Growing up, wanting to be in the music industry, I thought I’d be on cocaine by my late 20s - but found myself instead, on quickbooks, and leading a team.

Funny how the world works.

In my production career, I've worked on records for artists such as Future, Lil Baby, Joji, DaBaby, August 08, Offset, Rvssian, JuiceWRLD, and more.

In my music supervision career, I've worked on advertisements for brands such as Burberry, Adidas, and Tom Ford.

My work has been featured in timesquare.

It's also been featured in a gas station. 

I've been thru the ringer.

You can check out more production creds here.

Currently, I'm pretty focused on sync licensing. Sorta messy for artists, libraries, and distributors. So- I'm doing my part to grease the wheels for everyone.

This is how I've tried to help so far:

I created That Pitch.

Through That Pitch, independent music creators can distribute their music into top production music libraries, such as Soundstripe, Feed.fm, Adaptr, Unsupervised Music, and dozens more. 

Many of these songs have subsequently been used in Netflix, Hulu, Marriott, PBS, MTV, Burberry, Adidas, Nike, and - tens of thousands of micro-placements on Youtube, Podcasts & more.

These placements have made many millions of dollars for independent music creators around the world.

Pretty siq.

100s of thousands of tracks have been uploaded to That Pitch, and I needed to make sure none of them would cause a copyright infringement. (Music Libraries are much stricter than DSP's and still to this day, there are no tools that can identify uploaded, unregistered work(s) to determine if a piece of audio infringes on copyright in various jurisdictions.)

So, I created Cleared™

Cleared™ can scan any piece of audio, and can immediately spot all copyright-infringing samples, covers, and publishing, that would be grounds for a lawsuit in a Sync Licensing deal.

Because of Cleared™, That Pitch has not had a single copyright infringement across millions of micro & large scale placements.

As of 2024, Cleared™ is now included complimentary for all of That Pitch's library partners.

Pretty bitchin'.

Here's more creds, because that's what you do on a personal website:

I've been featured in Synchblog, Digital Music News, Earmilk, HYPEFRESH, CD Baby, Beatstars, Six Figure Creative, Modern Musician, and a lot more.

That Pitch is the lead sponsor at the annual Shades of Sync Conference in Atlanta, hosted by xJ-Will & Clint.

I've been a featured panelist at Music Conferences such as Charlotte SHOUT!, Success in Music, The Platform, and more.

I'm on the advisory board to Confluence Carolinas.

I'm an adviser to Earthprogram's Music Tech Investment fund.

Uhh I think I mentioned everything.

It’s cool to work your ass off and see things happen with good people.

So yeah - I take my work very seriously, but as you can tell, I don’t take myself too seriously.

When I'm not working on something, I'm usually backpacking somewhere in the world w some buddies and/or my lovely wife Shirah, hanging out with my dog Margaux, producing records w friends. etc.

If you'd like to hear more from me, I write about my take on music business, music licensing, publishing, to the That Pitch email list a few times a week. I also post daily on my Instagram.

- Sign up to That Pitch

- That Pitch's Youtube Channel

- My Instagram

Extra credit ice breakers of note:

That Pitch donates a portion of it's profits to the IRC every month. very siq.

That Pitch is 100% self-funded and owned by me. no vc funding. no investment. no board.

I live in Charlotte, and owe a lot of my music career to this city. It's such a hidden gem of a music city.

books/blogs i'd rec (+ main takeaways)

• company of one - building a big business, and building a big company are not mutually exclusive. Also, similar to the idea of 'product-market fit', conversations around this book made me aware of the idea of 'founder-business fit'.
  
  
• 10x is easier than 2x - to double your business, you do more of what you're doing. even if what you're doing is a mess. to 10x your business, you find the 1 thing that works, and only do that.
  
  
• buy back your time - how to replace yourself / your efforts with automation or other people's time, and most importantly - what to replace, in what order. I automate the vast majority of my business operations, marketing, etc. If I can't automate it - I hire someone else to automate it for me. If it can't be automated (rare), it's a flat 'no' from me brah. Everything has to be systemized & automated - or it's just not the kind of business I wanna run. This gave me a few frameworks I use of what to automate, in what order, in accordance to what my time is worth.
  
  
• the art of non conformity - this book changed my whole perspective on life & business. set a lot of core values for me early on as to why I'm in business for myself. I've never had a job. I've only been self employed in music. I read this right after I dropped out of Berklee and was 'figuring it out' - this book is directly correlated to why I've travelled internationally so much, funded my own tours, built my production business, launched that pitch, started my email list back in the day - and lots more. I owe Chris Guillebeau a lot for really, how I think about all of this. He's a legendary dude.
  
  
• rework - I get to make the rules of how I wanna work.
  
  
• signal vs noise & jason fried's blog - blog from Jason Fried & DHH. They're the co-founders & co-owners of basecamp.
  
  They never thought of themselves as a 'startup'. They never accepted investment cuz they didn't want a boss. They never built it for the sole reason of selling the business. They just wanted a profitable business that helped people and helped them live a flexible life. Seems old school now... but it's the only thing that's ever made sense to me. They're voices of reason in a world filled with very loud ppl in tech saying a lot of stuff I just don't think makes much sense lol. My goal isn't to 'get acquired' or 'exit'. My goal isn't to be a 'startup founder'. My goal is just to fix shit that annoys me in the music industry and by doing so - helps all of my friends have a better time in the music industry. I don't consider myself a 'tech founder.' 'Tech' is just a vehicle to fix this problem without having to manage a lot of people - so I learned how to 'tech'. If servicing cars helped fix the music industry, and gave me the ability to not manage a big team, and live a flexible life, I'd learn how to 'mechanic'. lol. Living well, traveling, meeting people I admire, hanging out w/ friends, and just getting better at my craft - sounds awesome to me. This *is* the end goal. This is 100% a lifestyle business. I'm already here. I've made it. I have nothing to prove. I just want to help, and help more.
  
  Jason & DHH are 100% that ^, but are also 1000x wiser than I and are at a 100000x level in this direction than I am.
  
  So, I love reading anything they have to say.
  
  
• 37 signals - another thing from Jason Fried & DHH. They post good shit here too.
  
  
• shape up - framework for productivity not only in tech, but in anything in biz, in life, etc. 
  
  
• make - how to build a lifestyle biz in tech.
  
  
• blue ocean strategy - have such a unique offer, you can't be compared. 
  
  
• essentialism - most things don't matter in business & life.
  
  
• profit first - accounting for self employed ppl. this framework + YNAB = relaxed mark.
  
  
• losing my virginity - richard branson's come up was a shit show in all the fun ways. i resonate with that. 
  
  
• how to get rich - felix dennis (legendary publisher in UK) wrote this book poking fun at gurus who write these kinds of books. tbh most business books today have so much ego in them, lifestyle/health/morning mantras (i dont get it) and don't talk about how to close a deal tactically, what's important in business, what business strategy actually looks like on the ground floor. The book is fantastic. poetic. self-aware. if richard branson is the golden retriever of artistic business types, felix dennis is the pug w/ a gold chain smoking a newport.
  
  
• anything you want - "delegate, but don't abdicate." I've yet to chat with derek, but it seems like most ppl don't get the real lesson behind this book. if you pick up this book. read the whole thing, and then read the last chapter. Dont' skip ahead. the last chapter teaches the lesson. but you need to read the whole book first.
  
  
• beyond the pale - founder of sierra nevada. funded the whole thing himself. it was grueling - but worth it.
  
  
• our noise - when i need a reminder you can build a music biz from anywhere. merge is nc music royalty. i respect them a lot.
  
  
• 1 page marketing plan - "marketing" was a mess in my brain for years. this simplified all of it.
  
  
• breakthrough advertising - the pyschology of advertising, written by the dude who invented modern day advertising. with everyone talking about ig / tiktok / youtube - this sorta puts it all into perspective and helps me not waste time, avoid trends, and just focus on things that have always, and will always work.