Oftentimes artists think they need a manager, but they’re not really at the stage yet where a manager would benefit them. Usually they’re overwhelmed and what they need is an outside opinion from someone who is knowledgeable and experienced to give them perspective and help them know what to focus on. That’s the role of a mentor. Rosabelle Eales talks to us about her awesome management who particularly loves helping women.

When she looks back at the last 10 years she’s been in music, it was a crazy journey. Rosabelle was born and raised in Albuquerque, New Mexico. After high school, she moved to New Orleans. She spent 2 years at Loyola New Orleans. There she created her base circle. That’s where she met an amazing manager, Matt Bauerschmidt, who manages an artist named G-Eazy. That was the first legit artist that she worked with, toured with, and spent a lot of time working in and around that camp, which then opened the door for her to work in hip-hop, where she spent 3 or 4 years. She managed a female rapper signed to Young Money. She held a few tours. She then managed Garrett Nash. She now has her own management company and managing 7 artists.

She previously taught tour management is what she would do, but her mind for business and growth was more geared towards artist management wherein tour management is a part of.

What is a manager? A manager is something who is a catchall for your business — organizing, planning, coordinating, scheduling, brainstorming, seeking out opportunities among others. A client should have a strong vision and understand what is going and the manager can create that environment to help the client flourish. Management is an 80-20 business. The artist still propels the business forward.

Rosabelle is not a metrics-based manager. When she looks for a client, she finds someone whom she feels she can really serve. She also checks if they are aligned in terms of the company, the community that she built, their communication styles, and such.

What are the skills Rosabelle thinks she had to develop for her management? Her superpowers are organizational skills, intuition, communication skills, overall understanding of business, and how to make something profitable. The main thing though is her compassion for her artists.

If you’re an artist and you feel overwhelmed but you don’t necessarily feel like you’re so big that you need to go seek an established management, find a homie, who has a little bit of a mind for business. That being said, tapping your friends, tap in the people around you who love you. You got a friend that makes dope shit on Photoshop. Have them design your artwork. Have them make a T-shirt for you. Squarespace is an incredibly easy platform to build a website put something good on TV and mess around with it until you build something for yourself that you like.

Her advice is to not go looking for a manager when you’re stuck in the mud, but when you get yourself out of the mud, find a person who can push you.

You can find Rosabelle on her website at OverAllMgmt.com and on Instagram at @OverallMgmt.

This episode was previously published on The Profitable Musician Show.

Links mentioned in this episode:
profitablemusician.com/academy