Artis we should've taken over Atlantic Records 4 years ago.

I was texting with my good friend Artis the past few days on how Warner Music is operating at a loss. A few years ago when we were at Atlantic Records we were discussing the future of the music business. This was around 2006. Artis asked my brother and I where do we see the music business in 2010. We bluntly told him that the business will be insolvent but more than ever the population will want new music. As contradictory as it sounds, that is the reality of what the music business is today. 

So around 2006 Artis was able to secure a meeting with  some pretty high ups over at Atlantic to discuss future strategies and planning of their artists and businesses. After our introductions and brief presentation, he asked where do you see music in the near future, we said everything is going electro and there's going to be rappers and artists coming from different races and areas in the world. First off nobody believed us, second which really pissed me off was that they said that Pop music was going to start to use more instruments. Well tell that to Ke$ha and Far East Movement. That was the first prediction that came to fruition.

The second prediction we came up with was that artists will start to look for corporate sponsorships to release new music. This is a little difficult to grasp because we talked too much business at the table, but our thoughts was that if you go this route the public will reject most of the music that is associated with a product or brand. Since music is still ART, people will ultimately reject this music. There's a bunch of examples out there such as the Bacardi Music Launce, Axe music launch and the Toyota music launch that failed. Here's a tip, Brands and Sports work 99.9% of the time, Music and Brands may backfire on you 99.9% of the time. 

The lesson from this was that Artis, my brother and I were right. LOL J/K. The real value to this story is to always look ahead in your business no matter what industry you are in and sometimes the executive may not have all the answers, as we saw from the banking crisis.

I Figured out Who ruined our Economy! Diddy aka Puff Daddy.

I was thinking the other day what happened to our economy. The easy way out is saying both the Democrats and Republicans spent too much, the American people Spent too much, and most importantly it was Bush, Clinton and Obama's fault. 

But I found the root of this problem. We have to travel back in time around 1994 for the answer. I was born in the 80s so I can remember most of the 90s. In the early 90s I remember my parents saying, no we can't afford a new Super Nintendo, nor a Mongoose bike, or even a new jacket from Marshalls. But what I did learn was that you have to work for the things you want. 

But this is the year everything changed. Economic Super Villon #1 came about. I'm not talking about Bernake,  Geitner, Soros, Bush, Obama, Greenspan or even The Fed. I'm talking about Puff Daddy aka Diddy, aka Sean Combs, aka the original Versace Hottie himself. 

As a people, we were content we didn't want much. We wanted to be Responsible and save and buy things we can afford. But when Puff Daddy hit MTV with Biggie wearing Versace and D&G, that was the day everything went downhill for our country. All of a sudden kids wanted Versace Shades and Moschino t-shirtS. Obviously these are clothes that nobody could afford, but since credit was good for over a decade, people bought these liabilities and the worst part is, it didn't stop with clothes. It began with cars, then vacations and most importantly houses. The problem was that it didn't just infect the kids, it infected our parents. All of a sudden our parents were saying "Hey credit will always be there so let me buy a new house and buy a new car." How were the Baby Boomers going to act when they can get everything they ever wanted since their parents the WW2 and Depression era citizens kept telling them they couldn't afford things. So us and our parents got everything we ever wanted for that time.

Then all of a sudden there's no more credit, no more money and no more Jobs. Even though I used Diddy as an escape goat, the lifestyle he lives is HIS, not ours. He did work hard for it and fulfilled his American Dream, but we can't compare ourselves to anyone except for what YOU Want in this precious life of ours. I respect Diddy and all the entrepreneurs out there, but he is still an individual who wants to act this way in his life. Also he can obviously afford it.  

My final thoughts on this post is that we need to be responsible for our actions and our way of life. I know it is hard, owning our own business is a ticket to insanity or enlightenment but everyday I struggle to be responsible for all our actions in our business.  Also my generation was infected by Diddy's lifestyle and everyday I regret buying those Versace sunglasses 10 years ago.

Why are we so immersed in Social Media? Part 1

After working on few social media pages for myself and clients, this question still arises. You can say that Social Media is about connecting, its about re-connecting, its about interacting, its about taking action, its about all this stuff. But what is it really about?

From my own perspective, Social Media is just too big to understand. It is the collective thoughts, emotions, memories, and interactions of almost every modern human being. Once your post goes on this social media sphere, almost everyone in your cloud can see it.

Most of us know what the personal aspects are in Social Media. The common Facebook wall phrase, "OMG I haven't seen you since graduation in 1996!!!!" happens to appear a lot. Well 1996 is a long time ago and most likely you'll never see that person again, EVER.  Past the awkward moments and nonsense being posted on people's profiles, the personalities have really started coming out as of recently. The greatest achievement of Social Media is that people are finally being themselves on the internet. For this reason alone is why I see people so involved in Social Media.

New Heroes

Watching the elections last night I was able to watch a new Senator come into power, Marco Rubio (R). Besides his political views, his story was very relevant to many Americans today. He's a son of Cuban exiles and like many of us in the New Norm, went to college in this country and became something his parents can only Dream about. But what strikes me most is how Marco Rubio came to power. He was able to take down the establishment on both sides of the aisle. He is the true meaning of the New Norm. He inherited the American Dream through his parents and took it to new heights.

Being true to this Blog, Marco Rubio is the product of  a generation of hard work. His parents came to this country to work as what is perceived as low level jobs. But there is nothing wrong with that, these jobs were able to provide a better life than a lot of countries on this planet. A lot of Americans in the New Norm saw their parents work in hospitals as nurses and janitors, or housekeepers and maids and this provided a lot of us the "opportunity" to create a better living situation for our families.


There is another hero I saw recently in my trip to Miami. I was able to watch Julian Castro (D), the mayor of San Antonio speak at an event. He has a very similar story as well in the New Norm, his grandparents and parents worked on farms and low level jobs. But what struck me most out of his whole speech was that he said we're not doing this for ourselves, we're doing this for our grandmothers and mothers who sacrificed education to raise an American family. This resonates greatly with me in the way that most of us in the New Norm are. A lot of us had two mothers, one was our actual mother and the other was our grandmother. Most of my friends and people I meet have the same view, our grandmother sacrificed a lot to raise us.

To sum it up, a lot of us in the New Norm are the product of generations of hard work and sacrifice. We were given a gift of opportunity that many people in our parents' home country will never have. It is up to us to make what's best with the opportunity presented to us and make sure we work 1000x harder to make our families proud.

Growing up the Hard Way

I have an unorthodox story on how we started our business. First we were really young, second my brother and I left our jobs as entry level employees, and third we are of Filipino descent.

This blog focuses on the third paradoxical question on how we started our business. As you know being Filipino, our parents sent us to college to find employment, not to be the employer. But being born in this country we saw a great opportunity to start our own agency. With little knowledge of business and a "Gung-ho" attitude, we were able to make it to our 5th year this past June.
Now that has changed dramatically. Over the past 2 years we re-branded the agency to Estro Communications. We didn't do this just to gain more business but to better our craft, vernacular, and business culture. We wanted to be bulletproof in our business conversations and demeanor, we did not want to be subject to any preconceived notions of our heritage.

As a young minority entrepreneur, I feel as if you have to work 1000Xs harder to get to where you want to be in business. First the age factor plays a roll, but I can debunk that in 5 minutes because of the internet. Google leveled the playing field for all the ages. Second, the word entrepreneur is also congruent to being called unemployed, but we employ people at our office and provide work for a numerous amount of contractors. Third, I left the word minority last on purpose, is Yes we are still minorities in the business world. We debunked this by zeroing into our product offerings and strengths. Our own SWOT analysis shows that we represent a "New Norm" that is coming to this country. Being a young minority entrepreneur, you need to work harder, be multilingual, and understand both the American culture and the multicultural inhabitants of this country.

To sum it up, "Being a young minority entrepreneur ain't easy."