Jack Canfield Interviews Wendy Day (Hollywood Live 2019)

Hi, welcome back everybody. Jack Canfield here, your host for Hollywood Live. My next guest is someone I've known for a number of years and really love, Wendy Day. And what she does is she helps artists and people in the music world actually make money from their art. And she's got one of her websites called Slaves No More, which I love. She's worked with my own son, Kyle Canfield, who is a hip-hop artist up in the Bay Area. And so I'm really glad to welcome you to the show, Wendy. Thanks for joining me.

Thank you. I'm so happy to be here. You're my hero.

Oh, well, you're mine. You're mine. You've worked with some of the most amazing people— Eminem, Tupac, Cash Money.

But you work with my son. I work with your son, and I love your son.

Yeah, well, I love him too, so thank you for that. So let's drill down a little more on exactly what you do, what your work is. So just give us some background and what it is you actually do.

OK. I started as a fan of hip-hop music. In 1980, I went to a Psychedelic Furs concert, of all things, a rock group, right? And I got to see Grandmaster Flash and the Furious Five perform. And it was love at first sight. I fell in love with the energy and the passion. And as I got more into rap music, this is sort of like the, the, the birth, the commercialization, if you will, of hip-hop. And the more I got into it, the more I realized, wow, I really love this. Like, it's just the energy, you know, it's, it's just, it's, it's such a passion for me. And I was in corporate America, um, I was making great money, but I wasn't happy, and I wanted to do something different with my life. I was in Montreal at the time, all although I'm a New Yorker. I was in Montreal at the time.

Stayed in New Yorker.

New Yorker. Exactly. And I was working for a liquor company. And I just wasn't happy. It wasn't working for me. So I moved back home to New York. And I decided that I wanted to do something where I could live my passion. And the more I learned about the music industry, the more I realized that artists are taken advantage of. They don't really make the lion's share of the money. They're the last to get paid. They have to pay back everything that is spent on them out of their share. And I said, you know what, this doesn't make sense. They should have more power than they have. So I started helping. I started a nonprofit called Rap Coalition, and Rap Coalition, it still exists today, pulls artists out of bad deals. I did that for a few years. And then I realized, if I know what's bad in a contract, then I can probably figure out what's good in a contract and help an artist get into a fair contract where they can have ownership and make a good deal of the money. And that's how it all started.

And tell us about some of the projects, because you've had several different things you've been involved in, and some you're just starting now.

Give us a little more background on that. Yes, a whole lot.

Yeah.

The thing I'm probably most proud of is the Cash Money deal. They were guys that had put out 31 albums over a 6-year period in the New Orleans region. And when I met them, I helped them get their numbers up from selling 5,000 or 25,000 CDs. It was CDs back then, 'cause I'm old.

That was cassettes when I was younger, so. Right, don't worry about that.

I go back that far too, but don't tell anybody. But they had sold 31 CD— 31 different CDs over a 6-year period, but they'd only sold maybe 5,000 to 25,000. So when I came in, I expanded their marketing area and got them up to 75,000 or 100,000 CDs every time they put something out, and then started shopping them to the labels. And because they were making so much money on their own they were able to get an ownership deal, and we did a $30 million deal with Universal in 1998. So I'm really proud of that.

They love— must love you.

Well, I had to sue them to get paid, so they probably don't love me as much as they should.

Well, they should at least appreciate you.

They do, they do. Yeah, it's water under the bridge.

Yeah. Yeah. What are some of the other things you've been involved with?

I've done a lot of educational work with artists. Rather than just be reactive, I want to be more proactive. At least I decided this back in the '90s, and I started doing free seminars. I've written a book about how to get a record deal for artists that want to be signed. How to Get a Record Deal.

Okay.

And it's about how to get a record deal. It's for artists that still want to be signed to a major label system. And it's not that the major label system is bad, because it's great for the bigger artists like the Rihannas and the Drakes of the world. It's just not great great for an artist who isn't going to sell millions and millions and millions of downloads or streams.

Sure.

You know, and you can make a living like your son. You can make a living in this business. You can make a really nice living. You just have to know how to hone in and reach your target, your niche, and get them excited about who you are and your music and your image and what you stand for and So how would you describe the state of the music industry now? It's on an upswing. There was so much bootlegging, and when the internet came along, it tanked a little bit. And people started to get music for free, because they felt that that's what they should do. If it was there, they could download an MP3 for free, and nobody would know, and they could listen to everything that they wanted. And with Spotify and Apple and Amazon Music, it's brought the industry back and it's becoming alive again, which is really exciting. So it's been on an uptick for about the past 4 years.

Mm-hmm.

And there's more artists than ever. It's almost an oversaturation of artists, if you will, in rap, but there's room for everybody. And as fans, we can go in and listen to whatever we want. We don't necessarily have to listen to what the major labels are ramming down our throats anymore.

Right, that's true.

Which is exciting.

So if some artist is out there watching this and you were speaking to them and saying, "This is what I could do for you," what would you say?

I would say that there are two things I could do. One is I can educate the artists about how the music industry works so that when they jump in, they have some knowledge, and knowledge is power. If they have the knowledge, they won't get taken advantage of, which is really important. And then the second thing is if they have an investor behind them, and this is a very expensive industry. You can easily spend a quarter million dollars in the music industry to get to the point where you're breaking even and making income. And my company Power Moves, that's what we do for artists that are properly funded. We show them how to make money with their music. We actually hands-on teach them, this is how you market, this is how you promote, so that they can start their own companies and be their own entrepreneurs. And for a lot of artists, that's difficult. You know, there's right brain, left brain. So a lot of artists don't have the entrepreneurial ability that it takes to actually make money with their music.

Well, I think a lot of young artists probably don't have a quarter of a million dollars either.

They don't. They definitely need an investor.

And what do you tell them about that, um, in terms of putting together—

and I'm going to talk about something I'm about to work on, what I'm really excited about. But, um, they need to put together a business plan and find somebody that's willing to invest in them and help them get to that next level, they need to treat it like a business, not just get fame and have people listen to their music. They actually need to make money with that music and monetize. I'm about to start an incubator for rappers, and I'm really excited about this because one of the things that stands between most rappers and success is not having the proper funding, and I'm able to I was able to get the funding so that I could come in and help fund these guys. They got to bring something to the table. They got to have a little skin in the game because I need them to be committed. But if they have the talent and the work ethic, we're able to fund them and we're able to allow them to keep ownership. And that's the difference between my business model and the model that currently exists because whenever somebody gives you the money, you got to share equity with them.

Mm-hmm.

With my incubator, you don't. They're able to learn how to do it. They're able to be in a protected environment that teaches them how, coddles them, protects them, supports them, and then lets them fly. And when they fly, they fly with 100% ownership of everything— the publishing, the music, the masters, everything.

So for those who don't know, that don't come from the business world, tell people what an incubator is.

Really, um, an incubator is a place where artists come to learn— not just artists, but where Small companies come to learn and grow, and they're taught how to excel in whatever industry. I'm bringing that thinking into the music industry so that the artists can get to the next level and have some success.

You're an entrepreneur. Most people don't think of entrepreneurs in the music world the way you've been playing as entrepreneur, like you're not starting a tech startup. Right. Brick-and-mortar store. But think about this, a lot of our viewers are entrepreneurs and you've been very successful. What would you say to the younger you starting out from the perspective you have now about being successful? What advice would you give yourself?

I guess, you know, the first thing I would say is don't just look at the success, you know, look at what you have to sacrifice to get that success. Everybody looks at the success. People don't look at what you have to give up in order to get there. But the best advice I could give to like the mini-me or the people people coming up underneath me is to formulate a plan, have a dream, and just go for it. But make sure you study and you learn what it's going to take to succeed. In the music business, there's not a lot of genuine information out here. So a lot of people don't know what it's going to take to win. You've got to really study and learn from the people that came before. It's not rocket science. If we blaze a path and learn— I did it with you, actually. You mentored me without knowing. I learned how to be a better human being from watching you. I learned how to be successful from reading your Secrets of Success book and taking your seminars. Your Focus book is probably my favorite book of all time because it took me from here to hear. So if the knowledge is out there, if we just learn from people that came before, we don't have to reinvent the wheel.

Yeah. My mentor was Immanuel W. Clement Stone.

Yes.

You learn from other people's experience, OPE.

The good and the bad. Exactly.

Yes. Exactly.

Absolutely.

Perfect. Perfect. Perfect. So God, I wish we had all day to talk. I know, right? Because this is fun. But if people want to get a hold of you and if they're in this world, they definitely should. It would be crazy not to. Thank you. Where do they go? How do they find you?

WendyDay.com is the one site that houses all the other sites. So if you get to WendyDay.com, you can find me anywhere through there.

Beautiful.

Thank you for doing this. This has been awesome.

No, thank you. I really appreciate it. I love helping get good information out to the people who need it.

I love that.

So thanks for being good information.

Thank you. I love you so much.

I love you too. Thank you. Thank you. Okay, everybody stick around, check out her website, and stick around for another moment. I'm going to come back with one last guest for today. And we'll see you in just a moment.