You already know what I’ve been going through with my web hosting issues lately, so I’ll spare you the recap (you can view my previous posts) and get right into it.

I received a lot of great referrals and have spoken to a TON of hosting companies over the past 2 weeks: BlueHost, MediaTemple, Choopa, DreamHost, SurpassHosting, GoDaddy, etc. The list literally goes on and on.

I contacted ALL of them. It took me forever but I did it. One reason was because I wanted to really get my feet wet and find out what was being offered but also because I wanted to understand what I needed.

I’m not the most technical person in the world but I can tell when someone is just trying to sell, so I contacted them all to ask them the same questions over and over again so I can hear multiple replies and learn about this stuff.

They say the only way to learn something is to ask questions; so that’s what I did.

The main thing I learned from all this: the web hosting industry might be very competitive, but it’s not very innovative.

What I mean by that is, they all pretty much operate the exact same way. It’s more or less the same technology, used in the same ways and only priced & marketed differently to drive competition.

They’re not setup to “think differently”.

Here are two small but important things I’ve learned about hosting:

There’s No Such Thing As “Unlimited” Bandwidth

“Unlimited” is just a sales pitch to attract people like me who don’t want to look at a bunch of technical specs but just assume that we’ll be covered.

There’s always a cap, but if you are on a shared account, chances are your website won’t see the type of traffic to ever see overages anyways.

Unlimited Bandwidth Does Not Equal Unlimited Resources

Given the fact that there is no real “unlimited bandwidth”, that still doesn’t make note of system resources.

Photo Credit: John Morris

On your computer, you might be browsing the net on Firefox, listening to music on iTunes, chatting with friends on AIM and typing a document in Word. Each of these programs uses up resources on your computer.

Same thing applies to web servers, but instead of just one person using these programs, it’s everybody who visits your website that uses these programs.

Not only that, if you’re on a shared account, you’re probably sharing that one server with about 700 other customers. So imagine all of your visitors, plus the visitors of all those other 700 customers.

That’s a massive flood of people.

So that entire audience is accessing your site and therefore using a piece of your server’s resources. On a shared account, you only get a certain percentage of those resources allocated to you. By adding resource hogging plugins or getting a spike in traffic, you can end up going over that percentage and your account will be temporarily suspended so that the other 700 sites on your server remain uninterrupted.

Imagine the amount of traffic you get from the front page of Digg.com. That amount of traffic will definitely create major downtime for you like it did for me.

My account was knocked off for a good 20 hours as I searched for solutions while still doing my best to do my actual work, which at the time was managing 3 short-staffed events (hell on earth).

My old webhost, HostGator, continuously tried to sell me a $300/month dedicated server as a “solution”.

$300 a month?

I barely pay $300 a year right now!

I kept trying to explain to them that this was the first time my site has ever experienced that type of traffic and that I truly do not require a dedicated server.

This is a PERSONAL blog. I don’t update it multiple times a day or even daily.

Hell, sometimes I don’t even post for a week or two.

I don’t sell ads on here and I don’t put any budget into promoting it. Only word-of-mouth & word-of-mouse. That’s it.

Keeping that in mind, while my web traffic is decent for a personal blog, it in no way compares to NecoleBitchie.com or NahRight.com. So a $300/month dedicated server would be a little overkill for my needs; especially since I don’t run any ads on here like I mentioned.

Before I get a bunch of replies from tech folk breaking down all the technical reasons why most web hosting companies are  set up that way; let me say this:

I don’t care.

People shouldn’t have to conform to technical limitations; technical solutions should be made to meet consumer needs.

So before leaving a comment or sending me an email telling me about how servers are built and why there is nothing on the market to cater to my needs; understand that I’m not the type of person to accept those kinds of limitations. That doesn’t make any sense to me.

As long as it takes, I will hunt for a solution.

All I wanted is a hosting account where I could be equipped with enough specs (bandwidth, storage, etc) to keep me running smoothly on a daily basis and also be equipped to handle occasional spikes in traffic like the one I experienced.

Is that too much to ask for?

Apparently, it is.

For the technical reasons I’ve specified above, no web hosts were able to attend to my needs and all started pitching me $300/month accounts or told me to take my chances with a shared account but will experience another suspension if I get any more Digg-like spikes.

So basically, pay a ton or hinder your site’s potential.

Luckily, I was able to find one company that works differently; MediaTemple.

Apparently, they created their own system to handle situations like this. Instead of being setup on a server with limited resources, I’m setup on a “cluster grid” with access to resources on other systems throughout that grid. So my site can access the resources it needs whenever it needs it.

Think of it like this: rather than only having access to the clothes in your closet (most hosting companies), you can have access to all the clothes in the mall (mt).

Interestingly enough, when I spoke with a few of the web hosts mentioned above, some of them even recommended that I go with MediaTemple. I didn’t understand why until a few of them began to defining me as a “prosumer with custom needs”, which they (and apparently 99% of the hosting companies) are not equipped to service.

Not because they’re not good; but because they’re not setup to serve this niche (even though I believe this isn’t as niche as they may assume).

Most hosting companies don’t create their own technology; they just buy, maintain and sell it in packages.

Luckily, MediaTemple is setup differently.

This isn’t an ad for them; rather this is my expression of relief that I was able to find what I was looking for.

Many people have been messaging me about this whole ordeal and asking which host I ended up choosing and why; mostly because they face similar issues and need answers.

Well, MediaTemple was my choice. So far, they’ve been great at helping me get all setup and I hope to see it continue down this lane.

Plus – their logo looks kinda cool on my blog :)

*Note: I originally posted this on Tuesday, however my blog wasn’t fully transported to my new webhost, so even though it showed up in RSS feeds everywhere; that post has been lost in cyberspace. This is a repost.*

If you visited my site anywhere between 1am and 10pm yesterday, you probably saw something that looked like this:

Obviously, this had me in FUMES given the very recent issues I’ve been having with HostGator, so I contacted them via their online live chat.

This is how the conversation went:

HostGator Tech Support: Welcome to HostGator, how may I assist you? 

Moe: Hi. I’m having a major issue with my account right now. All my domains are being directed to searchportal.information.com 

HostGator Tech Support: When did this start to happen? 

Moe: I got a few emails about it overnight.. the first one being timed at 2am. I only noticed them now though. 

HostGator Tech Support: What is your primary name on the account and what are all the addon domains on that account? 

Moe: My primary domain is ——–. That one is showing up fine. Many of my addon domains, including my blog, MakingTheMogul.com, are being redirected for some reason though. None of my domains are up for expiration or anything of the sort, so I know it’s not that. 

HostGator Tech Support: One moment please 

Moe: Sure 

HostGator Tech Support: Ok it should be fixed now. 

Moe: It’s still doing the same in Safari. I’ll try in Firefox 

HostGator Tech Support: ok 

Moe: Nope. Still the same. I just checked on 2 different computers as well 

HostGator Tech Support: After looking into this it looks like there was a dns issue on the domain on our servers and I had that corrected you would just have to wait for it to propagate to our servers. 

Moe: How long does that take? 

HostGator Tech Support: it can take up to 12 hours. 

Moe: Wow. How did this happen? 

HostGator Tech Support: Well I am not sure I just noticed that on the server level and I corrected that. I am not sure exactly how it happened though and I apologize about that. 

Moe: Thanks for fixing it. I appreciate *your* help. It’s just too bad I’m having nothing but issues with HostGator these days. Definitely time to switch to another, more reliable hosting company. Bye HostGator.

And I did say bye.

I was already planning on leaving after my recent fiasco, but assumed I had a little bit of time to figure it out and wouldn’t experience any more issues now that things have settled down.

Instead?

I woke up to dozens of messages from people telling me that my website was being directed to a generic search portal.

WHAT? HOW?

I might not be the most technical person on this earth, but regardless of what nuances someone tells me about why something on a server messes up, the end fact is – it messed up!

Sorry, but that doesn’t cut it. I’m a results person. You can offer me free hosting in an attempt to accommodate me for major inconveniences, but what good is free garbage if it’s still garbage?

Bye HostGator.

I’ve already opened an account with a new hosting company and currently transferring over all of my sites & files.

I’ve gotten MANY great recommendations for web hosting companies via email, Facebook & Twitter, and have contacted all of them. In the past week, I’ve spoken to at least 25 different web hosting companies. Some of them offered great prices and come highly recommended as being 110% on their customer service and tech support game.

Although, I would have loved to go with any one of these hosts, only one was able to offer what I need. Even some of these other hosting companies suggested I go with them after I explained my wants and needs.

That says something!

Thank you to everybody who suggested web hosts to me via emails, Facebook & Twitter.

I’ll post tomorrow to tell you which company I’ve chosen and why :)

Thank you to everybody for all your responses & Diggs regarding my previous post about my Twitter Exclusive experiment.

Ironically, my report of this viral marketing experiment resulted in a very similar effect and quickly became a popular topic on Twitter & Digg.

The web traffic was definitely the most that my blog has seen since I launched it back in February, however I was completely unprepared for the flood of traffic, which resulted in my website crashing, being temporarily suspended, being revived and then crashing some more.

After several emails, phone calls and online chats with my webhost, HostGator, I was able to get my site back up, but only after waiting approximately 20 hours for HostGator to bring it back online.

I’m quite disappointed and frankly disgusted by their poor level of “customer service” & “support” and have decided to switch on over to another web hosting company.

I’m thankful for all of your comments and will respond to them as soon as I have my web hosting situation resolved – most likely this weekend/early next week.

Thanks again

How did we get over 14,000 downloads in 48 hours?

Last Friday, I spoke with Mack Maine and he told me his upcoming mixtape with Don Cannon, “This Is Just A Mixtape” is finally going to be released and he wanted to get some buzz going around it.

Maine and I go back a few years, so when he asked me to help get the word out, I didn’t need to think twice.

I was on the road all day so I didn’t have a chance to listen to the songs until about 9:45pm on Friday night. I was debating on whether to wait until the next morning to take any action but I was anxious to hear them so I decided to listen and prepare a plan right away.

One of the songs prominently features Lil Wayne so I posted a message on Twitter stating that I have a Lil Wayne exclusive and asked which top hip-hop blog/site I should send it to first before sending it to the rest.

I decided to put Wayne’s name first to grab more interest but also because several Twitter applications cut off the message after a certain number of characters; so this way we can capture the most interest immediately, but I was careful never to say it’s Lil Wayne featuring Mack Maine – I just emphasized on the exclusive cameo from a well-known name.

Several Twitter folk suggested different major hip-hop websites, but the after thinking it over quickly, I thought “why not just post it on Twitter and have it spread organically?”

There’s always so much talk about how effective social network marketing is, but we don’t really have too many solid examples to go by; not in urban music anyhow. So why not create it ourselves?

That prompted the following tweet:

As I began to upload the song, I  asked my Twitter network to kindly retweet my upcoming message featuring the song & download link so that we can showcase the real power of social media as well as the influence of online tastemakers. (A retweet is when you re-post someone’s message on Twitter verbatim and include their username to give source credit).

The result?

That was the initial reaction from Twitter, however it doesn’t stop here.

Tastemakers emailed the song to their mailing lists, bloggers posted it, torrent users seeded it and DJs already began playing it in the club that same night.

You can see some of the websites where it’s already been posted on by clicking here. (Search results may vary since there are always typos and naming differences)

Another unique point about this; I posted the song on SoundCloud as opposed to another online file distribution site – so all zShare, Sharebee, MegaUpload and other links you find online were all created from other websites, bloggers and users.

Interestingly, most people completely overlooked the online streaming option and went straight for the download button (likely to race being the first person to post the song on their site).

This is interesting because the main focal point of a SoundCloud page is the online streaming player, while the download button is not as highly visible.

My Twitter message with the download link was posted at 10:35pm on Friday, November 28th.

Within 24 hours the song had been uploaded to several top hip-hop websites & blogs as well as a plethora of smaller, upcoming websites with thousands of downloads and hundreds of comments.

It’s a little difficult to track ALL the download links and it took a while to find the ones I did and then eliminate the repeats. Once I did that though, I calculated the total number of downloads after 48 hours of my Twitter post.

So, as of 10:35pm on Sunday, November 30th, the total number of downloads from the links I was able to track?

14,281

Over 14,000 downloads in 48 hours!

Skeptical?

I don’t blame you, although I do invite you  to check it out for yourself.

Do a Google search for the song and track all the download links from the websites listed. Eliminate the repeats and then add them up. The number will be higher now that more time has passed.

This just goes to show the true power of not only social networking but also of a great network.

I just posted a few tweets and one link; now there are dozens of download links, dozens of articles/posts, hundreds of tweets and thousands of downloads.

This result is thanks to everybody who participated in this experiment. Together, we created a great example of the power of social media.

In case you missed the song, you can check it out here.

Not bad for an impromptu idea on a Friday night, huh?

UPDATE: I’ve posted a follow up to this post to address some questions I’ve received regarding this whole experiment. You can read it here.

I was so caught up with work recently, I completely overlooked a small, but meaningful milestone:

This past Friday, November 14th, was the 3 year anniversary since I’ve been a full-time employee of… myself!

Damn right!

I decided to start my own business 3 years ago and have been on my grind each and every single day and night since.

I wish there were time to celebrate, but as a result of all the time and effort I’ve put into it, I got work to do!

With that being said, I’m actually undergoing a few changes at the moment. As you can tell from the current header image, I’m currently re-designing my logo as well as the layout of the page. These changes will affect my blog as well as my business and I look forward to unveiling the new look to you shortly.

With that being said, even if I can’t take time off to celebrate properly, I can at least take the next 4 minutes to celebrate with all of you through the party that is this video.

I don’t drink alcohol though, so I’ll do my own personal remix and pop VOSS instead. Ha!

3 years! Wooo-hoooooooo!

[youtube=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7jZmntdzFBY]

"The greatest achievements were at first and for a time dreams." - James Allen

Last night was a truly historic evening.

Most of us were overcome with so much emotion, it was and still is difficult to express our sentiments with words.

I recently discussed what Barack Obama represents for many of us; that he provides proof of the idea that we can do anything.

Although my post was quite brief, it inspired some great conversations with some friends, so I thought I’d delve a little further into the topic.

This has nothing to do with politics.

This is about having dreams, keeping faith and accomplishing goals.

All of us have people in our lives who tell us we can’t do something or they mock our attempt to do better. I’m sure you can think of a number of occasions when someone tried to discourage you from achieving something.

For me, there are many memories like this, but one in particular that stands out quite vividly because it was one of the first situations that helped give me immunity to naysayers and obstacles.

I was in the 8th grade. Our History teacher didn’t show up one day, so the principal came in as a substitute. The principal, Mr. Harding, was an ex-cop who always disliked me (my parents’ number was on his speed dial – and vice-versa).

During this slacker period, the principal needed to kill time so he asked everyone to take turns saying what we want to be when we’re older, why we want to do it and who inspired us to want to do it.

I was sitting in the back-row of the middle aisle, so I was more or less in the exact middle in terms of order. Everybody starting speaking on what they wanted to be when they were older. Lawyer, cop, veterinarian, pilot… a lot of the answers you’d expect from a 8th grade class.

Then it was my turn.

“What do you want to do when you’re older Moe? And remember to tell us why and who inspires you to follow that path?”

“I want to do one of 2 things when I’m older. I think I’d like to be a doctor because I want to help people and do something that makes a difference.”

“Very good, and who inspires you to become a doctor?”

“I don’t know, just the idea inspires me.”

“Okay, and what’s the other thing you’d like to be?”

“I’d like to be a music producer or something like that. I want to do that because I love music and I want to do something that makes other people enjoy themselves. I look up to people like Russell Simmons, Quincy Jones and Berry Gordy.”

He nodded his head and continued on with the rest of the students.

This was the last class before lunch, so as the bell rang he offered to give advice to anybody who wanted to talk to him after class.

I hated his guy, but after saying my plans outloud, it got me thinking so I waited in the small line by his desk to approach him.

I heard him tell other students in front of me to go to the library down the hall and find some books about what they want to be and ask their parents or the guidance counsellor for help meeting somebody in that profession to find out more.

I figured he would offer the same advice to me, but I highly doubted there would be any books about getting into the music world in our school’s outdated library, and I know for a fact that my parents would have no idea about that. Nor would they encourage it.

I was the last in line, so I had time to think of some follow-up questions so I can get some real, solid advice about pursuing my passion.

When it was finally my turn, he got up and said we’ll talk while walking to his office.

“What was it that you wanted to be again? A music something and what?”

“I want to do something in music like produce music or have my own record label or maybe be a doctor.”

“Well Moe. I gotta tell you; both of those are really hard to get into. You said you like Quincy Jones, but you know Quincy Jones is a genius, there might not ever be another person like him again. And as far as being a doctor, that takes many years of hard work and school. It’s not for everybody. Maybe you should think about other options and see what else you might be interested in. Try something a little less challenging”

If you think I’m exaggerating this or making it up for the sake of this post, I promise you I am not.

That one line that always resonates in my mind, “try something a little less challenging”. Verbatim.

After he said that, he opened the doors to the staircase and went downstairs to his office while I stood in the same spot with my heart pounding like it was going to burst out of my chest.

I lost faith that day.

This man who was principal of a high school of young, impressionable kids; this man whose responsibility it was to motivate and help shape the lives of young students, just ripped out my spirit, shred it to pieces and threw it all out. All in the matter of a minute or 2.

I became depressed and started to believe that maybe I’m not cut out for anything. Maybe I should just re-evaluate my goals and find something a little more “safe”. Something that I can’t screw up.

Either that or just do nothing until I die since I didn’t think I was good enough for anything anymore.

This wasn’t the only incident of this nature that’s occurred though.

I could literally tell you dozens of memories like this. No lie, dozens. Hell, even my father told me to drop out of school when I was college to just go ‘find a job at a factory or telemarketing’.

There are always going to be people who try to trample our dreams. Sometimes they do this out of malice, but other times they do this out of their own insecurities and cynicism.

Does it mean we should listen to them and not want more?

Eff no!

I’ve been through too much in my life to let anybody or anything stop me. When you’ve been to the absolute bottom and didn’t think you’d ever see another day – you never look at life the same again. Trust me.

Nothing can really scare you once you’ve already felt like you’ve lost everything.

For me, I don’t know exactly what happened that made me change my train of though after that incident in the 8th grade, but ever since then, I shifted my rebellious teenage spirit from rebelling against authority to rebelling against negativity.

Ever since then, I’ve refused to accept any mention or idea of inability and negativity. I don’t accept the status quo. I don’t accept the word “impossible”. I don’t accept the word “can’t”.

Hell, I don’t even accept the phrase “I’ll try my best”. Most people see that as being a positive statement, but I see it as creating a self-imposed bubble around your abilities and only attempting to reach that distance rather than shooting far and beyond it.

Sometimes I get a little preachy around friends, but that’s because I inherently cannot accept negativity. It boils my blood to witness it.

90% of the battle is just believing.

Today, everybody is celebrating Barack Obama for making history. And he is. But so are you and I.

We are all making history.

The things we do every single day, help us collectively create the society for our dreams to become reality. Many people have been working everyday towards creating a world for there to be the possibility of Barack Obama to become President.

And it’s not just because it’s him necessarily, and it’s not just because he’d be the first Black President, but it’s about everybody that was ever told they can’t do something. Its about refusing to accept limitations and believing that you can’t do more. It’s about never accepting the word “impossible”.

In order for us to achieve our dreams, we must do our best each and every single day in order to create the environment in which to accomplish them.

As long as we never give up, we are accomplishing the biggest portion of that dream – going for it.

The end result is just a celebration, but the real success is in the journey.

Had that principal never shot my dreams down like that, I might not have ever realized the importance of believing in myself and fighting every negative thrown my way.

It came in handy countless times, especially after I decided to pursue my passion and get into the music business. Everybody around me channeled that same negative energy I had gotten used to and told me I was making a mistake and that I would fail. And I do mean everybody.

I was alone in my belief that I could do it. But I keep that belief, and I bust my back everyday to fight for it.

Regardless of who is trying to discourage you from going after your dreams; it’s up to you to believe that they can be reached.

Today we have proof.

Dreams can come true.

I just wanted to drop a quick post to let you guys know that I finally got my MacBook Pro back!

I got it back last week actually; 11 days after it decided to die. I wanted to post sooner, but since it was my hard drive that crashed, I’ve spent the past week just catching up on projects and re-creating files from scratch.

Not fun.

Needless to say, I definitely made it a point to pick up an external hard drive to keep a full system backup of everything in my laptop.

I wasn’t sure what brand or model to go with, so I posed the question on Twitter and everybody led me toward the trio of Western Digital, Maxtor and LaCie.

After some consideration at the store, I decided to go with a 750GB LaCie hard disk. The box says it was designed by industrial designer, Neil Poulton.

His design?

A shiny black box.

Anyhow, it serves me right to experience this situation. If you take your business seriously, invest in it appropriately and make sure you’re well covered in case of ANY emergency or disaster.

Whenever you implement any new tool or piece of equipment into your business, make sure to have a way of still functioning in case it malfunctions or gets stolen.

Luckily, I have my business email hosted through Google Apps, so all email that goes through my email or the email of anybody else on my team, is backed up online – free.

We can even share documents and edit them collectively, in real time, as opposed to emailing a document to each team member and having 5 different edits.

If you’re running a small business, or consider yourself a business (even if it’s just you), I highly suggest checking out Google Apps. It’s free and it’s a lifesaver.

I was running around doing some errands yesterday, and while walking towards the cash of an electronics store, I noticed a bin of DVDs for sale.

At the very top, as if just placed there perfectly for me, was Gattaca.

This movie right here, is one of my favourite movies period.

It’s a little old now (came out in 1997) and it’s a bit slow-paced, but the concept and message in this movie are incredible.

Without giving away any spoilers, Gattaca is about a society that lives in a “perfect” world. Parents choose how they want their babies; everything from what gender the child will be, to the colour of their eyes.

Basically, they order their kids as if they were ordering furniture.

Anyways, in this perfect world, there are a few “imperfect” humans or “defects” who end up trapped in a life without any opportunities or any possibilities of success.

The main character is a “defect” who ends up finding a way of sneaking into the superior class of society and completely defies his life plan.

He’s one of the best at what he does and nobody has a clue that he’s actually a defect.

It’s an incredible movie that really points out the fact that no matter who you are or who others think you are, you can do ANYTHING.

NOTHING is impossible and regardless of your past or present; the ONLY THING getting in the way of having EVERYTHING you have EVER wanted and everything that you have ever dreamed of, is YOUR OWN BELIEF.

Ignore everybody that says otherwise.

EVERYBODY.

Sometimes that has to include loved ones. Your family and friends will always say they support you and believe in you, but truth is, there are usually limits to their belief.

Plus, if they don’t fully believe in themselves, how can they fully believe in you?

It’s a bold statement, but it’s true.

People will always remind you of “who you are”, but the reality is that’s only the perception of who you are. You can be anybody and anything you want to be. Not to sound corny, but it’s true.

It really hit me when I first moved to a different city. I had never been there before in my life and didn’t really know anybody there. I decided to use this to my advantage and become a new me. Shed all my bad habits and develop new ones. I was a stranger to everybody so nobody would be able to say “that’s not you”.

I became a completely new person.

I gained a whole new sense of self-confidence. And that self-confidence allowed me to realize that I was FAR more capable than I ever realized before.

Even if you aren’t moving to a new city and you’re always around people who know your habits and your “abilities”; you can still become a “new you”.

What’s the worst that will happen? People will comment? Some might crack jokes and try to ridicule you?

So?

Let them be negative. That’s not your issue; it’s theirs.

They don’t have enough confidence or belief to be the best version of themselves, so they’re going to try and keep you down as well. Misery likes company, right?

If you allow that to affect you, it’s not them holding you back; it’s you. You have to make sure that NOTHING stops you.

This movie is an incredible visualization of that. And it doesn’t just have to be a movie or a story. It can be reality, and it is reality, but it’s just up to you to let it be.

One of my favourite lines (there are many great quotables in the movie) is during a scene where the main character (“the defect”), is swimming in a race against a “perfect specimen” and is winning. The perfect specimen asks the defect how he’s able to continue swimming for so long and with such stamina. The defect replies “I never saved anything for the way back”.

I love that line.

And it’s true. Most of us do that. We create this “exit strategy” in our minds whenever we approach a new task. A “Plan B.”

I’m not saying that you shouldn’t have a Plan B. That’s okay, but 9 times out of 10, people only have a Plan B because they don’t truly believe in their Plan A. They’re preparing themselves for failure.

Why?!

Maybe it’s just me, but I can’t prepare myself for failure.

Anybody who knows me knows how intense I can get. For me, it’s all or nothing.

I’m either going to die successful or die still working on it. But no matter what, when I die, nobody will ever be able to say I didn’t give it my all.

The main character in this movie said “I Never Saved Anything For The Way Back”.

Kurt Cobain said “It’s Better To Burn Out Than Fade Away”.

Malcolm X said “By Any Means Necessary”.

Tupac said “Against All Odds”.

Hell, even Nike’s motto is “Just Do It”.

There’s so many of these quotes, but they all have the same message, “GO FOR IT!”

Whatever motivates you, whatever gets you going, whatever pushes you to go that extra mile; just find it and use it every single chance you get, because there is NOTHING that is holding you back from defying all odds and acheiving all your dreams.

Believe in yourself and anything is possible.

ANYTHING.

I just wanted to drop you guys a quick line to update you on a few things and fill you in on this MTV & 50 Cent situation:

MTV & 50 Cent Are Stalking Me!

Finally all those random emails and messages I’ve been getting about casting calls makes sense.

Turns out, MTV and 50 Cent are doing a new show called “Mogul In The Making”. But a lot of people seem to be confused, so let me officially say, I am in no way involved with MTV and 50 Cent’s “Mogul In The Making” show.

The concept of their show is pretty much the same as the original concept for MakingTheMogul.com. When launching this site, I decided to launch as a blog since it’s a more feasible approach than video for me to share my journey.

I actually wrote a quick explanation about what motivated me to launch this blog on another site a little while back. I’ll find the exact post and paste it here soon.

It just vexes me that I almost registered that domain also (just for safekeeping), but decided against it. I even have a category on here titled, “Mogul In The Making”.

Ah well… gotta keep it moving!

Pssst… 50… Judy. Scrap the auditions. Holler at me and we’ll do it up EdTV style.

Free Kush on Friday the 13th

I’m hyped up for next Friday, June 13th, 2008. That day marks a very important day in the history of hip-hop. It marks the release of…

Asher Roth’s new mixtape, The Greenhouse Effect, with DJ Drama & Don Cannon.

This mixtape is going to be bananas! And it’s true what they say, the best things in life are free.

To get the free download of Asher Roth’s “The Greenhouse Effect” on June 13th, make sure to check out http://thedailykush.com.

On The Hunt For A Rebound

I’ve finally had it with my computer. If it freezes, automatically reboots or overheats once more (which it does for no reason and comes with a LOUD siren noise), I will send this useless thing flying out the window to be ran over by a city bus.

This computer acts like my ex-girlfriend; it’s always heated, very unpredictable in its actions, never stops yelling, and rarely acts right when I need it to most.

After 3 years of trying to make it work, I’m done.

A lot of people have been suggesting a MacBook but I’ve also been getting a ton of suggestions about a few PC laptops like the IBM Thinkpad series and the Toshiba Satellite series.

What do you suggest?

I need a solution fast, before I break my foot kicking my current tower… again.

I Will Reply Soon!

Thank you to everyone who emailed me in response to the “Mogul’s Network” post. Things have been really crazy recently (I’ll fill you in soon enough), but I promise to reply to everyone who’s contacted me.

That’s it for now.

Bless.

Okay, this post might crossover into rant mode, but I have to get this off my chest.

A little while ago, I noticed someone had sent me a friend request on 2 different social networking sites; Facebook and LinkedIn. I know who the person is, but I’m not very familiar with her because we’ve only briefly dealt through someone else in the past. On the few instances that we have spoken, she seemed nice and professional, so I decided to accept her friend requests.

She contacted me with an update of what she’s doing now and we exchanged a few emails over a 2 week period.

As you already know, I have my own business; so I have a few people on the team, but I also keep a short list of freelancers who I’ll outsource work to for certain services. I’ve seen her work and thought her quality of work and price would be a good match for one of my clients.

I called her up and gave her a brief rundown about this potential client and what was needed, but never went into details about who the client is and where they’re from. We spoke a bit and agreed on a rate for her retainer services.

Later that night, I logged into my Facebook account and noticed that she added 3 people from my Friends List. 2 of those guys were the clients who I was discussing the contract for, but I never mentioned their names or any real details about them.

We don’t live in the same area and she works in a very specific niche, so it’s unlikely for us to have many contacts in common.

I thought it was kind of strange but thought maybe she’s just one of those people who treats Facebook like MySpace and adds as many people as she can without making real connections with them.

Then, the next day, I get a call from my client telling me that he just got a message from her saying she can offer him a cheaper price if he goes directly through her.

WHAT?!

How bold can you be?

But wait, it doesn’t stop there.

The same evening, I noticed she joined about 5 groups that I belong to and ended up adding the admins of those groups as well (also people on my Friends List). These were all relatively small, local production companies and labels that don’t really operate within her niche; so again, it’s highly unlikely that she knows them.

The next day, I got some phone calls and emails from a few people telling me that she contacted them also and offered them the same thing. They noticed I was the only “mutual friend” so they wanted to give me a heads up on this back door shyster.

I can’t lie – I was vexed! I was about to pick up the phone and put her on blast. Did she think I wouldn’t find out? Did she think I’d just ignore it?

My blood was boiling at first, but then I realized – these people all called and told me about it. They got this random person who just added them on a social networking site and started pitching them straight from the gate. They don’t know her nor have they ever heard of her. All they know is that the only person they can link her to is me and that they hired my company to handle the services she’s pitching them.

They all sensed a rat and even deleted her from their Friends List as well.

But the fact that I’m the only person they can link her to plays into their perception of me and my judgment. We really have to be careful about who we keep around us. It’s hard sometimes because most of us work in industries that are built on greed and backstabbing. Especially the music business!

How do we know who to trust and when we find those people, how do we know how far our trust should stretch?

Obviously, she can’t be trusted and I’m curious as to how many bridges she’s burned so far, but even though she went directly to some of the artists, managers and indie labels I work with; I’m not really worried. She oversaw my secret weapon – Personal Relationships!

I don’t just walk up to people, hand them my business card and walk away. It doesn’t make any sense to me. I see it all the time at industry events; people walk around and give out their cards like they’re passing out club flyers – they don’t even speak to anyone. A lot of artists and beatmakers are guilty of doing the same thing with their CDs: just put it someone’s hands and walk away. I call that “spam networking”. There’s no point to it; nobody’s going to remember you when you spam network.

For me, I don’t just meet people; I develop relationships. When I look through my address book, I don’t see “contacts”; I see PEOPLE. I see experiences and memories. That’s not something that just takes 5 minutes to build. This is something that takes while to build and that you maintain on a constant basis.

Whether it’s wishing someone happy birthday, taking them out when they’re in town or even just grabbing a drink together because you haven’t seen each other in a while; these things are important. But don’t just do it because you feel obligated or for networking reasons only. People can tell when you’re being fake. Do it because you genuinely want to. Lucky for me, I’ve come across many people who I easily get along with and whose company I enjoy.

So, back to the situation at hand; to her and to anyone like her – you can steal all the contact info you want and try to pitch them, but I can pick up the phone and share a laugh or even ask for a favour if ever needed.

No matter what you do, what industry you’re in or where you are in your career, never underestimate the power of a personal relationship.

Note: I get a little side-tracked in this post, but it all comes together, I promise.

Have you ever felt connected to and genuinely proud of an artist’s success because you were a fan of theirs before they became major celebrities? You somehow believe you were a part of the movement, even if you were no more than a mere observer.

I have.

I’ve been a fan of many artists before they became stars. As they moved ahead in their careers, I became proud of each of their accomplishments as if I played a role in it. One person in particular is Kanye West.

*Okay, so I didn’t really “discover” Kanye, but you get the point.

The first time I heard the name Kanye West was back in 1999. At this point in my life, I had formed this little group of local artists; 2 rappers and 1 singer. I wasn’t rapping or singing though; I was the “producer/manager”.

We were working on a couple tracks and I started searching online for other artists and producers to collaborate with. I heard this one R&B joint that I thought was bananas. I checked out the rest of the webpage (this was before everybody had their own websites and the people who actually were online had webpages hosted on GeoCities – remember that?), and found out it was from a small R&B group in Chicago. Their contact info at the bottom of the page led me to their producer.

I didn’t know what I wanted to do with that song really; I just knew that it was hot and that I wanted it. So, I contacted the producer and told him I wanted to do a remix of it featuring my group. We spoke for a while and he ended up sending me about 5 CDs full of beats. From all those beats, only a small selection were good and I decided to take 3 of them. (I still have those CDs actually. I just checked).

This was during the time when the bedroom producer was really beginning to take reign and the indie game was over-saturated with corny sounding Fruity Loops beats (I’m guilty of that too). This producer’s main pitch was that he wasn’t using Fruity Loops, but actually playing it out on his Triton. Every beatmaker and their mama was about the Triton back then. If you weren’t using it, then you weren’t really serious.

Anyways, after that we ended up speaking on a regular. One day he started telling me how he first got into producing:

“My mentor is Kanye West. You ever heard of him? He works with some big names now. That’s my dude. He taught me to play the keys in our church group. Check him out, that’s my mentor.”

He would mention “Kanye West” every chance he had. I remember asking him about these vocal samples he had in a beat I wanted to buy:

“Don’t worry about those samples. Kanye West doesn’t clear them unless it’s for a big artist with big budget. He told me it’s cool if it’s just for a smaller artist who doesn’t get much airplay. They’ll only catch you if your song gets real big, but by then you should have the money to clear the sample anyways right?”

Whether this guy was for real or not, I kept seeing Kanye’s name pop up after that – magazines, cd & mixtape credits, online forums, etc.

“Isn’t this the guy homie kept telling me about? Hmm.. dude’s moving up.”

When Jay-Z dropped the Kanye-produced, “Izzo (H.O.V.A)”, I felt this weird sense of pride as if it was someone within my crew. I told everybody I knew about it and spoke about it like it was something we should all be proud of.

It continued like that for a while.

A few years later, I was watching RapCity with Big Tigger and they aired Kanye’s first video, “Through The Wire”.

“Dude’s a rapper now?? This joint is siccck. Playa is on point!”

I was all about it. I kept telling people about it like I was making commission.

I guess the label thought it wasn’t getting the type of buzz they needed because the record and video disappeared like it was never even serviced. No mention of it, no traces of it.. nothing.

It re-appeared a few months later and this time, it got major push. Now, the label was fully behind it and talking about an upcoming album. Now everybody knew his name and was all about it.

The Kanye-frenzy began and it wasn’t my little secret anymore.

Coincidentally, I had just began working at the label when “College Dropout” was released and although it was a different division that was responsible for marketing the record, I kept a close eye on the project as if I was protecting my own investment.

The record dropped and the frenzy began. The first tour was damn near sold-out, if not sold-out, in every city. (Side note: John Legend performed a private after-party that night at a tiny africana-jazz bar near my apartment with a maximum capacity of 100 people . One of my favourite music memories, by far.)

The rest is pretty much history.

Now, Kanye’s the biggest name in the game and has everybody waiting on his next word. But even so, as an early supporter, I still kinda have that sense of familiarity with him and feel like I played a role in his success in some weird way… do you know what I mean?

I guess my point is; everybody has experiences like this – so keep this in mind with your own career. Connecting with your fans early on, will not only make them feel more connected to you – but can also help propel your career to new levels.

“In order to take advantage of an opportunity, you must first recognize it” – Ivan Berry

At 17, he owned his own record store – and dropped his first mixtape.

At 19, he was one of the biggest names in the mixtape game and launched his own artist development firm.

At 21, he took his first job at Atlantic Records, under the guidance of Kyambo “Hip-Hop” Joshua.

And now at 23 years old, Sickamore has just resigned from his position as Director of A&R for Atlantic Records.

The net is going crazy talking about it. And now, I’m adding to it.

According to his blog entry about his departure, Sickamore left Atlantic because he lost faith in the major label system.

“I’m not going to sign talented people to a label and have them sit. I rather bet on myself and get them hot in the streets.”

A couple of sites and bloggers (haters) attack Sickamore’s decision saying “he’s too soft” or “that’s how the game works”.

Bullsh*t.

Personally, I respect his decision and think he’s a smart guy for leaving before it sucked the passion right out of him.

While maybe not on the same level as his position, I remember being warned when I got my first job at a major label. A friend and mentor told me “it might seem like an exciting opportunity right now, but the second you step into those doors, your passion for music, your passion for business and your passion for life will continue to die until you want absolutely nothing to do with this industry all together.”

I can’t front, that shit scared the hell out of me. I was confused. This was the first time I actually doubted myself and began to question if I was actually following my heart or just chasing an empty dream. I even had one of my “anti-system/indie rocks” friends tell me I was “selling out” by going to the majors.

I thought about it or a while, but I couldn’t take too long before giving them my answer, otherwise they would have easily given the position to somebody else.

So, what did I do?

I took the job.

Why?

Well at this point, I still wasn’t exactly sure where I wanted to fit in, but I did know that no matter what I ultimately chose, there was no way I would be able to gain the experience and learn the mentality of the major label system, from the outside. I was going to have to go through those doors and lock myself inside if I was going to learn how they work and if it was for me. If I didn’t like what I saw, then at least I’ll be able to say what I don’t want to do and use my experience to my advantage in another avenue.

If you don’t dare to try – you don’t dare to succeed.

In the case of Sickamore, don’t focus on the fact that he left a high position at a major at the age of 23. Focus on the fact that he accomplished and received a high position at a major at the age of 21.

Sick’s still got a long way to go; with a very promising career ahead of him. The fact that he’s already accomplished so much at 23 is a testament that opportunities can and will arise, but it’s up to you to make something happen.

Opportunities will always present themselves to those who are actively in a position to take advantage of them.

Make sure you’re ready when yours come knocking.

Yesterday was a long day for me – well, longer than usual. Amongst all the running around and flood of phone calls I had to deal with throughout the day, I met with an artist and his team in the afternoon to talk about the plans for his upcoming record.

The artist himself has had pretty good success in the past with his previous albums; medium-to-heavy rotation on radio and music tv, national and international tours… all that. I’d been a fan for a while and knew a few things about the behind-the-scenes of his previous records, but this was the first time I actually sat down to work directly with him.

As an independent artist with his track record, I assumed his team was already established and had their stuff together. Turns out, a couple members of the camp are getting dropped because they’re not holding their own (reason why they’re calling me).

I can’t lie, I was actually happy to hear that people on his team weren’t taking care of business. Not because I don’t like the artist – I told you, I’m a fan of his – I was happy to hear it because it gives me the opportunity to really showcase how on-point and professional my work is. They’ll appreciate it more. Their expectations aren’t as high anymore because of bad experiences. When they don’t expect much and you go above-and-beyond to deliver the world in their hands, you not only created a strong rep with them; you now created a salesperson who’s going to spread the good word around and strengthen your overall reputation.

Word-of-mouth is a powerful thing. It can bring you to the top or toss you to the bottom.

Keep this in mind, because like some of the guys in this artist’s camp – the second you slip up, I’m taking over your spot!