The Amani Experience

12/17/2024

Congrats to my third cohort of music business students ending the semester on a high with their final group presentations. This semester was special as we had a large contingent of students from France and South Korea. This music business knowledge is global! All my music industry peeps keep an eye out for these future music business executives! 🇫🇷 🇰🇷

11/07/2024

Big thank you to for stopping by our Music Business class and sharing her stories and advice with my students. We discussed her experience in A&R, music publishing, sync licensing, and label work. So many great nuggets of wisdom were shared. My favorites were:

⭐️ Being able to speak in public and build authentic relationships is important now more than ever in the music industry as we distance ourselves from the pandemic era. Hello, improv!! This is why we practice this in class.

🧐 The ability to use all the available platforms and grow your research skills is an emerging skill needed in the music industry!

💪🏽 Strong work ethic will always win in the long run!

Thanks again to Kate for being an amazing guest and making time to visit every single one of my music business classes!

09/25/2024

Special thank you to my “now-graduated” student .heinz for stopping by our Music Business class and sharing her journey and tips for getting a job with one of the three major record labels. I’m so proud of Rachel’s work ethic and resilience and was so happy to host her in our class! I can’t wait to see what is next for her. 🔥👏🏽

09/16/2024

09/12/2024

Special shout out and thank you to (top left) from for stopping by our Music Business class at , and sharing her career journey and multiple reasons why data is becoming so crucial in the music industry.

08/28/2024

I'm doing some book cover crowdsourcing for my next book, which is nearing release!! Which book cover do you like the most? Comment with your order of favorites (Ex 4, 3, 2, 1)!

08/23/2024

Shout out to my friend, colleague and mentor for rocking the stage last week at Smart Woman Summit 2024. 👏🏽👏🏽💪🏽🔥We had such an inspiring and fun conversation afterwards, I’m still on a high! I love the space of self-leadership she is in and can’t wait to see what’s next! Let’s go!! No mistakes, only gifts!! ❤️

08/07/2024

⭐️ I have exciting news!! My topic for a SXSW 2025 panel has made it to the next round, and I NEED YOUR HELP!

My topic summary is mentioned below. Please click on the link in my bio, vote for my session, and help me check off speaking at SXSW off my bucket list! Thanks in advance

🔥 Topic: “Resilient & Brilliant: The Power, Passion & Pain of R&B Groups”

💎 Summary: R&B groups dominated the Billboard charts from the 1950s through approximately 2004. Groups ranging from The Isley Brothers, The Temptations, Earth Wind & Fire, the Jackson 5, Boyz II Men, TLC, & Destiny’s Child regularly released music that raced up the Billboard charts and would stay there for months at a time. After the members of Destiny’s Child went solo in the mid-2000s, the presence of R&B Groups on the Billboard Hot 100 charts completely vanished. Why did this happen?

This talk will discuss the history of R&B groups, why they have disappeared, and
what the future holds for this genre.

THANKS IN ADVANCE FOR YOUR VOTE!

08/07/2024

I have exciting news!! My topic for a SXSW 2025 panel has made it to the next round, and I NEED YOUR HELP! My topic summary is mentioned below. Please click on the link, vote for my session, and help me check off speaking at SXSW off my bucket list! Thanks in advance

Topic: "Resilient & Brilliant: The Power, Passion & Pain of R&B Groups"

Summary: R&B groups dominated the Billboard charts from the 1950s through approximately 2004. Groups ranging from The Isley Brothers, The Temptations, Earth Wind & Fire, the Jackson 5, Boyz II Men, TLC, & Destiny’s Child regularly released music that raced up the Billboard charts and would stay there for months at a time. After the members of Destiny’s Child went solo in the mid-2000s, the presence of R&B Groups on the Billboard Hot 100 charts completely vanished. Why did this happen? This talk will discuss the history of R&B groups, why they have disappeared, and what the future holds for this genre.

Link to vote: https://panelpicker.sxsw.com/vote/149785

08/06/2024

Day 3 of was action packed and full of activities and celebrations. Props to my chapter for earning Elite Chapter status! A few takeaways from the day.

🔥 I was honored to interview and Ron Story, Jr. from on stage. I respect the lessons Kim shared about her speaker journey and how she is always doing the work!

💎 It’s always a special treat to celebrate with BlackNSA. This year we had an intimate conversation with and . It was so inspiring!

⭐️ Props to for keeping it 100 while talking about the business of speaking. So many actionable steps and resources. I applaud your transparency and spirit of giving.

Excited for what the final day has for us. My brain is 🤯 and 🫠!!

08/04/2024

Day 1 of National Speakers Association is in the books. We got to hear the legend Les Brown open up the conference and reiterate our worth and then Lenora Billings-Harris chat with us about ! More learnings and takeaways are coming today about growing your speaker business. If you are here at the conference, drop me a message so we can link up!

⭐️Special shout out to Marvelless Mark and Kenston Henderson for earning their CSP designation! 👏🏽👏🏽👏🏽

08/01/2024

I am honored to have been selected as a 2024 Trendsetter by Meetings Today! Congrats to all my fellow honorees (especially my podcast co-host, Mandi Graziano !!! ). My goal is to continue helping people unlock their creativity. Thanks to the team at Meetings Today for recognizing the importance of the mission and highlighting the work that is in progress! It's working!!

Link to the full article is in the comments!

05/22/2024

A highlight from day 2 of was getting a chance to meet and interview Aloe Blacc ! He is doing great things in the music industry, tech industry and now the meetings and events world!

03/18/2024

Had a chance to meet up with the one and only to chat about business, speaking and life. 🔥 Make sure you follow her and keep an eye out for Kiaundra on your TV screens! 📺

01/31/2024

That one time when Blair Blazer (high school) classmates run into each other working an event in Palm Springs, CA. Shout out to Dominique Dawes for rocking the state as a keynote speaker for Calendly this morning while I DJ’d and Emcee’d. I loved the message behind success and ego! Super cool and very proud of all our Blazers still making it happen in 2024!!

01/11/2024

Congrats to my good friend Damona Resnick Hoffman on the release of her first book “F the Fairy Tale: Rewrite the Dating Myths and Live Your Own Love Story”!!

I can wait to read and take notes! 👏🏽👏🏽👏🏽❤️🔥Link to buy in the comments!

12/05/2023

This Saturday, we hosted the 2023 Spinoff Competition at , where six groups presented their spinoff from an original existing intellectual property to propose a new, unique media-based entertainment spin-off project. The results were amazing and inspiring. The three professors who lead their individual sections of MGMT 470 (Entertainment Operations) were myself, Eva Semple Davis and (the OG creator of this competition). Congrats to all of the finalists and the following award winners:

⭐️ Best Overall Pitch - Guts: The Movie
🔥 Best Business Plan: Caroline
🎥 Best Multi-Media: Fireboy
💥 Most Innovative: Valorant
❤️ People's Choice Award: Guts: The Movie & Valorant (Honorable Mention - Game Of Thrones World)

We at the Center are proud of all the students' hard work, creativity, and dedication put into this project. Each finalist gets a special LinkedIn badge for their profile, and the winners get an additional special badge. Also, each finalist gets a one-on-one meeting with an executive from their area of focus for their pitch!

Great job by all, and we are excited to see what ideas our Spring 2024 students come up with!

11/30/2023

🤔 It’s time to spend your $10 and design your legends tour. Who you picking?

🐘 We did this activity in my music biz class and the students had to also pick the cities and arenas too. Such a great learning exercises.

👀 Freddie Mercury and Jimmy Hendrix were the most popular choices!

💡 If you pick Prince, what is the color theme? (Purple! 💜)

🤩 I’ll post their answers in the comments!