Music Producer to LA Entrepreneur — How He Built Both | With Connor Treacy

You gotta always have something going on. You gotta always make sure that you got the momentum with you so that opportunities keep coming. It's hard to get the momentum going again. Once you have confidence, confidence leads to structure and then that leads to momentum. Once you get that going, you're unstoppable. Once you're on a roll, you gotta always have something else lined up because the second you take your foot off the gas, it- Somebody's coming behind you. Yeah, right? Welcome to From Underdog to Entrepreneur Building Dreams podcast with Pat Miller, the podcast for entrepreneurs who were counted out and still built it anyway. Let's get into today's episode. Welcome back to From Underdog to Entrepreneur Building Dreams. I'm your host, Pat Miller. I'm also the owner of Blue Diamond Construction here in New Jersey, building New Jersey communities one building at a time. So every week I like to have on successful entrepreneurs to tell their story of where they came from, what happened in the middle and where they are now to teach the next generation or inspire a little bit about entrepreneurship and the journey on getting there. So today I'm very happy to welcome Connor Tracy. Connor is the CEO of Connor Tracy LLC, where he helps build talent, brands, cultural partnerships across music, entertainment, hospitality, and civic engagement. He is also currently completing his MBA at USC Marshall. Wow. Busy guy. Welcome. How you doing? Just finished the MBA too. Oh, congrats. My graduation's Friday. Oh, that's awesome. That is not easy. Congratulations. A lot of math, a lot of accounting, and a lot of statistics. Oh, wow. Okay. Yeah. That's a good thing. MBAs are good. Yeah, yeah, right. Right. right i um i say i tell people that ask uh especially like entrepreneur type people i say uh maybe wait to do the nba a little bit because it takes the peter pan out of you i feel like before before i was just like doing ventures and not really like thinking about it that much and then now i'm like a lot more like oh well like what's the roi on it what's the you know what i mean so i'm a lot less yeah a little more structured right yeah yeah yeah yeah yeah Yeah. Yeah. It makes you think more about the bottom line, but that's good. What made you go back? You just wanted to put another feather in your cap or you want to do something? Um, no, I, um, I originally, I originally dropped out of school when I was, um, like 21. Um, cause my business just kind of took off. I became friends with a couple of like pretty big celebrities and, um, my like nightlife business took off. And so I dropped out of school got like a house in Hollywood and kind of did the deal like that. And then I think it was like later when I started working at like Universal Music Group when I was like, I got hired when I was like 24, I kind of started to realize I was like, Okay, like, I'm gonna kind of always be the person that just knows people or you know, I mean, and so yeah, yeah, I felt like if I didn't go back and do the school part, then I'd probably hit a ceiling. Right. So I want to talk about that. Let's talk about that. I read that in your bio. Yeah. Your origin story. You co-founded Off Sunset. Yeah. So if anybody knows out there what it is, it is a it was I don't know if it still is. I don't I'm dating myself. One of Hollywood's most exclusive nightlife venues. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. I opened that with like four other partners when I was 28. um yeah and um it it was like a huge hit i mean yeah it was like a 150 capacity like speakeasy type vibe but it was on the sunset strip and yeah i mean every celebrity that you could probably think of probably was there like within that like two to three year time frame it was i was a part of it for like three years it's still open i think for like private events and stuff like that but yeah i'm not involved in it anymore all right so that was huge at 28 yeah no wonder why you didn't want to go to school yeah yeah yeah no i um it was well it was a fluke kind of i didn't even think that that that off sunset was going to be a hit so it was interesting but um so is that where you left there and you you said you worked for i was no no no i so this is the timeline so i i basically um you know I started doing events when I was like 19 and um you know it started off more as like me going on Google booking artists talking to their manager then renting out a venue and selling like tickets on Facebook event page like that's yeah and I was paying for it with money I was getting from being a tennis coach. So yeah, yeah, yeah. Like I wasn't getting help at all from like my family. Yeah, yeah. It was just like I was just in college and it was it was like really nerve wracking in the beginning because, you know, just to like break down one example, like, you know, if you book like an artist, you're paying at least like 2500 to 5k, then you probably have like a 5k bar minimum then on top of that you have to pay a couple djs and then etc etc all of a sudden like you're on the hook for you know 10 15 20k and so if you don't hit that there was like sometimes where i'd make money and then sometimes i'd lose money and you know even being down 5k when you're like 19 that's like that's like a big huge mountain to look at yeah what made you start all that? It's like you always had this entrepreneurial dream. I wasn't, I wasn't trying to be an entrepreneur. I just went off of like a feeling. Like I just, it started like I did like a party on my 19th birthday in someone's backyard and I just kind of liked how it felt. And then I just kept like building on it. And then like a half year after that birthday party, I was already doing what I explained. Yeah. So it like it grew pretty fast. And then, yeah, by the time I was like 21, I was already like I became kind of like the promoter for all the new generation like Hollywood celebrities. celebrities and so um it happened quick yeah yeah so it i don't know i my path i guess was like non-linear but i i feel like in entertainment you kind of just have to like go with where the momentum is right right and it's wherever the paths are crossing right you're just yeah so wherever you are at a party talk to this person that creates that opportunity i talk about that all the time, Connor. Yeah. You got to get out there. You got to talk to people because you never know one day to the next what opportunities is going to cross your path. So where did you, where's the timeline with A&R and Universal? Is that after? Yeah, yeah, yeah. So, so then basically I became like the premier, probably like promoter in Hollywood during that time for my age. I was doing like one oak town group like all the big spots i was bringing out everybody and i'm assuming that universal music group hired me because i knew all these artists and celebrities directly so then they wanted yeah yeah yeah and so they wanted kind of like someone young like in the culture that knew artists and could put together songs and so that's how it happened i didn't like apply to work there i didn't even yeah i didn't even think that like working in music was in the cards you know what i mean so that's incredible i mean you're a perfect example of life making choices for you so yeah to me this is crazy how you just went from one thing to the next and they're smart because you were younger you know the groups you know the kids and the the no the no actors actress whatever uh musicians and you had your finger on the pulse so i talk about that a lot as well your contacts right contacts are your most valuable thing so they wanted your contacts but they did it subliminally they had you right and they had you do it so smart good business yeah so you you so that went very well for a while right yeah so so i worked there for two years from like fall of 2017 to like fall of 2019. And the first artist I started with, like, was this artist named Youngblood, who's like a big, he's like a big rock act. He just got a Grammy this year for working on a, I think, I think it was like for best live performance or something that with Ozzy. And so yeah, I started with him when he had like one song out and like 2000 followers and then yeah and then and then I also uh discovered this producer like at a house party and started managing him and I got him placed on Dua Lipa's album future nostalgia and that got a Grammy so both of them both ended up winning Grammys yeah but but the craziest thing is like at the time like I literally was just hoping that I didn't fail because then I'd look like the promoter that tried to work in music and flopped you know so it was always yeah it was a little more pride right it was always just like high stakes I felt like you know especially because I had dropped out like there wasn't like a safety net I yeah it felt almost like I was like a rapper or something like that like I had to keep putting out hits in order to stay alive otherwise like yeah that's and that's maybe part of why I wanted to do the school stuff and then also like uh what i was starting to like notice when i was working at the label right so i get that especially in that industry everybody's whispering right um they're waiting for you to fall they're waiting right that's right nobody wants to be that's right and that's a tough industry so you know they're just they you don't want to be the flesh in the pan so the good stories though how you you just kept building and building and building and based on your your experiences of where you are who you met but you must you have the Midas touch two Grammys I it it I guess in like retrospect but there's been a ton of things I've done that failed too you know it was more just yeah yeah yeah it was more just you know I've been sober like since I was 19 and like I all I do is think about work right so I guess you know it's like if you're kind of like in that matrix or whatever maybe you're like more likely to have success with it or something but yeah it look looking back now it looks like that but during the time like it was like every day I was just worried about like losing it all or like yeah I get it I get it I always talk about that I'm older now. And I say, if I have one regret, I would not worry as much. That's what I would say. Yep. That's what I would say. You too, right? You worry so much. It takes the thunder out of what you're doing. You're doing what you fuck. I didn't enjoy it at all when I was at the feet of it. I was at the biggest record label probably in the world at the hottest clubs. And all I was thinking about was new people coming along to take my spot or the people I was working with falling off or me not. You know what I mean? Yeah, it just takes over. I really enjoy it. Yeah, the whole paranoia, you know, it sucks. It's part of business. And you always, like, man, I mean, we're from two different worlds. But when I finish a job, I worry about getting another one. Because every time I finish a job, I'm unemployed. I build buildings, right? I build commercial buildings. nobody's handing them to me so i always have that in back of my head all right i got a bit stuff this one only has three weeks left and you start worrying where's the next one coming you know the story you know you got to keep going to keep the money in so but it's good for you at least you were not drinking whatnot partying because that's a huge party scene that you're involved in you were awfully young so yeah yeah it um i don't know i always like compare it to like being like a top athlete or something like that i feel like in order to like really last like i don't know how it would be possible not to be you know right yeah well that's the problem right the people that open bars when they start doing you know it's like anything else you don't do your own stuff Right You can get involved because you get you get caught up And then that the beginning of the end when you start you know when you sit at the bar every day It not good You know that not good because your head not clear Can't think about business. But then, you know, you are the opposite. You weren't drinking, but you were always thinking about business. So you're on the hamster wheel, I call it the hamster wheel of entrepreneurship. Constantly thinking about what's going on and what can I do? what what can i start and how can i make money doing this that's me anyway i think it's just being an entrepreneur no hamster wheel yeah god the hamster wheel that's what it is yeah where we go next it's like okay stop and get off take a break for a little bit so your story is incredible you pivoted a few times you reinvented and it seems like most of your reinvention and your industry was relationship building, right? Yeah, no, it, um, it's crazy. I, anything that I've gotten for the most part was not for applying to something or it's always been someone hitting me up about an opportunity for the most part. I mean, you know, I, I'll say this, I spend my whole day slash whole life thinking about work and like how to kind of improve it so it's not like I'm just some guy like hanging outside of a restaurant waiting for you know what I mean it's just yeah I've been on that mindset but it's always always for the most part stuff where I was approached by people in my orbit or yada yada and that's like off sunset was like that uh the label was like that like certain that you know i mean so but you gotta at the same time kind of make your own momentum and heat so you're kind of in the contention for that people are you gotta be you gotta yeah it's the same as you like if if there's like a huge building project coming you just have to be the main person that's doing that at that time so you're the first person people think of that's right yeah that's exactly right because then you put a feather i call it putting a feather in your cap right so you know you it's it's you know recognition by assimilation oh i remember her you know or you know i remember him he started off sunset so it's not a bad thing but look every chapter has an ending then you turn the page and something new comes along right it happens in my industry i just do different sectors of constructive construction so your relationship building you actually everything you did seems to be unconventional super unconventional winged the whole thing didn't have like one mentor that took me all the way there had a lot of people that helped me though along the way and i didn't really have like someone to base it off of i thought in the beginning i was going to be kind of like a like a festival type person because i was was doing like 500 or a thousand capacity rooms you know yeah so i thought i would eventually do like big concerts or it's yeah and so it totally turned into something else so yeah isn't that something how things change it's just meant to be it's just it's just what you're supposed to be doing yeah i i find it fascinating how how life unfolds maybe maybe it's just me but you're you think you're concentrating on one thing and they got plans for you to do something else right yeah did with you did you have was it the same with you or you're doing right now what you always thought you're going to be doing no i didn't want to be i didn't want to own a construction company i talk about all the time i have a degree in accounting and a minor in business and i worked into my late husband's business because he wasn't going to go into accounting so i used my background in business and I grew up on a farm market you know I tell the story in my book if you can karma's ass how I had to do math at five years old so I got really good at working with people so young so I kind of use I talk about that all the time Connor you use what you learn in your older times and you know when you get older in business so I use all that stuff I call it you know like military training yeah working hard learning math we're learning to build with people and then My husband was always unemployed. I said, I'm not doing this anymore. So I started the construction company. I actually wanted to own a flower shop. I talk about that all the time. I swore I was going to be a florist, right? I wanted to do that. Horticulture I took in school, but it just didn't, it wasn't in the cards. I was supposed to morph into his industry. I started a business. He got laid off for the hundredth time from the unions. And I said, I can't live like this. Our son's two years old so i took a hundred dollars out of his layoff check and i started a company no way swear to god so i went to the local this was before vista print i tell everybody i'm in my 60s now yeah i took a hundred bucks which was a lot i think his layoff check was 442 or something he wanted to kill me because we needed formula and diapers right and i said i'm not living like this i'm controlling our future i went to a print shop in point pleasant new jersey down by the beach and I got flyers and business cards and I just drove every empty store, every empty office building because he was a commercial carpenter. And we got our first job building a workout world in Brick, New Jersey. I tell the story. So I haven't looked back. So a hundred dollar bill is if you want to call that the American dream, so be it. I called it anger and determination. I wanted to control my own future I got tired always being on unemployment you know when I was a young mother I said I'm not doing this anymore and I was able to have the flexibility to raise my two sons so it worked out but like you said it wasn't all easy you know I tell a story in my book about all the crap I went through you know how you get sued you know things happen in business it's not always easy so lawsuits yeah the lawsuits are ridiculous right i got super wrongful death have nothing to do with it one of the carpenters was killed somebody in atlantic city they're they're trying to join you know hiring a non-home trying to just link to the employer but you know you learn it's all about learning and applying what you learn you know if i knew now what i if i knew then what i know now is that saying yeah i'd be a lot I would be a lot further along the way, but it's meant to happen. You're supposed to learn, but that's how I got started. I didn't have that on my bingo card to be a construction company owner. And then I was in business with my husband. He got cancer. I took two years off. I went broke for a million dollars in debt and he passed away and I had to restore it. So my father, God rest his soul, always told me, Patty, stick to what you know. That's where you make your most money. so i was like all right am i going to go back to being a bookkeeper making 25 an hour or am i going to get out of this bed and rebuild my career construction company in my own name at 52 years old and that's what i did maybe to 100 hours a week i rebuilt the company and it's doing pretty good let's go yeah yeah so it's all about luck connor you know when you're in the corner you got to get out of the corner yeah life is just going to beat you up so i i tell this story all the time i would have loved to stay in bed and do nothing and cry but i couldn't you know it wasn't a bad time in my life everybody has them i swear they do my turn to marry the cross so my story this this interview is about you but i lost my brother my mother my father my husband in three years so that's reality you know you um you get a mortality check real quick and you realize that life is not what you thought it was yeah like you said you're in the matrix like i said you're on the hamster wheel sometimes you have to take a step back review your life figure out what your strong points are what your weak points are try to meld them together and rebuild your life. And that's what I did. I did a lot of soul searching, my friend. Yeah. Yep. Yep. So that's a crazy story too, right? Yeah, no, I feel like, um, I feel like that's always when I did the best though, where like I was all in it like that, like how you're like, yeah, when you're, when you're in the corner, like, like that's, that's how I felt when I had originally dropped out of college and I just put all the money I had into this house and I was just doing the promotion stuff and it was just like this has to work otherwise I'm done right you know it's true in your darkest hours is when um you see the light yeah that's my opinion so you know adversity you gotta turn that fear and the adversity into power and it gets to a point I think I still think it's got a lot to do with anger you know you know you get cornered i was angry i was like why are all these people dying right you get a little angry but you have to turn that adversity into power and just say i'm gonna do this shit everybody counted me out yeah the point of proving people wrong she'll never run that company without him i was like oh yeah watch me so like you did yeah and my dad used to tell me that he's the eighth grade education i talk about my father all the time he always said when you get older you're going to look back and your most successful times in your career are going to be your hardest times and he's right he was so right the hardest times during your your your time and even he said with your marriage as well i don't know if you're married he said you're going to remember the hard times as being the most memorable sitting why well because they're memorable right you didn't have any money when i was first married to my husband. We sat on the floor. We had no chairs, right? He would bring home the electrical coils from work. We use them for coffee tables. You remember all that stuff. Yeah. That's the cloth, the thread that weaves you as a person. You're humble. Yeah. So your humble beginnings are, you know, you don't lose that. I don't. I remember exactly where I came from, you know, and he's right. You kind of remember that stuff. You remember where you came from and how hard it was and that you don't want to go back there yeah right it drives you to succeed you don't want to live like that i talk about that a lot too i grew up in a hot 1800s era farmhouse and we had one fan with nine people i'll never live without air conditioning ever ever i'll sit in my car with the air conditioning on yeah before i go without air it's just you know you learn from like oh god I'll never do that. That was hot. Right. So yeah, it's just part of what makes us who we are. So what are you doing now? You still teaching tennis? What are you doing? Tell me what's going on. So I, um, I just finished the MBA. Um, and then I have a management company. So I manage a bunch of, uh, DJs, artists, um, influencers, and I do deals and stuff like that as well. So I'll probably build out my management company more after this nice okay yeah i've been like i've been like half working half not while i've been doing how can you when you're doing yeah it's a lot of work yeah yeah so now i'm gonna go full into it full management yeah so you you have people working for you i would imagine no yeah yeah yeah hold on loosely don't let go 38 special right yeah the famous song yeah i have i have less employees now though than the nightclub but the music the management business you really just need like an assistant and then if like you know i mean it's not like that much it's just like a different do that with ai yeah that's what i'm saying yeah the the nightlife business there's a lot of moving pieces you need like bartenders security djs vip hosts like promoters that sounds like a lot of work a lot of work a lot of work a lot of uh liability yeah so that's not that road's been detoured back to what you're doing now right management i i yeah so to get back to the story or whatever i i did this stuff with youngblood and the producer and i kind of just i had this feeling i was like you know i feel like in order to like take it to the next level i have to leave here and build up my own name because otherwise i'm just going to stay at this company and keep developing projects for them that they own and yeah and then eventually if one of them doesn't hit i'll probably get fired you know what i mean so i was like yeah by the way i i don i don have a problem with i i actually had like a great setup at the label and I grateful for the opportunity I just feel like you know in order to It time to move on Yeah yeah I just felt like in order to get to the next level I had to build up my own name and then maybe I re-enter it at a later point or something like that. So that was kind of where my mindset was at. And then COVID hit like three months after, three months after I left, I had originally, I had left just to become a full-time music manager. and so covet hit and uh it meant like no night clubs no touring no restaurants like my whole like entertainment was just shut down in general um and then yeah i was hit up about off sunset sometime in that i may have even been hit up about off sunset before covet hit and then when covet did hit i was like oh well it's not gonna happen and then maybe like it started becoming like a topic of conversation again like like around like january 2021 because then it opened it opened like august 2021 right when covid was ending like we still were having like cotton swab people's noses and stuff like oh my god were you yeah yeah we were letting people in so that's how early yeah and so i will i'll say this too i guess um originally when i was a big promoter my my dream or my goal then was to become a nightclub owner and at that time then that didn't end up happening it'd be a record label yeah and then i left the record label wanting to be a music manager and then i became a nightclub owner so it's just that's like oh my god that's so crazy yeah go figure right yeah yeah you're all crisscrossing that's crazy so it's like all right stop turn go back you're doing this what i'm saying i don't i don't even try to make sense of my life anymore it's just like you know what you better off let go just let go and let the universe take control you're gonna i say it all the time connor you're gonna wind up exactly where you're supposed to be yeah i hope so you will bless me on this i'm older than you just let it go hold on loosely uh learn use use what you learn use your experiences and um just keep building you know follow what you what's in your heart you'll know all you got so it'll all work out so that's good i mean you're still working i mean you're using everything that you used over all these bumps you know for management so you're still doing what you want to do yeah yeah yeah so business is better now. I mean, that COVID killed a lot of businesses, especially there was no concerts. It was nothing. Oh, it was even sports. I don't think there was no, like they were playing football with nobody in the stadium. It's like so stupid. I've, I've always been like hyper aware of, um, just like the future and certain things. And I kind of always, cause I missed 08. Cause I was, I was like in I graduated high school like in 2011. So I would have been like, what, in ninth grade or 10th grade, like in 08 when that happened. Yeah. Yeah. So I didn't, I didn't experience the recession as an adult. So I kind of always like was thinking, I was like, man, I wonder what it's going to be like going through a recession as an adult. And so I kind of yeah. And so I don't I I mean, I'm sure, I mean, obviously there'll be more recessions in the future, but I feel like COVID in particular, I can't imagine it getting worse than that for my particular business. Cause that was just like a hard shut. Yeah. That was, uh, that was tough for your industry. Yeah. So going forward, the way I look at it, like how you talk about going through hard times, like I, I feel like I went through maybe like the worst gut punch as far as a recession that affected my industry. You know what I mean? unless there was like a ginormous like earthquake or something in LA, but like, you know what I mean? I'm sorry for laughing. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. It's a good analogy. You know, everything falls apart. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. But you're like almost, you're almost my son's age. He graduated. Yeah. I'm 33. So my son just turned 32. So he didn't experience it either. He watched his parents experience. I brought my business to four recessions. So let's come over. Well, I'm in business 32 years. So it's a, look, it's, it's just keeps, it's going to happen. It's just, it's, you know, it's a trend. Was 08 the hardest for you? 08, no, 99. What was, I had to move to Florida. When I moved to Florida, my son, 89, 90, and 91 were pretty bad. We had to move out of New Jersey to Florida. of you know we were chasing work that's when everybody i think that was the recession when everybody was jumping out the windows in wall street there really yeah yeah it was really bad so that was bad 0809 was bad um i actually had to close my union company because a lot of bigger companies went out of business so they were trying to they were leaving the smaller because i'm a sub. So, you know, the developers and the GCs, they were going out of business. So that would, in turn, you know, shit flows downhill. They were leaving us subs and the material people with all the bills. So that was tough, but you know, it makes you stronger. I survived. I rebuilt. You just learn. You know, I talked to another guy that, um, in the industry and he's like, Well, the second time you build it, you already know how to do it. You do it that much quicker because you've already experienced how to do all this. You know, and sometimes we're victims of the economy and the circumstances out there in the world. But you learn how to use what you learn the first time, first go around, and you just get it up and running a little bit quicker. That's all. You know, there's not much you can do about it. You just got to absorb it and keep moving. So, unfortunately, that's part of the market. It goes up and down. I don't know how much control we have over it. I'm going to be honest with you, Connor. It seems to be, you know. Yeah. You know, it seems to be on point every few years. But that's all you can do. I'm in an industry, though, that's an indicator. So, a lot of the people I work for are large corporations, developers. So, the money's from the market, right? So I'm an indicator. So when things go bad, a lot of the guys that invest call me. They're like, are you bidding stuff? Because I'm usually two years out. Architects are two years out. So I kind of know what's going on. If we're not bidding anything, it's not going to be good, right? There's no work coming in. Architects are two years ahead. I'm a year ahead. So if the architects aren't drawing anything right now, 28 is not going to be busy, right? Yeah. So it's an indicator. You figure out who's spending money where. And then you look at the different types of jobs coming across your desk. And, you know, these are all little things you pick up over the years. And you see what the trends are. You know, when Amazon came around, all of a sudden retail came to a screeching halt. There was no drawings coming for a retail anymore. You know, the brick and mortars, I used to do big box. I generally do larger skill jobs. So I was like, all right, we got to pivot. it so we got to go into health care because there's a ton of you know dialysis and walk-in clinics and all that stuff so you got to keep moving with the trends so you kind of you angle your your business that way just like you know right you went from nightclubs to music music right that's a nightclubs now i just had a guy on the other day i don't know if you're you're familiar with him john petrocelli okay he's not a live streamer he just got done doing coachella yeah yeah really nice guy he's got his finger on the pulse of what's going on um he's got a live stream he's it man that's what he told me he's like pat you gotta start live streaming i said okay i go you gotta represent me john yeah get a big thing for um he's really like his He's watched the show when it comes out or listened to it. He was telling me about all the trends, right? He just did a big thing for Caterpillar. And they did a live stream. It was contests with all the large equipment. And he's given me all these stats with live streaming. He works for all the big Fortune 500 companies. You know, Apple, Amazon, Hyundai, Coca-Cola, Qualcomm. He does all the big stuff. And live streaming is it. People want to see it. live yeah okay when are you gonna start doing live i want to i don't know my girls my communication firm keeps saying you gotta go live because i'm in like i told john i'll tell you you don't watch hgtv right connor it's women and doing kitchens and baths i build commercial buildings so john's like you gotta go live on the job site there's nobody out there like you yeah you're laying out lines with pink fingernails and you're you're putting a building together and people would love that so it's just finding the time i'm doing this podcast you know i just i'm finishing up writing a second book i'll have a little bit of free time maybe in the fall you know you can only do so much right how much so much water goes into a class yeah so i wrote one book i just finished up my second book about business um the podcast is doing very well we've been top 25 on apple for probably four weeks now so people want to hear stories like yours and like john's and how things took a shit and you restarted and you just pull from your experiences and they want to hear about it they want to hear about all the success stories right it's good to hear your success my success but where did it come from yeah right like you tell a very interesting story everything kind of I don't know did it fall in your lap I don't know did it fall in your lap no I don't think so you still acted on it you still have talent took insane risks you did yeah insane insane risks with no there wasn't like a clear payoff for any of it either like like when I was doing the events originally i didn't know that even there was a celebrity 21 plus night scene and i didn't know that you would just get paid to bring those people you know what i'm saying so it was just my mindset even back then it was like why am i putting up like 15 or 20k for these concerts when i'm sometimes losing all of it you know what i mean so you were building your business really yeah but at the time i was like 19 so i didn't even know that was a thing it's true you're like such a baby yeah i was just going off gut yeah you're going off gut but look no risk no reward yeah so you took the risk sometimes it works out just like my industry you know you got to take the lumps some jobs are very profitable some are break even some you lose a little bit look it's an averaging game right let's hope that they all don't average the red on the red side so there's always a good job that comes along i always say that every once in a while a blind squirrel finds a nut yeah right i like that one yeah every once in a while right it's like oh it's a good one we're gonna make good money on this one like yay i'm the blind squirrel yeah you are i think you are and i'm like the german shepherd in the yard clothes squirrels It's like, okay, I'm going to do this. I'm going to write a book. I'm going to do a podcast. And there's another squirrel. That's a good one. Well, I'm happy you're doing well. I mean, the business is good. But what a story. I mean, your story is incredible. It really is. Yeah, it feels more knock on wood, like steady now. Because I have the credits and the plaques and the degrees or whatever. So now it's a bit more like stable. but um and you're getting older so yeah yeah yeah I think um I think the the good part about being older like being in the business like 10 years plus is you kind of have just gone through it so I always feel like I get bigger as the years go by it's just I know that you know there's some years like this some like this like so I know that right I just kind of understand the flow of it now So I don question my life as much Yeah but you learned a lot Didn you learn a lot Yeah no no I feel like I happy now it went the way it did because it wasn't just like a straight shot for me. You know, it was a lot of hits, misses, ups, downs, times where I thought it was over, times where I made dramatic posts on Facebook saying I was done and I wasn't going to do it anymore. and then it took off right yeah yeah yeah so negativity oh yeah i'm aware he's done oh yeah oh yeah i definitely i did that when i was like 19 or 20 i was like appreciate all the support guys done no i'm out peace yeah peace out trust me i'm in an industry where they all want me to sell it's over we're not doing it They're like, oh, I wish that bitch would get out of here. Yeah. They're like, yes. Yeah, get rid of her. She keeps stealing all our work. Never count us out, Connor. Don't count us out. Then we come back even stronger. So you're still in LA. You're LA based, right? Yeah. I've lived here my whole life. um i i was doing a lot more traveling before like especially when i worked at the label and all that type of stuff because i would travel with young blood a lot to like shows and stuff but um i wouldn't be opposed to working somewhere else that the opportunity came about but for the most part i'm i'm just a talent manager that lives in la so it kind of wouldn't really make sure yeah i tell my kids you know my one son he's kind of anchored with his job but it's such a big country and times have changed you can do anything you want you can you could do zooms and you can get a little you know desk somewhere you know how's cali treating you cali's not popular right now so yeah no cali's not and it's it's so crazy because i remember when i first started i used to have to like drive all around to like meet people and now i can just do zooms like this all the time isn't it something yeah there's been some times where i've managed an artist and i didn't even meet them for the first like two years of me working with them in person i've been doing that i manage maybe like eight people right now that i've never met in real life because they're djs all over the world it's something yeah i mean that's just the world we live in i mean even they like when i was when my husband was alive i did all the office back in work and i would work with because a lot of corporate um retail stores are from out of state yeah and they build all over the country so that i would be on the phone with them i never met them before i did business with one company over 20 years i never met them yeah which is different i never even saw them on zoom it was emails and phone calls back then so i mean it it happens it's just the industry and the in the business um world that we live in but there's nothing wrong with it I mean, I guess you could fly. You're young enough to fly around the world again. Yeah. Meet them, but it's not necessary. Oh, yeah. I turned 34 in November. Uh-oh. 40's knocking on the door, kid. Yeah, right? You got plenty of time. You're so young. Oh, my goodness. You got a bright future, Connor. I hope. I hope. You learned a lot young and it didn't burn you out because a lot of younger kids your age doing what you did, 19, 20s, would have taken a different path and you stayed grounded. So I think you're going to do okay. You made it through all that because it's very easy to slip up and join the party, right? Yeah. Yeah. You can't do that if you're in business. You got to stay focused. You just got to stay grounded, clear headed. So you're doing the right thing. Let's go. Yeah, let's go, man. Got to turn negative into positive. You're doing all right. Yeah. So what's next for you? Just continue to construct your management company. People can find you on LinkedIn. I'm on LinkedIn. I'm on my website. I'm on Instagram. Basically anything. But yeah, I just I'm going to keep managing bigger and bigger people. and are you gonna go start with another vertical you think you're just gonna stay straight um or you think you're gonna add something yeah i i i'm trying to like hone in the identity to make it super simple but you know i obviously have deal flow from other things where it's like you know sometimes i'll get paid to like put together like a deal where it's like a celebrity that has like a food brand and I'll make an intro with some other person and I'll take a piece of that or I've helped like get early on companies um that were like a startup and I take like salary equity to help build them up and like make connections for them so I've done other deals like that but I think that the engine probably should be management and then from there the bigger and bigger people that I work with, um, I can, you know, get deal flow off of it in other ways, whether it be like a hospitality company or a CPG company or anything in that kind of realm, you know, I think you're doing the right thing. Don't let all the other stuff. It's always good to have a little extra money and you never know where that's going to lead. Yeah. No, you never know. You might be managing Pat Miller. Yeah. Right. I might, I might be managing Pat Miller and that might that might be my biggest client I love it I got a lot going on you never know yeah yeah I have a few things I want to do before I leave this hurts but it's not all about money when you get older it's about um leaving a legacy you know yeah so people talk about you after you're done in a positive manner how you get back I always say it's not always about making money is about making the difference and i believe that i know it sounds fluff but when you get older you know i got 20 you got 30 years on you so you're gonna you're hopefully you'll understand where i'm going with this yeah i'm giving back and things you know when you give back things come back to you easy so it's just the cycle of the universe you know it's the way the universe works. Yang, yang, yang. You get what you give. So it's balance. Yeah, yeah, yeah. So that's my story on that. But what a conversation. I'm really, I'm glad you reached out to me. It's a pleasure having you. I'm talking almost an hour now. But it's a great story for the younger generation listening, how you take what was given to you and you made something out of it. And then one chapter ended and another one opened and you just kept going and good for you now you have an MBA that's really good to have yeah it um I feel like it's good it um kind of gets rid of just the entertainment stigma and then also taught me to kind of not just go off of gut with situations you know and look at also the numbers like you said in the beginning it makes yeah yeah yeah yeah makes you think a little bit more now i know uh i know some accounting some statistics some macroeconomics i love statistics when i was really yeah i loved it was hard for you you didn't like it the hard part for me um is they make you do a lot of like coding now in the MBA where yeah yeah they'll give you like a 10,000 row sheet of data and then you have to create code and type it up through like SAS studio tab or Python all of that never be able to do that my friend yeah and I didn't have a background in that at all and it felt like every week in one of the in one of the stats classes I had to keep learning a new program and I was like I don't know if I can do this. So it's good. Maybe it's a good thing, though. Look at the world we live in. Yeah. Everything. It's good. If I worked at like a label now, I could put in someone's stats and show like. Wow. Where to connect the most in different countries. Or maybe if I had the construction company, I could see kind of like which client or biting more. Yeah. Yeah. And show it on a scattered plot or whatever. So I see why they're teaching that. Yeah. In the MBA program. i can i get it that's a whole nother thing going on with this ai this is everything's different now it really is it's just incredible that everything's different different mindsets different way of promoting doing business advertising it's just it's it's makes you dizzy yeah it does every week it's something different i'm like all right whatever just that's why i hire people yeah yeah I don't want to be bothered. It's like too much. It's like, it's overwhelming. And that is one. I've had a lot of guests on my show with AI. These guys are brilliant. And that same thing over and over. They said it changes constantly. Like what we're using this week. We didn't use last week. I'm like, that's, that's too much work. Yeah. You got to keep track. So anyway, what's last thing? What's your best piece of advice for a young entrepreneur? Yeah. best piece of advice yeah um well with it right man you gotta always you gotta always have uh something you gotta always have i guess something going on you know you gotta always make sure that you got the momentum with you yeah so that um the opportunities keep coming don't it's hard it's hard to get the momentum going again once you have it yeah i talk about momentum a lot it's critical once you have confidence confidence leads to structure and then that leads to momentum once you get that going you're unstoppable yeah momentum is huge it really is it's kinetic isn't it it's like energy it's just once you're on a roll you gotta always have something else lined up because the second you take your foot off the gas it uh somebody's coming behind you yeah right yep that's that hamster wheel again connor yeah the hamster wheel all right it's good advice god i always have something going on if you want to have money coming in to pay the bills it's all part of the game right yeah all right so i'm gonna sign off i appreciate you stopping by if there's anything else you want to talk about let me know i think we covered everything you got some uh some history in your career and i think your future is going to be even better i appreciate it stay in touch with me i want to know what's coming on yeah yeah yeah no for sure if you're ever in la uh shoot me an email i've never been to california well if you ever do uh yeah let me know everybody tells me there's another woman that i do business with she's like you got to come out and i'm like i really want to get to california especially napa i like wine so yeah yeah yeah yeah so i'll hit you up but stay in touch i'm gonna sign off stay on until it's uploaded i appreciate you coming again great story i appreciate you sharing it because it's so important to share stories on every level so i wish you nothing but luck so stick around all right same all right i'll see you later see two next week i'm gonna have another guest on with another great story about how they became the entrepreneur in the industry they're in. And in the meantime, remember, if I can do it, so can you. I'm just a girl from Jersey. We'll see you next week. Thanks for tuning in. Grab your free underdog playbook at patmiller.net forward slash newsletter and leave us a five-star rating on Apple or Spotify if you loved my episode today. I'm Pat Miller. And remember, if I can do it, so can you. I'm just a girl from Jersey. We'll see you next week. Marketing is hard. But I'll tell you a little secret. It doesn't have to be. Let me point something out. You're listening to a podcast right now, and it's great. You love the host. You seek it out and download it. You listen to it while driving, working out, cooking, even going to the bathroom. Podcasts are a pretty close companion. And this is a podcast ad. Did I get your attention? You can reach great listeners like yourself with podcast advertising from Libsyn Ads. 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