Like I promised I’m back again, sooner than you wished and I’m wearing my preachers hat this time.
I have come to preach to a particular group of people who are spoiling our market… I want to deliver sense to people who have theoretically taken up a job title without bothering to find out what the Job Description entails….this is serious business, so I have decided not to smile till I finish this article…in-fact I will ensure that I frown, roll my eyes and even snare at my computer from time to time while I type!!! Because I am here to fight…(check out my rhyme: time, time, type, fight)
So your friend has been a studio rat for 4years and he eventually produced a good song and was lucky to get support, the song was promoted and it became a hit. As a good guy he called you to work with him as his “manager” after-all you both ran the streets together before “baba God picked up his call”.
You resumed work thankfully and humbly, your phone number has been put on his Instagram page and you’re suddenly getting calls from all around, people want to collaborate with him, clubs want to host him, even popular players in the entertainment industry want to give him the opportunity to showcase his talent on their platform…isn’t God a miracle worker? As things keep getting better, money begins to roll in and your paddy buys a car to make it obvious that the ministry is slowly moving towards Lagos –Ibadan express (afterall that’s where the permanent sites of most ministries are located)
Ogbeni this is your lifetime opportunity to build a career for yourself but your village people are so wicked that they confuse you to pierce your ear and begin to wear studs, you’re so thankful to your artist for this opportunity that you even decide to try out the same hairstyle he is carrying…then the second song drops and it is a hit again and at this point oga “manager has also become a star, you begin to answer calls with an attitude because you were in club last night and you are tired this morning. You go for shows with your artiste and while he is performing you are busy taking phone numbers of the three girls of your choice, two for you and one for your artiste…(the hotel room cannot waste that night afterall)
Finally a record label has now signed your paddy and given him an apartment in Lekki, ofcourse he carried you along as a loyal friend, especially since you often remember to take along his weed when you travel although you forget to carry his CDs for promo; what he doesn’t know is that when people call you to do business with him, you answer their calls as if you are doing them a favor, consequently, show promoters are getting weary of doing business with him. He also doesn’t know that you often forget to return the calls of those people you promised to call back after checking his calendar for availability but you remember to photobomb his selfies and upload on your instagram page with the tag “chilling with my homeboy: that’s how we roll”
Bia nwokem let me warn you, before you truncate his career and frustrate all his studio hustle by chasing away customers, you better go and meet Efe Omoreghe to tell you how he managed to keep TuFace Idibia relevant almost a decade after people thought his value would have dropped; ask Sunday Are why Wizkid thinks he’s the best person to take over his management after EME or better still ask Jude Okoye…Africa’s smartes Artist Manager how he was able to keep Psquare relevant for this long, and what method he used to build their market value to hundreds of thousands of dollars as performance fees…yes o, the boys actually collect over 100,000USD for international performances, but this didn’t happen because they were lucky or because they belong to illuminati, it’s a result of hardwork, determination, effort to be professional art-wise and attitude wise.
Qtaby must have taken Psquare on at-least six shows outside Nigeria and never had to worry for once about somebody not keeping to call-time, missing their flight or asking me to arrange a “take away pack in pink skirt” for him. Ofcourse Jude and I fought over other things as we seemed to always be competing on who is meaner than the other but when it came to the job they were paid for, I could go to sleep. If I asked for four pictures for promotion, I got four pictures on the agreed date. If I needed a video drop in French or Spanish to enable me promote the show on TV in the country where the event was happening, I got the video drop on the agreed date without needing to pursue Jude with thirty missed calls. Ofcourse Jude will always ask who the most important partner at the show was and he will ask if his daughters wanted to hang out (as a sharp boy, he knew he should make relevant business contacts) .…. anyways, this post isn’t about Jude Okoye, it is aimed at enlightening all of you who do not understand why your artist is always threatening to fire you and treats you with disrespect.
For the records, If your primary responsibility is to pick calls, arrange girls, drop gifts off for girls, arrange drinks and follow artist around deciding which fan takes pictures with him and which one doesn’t: You are an ERRAND BOY & A PIMP!!! You desperately need Jesus:
Confess with your mouth that you are a pimp, then say the following prayer
“Dear Lord, help me to receive sense…run round your house seven times and bath with salt water”
Talent Management is serious business and should be considered a career as serious as any other. You therefore need to either under-study someone with experience in that domain or literally go do a short course on Talent Management to ensure you are effective, don’t let people continue treating entertainers like unserious people. Below are a few things you should know:
- As a Talent Manager you need to be savvy in Business Development, Human Resources Management as well as Public Relations as it is your duty to get shows, ensure brand relevance for your Talent and maintain good relationship with brands and clients, you are also saddled with the responsibility of managing your Artist mood swings and ensuring he is well behaved at all times when in public
- If you are unable to manage your own life and schedules and make sense out of it, it will be almost impossible to manage another persons career and make sense out of it
- You need to learn to answer your phone promptly and courteously, some callers may not be making sense, do not flare up, tactically make them understand that you are a business, be diplomatic, you represent a brand & there are several artists waiting to collect your piece of cake if you slack
- Build a team and carry them along because my brother; you cannot do it alone. You cannot be aiming to reach 90million people and hope to do it on your own
According toVince Lombardi “the man on top of the mountain didn’t fall there” You don’t have to be great to start but you have to start to be great.
I love you for reading…