July's Interview
This month's interview is with my friend Cherryl Ignacio, an Artist Manager based in London. Cherryl started her music journey a few years back and had since managed several artists and bands. Her passion and hard work comes through in every project she takes on, helping artists to build a reputation within the music industry and grow their network.
You can find her on Instagram : @cherryl_rr
Questions:
CF - What inspired you to start your business?
CI - "After having friends in bands and music being my passion, I started helping bands with bits and pieces like admin and social media idea's. From there it then escalated into helping out at shows on weekends while still having a full time job".
CF - What is one mistake you've made that taught you a valuable lesson?
CI - "Saying yes to everything and trying to do everything - I have learned to have quality over quantity".
CF - If you were to start over, what would you do differently from the very beginning?
CI - "I wouldn't change anything as the mistakes I have made have made me better in business and at my Job".
CF - What trends should aspiring/established artists managers keep an eye on?
CI - "In terms of trends to always be aware of social media trends especially on TIK TOK and Instagram. What songs are being used and how are they being used. Being aware of new music coming out on editorial playlists on Spotify and Apple Music - who's on the 'New music Friday' playlists. Who's new on radio and who are topping the festival scenes".
CF - Can you describe a typical day in your life as an Artist Manager?
CI - "Everyday is different. Normally Mondays are admin days and catching up on everything - evaluating the week before and looking at what the plans are for the week. month and year as it always changes. Then Tues/Weds I normally catch up in person or zoom for meetings with my artists and plan out their week. Are they in the studio, festival, show, campaigning a release of music etc".
CF - How do you grow as an artist manager? Do you have a mentor?
CI - "You can always learn more at your craft, so I still attend networking events, go to shows in the week, take part in communities revolving around women in music or artist managers".
CF - How do you maintain a healthy work-life balance?
CI - "This is difficult as working as an artist manager is not a 9-5 job but more like a doctor. You're on the clock all the time. Maybe you receive emails from another country with a big time difference and they want to use a track for something, you have a matter of hours to get back to them or they move to another artist whose track they want to use. For me it's making sure i have at least a day off in the week to rest and spend time with family".
CF - How do you want to be remembered? What kind of legacy will you leave behind?
CI - "I want to simply just be known for someone who has helped people".
CF - What was the hardest decision in your business career so far and how did it end up for you?
CI - "When I have to let go of artists as the dynamic doesn't work. When I take on an artist I do a trial period for around 6 months and that's for myself as well as the artists to see if it works and only a few times it doesn't".
Thank you for your time Cherryl, it was great finding out more about your journey.
You can find her on Instagram : @cherryl_rr
Questions:
CF - What inspired you to start your business?
CI - "After having friends in bands and music being my passion, I started helping bands with bits and pieces like admin and social media idea's. From there it then escalated into helping out at shows on weekends while still having a full time job".
CF - What is one mistake you've made that taught you a valuable lesson?
CI - "Saying yes to everything and trying to do everything - I have learned to have quality over quantity".
CF - If you were to start over, what would you do differently from the very beginning?
CI - "I wouldn't change anything as the mistakes I have made have made me better in business and at my Job".
CF - What trends should aspiring/established artists managers keep an eye on?
CI - "In terms of trends to always be aware of social media trends especially on TIK TOK and Instagram. What songs are being used and how are they being used. Being aware of new music coming out on editorial playlists on Spotify and Apple Music - who's on the 'New music Friday' playlists. Who's new on radio and who are topping the festival scenes".
CF - Can you describe a typical day in your life as an Artist Manager?
CI - "Everyday is different. Normally Mondays are admin days and catching up on everything - evaluating the week before and looking at what the plans are for the week. month and year as it always changes. Then Tues/Weds I normally catch up in person or zoom for meetings with my artists and plan out their week. Are they in the studio, festival, show, campaigning a release of music etc".
CF - How do you grow as an artist manager? Do you have a mentor?
CI - "You can always learn more at your craft, so I still attend networking events, go to shows in the week, take part in communities revolving around women in music or artist managers".
CF - How do you maintain a healthy work-life balance?
CI - "This is difficult as working as an artist manager is not a 9-5 job but more like a doctor. You're on the clock all the time. Maybe you receive emails from another country with a big time difference and they want to use a track for something, you have a matter of hours to get back to them or they move to another artist whose track they want to use. For me it's making sure i have at least a day off in the week to rest and spend time with family".
CF - How do you want to be remembered? What kind of legacy will you leave behind?
CI - "I want to simply just be known for someone who has helped people".
CF - What was the hardest decision in your business career so far and how did it end up for you?
CI - "When I have to let go of artists as the dynamic doesn't work. When I take on an artist I do a trial period for around 6 months and that's for myself as well as the artists to see if it works and only a few times it doesn't".
Thank you for your time Cherryl, it was great finding out more about your journey.
June's Interview
My first interview is with my mentor Lucia Marecakova, a food photographer and coach, based in Turin, Italy. Lucia has left her corporate job to become a food photographer. After a few years, she created The Members Club, a place where passionate photographers learn to pursue their dreams while learning everything about photography.
She is a very passionate, kind and knowledgeable woman, willing to teach others how to pursue their photography dreams. I will be forever grateful for everything she has taught me and will teach me in the future.
You can find her on Instagram www.instagram.com/foodlight.io/
The Members Club website : https://foodlight.io/members-club/
Lucia's website: https://foodlight.shop/
She is a very passionate, kind and knowledgeable woman, willing to teach others how to pursue their photography dreams. I will be forever grateful for everything she has taught me and will teach me in the future.
You can find her on Instagram www.instagram.com/foodlight.io/
The Members Club website : https://foodlight.io/members-club/
Lucia's website: https://foodlight.shop/
Questions:
CC - What inspired you to start your business?
LM- "Since my university times, I always wanted to have my own business. I even started a photography company, only to close it 3 months later. Wrong business partners, wrong time and place. After university, my ambition was to build a career in a corporation (human resources area). But things are different in reality than we imagine. It was after 5 years of working for a multinational, I was stuck because I didn’t want to continue working there, I couldn’t find another job, and I didn’t want to move to another town because I had just started dating my (current) boyfriend in the town I lived back then. The only option I had was to pursue a photography career and start my own business. So, I chose the relationship, as I also wanted to be flexible - whenever my partner needed to move because of his career while not sacrificing mine."
CC - What is the one mistake you've made that taught you a valuable lesson?
LM - "I’ve made many mistakes through the last few years, but the one I remember well was with one of my first photography clients. I skipped so many steps during the process, and it resulted in a complete failure. They even didn’t pay me and never will. There was an agency between me and the client. Back then I was a big introvert, very shy, not knowing what exactly I was doing. Looking at it now; I should have been more proactive, following every single step in the process, writing or calling the agency whenever I didn’t receive their answer within a few days; and being more pushy when the money hadn’t arrived."
CC - If you were to start over, what would you do differently from the very beginning?
LM - "When I think about the beginning, I wouldn’t necessarily change things. I would, however, try to focus on consistency and marketing. When I focused on growing my audience and my marketing, I was very consistent with content creation, newsletters, posting on social media, pitching to clients, and so on. Then, however, I got busy and had to stop some of the things. This is normal as when you have a business, and you are full-time there, you evaluate what you can do, and your priorities are shifting towards activities that bring you revenue. However, since that, I have never fully returned to being consistent in nurturing my audience and maintaining active contact with them. Marketing is something that doesn’t bring you revenue right now, but it shows its results in the long term."
CC - What trends should aspiring/established food photographers keep an eye on?
LM - "How the industry changes, styles of direction of the complexity of services that companies need. We can’t do it all and the needs of clients are growing into various services. So, what’s important is to network and create relationships with other professionals who can help you serve the client with something that you are not capable of. For example, graphic design, videography, food styling, or photography and so on. Plus, yes, AI technology is something that we constantly need to explore and include in our process to become faster at what we do. I am not talking about image-generating apps for our clients, but about certain tools in photoshop (for example), that help you retouch the image faster."
CC - Can you describe a typical day in your life as a food photographer and coach?
LM - "My day is not very typical for a food photographer, as most of my time goes into creating content and management of my members club, and coaching my members. I usually spend the early hours of the day on some urgent/important task; on other days, I focus on creating content for my students - organising, writing, editing lessons, etc.... Then, lunch break, quick TV series, and afternoon is dedicated to continuing on the task of the day, or some coaching calls. I usually create two block slots for each day, focusing on two tasks. Sometimes the day is full of calls, sometimes full of small different activities, and sometimes it’s all about photography and working for clients. It is very varied, and this is what I love about my job."
CC - How important is it to have a coach/mentor. Should we get a mentor if we want to grow?
LM - "Oh extremely. I have grown my business thanks to my business mentors I have since before I started my business. It’s extremely important as we don’t need to reinvent the wheel every time, but we can get inspired and supported and get the step-by-step process of how to build a business from them. Of course, copying business doesn’t work because you need to find your uniqueness (services); your market is different, as is your audience. But having a mentor can help you get the objective in certain situations that you can’t do yourself. So anytime I feel I am weak in some specific area, I search for a mentor who can help me improve. I know when I commit and get support there, I can learn it better and faster."
CC - How do you maintain a healthy work-life balance?
LM - "I don’t (haha), because I love working, I am a workaholic. My personal life is my business life. I work until I can’t, and then I do some personal activities, such as a day in a spa or knitting; it resets my brain. Then, I start working a lot again. And all this repeats. I often continue working during the weekend if we stay inside our house. I literally stop working when I physically move outside my house or when I need to prepare food for guests coming 😀. We don’t have kids, so I can direct my entire focus on my business. And I don’t mind working that much, again, I love it."
CC - How do you want to be remembered?
LM - "I love this question, I haven't thought about it from this angle. My mission is to build a community, where food photographers can feel inspired, empowered, and supported, with the feeling of belonging to a family, because I know what it means to be lonely in my business. So, I want people to remember me as someone who helps them to do what they think is impossible, no matter if it’s creating a successful business in photography, or creating their dream food photography images as a hobby."
CC - Any advice for photographers & entrepreneurs out there?
LM - "Building a business is very hard and it’s a lonely journey. There are so many unknowns, but there is a solution to every challenge. My first advice is to see challenges instead of problems, and anytime you face a challenge, keep asking yourself how can I solve this?
The second advice is to join a community, and get a mentor, or coach, as you don’t need to reinvent the wheel every time and alone. There is someone who is successful in what you want to do, just follow those people and learn from them.
The third last (but maybe the most important) is the mindset. Work on your mindset because this is what makes a huge difference whether you succeed or not. I see this in many of my students, and I can see how the limiting beliefs affect their potential. It takes years to work on the mindset, so start immediately and believe in what you want to achieve."
Thank you for your time Lucia, it was great finding out more about your journey.