20A- Growing your Social Capital

Ted

1. The first person I talked to was Ted Nelson
2. He is a domain expert in the music industry and creates music. He is most into singing rock and has done so for the past 30 years.
3. I found this person at the place where I work which is called Massage Envy. We started talking about music when he told me he made music and showed me some of his songs.
4. He did not do anything for me, other than give me advice in the music industry. He showed me a lot of the ways music production has changed and how the market intersects with the consumer. I don’t believe there is any return expectation from me. I actually recently gave him an instrumental, so I’m expecting him to create a song from it and send it to me.
5. This person will enhance my opportunity to learn more about what goes into producing music, as well as how to market myself in the most professional way possible. I also feel as though his connections with other musicians will also greatly benefit my own network.

Nico

1. The next person I talked to was my friend Nico Chang.
2. He is an expert and professional sound engineer. He has been creating instrumentals and selling them for the last 10 years and works for several audio companies as well.
3. I found this person in college and I met him through a friend. He actually went to my high school but I never actually got to know him during high school, so when I first met him, it felt like I had never talked to him before. He was one of the first people to show me the instrumentals he made.
4. The favor he did for me was give me insight into the process that it takes to create and sell the beats. He was the first person to actually teach me the software called Logic Pro X. After learning it and creating my own, he soon taught me how to sell the beats on websites in order to generate revenue.
5. This person really benefits my network because I think he could be a very great business person to create a company with. The same company I am creating and explaining on my blog, I plan on partnering with him on. He has the experience and equipment I need to really get it going as well.

Pablo

1. The last person I interviewed was someone named Pablo.
2. Pablo created a company called Roblex, and it focuses on selling not only music, but also creating music videos and ads for customers.
3. I found this person at an entrepreneur meeting in Gainesville and he ended up being very close with some of my other friends so we all started hanging out. When I was working on my company the past year, Pablo really helped us find a good videographer to shoot some of our videos.
4. He has given me a lot of advice, as well as give me connections to certain people that helped us bring our vision together. He has a lot of connections with videographers so it was awesome to have him help us in that aspect. I also help him brainstorm for his company as well so it’s mutually beneficial.
5. I think this person will really help me find opportunities and people within the film industry. I think there’s a large network he’s involved in and I need videographers for my company. I would even be down to bring him on the team.

Reflection:

This experience definitely changed the way I network and go to meetings and clubs alike. Most of the people I’ve met in entrepreneurship have been from clubs, and I always was hesitant to go, but now I feel really confident in meeting new people. I have to realize that it doesn’t matter the age of someone, what matters is their passion, experience and skill set. I think going in with the intentions of learning something or asking questions is very different than how I have approached these networking meetings before, but I think it is very valuable because it allows me to try my best. Sometimes you won’t always succeed, but if you try your best, at least you know you have it your all. I learned a lot from this assignment and I’m thankful for it.