Business Finance - Management Assignment 3: Leaders

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1. What leader have you chosen to speak about and what companies has he/she worked for?

I picked Damian Pinto, now known as the “Voice of Dance Music” aka VODM. He Studied

Business, Communications, Psychology at Central Connecticut State University. Damian started

out announcing boxing at Croccos in Fort Lauderdale, which then propelled him to work for Don

King Productions and Showtime Boxing. He is the Founder of The Voice of Dance Music

Worldwide, Owner/ President at WorldVision Entertainment and Official Host of Ultra Music

Festival Worldwide at Ultra Music Festival. He is the Official Host and "The Voice" of Ultra Music

Festival Miami - UMF Worldwide. He has held this position with the festival since day one and

has been there ever since (20 Years). He is involved in the core group who has developed and

produced the ULTRA Brand Worldwide every step of the way.

While starting in Miami the ULTRA Brand has now grown into 24 Cities in countries on 5

continents and continues to expand across the globe with expected 30 cities by the end of

2017.

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2. What are some of his/her greatest business achievements?

Damian and I have now started his own apparel company called VODM Merchandise. With his

connections in the music industry to all the top DJ’s in the world and with all the millions and

millions of people (fans) that go to Ultra Music Festivals on 5 continents, he has an easy track

on selling and marketing his own merchandise now on a worldwide stage. When done right.

Last year he signed a multi-million-dollar contract with Sirius XM Radio for his own show two

times a week. Where he will be playing new and exclusive music first but can get any DJ he

wants to for a live interview. Most of the top DJ’s in the world has signed on and told him that

they will do whatever he needs to help him out on making his show unique and exclusive.

This year, Damian has now started VODM TV with an investor. They have 3 full-time films crews

to follow him from festival to festival and to get private one on one interviews with the top DJ’s

and music influencers in the world. Part of VODM TV will be a service that up and coming DJ’s

or bands can pay a fee to have their music uploaded and access to record labels and to people

who make a decision on sign DJ’s or bands to contracts.

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3. What are some of his/her biggest business failures?

Besides from some business failures he has had, one of the biggest failures was a run in with

bad press. This was due to his political beliefs. From meetings, I have had with Damian he has

learned from this mistake. He learned that famous and influential people are easy targets and

need to watch what they say on and off the record. See the reference on miaminewtimes.com

below. We all know there are two sides to every story and it has come out that she did makeup

and embellish on the facts of what really happened. She posted a story to her Facebook page,

and this was done to gain herself some popularity.

Damian has had some business failures over the last 20 years. A great example is a business him

and I are in together now. Setting up and running an apparel company selling his brand. He

bought into people trying to take advantage of him and promising him the world if they let

them run that business. He has learned from this and has waited another 6 years to try it again,

with me. We have a long-time relationship and have built a trust with each other over the

years. And now it has worked out in both our lives and just great timing that we are now

together to launch his brand and market it the way it should be to take advantage of the brand

he has built for himself over the years.

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4. What have you learned from their achievements and failures?

What I have learned from his achievements is that if you do what you love and love doing what

you do, sooner or later good things will happen. Especially when you stick with it through the

ups and downs. Also, knowing who Damian is, and the big heart he has and never asking for

anything from the people in the music industry, this is a huge reason that these top DJ’s in the

world who make over $100 million a year will do anything for him. And I am seeing this first

hand being in business meetings with him and the support that we are getting from these DJ’s.

They all say “Damian anything you need just let me know”. They all want to help him succeed

and none of them want any money to help. In the music industry, this is very rare as everyone

wants a piece of something that they have their hands in or helped in the marketing or growth

in sales.

As far as the failures, I have seen firsthand people taking advantage of him and his heart. This

has led to him losing money and contracts that he felt he didn’t need to sign, the cause of his

relationship with either that person or a corporation. The first thing we both discussed was our

part in the business, who is responsible for what, and everything was in a contract and signed.

We both learned to be open and transparent with our business relationship.

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5. Based on what you saw in the assigned video on Leadership Qualities/Actions, what qualities

do you think your leader exhibits to help reach their success?

Damian is very driving, chromatic and no matter what the situation is, very positive. Makes him

a very effective leader. That just makes his whole team confident in what we are doing for him.

He always takes the good and bad on the same level. Damian will not work with negative

people. The last person in the video talked about behavior and personally, and that’s what

counts. Out of the few examples in the video that one hit the nail on the head about Damian

Pinto. There was one of the examples in the video that I do not see in Damian and I do not

agree with what was said. It was the female that said her leader didn’t just tell them what to do

but explained why. Maybe this works in an office situation, but in our situation, we are in with

Damian, he put together a team. We each have our responsibilities, for example, my part of the

team. I am web and internet marketing, and that’s my role. There really isn’t anyone else on the

team that understands the internet marketing world. Like SEO, it can get very technical and not

many other people understand the technical and coding side of it. He has the trust in me to do

my job as he believes I can do it. And that is true for each of the people that makes up his team

today.

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6. How might your leader’s perspective of media and entertainment products be different from

the average fan or consumer? (Example: An artist may change genres and fans might consider

them “selling out” while their manager/executive of the artist is really thinking more about

reaching a larger audience and making more money.)

In addition to Ultra Music Festival, over the past 20 years, he has also hosted and announced

professional televised music, entertainment, boxing, MMA, and concert events worldwide

including dates all over the USA and Canada, Mexico, Spain, Brazil, Argentina, Poland and

reaching as far as Moscow, and St. Petersburg Russia. He has a perspective of not only the ins

and outs of the music industry but also the production and the operations of the entertainment

industry. From conception to financial to production, and on to the final show or

entertainment product. The main example must be Ultra Music Festival, as Damian has been

there since day 1, when it was just an idea over 20 years ago, to now being the largest music

festival in the world. This has allowed him to sign artist, to market an artist, and make them

internationally known. He sees what it takes from all different angles to put it together and

make it work. We are now working together to profit from this knowledge to sell his brand, in

merchandise, a weekly radio show, live streaming videos and a TV show. And now that he has

put the right team together after all the success and failures he has had over the years, THIS IS

ONLY THE BEGINNING!

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REFERENCES:

https://www.facebook.com/damianpinto

http://www.miaminewtimes.com/music/music-journalist-says-ultra-host-damian-pinto-harassed-her-

for-voting-hillary-8910509

http://www.imdb.com/name/nm4791146/

https://www.2oceansviberadio.com/in-case-you-missed-it-damian-pinto-on-2ovfm/