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

Kelsey, thanks for taking the time to share your stories with us today The first dollar your business earns is always special and we’d love to hear how your brand made its first dollar of revenue.

I got my first client before I realized that they were a client. Andre Hustace is one of the artists of Radius Music Group (RMG) and we have known each other since middle school. The work together as an Artist and manager duo began in our Music Business class in high school where I was his manager. This was strictly for class then after high school, it became real. Andre trusted me to be his manager in real life. We were about 17 or 18 years old and knew little to none about the music business compared to what we know now, but we still wanted to try. I created the idea for Radius Music Group in April of 2022 and released the idea in August of the same year. In early 2023, that’s when I started to solidify what RMG is and what it means and that’s around the time I made my first dollar towards RMG. UraelB, who is my other artist, submitted to the TinyDesk competition and we put in SO much work to get his videos out. It was bigger than just submitting to their platform; we wanted to create multiple live performances to use as content and to show his live performance ability. That day was long and so many things went wrong! For example, we were going to film outside and it was pouring rain in Los Angeles that whole week so we had to pivot. Then navigating people to the right room after we found somewhere to film was a challenge. In the recording process, we didn’t have monitors for Urael to hear the band, and his microphone wouldn’t project into the room. Despite all of that, you would never know based on his video. I truly admired how Urael kept believing that I was going to make it work and figure it out while he focused on his job of being the artist. That payment was well and hard-earned and strengthened our partnership.

Great, appreciate you sharing that with us. Before we ask you to share more of your insights, can you take a moment to introduce yourself and how you got to where you are today to our readers.

Being a manager is something I did without knowing it. I always wanted to help coordinate and organize my friends’ projects and music and I was passionate about it because I am a musician too. I was in the music classes taking music theory, in jazz band, in music production…so I understand the work it takes to create. I played trumpet for about eight years, learned music production through high school and college, and when I transferred to UCLA; that helped me to start getting internships/jobs in the music business. So far I’ve worked at FemmeHouse doing marketing, at Live Nation with Femme It Forward doing Brand Partnerships, at RCA as an A&R Intern, and at Goldenvoice in Festivals as a production assistant. Currently, I work at a talent agency in their music department.

All of these experiences have taught me so much about the music business, but most importantly I understand how all of these worlds intertwine. In this business, everybody knows everybody and it’s smart to keep a great reputation across all of the businesses you’ve worked with – it might get you you’re next job.

Outside of working for big companies, I try my best to keep RMG a part of my focus. It’s difficult to do so when I’m new to the 9-5 corporate life, but I plan to dedicate more time to building and creating as much as I can.

Something I’m most proud of is having two clients who fully believe in my capabilities as a manager and having other artists reach out to me asking for the same services. It’s just that extra boost of validation that I’m doing something right even though I don’t always feel like it. Although, at the moment I’m not accepting any more clients for full-time management, but I’m happy to help direct and consult projects and rollouts which is something artists can reach out to me for at my email.

Can you open up about how you funded your business?

If I’m being quite honest, I did not have funds ready to go when I started RMG. I had an idea and wanted to get it out there because I was already doing the work. As time progressed I received business advice from multiple friends and family on what to do next I have yet to take those steps just due to personal things, but in 2024 we will put those plans into motion.

I had one client at the beginning and gained one more along the way. B0th believe in me and are down for the ride and I appreciate that. That was the confirmation I needed that I could do it and just start and figure out the rest along the way to start funding my business. I’ve applied to grants and look for funding opportunities all the time, just haven’t found that yes quite yet.

What’s a lesson you had to unlearn and what’s the backstory?

Sometimes you have to say no! There is no specific backstory to this lesson, but to most gigs that used to come my way whether as a musician, short-term job opportunity, etc. I used to always say yes. I was so eager to do everything and be everywhere but when you juggle that many responsibilities, something is going to suffer eventually. You may not see it or feel it at first, but it will happen. This could be personal life responsibilities, school, relationships, and so much more. I had to start saying no sometimes because I realized I was always on the go and never stopped to focus on myself and what I needed to do for myself. Radius Music Group is a product of saying no and passing on offers. Of course, pass with discretion because you don’t want to miss a great opportunity, but I started to let go of FOMO and realized that what is for me will come to me when I’m ready for it and I can accomplish it to the best of my ability.

Contact Info:

• Website: theradiusmg.com
• Instagram: @theradiusmg
• Twitter: @theradiusmg

Image Credits
Jai Shannon @jai_shannon Taja Felisa @taja_felisa Gari Askew @glaskewii