Global Industry Spotlight

Global Industry Spotlight is a conversational series focused on providing resources and insight for the creative entrepreneur.

The Global Industry Spotlight today is on Faith Anderson  - CEO of DBC Brand - which stands for Designed By Creatives, a Creative Digital Marketing Agency based in Chicago + Houston. DBC Brand is an agency dedicated to connecting creatives to employment opportunities in the business and technology industries.

Faith Anderson is a digital marketing specialist, entrepreneur, and fractional CMO. 

Having begun her career managing the social media presence of emerging performers, she transitioned to full-time digital marketing work for major businesses including First Women’s Bank, Greenwood, Fruit Growers (Sunkist), and more. This transition led to her founding DBC Brand. A harmonious marriage of innovation and marketing prowess, Faith hopes other artists will resonate with the company's message of creative connection and community building. 

Since its inception, DBC’s team of creatives has successfully launched over 200 campaigns, assisted with raising over $200M in seed funding, and helped their clients gain over 40M followers across their social media platforms. 

Faith is also a passionate educator, having taught in the Entertainment Business program at SAE Institute Chicago and developed digital marketing curricula for graduate extension programs at the University of Pennsylvania and UC Berkeley.

Global Industry Spotlight is a conversational series focused on providing resources and insight for the creative entrepreneur.

Mahja Sulemanjee Bortocek is the Founder and CEO of High Haven. She brings with her over 15 years of experience in healthcare business development, including a decade of experience in cannabis. Ms. Sulemanjee has built marketing, outreach, and public relations strategies for an Illinois-based Multi-State Cannabis Company and is now establishing herself as the CEO of High Haven Cannabis a social equity company.  
Mahja has acquired her master’s in public health and her master’s in business administration. Her passion to help others is noted in her valiant and persistent efforts in community service. She has been awarded and held officer positions, as a board member for several non-for-profits, and healthcare-focused organizations.
Her efforts continue to aid the communities where she lives and works. Mahja aspires to bring awareness, safe accessibility, and compassion to healthcare and the new emerging hemp and cannabis industries.

Global Industry Spotlight is a conversational series focused on providing resources and insight for the creative entrepreneur. This episode was recorded at the South by Southwest Conference 2023.

Janishia Jones is a music business executive, entrepreneur, and singer-songwriter based in Los Angeles, CA. Raised in Paterson, NJ, Janishia began a long-standing passion for the performing arts as a violinist, self-taught pianist, classical dancer, and trained opera-singer earning her several titles in local talent competitions.​Upon graduating with an Associate in Recording Arts, Bachelor in Music Business, and Master in Entertainment Business from Full Sail University, Janishia has led a decade long career working for some of the most revered music companies in the world including SRC / Loud Records, eOne LP, and Kobalt Music Publishing. Currently, in her role as a music publishing senior executive at EMPIRE, her expertise in copyright & royalty administration has resulted in her becoming responsible for the success of some of the greatest songwriters & producers of our generation.  Long-time advocate for artist's rights, Janishia founded the self-management & artist development platform Brok'n Records LLC in 2010 as a vehicle for DIY artists to maintain their independence in a changing music environment. Serving as a safe space and to bring awareness to socio-economic issues affecting black millennial women, she founded Fresh 'N Sassy Productions, a podcast & multi-media platform, whose premier exhibit 'Taking Up Space: a music + art pop up' showcased the talents of local black female artists, musicians, and entrepreneurs.

Global Industry Spotlight is a conversational series focused on providing resources and insight for the creative entrepreneur.

Catera is a media production company that connects creatives with businesses through live event production, brand campaigns and content creation. Catera was founded and led by its owner Kennita Hickman, an award winning music entrepreneur,  urban cultural micro-influencer, writer, content producer, and executive producer. Her 23-year career has spanned writing, public relations, voiceover talent, event production and artist management. Artists managed include The Cranberry Show, Tapebenders, and B ALXNDR. Prior to her work at Catera, she wrote for various music publications including Urbanology, Relevant, and The Source. She currently serves on #IVOTED Board and MIlwaukee Theatre Alliance. Previous boardwork includes Above the Clouds, faith-based art and youth organization, Wisconsin Area Music Industry (WAMI) and Repairers of the Breach. She is also Radio Milwaukee’s 2021’s “Milwaukee Music Ambassador of the Year” and WAMI’s 2013 President’s Award recipient.

Global Industry Spotlight is a conversational series focused on providing resources and insight for the creative entrepreneur.

After studying languages and literature, Coralie worked in higher education. She then moved into start-ups, innovation and project management, with a focus on the media sector. Today, she has made content creation and management her passion. She coordinates events and logistics in her job by working as part of Wallifornia - an Entertainment & Technology hub based in Liège (Belgium), where startups, professionals & investors develop together the future of their industries.

Global Industry Spotlight is a conversational series focused on providing resources and insight for the creative entrepreneur.

Wavlake is a Chicago based music and podcast technology startup that uses bitcoin Lightning payment technology to help creators worldwide unlock more value from their work. The company has raised a pre-seed funding round led by Trammell Venture Partners. The investment will be used to build and market tools that enable a new wave of digital audio content that is integrated with open payment technology, allowing for creators worldwide to unlock more value from their content and giving them the ability to universally accept near instant payments.

Global Industry Spotlight is a conversational series focused on providing resources and insight for the creative entrepreneur.

Emily White is a Partner at Collective Entertainment and the Founder of #iVoted Festival. She is the author of the Amazon #1 best-selling "How to Build a Sustainable Music Career" and "Collect All Revenue Streams", and hosts the book’s accompanying podcast of the same name. The podcast is the #1 Music Business podcast globally, charting on six continents with listeners in 115+ countries.

Global Industry Spotlight is a conversational series focused on providing resources and insight for the creative entrepreneur.

Sharon Tapper is Executive Director of the Music Managers Forum-US (MMF-US). Former SVP Music Publishing at Razor & Tie Music Publishing and VP Creative at Kobalt. In 2008 elected to and served on the NY Chapter of the GRAMMY’s for multiple terms as both Governor and Secretary. She served six consecutive years as Co-Chair of the NY Chapter Advocacy Committee and remains an active member. In 2019 she was elected to serve on the NY Chapter of the Association of Independent Music Publishers (AIMP). Ten years ago, she Co-Founded the New York City Creative Community (NYC3).

Global Industry Spotlight is a conversational series focused on providing resources and insight for the creative entrepreneur.

Presented by Dell Tech for Startups 

Andrea Wallace (aka Super Dre) is an entrepreneur, a software developer, a musician and a creative. Wallace wears many hats and that’s the way she prefers it. As a natural relationship builder, connections with people have taken her all over the United States from Los Angeles to Detroit and now back to Grand Rapids.

In this episode we will be talking to Andrea about her tech company Opnr - a B2B, double-sided marketplace platform that uses data to connect musicians with concert organizers offering performance opportunities. Its easy-to-use, organized system professionally harnesses all relevant social media and music distribution channel data with the purpose of being to book opening performance opportunities for artists and help concert promoters and venues sell tickets.

Global Industry Spotlight is a conversational series focused on providing resources and insight for the creative entrepreneur.

Esau Melendez studied film & video at Columbia College in Chicago and soon after began working with the Spanish Broadcast Network, Telemundo, and WYCC. 
He has directed and produced various commercials and music videos with his production company, Clandestino Films Inc. The award-winning documentary Immigrant Nation!: The Battle for the Dream was featured on PBS nationwide and was funded by Latino Public Broadcasting in 2010. 
He was part of WGHB Producers academy in 2013, a fellow of Kartemquin diverse voices in 2015, and a classic member of New day films. 
In 2017 he produced a series of short documentaries for WTTW’s project Pilsen: My Neighborhood which illustrates stories of people who lived in Pilsen and made a positive impact in the community and also did work for the FIRSTHAND series on Segregation in Chicago.  
He recently finished editing the eighty-episode series The Chair for spirit used media. The Chair tells the story of the history of Catholicism in the United States.