The Business Side of Being an Independent Artist: Pricing, Hiring and Cash Flow | Neue.Indie Ep. 18

808 Beezy has more than ten million streams, music placed with the Lakers, the Dolphins, the Dodgers and ESPN, and a single that became the soundtrack to over 100,000 videos. He did all of it without a label. In Episode 18 Deraj and Frank Bentley sit down with him for a full walk through how: selling CDs at a gas station in Pine Bluff, Arkansas, a year and a half of free shows, and a notebook he filled at 5am every morning with the same two lines. Nobody is coming to save you. Support is not entitled. The conversation turns practical fast. Why dialing in your live show matters more than anything (you can get booked once, but getting rebooked is the job). Why you don't need ten million dollars when you don't owe people money. His two operating principles, people over projects and intention. Who to hire first and why he learned to run a record label by studying Walmart. Why cash flow matters more than your bank balance, what to do with $330 a month in streaming royalties, and why he wouldn't spend years fixing his weaknesses again. The back half gets into the numbers and the mindset. His first five-figure month and first six-figure year, how he picked his price by saying numbers until one scared him, how his wife taught him to build a price instead of making one up, and why the biggest flex for an artist is the authority to say no. He shares the one sentence he takes into every room, the questions he sat with to find it, and the full story of a song that hit 10,000 videos before anyone told him. 🎙 Hosted by Deraj →   / justderaj   🎙 Co-hosted by Frank Bentley →   / itsfrankbentley   🎧 Guest: 808 Beezy →   / 808beezy   📲 Follow the podcast →   / rep.indie   Subscribe →    / @rep_indie   Join rep.indie → http://repindie.club/ Got a win or a question? → https://forms.clickup.com/8589472/f/8... --- Chapters 0:00 Welcome to Episode 18 1:09 Introducing 808 Beezy: 10 million streams, no label 3:20 Twelve years of touring: dial in your live show 5:45 How Deraj and 808 Beezy met 7:36 Pine Bluff, Soulja Boy and selling CDs at the gas station 9:46 Where the drive came from: nobody is coming to save you 12:30 A year and a half of free shows 14:42 Get good before you look to get paid 15:33 Getting saved and leaving the rap group 17:44 Four jobs on the way to full-time music 19:59 You don't need $10 million: live below your means 21:28 Building a career without social media 24:35 People over projects 27:49 Hitting your bandwidth: starting with interns 32:28 Your first hire and what Walmart teaches about labels 35:12 Know your cash flow, not your bank balance 38:12 Wearing every hat, then finding your leverage 40:59 Who Not How and learning to delegate 43:24 When he felt safe to hire 44:19 Faith, free CDs and running it like a business 46:13 You can't just wing it: why structure matters 49:22 Planning won't kill your creativity 50:24 Stop operating out of hope 51:12 First five-figure month, first six-figure year 55:47 How do you know what to charge? 57:41 Does people over projects work outside the Christian market? 1:00:27 Knowing your worth vs caring about people 1:02:21 Build your price from real costs 1:04:49 Sometimes you have to say no 1:05:42 Proving you're worth booking: your one sentence 1:07:45 I exist to create moments that impact forever 1:10:13 The questions we run from 1:11:29 The authority to say no 1:12:37 Show Up and Show Out: 100,000 videos 1:16:57 What going viral actually changed 1:19:27 Outro and Life at the Rodeo --- Resources Mentioned 808 Beezy — guest; independent Christian hip-hop artist →   / 808beezy   Life at the Rodeo — 808 Beezy's album (released September 11; deluxe due November 6) "Show Up and Show Out" — the single from Too Many Rings that passed 100,000 videos, produced by Quinn Koblenz Who Not How — the book Deraj references on delegation The systems-thinking book Deraj sent 808 Beezy before his first hire (title not named in the episode) Passion Conference (Atlanta, 2013) — where 808 Beezy says he got saved First Orlando — the church where Deraj and 808 Beezy met on staff --- #NeueIndie #IndependentArtist #MusicBusiness #808Beezy #ChristianHipHop #ArtistCEO