Episode #5 Latabia Woodward - Offset’s Mother, Tech Founder & Creating the World’s Next Superstars

Written By liz hagelthorn

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On this episode of Girl Gone Viral hosted by Liz Hagelthorn, Tech Founder & Entrepreneur Latabia Woodward (MAMA) is here! Latabia Woodward is business manager and mother to Offset, global superstar and one-third of the Grammy-nominated, platinum-selling group, Migos. 



Latabia joins Liz to discuss her decade long career working in tech, what it takes to be a global superstar and how her new music competition platform, “Who’s Got Next?” will help more artists get discovered, retain the services and exposure they actually need, all while maintaining creative control and equity. Then, Latabia shares advice for artists on how they can avoid pitfalls, social media advice and oversharing and what the typical day looks like for a business manager. Next, Latabia shares her thoughts on Web3 and Offset’s deal flow. Lastly, Latabia and Liz discuss the role of celebrities as investors and what Silicon Valley tech startups get wrong when working with major superstars. 



Latabia can be found at:

☆ https://twitter.com/latabiaw 

☆ https://www.instagram.com/landkshaw/ 


Follow Who’s Got Next? 

☆ https://twitter.com/whosgotnxtmusic 

☆ https://www.instagram.com/whosgotnextmusic/ 



Follow & Subscribe to Girl Gone Viral 

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Full Transcript

Please note, the below transcript is computer generated so there may be spelling, grammar or other errors. 


[00:00:00] Liz:
Welcome. I'm very, very excited to have you. Will you tell me your official title?
[00:00:07] Latabia: I am offsets business manager. I actually co-manage him with Damian Smith now. So Damien is his music manager. So I dabble in both, but I'm officially his business manager.
[00:00:19] Liz: Okay. And what's the role of a business manager versus a music manager
[00:00:23] Latabia: Well, the first thing I would say is that the business manager role is one where you're really handling finances. That's really what You're in charge of. So, you are responsible for budgeting and planning, tax planning, deal flow lots of deal flow reviews of proposals and such.
So when I came on to offsets team, he really wanted me to come in and help him with understanding His financials as it related to his deal. But as we got further into the relationship in his music business, we realized that he needed [00:01:00] ongoing help. He just had some questions in the beginning.
And then we went from, having questions answered to, oh crap. There's a lot that needs to happen. That's not happening on a regular basis. So a business manager is traditionally focused on bookkeeping, budgeting, tax planning, and deal flow management. But for music artists, it's not uncommon for someone to have multiple roles at once.
So, your music manager takes on the role of doing everything for you. They can simply be the person that's arranging for you to get a studio and they can also be the same person that's helping you to surprise your wife with a GIP. So it is very Flexible. It's a flexible role is one where, where you have to be a go getter.
You can't wait for somebody to ask you to do something. You got to anticipate what's going to happen and prepare for it. Plan and get things done. You have to make the impossible happen. A lot of times, an artist wants to be in another [00:02:00] city. There are no commercial flights available in first class specifically, and you have to move him and by people, in less than 24 hours, But you to find a way to get it done.
So, in addition to my responsibilities in helping him with his financial goals, I'm also responsible with helping him figure out deals that come across my desk. And I also help with his day to day. So my role is a little bit different in that I share pieces of roles with other people that's on his team.
But as his career grew, I realized that I needed to have some help. So we, we brought on Damien Smith, who is his actual music manager on a day-to-day basis. So, and I love him.
[00:02:41] Liz: Have a background in tech, tell me about, bring me back to your childhood, how you grew up and give me. You're a three minute or so elevator pitch, and I'd love for you to focus on a lot of the messaging that you heard growing up.
[00:02:57] Latabia: Well, I grew up in a small town. I grew up in [00:03:00] Greenville, North Carolina. I was born in Tarboro an even smaller town and I got introduced to computers in the sixth grade. And I was so fascinated by this new technology that I decided. In sixth grade, that whatever career I was going to have after high school, after college was going to be something dealing with technology.
And that's exactly what I did. My parents didn't go to college, but were adamant that I was going to, so what I heard at home was, you can set your mind to do anything that you want, and as long as you work towards it, you're going to be successful. And fortunately for me, that has been true.
I've had a great career in technology. I moved to Atlanta the day after I graduated from college because I had a job waiting for me already. It was during the tech bubble and technology jobs were abundant. You could ask for the salary that you [00:04:00] wanted with little to no experience. , it was a time where a lot of startups were coming on board and becoming.
Typical if you will. So I had the good fortune. I worked for a company for about a year that was pretty established. I was actually troubleshooting Unix boxes for car mechanics. It w it was an interesting job, but it taught me customer service early on in my career, which gave me a perspective that I'm able to use today.
So anything that is being built, you need to think about the end user in mind. How can they effectively be able to either do something or use this technology as simply as possible to be able to get them what they need to get done. And we were doing phone support with mechanics who knew absolutely nothing about computers, but they needed to be able to complete
there are quotes inside of our system and they also needed to be able to invoice. And so walking them through troubleshooting was a tedious and very [00:05:00] humbling job if you. will. So I'm glad I started there because a year later I was able to name my salary and go to a tech company that was doing mobile phone billing and in, so doing I was employee 104.
And so again, I had to do whatever the job was that needed to be done. So I got a chance to work with projects that extended into Sao Paulo, Brazil, Nextel international was a huge customer of ours at and T Caribbean was a customer of ours. So I was able to early on in my career, be able to have vast experience through project management, development, quality assurance and working on teams.
It was still in as it is today. Unfortunately, I'm still very much so male dominated. So, the messaging that I got at home to be quite honest, early on in my career, I felt a bit defeated because I was working very hard. I was doing the same things that the guys were doing, but I [00:06:00] wasn't getting the same reward.
And so I realized that I had to learn how to do a few things. I needed to learn how to be assertive in my job and not be treated like the secretary. I had to understand that my opinion was worth being heard. So if I had to take credit back in a meeting, I would do it. Another thing that I learned is that I had to negotiate my salary.
I had to understand and know my worth and be able to. Demand it, or be able to walk away because my motto became, I was looking for a job when I found this one. And so, I negotiated my vacation time. I had children young, so I negotiated my vacation time. I negotiated my salary and I. Had to be assertive, even when I didn't want to be in order to make sure that I had a successful career and 25 years later I'm retiring early to be able to take on some new [00:07:00] projects that I'm excited about.
It's been a wonderful, wonderful ride. I've learned a ton as a technologist and I still love it. I still love technology. I still love what we can do for people and how we can either make their lives easier and make, do help them to do things that they're happy with to change something and make it more efficient.
I just, I just love it. And so my new project that I'd love to talk about is I am a new tech founder, a company call who's got next music and we have a music competition platform that is going to democratize becoming an artist. We're not going to rely on a celebrity to say, who is the best. We're going to allow people to say, who is the best?
And we. Are going to equip that winner with not only money, but we're also going to equip them with legal services and education about the music business. Because [00:08:00] unfortunately many of our young artists coming into the industry have no idea what they're getting into. And so when we hear stories about people being in bed deals today, we say, oh, well, the internet is there is everything's in a book.
All of those things may be true. But when someone is dangling your dream in front of you, you're going to sign any paper that's in front of you most of the time. So I look forward to kicking off. Who's got next this summer and letting the people decide who's going to be the next music artist and. Equipping them to be successful in this music industry. And then on top of that the next phase of what we're going to do with who's got next is to actually release music on the blockchain. So I'm incredibly excited about what we're going to do to get books paid, including the producers and the writers as well.
And getting them paid up front and in perpetuity
[00:08:54] Liz: I love this. You've hit on a lot of things. So I'm going to go back and dissect. So who's got next music. [00:09:00] That sounds incredible. And I'm so happy for you. So the thing that always has impressed me with you. Not only do you have this whole background? I love that you say you're retiring, but then you're working on just another project.
Like you're here. Not like you're retiring from like corporate world, you're in Atlanta, you're working in tech you mentioned being assertive and how hard that was.
What advice do you have for people especially women and black women when they're working in tech and they have to be assertive and not feeling like they have to apologize for being assertive after they do so.
[00:09:40] Latabia: Some of the best advice that I was given is never apologize at work. Just don't do it. That's one thing. Second thing is. It will serve you well to learn the difference between being aggressive and being assertive. Now, most of the time you're going to be called aggressive anyway.
So you have to have, you have to develop a thicker skin to understand who you are as a [00:10:00] person and understanding that you are very deliberate and what it is that you're trying to do. So if you need to be assertive, innocent situation, definitely have your emotions in check. And I say that with the greatest of intentions and love, because we are a lot of times pushed emotionally and at work.
And if we show that emotion, then we're treated differently, right. So get your emotions in check and believe in yourself. Let me just give you a scenario, let's just say that you have an opinion about something you're you feel very strongly about. They decided to still go in a different direction.
You need to be okay with the fact that you spoke up for yourself, you shared what you thought was best and that you can move on from that don't hold onto it. But know that in each of those situations, that you're bringing your best self to the table and that [00:11:00] you're not going to allow anyone to diminish your value. I remember distinctly, I would complain to my mom, they don't listen to me. They always ask me to take notes in a meeting. I'm the only female and black female in the room. And they're asking me to take notes, like why, if I'm taking notes, then I don't have an opportunity to be able to participate.
She said, well, when you get tired of it, you'll stop. And I thought about that. And then I did it. I went in the next time that I was asked to take notes in a meeting. I said, And that was the end of my answer. And then they said, oh, well, they didn't know what to say. They stumbled. And they were just so surprised that I said no, but they asked somebody else to do it.
And we went on with the meeting and I never got asked again, never got asked in, no, it was a complete sentence. And that's okay. [00:12:00] And if you feel like you want to explain your answer be very, very clear about your, your response. Had I added anything to that? I might may have said that I want to make sure that I I'm able to contribute to the conversation.
So therefore I can't take notes and do that at the same time, but I was nervous and I was scared. And so I just said no, and that that'd be it. And just kind of let the pause be there.
[00:12:28] Liz: I mean, it's better than the advice I got. I remember getting advice from one of the senior level at Google. And he was like, people like you who are good at so many different things, you're going to end up having to do everything. And so he was like, don't be good at the things that you hate doing, stop being stop, crushing it on all the things that you hate doing and start crushing the things you love doing.
And no, one's going to ask you to do the things you hate doing anymore. I don't recommend this, but that was the advice that I got,
what are, what are some of the [00:13:00] early pitfalls that are easy for artists to fall into? You mentioned a few there in your answer, but just posing that question as far as, is there an example of that had happened where you learned a ton.
[00:13:12] Latabia: Oh, yeah, plenty of pitfalls. If you don't know how to manage money, when you don't have any, when you, when you have just a little bit of money, you're not going to know how to manage money when you have a lot of money. So, one of the things that I would say in terms of advice is Learn about money.
Cause you don't even want to turn that responsibility over to someone else completely where you don't know what's happening because you're still going to be accountable for it. So hiring an accounting firm or financial manager all those things is important, but you still need to understand how money works.
Make sure that if you're before you sign anything that you have a lawyer present. You just make sure that you're protecting yourself at every route at every turn have an entertainment attorney available to you.
You even need to have a civil [00:14:00] attorney that's available to you because the one thing about it is if you make a lot of money, people are gonna find ways to see you things that would be you. You'd be just surprised that, I would say , that you did, whether you did it or not as important, it's about what you can prove.
So you may want to make sure that you have a good legal team, that you can lean on a good financial team that you trust. And the only way you're going to trust them is if you understand what they're doing, so make sure that you learn about money and you sign your own checks as, Oprah would say. Another thing I would say is remember why you're doing what you're doing.
If you're not passionate about it, it's going to come out in your music. So make sure that it's not about what some one is telling you the direction of your music should be don't lose yourself, don't lose your creative or creativity. They chose you because you were already talented and they saw something in you.
Let them grow that's within you versus changing you into something that is a marketable commodity. Because at the end of your career, you [00:15:00] still have to carry on. So you want to make sure it's a career that you create on your terms and not on someone else's
Dell signed 360 deals. They're never, ever a good idea.
Just don't do it. Build your fan base by understanding who your fans are and delivering consistently to them. I know that as you get bigger, you get even more particular, if you will, about the music that you put out, because you want to be just as good as you were the last time, but I'll encourage you to say you have to just keep putting it out.
Trust your fan base, if they don't like something and put something else out. But you definitely want to keep doing what it is that you were originally doing in the first place, because they followed you because you are talented. Keep giving them the best of you. you're going to be introduced to things and people that you never would have had access to before.
Don't be completely accessible, just don't do that to yourself,[00:16:00]
Because it's hard to maintain that, that level it's okay to delay meetings and decide who you want to meet with and find out a little bit about people before you decide to just, allow them into
your space, protect your peace, protect your peace. You've got to protect your piece.
[00:16:18] Liz: There's obviously a lot of pressure for artists to share their personal lives, almost oversharing. What advice do you give for a net? like you just mentioned, like not being accessible, in social media, the shade room or Hollywood unlocked, what advice do you have as far what you share, what you don't share?
[00:16:38] Latabia: control your narrative. That's where your team is going to be really, really important for you. Most artists are not social media experts. They aren't. So have someone on your team that is you create the content that you want to share, and you don't have to respond to content that you never actually [00:17:00] shared, but that was taken.
So you don't have to respond to everything just because someone's demanding it of you. Sometimes it's best, just not to say anything, because the one thing about social media is it's, it's a moment. And if you remember that, it's a moment you'll be fine because yes, it might be something that people will remember about you, but it's still a moment in time right now.
And if you get past this moment in time, they're onto something else. And so are you, if you give something more air, that buyer spreads more. So don't be a part of, negative energy to give more than what you intended to give, but control your own narrative, decide what it is that you want to share And what you don't want to share and stick to it.
Make sure that you have a team that can help you manage it though. Because you need somebody to think about, oh, okay. Well you didn't get your hair done. And you want to run to the store and you want to drive yourself to the store. [00:18:00] And the next thing you know, you're showing up on a blog and you look like crap and you never intended for that to be the look that you want it to have.
So you want to have somebody who can say, Hey, you might wanna throw a hat on, or let me go to the store for you. You're not really prepared to go or whatever it is. Like you have people around you who are going to be thinking about those little details for you. And I know that probably sounds insane to the average person.
But when you are under constant microscope, you need folks around you that are going to have to help you to not make, common missteps. If you don't care, if you say, this is how I look when I'm not performing and I'm okay with that and you can accept the criticism and you're okay with it, then do that.
But if you know that you're going to be in those comments , and you're going to take them personally, then don't feed them the opportunity to be able to criticize you on things that you already know that you're sensitive about. So be honest with yourself about [00:19:00] what things bother you and what don't, and control your own narrative when it comes down to social media.
social media actually works against artists in some aspects because you are always available. Whereas back in the day, when we didn't have social media and you saw your favorite, It was important to you to see them.
And it was an experience, but when you see them all the time, it's not the same. And you don't appreciate the celebrities and their uniqueness, because now you see them all the time.
And also to, you, there can be a reputation or that's built for you. If you don't create your own narrative, people will create one for you.
So it's important for you to stay in front of it. And let people get to know the parts of you that you're willing to share. And it's okay not to share everything if you're open share. That's fine [00:20:00] too. Yeah. It's okay. If that's who you are, if you're open book, you don't care.
If people see you the same way or, you know, they criticize you and you're fine with that fine. But if you know that, you're sensitive about something in your then don't share. people the access to you to be able to provide an opinion that you didn't ask for.
[00:20:22] Liz: There's so much there, it's so crazy because you make music to be mass spread there's all of these barriers as far as even just around licensing and then it's all set up against any marketing for it. So you have no choice other than to do personal storytelling, which gets pretty wonky. What advice do you have for people who want to work in managing artists?
[00:20:47] Latabia: I were just starting out I would want to know that your success how, on your artists. So your success is tied to someone else and how they're functioning. And it's [00:21:00] not just when they're hit the stage. So, you. as a manager are responsible for managing their life.
So that means that your own life, a lot of times takes a back seat And you have to be willing to make those types of personal sacrifices. If you have a family, it will be very difficult to be a manager., for an artist that is globally recognized, it is difficult because the time away from your family is going to be significant and you must be willing to offer that type of personal sacrifice.
Another thing I would say is it's okay to not know everything. It's okay. It's important to build a team around you. For all the things that you don't know so that you can rely upon them for the things that you're, you may not be good at, or if you're good at it and you like you, Liz and you're being good at everything and not necessarily wanting to do everything, it's okay to [00:22:00] delegate responsibilities.
As a matter of fact, building your team is, should be one of the number one things that you, get done. If you decide that you're going to be a manager, you need to understand who's going to be your marketing people. We're going to be your PR people who are going to be your your grooming people who are going to be your logistics and travel people.
Like you, you just need to, to have. Those folks that you'll be able to consistently call upon to be able to get things done, not to hang around, not someone that's just looking for a come up with themselves that they want to be an artist. So they want to be around the artists.
You want to get people who are really passionate about doing their work, because you're going to need to focus on making sure that your artist is getting everything that they need to be the best artists that they can be.
[00:22:45] Liz: Who are those people for you that you're like, I consistently
[00:22:50] Latabia: I depend on Dana Lippold and her team. That's our legal team consistently on lean on our agency UTA. [00:23:00] I lean on my co-manager Damian Smith from full-stop management. I rely on his assistant. He's gone through quite a few, but I rely on them because if I'm not reaching him right away, I'm able to reach the assistant, to be able to say, Hey, these are the things that have to. get done. And in this timeframe and be able to manage that through him. Our travel agency is a key partner of ours for moving him and our team. Then I have, my own personal people, have to be able to level-set to I'm happily married. And so my husband I actually have an opportunity to be able to debrief and be able to share some frustrations.
I have some, and some joys with him about what was happening in this business. Because I also have to stay grounded. Right. Being around a whole bunch of superstars and their peers and millionaires and billionaires and things like that. You don't want to, you don't want to lose yourself either.
So, you managers need to make sure they stay grounded to many, many times. I've seen where where managers think that they're the artists too. I'm not that [00:24:00] way. And so I wouldn't change that part about me either. Standing in the background is quite okay for me. But it's important to surround yourself with people who can do various jobs and get things done.
[00:24:12] Liz: so I want to just bring up, we went to brilliant minds together, offset spoke. So for people who don't know, brilliant minds is Daniel X foundation.
And. Year in Stockholm. Talk to me about that experience. , we saw , the levels of crazy, just even to get to this space from the announcement to one of the things that you and I really talked about was offset has a limited amount of time.
He cannot meet with everybody. We're only there for three days and we want him to meet as many people as he can in a in the safest environment that he can. So what we did was we set up a brunch where people were invited, and then that was his space to. Talk business and do the [00:25:00] thing because the time was so limited.
Tell me about going into something like that in your head space and what that was like.
[00:25:08] Latabia: Yeah. let me tell you, it was surreal to be honest because the level of access that he had was incredible, and then to the hat, when he talked to these investors and these innovators to find that they had things in common that, you just wouldn't expect was incredible to watch.
Because a lot of times, especially on the tech side, the human factor is not the first thing you talk about or think about and just relating on the most basic levels is not done. And so you have these brilliant people, it's called brilliant minds for a reason. And you have these brilliant people, who've come up with all these great ideas on how to create all these great things.
And then you have a culturally relevant person who is a creative in a different [00:26:00] way. But equally as important and you bring them together and the opportunities where. Tremendous. And we had no idea that would be how it would work out. We knew it would be opportunity there, but we had no idea the relationships that could be built from something like that.
And the speakers were superb. I don't know that I have a favorite, but it was incredible to watch because just to be Frank, most of the time corporate people, technology, people have stereotypical views of what a rap artist is like and when they meet offset and they speak to him and he's not what they think that he is or how he's supposed to be.
, it's beautiful to watch. I mean, it's beautiful watch time and time and time again, because the. The stereotypes and the bias melt away [00:27:00] because it's not what they thought before they ever met him. And when they realize, oh, he's actually a warm, intelligent, funny human being and not whatever I thought he was, which is typically for a rapper, they well, he's a thug and you know, he's not smart and all these different things. And when he proves all of that wrong, is incredible to see these powerful people melt in his hand
[00:27:28] Liz: I was surprised that people were surprised? I was like what did you think the guy's super famous and successful. How are you surprised? Like when people were, that was weird to see, I was like, what's surprising about this. The guy is so successful,
[00:27:40] Latabia: yep. But it happens more often than not when you're dealing with corporate people, it just is what it is. So it's, it's always beautiful to see. The best moment to me was him actually having a conversation with president Obama before the dinner and them having a brief conversation and actually talking to each other.
And it's just that's the president [00:28:00] of the United States, like the former president of the United States. I don't know. I wasn't, I was, far away enough where, where they can have a private discussion. But it was, it seemed to be very casual. But they were very comfortable with each other and I'm looking and I'm like, oh my God, I can't believe this.
Like I am, I'm all struck at the president. And he is chatting it up, like he's known offset his entire life. And it's it's just a real also too, I have to say that personally, it was a wonderful chance to see some women in that space. Some women entrepreneurs who were, and, leaders who were saying I'm here, I deserve to be here.
I've got something that you know is going on. So I'll remember Nora Barbay and Natalia Brazinski, I mean, those are incredible women and to be in [00:29:00] their presence and to see them operate in the discussions that they were having and the ideas that they were sharing was beautiful to see in that space because I don't see a lot of women in those spaces and to see them there, for me as a technologist and as a black female was wonderful. I wish there were more black females there, always,
I feel like we don't have enough of us that are ever in the room, but we have a lot of different opportunities to to grow, I think, in those kinds of spaces. But I thought it was a great experience. I think that for him it was like a once in a lifetime type of deal. He got a chance to meet all of those innovators. Well, to get all those innovators in one room, that brunch was, beautifully curated. and I haven't seen it happen again yet. So you did a great.
[00:29:49] Liz: He had been asked the entire time since he had arrived, like in person by the people there, oh, you're going to want to perform. and to your credit, you [00:30:00] and your team were in the corner of this Obama dinner. Figuring out how to make it with the flights. We flew out the DJ for 24 hours.
Performed and then went back to Atlanta, didn't sleep. They just went straight back. And that hustle, I don't think people can actually understand that's all the time. It's not just like that one-off thing. That's your life all the time.
[00:30:26] Latabia: That was incredible. We got that done in an hour. We figured out how, cause we hadn't planned for him to stay and do a performance. We were there for the three days for the conference itself and we were scheduled to be out of there and, we were able to secure. His DJ and transportation to go back within an hour, it was incredible because he was, he hadn't planned to perform and they were insistent upon him being there.
And it's okay, how can we work it out? And it's the thing that I talked about earlier is that you have to be flexible and you have to be able to [00:31:00] create magic because the opportunities present itself where you have to almost pull off the impossible. And we did, and it is all the time. Moving his team is a feat.
It's not just him, is him and security and assistance and managers and creative directors sometimes and DJs, and sometimes engineers, because a lot of times offset is, is doing dual duty in a city. So he may be going somewhere because he's performing. But when he's done with his performance, he may want to go to the studio and. Record. So, we're, you're not only planning a trip, to do a performance, but you also have to find out where are the look studios? like how do we book one? how do we get the engineers there on time? How do we make sure it's secure? It's just a lot that can be happening all at once.
It can be challenging, but it is exciting at the same time because, you get a different kind of challenge every day. And so you have to have the stamina for it. It takes a lot, he's [00:32:00] on the west coast, I'm on the east coast right now. So, our time differences is something that we managed between two, which means that, if something's happening at midnight, where he is, and I have to be up at 3:00 AM to be able to deal with it.
[00:32:12] Latabia: So, it is a labor of love for sure, but it is definitely a different day every day. So one day you might be focused on, which is a lot of what I'm doing. Deal proposal reviews, asking questions, doing research on companies working with his legal team at LaPorte law where Dina is the startup the of that law firm and working with her team to figure out is a deal even comparable to other things that, that other artists? have done or is it, are we protecting him in all the right ways protecting his rights also, not violating any of the rights that he's signed to his label and things Like that.
It could be simply something planning for his family. It could be something Where we're trying to help him do some self care. you know, that's important too, because offset [00:33:00] works and works and works. He works seven days a week, that he's always getting
some work in sometimes some, some way. And so, finding those things to make sure that he's actually taking care of himself as , is actually a part of the job because it, he's not going to do it himself. He's just running, running, running. So, you have to build in the time utilize the team that you have to build in the time because an artists, a lot of times don't know how to say no. Really they, they don't know how to say no. It's like, it's innate in them. Like they have, if they're creating. Mine is saying to them, I've got to get this inspiration into a song, right.
Then they're going to go to the studio. Those things you don't get in the way of, but it is important to have some time to yourself where you can just reset. some advice that I would give to artists is, sleep is important. I realize that you're young. But sleep is important because the good thing about it is it keeps you healthy so that you don't have situations where you've run yourself so [00:34:00] much, that you get sick and you can't work.
That's one thing, another thing is mental health is very, very important. So you have to give yourself a chance to renew your mind, having some quiet time. Some meditation time is important. And take the time to enjoy the success that you've created for yourself. If you're working all the time, you're going to miss out on enjoying what you've created and figure out what that is for you, whether that's massages or trips, or walks in the park, hiking, whatever it is for you, figure it out and make sure that you incorporate that into your life, because it is you don't get the time back, you look back and you've worked so much and everyone else has enjoyed the fruits of your labor and you have. it.
And that is an incredibly defeating feeling. [00:35:00] So make sure that you are smelling the roses as you're going along. Another thing that I would say is Stay grounded, surround yourself with people who will help you to stay grounded. It is so easy to lose yourself in this industry and become who you think other people expect you to be versus who you are.
So it is important for you to surround yourself with people who are going to check you on your crap. Who are you? What are you doing? This is not you. And be able to really bring reel you back in.
If you start, steering away from who you are. Not to you have a whole bunch of leeches around you because you have to be careful of that too, but you definitely connected to your family or your friends or whomever.
It is that, that you've known your all your life stay connected to those people as.
[00:35:49] Liz: I want to talk about who's got next music
I think people get this wrong a lot about superstars and artists. How did this idea come about? And especially when you're thinking about [00:36:00] playlisting or a billboard, top charts and of importance that artist's placed on that one-to-one fan relationship?
Can, you talk a little bit about the mindset from an artist perspective of why they would want to turn over this power to the fans versus how it's worked traditionally.
[00:36:17] Latabia: oh, definitely. Let me explain how I got here and why this project keeping came about. realized that the deals are pretty typical. They're pretty typical for hip hop artists in that when they sign, they're signing 360 deals, most of the time versus a distribution only where you have a relationship with the label, that's just going to you responsible for distributing your music.1
And you all are sharing the profit from that, or a publishing deal where someone's going to be responsible for collecting your royalties four feet. So most of them are getting 360, which means exactly what it sounds like. Every part of you [00:37:00] that is performing or earning, they're also earning.
And so, you give up some of your creativity because now you have to have permission in order to do things that you may want to do, and you may have a different creative direction, but. Funding source, which is your label decides that they don't like that idea. They want to go in a whole different direction.
And so many artists find out after the fact that, the relationship that you thought you have is not that relationship that you actually have. And you lose a lot of your decision-making power earning power by signing to a label. And I'm not saying all labels are bad. That's not what I mean.
But many times they don't know what they're getting into. And so this project is especially a way to level the playing field because, we all know that there are some artists that are propped up to, by labels. They have the resources to put people in front of you market to you [00:38:00] so heavily that they become popular and you seek their music.
It's just like commercials on TV or radio or whatever. So. This way, we're going to let the people who are going to buy the tickets. They're going to buy the merch. We're going to travel, who are going to watch the Instagram stories or the Tik TOK stories and show up to pop-ups and things like that.
They're really are going to engage with someone that they're interested in because the music brought them together and we really want it to be as organic as that. And we really want to make sure that people are paid for. They've done. If you have created something unique, you should be paid for it.
And you shouldn't have to take out huge loans in order to be able to share your music broadly. The technology exists today, where you should be able to distribute your music without you [00:39:00] having to take on that kind of debt, because that's what an event is that you get a lot of times from these labels it's alone.
It's supposed to be for the record that you're creating or the music that you're creating, but that's not how it's treated. You're cut a check. If you are someone who doesn't have a lot of money or hasn't had a lot of money in your life, most times you don't know how to manage that.
So instead of you using that money towards something that is specific for your career, you're buying things that you've never had.
The timing is perfect on this. We have the wire framing done. We have the prototype done and and I have my development team ready to go. 
If we can get it done in four and a half months, it will be both. We want to have a web [00:40:00] application that is feature rich, but assessable to people while they're at work, because you'll be able to create playlist of the artists who are competing during the period of the listening sessions before voting starts.
So we want to have, a way that people can actually do that and not actually have to be on their phone or have their phone being used. So that's one way that we're going to do it with the mobile application. It's what you would expect in both iOS and on the Android, we would allow you to be able to download the app and sign up as either a contestant or judge.
And your experience is going to be different based on which one you choose. So, as a judge you'll have access to any of the artists information, but it will come out in phases. So initially it's just focused on the audio. So you're not looking at somebody's space and how they look and that type of thing.
You're not, it's not aesthetics at all. It really is how good is the music. And then if they make it past brown one, then they [00:41:00] will have their images reveal. Their social media revealed. And that is where it's going to be incumbent upon the artists to engage their fan base. Because that is a huge lesson in becoming a successful music artist is you gotta figure out how you're, how to engage your fans.
Right? So buying followers, people will probably try and do it, but it won't help them because when it comes time to vote, those followers won't be there to vote for them. So it really is going to be a real competition of not just your music, but also your visuals. They're going to have to also deliver a video that's recorded on their phones.
So that makes it pretty equitable for everybody that's going to participate.
They'll go from audio only to their visual, to a live performance. So it's really a quick progression of them to find out who really is the best in all three of those arenas, who has great music, who has creativity and can [00:42:00] express it visually.
And then who has stage presence, so they can engage an audience and be able to carry a crowd.
And so we're hoping that with this competition that we're going to not only provide a pathway without musicians getting into debt, we're also going to provide them with resources to be successful when they're ready to take that leap to sign as an artist and we're hoping that they'll sign distribution deals And publishing admin deals only that they decide that a 360 is not something that is necessary for them because they will have grown a fan base to give them the leverage to say, I don't need a 360 deal.
I can manage my own deals or brand deals that come towards me because I'll have a lawyer that can help me to sort through that. Right. And I can just, pay my lawyer to handle that kind of business for me and help me understand and make a good decision. Many many artists coming [00:43:00] into the industry are not represented independently from your label is the same lawyer.
That's actually writing the deal and then getting artists to sign the deal, which is a conflict of interest, but it happens every day.
[00:43:12] Liz: And I love that you're using your platform to then create a tech platform in order for more new artists discovery, because even managing an artist, and this is different than tech because at least Silicon valley in my experiences, you're not like, oh, I don't want other artists to come up.
This isn't a competition. We're not all in competition with each other. If anything, you're like, okay, now we have this influence. We have this power and we have this trust and reputation built that has lasted a decade. And the driving culture and now how do we put more people on so that they don't have the missteps that other artists, including us, right.
Have fallen into in these easy traps because this system won't change unless the artists themselves [00:44:00] step up and have a team behind them in order for fans to discover even new artists. And I think that's such a sacred responsibility and such a unique perspective to take. In typical tech and typical Silicon valley, right?
Where you have your Uber or your Postmates, it's competition amongst the unicorns, we got to kill them. We got to buy them out. This is the very Facebook mentality too, but that's not what's happening here. Which is you can get to a level of success and then.
You're like, okay, how do I put more people on, how do I use myself as leverage? How do I use my platform as leverage? How do you pick the artists are how many artists what do you look for? How are you going to choose? And what goes into that?
[00:44:41] Latabia: So what we're going to do is that? criteria is going to be pretty simple, starting out. I mean, it really, really is basic for you to be able to enter into this competition. The entry fee is going to be $99. So we're also removing the financial barrier that people have getting into the [00:45:00] music industry too. If you know the background of my son's group and many other rap groups, they sometimes have engaged in elicit behaviors in order to be able to get their music played in clubs, to get it to the radio where people can discover them if you will.
So we want to be able to provide an outlet that eliminates the need to. So, if you have already worked your behind off and gotten at least 5,000 people to follow you regularly and engage with you. You've got 99 bucks and you're 18 years old and you live in north America. You should be able to compete in this competition. We are even providing you with beats that we paid for, for you to select from, to be able to create your music. So, so you don't have to worry about, clearing any music or anything like that. It's already going to be done for you. [00:46:00] So you will have a period of time that we are calling the audition period where we're going to be soliciting contestants for this competition.
And during that time period, you will be able to register, select a beat, create your music. And create your visual and upload it. into our system. And once you do, and we actually opened the competition, then it, at that point, that's when the judges can come on board and they can start to listen and playlist your music, they'll start to favorite the ones that they want. And we'll be able to track what's trending like which songs are trending based on what the judges are deciding. These are regular everyday people. These are not celebrities. We're not even gonna use celebrities to influence somebody's career.
Now we will use celebrities to promote the competition, but they will not have an opinion about any of the artists that are competing. That is very [00:47:00] different from the other competitions not to be named that are on TV. We will allow. The people, decide who moves based on that first round of just how great their music is to the next round.
So it's going to be the top 100 that moves on from round one to round two. And then we're going to have the top 20 from round one surrounds you. And then from top 20 down to top five, so it's 120, then five. That's how we're going to cut it down.
And so it will be five people who will compete in person. And I wanna hone in on this one point, I think that when we get down to a hundred people, all 100 of them will have gained some exposure that they wouldn't have had. They will have gained more followers to engage with. They will. I have more folks looking at them.
So even if they don't win our competition, they will have gained more experience and gain in engaging [00:48:00] a fan base that they can then continue to build on. Because if you con, if you compete at once, doesn't mean that you can't compete again in our competition. So we're, and we're going to try and run our competition multiple times a year, twice a year.
The first competition is going to be the rapid addition, but we plan to license this out to various genres. We'll have a pop edition and a Afro-beats edition and a country edition and so on and so forth. And so, If rap is not your John rhe, it doesn't mean that you won't have an opportunity to come to compete with.
Who's got next music. So, we, definitely want to make sure that we are equitable in the John Rose that we allow to compete as well. Just not at the same time, we'll do an addition at a time. So,
[00:48:44] Liz: Right.
[00:48:44] Latabia: but yeah,
[00:48:45] Liz: I mean, that feels even just like an accolade in itself. As far as the opportunity you're creating for an artist through their journey. It's the same thing as being on a Forbes 30 under 30 list. It's oh, I got chosen to be a part of this competition [00:49:00] by a bunch of big, the biggest music heads.
Right. And then throughout that process,. Cause that's like the trust barometer where on social, just building trust in general is so hard and itself. But it's almost okay, you know what? You're going to get, you know that if you see an artist, who's a part of this program, they have to have it even a little bit.
If people are looking on social, it's oh, okay. I can trust to follow this artist because they're putting in the work and they get this the Kocide
I've known you for, three years now, this isn't just didn't just pop up overnight.
This is something you've been talking about ever since I've known you and at least the dynamics of having fans vote. How has it been? , but how has it been having a music startup in this space, even with such a superstar as offset is and all his credibility and all of his fame
[00:49:56] Latabia: for a number of reasons, honestly. It's my baby. So I decided [00:50:00] that I don't want him to cut me a check. So I'm funding it myself on bootstrap in this thing, because I'm a real technologist. I'm proud of that fact. And what I do need his help for is to be.
Let me tell you this. It's been incredibly hard Exactly what he's done and that is, he's been a Smee on this project. So the idea of paying for beats up front that came from him, he was like, that is something, that's a hurdle that we can remove from artists. He also helped me to come down on my price because what I thought was a reasonable price or, for new artists to get started, he was like, no, It needs to be cheaper than that.
He was like that's still expensive. For that person, that's really hungry for it. who may not have the support, at home to do this. So he had me to bring it down some more. So he's been. [00:51:00] Counsel from the, from the side of a musician, right. And what those challenges are and being a creative when it comes down to the music side of It for me, I was all, they were always worried about the technology, but what I found is that in the U S it is very expensive to develop a product.
And the funding options are vast, but still hard to acquire. So, it's important to me that I find It myself, and that I keep control of the technology that I'm building. So I chose not to do a fundraise because when I realized that if I do it in a traditional way with a venture firm, I'd have to give up more control. than I'm willing to give up. That was one.
[00:51:50] Liz: It feels like the venture firm almost as synonymous of the record label experience
[00:51:55] Latabia: Yup.
[00:51:56] Liz: Okay. Where you're giving up all your control.
[00:51:59] Latabia: I'll [00:52:00] give you this money, since you can create this dream product that you want to make and you get to have the pride of, making a difference in the world, but you don't own it or you won't own the majority of it, and I'm not willing to give that up.
So that's why it's taking me three years. The second thing is, if I decide to do a crowd funding, raise to me I can give up a small percentage and probably get, some decent money that way.
And I really want a team, a core team. That's going to truly understand what it is that we're trying to get accomplished. And not someone who's thinking, okay. I of want to ride your coattail, because I think I'm going to make some money but really be all in on it. They, I really want folks who really care honestly, about musicians, about equity about fairness in this music space, because those are things that I think that people conceptually say, they agree.
But then [00:53:00] they're not brave enough to do anything about it in their actual career, even when they're in a position to make a huge difference, they have a boss to answer to. And so, they're not willing to put themselves in a position where they might lose their job.
I understand that, people have a livelihood that they're trying to maintain. I get it. But if we could just have a few more brave souls, I think it can make a tremendous difference. And so, I'm not willing to give up the ownership of my company. If I decide I want to sell it, downstream, that's one thing, but in the beginning,
I want to, make sure that we're delivering on the mission and that is we are going to provide a democratic artists selection process with artists
Not having to go into debt in order to become the superstars that they already are. That just haven't been discovered yet.
[00:53:55] Liz: If anyone can do a startup, it's you, from a tangible [00:54:00] example, about how different artists get propped up is the meme network that I ran for Instagram, right?
Record labels that paid for those slots. And what that was we would overlay memes with different songs by artists, and we didn't have a choice of who those artists were. We had instances where might meet a manager and then they have to go to the label and say, activate my artist on this meme network.
Because if that artist and that artist camp wasn't fighting to get even just like the social distribution, which is not paid on it all, it's just all marketing at that point. There's still a fight down to that, down to that part of it. So I can only imagine whether it's billboards and playlists and dealing with Spotify and apple music and all of the different platforms, what the management teams have to go through.
[00:54:48] Latabia: Oh, you have to wine and dine. kind of tap dance, it's all about relationships, honestly. Do you remember? We, we, when we talked about, and I don't want to call out a particular artist because it [00:55:00] relationships. But there was an artist who, whose team bought so many spots on the Spotify playlist that their hip hop song ended up on a gospel. Playlist. And it was like, the feedback was quick and fierce and of course they removed it. Right.
But it was one of those things where, oops, we didn't mean to apply broad stroke this broadly. And they miss something and they changed their policy then on. So, so there is actual process, with playlisting, but these labels do pay and they pay a lot as a part of the marketing budget to get their artists at the top of these major playlist to be heard.
Because of course that streaming revenue goes to the label and they distribute to the artist. That's very, very lucrative for them. It's important for them to have those and maintain those relationships because any money they [00:56:00] put in, they're going to get it.
So much more than what they put in the artists not so much, but so that is one of the reasons why, the future of who's got next music is actually selling this music on the blockchain, because what happens is with these smart contracts, you can go ahead and decide, what your splits are going to be upfront with that artist, the producer, the even down to the engineers and the songwriters, you can figure out who's going to get paid.
What, and how often they're going to get paid. Is this a one-time payment that you're going to get when you hit a certain puddle? Or is this something where you're going to get paid for in perpetuity or is it both, and that's the one thing that I see as in the future for our music artists is that technology is a tool.
It is a tool for you to use and. It is important for you to understand the tools that are at your disposal. Web three is huge. People are all over the place about, is it necessary? It [00:57:00] doesn't matter is coming right. It is the next iteration of our internet and the average person, especially unfortunately, underserved communities like my own.
They have no idea what that means? We're so behind in terms of access and knowledge of how technology is created, how to create it, not just be A consumer of it that we don't understand a lot of times when new things happen. So when you look at this crypto space, it's still white and male, pretty much so, so how do we penetrate that?
I think that there's quite an opportunity to be able to bring crypto to the masses by simplify how the technology works. Number one, and then two the lingo is not cool. It's not cool at all. So we need to make it culturally relevant. And I think that one of the things we're doing offset right now is we're evaluating some web three proposals [00:58:00] that have come across my desk and trying to figure out, where he fits in that space and being true to himself while he's there.
While it happens is important for us, he doesn't take on projects that he can't organically be a part of that's number one. So we know that going in. So how do we make this cool, like how do we make this so that not only is he, dealing with people that are his peers or.
Other millionaires, but how do we deal with his fans? Like how do we make this? That is adaptable to his fans who range, from a 14 year old to a 54 year old, which is wild to me, it's a huge range and different socioeconomic classes, right? So how do we, adopt something that will bring everyone along.
So we're evaluating and figuring that out right now, it is incredible to think about, the tools that are available to artists that will give them the opportunity to be as big as they're willing to work to be. And as long as [00:59:00] they are using things like insights on their social media platforms, when they get enough followers to be able to utilize those tools effectively and understanding what those things mean, they'll understand their fan base and there'll be able to serve their fan base with what their fan base is asking for. And there'll be able to adjust, because like you said, set's been in this game now seven to 10 years.
So, he had to be flexible. You have to adjust and your fan base grows with you. So that 14 year old in 10 years is going to be 24. So, do they want to hear the same things? And if they don't, are you in tune with what those things are using technology to your advantage will allow you to know those answers you'll know how your fan base is evolving and adjusting.
And you'll know what things you have in common, and as your interests grow and change, you get new fans and you have to be aware of those types of things in order to have longevity. So I'm still, always hopeful about what technology can [01:00:00] do for people. I just want to make sure that,
The tools that we're creating are equitable tools and that's what we're going to do with who's got next is we're going to make that an equitable
[01:00:12] Liz: I agree. A hundred percent. Idea that the technology would just be so good that the artists are just going to Sacrifice their relationship with their fans in order to use it is the most delusional part of what I've seen of web 3:00 that's one thing the other is what smart contracts are, is essentially a snippet of code that tells the computer what to do. Such as royalties that's what you would work with a smart contract developer to develop that contract.
And then that contract typically open source so that other artists can build their own projects. Then it becomes about the power the artists has in the relationship that they have with their fan base. everything then protecting that relationship, because, open, source
it's like, well, we could hundred of these, platforms, but it really is going to be about the [01:01:00] talent and the artists. It isn't about the tech at all. So much as the tech
I've been tracking all of the fan reactions every time an artist on Twitter says that they're getting into NFTs and water music did a study, and it was pretty, analogous to what I've seen, which is about an 80% negative sentiment when musicians, or big superstars say they're getting into NFTs there's a lot of backlash, what I've seen the first is when they changed their profile photo to something NFT, whether it's a punk aboard ape, No go. It happened with Tinashe it happened with Vince staples. It was like, no matter what the artists said, .
Just to put it in context, if those artists work with a brand and got that negative backlash, they would never work with that brand ever, ever, ever again, and then the other is when artists start to say that they're gutted you a blockchain or web three project fans start to get like, oh wait, this is so inaccessible. It's so inexpensive. Why would you ever do this? Are you just doing a cash grab? Do you care about us? What type of a deal [01:02:00] flow are you looking at?
What has piqued your interest? How do you get your deal flow? We've talked almost a year and a half ago about all of this web three stuff where you're like, have you heard of this? I'm like, yeah, I'm trying to figure it out too. How have you been navigating.
[01:02:15] Latabia: Well, I will say this offsets being at the top of his game makes it such that we don't have to go out. So seek deals. They still come to us. That is a blessing. But we also have a great relationship with his agency UTA. There's some great folks over there that work really, really hard to present, offset with deals that match his interest.
Because again, you've never seen him with his face on something that he wasn't really involved in. He will turn down things that. It just doesn't suit them. Right. So they do a great job of sifting through things that don't suit him anyway and present him with things that he would be interested in.
So we have that great relationship. And then, like I said, those things had just come across my desk specifically to web three, though, we have a [01:03:00] number of opportunities that we are evaluating. He of course is interested in doing his own collection of NFTs. Not because it's the popular thing to do, but it is another way to be able to engage his fans in a way that he hasn't been comfortable before.
The discord is not attractive. We'll say that it is not attractive at all, but the good thing about it is, and listening to S on some of them is it is a space where you get to hear directly from your fans. Exactly what they think and what they. But if you use this in a way where you're bringing them into your creative process sooner, then that may be something that your real fans are interested in.
One of the things that we're trying to figure out and balance is how do we make this equitable for everyone where there's utility for the person that's paying a hundred bucks versus the person that's paying 10,000 bucks? Like, how do we figure out the utility that is acceptable to all? [01:04:00] And we haven't figured it all out yet.
We're still evaluating there's they're platform opportunities. They're not collection opportunities, but we're trying to figure out how do we bring everybody along with us, because right now it's not cool. It's not easy. It's it's not even easy to talk about. Am. We're glad that some of the providers or platform marketplaces are realizing that they have to provide an easy option to be able to buy.
So I'm glad that coinbase is getting into the NFT space. I'm glad that Binance is going to have an NFT platform I'm glad that they're doing that because they realize that this has gotta be something that is accessible to all.
So figuring out what that utility looks like for an offset project is what we're figuring out right now, because we don't want to leave anyone behind, we aren't doing a rug pool. We don't want that reputation of being aligned with anybody that scams or anything like that. And we're not willing to sacrifice his reputation for that.[01:05:00]
Lots of things on the table, but we are figuring out what's the best fit and how do we engage for the right reasons? There's also a charitable opportunity , to work with crypto currencies and NFTs. And we may be interested in going down that path because that's something that is not going to change.
And then also too, he's got new music. So, that's coming out and there may be an opportunity to be able to do something with crypto and his new music so that people can participate. We're not selling. On the blockchain.
That's not what I mean, but you know, if he were to do a collection, if you will, and have real experiences, we did, pop-ups, you've been a part of some of those that we've done before. When he dropped his, his solo, his first solo project, what, if, we were able to do similar things, but you know, your ticket to get in is your NFT, that. type of thing.
So we're, we're trying to figure out what things would work and w work ongoing work, where someone would want to hold on to their NFC and not try to use it to [01:06:00] just cash out quickly because of, you know, and, um, being attached to it, to add value. So We know you'll get some of those people anyway, but we want to engage his 20 something million fans forever, as long as we can.
So, we're being very deliberate and thoughtful about how we're gonna roll out his, his, web.
[01:06:21] Liz: I love that. I want to also talk about brand deals is something celebrities have been since forever. We met, , when I was working at a startup, but offset was actually an investor. This is just something from my personal experience that I've seen is startups will give equity or do brand deals with celebrities.
And this is more before 2018, where they would do a brand endorsement deal with this celebrity. And then they would raise capital off of that association. With that celebrity, that's pretty typical in Silicon valley, like, oh, we have deals with X ballplayer, [01:07:00] X superstar, fill in the blank. How, at what point did you realize we need to be investing back our money and. Just doing the typical brand endorsement deals.
[01:07:13] Latabia: we,
we realized that utilizing offsets celebrity could get him a quick check and we realized that he needed long-term. And it was one of those things where if you believe in this product or service then how can you, be actively engaged beyond, you, know, whatever ambassador deal that they're offering you And that's been our approach with all of the things that he's invested in is what exactly is the mutual benefit of it? Yes. There's money. Right. That's one part of it, but how else can I elevate my brand from your brand? That was something that was important to [01:08:00] us too. And it still is.
So Genies is a great example. We were presented that opportunity from his financial advisor at the time, and when we looked into it, it was like, Hmm. That sounds very far. It sounds very, very far off, but if that's where the future is going, if offset invest in this company what exactly can he do that would not only help to grow his future investment in that company, but also to elevate his brand?
So one of the things that we did is we leveraged genies for. All of the music projects that he was working on, even on some of the charitable gigs that he was doing. So you saw offsets genie pretty frequently with new things that he had going on, which was giving them the exposure and not just them being able to say, oh yes, offset is an investor in this [01:09:00] company.
They actually saw the product, as it was evolving the first generation of genie to where we are right now and in the in the 3d version of genie. And if you followed offset, you've seen that progression. So he's actually an active part of the investments that he's put his money into that's not always easy to, to see in, in, in likely it is for genies, but it is always a requirement of ours in that he gets to have some.
If I'm putting my money into this, I get to have some say I have in some type of way, whether it's creatively or, somehow, leveraging, his celebrity to be able to increase the value of the brand. So those things are important going in is understanding what are the mutual benefits that we can get out of this thing.
So
[01:09:49] Liz: Hmm. And how do you, when you first met, Genies how do you go talk to the teams? Like, tell me about the role that you come in and what do you look [01:10:00] for as far as the startup teams go and how you work together before they even get to meet offset?
[01:10:06] Latabia: I need to understand the product. What is it that you're trying to do? I need to understand your roadmap. If you come with some flimsy proposal, it goes in file 13, never to be resurrected again. So you actually do have to have your stuff together. We need to know, what are your projections?
What are you basing that on? What's your experience? What's, what's your future roadmap? How do you plan to get there? Who are the people that you're working with? Not just the people. Who've cut you a check, but who's actually doing the work and what's their experience. And of course, a lot of these tech startups or young people, and I've had over 20 years of corporate experience.
So I know what business questions to ask. So I'm wanting to know, when things go bad what are you going to do what are your, what are your business continuity plans? How did you get this valuation? Is this inflated based on, somebody just told you this, or did you go through a real process to figure out what your company is actually valued at and how do you plan to increase the value?
[01:11:00] What specific things are you doing that is going to make your company more valuable? Who are your competitors? And what makes you different from them? What's your advantage over them? What is something that they have going on that you don't have going on? And how are you going to close that gap?
Those are just some of the questions I'm thinking of off the top of my head. But it generally, it, it depends on the deal itself. With Janie's in particular, we needed to understand what was going to be the future use, because it wasn't something that people were doing already. Like you had emojis, and, apple had something going on with the iPhones, but it wasn't something that was going to be integrated into corporate spaces when they talked about they saw genie's going into corporate spaces, like training and things like that, that resonated with me because I saw how we went from classroom training to virtual PowerPoint chat trainings, to a virtual instructor training to now [01:12:00] we actually have avatar.
That are a part of our training. So before I ever saw an avatar in my work Genies was already talking about that was going to be what they were going to do. And so I needed to understand what was going to be the practical application beyond what was. Really a picture to me. And they had a roadmap that, that I could follow.
They talked about how avatars would be used in gaming and could be used in things like tele-health and, and stuff like that. They, they had a number of ways that they felt like genies could apply in the future world, which is exactly where it is. Metaverse was not even a name that we were using them.
But it's something that is exactly where they're going right now is what they're doing right now. And I think about the actual founder too, was important too. It's always important to know who the people are that you're going to, you're going to be doing business with and to know something about them, their personality and Akash was [01:13:00] someone who was very passionate about what it is that he wanted to do, but he had also had a story.
You think that. Being that nerdy kid. I was a nerdy kid, but I was actually a cool nerdy kid, but I digress. But you think, about a traditional nerdy kid. We're very, very focused on our work. And it's important to us and we can be passionate about it, which means that a lot of times we may miss out on some of the social cues that other people have.
And so you think about this person that have so much to give, but in the real world, they don't exactly know how to do it. I think that the idea that Akash has of people having an opportunity to look and express themselves,
I do believe that in talking with a and understanding where he wanted to go with this company, it resonated with us and that it was something that could grow with offset's fan base.
It [01:14:00] was something that he could participate in and build his brand with at the same time. And they were looking at a long trajectory of success, not just, something quick to get into and move on. Those are the types of things that we're looking for. We're looking at who the founder is, what is their passion? Why are they doing this? What do they hope to gain from it Where, where do they want to be in five to 10 years? You know, what's the practicality of of what they're doing. And of course, we look at the numbers, and invalidate them. But it's a lot it's a lot, that you have to, you have to do.
[01:14:31] Liz: What do you think that these tech startups get wrong the most about working with artists?
For example, one thing that I always see time and time again. When the founders go straight to the artist , they think they can go around certain parts, certain parties, and they think that's going to benefit them in some way. What do you think? What have you seen, have you been embraced?
What is something that you see of? Genie's obviously, it sounds like they've been great [01:15:00] partners, but like the ones who haven't
[01:15:01] Latabia: Oh, my God. Let me tell you is very frustrating. The disrespect it's very frustrating because the artist is just that, they're not going to be the bad guy most of the time, they are, happy go lucky. All the world is great. It's beautiful outside. And they're not looking at the details, the minutiae of, paperwork that is involved in dealing or, evaluating deals.
Right? So when they go straight to the artists, it really is a waste of their time. Honestly, it really is because if they go straight to the artists, the artist has a team that's going to still have to evaluate whatever that is. And, it can be incredibly frustrating when they try to push their way through something.
And then you have to go back to the artist and you explain to them, oh, well they left out this detail. Or they went out that detail and it's it changes the artist view. So it's very dangerous really for them because, [01:16:00] if the artist loses trust in you, then they're not? gonna want to move forward with you, but it does happen.
I mean, I'm still a female even in this space. Right. And you're dealing with a whole bunch of steel male founders. And you that element is still there. You can't ignore it. And they rather deal with another man versus dealing with you. And when they realized that they had to deal with you, it can be, An awkward situation.
It really And you remember when, when I was talking about being assertive, when you don't want to be, and those are times that you, have yeah, you to be, because if you don't, you're not protecting your client.
[01:16:40] Liz: I want to give the listeners like kind of like a call to action. What do you need? Are you hiring? Are you like, where can people find information?
[01:16:49] Latabia: Let me tell you something I've, I've created the socials for, who's gotten next for each of the John Rose that we're going to hit on Instagram. Haven't posted much there yet. Because my [01:17:00] new marketing team that I hired they are working on a full marketing proposal for a rollout for us.
We realized that, it's still attractive to, to an artist to be signed to a major record label. We're just going to help equip them so that they don't get taken advantage of when they do.
[01:18:49] Liz: Yeah, I love that. I love that. Thank you so much for this. How do you feel?
[01:18:54] Latabia: I feel incredible. I'm excited about my new chapter that's coming. [01:19:00] So, oh my gosh
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Episode #4: Nora Bavey - Becoming The Investor You Needed, Survival Mindset & Creating The Future You Want to Live In