Conferences & Networking :: 20/20 Vision

Hey guys, Wendy Day here from Rap Coalition. Thanks for tuning back in to 2020 Vision for 2020. Are you guys doing good this year? Are you killing it? So by the time you're seeing this, let's see, it must be, um, the 20-something of January, right? So, um, can you believe a third of the month has already passed? I'm filming this on the— I think today's the 15th, so We're halfway through the month, and I can't believe how fast it's gone. It's just crazy to me. So today I want to cover conferences and networking because these are two really important things that can help you meet people, learn shit, and grow your career. There aren't a whole lot of conferences left in the music industry anymore. There's enough that you could attend and still learn a lot, and some of the bigger ones ones that I think are beneficial, and this is just my opinion, um, South by Southwest seems to still matter. Um, that's in mid-March every year. Um, ASCAP does a conference in April in Los Angeles. South by Southwest is in Austin, Texas. Um, ASCAP does a conference every year, and that's in LA. I forget what it's called, but it's pretty good. My favorite conference is Music Biz. That's in Nashville, Tennessee. It's for all types of music, just like ASCAP and South by, they're for all types of music. But the thing I like most about Music Biz is in the past 3 years that they've done it, on the very first day they've got all of the platforms there. So I've gotten to hear people from SoundCloud and Spotify and Amazon and Apple Music, um, Pandora speak. And that's a really wonderful, wonderful, wonderful thing because in the rap conferences, for some reason the platforms don't come. Um, what other conferences do I really like? Um, Midem is coming up in June in France. That's a conference overseas. Um, CD Baby does a conference in August for do-it-yourselfers. There's a lot of great information there and it's affordable. I think it's somewhere between $100 and $150 to attend. Um, A3C in Atlanta I didn't really like it very much this year. It was kind of spread out and all over the place, and it wasn't very well coordinated and put together. I think it has new owners, so it was kind of had a little bit of the growing pain thing going on. Um, I couldn't seem to find where the panels were that I wanted to attend, so that was a little frustrating. Um, and that's pretty much it. That's pretty much the, the conferences that I attend, that have helped me to grow my career most recently. The great thing about conferences, and I don't go to the showcases, I go to the panel discussions because for me I want to learn the information about how to do my job better. So I attend a lot of marketing panels, I attend a lot of the research and data panels, as you probably figured, because that's the shit that really helps me get my job done. And then The other great aspect of attending these events is the networking. So not only can you meet the speakers and interact with them, but you can meet other people in the audience provided you're outgoing and charismatic and start talking to people. Um, for me, my weakest link has always been keeping in touch. I suck at keeping in touch, and those of you who have watched my videos over time I talk about this all the time because I realize how part— how important it is. But I'm an introvert. I'm somebody that doesn't really like to spend time on the phone with people or face-to-face with people. I'm a little bit on the shy side. I know that's a little bit hard to imagine, but I am. And as an introvert, I'm very uncomfortable, and I sometimes need to get out and away from people in order to recharge because it's very draining for me to be around other people. So I suck at keeping in touch. Um, if you're somebody that's good at it, you're going to go a lot further in this industry than I ever will because this is very much a who-you-know industry. And also, if you can interact with people and find out like who they're hiring and what services they use, and you can get people to honestly share that kind of information with you, you will save a lot of money and a headaches. I've had to bang my head by hiring people that weren't necessarily the right people in this industry because I don't keep in touch with people and I don't have the ability to just call somebody out of the blue and say, hey, you know, who's your publicist? Who have you hired? You know, who does your digital ads for you? Who does your Spotify playlists? Like, these are things that I've kind of had to learn as I go.. And if you can interact with people, you're gonna learn that stuff even faster. So I hope this is a little bit helpful. Oh, and one more thought about that. Make sure when somebody helps you that you actually say thank you. It's even a great idea to send them a little thank you note or a gift card or something to show your appreciation. Because if you just treat somebody like they owe you the information and you just call them for information and you don't give them anything in return, even if it's other information, after a while, they're gonna stop taking your phone calls and they're going to stop answering your emails. And this is one of those industries where it's hard to get people to return your calls or take your calls to begin with, as you guys know. You already know that because you complain about that to me all the time. So, um, treat people with respect. And thanks for tuning in. This will be on my YouTube page tomorrow at youtube.com/thisiswendyday.