In this solo YouTube talk, Wendy Day explains why a manager is the pivotal "quarterback" of an artist’s team, coordinating attorneys, accountants, booking agents, publicists, and more. She advises artists to wait until they generate income before hiring a manager, noting typical fees of 15‑25% of earnings. When selecting a manager, she stresses the importance of proven experience, industry relationships, and a track record of building other artists’ careers. Day outlines a systematic outreach process: research respected managers, build rapport through social media by highlighting commonalities, and assess responsiveness and goals before asking for representation. She warns about scammers and false consultants, urging verification of identity and credibility. Finally, she encourages artists to create a hit‑list of potential managers, follow their work, and cultivate a fan base to become more attractive, while providing her contact email for questions and promoting her regular video schedule.
Chapters
Hey guys, welcome to my YouTube page. Today we're going to talk about choosing a manager. It's probably the most important component of your team. A manager is the person that helps you set your goals and then helps you put a plan together to get there. And then the manager is the person who chooses all of the other members of the team, you know, along with you. It's your career, but they're the one that goes and gets them. So they're going to bring on the entertainment attorney, they're going to bring on the accountant, they're going to bring on the booking agent. They're going to bring on the social media person, the publicist. They are the quarterback of your project. They are the conductor of the orchestra. Um, running out of comparisons, but the manager is the key component of your team. They are the person that puts everything together with you. Um, when you're choosing a manager, it's really important to pick someone that has some experience and that has done this before. Because what makes a manager really valuable is somebody that has built the success of other artists and somebody that has relationships with people that you need to propel your career forward. Um, so the relationships, the connections the experience. All of that matters when choosing a manager. For some reason, in urban music, we tend to choose a cousin or our boy or little Ray Ray on the block. We tend to choose people that we trust rather than people that can help move our career forward. And while that's a great thing to do in terms of your comfort level, having somebody around you that you can trust because you've grown up with them or you know them really well, it's probably not going to be so great for your career. You know, there's going to be a learning curve as that person comes up and begins to excel. And I would hate for any artist that I work with to be the guinea pig or the training ground for a new manager, and that's pretty much what we do in hip-hop. Um, the way that I would suggest choosing a manager is, first of all, I wouldn't choose one until you really needed one. I would make sure that you have enough in play that you'd be attractive to a manager. Remember, manager gets paid anywhere from 15% to 25% of your income, usually around 20%. Of your income. So if you have no income, 20% of nothing is nothing. That's not good. The manager needs to be able to survive, and that's their job. They make a living managing artists. So if they can't make money managing you, then they're going to either have to have a full-time job where they can make money to eat, or they're going to have to manage another artist who has income already. And it's not hard to figure out that human nature is to devote time to that which brings in income. So I would wait— if I were an artist, I'd wait until I had something to manage. I'd wait until there was some sort of income where that person could eat and then just use their connections and their experience to get me to the next level. So once you've got something to manage How do you choose a manager? What I would do if I was an artist is I would look at the managers out there that I respect, the one— the artist whose careers I admire, not whose music I admire, but whose careers I admire. I would find out who got that artist to the point where they are, and then I would make a list of all of those different managers that I admired, and then I would start reaching out to them one by one. And I wouldn't, you know, I wouldn't just send an email that says, hey, will you manage me? Um, I would get to know them and I'd build a relationship and I'd let them know who I am and I'd let them know that I respect them and I see what they've built and I find areas where we have similarities. Um, this past week I did a video on attitude and building relationships. So, um, you might want to go back and check that out because in that I talk about how to reach out to people through social media in areas where you have commonalities or similarities so that you can find a common ground before you approach somebody. And that way you can start to build a relationship. Um, just walking up to somebody and saying, hey, will you manage me isn't great because you know how they can benefit you. They have a career, they have success, so they already know that you're coming to them because you want something that they have. What they don't know is what you have to offer. So it would make much more sense instead of blindly walking up to somebody, you know, unless you're Justin Bieber and you're going to walk up to somebody and say, hey, will you manage me? And, um, guessing that's not how he would find a manager, so why are you doing it that way? But if you, if you build the relationship, then you have an opportunity to see how they react to you, to see what their vision is, to see, you know, are they responsive, are they not responsive, do they answer calls, do they not answer calls, how busy are they, what is their goal, are they looking to manage new artists Or are they somebody that strictly wants to manage established artists? You kind of get a feel for who they are, and you have a better shot of growing into a relationship with them to move forward. So I would suggest getting to know who the key managers are, doing some research. Google everybody. There's so many shysters out here, and there's so many people out here that pretend to be somebody other than they really are. You know, there's so many people out there that send out emails saying, hey, I'm Wendy Day, you know, uh, I'll consult you for, uh, 2 hours for $1,000. And the only way you would know that that's not true is if you know me and you know that I don't do consultations. So there's no way that, that, that I'm taking money from people to do consultation. So just be a little careful when you're approaching people. Make sure that they're really who they say they are. And then once you really get to know who they are on social media, you know, you've got access. That's a great thing about social media. When I was coming up, we didn't have that. So if I wanted to meet somebody, I used to have to fly to where they'd be and then bump into them, or I'd have to know somebody that could introduce me to somebody. Today you've got the luxury of being able to somebody on Twitter or Instagram and start a conversation. And you might have to talk to them a bunch of times before they answer you. And you have to have enough knowledge to know, is that person running their own social media page, or do they, you know, is it an assistant that's running it? If it's an assistant, you know, it's, it's not helpful other than as a source of research. But once you reach out to that person and you've built a relationship you're gonna have a pretty good feel of whether or not they're interested in working with you. And again, if you build a buzz and you build a fan base and you build enough hype around your name and somebody can see where they can just step in and use their connections and experience to take you to the next level, you become more attractive to them as a client. And everybody needs a manager, Everybody needs a team. Nobody does this alone out here. Um, so put together a hit list, figure out exactly who you feel could benefit your career and then start getting to know them. Start meeting them, follow them, read their interviews, read articles about them, watch them on YouTube videos, you know, get, get a feel for what they have to offer. Okay guys, thanks for tuning in. Please subscribe so you don't miss any of this. Um, on my YouTube channel, I'm posting videos Monday, Wednesday, Friday at 11 AM, and then Wednesday at 7 PM, um, taking questions and answering questions live. So if you've got questions, please email them to me, thisiswendyday@gmail.com. Don't email music, I do not listen to it. Um, but email your questions, and I'm going to choose the best ones that I think can help most of you out there, and, um, we'll make it work. Thanks for tuning in. Bye, guys.
