We were lucky to catch up with Shab Azma recently and have shared our conversation below.

Hi Shab, thanks for joining us today. Are you happier as a business owner? Do you sometimes think about what it would be like to just have a regular job?

I am very happy as a business owner. I never set out to be an entrepreneur! My father always said I was a leader at a young age but when I started working I had never thought about having my own business. I had worked at a big studio and a big management company after that and it wasn’t until the company was starting to downsize where I realized that I had better start thinking about a plan B and decided to take a chance on myself, knowing I had one potential client who had sought my expertise when I was still an employee at my job. I have been an entrepreneur since. The shift from consulting to being a partner in a company, to then starting my own full fledge business where I was solely responsible for payroll, workers comp and health insurance for a staff of several employees, definitely made me nervous. Over the course of my entrepreneurial career, I have thought how much easier it might be to have a job and have less stress. I have thought that even in this last month. When you are running your own company you can never really ever shut it off. You are responsible for not just making sure everyone gets paid but that they are happy, which is very important to me. But every time I may be faced with that thought or there is a bump in the road, I think about the impact we are making at my company and the way we are changing peoples lives who come to us for management. This makes it all worth it. I have been able to travel the world and be more present when I had my children and have more flexibility in my schedule, by being my own boss and for me that is priceless.

As always, we appreciate you sharing your insights and we’ve got a few more questions for you, but before we get to all of that can you take a minute to introduce yourself and give our readers some of your back background and context?

I got my start in this industry by interning in the publicity department at NBC. Shows like ‘Friends’ was just launching and I got to have my first on set experience and work press tours. I always had dreams of being in entertainment as a young girl growing up in a small town in New Jersey. I never thought it would mean being a talent manager many years later and getting to meet and work with some of my idols growing up. My first official job was working in the consumer products department at Universal Studios and learning about every aspect of the industry including brand building and brand extensions. We think it all stops at making hit films but the real revenue is in all of the ancillary businesses like licensing and merchandising. I went from creating brand extensions for film and tv properties to doing the same for celebrities and experts. Now in my current company, Arc Collective, we are building various businesses for our celebrity experts that include TV, publishing, strategic partnerships, consumer products, joint ventures and podcasts. I am incredibly proud of the work we do because we think very holistically and want to have impact with the talent brands that we are helping to build. There is intention behind all of it. While making money is great, our deepest goals is to help build bigger platforms for our clients so they can help educate and empower more people with their stories and their craft.

Where do you think you get most of your clients from?

I can say with certainty that word of mouth and social media has been the best source of clients for us. When our clients post about our work, their followers see that and then reach out to us. It is the most rewarding when a client tells people about our work and how happy they are with us. We are also trying to be active on social media and post about our work which has helped bring in more business. We also send out quarterly newsletters to folks in our industry.

Any advice for managing a team?

My best advice in managing a team is to empower your staff and ensure that they feel heard. I have an open door policy, which I learned from my first job and it has stuck with me. I have also learned to let go of my need to control and be involved in everything and have learned to trust my staff and delegate so that I can work smarter not harder. I am a big fan of company retreats and milestone celebrations. We are a work family so I want to make sure that we celebrate like one too.

Contact Info:

• Website: www.arccltv.com
• Instagram: @arccltv

Image Credits
Ari Michelson is the photographer