Welcome back to The Spark, IDEA GENERATION’s weekly newsletter and your source for all things creative entrepreneurship.
Spark Nation,
The lesson from this week’s edition is simple: throw a party.
Will this party lead to you starting a media company like TheFutureParty? Or becoming a top music manager like Scooter Braun? Not necessarily.
The point of the party is to build community, which is the foundation of any successful career or a healthy life in general. It doesn’t have to be a rager, it can just be a couple of friends. But dust off those hosting skills, put out a call or two, and get together with the people closest to you. That’s what this is all about, right?
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This week we’ve got an interview with TheFutureParty co-founder Boye Akolade, a GQ Senior Editor shares his tips for pitching articles, and we found an entry level job opening at one of the biggest talent agencies in the world.
Let’s go.
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📬 Have questions for us? Feedback? Want to share your work? Email us at thespark@ideageneration.com
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HOW'D YOU THINK OF THAT?!
Boye Akolade on the future of community building.
Boye Akolade is a co-founder and president of TheFutureParty, an LA-based entertainment industry networking collective with a hugely popular and influential newsletter (incidentally, a big influence on The Spark—credit where credit is due!).
Born in Nigeria, Boye moved to the US when he was 3. He ended up at Biola University, a small Christian private school in California where drinking, smoking, and even dancing weren’t allowed on campus. He began throwing parties there, and calls the experience a “masterclass” in marketing given the party-throwing guardrails he was working with.
After beginning a career in the entertainment industry, first as an assistant and coordinator at William Morris and later as an executive at Paramount Pictures, Boye realized that fellow young creative professionals like himself were the future of the industry. He and some friends started throwing parties and later panels and branded activations before starting TheFutureParty newsletter and being acquired by the experiential marketing agency NVE.
We caught up with Boye to talk about his career path, starting a newsletter (a topic dear to our hearts), and creating a virtuous cycle of community networking.
What did you learn while throwing parties in college?
It was a masterclass in marketing. We would run this crazy ground game. We'd print flyers, we would get promoters, we would make videos, we would post on Facebook... and that was when Facebook was cool. There was a lot of hype around it.
What was the spark for TheFutureParty?
After college I worked at Paramount for three years. I was an assistant to one of the presidents there, Amy Powell. She ran the television side of the studio, which was when I oversaw research in TV and digital entertainment for the studio.
Around that time, TheFutureParty started. The whole idea was seeing how so many young people like myself were coming to LA to live the Hollywood dream. We were assistants and coordinators, wide-eyed, marginalized, etc. And at the same time, we saw that in the next five, 10, 15 years, all of these people will be running various aspects of different industries. We wanted to celebrate that ambition and aspiration that we knew everyone had.
When did you start the newsletter?
We did it a little backwards. A lot of newsletters out right now start as digital first businesses and move to IRL. We went the opposite way. We started our newsletter with a couple thousand people from a list of emails from the parties and events we had thrown. So we actually went community and events first and built off of that. Our foundation was very organic to start, which was really great.
“We wanted to celebrate that ambition and aspiration that we knew everyone had.”
What are the keys to building community?
Community makes the world go around. Author Erwin McManus talks about how when people think about life fulfillment, a lot of people start with things.
Like, “I want this car, the cool shoes, the cool shirts.” I would argue that a lot culture is probably derived from that, right? Then people will eventually graduate to experiences like, “I want to travel, do this, do that, go to this country, or I want this unique dining experience. But the real deep, intrinsic place where people will find happiness is ultimately relationships.
Community is a great way to build and connect with people. You're relating to like-minded people. You have a support system. Building a community around what you're doing is paramount.
“The real deep, intrinsic place where people will find happiness is ultimately relationships.”
Any advice for young writers or creators who are trying to get started?
So many people don't take action. Talking about it is the first hurdle. So it's good that they're actually talking about it. Don't be so protective, like you don't need people to sign an NDA.
Go to people you trust, tell them your idea, get the feedback, refine that idea. And then you gotta do it. In tech they have something called an “MVP,” a “minimal viable product.” And the idea there is you create something and test to see if users or customers want it. If they do, then you build on top. But you do the most essential, minimal thing first.
Just get the most viable thing out there. You want to create a short film and you don't have the means to like raise the money? Tease it, see if it'll work, create a TikTok or storyboards or start with a graphic novel or something. Instead of making the shirt, just create a mock design and put it out for pre-sales. See if people want it.
Think through scenarios and don’t be so beholden to fear. Ask yourself what that worst case scenario is, and you’ll find that it isn't really that bad. Some people are talented enough but they sit in that fear and don't take the leap into just creating and doing.
“Ask yourself what that worst case scenario is, and you’ll find that it isn't really that bad.”
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CREATOR TO KNOW
Creator’s Cut is making valuable videos for videographers.
The Creator’s Cut is a YouTube channel and Instagram page dedicated to examining, breaking down, and reacting to cool videography.
The host, Kevin, does a great job at breaking down video content into easy-to-understand chunks.
He’ll watch a video, point out the shots he likes, and then explain how he thinks the shot was done.
His videos almost serve as tutorials for anyone interested in videography or editing. He’s extremely insightful.
You can check out the Creator’s Cut on YouTube here.
📬 Want to see your work featured in The Spark? Email us at thespark@ideageneration.com
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CHEAT CODES
The search you didn’t know you needed.
Are you a writer trying to get noticed by major publications?
We asked GQ Senior Editor Frazier Tharpe for his advice on pitching to publications.
“This may seem obvious but truly, the best approach is to pitch early and pitch, for lack of a better word, uniquely. Assume two things: that every publication with a team worth their salt is already looking at the big stuff-albums, tv premieres, movie releases-at least six weeks in advance, and two, that a half dozen writers are also pitching the same ideas for the same pegs. You need to do everything you can to not be late to the party, and also come with a swerve that stands out, because that's ultimately what we're all trying to do: publish something that cuts through the content white noise cacophony.
Also, familiarize yourself with the publication that you're pitching. It's not hard to do and I can't tell you how often I've gotten pitches from people who clearly are not following what we cover and how. Last one: be patient. Editors can be awful at timely replies, I know I am, but our inboxes are also warzones and hardly the only thing we have on our plates. And a pitch may not work out for whatever reason at that time, but I've stayed in contact with plenty of writers who finally landed one when everything aligned, and in a lot of cases, went on to enjoy a prolific rapport with the section.”
“You need to do everything you can to not be late to the party, and also come with a swerve that stands out.”
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TAKE THIS JOB!
Cool job listings for creatives.
Looking to get your foot in the entertainment door like Boye did? Well his alma matter, talent agency WME, is looking for a Music Central Assistant in New York.
They need someone who can:
Complete an 8-week training program resulting in mastery of WME booking admin and system skills.
Review show contracts.
Assist with a variety of daily administrative/office tasks..
Ideally you have:
Proficiency with Microsoft Office Suite and basic understanding of Windows OS.
Familiarity with the current music industry landscape and passion for live music.
Skills as an excellent multi-tasker and have proven problem-solving abilities.
Sound like you? Apply here.
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KEEP SHOOTING
Your weekly reminder to keep going.
Throwing parties is hard because it’s scary—one of the ultimate nightmares is hosting a party that no one comes to.
But being scared means there’s opportunity, because the competition is just as shook as you are. And sometimes it helps if you don’t even know you’re supposed to be scared.
In 2002 Scooter Braun was a college kid selling fake IDs who wanted to find a new hustle. He explained what came next in his IDEA GENERATION interview from last year:
“I stopped by this club called Chaos in Atlanta. And I just was like, “Hey, if I bring people here next week, would you give me money? And he was like, “Yeah, how many people can you bring?” And I said, “How many people does it hold?” He was like “800.”
And I was like, “Yeah sure.” And he looked at me like I was insane. And I didn't know that that was hard. I just thought, Why not me? And I printed a bunch of flyers at Kinko's and got a bunch of girls that I was friends with to pass out the flyers with me and got a DJ who I knew could play really good hip-hop and rock and roll and 800 people showed up. I didn't know any better. It was like why can't it be me?”
In 2021 Braun sold his the company he founded for $1.05 billion. So yeah, if you’re a little scared, or maybe just don’t know any better, give that thing you think you can do a shot.