We were lucky to catch up with Freddy Maier recently and have shared our conversation below.

Freddy, appreciate you joining us today. Owning a business isn’t always glamorous and so most business owners we’ve connected with have shared that on tough days they sometimes wonder what it would have been like to have just had a regular job instead of all the responsibility of running a business. Have you ever felt that way?

I’m extremely happy as a self-employed business owner. Amongst other things, I thoroughly enjoy the ability to make my own schedule, work from home, and travel freely. Sometimes I do think about what it would be like to have a regular job. While owning your own business comes with a lot more freedom, it also comes with a lot more responsibilities. As a sole proprietor of my own business I am the manager, accountant, marketer, and decision maker for my business…so yeah, it’s a lot of work. When I’m buried in all of it and feeling slightly overwhelmed that’s when I think about what it’d be like to have a “regular job.” But that’s really the only downside, and I’m currently working on adding a staff member to the team to help offset a lot of the workload.

Awesome – so before we get into the rest of our questions, can you briefly introduce yourself to our readers.

I started going to concerts (mostly electronic music ones) in Atlanta when I was about 19 years old. From that point on I was hitting a show at least twice a month up until I was a senior in college when I was about 23 years old. When I was entering my last semester of school I really didn’t want to go to any of these career fairs dressed in a suit like all of my other classmates were doing. For some reason there was something inside of me that was saying, “That’s not you, you can do something different and enjoy whatever that is much more.” So I followed my gut, and reached out to 3-4 promoters in Atlanta who were producing the events I had been attending for the last 4 years. I basically told everyone the same thing, “I’m graduating from Georgia State with a business degree with a concentration in marketing, I’ve been going to your events for the last 4 years, and here’s how I believe I can add value to your business.” To be honest, I established connections off the bat with every promoter I reached out to, and the cool thing is that I am great friends and work associates with all of them now. Anyways, I really hit it off with one of them and he was forming a new company called “Envisioned Arts ATL” that he wanted me to be a part of from the ground up. The same day I took my last college final we announced the company on social media. I’m super blessed for it to have worked out so seamlessly.

The business “Envisioned Arts ATL” was a promotions company that would book concerts. Another part of the business was to represent musicians with artist management services. So I was trained on how to be a concert marketer, concert talent buyer, and artist manager. We went through some transitional phases and the company name has since been changed to “Envisioned Arts South” which I co-own and talent buy for now. I also manage five different musicians: Yheti, Toadface, Ternion Sound, Nikki Nair, and Khallil. Four of them are Producer/DJs and one of them is a Vocalist/Songwriter.

The best way I can describe what I do for my clients is clearing the clutter between vision and execution. A lot of people have a lot of great ideas, but at the end of the day the ideas don’t mean all that much if they can’t be executed. I like to think that I’m super organized and a great people person, so a lot of the ways I get my team from Point A to Point B is by being a great connector. I’m not necessarily the one who is doing the graphic design work for a release, running the digital advertisements for a tour, or manufacturing the merchandise for a client, but I’m the one who knows the best people in the industry who can do those things for my team.

I’m most proud of the way my team and I handle ourselves in person and online. I know that we all have great values / ethics and are very mature / humble individuals. I’m a big believer in letting the work speak for itself, and I feel like we collectively and consistently do great work and that’s all that needs to be done. We let the people / fans make their assumptions about the output we produce.

Are there any books, videos or other content that you feel have meaningfully impacted your thinking?

There are a couple of educational books that have helped me in my career.

The first group of books are all written by the author Malcolm Gladwell. He is a journalist, author, and public speaker who focuses on writing books that identify, approach and explain the unexpected implications of social science research. The books are titled: Outliers, The Tipping Point, Blink, and David & Goliath.

Some other educational books that I’ve read are titled: Grow by Jim Stengel, Start Your Music Business by Audrey K. Chisholm, The Organized Mind by Daniel J. Levitin, and How to Make It In The New Music Business by Ari Herstand.

Any advice for growing your clientele? What’s been most effective for you?

The most effective strategy for growing my clientele has been to utilize accomplishments with previous clients as leverage when acquiring new talent. Instead of just telling someone how you can be an asset, the best proof of how you can add value to whatever your client is doing is by showing how you’ve added value to previous client’s careers.

Contact Info:

• Website: https://www.freddymaiermusic.com/
• Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/freddy_atlanta/
• Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/freddy.maier.music
• Linkedin: https://www.linkedin.com/in/freddy-maier/
• Twitter: https://twitter.com/freddy_atlanta

Image Credits
Ching Chen, Nathen Lane, Mikey Revalds, Hannah Chaney, Lane Jackman