Waiting for the Harvest in Business

Jeeni Blog

Helping the next generation of talent to build a global fanbase

Waiting for the Harvest in Business

By Kelli Richards, Managing Director, Jeeni USA

As an entrepreneur and/or a self-employed professional, have you ever been in a situation where a game-changing opportunity presented itself to you in business? Something that could “overnight” propel you to a different level of success and financial freedom? Only to find that the brass ring was further away than you thought? And while the opportunity seemed to be realistic and close at hand, it remained elusive for a long period of time; sometimes years at times? I’ve been in such a situation with not one but several ‘big deal’ business opportunities over the past few years. I won’t lie; it has been a trying experience, ranging from being annoying, frustrating and even gut-wrenching — waiting for the dominos to fall and for the scales of justice to be balanced in my favor. Holding my breath and waiting to exhale.

Friends and colleagues have expressed concern and wonder if I’ve lost my mind holding out hope that one or several of these deals will come to fruition. But I know in my heart of hearts that these opportunities are real — and I need to ride the wave and exercise every ounce of patience and trust that I have. Lately, I’ve felt the life force of these opportunities building in strength, and I see light at the end of very long and dark tunnel — it genuinely appears as though the time is growing nearer for them to manifest at last. I look forward to that happening with great zeal and anticipation, knowing my patience will be rewarded and that I’ll experience great relief on the other side.

As I was taking my morning hike the other day in the forest surrounded by trees, I experienced an Ah-Ha! insight that took me aback… I grew up surrounded by fruit orchards. When you plant a fruit tree, you don’t expect it to bear fruit for a few years — but once it starts doing so, it typically delivers wonderful fruit for many years to follow; it’s an investment in patience and trust. Duh! It occurred to me that each of these ‘big deals’ I’ve been waiting on has been like one of these trees — each one has had to come to maturity at its own time, when it was ready, and not a moment before. As they do, my colleagues and I stand to benefit from their rewards for many years to come.

If you’ve been in a similar situation, take heart and keep the faith; I hope this dose of perspective serves you and will give you strength to stay the course. Though many of us are rabbits in practice (and sometimes deals do come together at a faster clip), the tortoise knows that “slow and steady” wins the race. A good reminder for us all!

Kelli Richards Consultant – Super-Connector Trusted Advisor – Celebrity Wrangler

Creating Powerful Connections Across Music, Entertainment and Technology

With a unique talent for connecting thought leaders and disrupters from technology with innovators from entertainment, CEO Kelli Richards guides her clients to create big visions, make big connections and achieve big results.

Prior to establishing The All Access Group, Kelli made waves in senior-level positions at Fortune 100 entertainment and technology companies including EMI Music, Silicon Graphics (SGI)– and Apple Inc., where she launched Apple’s earliest focus on music & entertainment, driving initiatives in that space during her 12 years with the company. Over the course of the last 25 years, Kelli has been fortunate to have had the opportunity to work and collaborate with many people that have been instrumental in defining their respective fields—some have even become iconic. Steve Jobs, Mark Cuban, Sheryl Sandberg, Stewart Copeland, Nancy Duarte, Todd Rundgren, Alan Cohen to name a few, have all been personal mentors, colleagues, or clients.

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12
Mar

Greetings from Kelli Richards, Jeeni's USA MD

Kelli Richards Greetings from Kelli Richards, Jeeni's USA Managing Director, former A&R Executive EMI Music and an artist superconnector. Mentored by Steve Jobs at Apple, she launched and managed the music and entertainment division, resulting in the birth of global music online, now known as Apple Music. Here she sends greetings for 2021 and an update on her plans and ideas for shaping a path through this, another possibly unusual year. ------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Hi, Greetings! It's our first newsletter of 2021 and I want to wish each of you a happy and healthy 2021! This past year has been a tough one for everyone. I don't know about you but I'm looking forward to a fresh start, exploring new opportunities and renewing my passion for the possible. Be sure to scroll down and read my recent articles which may help you make 2021 the best year ever. Yes, it's possible. Even with the "new normal" we're living in. It's about having the courage to ask for what you want, and the willingness to make changes and adjustments that will support the habits and behaviors that work towards your success not against it. It's about defining what success looks like for you and setting your intentions for the year. It's time to take life off of "pause" and start re-shaping your future. In my work as a trusted advisor, I'm all about working with my clients to transform the quality of their lives. If you need some guidance or support in navigating what's next, reach out and let me know. And, be sure to read the current Client Spotlight article featuring a start-up I've been working with and super excited about, MultiView Media. This platform enables content owners in music and sports to stream historic video content or livestream shows in a multi-camera angle format and has been described as technology that lets the fan be their own director.Stay safe and well,~Kelli The Magic of Asking for What You WantDo you believe you can have virtually anything you want? I do. We all have a magic wand that can help us achieve our desires, but we forget that we do and overlook the power at our disposal to dramatically increase the odds of having what we say we most want in our lives... Client Spotlight: MultiView MediaI'm excited to share that one of the start-ups I've been working with over the past couple of years, Multiview Media, led by founder/CEO Ray Meadham has launched our multi-camera angle streaming platform... Nine Steps to Making Change EasierChange doesn't have to be hard; here are some tips to make it a smoother process... www.jeeni.com www.kellirichards.com

28
Oct

Interview with Musician, Writer, Poet and Creative Artist - Baby Panna

EJ Salako got the chance to speak to Baby Panna at Victorious Festival 2021, where he discussed his music, poetry, creative process and future goals. What sort of music do you make? I do all sorts, to be honest, I do a bit of hip hop, but it's more alternative, more experimental. I write poetry as well and I’m working on some indie rock music as well. So, it’s everywhere, a bit of everything. What influences you to make music, and what influenced you to get into music? My main influence was Kendrick Lamar I was like 12 on YouTube and I found Good Kid Maad City on an upload, I heard it and the poetic nature of it, the interludes, it opened my mind up to new ways to make music and I was in love with from there. My biggest influence is Kendrick, Kanye, Frank Ocean, the versatility, and the artistry that they show is something I want to emulate. When you’re writing your own music, what is your creative process? For me I think my process changed a lot during the lockdown, at first, I would be like “I want to make a banger so I can make peace” so I’d structure it like that you know. But now I just try and whatever I feel goes on the paper and I try and edit it as little as I can, try and keep the original beat, because I want to keep it as raw and as me as possible. So that’s me right now. Which one of your songs is your personal favourite? Right now, I’ve got one for life and one for listening, I think right now “Murder She Wrote Live” I really enjoy doing that, it gets the crowd going. But personally T1GR355, one of my most recent releases, it’s really close to poetry, and I focus on poetry a lot right now, so I love that. Future goals, where do you see yourself in the next 3-5 years, do you have an end goal? 3-5 years I think right now I’ve got a lot of rap music, I’m working on a poetry mix, and an indie rock tape and in 3 years that will all be out there. I think that’s when I will be able to confidently say people know who I am as an artist. I’m just trying to show I can do all these things, so that’s where I want to be in 3 years’ time just have people kind of get a feel for me as an artist and I wouldn’t say I have an end goal I think for me it’s just finding a way to have my creativity fund itself, that’s my goal. Watch the video interview here: Baby Panna Inside Story Interview at Victorious Festival 2021 Check out Baby Panna's showcase here: Baby Panna Jeeni Showcase

03
Sep

10 Reasons why the world needs Jeeni

My name is Mel Croucher. I'm a record producer and computer nerd. Over the years I've worked with a whole bunch of superstars like Prince, Frank Zappa and Eminem. In other words, I've been around successful musicians all my working life. A few years back I was hearing from more and more artists how unhappy they were with the big streaming services. So I polled 4,200 of them about their Top-Ten Problems with Spotify, Apple Music, Soundcloud, Deezer, and the rest. The poll result was a shocker, and I asked a bunch of the best brains in the music business to help me create an ethical alternative. It's taken us two years, and we call our alternative JEENI. Here's what the artists we polled told us, and here's our Jeeni solution to their problems. 1 - Money. Artists get paid a pittance. Platforms like YouTube pay $0.00069 per view, so even 10,000 views earns us less than the cost of a pizza per month.Jeeni solution. OK, we get it. You do all the hard work, so you deserve all the rewards. How about a Jeeni deal where you to keep 100% of all music sales, ticketing, and merchandise sold through our platform. 2 - Recognition. We try really hard, but streaming platforms just don't get us more fans or recognition.Jeeni solution. Right. Let's make Jeeni an artist development platform. Our founder invented viral marketing in 1994. Then he achieved the world's first million-user viral campaign. Now he's designed all the tools you need to grow your fanbase and get recognition: all part of the Jeeni service. 3 - Communication. We don't know the identity of who's streaming our stuff, so we can't get in direct contact with anyone who wants to know more about us.Jeeni solution. OK. Here's the deal. With Jeeni you get a built-in fan database to contact everyone who votes for you or likes your work, and you communicate direct with them as often as you like. Safely, legally and all opt-in. 4 - B*llsh*t. The big streaming platforms are full of it. We hate the adverts, we hate the artificial likes, we hate the paid-for recommendations, we hate the hype.Jeeni solution. The answer to this is an ethical alternative. We guarantee Jeeni will stay advert-free. We pledge our charts are the result of democratic votes by real people. And we promise that all Jeeni content comes from genuine unpaid sources. Oh yeah, we'll also pay our taxes in full, because we believe we should make a positive contribution to the society we live in. 5 - Rip Offs. We just can't break through, and even when we think we're making progress as artists we get ripped off.Jeeni solution. Yep. The entertainment business has always been full of shysters. Let's be honest here, the people behind Jeeni have all made it to the top somehow, and between us we've made every mistake in the book. Our mission is to help you achieve success and avoid the rip-offs. That's why our Jeeni Mentors, Ambassadors and Masterclasses have joined forces to do exactly that. 6 - Choice. The big streaming services all offer similar content, dominated by the same big star names.Jeeni solution. Agreed, so let's ignore the content everyone else uses and leave our competitors to fight it out! Jeeni is designed for undiscovered artists to break through, based on talent alone, not ad-spend. 7 - Channels. My work doesn't fit into mainstream channels. For example, what about channels for spoken-word?Jeeni solution. No problem. Jeeni already has dedicated spoken-word channels for poetry, comedy, and voice actors, plus channels for entertainments ranging from dance to videogame soundtracks. And if we don't already have a channel that suits your need ... we'll sit down and create it! 8 - Visibility. People either don't know about our work, or can't find it even if they do.Jeeni solution. We've designed the smartest user interface we can. On Jeeni, you can search by name, type of channel, instrumentation, latest uploads, popularity, even by influences and heroes. But above all, our artists have complete control over publicising their own announcements to their specific Jeeni audience. 9 - Fakes. What's the difference between the Jeeni Awards and the fake results dominated by celebrity voting?Jeeni solution. Simple. Jeeni doesn't have celebrity voting. Our Awards will always be based on one member - one vote. No ifs, no buts. 10 - Live performance. I'd like to stream an event, and charge people to watch it. Can Jeeni do that?Jeeni solution. Um, not yet, but we're working on it! Come on now, we're not perfect, so we need your help. Jeeni has returned to Crowdcube to raise more funds for helping new talent. Jeeni founding director Mel Croucher says, “We’re ahead of our original schedule, but there’s still so much more to do. We need to scale our online platform globally now and build our mass artist showcases. Jeeni raised £100K in 6 days and we’re working hard to get more investors on board. Then we can hit all our targets, and give our new artists the recognition they deserve.” If you want to see our pitch click HERE.

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