Ice Skating

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Saturday, February 16, 2013

Bus departs The Commons Circle @ 7:00pm

All Guests = $10

Ticket #: 1 of 48

Philadelphia Bus Trip

(seb)

Saturday, February 23, 2013

Bus departs The Commons Circle @ 9:00am

All Guests = $20

Ticket #: 3 of 50

The CEO of New Universal Entertainment Agency takes his cues from the industry greats, including Beverly Jackson and Marc Geiger.

As the CEO and founder of a music agency, my work time is split between servicing clients, building out agency properties, and scouring the world for the next great illuminator in music. With the digital revolution making music more ubiquitous than ever, it's a very exciting time to be in this business.

But when I first moved back to New York from Los Angeles and started New Universal Entertainment Agency, I had only one client--someone a friend had asked me to help out with. The artist was named Mims, and he had a single that was heating up. The song, "This Is Why I'm Hot" ended up going to No. 1, and before I knew it, the agency was off and running.

I love being close to the entrepreneurs and technology disrupters; it's the reason I initially started SoundCtrl. Learning from others helps me stay on top of trends, but more importantly, it helps me connect our clients, too.

To that end, here are the three pieces of advice that have meant the most to me throughout this journey:

1. It takes a village to raise a child.

I heard this when listening to my good friend Beverly Jackson do a speech at Social Media Week right after the Grammys last year. The Grammys had just been ranked the #1 most socially impactful event in the history of the medium. But she explained that it's never just one person makes this happen, and it really resonated with me.

No matter what work you do, it's never a one-person job. In our industry, no company or artist can break without support of the music ecosystem. Blogs. Press. Other artists. Entrepreneurs. Technology. It takes numerous hands on deck to develop talent, break and sustain their growth in this environment. It really is a team effort to raise a succesful brand in the music business these days--and in every other industry, too.

2. Add value, today, tomorrow, and always.

At a Pollstar conference, I heard legendary music agent Marc Geiger speak to a group of college kids and emphasize this particular piece of wisdom. He is not only the head of WME, but is also the founder of Lollapalooza, and regarded as one of the most knowledgeable music executives in the tech sector today.

Every waking and non-waking minute I want to be adding value to my clients' careers and overall lives. As long as I'm in the privileged position of representing other people's talent, I know that I need to be constantly thinking about how can I add value today. Then I try to apply that to everything I do in every aspect of life. Even when I go for a meeting or drinks with a new prospective partner, I'm always thinking about adding value to their situation and creating a winning proposition.

Adding value not only feels great, it keeps you in everyone's good graces.

3. Don't chase the paper, chase the dream.

This came from the movie "Notorious," from the scene in which Puff Daddy explains this to his newest protege, Biggie Smalls. Hearing this oft-repeated phrase helped me to realize, look, I work in a very fun and creative world. All day long I talk about, listen to and create opportunities for musicians. I enjoy eating drinking and sleeping this. I love what I do and the people I do it with.

But as an entrepreneur in any industry, you can't let money be the motivator. Sometimes I need to convince my clients that short money isn't the move. Stay focused on the long-term brand benefits instead, I tell them. Let's take less up-front and make this a better experience for the fans.

Money should be the byproduct of doing good work. Sure, I'm focused on doing the best deals possible for my clients, but that's not my passion--my passion is doing consistent and awe-inspiring work for them. Otherwise, where would I be today?

Jesse Kirshbaum is the CEO at New Universal Entertainment Agency. His agency specializes in procuring talent for concerts, tours and endorsement deals for his various clients all over the world. @JesseKay

Is other people's anger holding you back from being successful? A Harvard psychiatrist tells how to deal with rage at work.

Your boss, co-worker or client comes at you with a red face, raised voice, and dominating posture. What do you do?

There are few situations more stressful than dealing with rage at work, and with tight economic times stressing everyone out, such encounters are hardly rare. But thankfully, there are healthy ways to deal with other people's anger according to Dr. Joseph Shrand, an instructor of psychiatry at Harvard Medical School and the author of a forthcoming book entitled Outsmarting Anger: 7 Strategies for Defusing Our Most Dangerous Emotion.

By understanding the root causes of rage and hacking your own emotional response to anger, "you can use your brain to defuse that bomb," he told Inc.com in an interview, So how do you keep other people'e anger from standing in the way of your success?

Your problem may be someone else's anger, but that doesn't mean you shouldn't start with yourself. What exactly is anger and where does it come from? The first step to learning to deal with this sometimes terrifying emotion is answering these questions, according to Dr. Shrand.

"When is the last time you got angry at someone treating you with respect?" he asks.

Think about it. The answer is never. Whether it's because someone stole your parking space or took credit for your awesome idea, anger is always a response to feeling disrespected. You get angry because you don't like what someone has done and what it says about their respect for you—and you want to show them.

"When you feel angry," says Dr. Shrand, "you have probably felt disrespected and without value, so you want something to change. Anger is an emotion designed to change the behavior of somebody else." And it's no wonder these feelings are so intense. They have a long—and bloody—evolutionary history. Being disrespected or unvalued once meant possible exclusion from the group.

"Human beings just want to be valued by other human beings, and the reason has evolutionary premium. A couple of million years ago we were never the biggest, fastest, or strongest animal. We were always at risk of being lunch. Then we began forming these small social groups and our survival potential increased dramatically," he says. Being threatened with expulsion from the group still stirs up this early existential terror of facing a hungry lion all alone, even if these days it's just over the guy who always steals your sandwich.

Great, now you know the roots of anger, how does that help you deal with rage at work? By turning that insight on your angry colleague, Dr. Shrand says, you can use empathy to defuse the situation.

"If somebody approaches you with anger, your initial response will be to get angry in return, to retreat, or to try to become invisible and hope the danger passes," he says. But we've evolved a fourth option since our hunter-gatherer days.

"You can step back and wonder, why are they so angry? What is happened in their world that they want something to change?' Do they think that they are being threatened by someone? Are they are suspicious that somebody is trying to take something from them? Are they envious?" he asks.

The goal of these questions is to move your response from the ancient urge to scream back or flee that originates in the brain's primitive limbic system, to a response that utilizes an area of the brain called the pre-frontal cortex, which is a relatively new addition to our cognitive machinery that is responsible for planning and decision-making.

What does that look like in practice? If your own anger in response is manageable (Dr. Shrand says anywhere below a five on your own 1-10 scale of rage), "use empathy to approach [your angry co-worker] and engage them. Empathy is saying, "I'm interested in who you are. Relax. I'm not a threat to you. I'm here to help you because I see you as valuable member of this team." If you're too emotional yourself to do that in the moment, come back and do it once you've calmed down.

Maybe your response to this advice goes something like this: When my colleague is acting like an angry jerk, it's my responsibility to soothe them? Doesn't that make me a bit of a sucker?

While there are certainly toxic people who you should simply refuse to do business with, learning to respond to occasional anger from otherwise valued team members has huge practical benefits, according to Dr. Shrand.

"The initial reaction is, I am at risk of being exploited if I do this, my resources are going to be diminished. But that's not really true," he says. "If I use my pre-frontal cortex to treat someone with respect by engaging empathy, communicating with them, it's going to calm their brain, and then we all have a chance to actually do something. Remember it's not my anger that's getting in the way of my success, it's your anger, so by modulating your anger we can all be more successful."

Responding emotionally or running away may have an immediate emotional pay-off but, "there may be actually a better long-term outcome with greater success and more stability in your business if you don't succumb to this immediate kneejerk reaction," Dr. Shrand says. "If we can get another person to begin feeling valuable, it will bind them to us. Now you have a group of people who have a shared goal, who want to please each other and be successful. How could that not be better in business?"

Interested in learning more? Dr. Shrand's new book lays out his seven-step process for dealing with anger in detail.

Want to read even more about entrepreneurship? Our friends at Founder Weekly deliver a weekly roundup of content that’s sure to interest anyone with an entrepreneurial bent. Check it out!

A quick reader’s guide: Producing Open Source Software by Karl Fogel

Numerous startups depend on open source software for their success. In some cases, that can the leader of the open source project has founded a related company. In others, it can mean that a company has released some of its code under an open source license. In either scenario, a developer may find himself needing to run an open source project while his hands are full with other work. That makes Producing Open Source Software an invaluable book.

It covers just about every potential issue that could pop up during an open source project, from choosing a name for a project to choosing communication tools to how to actually manage a whole bunch of independently-minded developers. This is a book that covers the technical aspects of open source projects, but it also includes a lot of information on management and other topics that can get lost in the shuffle when you’ve started up a new, super-cool project.

I wouldn’t actually recommend downloading a copy of Fogel’s book today (unless you’re prepared to read it twice): he’s currently running a Kickstarter campaign to produce a second edition. Rather, consider backing the campaign. The second edition of Producing Open Source Software will also be available for free online, but hard copies will also be made available.

Development: Eyeball
Sitepoint has launched an experimental service to find broken CSS on websites, which may extend to HTML and JavaScript. It’s as simple as sending a tweet. You can read up on the launch on Sitepoint.

Funding: Move your startup to Austin for free at SXSW
If you’ve been considering a change of venue for your startup, Capital Factory in Austin may have an offer for you. As part of the SXSWi festivities this year, Capital Factory is holding a pitch event where the winner will receive a relocation package worth more than $50,000 (including 6 months worth of ramen noodles).There are a lot of arguments for taking a startup out of Silicon Valley and Capital Factory may be offering an easy route to do so.

Operations: Do investors care that we have other businesses?
This question was posted to Answers On Startups and has sparked an interesting discussion. Many entrepreneurs may find themselves in a similar position, where they’ve gotten projects to the point where there’s minimal work required, so they move on to the next big thing. But how public should such entrepreneurs make that information?

Marketing: The science of virality — marketing lessons from internet cats
There’s no doubt that cats rule the internet. But how have those furry felines managed to dominate it so thoroughly? This article covers Jonah Berger’s research into what makes an idea viral. He’s analyzed New York Times emailing behaviors and the results may surprise you. Your go to topics may not be as viral as you expect.

Beyond Tech: Mark Cuban’s awesome justification for endowing a chair to ‘eliminate stupid patents’
Mark Cuban has endowed a chair at the Electronic Frontier Foundation, which will be known as “The Mark Cuban Chair to Eliminate Stupid Patents.” Cuban, who is known for his investments, is fed up with the the stupid patents the companies he has invested in have had to fight or pay out to patent trolls over.

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