Yesterday's "Hustle 2.0" panel was rooted in long-term revenue planning (aka how to make a lot of money for the rest of your life), so you know it was among the biggest highlights of the conference line-up.
If it doesn't make dollars, it doesn't make sense! Moderated by Joseph Faxio, Tyler Allen Darius Burgan and the legendary Ryan Leslie shared their expertise advice on how to effectively move your product. Here are 3 of the most vital points we took from the discussion:
The conversation between these gentleman has officially confirmed the "It's not what you know, it's who you know" theory. According to Leslie, the right people are only valuable to you if you can be valuable to them. "Its 100 percent about knowing the right person, but not just having their phone number or their business card ---you need to know what value you can provide to someone instead of just asking them for a handout."
(Chris Clayborn for A3C Media Services)
If you don't take away anything else, always think of yourself as an investment. You're a stream of revenue for someone to invest in so that they can make their money back, right? Act like it!
As much as you need to network amongst people with leverage, you should spend just as much time getting to know the people without it. Allen is the CEO of W. Tyler Consulting and knows the value of a fan base --- no matter how big or small that audience is. "We've gotta look at what in front of us! It's your fan base. Getting them from the casual listener on twitter to a paying customer is the biggest part."
Be open to other avenues, but don't be too attached to your vision. Instead of waiting on the A&R fairy to come grant you with a record deal, maybe you should try converting your re-tweets on twitter into merchandise sales.
Burgan quoted Lil' Wayne when he made his "Pray for the best, but prepare for the worst" statement. "As simple as it sounds, the key is figuring out what your audience wants and giving it to them. Ask yourself, what happens if one of your revenue streams disappeared today? It'll be pretty hard to go broke when you're always searching for an answer to that question," said Burgan.