We caught up with the brilliant and insightful Isaac Gordon a few weeks ago and have shared our conversation below.

Isaac, thanks for joining us, excited to have you contributing your stories and insights. Can you talk to us about your team building process? How did you recruit and train your team and knowing what you know now would you have done anything differently?

Breakpoint Booking was born out of teamwork. The company would not be where it is today without the collective effort of everyone who has been involved.

I’ve always stumbled upon like minded professionals who shared my same passion for music and business. It wasn’t until 2009, when I started my management company, that I teamed up with a few who helped me with my clients. That experience inspired me to begin an internship program which I have run for more than a decade.

I’ve had a lot of young hungry professionals come through at various stages to help push the company along. Every one of our agents came up through our internship program or our agent trainee program. Building this company has been rewarding in many ways. I’ve had the pleasure of seeing both clients and agents grow at the same time. The most exciting part is there’s still so much growth to be done. All of our agents, including myself, are very early in our careers.

As for my team, there are 7 music agents and 3 comedy agents. We also have a marketing team run by interns and agents. I book both music and comedy. Next year we have plans to move into live speaking. (I worked for a speaker agency during the pandemic).

Nick “Vice” Gatewood has been with me the longest out of the bunch. He’s also from my hometown area of Northeast Ohio. Vice is a Hip Hop artist (who I managed briefly), turned agent. He’s a very dope touring Hip Hop artist, producer, graphic artist, web designer, videographer… you name it! He’s also a parent so I’m not too sure he even sleeps.

Jordan Francis and Jesse Leon joined our internship program and became newly minted agents then ran headfirst into a pandemic. Since then, both have grown their rosters and client bases. James Beamon and Jon Anwar arrived during the pandemic and immediately after respectively. Both completed our internship program and our agent training program in 2021. Our newest Junior agents Anthony Settanni and Ryan Catalano arrived in 2022 via our internship program and our agent trainee program. We also have Justin Folker in Marketing along with assistant/intern Genesis Merritt.

On the comedy side, we have Kara Coraci who arrived in 2021 via our agent trainee program and our newest juniors Maddy Fisher and Talesha Wright who joined us in September 2022. We also have the pleasure of being able to work with industry vet Nichelle Murdock who books the Belly Room at The Comedy Store. She and I met back in 2018 and she was a big motivator for me wanting to take Breakpoint into Comedy.

Isaac, love having you share your insights with us. Before we ask you more questions, maybe you can take a moment to introduce yourself to our readers who might have missed our earlier conversations?

Absolutely! I am a talent agent and manager living out in Los Angeles, CA. I own and operate an artist services company called New Legacy Enterprises. During my professional career I have negotiated deals and booked shows for extremely talented artists such as George Clinton, Kesha, Warren G, Digable Planets, Tank & The Bangas, De La Soul and many others. Having been an artist myself, I’ve always found myself fighting on behalf of the artist. I’ve also always had a love for independence and expression. That’s why our company values educating our clients and transparency. More and more artists want to remain independent. As an agent, we want to help them understand what goes into booking, tour routing, pitching, etc so they can get a 360 view of their entire business.

Beginning in 2023, we will be holding bi-monthly seminars covering topics such as tour routing, booking, pitching to agents, venues, managers, and just about everything that aligns with independent music business.

What’s worked well for you in terms of a source for new clients?

For me, word of mouth from trusted sources is the best way to find new clients. Nothing beats having a colleague echo their excitement for a musician or comedian either on a call or in person. Especially a colleague who understand our business. Social media is great don’t get me wrong but having a network is super valuable. With that said, we also do a lot of scouting. We try to keep our ears to the streets as much as humanly possible. That’s definitely part of our job.

We will be launching an artist partnership program in 2023 which we hope to use to find future clients as well! More information on that to come!

Can you talk to us about how you funded your business?

You can say this is still an ongoing process! COVID hasn’t been super kind to our industry and it has been a struggle. Savings have definitely depleted! Still we strive on! I’m a worker bee. I’ve held side jobs and continue to find as many income streams as possible. It’s definitely a thing when you are an entrepreneur and just getting started. I could have opened anything in the world but I decided to open a booking agency right before a pandemic. Who knew?! I wouldn’t go back and change a thing though.

Contact Info:

• Website: www.breakpointbooking.com
• Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/breakpointbkng/
• Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/BreakpointBooking/
• Linkedin: https://www.linkedin.com/company/breakpoint-booking/
• Twitter: https://twitter.com/breakpointbkng/
• Youtube: https://www.youtube.com/channel/UC51cVIAtfQlPLnIbGzd187Q
• Other: https://withkoji.com/@newlegacyenterprises