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

Sam, thanks for taking the time to share your stories with us today Too often the media represents innovation as something magical that only high-flying tech billionaires and upstarts engage in – but the truth is almost every business owner has to regularly innovate in small and big ways in order for their businesses to survive and thrive. Can you share a story that highlights something innovative you’ve done over the course of your career?

During the pandemic our backs were against the wall. Management clients weren’t touring and our Project management division was dealing with marketing clients needing to pause campaigns to make sure they could handle their bills, etc. I promised my team that no matter what jobs were safe and we’d figure it out. This created a team like we’d never seen it. A team of dreamers collectively trying to figure it out. Through some personal experiences, we had seen the low-level work coming out of the creator economy and knew we could apply our art first mentality to working in the space. We transitioned into managing a roster of influencers primarily on TikTok. That has since expanded to rolling out a brand marketing division where we work directly with companies to handle their TikTok and social activations as pertinent to creators. This not only kept the business alive, but 2021 we experienced around a 500% YOY growth.

Sam, before we move on to more of these sorts of questions, can you take some time to bring our readers up to speed on you and what you do?

I’m a young entrepreneur who co-founded a company called Innovo Management in 2014. The business started as a music management company created to put musicians first. From personal experiences as an artist in my teens and signing a bad label deal, we set out to do things differently. Flash to 2022, and Innovo now does four things, artist management, influencer management, project management, and brand marketing.

Learning and unlearning are both critical parts of growth – can you share a story of a time when you had to unlearn a lesson?

That in order to be successful as an entrepreneur you need to work 12 hour days, always be on the go, and not have a personal life. Hustle culture and the social media landscape are extremely detrimental to young adults trying to start their businesses. For years I overworked, neglected relationships, ate badly, etc. As you’d expect, I eventually crashed and burned. I had to re-learn work life balance. In order to be my best self for my clients, my team and my business — I need to be my best self. That requires adequate sleep, working out, eating well, etc.

Can you tell us the story behind how you met your business partner?

I met Ian Rodriguez in a University dorm room. We both were transfer students and ended up being paired together. Our interests were slightly different, however we found that we overlapped in music and caring for creatives. Over time, that friendship and shared passion turned into Innovo!

Contact Info:

• Website: https://www.innovomanagement.com/
• Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/samthemanager_/
• Linkedin: https://www.linkedin.com/in/sam-saideman-b389a480/
• Twitter: https://twitter.com/samsaideman

Image Credits
Drew Elliott Annelise Loughead