As an artist, you probably get the fundamental value of continuous improvement as a means to keep your creative processes fresh. But if you’re working the management side, are you as tuned in as you should be to keeping yourself on the ‘new’ side of the desk?
I recently had the pleasure of writing a piece for Berkleemusic on Richard Zack, a 28-something wonderkid who co-runs management/production firm, The Wink Winks, in NYC. One of Richard’s bands, The Volunteers, was selected from a pool of hundreds to perform at the 4th Annual Berklee party at SXSW on March 20, 2009 in Austin.
Richard was in the spotlight at Berklee because he’s among a growing group of entrepreneurs going back to school online to build their chops on the business side of music.
Zack is one of those guys you can’t help but admire - not just for his incredible business acumen, but perhaps more significantly, because he figured out a way to align his considerable talent with a strongly-held set of core beliefs that his music enterprise could help change the world for the better.
Before Berklee, Richard had already built two companies and sold both to finance his lifelong dream of owning an artist management firm that would have a positive impact on society. “In many ways,” said Zack, “the music business is different from others as we have one leg in the artistic realm, and one in the business realm.
“At The Wink Winks,” he continues, ”we developed our ‘positive impact’ mission out of sheer will, confidence in our abilities and disdain for all the wrongs of the world. I consider it a solemn duty, almost from a spiritual level at the core of who I am as a person. My love and respect of music is why I have become an artists manager.”
We talked about Zack’s path to The Wink Winks; how going back to school helped him refine his core strategic plan for The Wink Winks; and how he found a positive strategy for finding the kind of artists to work with.
A disclaimer - I too am a student online at Berklee, and am a rabid fan of not only the education you get there, but the incredible people you meet along the way.
Here’s the full story on Zack and the band at SXSW: Berkleemusic at SXSW 2009
And if you like what you hear on The Volunteers, be sure to let Richard know.
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