Cassie Petrey, CEO and co-founder of social media/music management firm Crowd Surf, offers advice on differentiating yourself in a crowded field, and what the REAL hardest part of your job will be running a business.Hear Cassie's full interview in Episode 464 of The Action Catalyst.
So there's still a lot of problems to be solved in the music business in general. I think attaching yourself to a problem that you feel like you have insight on that people may not have thought of as a really good way to get into a business that's competitive like the music business.
And the problem I saw is there's this platform called MySpace and I see a bunch of local college bands using it, but I'm not seeing big artists use it. And I'm not really sure why, but I know that fans would like engaging with popular artists in this way. And so I just kind of went for it because I didn't see anybody doing it.
And I thought about me and I'm like, this would have been so cool if like the Backstreet Boys could like send updates on MySpace bulletins and, you know, share new songs on a player and DM people back and post content in real time. I was like, this is so cool. I would have loved this. And I want to help other artists do that.
And I'm going to take the burden off of artists having to think about that. And I'm going to be making some of their fans happy and feel more seen and communicated with in the same time. But I really attached myself to this problem or thing that wasn't being done yet. And I think that's always a good way into a business.
It's easier to win in business if you pick a lane that isn't as crowded but might have problems that affect a lot of people on a frequent basis.
That's great counsel. So running your company, what are some of the business things that you wish you knew that you had to learn the hard way?
One of the biggest things I had to learn the hard way is that it's a very different payment schedule in terms of how you get paid as a business versus how you get paid as an employee. So there's a lot of laws protecting employees in terms of you having to be paid on time in the way they were promised. In business, it's a little more dicey.
I would say most companies aren't going to pay you for at least 30 days per And sometimes they tell you they're going to pay you in 30 days, but they actually don't pay you for six months. And sometimes in worst case scenario, people don't pay you ever. You get ripped off. So, you know, I've obviously evolved like my policies over the years to protect myself from different situations like this.
But when you pick up a project, you're having you're kind of having to invest a little bit like you have to invest in staff. and resources before you get paid, especially at the bigger companies like a Warner or Sony or a Universal or Disney. They're going to pay at least the minimum, they'll pay you 30 days. A lot of times it's 90, 120.
Sometimes it gets lost in the shuffle and you don't get it for like six months or a year. So you just have to plan your cash flow schedule accordingly and know how much cash you have to have on hand to run your business and have a really good system in place for keeping track of what's owed to you and when to cut off projects when they haven't paid.
So I'd say that's one thing that I just wish I understood better because I didn't start a company with like that knowledge or funding. And at the beginning, the first year, it's really hard to like, you know, be like, oh, I thought I would have gotten paid by now and I can't pay my rent. And this is scary. So I have that under control now, but people don't pay their bills on time.
It's just not the same as being an employee. So really think about that. when you're starting a business, if you want to do that. I'd say that's part one. And part two, probably the hardest part of your job is not going to be the service you offer or the product you're making.
The hardest part of the job for me, and I think a lot of other people who run a business, is the personnel and staff side of it. It's really tough. I feel like there's not a lot of education on how to, while you're in school anyway, on how to hire the right people, manage them the correct way, and then That evolves per generation too in what's happening in the world.
How you manage people before and after COVID is pretty different. How you manage people in the office versus work from home, very different. And I would say that's definitely the hardest part of my job. It was a hard journey, one, from a business standpoint, but two, emotionally, because it's hard to not take things personal when...
somebody that's worked for you for five years quits that you really liked and you felt like you had a friendship with two or somebody leaves and goes to another company or it can even be like emotionally daunting sometimes when you delegate a task to somebody and they don't do it you get in your head and you're like am I not delegating right do they just not like me do they just not care and
It really has taken a lot of work to be able to have a better emotional relationship with employees leaving or not doing their jobs correctly.
Thank you, by the way, for the vulnerability of sharing that. Of course.