The Mail Cart: Friday, May. 8th

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👋 Welcome to The Mail Cart. This is Warner, founder of AvA. Connect with me here.

The best piece of career advice I’ve ever gotten was “run your own race.” Blair Kohan, one of Entertainment’s biggest agents broke it down in this 15 second clip. Please watch and take it to heart!!

Also.. we asked 10k+ former assistants to give advice to current assistants. Here are some of my favorites:

🧠 “Shoot your shot! meet EVERYONE & make an impression in any way you can”
🧠 “Don’t get comfortable, learn anything and everything you can and push upwards”
🧠 “Find a boss where it feels like you’re working with them, not working for them”
🧠 “NETWORK. Talk to EVERYONE. Don’t be scared to talk to anyone. Don’t be an ass!!”
🧠 "ASK FOR HELP"
🧠 "Don't stay at a job where no one above you wants to help you grow beyond your current job"
🧠 "Say yes and then learn when to say no"
🧠 "Keep a contact list outside your inbox! Your network travels but your email address won't”
🧠 "Your reputation is the most important thing. You'll be remembered for how you treat people at the end of the day"

And some fun ones:
“Turn on the undo send feature in your email!”
“Get a tattoo of ur bosses number so you never have to check.”
"Always remember your boss's kid's birthdays because they will forget them"
"Get xanax"

🧠 Today’s big brain fact: YouTube TV has quietly become one of the biggest “cable companies” in America, with about 10 million subscribers

💼 Looking for open Entertainment jobs? Scroll to the bottom of this newsletter.

Plus Our Job Board now has 185+ early career Entertainment roles as well.

Not subscribed yet? Join 38,000+ of your peers. Your future self will thank you.

⭐ Sony just bid $4 billion for 45,000 songs

The target: Recognition Music Group, formerly Hipgnosis Songs Fund, which owns rights tied to Justin Bieber, Fleetwood Mac, Red Hot Chili Peppers, Neil Young and more.

OK so what does that mean? Sony is trying to buy the music industry’s infinity stone collection. Big catalog energy.

⭐ Paramount and Warner Music Group signed a multi-year first-look deal to make films about WMG artists and songwriters

More artist docs, biopics, and music-driven movies could be coming from a roster that includes David Bowie, Madonna, Dua Lipa, Bruno Mars, and more.

Your favorite artist blasting through movie theater speakers? Unfortunately for my bank account, yes please.

In related news…

⭐ ‘Michael’ is already the 2nd highest grossing music biopic of all time at over $400 million, and is currently the 10th highest grossing biopic ever too

⭐ Kwanza Jones is on the verge of becoming the first Black female majority owner of a Major League Baseball team in a $3.9 billion deal for the San Diego Padres

The bid was put in by an investor group led by Jones and her husband, who is the Co-Founder of private equity firm Clearlake Capital, and would almost double the previous record for the highest MLB team sale of $2.4 billion with the New York Mets.

⭐ YouTube is testing a new tool that will allow users to generate royalty free music for their videos 🤢

⭐ Major League Soccer moved into an office in NYC nearly double the size of its previous one, serving as a good sign of growth of Soccer in the US.

The US World Cup moment is here, and MLS is making their bet…

AND Quick Question for you:

Do you feel the industry's "pay your dues" culture is still a fair bargain today?

Every week we drop our favorite podcast & book recs.

Today we have Barbie Ferreira on What Are We Even Doing? Barbie is an actor and producer who has been in projects ranging from Euphoria to House of Spoils.

They discuss her acting dreams, how she dragged her grandma to auditions, and getting comfortable with where your natural skills will take you in your career.

This is a great watch or listen for anyone charting their own path early in their career who wants to understand how they can take following their passion seriously to grow.

Another amazing conversation facilitated by the team at Central Talent Booking

GO WATCH AvA LIVE (EVERY WED. AT 12:30PM PT) & GET SMARTER

Blair Kohan - Partner & Board Member at UTA: What I like to see in people we're hiring is a point of view. A really strong point of view about themselves, how they advocate for themselves, but also in their sensibility. Why do they like a movie? Why do they like a TV series? Why do they like a comedian? When they're able to communicate that in a dynamic way, it leads me to believe they're going to know how to advocate for themselves. Sometimes I challenge them to tell me why they want to work here, what their strengths are, what their weaknesses are. Point of view is always a driver for me.

Clay Newbill - Executive Producer & Showrunner of Shark Tank ABC: The most important thing is confidence. That's what I tell entrepreneurs all the time. If you don't believe, if you're hesitant, why should I believe? More importantly, why should anyone else who's going to be making that critical deal with you believe? You have to be 100% committed.