Success Aches

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

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

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

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

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

In this episode, we wanted to dive in and talk to each other about our relationship with mental health. While this is a very "popular" topic, it is a positive one and after having this conversation, we both felt like it's one that everyone deserves to have. During this conversation, we learned about how we have each struggled mentally, give praise to the younger generation for being more open and vulnerable than we felt like ours was growing up and examine our unique patterns when it comes to our internal conflicts. 0:00 – Intro 2:51 – Payne's Background with Mental Health 4:40 – Mental Health in Music vs. Rest of the World 6:58 – Gen Z Paving the Way 9:37 – Emmanuel Acho & Lil Wayne's Conversation 13:00 – Being Vulnerable in Your Music & In Real Life 14:27 – How Education Opened My Eyes to My Mental Health 16:00 – Maintenance & Consistency 17:18 – Going Through Something Common & Relatable 19:10 – Athletes Setting New Milestones for The Future of Mental Health 26:00 – The Consequences of Ignoring Yourself 29:29 – Payne's Patterns with Women 32:20 – Not Living up to our Images of Success 34:35 – Going to Therapy 36:30 – Mental Health Triggers 40:12 – Experiences with Suicidal Thoughts 44:17 – Integrating Conversations into our Culture

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

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

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

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

In this episode, we talk with our friend from Dallas and CEO of "Stay True", Julian Peoples. JP discusses having the confidence to reinvent yourself after already being established in another career, getting to witness special moments while doing Day-to-Day Management for PARTYNEXTDOOR and following his gut to start his own label "Stay True" where he can develop artists and build a brand from the ground up.

In this episode, we dive mainly into the topic of jealousy & envy. We discuss the difference between the two words, which are in fact quite different. Throughout our lives, we've handled these emotions differently. I myself (Troy), used to get extremely jealous. Now, after enough experience with jealousy, I think I've sort of learned how to not place enough value on the emotion. Yet, I suffer from envy.. Payne discusses his battles with himself and going after what he thinks he wants vs. what he wants and the contribution that those thoughts can have on his envy.

We all probably lie in some fashion whether we know it or not. In this episode, we talk about ourselves as liars and our relationship with this slippery action.

On our 7th episode we welcome the founder of Surf Ghana - Sandy Alibo. Surf Ghana is an incredible collective that uses the practice of extreme sports as a driver for diversity in education, social inclusion, and the empowerment of the youth. Sandy's been able to start this organization after identifying an opportunity within Ghana that she felt needed real attention and exposure. Through the work of her collective, she's been able to galvanize creatives in Ghana around Skateboarding and Surfing. About 5 years in, they've accomplished skate tours throughout Ghana, occupy a Skate House where the collective has been able to gather & tourists have been able to visit, and are building the Freedom Skatepark in Accra with partners Daily Paper, Virgil Abloh, and others. The skatepark is 1350 square feet and also functions as a workspace and social hub to the creative youth in Ghana. Most importantly though, through the collective they've been able to cultivate a real community that lifts it's members up mentally, physically and financially and is pushing the future of Ghana forward.

We had the pleasure of talking with Lola Plaku. Her journey in the music business is filled with diversity at its core. Lola was born and raised in Albania until she was 13 before moving to Toronto where she was able to dive into a multi-cultural city and find her footing within the music business by interviewing some of the biggest names in Hip-Hop. She's continued over and over again to scale her business by genuinely helping artists and their teams. Now living between Toronto - New York and running Lola Media Group (a project consultant/advisor agency) and Girl Connected (a community built to help connect Women in the music, entertainment & creative arts industry) Lola has been able to successfully wrap all of her experience into her companies to continue driving artists and their teams further while also helping the future of the music industry.

Welcome to the 5th episode of Success Aches. We were brainstorming some conversation topics and when I said we should talk about our “ego's”, we realized immediately how little we understand the role that it plays in our lives. It's scary to think about how often our biggest enemies can be our own selves yet we're usually unaware that that is the case. In this episode, we examine how our ego's have misguided us and try to figure out whether they are really necessary at all.

On this week's episode, former University of Texas and NFL Alumni Lamarr Houston joins us to talk about his journey. From growing up in Northern California where he was constantly moving in with other families, playing high school football in Colorado, getting recruited by the University of Texas, being drafted to the Oakland Raiders, signed by the Chicago Bears, tearing both of his ACL's and now focusing on his entrepreneurial endeavors "League Venture" & "EZ Vending", it's clear that Lamarr has had to overcome major obstacles and maintain a positive mindset to sustain his perseverance. It was our pleasure to have him on as our first ever guest. We hope you enjoy this episode as much as we enjoyed filming it. Chapters: 0:00 – Intro to Lamarr Houston 2:30 – The Origin of Lamarr's Entrepreneurial Mindset 4:30 - Growing Up in San Francisco 4:53 – Moving in with Other Families 8:15 – “I didn't really realize I was poor until” 9:00 – Knowing You're Going to the League 10:01 – Getting Drafted by his Hometown 11:19 – Lamarr's Athleticism 12:40 – Choosing the University of Texas 14:38 – Switching from DE to DT 16:37 – Choosing Football Over Grades 18:45 – Always an Entrepreneur 19:53 - Mobile Veterinarian 22:05 – Motivated to be Independent 22:43 – The Underdog 24:52 – Getting to the League 28:23 – National Championship & Draft Prep 33:30 – NFL Locker Room Culture 35:06 – Playing in Oakland 35:39 – Leaving for Chicago 36:15 – The NFL is a Business Pt. 1 39:03 – First Torn ACL / “Houston We Have a Problem” 43:04 - Motivated to Come Back Better 45:22 – Second Torn ACL / Getting Rushed Back 46:39 – NFL is a Business Pt. 2 47:53 – NFL Business Bootcamps @ Stanford, Michigan, Notre Dame & Miami 52:50 – Leveraging Pro Status for “What's Next” 53:59 – League Ventures & EZ Vending 56:08 – Contactless Transactions Through EZ Vending 59:03 – Servicing the Cannabis Industry 1:01:26 – Machines in the Market Right Now 1:02:20 – Marketing Opportunities within the Space 1:03:26 – Football Players and Cannabis 1:06:53 – Conclusion Links: LinkTree: https://linktr.ee/SuccessAches​​ League Ventures - https://www.leagueventure.com/ EZ Vending - https://www.ezvending.com/ Lamarr Houston Injury & Highlights - https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PoW4XqHL1eQ Kyle Ramirez (Producer & Editor) - https://www.instagram.com/untitled.vibe/?hl=en Ananymoso (Music) - https://www.instagram.com/ananymoso/?hl=en

Welcome to the 4th episode of Success Aches. We've both been thinking a lot about who we are as “men” and how our ideas of masculinity and “manliness” have tried to define us and how we view our relationships. This is a topic that we plan on diving into more throughout the show as we continue to explore who we are and our experiences.

Welcome to the 3rd episode of Success Aches where we cover our “Journey Managing Tory Lanez”. We wanted to discuss our personal and shared experiences during our time with Tory. Payne spent 10 years working for Tory and Troy spent 5. We were each responsible for a variety of roles in his career that helped teach us about the music business and what working with an artist is about. As that professional chapter has recently come to an end, we took this opportunity to look back on some memorable moments & lessons we've learned from it that we'll carry into our next adventures. 0:00 – Intro 1:09 – Why This Episode Matters to us 3:33 – Payne's Role(s) for Tory 4:41 – DJ'ing for Tory 8:48 – Beginning to Write Records with Tory 11:15 – Spread Thin 12:20 – Learning to A&R 13:03 – Troy's First Impression of Payne 16:38 – Needing Payne on the Road 17:53 – The Drake Tour 18:26 – Troy's Role(s) for Tory 24:30 – Label Drama & Tory's Flight to Beat Me Up 33:54 – Constructive Criticism for Tory 40:16 – How Tory Effected my Perspective on Labels 43:36 – Missed Opportunity on “Freaky” & The Take (Feat. Chris Brown)” 46:13 – Some Lessons Learned (Persistence) 47:01 – This is all the Artist Has 53:51 – The Manager Can't Control Everything 55:32 – Naturally Drifting from Tory 1:01:48 – “Only Call Me on Mondays” 1:03:38 - Conclusion

Welcome to the Intro episode of Success Aches. In this episode we dive into some topics including Payne's football journey that started in Garland, Texas and continued on to the University of Texas, how meeting J. Cole got him started in the music business and some highlights from his journey managing Tory Lanez, including becoming a writer on the album Chixtape 5. We also dive into Troy's career journey which includes fighting through rejection to get a job at the world's largest talent agency – WME, his transition into managing Tory Lanez and now venturing into other music endeavors. Anecdotes about the power within rejection, persistence & when it's time to move on from interpersonal relationships are shared as well.

“It's cool to hear the come up stories, the dream big quotes - the motivational videos on youtube, but in actuality how does that relate to you? yes YOU listening right now. I know I don't have all the answers, I'm honestly still trying to get where I wanna be. That's why I started this podcast Success Aches, my goal is to equip us with the tools and advice to support each other through adversity while we accomplish our definition of “success”. I know my definition of success has changed throughout my life from college baller to music exec, entrepreneur, and new daddy, and I expect it to be just that - ever changing. What I hope you'll find out on this podcast - is that success isn't always what we think. And some of the people that I'm blessed to talk to and share this platform with may appear to have achieved it, but I'm going to dig a little deeper and find out the truth lol so we can grow and learn together.”