Why Career Diversification in Important

Shelby Meade is the owner of Fresh and Clean Media, a talent management company that represents multiple verticals. Meade talks about why career diversification is important and how her talent pools compare to each other.

Shelby Meade: I work on the outside, I get to do whatever I want, get to figure out new ways to do things with my clients and we have a good time doing it. Zorianna Kit: Hi! Welcome to Dog and Pony. I am Zorianna Kit. Shelby Meade founded fresh and clean media in 2001 to diversify her revenue platform from only music to sports, fashion, books and lifestyle. Shelby, welcome. Shelby Meade: Hi. Zorianna Kit: So, tell me more about why you started fresh and clean? Shelby Meade:: I decided that it was not going to for me, to work for somebody else who was strictly music or strictly sports or one type of a lifestyle marketing company or PR company. So, I am like going, why don’t I mix everything up that I love and start my own situation so that is what I did. Zorianna Kit: So, who are some of your talents? Shelby Meade: Well, on the athlete side, we have Kelly Slater, the Pro surfer, Bam Margera, the pro skater and also TV personality, Jack Johnson, Ben Harper, Moby, G-Love, Mayson Jennings, we have a lot of characters, a lot of developing artist as well and then we work on different films that come out of the Brush Fire films company, mainly surfing films. Zorianna Kit: Has the corporatization of the music industry, has that had an influence on this path? Shelby Meade: It was more of a mentality about seven years ago and I worked at record companies in the early part of my career and I just saw where things were heading and it stopped being about the music and about taking chances. And now, everybody is so fearful for their jobs that they have lost the plot of what are you doing with this new artist to develop them and how can you be creative and it just got really stagnant. So, I worked on the outside, I get to do whatever I want, get to figure out new ways to do things with my clients and we have a good time doing it. Zorianna Kit: Yeah. Shelby Meade: So it is not, you are not locked in to this big corporate structure. It is not funny. Zorianna Kit: Yeah, it feels like there is not much room for development these days. You kind of have to come out right out of the box and you sink or swim and there is like no second chances, right? Shelby Meade: There is no rock and roll left in rock and roll at the record company. Zorianna Kit: Yeah. Shelby Meade: Its like, I am like, where is the fun here? Let us bring it back. Zorianna Kit: So, how do the verticals that you represent compare to each other in business structure? Shelby Meade: The music definitely has a rhythm to it, not you know, no point intended but there is a cycle. The record comes out, the touring starts, you have an arch as to what is going to happen with the project. With some of the athletes, it is when contest times are so everything kind of moves in different ways so I never feel like I am just working one platform and it might be our music clients are playing at an X-Games event and then we are rushing everybody together and it is fun and either just throwing a screening of the film that they made. Zorianna Kit: Yeah. Shelby Meade: So, I do not look at it in those ways. Zorianna Kit: Wow, fabulous. Shelby Meade: Yeah. Zorianna Kit: We are going to play a little game right now called none of your business. Shelby Meade: Okay. Zorianna Kit: So, have you ever had a talent who you just came to realize that she is really was not all that talented? Shelby Meade: Yes. Zorianna Kit: Really? Shelby Meade: More when I was working at the record companies because I did not always have a choice on that but in the current state of my company, everybody is talented. Zorianna Kit: Got it. Shelby Meade: I am pretty—I do not have to work with anyone who is not. Zorianna Kit: Got it. Shelby Meade: So, we are pretty choosy. Zorianna Kit: So, how does a person like that slip through the cracks then? Shelby Meade: Good managers, they are the priority, the ANR person you know we decided to throw a lot of focus behind them. Sometimes it could be, they have a great single but the rest of the record is not compelling. Zorianna Kit: Uh Huh. Shelby Meade: And if you do not have a strong touring base and you just have a radio single, you can not really have a career overtime. Zorianna Kit: So, would you ever sell your company? Shelby Meade: I did actually, a couple of years ago to a company in Texas called C3 which is a music promotions company. They have sports and music and you know we did kind of an interesting little deal to try it out and see how it works for a couple of years. Zorianna Kit: And how is it working? Shelby Meade: They kind of let me work on my own still. It is still a boutique agency but I get to play in their camp ground as well. Zorianna Kit: I got it. Shelby Meade: Like when I started working with them, I got to work on the discovery cycling team and that was really different for me. I was more like an action sports so then we went Tour de France and we did this big music festivals; Lollapalooza and Austin city limits and it is fun for me to bring my connections and background and merge it with what they have going on. Zorianna Kit: How much did you sell the company for? Shelby Meade: None of your business. Zorianna Kit: What media artist or athlete has personally influenced you most? Shelby Meade: There have been two; one would be Rakim from Eric Band Rakim which was a hip hop act I worked with in my early twenties. And that was one of the most amazing experiences from you know a girl coming out of the Midwest and then all of the sudden being thrown into this amazing and exciting world of hip hop culture in New York City. And that was great, that is when I knew that publicity was the area of the business that I wanted to specialize in and that I could have an effect in that and that was an incredible launching point for me and my career. Kelly Slater has been an incredible influence in just watching how he handles himself on the world. And what an ambassador he is for the sport and also just a really amazing human being. Zorianna Kit: Thanks for playing none of your business. Shelby Meade, the founder of Fresh and Clean Media thank you so much for joining us. Shelby Meade: Thank you. Zorianna Kit: If you have questions, comments or ideas, please email us at info@dogandpony.com. I’m Zorianna Kit. Thanks for watching.