allowing me to come up here and do a little bit of my mentoring on their brand new platform thiss whole idea of of learning and trying to figure out you know, the things that it takes to help you do something great in your life is I think it's really groundbreaking it's really you know, game changing stuff that we could sit here today you six people who were here to learn and to network and to pick the brain of a grizzly old veteran but even more importantly the people that are out there that aren't living in san francisco that aren't living in nashville that aren't living in new york or l a where there, away from the center of of the hub of the music business for them to get a chance to learn and to network and to meet people and talk to people that can actually help them is just mind blowing stuff and I think about in the context of my own life if somebody would have told me I could have been tweeting or chatting or talking to the manager of the rolling stones I just lost it right and yet it's happening here today so kudos to all the folks here creative life for being a part of it they've got a great group of people here and I'll stop blowing smoke but it's great bunch of people here I'm I'm not I've confessed in first I'm not much of a confessor but I'm going to confess upfront here I sat there for two weeks with my buddy fynn up there behind the fourth wall you know trying teo figure out what I was going to talk about for eight hours about networking and I try and they sent me this great little template so here's your temple right so god I hate it when people here's your box you've got to get in there I'm thinking he's you know this is going to be tough and what occurred to me after ripping that presentation up eighteen times is that I'm not a speech giver you know I'm not I'm not a lecture I'm not your college professor uh I'm a manager I'm a storyteller I'm a motivator I've worked with bands and it's all about trying to get your word out and the way I've been doing it for years is is part of a conversation and so that's what I'm hoping that will have teo I'm going to go back I didn't tell you who I was for all you folks that just happen to be stumbling upon this and thought you were going to find out about wedding photography and you're on the wrong channel what's going on I don't know my name is steve ready my friends call me ran red man since I was back in high school uh you can call me stevie and call me brenda ran there whatever you like but I prefer it if you call me right because that's what my buddies call me let's see there you go tell him what you do it's what it says on my slide well, as I told you I'm a manager that's what I do that's my day gig when we when we're going to be going down to south america with the incubus guys here in december and every time you go into a new country says occupation and I put on their artist manager I'm proud of it I love what I do and I love working with musicians and I love working with those guys and incubate so when I get to putting me in the ground on my tombstone is going to say steve ranney manager of incubus I've been doing this music business thing live in this dream for thirty five years now I didn't think it would last that long every year I thought god how did I make this happen for another year and I say that because that's the state of being in the music business you never really get there you never really get comfortable with it but I've been doing it luckily enough for thirty five years I started in the concert business I was a big big lover of live music was a big rock and for some of you folks that know watch my show you know I'm a big rock and I still remember it go into my very first rock concert rolling stones nineteen seventy to exile on main street tour the forum they did two shows to show three pm show matinee show I went to my mother forbid me from julian the rolling stones you will not go to the rolling stones and I said all right prompt cool I get it I was going to go out and kati and is luck would have it his fate would have it they decided to add a three pm show it the form so I told my mother I was going to be out caddy and for my sunday loop with mr mrs allison you'll hear a little bit about her later and me and my buddies went to the rolling stones and it changed my life freaking life I sat there and watched mick jagger jump out from behind that curtain and keith richards you know, with a cigarette dangling I thought man, I won't tell you all the stuff we were doing it's a g rated audience I'm told here but if you watch my shot I told you the real deal but I'll just tell you we were lit up and fired up about being in there with rolling so that it really changed my life so I think it was appropriate that when I started thinking about getting in the business my entry point was being a concert promoter being the guy throwing the party not being at the a party I work for a company called avalon attractions and I was booking shows hollywood play and we booked everything from clubs to you two shows and it was I think the greatest job that I could have ever imagined when I started off in the business from there I had a brief stint as being a manager the first time where I managed a bunch of up and coming bands and I learned some very important lessons about being a being in a band and watching it grow and how important it is to get your head in the right place how important it is to move fast how important it is to find answers quickly on to be honest, I didn't wind up being successful you know in that first batch of being a manager but I did anyway and that led to a job being a record executive right and I worked at sony music on ly record company job I had I was hired as a senior vice president general manager of epic records and for all the people that have been there twenty years that hated me in the beginning there was this guy this loud mouth manage he doesn't even have a big band what the hell is he telling me what to do oh so anyway we did it four years it was the greatest experience I had gave me a chance to see the record business side of the music and it was really kind of an eye opener but the best part of it was I met my friends in incubus I stayed there for about four years and then left to get involved in the internet business in the very early days of the internet probably before some of you guys were even around our conscious of it with a company called artist direct and I was working with a general by the name of mark geiger who was a true visionary and we started this company with this idea of connecting artists with their fans and this is back in circuit nineteen ninety eight ah this idea of allowing them to have their own channels allowing them to be able to promote their music to make a connection with their fans and this was at the earliest days of the internet but it had a very profound impact on the mentality because you could just feel where things were going well it was thie greatest ride in away in some ways because we took the company public we raised one hundred million dollars on we pissed away every dime of it okay because we didn't quite have a business we were ahead of the curve in terms of how that goes but it was a wonderful experience and some of the things that we were touching on there at the earliest days be a little early in the game are things that have become mainstream in the business today so it was a great experience from there I uh I started I told you I met the incubus guys when I was working at sony music I love to go be part of this internet start up we did it for about two years and as that dream was starting to fade this dream of incubus having a career started happy because when I left so any one of the guys in the band my kinds your consummate network or who I'll talk about earlier or later today asked me to be partners with their manager. So while I was working at artist direct I was managing incubus on the side and this is early days and so as their career started to take off the artist direct thing kind of wound down and I decided to jump in and be ink abysses full time manager and that's what I've been doing for the last seventeen almost eighteen years now so anyway what am I doing here today you're probably wanting today I want to talk to you about one of the single most important skills that you could have in the music business but I want to make it just about the music business could not everybody in this room's going to be successful in the music business right there it's it's the most important tool you need in your life if you want to do something great okay if you want to do something meaningful if you want to do something that gets you up in the morning and keeps your interest level whatever it is ok and it's networking so today let me I don't have a graphic I told you I'm not a great power point guy so I should have an agenda graphic maybe they got but let me tell you what we're going to talk about today first off we're going to talk about why network easing in port is important by the way nice job on the slide we're going to talk about wide network isn't what wide networking is important and I'm gonna bring you into the full some of my friends that we've talked about who talk about it as well because I think it's one thing for a for a professional like myself people think networking of course you do that but it's something that applies across the board here we're going to talk about getting your head in the right place to do something great which when I saw it on the slider was going what is he on about we're going to try to make some sense out of it but this is the most important thing that I can get across you today is that if you want to do something great in your life if you want to do something that's important that you're proud of you're going to need to get your head in the right place that is the single most important thing okay so we're gonna talk about that today give me slide number I love it identifying your target okay I'm going to talk about it we're going to talk about identifying it what it is you want to do I'm gonna walk you pass this place of well I would do anything I'm not quite sure what I want to do because that is not going to get you where you need to go we're going to talk about networking tools and again I wish I had a pretty power point some of the tools we have you already know about, but I'm gonna highlight and we're going to talk about it in the context love you guys and what you want to do because you're going to tell me and you're going to take advantage of this opportunity sit with this grizzly old veteran and bleed the information right out of your heads or not and if you don't ask questions I'll be spanking all ofyou right and finally I'm going to try to help you build a networking plan right and it's going to be morris talking I'm gonna make believe you came into my office and said hey ran I want to talk about the music is so so we'll talk about your dreams and aspirations I'll ask you some questions I'll be like your doctor hit on your knee and taking your temperature and we'll see if we can get you on a path that allows you guys to go do something great okay so I said it before we start I'm gonna say it again I'm really going to see it for all you folks out there online I can't see it but I feel yeah ok so when youre how are they doing over there by the way he put anybody is really very excited right we got any dumb questions yet on one's okay well you kiss you know I'm going to make room for the wise guys you know we'll say that too at the end so in case I embarrass anybody hikes head straight out to do I have one request for you guys today and it's a serious one. I said it to the top. I want this to be a conversation I'm not electoral not a professor okay I I don't have that I think that's the only slide we have isn't it brian we got one slide okay great so I already failed the power point test here I want you guys to be part of the conversation I'm happy to do all the talking but I have no idea what I could possibly talk about for eight hours because they don't know what's on your mind okay I'm sure that I could answer almost any question you have about the music business to the extent that I can and is typically big picture because there are no right or wrong answers in the music biz up but I want you guys to be parted I want to tell you a little story I mentioned I'm a golfer if you don't know and I used to caddie out at this country club when I was a kid called hillcrest country club down in los angeles and had lots of powerful people in the music business in the entertainment business is it turns out I used to caddy on tuesdays and fridays was ladies day out there at hillcrest country club and I used to caddie for this little old lady named mrs alice mrs charlotte alice god bless her right? She only hit one club the nine wood no. Anyway, she kind of had this blue here and she took a liking to me and back then I know it's hard to believe it by here what's your opinion day my hair was long his days it wasn't that curly you know but it was like a reach back in touch and she would go oh god I love your hair was paid thousands of dollars to have our hair like that blah blah what for anyway mrs ellis always had these wonderful tip bits of advice and she was very sharing and caring about it so what? They were out on the golf course talking about something and I think I was having a discussion with her about I was having an issue trying well I want to talk to someone about this but I just can't do it and I'm having a tough time with it and she says because let me tell you something stevie give me a little bit of advice you don't ask you don't get okay and that is the best bit of advice that I ever got in my whole life it was great advice then it was great advice today okay so I'm going to say to all of you folks I'm going to put that up there a bunch going to see that again in the town you don't ask you don't get that's what I'm talking about behind the wall okay johnny okay let's do that one more time you don't ask you don't get say they never do it all right you decide to stay up there, john or I'm gonna come over that fourth wall here and talk to you. Okay, um here's the bottom line if you don't ask you don't get you don't learn anything, ok? So you're sitting here today and if you came all the way here today to sit there, be a bump on a log and just sit there and look, then you've missed a huge opportunity because you won't learn a damn thing. So as questions, I tell you, shy ones, when you squeeze it right at you know what? You know, shy, you're here, okay? Let's, ask the questions. I want all you folks out there on the internet. Okay? There, drinking your coffee and watching cnn. Would you turn that off right now when you take a little look closer your screen right now. Wait. Villa are they? They're saying it was right leaving yet? Okay, good. I want you to be a part of it. Okay? That's key to this whole thing, okay? Yeah. How many of you people are just starting off in the music business here today? Okay, nathan, you've been doing it, but, you know, all right, were I still starting a little bit, but not quite at the dead start, okay? You're going to be a business guy that's nathan right azua saying okay we have to go through his name's a little bit dave singer finger okay collects the music business is alexis to get the part about the open shot yeah yeah yeah yeah okay talk okay you want to be on the business side you wanna be a singer and michelle business okay good okay so you're just he's been doing these professionally is the only thing I do for a year and then we've got absent monkeys has been doing this since I was sixteen sixteen how old is he now good question how old you now that's a monk okay you don't have to confess you already had one all right he's been doing it since he was young okay here's what I want to tell you you know this starting off is really the trickiest part for lots of people write it's scary and it's crazy and you know all kinds of things kick in your head which we'll talk about it a little bit when I started off in the business I was really really lucky in a lot of ways one way I didn't get it the first job I look but I've tried to get a job in the mail room at william morris and I must been the only guy that ever did a degree check 00:20:07.573 --> 00:20:11. on you know and when I went to usc but I wise tell 00:20:11.25 --> 00:20:13. everybody they didn't quite graduate from usc and 00:20:13.71 --> 00:20:16. I won't go into all the details of that except to 00:20:16.71 --> 00:20:18. say that I didn't quite graduate and so I tried to 00:20:18.88 --> 00:20:20. get a job in the mailroom william morris couldn't 00:20:20.74 --> 00:20:24. get that job trying to get other jobs you know couldn't 00:20:24.1 --> 00:20:27. get a job right and so anyway I finally did start 00:20:27.82 --> 00:20:30. my own company before I started working at avalon 00:20:30.75 --> 00:20:33. attractions and when I want to work in this big concert 00:20:33.97 --> 00:20:36. promoter that I talked about I was lucky to find a 00:20:36.02 --> 00:20:39. couple mentors there that took an interest in me that 00:20:39.17 --> 00:20:42. saw something in this wacky freaking loud mouth kid 00:20:43.22 --> 00:20:47. that they thought was something there right and these 00:20:47.19 --> 00:20:49. two gentlemen doing a guy by the name of bob gettys 00:20:49.4 --> 00:20:52. in another by the name of brian murphy where two great 00:20:52.0 --> 00:20:55. counterpoints for me in my life one was clint eastwood 00:20:55.01 --> 00:20:59. tough guy who would just melt me where the stair and 00:20:59.67 --> 00:21:02. the other guy was more like ozzie nelson you know 00:21:02.86 --> 00:21:05. he was there for the kids and he was had a very soft 00:21:05.66 --> 00:21:08. touch those two guys and they're very they're very 00:21:08.94 --> 00:21:13. different approaches to business had a huge huge impact 00:21:13.41 --> 00:21:18. on my life did help fast track my learning in ways 00:21:18.33 --> 00:21:20. that you couldn't imagine because they were sharing 00:21:20.85 --> 00:21:23. with me knowledge things that they learn things that 00:21:23.38 --> 00:21:25. they hadn't learned in a book that they didn't learn 00:21:25.65 --> 00:21:30. in any ivy covered walls at some university that they 00:21:30.15 --> 00:21:34. didn't read it and don past man's books are done they 00:21:34.37 --> 00:21:37. learn by doing and they shared those lessons with 00:21:37.36 --> 00:21:39. me and they told me could you could go through this 00:21:39.23 --> 00:21:42. yourself where you can take my advice ovary early 00:21:42.32 --> 00:21:44. on I learned that you know what when you're sitting 00:21:44.52 --> 00:21:48. with a players you'll learn faster so they shape my 00:21:48.85 --> 00:21:51. mentality they help me learn from my mistakes that 00:21:51.46 --> 00:21:53. I made a ton of mistakes and bob but invite me in 00:21:53.66 --> 00:21:56. the office you tell me what the deal was he'd shake 00:21:56.5 --> 00:21:59. me up he put me back together and boom he kicked me 00:21:59.49 --> 00:22:02. back into the balance they don't make that mistake 00:22:02.16 --> 00:22:04. again new mistakes when it's all I want to see new 00:22:04.59 --> 00:22:06. mistakes don't you know don't go back in the same 00:22:06.92 --> 00:22:08. pile of start that he did before 00:22:10.01 --> 00:22:14. so that was a huge part of learning the business and 00:22:14.04 --> 00:22:16. why you guys air here today I suspect in some way 00:22:16.86 --> 00:22:17. so 00:22:18.49 --> 00:22:21. e like you said it had a huge impact on you and I 00:22:21.02 --> 00:22:24. and I recall back then thing that if ever I had an 00:22:24.35 --> 00:22:27. opportunity to do for others for you folks here for 00:22:27.77 --> 00:22:29. you folks out on the internet 00:22:30.69 --> 00:22:33. what those gentlemen did for me that I would gladly 00:22:33.63 --> 00:22:36. do it so here I am today to make good on that promise 00:22:36.78 --> 00:22:41. again and to try to help people understand but I can't 00:22:41.08 --> 00:22:45. do it without you guys being involved so if I ask 00:22:45.83 --> 00:22:50. you folks here today what is the single biggest hurdle 00:22:50.59 --> 00:22:53. to getting started in the business what we say eva 00:22:53.44 --> 00:22:56. isn't even waver even able what would you tell him 00:22:57.09 --> 00:23:03. I'm just getting music to the people that mattis yeah 00:23:03.71 --> 00:23:06. thank god and your business kyla desmond what's your 00:23:06.69 --> 00:23:09. story what do you think is the biggest hurdle people 00:23:09.01 --> 00:23:12. facing getting started getting your foot in the door 00:23:12.33 --> 00:23:16. and getting that opportunity access right access I 00:23:16.17 --> 00:23:18. won't write it down yet but kate might help me a little 00:23:18.4 --> 00:23:21. bit access okay how about you one more time it's gave 00:23:21.79 --> 00:23:24. did to take me ten times folks yes I can't remember 00:23:24.95 --> 00:23:28. anything all right accesses the most looked at the 00:23:28.2 --> 00:23:31. lovely here kate by the way check this out with the 00:23:31.17 --> 00:23:32. glasses okay huh 00:23:34.69 --> 00:23:37. kelly reaches I could feel that might take her with 00:23:37.52 --> 00:23:42. me brian all right access okay so one of the biggest 00:23:42.17 --> 00:23:45. hurdles I faces getting someone to take a chance on 00:23:45.63 --> 00:23:48. you and put you in a great venue somebody take a chance 00:23:48.51 --> 00:23:50. value okay all right 00:23:52.05 --> 00:23:55. michelle beltran understand nice to meet you finally 00:23:56.69 --> 00:23:59. I think it's setting yourself apart from others but 00:23:59.93 --> 00:24:02. at least they're all planned setting yourself apart 00:24:02.2 --> 00:24:05. in the crowd stepping out that's a big issue in today's 00:24:05.19 --> 00:24:06. world okay. 00:24:07.89 --> 00:24:08. Okay me would be getting the kind of audience that you would want to help you because I do have access to a certain kind of audience but look at him. You think that I do is a guy you know and you alexa alexa alexa alexis like alexis I have to write all day I got over here okay alexa fire away it's standing out being that one person that someone wants to count on okay all right the thing for me that the sorry folks I've got no worries we'll jump in with rome and we've got cb music eleven who says not living in los angeles or new york we're gonna talk about the location thing that's an important mission I want to talk about it because it's a it's a big one state brickwork says the experience paradox people ask that you have experience in order to give you work for more experience okay all right all right well you know what here's what I'm going to tell you I think is one of the biggest the for me was a big one when I started less so today for you guys because of things like the internet what we're doing here today is that issue of access a couple of you touch how do you get more how do you get access to the people that can get you the gigs and so forth and so access is the toughest part in the music business right? Because everybody wants in I don't say everybody but lots of people want in and there's a lot less chairs at the dinner table than there are people that want to eat right so the reason I mentioned that is is because I talk to you about my mentors I started this website for this is for most of the folks out there that may or may not have ever seen my little web show and you guys can tell me if some of the folks on there are watching for the first time but I started a website call ren man music and business dot com and it started with this very simple idea much the same way chase jarvis who runs this fine organization started I loved talking about the music business because I'd love my freaking job you know one hundred percent there moments you know but in general I wouldn't trade this for all the tea in china and so I started this website to make good on that promise that little itch that I wanted scratch about hey you know what I want to help some people because my whole life whether it's my caddy at the club I play golf at whether it's my wife whose kid you know our friend's kid wants to be in the museum they were always asking me for advice and the thing that was always wasn't frustrating but it was limiting was it was just one on one when the conversations that we were having could have applied to one hundred people if they were in the room so I thought it started this website we posted twenty four videos and you know what is now a distant memory I told these young guys I'll spend ten grand to do these twenty four videos well some were about the big picture of the business somewhere about nuts and bolts but there were designed to get people thinking about how to get your head in the right place and then also to explain about how things actually work in the music is not some bullshit you know fairytale version but the way it actually works sorry once where would take the doc okay wow that's pretty good so far and so we did that website and we put these twenty four videos up there and people kind of liked them so not teo you know, not content just to put myself the risk looking like a jerk but just videos I thought now we should start a web show right and so just like our friends here I had one guest come on and we did a web show and then I ask another person that that you want to be on my web show and another and another and another until the point where you have now done eighty seven of these shows and we've done him with I will say from some of the smartest people in the music business okay people that arguably you couldn't get on the phone or get in front of for all the tea in china. But we've done and I see that because throughout the program today I'm going to try to you know, bring some of those folks into the conversation so that they you can hear me but better if you could hear twenty or thirty of forty of my buddies in the business not just my old buddies, some new buddies that are doing great things that are really making a difference that air smart people so aziz, I'm going to share some of those bits with it today to get you thinking and have it be so that they become little points of conversation right? I'm going to show also tell you something today and I say this because I wanted to inspire your people ask me all the time hey brent, what do I got to do to make something happen like it's a checklist like we're going to the grocery store so he picked me up the raisin bran and don't forget the wheat chex it's not the way it works there is no single tried and true path in the music business period anybody that thinks you can check the numbers and get a result is hasn't been in the music business, okay, so that's something that I want you guys to think about what I'm going to play some stories today of people that have all the same issues that you have okay? And they they they've got all that same freer fear and insecurity and lack oh crap going on in their mind but somehow, they managed to make it happen.