Creator & Consultant Talks Success in Changing Industry
A native of London, Karen Douglas, affectionately known as “KD”, has spent the majority of her life in Miami building her credibility as a resourceful, tactful, and genius marketer within the music industry. She’s worked with legendary artists and entertainers like, Trina, Uncle Luke “Luther Campbell”, Rico Love, Mya, Kelly Rowland, Vivica Fox and many more!
KD didn’t necessarily start in the music industry, however, her passion in the arts led her to a successful career making artists literally glow over the years.
I’ve always been passionate about the arts – music, fine arts, draw, paint. My parents, their mindset as far as education was doing things they felt was practical, like being a lawyer or a doctor. If you weren’t aspiring to be something like that or a teacher, its wasn’t really respected. Because I was talented in art, but you know my mom would say, ‘you’re gifted in art, but that’s just a hobby.’ So, even though it was something that I loved to do, I ended up trying to make her happy. I ended up taking all these courses in the field of medicine. I don’t like blood. I don’t like hospitals or any of that. So, it was like it was being forced on me. I decided to do what I want to do.
I changed my major to graphic design. It included photography and marketing. It was very broad. Two years into it I was connected with another gentleman, a little bit younger than me. He did marketing and promotions. At the time, printing was big for flyers. Of course, everything is digital now. Printing has declined a lot, but back then, it was big. Companies would print on average, 50,000 flyers. Club promoters… if you’re doing an event, that was the norm. That was his field, so he would get graphic work done for me. I would do it on the side, but I was working or a telemarketing company while going to school. I’m doing these side gigs and making like $50 to $100 for each gig. So, I said to myself, ‘wow, I’m coming to a job that I hate so much. If I could do like two gigs a day, I’ll make more money on my own terms.’ I just didn’t go back one day.
Somewhere around 2001 was my last 9 to 5 job. I started working from home doing graphics. So, the guy that I got connected with, he wanted to take it to the next level and get an office. I was around 23, so we were young. While doing that, I noticed I had a lot of local acts that needed flyers, so when I did those type of graphics, it was always a lot more interesting. I would come up with ideas and help them with marketing it. For about two years, we secured nearly all the major clubs on South Beach. The labels at the time – we did a lot of work for them, like Slip and Slide Records. That was huge back then because they had Plies, Trina, Trick Daddy…they were booming. If you had an account with them, you were going to have work regularly. Sobe Records, no longer active, they owned a club and a record label so we would regularly print 10 to 50,000 flyers with me.
Karen “KD” Douglas
KD was linked up with Trina through a mutual friend and slowly begin producing graphic work for her. The working relationship elevated to a loyal friendship. She started going to the studio with Trina and from there begin sharing her ideas for creative work including project titles.
I was so passionate about it, so the more time I spent in the studio and being behind the scenes, the more I drew away from the office. It became tedious and I didn’t want to hire people to take on the work. When you’re so used to being particular, I just didn’t feel I could trust someone to put that touch that I had. I tried it, but I would have clients say, ‘oh this just doesn’t look like your work.’ I decided to shut down. He kept the office going and continued doing his thing. I would still do some odd gigs here and there, but from there, that was my attachment to Trina. I then got an opportunity to be a road manager. These things kind of happened. God places you in certain positions. I’ve always had leadership skills, great communications skills. Just being around it… I feel like the opportunity was open and after a while it was like, hey you’re a road manager. I did that for like a year.
I can identify greatly with how things kind fall into your lap. As a fellow creative, but also someone who understands the business side of things, people see what you’re good at and want to take it a to another level. Sometimes it just falls together. What’s awesome about KD’s journey is she realized that the path her family wanted her to take didn’t fall in line with passions, so she chose her. She chose to follow her heart and allow her gifts and talents open doors and new opportunities for her. Many times, our destiny requires us to step out of the box, step away from tradition, run from what others choose for us and follow our own dreams.
This generation find ways to create wealth through industry changes. We understand like, people aren’t printing flyers anymore so let’s see what’s happening with the digital world and how we can capitalize on that.
As a fellow creative, moving into a managerial role, responsibility is bit different. KD realized that while it was cool in the beginning, the experience became challenging.
All of it’s interesting, but I will say it was very challenging as a woman, because back then the industry was male dominant and they would hear my voice and automatically think they could take advantage or overpower me. It was little things. You’re dealing with some guys that are very shady. There’s a lot that you do have to deal with being a road manager. You must oversee everyone else’s job. At times it became pretty challenging. I found myself having to be really serious a lot of the time in order to be taken seriously. I just got to be a little too much. I decided that I’d rather handle day-to-day stuff than traveling. I still stayed in the area of manager, just didn’t travel.
Over the last 10 years, I’ve been one of the key people in Trina’s career – behind the scenes as well as family.
It gives me a warm feeling to see so many talented, positive women popping up on my timeline in the music industry. I see so many women really doing their thing. I’m happy and excited about the growth of women of color and how their stepping into executive positions. Quite a few of them I know personally who started from the bottom. We’re still outnumbered, but I feel like the numbers are growing rapidly. Back then, I just stood out like a sore thumb, but now there are more women respected and not being stereotyped.
Personally, I’ve seen trends within the music industry moving more into a fast-paced hype and show type feel. In other words, there seems to be a lot of pop-up artists with music that is good for the moment but doesn’t hold or stay with people for years later.
I think that it changes so much like even within a year. I feel like it’s a gift and a curse in some situations. There are a lot of artist now that have become artist due to social media. They weren’t really trying to be in the music industry, but then somebody noticed them and said, ‘hey you could be dope with this… you could really make it.’ It’s happened for people that way. Whereas back when I first started working with Trina and other artists, these artists really had to get out there and go to open mics, hand out CDs outside of venues, flyers, straight up connecting with people. They were doing the ground work. Now, I’m not saying you don’t have to do the ground work, but you can literally just blow up off social media. If the right person comes across your page, a video goes viral – might not even be a video of your song – someone may like and decide to share. It’s become that’s easy. I think that it’s great to have this powerful tool that we can use to spread our talents to the masses, but it’s also like wow, anyone can make it over someone who could really be busting their asses and not really being seen by the right people. What I’m saying is I know… time does repeat itself, but people should really work hard for it.
I don’t see us having us having more legendary artists within the next 10 years. I could be wrong, but I just don’t see it. I’ve watched artists that had hit singles within the last couple of years, but you don’t even hear from them anymore.
Honestly that makes me wonder how important it is for artists to stay above water. It seems like the industry is taken a negative hit for an overload of junk music and inexperienced management.
People take on these titles and not really knowing what the work consists of. As a manager or when working with an artist, you gotta really believe in the artist, not looking for a quick buck, otherwise there’s no longevity.
A lot of people are making it and don’t have a lot of the basics. A lot of the huge acts are starting out young, making it big! Seventeen, eighteen years old getting like $20K to $30K a show – they’re out of control. That’s a lot of power. There’s no discipline… no knowledge of business. As a manager, of course you want to keep making money, you don’t want to remove yourself from the situation, but it gets crazy and sometimes I see it. If you’re calling yourself a real manager, understand you’re pretty much taking on the responsibility of someone else’s life. You’re going to be their mentor, adviser, and relationship counselor. Everything must be on track for the artist to be successful.
You better be prepared to be all of these things and at the same time be able to balance your life. There was time when I lost myself in it. Find things that keep you charged up, so you don’t have a mental breakdown. You always hear people talking about mental health… it’s real.
You can’t pour from an empty vessel. If you’re trying to help all these people and not recharging yourself at all, you’re overloading yourself. Get sleep. Take days off. There’s so much that you have to consume, some people are literally ticking time bombs.
As far as management advice, if you’re not prepared to take on these things and be able to separate yourself and be human… this is not for you. It’s a lot. You have to be able to find that balance – a nice happy, healthy medium so that you can go out and kill it.
With all that being said, KD has dedicated the last 10 years of her life to people. She’s now focusing on herself.
I’ve done it for so many years, I just feel like I need to work on myself. I will continue to work with other people, but the biggest project right now, is me for a couple of months.
On June 21, 2019, Trina’s newest project, ‘The One,’ was released – in which, she was heavily involved. The very anticipated album, a very important project for the team. Much of KD’s role involved the overall project roll-out, securing placements, and correspondence. She admits there were a few bumps but holds to the album being a solid body of work.
“The One” | Trina
I’m very grateful to have been able to work on it. I know the right people see and her fans that were patiently waiting for it for a long time – it’s her first studio project since leaving Slip and Slide. She kept them happy though. Trina has always remained consistent with releasing material for her fans, whether a mix tape or singles.
KD is working on other projects that do not really involve artists. She’s finding her way back to the arts. She’s proven that when you love something and you’re truly passionate about it, you can make a real foundation for yourself to make your own money and build your own legacy.
As she moves into the next phase of her life, she’s focusing on herself and getting back to the heart of her talents. This woman is gifted! I’m excited to see what KD will do next and how she executes the next level of her career.
This is The LSherie Alert.
Karen “KD” Douglas
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