XII-IV-MMIII (December 4th, 2003) is a special date for me. It is tattooed on my arm. It was the date on which I took complete control of my life and put faith in my determination to build my future against the odds as it were.

On this day, 21 years ago at only 18 years old, I packed my things and took a one-way flight from Cleveland, Ohio to Los Angeles, California to pursue my dreams to work in the entertainment industry.

The second of four children from a working class family in a small town called Bedford, I didn’t have many resources, I didn’t know anyone in Los Angeles, I didn’t have any connections in Hollywood to “put me on,” and when I landed at Bob Hope International Airport in Burbank, I didn’t have a job or a place to live.

What I had was $600, an unapologetic drive to succeed, an aggressive and almost foolish belief in myself to persevere and figure things out.

Over the next 21 years, I’ve endured incredible ups and severe downs, but I consistently found a way to bounce back and achieve higher while helping others along the way. I worked full-time to earn three college degrees — an associate’s degree from Los Angeles Valley College (LAVC), a bachelor’s degree from the University of California Los Angeles (UCLA), and a master’s degree from California State University, Northridge (CSUN). I combined my passion for entrepreneurship and the music industry, and my interest in social justice and community building to develop businesses that have empowered and educated independent music creators around the world. And today, in my role as Head of Third-Party Partnerships at The Mechanical Licensing Collective, my work has a direct positive impact on the livelihoods of songwriters on every continent.

I couldn’t be prouder of my 18 years old self for taking that leap of faith 21 years ago, and despite the hardships I’ve encountered along the way, I am incredibly grateful for the emotional support that I have received from family and friends, especially when my will to thrive and succeed was challenged by circumstances and self-doubt.

As I look ahead to my 40th birthday, in less than 3 months, I am filled with gratitude that the ups and downs in my life have led me to where I am today doing what I love with passion and dedication.

It was risky, but where there is no risk, there is no reward.

Here’s to December 4th. 🥂

#tbt #throwbackthursday

In 2012, I was abruptly laid off of my job as head of marketing and the music division of a retail chain. I had not seen it coming because the company was growing. It had acquired a smaller company and after some restructuring, they let go of some employees.

I had just signed a 3-year lease on a new car and a 1-year lease on a new apartment, and I was stuck with expenses that I could not afford at a time when I didn’t know what my next move would be. I was 27 years old and I didn’t have any savings.

I took that devastating situation as an opportunity to pivot and lean in to my passion in the music industry. I enrolled in a master’s degree program in music industry administration at California State University, Northridge; I downsized my life by finding someone to takeover the rest of my apartment lease and selling all of my belongings; and I rented a tiny 10’x12’ room (pictured) with a twin bed (which I was too big for) in a rundown house in Koreatown, Los Angeles (there were definitely roaches 🪳).

My willingness to downsize my life, after maintaining an appearance of stability and luxury for several years, allowed me to use the money I was making from doing consulting work to invest in building a music tech startup while taking out loans to pay for graduate school.

I would later go on to launch several music tech startups from research that had begun in that tiny stuffy room. Those startups were acquired and those acquisitions enabled me to pay off all my student loans and give financial gifts to my family members.

So much has happened in my life and career since this pivotal moment, but as I think about all of my friends who have been laid off from tech and music companies in recent months, my advice is to look at this time as a pivotal moment. I did not have the cushion of a severance package when I was laid off (just my final paycheck, which is difficult for someone living check-to-check with no savings), but I did have the ambition, self-determination, and willingness to make significant life changes to get to the next phase of my career—and I don’t regret any of it. I am better off because of it.

Overnight Success in Only 25 Years

When I was in grade school, starting at 14 years old, I used to go to the library and for fun I hacked the library computers. I never modified or took documents, but I loved exploring coding with no formal training.

In high school, I purchased my first laptop with money that I earned from my summer job at an amusement park called Geauga Lake in Greater Cleveland, OH and I purchased the Adobe Photoshop software. I taught myself graphic design and website design with no formal training. I was 16 years old.

After high school, when I was 18, I took $600, my laptop, and some clothes and went to Los Angeles to pursue a career in the music industry. I arrived homeless and unemployed, but I interviewed for a job as the personal assistant of an Emmy Award-winning director and was able to beat out all of the older experienced PAs because I pitched him my graphic design and website management skills and became his digital marketing and e-commerce manager (dot-com businesses were still booming). Amazon Web Services had just launched and cloud computing was in its infancy.

By 24 years old, after working several jobs to pay my way through college, I earned a bachelor’s degree from UCLA and launched a music industry company called Loft24 Records and Loft24 Publishing. I was 24 years old and lived in a loft in Downtown Los Angeles. There, I developed my first music technology platform to pitch my artists’ songs to music supervisers and advertisers for synch opportunities. Again, I was not formally trained on music licensing or software development.

In my late twenties, I conceptualized and incorporated a song pitching and A&R platform called SongBank, launched an in-store music video and artist promotion network called ChazBo Music (later acquired by EMPIRE), and I began graduate school.

At 30 years old, I graduated CSUN Music Industry Administration with a master’s degree in music industry administration and a focus in music publishing and copyright administration and was awarded the Future Executive Award. Steve Winogradsky and Andrew L. Surmani were my professors who encouraged me to think critically about ways in which the music rights space could be innovated. I conducted a ton of independent research in this regard, which later became the basis of two startups.

At 31 years old, I became the first Innovation Fellow at the UCLA Center for Music Innovation where I developed a summer intensive on entrepreneurship at the intersection of music, technology, and innovation. A year later, I was hired as an adjunct professor to teach my course to students at the UCLA Herb Alpert School of Music. Billboard recognized my course, “Music Industry Entrepreneurship,” in its list of “The 15 Best Music Business Schools in 2017.”

At 32 years old, I launched TuneRegistry, the world’s first platform that enabled self-published music creators to manage and self-administer their music copyrights in the United States, and RoyaltyClaim, the world’s most comprehensive search engine of unclaimed royalties and music licenses.

In 2019, at 34 years old, Billboard named me a Digital Power Player and the US Copyright Office invited me to speak at it’s Unclaimed Royalties Kick-off Symposium in Washington, D.C. to share my thoughts and advice on how the recently designated The Mechanical Licensing Collective ought to go about conducting partnerships and outreach to identify, reach, and engage independent music creators in accordance with the recently passed Music Modernization Act.

In 2020, at 35 years old, I became the Head of Third-Party Partnerships at The MLC responsible for, among other things, developing and implementing initiatives related to the recommendations that I had made months prior at the symposium.

In 2022, at 37 years old, I built and launched the Distributor Unmatched Recordings Portal (DURP) which is a first-of-its-kind platform enabling independent music distributors from around the world to gain visibility into the recordings they’ve released for which The MLC has royalties on hold for their artists. The first artist who was identified and paid nearly $20,000 in back royalties was RØNIN in Perth, Australia.

And in 2024, at 39 years old, I am honored to have been nominated as a Maestro of Metadata finalist for the upcoming Music Business Association’s Bizzy Awards (it’s like the GRAMMYs for music industry professionals).

This nomination culminates my life’s work (so far).

This is what “overnight success” looks like.

“If you do what you love, you’ll never work a day in your life.”

– Marc Anthony

I’ve always found this quote to be intriguing and optimistic.

The notion that working in your passion should feel so fulfilling that it overshadows and numbs any pains or losses that you’ve endured from doing the work itself. Furthermore, that your passion is one in which you can make enough of a living to satisfy your basic needs and (hopefully) more—live comfortably.

It’s a fascinating idea, but it generally doesn’t become a reality for most of us; even those of us who absolutely love the work that we do.

I do think there is a form of this optimism that is true and obtainable. A world in which you can be completely fulfilled by your work while still appreciating the challenges that you face and overcome.

Challenge builds character and expands knowledge.

Challenge is a catalyst for problem-solving, a skill that has a positive cognitive effect on aging adults.

Challenge invites innovation, a realm in which we foster creativity.

And challenge can feel painful. Setbacks and failures can take a deep emotional, physical and/or financial toll.

At last, challenge can coexist when working in your passion and doing what you love (even when “living your best life!”)

Today marks 10 years since I have been able to work in my passion and do what I love full-time (previously, I had been moonlighting in my passion for 7 years). While my specific adventure within the land of music, creator rights, technology and innovation has changed over time, my focus has always been rooted in a passion for empowering music creators.

I am now 2 years into my current adventure at The Mechanical Licensing Collective as Head of Third-Party Partnerships and 7 years into my adventure at UCLA Herb Alpert School of Music as a part-time music industry professor and I can say that doing what I love is work, but it is work that I appreciate.