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Surviving and shifts during the pandemic - Amani Roberts
75 Plays4 years ago
I was on Amani's podcast 3 years ago so we have come full circle. Anyone that is into music, especially R & B should listen. His new book is coming out.
The pandemic was hard on wedding professionals to say the least. We rely on weddings and events.
Listen to this podcast about how Amani pivoted and survived the pandemic and is doing better than ever. His tips are so innovative and creative.
Amani Roberts is a DJ, producer, professor and author based in Los Angeles, California. You can find him live-streaming three days a week on Twitch (Sundays, Mondays and Wednesdays). He is currently getting his Masters in Music Business from Berklee College of Music (Boston) and writing his second book highlighting why the disappearance of Black R&B groups from the Billboard charts.
You can find Amani here.
https://www.instagram.com/amaniexperience/
His podcast https://www.amaniexperience.com/podcast
Check out his generous freebie
Free signed book called DJ's mean business. DM him and mention my name.
amaniexperience.com/book
Download my free guide on how to generate constant wedding photography leads.
https://carissa-woo.mykajabi.com/lead-generating-machine
Shout out to my sponsors Photobooth Supply - Photographers, this is seriously the best, easiest photobooth you can add to your business. https://www.instagram.com/photoboothsupplyco/
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Transcript
Introduction and Call to Action
00:00:00
Speaker
Hey guys, if you're loving this podcast, please subscribe and leave me a review. And don't forget to download my free guide on how to generate constant wedding photography leads.
Adapting in the Pandemic with Amani Roberts
00:00:10
Speaker
So in this episode, I chat with my friend, Amani Roberts. I met him because he's a wedding DJ. So the pandemic has really shaped what his business is now. And our hot topic is how to survive and shift after the pandemic. I love this conversation. Enjoy.
Carissa Wu's Photography Journey
00:00:29
Speaker
Welcome to Get a Heck Yes with Carissa Wu. I'm your host, Carissa, and I've been a Los Angeles wedding photographer for over a decade. I've traveled the world, built my team, and seen it all. I now coach wedding photographers hit 10K a month and build a thriving business.
Themes in Wedding Creative Businesses
00:00:44
Speaker
In this podcast, we are going to deep dive into how top wedding creatives get that heck yes from their dream clients. We are not holding back on the struggles of the business and how to push through the noise. Some healthy hustle, mindset shifts, up-leveling your money story,
00:00:58
Speaker
time hacks because I'm a mom of two, a little bit of woo woo, and most importantly, self love and confidence are just a few of the many things we will talk about. I want to give you a genuine thank you for following along my journey. I hope to inspire you every Woo Wednesday so that you say heck yes to listening to this podcast. See you guys soon.
Amani's Diverse Career and Education
00:01:21
Speaker
Hey guys, this is Carissa Woo and thank you for listening to my podcast.
00:01:26
Speaker
I'm here with my friend Amani Roberts. He is a DJ, wedding DJ, producer, professor, and author based in Los Angeles. And you can find him live streaming three days a week on that new app called Twitch. I still have to get on. He is currently getting his master's in music business from Berkeley College of Music, Boston.
00:01:48
Speaker
your crazy lifetime learner, and writing his second book highlighting why the disappearance of Black R&B groups from the Billboard charts, what the hell happened to them? So what's up, Imani?
Podcasting as a Tool for Growth
00:02:01
Speaker
How are you doing? What's up, Carissa? I'm so happy to be here. I'm doing well. Good to see you and chat with you. I'm just, you know, thank you for having me.
00:02:10
Speaker
You're welcome. Yeah, it's become full circle because I was, I did my first podcast on your podcast and I'll link you up and the money experience. And now you're on my podcast. Like it's been what, two years.
00:02:26
Speaker
Yes, it's probably been probably like three or four years. Actually, it's been a while because you were early on, like you were one of my first episodes, maybe 12, 12. So it's been three or four years. But here we are full circle. So congrats to you. Yeah, do you recommend like the podcast? Like what has your experience been? Like do you think it was life changing? Do you wish you didn't do it? Do you like what are your takeaways?
00:02:50
Speaker
Oh, I absolutely am glad that I did it. It's a very intimate and effective way of networking. It also creates a body of work of what you've done in terms of creativity, production, and it just gives you good content. I had to sort of pause the podcast when I started grad school, because it was a little too much, but now that I'm coming to the end of grad school, I'll start it back up again. So I definitely have no regrets, and I think it's just a good way of marketing yourself, your brand, and networking.
00:03:18
Speaker
Yeah. Oh my God. Yeah. Okay. Thank you for saying that. That gives me hope to keep going. Yes. The average podcasts last seven episodes. So let's get to seven then 14 and 21. Then you're off and running.
00:03:33
Speaker
Yes, yes, yes. I think I'm on like number nine. So you'll probably be like 15. Okay, so I'm on and you are so crazy ambitious. And you're always doing a lot of things like you're teaching and you're going to grad school and you have podcasts and you have two books out. Just tell us a little bit a little bio about you like what you are up to and who you serve right now and what you like to do. Or what's your favorite part of your business right now?
From Corporate to Creative: Amani's Story
00:03:59
Speaker
Okay, so I, my name is Amani. I grew up in the Washington DC area. I've been living in Los Angeles now for 14 and a half years. I used to previously work for Marriott International in hotels, did a bunch of jobs, called general manager, director of sales and marketing. Then I went full time into the DJ life. So by trade, now I'm a DJ. That's the core of my business is DJing. And about three and a half years ago, I had the opportunity to also begin teaching at Cal State University Fullerton, which I love.
00:04:28
Speaker
Yes. And so then I added that then I wrote my first book, which was released April 2020. DJs Mean Business just talks about DJ life and comparing the stages of a DJ set from 10pm to 2am to growing a business. And as you mentioned, I'm in the middle of writing the second book, which is where that all the black R&B groups they disappeared from the Billboard chart since about 2004.
00:04:52
Speaker
And so right now you ask like, what's kind of my focus now? My focus now is kind of getting back out to doing specific events in real life. But also like I love to moderate conversations, interview people. So I want to grow that while streaming on Twitch the last year and a half.
00:05:10
Speaker
I've been able to kind of hone my interview skills, doing talk shows. I do a lot of game shows there. So lots of interactive content. I really love it.
Interactive Content and Twitch
00:05:18
Speaker
It makes me happy. It's fun. You can reach people all over the world who participate. I did. Yes, I did. It was a crazy story. So I want to add that to my business and do that more for like conferences, in-person, hybrid,
00:05:32
Speaker
And I want to continue to speak at different conferences, whether it be on hospitality, music, streaming, like those are my areas of expertise. Oh, I love it. Okay, so just one follow up question for that, because there's so many follow up questions I could ask. But tell us about the second book, because I'm curious, and I'm sure my husband would be curious if he listened to this podcast.
The Decline of Black R&B Groups: A Discussion
00:05:54
Speaker
Yes.
00:05:56
Speaker
If we remember, when we were growing up, because we're very close in age, we had groups that were on the charts all the time, Boys to Men, S.W.V., TLC, the Isley Brothers, Cameo, went back to Jackson Five. The Billboard charts, specifically the Hot 100 charts in the past have been dominated by black R&B groups. Then when you look at like 2004, really once Beyonce left Destiny's Child and went solo, and then once Jagged Edge and 112, kind of they went solo,
00:06:25
Speaker
there were no more black R&B groups on the charts. And it's been that way now for 17 years. However, you will see other genres of music. I'm really looking at like BTS kind of groups like that that are, you know, mimicking
00:06:41
Speaker
what these Black army groups did in the 80s and 90s to success now. So the formula still works in terms of groups, but it's like, why are there no longer any Black army groups? What's going on behind the scenes? So I take a look at that. We did a lot of research. We outlined the top groups from each decade. We interviewed people. I kind of came up with like five different, I don't want to say reasons, but five different elements that led to the disappearance of these groups. And we talk about that in the book.
00:07:08
Speaker
And then I also layer over a kind of half fiction half true story which kind of ties it all together. Okay so tell me just really basic bottom line like why.
00:07:21
Speaker
Yeah, great question. So number one, the emergence of hip hop. Hip hop came and hit the mainstream and hip hop is a more singular kind of act. You don't need to get together with four different people in a group, do like makeup for all four, choreography for all four. Hip hop is just you're standing there, you kind of have one person doing all the lyrics, the singing, production, real simple, that's one. The second would be when you look at the,
00:07:50
Speaker
the economic history of our country, the US and the world, like we suffered a really big recession in mid to late 2000s. That really caused record companies to reevaluate how they were gonna allocate their funds and it led them to allocate funds more so on like singular acts. At the same time, YouTube really was introduced and became big and YouTube is really like a singular platform where people are broadcasting and that's it, the emergence of social media.
00:08:16
Speaker
Also, you have EDM music. EDM music also became much bigger and they sing for the most part more palatable topics. They're not really thinking about love and some of the more topics that R&B singers, crooners sing about. So EDM music also became very big. Another element which I discovered
00:08:37
Speaker
More a little bit later my research is that you had these black publications jet magazine ebony essence and then to a lesser degree vibe magazine they were all really important in promoting black r&b groups they all went bankrupt and out of circulation they came back as digital version but wasn't the same so you had
00:08:57
Speaker
a market of 10 million subscribers total per month that disappeared. And that was one of the main promotional elements for Black R&B groups. That's probably the fourth reason. And then just the evolution of technology. We went from record albums to CDs to then you evolve into MP3s and then iTunes, which then changed it to more.
00:09:20
Speaker
Less people are buying albums, more people are buying singles. Black R&B groups really got prominence of albums. Then you had mom and pop stores that were disappearing, record stores that disappeared. Black R&B groups really got their start in the communities, singing their record signings, meet and greets. Just this whole imperfect storm, as I call it, really caused the decline and we haven't come back yet.
00:09:43
Speaker
Yeah, I mean, you sound really passionate about this topic. I love it. I love it. I do see so many words. Yes, I've done research, like my thesis, like it's fresh in my mind. I keep finding out new things. People, no one's really writing about it either. So it's really interesting
Roots and Passion for Music
00:10:03
Speaker
to me. I love it. Okay, so this
00:10:05
Speaker
podcast is not about this, it's more about you. So I just want to ask this question, my best question I could ask you, but okay, tell us a little bit about like your passion for music, like where it stemmed from, but then also like what was the turning point from going to like this big man, Marriott to like going to like DJ school and then getting like, you know, doing the whole DJ world thing because that's a big, big, big job.
00:10:31
Speaker
Yeah, my passion for music comes from when I was younger, just like my dad would always play music. We'd go on long trips to soccer games, so music was on all the time. He would take me to the record store. I would collect records. You know, a funny fact about me is that, you know, I'm a fan of love. I love these two. This show, The Quiet Storm, when I was growing up in WHUR, there was another show in DC that was Glenn Hollis on 97.1. Love songs to dedication. That's my jam. I love it.
00:11:00
Speaker
I've been that way since I understood what love was. So that's where my passion for music really starts. I was in a jazz band growing up. I collected CDs. I would spend all my money at my first job buying CDs from the Wiz. So that's where it comes from. It's continued to grow no matter what city I live in. The turning point for me in terms of switching from corporate life to the creative life was two things.
00:11:28
Speaker
Um, in 2004, like my dad passed away suddenly and that shook me up because that taught me really quickly that tomorrow's not guaranteed. I had dreams and a goal of being a DJ since I saw Bismarck E in like 1995 or 96. May he rest in peace.
00:11:46
Speaker
But I was too scared to pursue it. But what happened with my dad kind of shook me up and I was like, you know, you keep pushing things off, you might not have a chance to get to it. So that's why I decided to go for it. But it took me to move to California and to then have the courage to go to start to try to learn DJing on my own and then go to Scratch Academy. So that was the turning point. And then to go full time.
00:12:09
Speaker
was when I had a boss at Marriott and she wasn't very supportive and it was miserable. And I just kept thinking, is this it? Like, is this what I really want to do? And so that kind of pushed me to really jump both feet. And it has not been easy, but it has been much better.
00:12:23
Speaker
Isn't it crazy that you work like a DJ, the now turned like author and now speaker, like it's just like this whole like explosion of your career just open when you really follow your passion and music.
00:12:39
Speaker
It is. And if you can be resilient and surround yourselves with, you know, like-minded people like yourself, you know, we were in a couple of groups together, that helps. And you just have to stick with it is not an easy road. And, you know, I'm still like, I'm going to grad school now because I want to kind of improve myself as a person and a professional and then open myself up for more opportunities. But like, you know, we're both lifelong learners. So as long as we're learning and continue to try to hone our craft, it's going to work out. It just takes patience, which is very difficult for me.
00:13:10
Speaker
Yeah, so you just want everything to happen so fast, huh? Yes, even everything, including the love life, all of the above, because you know, we talk about it and it just doesn't happen that way. But it's hard to see that when you're in the middle of it.
Unique Blend of Skills and Experience
00:13:23
Speaker
Hey, I mean, if you want to put a ring on it, go for it. You sound like her now. You sound like her now. So of course, we're working our way towards that. Okay, so two questions before we get into our hot topic. But the first question is, I call it my whoop actor.
00:13:40
Speaker
I should have named my podcast that, but I named it something else. But what is your Woo factor? Like what makes a Monte Roberts experience so different? Like how do you stand up from the rest of the DJs and everyone else?
00:13:52
Speaker
I think it's the combination of my experience, many of which we just talked about because I used to work in corporate America, so I understand how it kind of works behind the scenes. I have a high IQ in terms of customer support and customer service. And then just my educational background, being a professor, so I have a more of a collaborative nature. I understand that people might not understand what it takes for a DJ to come up with a playlist or take requests in the middle of a song. And then just experience, just being around,
00:14:22
Speaker
hospital industry for 25-30 years and we're seeing what I've seen like all that combined together plus my personality just makes me unique and it makes the experience very rewarding for my clients. And talk about a little bit about your vinyls.
00:14:38
Speaker
My vinyl, so I have lots of records upstairs, you know, and every once in a while I'll do like an all vinyl set, but I just enjoy vinyl music, collecting it, finding different ones. I'm kind of starting to get back into going to record stores that are open and looking for music that I want. I'm on a personal mission to try to find all of Mariah Carey's albums on vinyl, and it's just important. It's important to learn on vinyl. I learned how to DJ on vinyl, so that means I'm using my ears and not my eyes, which is most important.
00:15:07
Speaker
So I have love for it all. I'll never kind of, you know, dismiss it. It's kind of like a photographer that shoots film. Like, you know, some people will really like it and they'll pay like, you know, a lot more for it. So that's definitely like something very niche about you. Okay. Another question before our hot topic is, what is your biggest accomplishment in business?
00:15:30
Speaker
Ooh, that's a good one. I'll list you two or three, because I can't pick just one. I would say DJing at the World Cup in Brazil in 20, I think that was 2014, I believe, right? 2014, I will say...
00:15:50
Speaker
becoming a professor at Cal State University Fullerton. To be a full-time DJ and then a full-time professor, that's big. That's big for the DJ community because that lets people know that we're not just button pushers, we're intelligent human beings, intelligent professionals who know what we're doing. Totally. Then the third one I would say would be writing and releasing my book, the first book. Yeah. You inspire me to write my book. Yes.
00:16:16
Speaker
You and shout out to book launchers, I couldn't have done it without them. And it was an investment, but we both said we couldn't do it without them. And you know, you're on your second book, so it really paid off.
00:16:28
Speaker
I agree 100% congratulations to you. It's not easy. What's the stat like? It's like 85 or 90% of people have books in them. It's like 5% of those people will actually write the book and then 5% of that 5% will release the book. So you and I are in rare companies. Yes, we're in rare companies. So congrats to you also. Thank you. I got my first transcript back. So I'm so excited. Well done. Well done.
00:16:53
Speaker
Yeah. Okay. So our hot topic is about your career and your books, but it's mainly about how to survive and shift during
Virtual Events and Live Streaming
00:17:03
Speaker
the pandemic. So I'm excited about this topic because I love when you talk about Twitch because I don't really know much about it. I know you're going to probably talk about it. They kind of open so many doors for you. So I guess you could tell like a little backstory, like why you chose this topic and then kind of go into your tip number one.
00:17:22
Speaker
I chose this topic because in business we're always going to have to shift and I hate to use this word but it's true pivot and just do things differently as we kind of go along the way like what my business now looks very different than how it looked when we started when the pandemic hit
00:17:39
Speaker
all of my gigs went away. I had no revenue coming in, nothing. I was fortunate enough to still be able to teach virtually. Thank goodness for that, so keep my benefits. But I had to figure out a way to first, stay sane, but second, try to do something to grow or create business. So that's when the virtual aspect came in. So at first,
00:18:00
Speaker
I would just live stream on Twitch my podcast interviews. Then I started to discover DJ community of people who are on their streaming, so I would stream on Twitch, Facebook, Instagram. Facebook and Instagram would cut you off because of the licensing issues, but Twitch would let you perform live.
00:18:17
Speaker
But you shouldn't have VODs. They mute the video on demands afterwards. But then I started doing Twitch more and streaming and I would stream one day, then two days a week, then three days a week. And then I went full force right about a year ago.
00:18:32
Speaker
And I did this 54 days in a row on Twitch, whether it be interviews or music. So I did that, and I could just see, first of all, you get revenue. Because once you get to be affiliate style, you get revenue. But then I was growing a live streaming skill set. I had to figure out how to get the camera right, lighting, then connect to OBS, Open Broadcasting System, which is similar to what TV broadcasters use. So I was becoming a live producer.
00:19:00
Speaker
Then you add on top of this, I did interview shows on there. We call it Twitch University where I was interviewing different people about how to live stream. But then I carried it over and we did live streaming a series for Cal State University Fullerton, our EHM program. So I was starting to show other people how to do it. It's like, okay, this is working.
00:19:17
Speaker
Then you continue and you continue to grow on Twitch and you keep getting checks, so you're getting some revenue in. But then people started to hit me up and ask about doing virtual events for them because, you know, no one was meeting in person. So I was able to directly apply the skills I was learning and do virtual events, which went well. And then you continue to grow from there now.
00:19:37
Speaker
It has evolved so much to now I do like game shows like I have legit family feud, the match game, Hollywood Squares, Masked Singer that we can produce online. But now I'm shifting it so that now I can pitch this to clients to do in person. And once you do that and you have a portfolio like, whoa, all along, I'm improving my moderating skills. I'm improving my talk show skills because that's the goal. Like I want to be like a moderator, have like a legit talk show, interview people.
00:20:07
Speaker
So it's all like helping me improve and learn at the same time. Now I'm doing it in the public eye. So when you make mistakes, everyone sees it. Yeah, I'm growing and learning quickly. And now I'm to a point where I got a lot of this stuff kind of locked down and I understand what to do. Dude, that's so crazy. So you would have never thought that to like these virtual game shows, like you're actually turning them into live events.
00:20:31
Speaker
Yes, yes. So, in fact, just yesterday, I pitched Family Feud, which we just premiered on last Wednesday, I believe it was, Wednesday or Monday. We just premiered on Monday to a client. I've worked on The Masked Singer, proposed to a client. We did the match game. So, I'm just continuing to build this kind of roll decks of game shows.
00:20:50
Speaker
And we did a dating game that was really successful for a couple months, like a season on Twitch. So it's all these different things that, depending on what a client is looking, they say, okay, we have an hour break. We want to keep people engaged if they're in person or virtually, what can we do? I have a list of things we can try and we can go for it. So I've built up the catalog. Now it's just a method of using or, you know, time period to use this to show clients, okay, this is what you knew that could be different. Let's try it.
00:21:18
Speaker
Okay, so just a little question. So do people hire you like corporate people or is it like just people that have parties and they wanna do something different? Both, for the most part, I've been pitching this to corporate clients. I had one client that was particularly interested in like the mass singer, we call it who is that voice. But people if they have like parties and wanna do something cool like a match game, like game shows and trivia is fun, people love, love trivia.
00:21:47
Speaker
And so you bring up a good point where I also need to focus on pitching this to planners and just people for want to activate their parties because it's fun. Yeah. And, you know, we can make it happen. So absolutely. Cool. That's so neat. I had no idea. OK, so that would be tip number one, just going virtual and you never know what that's going to land you. So what's your tip number two?
00:22:11
Speaker
Tip number two, I'm trying to remember what was my point number two, virtual. And then just learning resilience, I would say. Because to be able to survive when all your geeks go away and keep the positive growth mindset is a task within itself.
00:22:31
Speaker
And I think that that was learned during the pandemic because now we're almost there, we're kind of coming out of it, but I've got so much more to offer and I've learned more skills. I mean, going to grad school, I had decided to go, even before the pandemic hit, I was gonna go part-time while teaching and DJing. I don't know how I would have managed that in current time. But now to be able to, you know, in like three months, say I have a master's in music business, and that's gonna open up more full-time teaching at the college level,
00:23:00
Speaker
opportunities for me, but also that same thing about wanting to go and speak and wanting to go and moderate conferences and be an advocate for the music industry and help close the knowledge gap for new and independent musicians when they're working with
Resilience and Lifelong Learning
00:23:15
Speaker
record labels. There's so much information that musicians don't know about their money. I want to share the knowledge with them so they can make better decisions.
00:23:22
Speaker
So that's kind of the tip number two is just being resilient, learning more, staying in the mode of being a lifelong learner and just growing from there. I love it. So Mindset is everything. We both know that. I wanted to ask a follow up question because you asked me this when I was interviewed on your podcast, going from like, you know, having like, you know, canceled weddings and postponements. What was like the biggest struggle of that 2020 pandemic, first year pandemic?
00:23:53
Speaker
year? And then like, how did you get over that? I know, kind of like you said a lot already, but yeah, what was like the biggest struggle that you had to go through?
00:24:02
Speaker
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00:24:45
Speaker
The biggest struggle was really personally, like I live alone. It's just me and my dog, Myla. We're just here. And so that was an extremely isolating time period from like March to September, October, December. Like I kind of stayed in because you were scared. I didn't want to catch anything. So I didn't really go out and do much. So it was really hard to be as isolated as I was for an extended period of time. That was tough.
00:25:08
Speaker
And that was the hardest. So to get over that, I had some good friends reach out like, you know, you need to come out a little bit. It's okay. We will go on walks outside. We would meet a person, but outside and that really at a park. And that really helped my mindset and just keep me kind of going because it was not very good. And you've losing your business.
00:25:28
Speaker
You're isolated from your friends, your family. I live in Los Angeles. Most of my family is East Coast, so they're far away. My brother, all extended family. So that was just an extreme and a hard time of isolation. And so just to have people around that want to say, let's go for a walk or let's meet at a park, that kind of saved me. That's so interesting because that biggest struggle of your life had turned you into doing all this, your tip number one, streaming and going virtual and connecting
00:25:57
Speaker
with people on their internet, so that kind of saved you.
Collaboration and Team Building
00:26:01
Speaker
Streaming for sure. Streaming saved me because we were saving a lot of people because people were isolated like, oh, well, music heals everyone, no matter what your background is. So we were saving them and they were sort of saving us also at the same time. Yes, Mariah Carey saves all. Yes, me, me. Yes. OK, so number one tip was virtual streaming. And then tip number two was resilience. And what's your tip number three?
00:26:29
Speaker
Tip number three, I think just a general tip is to not be afraid to ask for help. You can't do it all yourself, so it's okay to ask for help. That's not really a sign of weakness. It's okay to be vulnerable and ask for help. I think that was just whether it be as simple as how do I do this when I'm streaming or how can I cook this recipe to help me eat healthier.
00:26:53
Speaker
or how can I acquire this skill to make my business grow? What do I need to do? Just ask for help, especially from people you trust who are in the arena with you fighting the same fight. I think that will help you not get burned up by trying to do things yourself. I think that's just an important tip to continue to remind myself and everyone else. Yeah. I'm a coach now for wedding photographers, but I think when I first started, coaching wasn't really a big thing.
00:27:23
Speaker
there wasn't even YouTube yet. So I think now people are kind of coming onto the idea like, hey, I could infuse this 12 years of knowledge like into your mind like in the matter of three months. So I think yeah, asking for help getting mentors is so key to excelling in your business and your life. Agree 100% I agree.
00:27:45
Speaker
Yeah, and I love how you're kind of speaking off the cuff because it's kind of funny, but you have no notes and you obviously didn't write it down. But what's your tip number four? Oh, tip number four. It kind of goes with tip number three. I have a favorite quote. So the quote is like, if you want to go fast,
00:28:10
Speaker
go alone. If you want to go far, go together. So really it's just like build a team of people that are around you that can help you go further. Like if you want to go fast and achieve something really quickly, you can do it, but it's not sustainable. So I really recommend trying to find a group of people around you both personally and professionally that are going to be there for you and help you grow. There could be some people within that group that are going to tell you what you don't
00:28:36
Speaker
want to hear, but you need to hear, which hurts, but it's needed. So yeah, just kind of focus on that. And like for example, for us, we work with book launchers. Well, that has helped me get much further along than if I was going to try to self publish something by myself, I wouldn't have completed it. That's a perfect example there.
00:28:54
Speaker
Another example would be like I have a remix and a music teacher or music coach you can say. We do remixes together. He teaches me piano. I would not have been able to release three or four EPs without his help. I would not have the musical knowledge or be able to now start to recognize patterns in music without his help. Now that's a long journey, music theory.
00:29:14
Speaker
But we're about to release, I think, three more EPs of music. And our goal is to get some of our music placed in like film and TV. But I would never have been here with this opportunity if I didn't, you know, have him as part of my personal team. And so I think that just proves that, you know, if you want to go far, you need to build a good team around you because you can go much further together than you can go doing a solo thing. Yes. The Rising Tide lifts all ships. And me, you and Kate from XO,
00:29:44
Speaker
XO Kate, we would meet up like every now and then and just talk about business and our goals and what's on our plate right now. And a podcast wasn't really in my consciousness, but we have to reach out to Kate and see how she is. We need to meet up with Kate now. What's she up to? Yeah, so she's ready, but we've all like grown so much, but I feel like she would always say like, you know, develop your tribe, love them hard.
00:30:10
Speaker
And I think me and you were like the same way. So that's so cool. So I'm just going to recap real fast about how to, you know, stay afloat after this crazy pandemic. So number one is streaming. Number two is learning resilience all about positive growth mindset. And then tip number three, not being afraid to ask for help. And then tip number four, don't do it alone. Rising tide lifts all ships. Anything else you want to add before we go into rapid fire questions?
00:30:39
Speaker
uh no no i mean those are four strong tips i try to live by um i also recommend which i've fallen off but like morning pages so the artist way by julia cameron it's a great book she talks about doing morning pages in there and taking specific artist dates i think morning pages which is when you wake up in the morning just write down everything that's on your mind try to fill up two to three pages i've fallen off of that completely the last three months but i need to get back
00:31:05
Speaker
But that's also an important tip I will share. I also recommend doing the book. It's 12 chapters, finding a friend, do a chapter a week with a friend that is on the kind of same mission as you. I think that is hella powerful. And I think most creatives should do that. A lot of creatives in like art, artists, actors, producers, movies, they swear by it. Because Julia Cameron used to be married to Martin Scorsese, so she knows a little something about creativity. So this is the artist way you're talking about?
00:31:35
Speaker
Yes, yes, I think I have the book around here somewhere that's one of the most gifted books I give out. Okay. Oh, that's so cool. Cool. Okay, so I'm gonna buy that and I know you are all about journaling and I'll keep you accountable for getting back on the journaling bandwagon. Thank you. Okay, so I'm gonna do some rapid fire fun questions. So first one is, what's your favorite RMB album? And why?
00:32:05
Speaker
Mm.
00:32:07
Speaker
Favorite are, ooh, man, I can only pick one. I like Vision of Love, Mariah Carey. I like What's the 4011, Mary J. Blige. I like Cooley, High Harmony, Voice to Men. I can do those three, I cannot pick one. And I like SWV's first album, the pot lime green album. I think it was a self-titled album, SWV. Those are four that come to mind right away.
00:32:37
Speaker
and then I pick Thriller. Okay, MJ. I can't pick just one, that's so hard. Okay, I love it. Okay, what's your biggest sales tip? How to get a heck yes from your dream clients. The fortune is in the follow up. We can all submit good proposals and interesting things, but following up is where you can win out over many people. Okay, okay.
00:33:06
Speaker
What's the biggest thing you learned from your students? Humility. The fact that I don't know everything. Like, you know, I'm still learning and just their thirst to learn inspires me to learn more. Oh, I love it. So where is the music industry for students and management like going? Like what would be a career that someone has like a popular career in
00:33:37
Speaker
Cause I don't know anything about music. Like, is there like a title like music production manager or like, I don't know. I would say the, for the music industry, like A&R and A&R is like artist and repertoire, but it's really now it's like you want to discover the next hot ax. You want to do that. And there's different ways you can do it. You can be on TikTok and find some TikTok. I'm not sure of how, um,
00:34:04
Speaker
long lasting they'll be because a lot of flashes in the pan. You can also go to a lot of live shows. But what's even more fascinating is when you combine ANR with data analytics, like for example, if you're here in LA, and you're looking for a country act, well, maybe you want to see who is getting the most shizams in Montana.
00:34:25
Speaker
or who's giving them exams like down in Alabama, which can give you clues as to hot acts that are getting ready to explode. So how do you use the traditional A&R, which is seeing an act, watching how they vibe with the crowd, seeing how they move and engage with data analytics, and allowing that to steer your decisions? That's what's the hot job I think is going to become more prominent in the next five years in the music industry. Yeah, I have no idea that existed.
00:34:52
Speaker
Oh, we can talk for days about this. OK, since I'm a coach, the magic one question in three months, 90 days, where would you see your business? So just talk about your goals a little bit.
00:35:06
Speaker
in 90 days, so that'll put us to, let's say, almost like January 1st. I would have finished grad school. I will want to have acquired a couple speaking gigs at conferences or moderating gigs at conferences or jobs. That's really important to me.
00:35:29
Speaker
In addition, I want to have secured, you know, at least three to five of these game show events for a corporate or social clients to host at their events. That's kind of the short term goal. And we'll have released three EPs of music by then. Yes. Okay. Okay. That's great. Okay. Last question before we tell people about your giveaway and where to find you. Oh.
00:35:57
Speaker
What keeps you so motivated? Why the heck are you so motivated? What is your why?
00:36:08
Speaker
I think what keeps me motivated is a combination of wanting to still learn and really, since we're talking about the music business, this is something that really kind of fires me up for lack of a better term, is that I see so many stories of young, new, or independent musicians that come into the industry
00:36:27
Speaker
make amazing art but don't know how to properly monetize it or own what they create. They sign it over to maybe a record label or they just don't make wise decisions when it comes to owning their art and then they regret it a month, a year, 10 years later when they can't place their music in a commercial or an ad. So what really inspires me is I want to do my part to close the knowledge gap between the new young or independent musicians
00:36:56
Speaker
and what the more experienced people in the industry know, I want them to know about it so they can just make better educated decisions about their art moving forward. Like some of them could benefit and need to work with a regular label, that's fine. Others might be able to make about it and do their own thing in the independent route, but I want to educate people so that they can make the proper decisions for them. And that is missing right now and so many people are taking advantage of that it just hurts my heart. Oh, you're feeling the gap, I love that.
00:37:26
Speaker
You're creating a whole different like career like genre, which is so cool with all your passions and education. Ask me a question because you're an interviewer. Ah, what? Okay, okay. What have been maybe the two most viable lessons you've learned about yourself and your business since March of 2020?
00:37:48
Speaker
Oh my god, good question. You asked me I'm ready. Let's go. Don't be scared. I'll help you. Okay, so the biggest lessons I've learned. I think the biggest lesson I learned is finding that exit plan from wedding photography. And knowing that I do want to go full time and coaching. So I had to go do a lot of different things. You know, I thought I could just
00:38:17
Speaker
announce the world and I'm a coach and do some IGTV lives and people are going to bite. Nope. I had to go through so many coaching programs and get mentors and bike courses and go through so many mindset hoops and work with different people and fail and like get ghosted after, you know, eight sales calls. Like I had to go through so much and I just really, truly know that
00:38:42
Speaker
I want to do full-time coaching because I keep going after I fail. And that's a good indicator that is your passion. Like, hey, if you feel like you have a bad day or like someone doesn't book, you just get up back on your feet the next day and try new techniques, learn different things, grow, pivot your favorite word, and just keep going. Yeah, because, you know, I've done everything I've done.
00:39:08
Speaker
you know, wedding photography is my bread and butter, but I've done like boudoir and I did like studio shoots and I did the mini session routes and I did online chorus. But now just coaching, I have, you know, a couple of students and I'm coaching them and it's so fun and it just invigorates me and I'm so happy to be their coach. And, you know, even if they're a better photographer than me, like I've been doing this for 12 years. So I see a lot of holes and gaps in their business that they can't see for themselves as if
00:39:37
Speaker
someone like a coach would see in me. So it's just nice to fill in those gaps for them and just be like their mentor and just understand that like I'm deserving of being in that position. I love it. My second question.
00:39:56
Speaker
would be and this is one of my favorite questions I asked almost anyone to interview with because I think there's so much to learn and wisdom from retro retrospect is if you could go back now and talk to Carissa at age 21 based on what you know today which is like fall 2021 what advice would you give young young Carissa?
00:40:17
Speaker
You asked me this on your podcast. I think it's actually the same answer, but it's just, um, don't worry so much. Like it'll happen. You could surrender to your work ethic. Um, and I think now I would tell myself, like, just be more discerning, like don't take on every gig. It's okay to say no, because it'll lend you the higher end weddings. So that was hard for me because
00:40:47
Speaker
it was like my paycheck. So, you know, I just kind of summed it up like, oh, I have a lot of energy, you know, I could do it all. But I think it will, it really hurts you in the end game, like not knowing who you really want to serve and just kind of trying to take everything because you just get too tired and burnt out. So just kind of being selective. And now like I have the luxury of being more selective of what weddings I take just because I've been doing this for so long.
00:41:18
Speaker
Yeah, amazing. Congrats to you, props. I love it. You too. I mean, we could ask questions all day, but I'll pause right there. I'll pause. Yeah, we're open to our 39 minutes, and I go for 45 minutes. So just tell people how to find you and your free giveaway.
00:41:33
Speaker
Yes, so people can find me just at Amani experience on all socials. So that's a in like Mary a like in like Nancy I the word experience all one word. That's what I am on Instagram, Facebook, Twitter, Amani Roberts on LinkedIn, and then twitch.tv backslash Amani experience. That's how you can find me reach out. The giveaway is just a couple free signed copies of my book DJs mean business.
00:42:00
Speaker
I love my book, so please read it and share it with the person who might be interested in DJing or music. That's my giveaway. I can't wait to continue to share it with you. Also, update is that we have the Audible version that I just recorded, so hopefully you'll get that out in the next month or two. I'm excited about that. A bonus for the Audible is that I had my close friend and colleague, Melissa Majors, interview me after each chapter so you get some more information and you get some more from me. I love that.
00:42:29
Speaker
Oh, well, thank you for being on my podcast. It was super fun. Yes. Thank you for having me. I'm very proud of you, Chris. I just want you to continue to ascend and just keep doing what you're doing because we need you. Yes, I'll probably post this to maybe my 20th episode, so I'll be like, yay, congrats to me. I love it. I will happily be the 20th episode. Yay. Thank you. I'll stop recording and link a chat a little bit more.
00:43:00
Speaker
Thanks for joining me this week on Get a Heck Yes with Carissa Wu. Make sure to follow, subscribe, leave a review, or tell a friend about the show. Take a screenshot and post to IG. Tag me. Also, don't forget to download my free guide on how to become a lead generating machine. See you next time, wedding pros.