Success Aches

On this episode, we have Clayton Blaha - Head of Partnerships at Audius. Audius is the leading decentralized music streaming platform. We dive into what “decentralized” means in relation to the current paradigm of “centralized” platforms. Clayton has a long background in music as a publicist at premiere PR firm Biz 3, a manager of the Grammy Nominated artist Matt Maeson and running partnerships at Audius where he’s secured some extremely important collaborations across the music industry in the spirit of pushing forward the adoption around decentralized music. We ran out of time and didn’t get to cover everything we wanted to but will be back soon with part 2.

We wanted to take some time to talk about this professional shift that's been taking place amongst a lot of people. We keep reading about "The Great Resignation" and the ways that we as a society have reimagined how we work. When thinking about our own careers, we've faced major changes in our business forcing us to rethink and reconsider how we spend our time. In it all seems to be a combination of working from home, traveling less, breaking unhealthy routines and more.

In this video, we were lucky enough to talk to Artist Manager Kate Cudbertson. Dropping out of high school at 15 to pursue work in general, Kate’s journey into music couldn’t be more organic. While working at a pub frequently visited by local acts in London, Kate was able to get a feel for a world that she wanted to be a part of. Starting as an intern/festival runner/etc. Kate was able to spin one job into another with zero technical qualification through sheer determination to figure out how to accomplish tasks at hand. Now managing artists like FKJ, The Sundrop Garden ((( O ))) and more, Kate has proven to genuinely focus her time representing artists that inspire her.

On this episode we have New York’s Best Kept Secret, Piff Marti. Piff is an Artist and Entrepreneur from New York, NY who’s had tremendous growth and success since the beginning of the pandemic. With a dedication to making an impact through the messaging around his music and content, Piff has created a series of DIY videos all shot and edited by himself on little to no budget that have seen real growth and engagement mainly through TikTok. We’ve been fans of what Piff has been building since we caught on. It’s very clear that he’s taking a different approach than 99% of the artists we watch but with his natural talent, marketing mindset and the focus on building the business around him, the sky is the limit. He is also the first artist to grace Success Aches!

In this episode, we talked to our good friend, Payne’s former teammate at UT, President & Co-Founder at the new premiere Austin fitness facility titled  “Kollective” and private trainer and physical rehabilitation expert to some of the world’s leading athletes, Jeremy Hills. (aka JHills). JHills takes us through his upbringing in Houston where he watched his older Brother rise to being one of the top athletes in the country -  receiving D1 offers from every major university, entertaining at-home visits from the world’s top coaches to almost losing it all due to injury to then bouncing back and beating the odds, graduating from the University of Texas, going pro, winning a Super Bowl and having an illustrious NFL career. We then dive into JHills own time as a collegiate athlete for the University of Texas Football Team and how he had to learn to adopt a team mentality even if it meant less playing time. After graduating and working a 9-5, even while making good money, he took a risk and dove heavily into the field of training. Combining his background as an athlete and passion for anatomy, JHill was able to start working with top tier athletes. After his good friend and NFL Superstar Earl Thomas suffered an injury coming off of an MVP season, Jeremy was able to convince Earl to give him a shot at helping him rehab so he could come back to the field faster. Persistence and earned confidence combined with his belief in his understanding of the human body, Jeremy was able to convince Earl to let him guide him and ultimately he led Earl through his rehab and got him back onto the field earlier than expected. Earl finished 2nd in the MVP voting that season and word got out that Jeremy was a driving factor behind Earl beating the odds. As Jeremy started training more athletes, he also learned how to build a business and ask himself the right questions while staying true to what he loves and why he does this in the first place. It’s clear that every day he’s committed to the process, education and growth. We’re excited to see where his journey goes and hope you enjoy this episode as much as we enjoyed filming it.

In this episode, we wanted to dive in and talk to each other about our relationship with mental health. While this is a very "popular" topic, it is a positive one and after having this conversation, we both felt like it's one that everyone deserves to have. During this conversation, we learned about how we have each struggled mentally, give praise to the younger generation for being more open and vulnerable than we felt like ours was growing up and examine our unique patterns when it comes to our internal conflicts.

0:00 – Intro 

2:51 – Payne’s Background with Mental Health 

4:40 – Mental Health in Music vs. Rest of the World 

6:58 – Gen Z Paving the Way 

9:37 – Emmanuel Acho & Lil Wayne’s Conversation 

13:00 – Being Vulnerable in Your Music & In Real Life 

14:27 – How Education Opened My Eyes to My Mental Health 

16:00 – Maintenance & Consistency  

17:18 – Going Through Something Common & Relatable 

19:10 – Athletes Setting New Milestones for The Future of Mental Health 

26:00 – The Consequences of Ignoring Yourself 

29:29 – Payne’s Patterns with Women 

32:20 – Not Living up to our Images of Success 

34:35 – Going to Therapy 

36:30 – Mental Health Triggers 

40:12 – Experiences with Suicidal Thoughts 

44:17 – Integrating Conversations into our Culture

On this episode, we chat with Dreamville's VP of Marketing and Co-Owner of The Fiends Derick Okolie. Derick's a staple in the Dreamville DNA. Meeting his client, best friend, Dreamville Artist and unofficial Dreamville Mayor Bas at the age of 13 years old led Derick to meet some of the other early Dreamville founders like J. Cole and J. Cole's Manager Ibrahim "IB" Hamad. Over the years, Derick's had to fill a variety of roles outside his normal work scope while representing Bas career and helping build the Dreamville brand. These experiences, coupled with Derick's eccentric brain as a master marketer has clearly been instrumental in pushing the Dreamville brand further towards becoming a monstrous Music, Sports & Entertainment powerhouse.

On this episode, we weave through the long and exciting career path of Amber Grimes. In addition to building her own businesses as a promoter, brand marketer, workout instructor and more, Amber has also held positions (some simultaneously) with Reebok, Nick Cannon, DefJam, K CAMP, Mike WiLL Made-It and Spotify. Now as the SVP of Creative at Capitol Records, Amber has become a master at delivering value for the large network of people around her and doing everything in her power to never disappoint. Relying on hustle, determination, manifestation, education and her desire to empower Women, Amber's journey is literally an example of someone who continuously identifies vision for what they want and then does what needs to be done to elevate into that role.

In this episode, we talked about some experiences going on the road. Payne's done all different types of tours (RV's, sedans, sprinters, tour busses, flying city-to-city) and we took some time revisiting those experiences and the pro's and con's that come with being on the road. Overall it's a unique way to live & work. It can provide a lot of positives (seeing new city's, meeting people and establishing relationships, etc.) but it can also be taxing on mental and physical health.

On this episode, Brittany Lewis takes us through her career path. From attending Howard University where she interned consistently with any company that caught her interest, landing a job with Russell Simmons & getting to interview Kendrick Lamar, J Cole, Lil Uzi Vert, The Migos, Chief Keef and many others, helping create & build Rap Caviar at Spotify and now working at YouTube Music and working actively on the #YouTubeBlack Voices Fund which is dedicated to spotlighting and growing Black creators and music on YouTube, Brittany has paved the way through a passionate commitment to culture.

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