Today we’d like to introduce you to Mea Hill.
Thanks for sharing your story with us Mea. So, let’s start at the beginning and we can move on from there.
Hi, my name is Mea Hill and I am a West Virginia native and proud West Virginia University Alumna. I am a website developer, music manager, brand and business developer, and strategic consultant, I think it’s safe to say my journey began when I was about 13, back when Myspace was the most popular social media platform. This was long before Facebook, Instagram, or Twitter existed. To be fair, this was a little before WIFI too. At the time, WIFI wasn’t even available in my neighborhood, so we were using the AOL dial-up connection. Back then, my peers would pay me to edit the HTML and CSS code behind their front page layouts. Though at the time I was only a teenager, I was still eager to learn more about technology and computer science in general.
During that time, outside of school and coding, basketball was my main focus and first love. Growing up, I would play AAU travel ball when school ball finished. I’ll never forget the trip that inspired me to consider relocating to Atlanta after college. I think coming into high school, I was like 15 or 16 years old, and I remember it like it were yesterday. We traveled from West Virginia to North Gwinnett High School for a 3-days AAU tournament. That trip alone set the precedence for my upcoming years and foreseeable future. From here, I went on to graduate high school while simultaneously learning other declarative, programming, and database languages. At this point, I was moderately proficient in understanding and writing HTML and CSS. Therefore I focused my efforts on learning PHP and Javascript.
After high school, I went on to study Criminology and Communication at West Virginia University. During my collegiate years, I picked up an interest for underground and indie music. I spent the entire duration of my undergraduate years listening primarily to unsigned or upcoming artists. This is where my technological experience aligned perfectly with my newly discovered interest and quest to understand the music business and entertainment industry.
My official journey to entrepreneurship began in 2016 with a keen desire to help others. Since I had already been developing websites and coding HTML, JAVA, PHP, and CSS with MySQL for quite some time, I took another leap of faith and began learning the ins and outs of the music business, which included endless hours of research and teaching myself the legalities, regulatory frameworks, and intellectual property rights within the industry.
This endeavor started with the idea that led to a network of resources and connecting the dots. At the time, I was working full time primarily as an Account Executive for an enterprise data solutions company while also operating as a personal assistant for one of Atlanta’s most adept emerging female DJs. I recall quite vividly at one of the events we curated. It dawned on me that if I can assist in driving the DJ’s agenda, I could certainly advance and establish my own, officially! And from that day forward, I began connecting the dots quite literally.
The first dot was a childhood friend who had a passion for writing and freestyling to tell his story. The second dot was a co-worker from my day job, the sales role. On the side, he worked as a producer with his cousin, who was an engineer. Both worked essentially out of Artist Factory in Midtown. These two dots are significant in my story, as this is where my music business career began. My childhood friend flew to Atlanta to begin working on his first studio-recorded album with me. Some of his early records were tracked out by my previous co-worker and now a close friend. As the Executive Producer for his album, this is literally how I got started managing music and understanding intellectual property rights as it relates to the music and entertainment industries.
It’s safe to say the third dot is one of my oldest and most valuable skillsets, website development. Once I had a good understanding of how the music industry worked, I then focused on understanding how to deliver a product in a streaming and content-driven market that would be mutually beneficial for the owner and consumer. This resulted in a bespoke solution. This is when I started developing artist, label, and brand websites while effectively managing music and intellectual property rights. Now, how did I get to where I am today? I think this can be attributed to believing in myself, my dreams and purpose, wholeheartedly. Not allowing anyone or anything to distract me from my vision has been a major key! I truly believe that with hard work and persistence, scalable success and growth are inevitable. I will also so that networking has played a major role in my journey.
Overall, has it been relatively smooth? If not, what were some of the struggles along the way?
I don’t think that a smooth road exists in any facet of life, especially in entrepreneurship. I truly believe everything happens for a reason. What is meant to be will be, and it is solely up to each individual to make the right choices to avoid disruption of their purpose. That being said, I’ve had numbers celebratory days, but I’ve also had to count my losses and appreciate the life lessons provided to me.
The biggest challenge for me so far was relocating to a city in which I did not know a single soul. I left behind everything that I once knew, my friends, my family, even my dog. It took a while for me to become acclimated to the metropolitan city with a population of 5Mil+. Especially since I spent the majority of my life in the town of Montgomery, West Virginia, which had a total population of 1,529. The town’s total area is only 1.59 miles compared to Metro Atlanta, expanding across 136.8+ miles.
I think it’s safe to say that I cautiously analyze my wins and losses to assess and mitigate any circumstantial risks in front of me. Life is all about choices, so if the road is smooth, bumpy, or even obstructed.. it is quite imperative that we continue to push in the direction in which we believe. And in turn, that we recognize any nuances along the way to prevent the same instance from recurring. Struggles and challenges exist in every business and organization, from startup to enterprise companies. Though it is important to recognize them, I think it’s more imperative that we understand how they fit within the bigger picture and the grand scheme of things.
1M Management – what should we know? What do you guys do best? What sets you apart from the competition?
1M Management is a fully integrated consulting firm specializing in consultative brand and business development, professional management services, bespoke website development, and intellectual property rights risk mitigation. We manage a list of rostered artists and independent labels, all the while providing professional services to those in need. Our focus is on finding areas where individuals and businesses could be more productive and profitable. And in turn, implementing a strategic path to help each client achieve their desired targets.
The most important role throughout our plan of action is implementing infrastructure and defining a strategy to collect market and consumer analytics to better leverage data while simultaneously optimizing the consumer’s experience. Our guiding philosophy is simple; we combat adversities by promoting purpose! Our goal is to work closely with like-minded creatives and businesses that welcome both challenges and opportunities presented within the modernized music and entertainment industries. I am extremely proud to say that our team has expanded from the traditional norms and has adapted to the changes as a result of various technological advances, the digital streaming era, and further intellectual property rights legislation. We are also privy to specific mandates within other countries and the regulatory frameworks that drive the global markets.
My experience personally is extensive, from partnering with independent artists, brands, and entertainment businesses to technology start-ups and mitigating risks for some of the world’s largest enterprise organizations. From a music perspective, we ensure the legalities are in order to operate as a legal entity. Register copyrights, trademarks, and music, respectively, for the intellectual property rights owner. Distribute music on a global scale to establish a stream of revenue. And implement content management systems to better leverage the data and content effectively. For businesses, we define operational plans to outline goals, procedures, policies, and timelines. And in turn, implement structured documented processes to reduce redundancy risks and evaluate the transformation of inputs into outputs. This also allows us to assess financial performances in terms of the value chain and streamline the business strategy. We also are able to produce process diagrams, work flow charts, and developing staff training and product documentation.
I think one of the things that set us apart on the market is the fact that we treat all of our clients as individuals and do not think a one-size-fits-all solution will satisfy each customer’s independent requirement. We create initiatives based on the individual requirements while promoting a lifestyle and state of mind that supports our clients in remaining true to themselves, their book of business, and their talents. I think it’s safe to say that we are certainly a one-stop-shop. If there is a need, we will find a way to assist you. We pride ourselves on having a wide network of resources. So if 1M is not able to assist you, we will recommend one of our partners instead and are happy to do so.
How do you, personally, define success? What’s your criteria, the markers you’re looking out for, etc?
Success, to me, doesn’t stem from materialistic items, being wealthy, and having tangibles, or earned degrees. Success is becoming complete and whole in every aspect of your life. Personally, for me, success is internally healing and being content with who you are, continuously striving to be the best possible version of yourself, and encouraging while influencing others along the way. Self-fulfillment defines success for me. But how is success actually achieved? In my opinion, it’s achieved by setting goals and actively accomplishing them despite life’s adverse circumstances. This should be internal or external work, as both are imperative to maintaining a healthy balance in life. I truly believe that everyone has a purpose and once it has been identified, it is within our innate ability to fulfill it. Through fulfillment, I receive peace of mind about my past, present, and future. I look inward for success and have always found a way to pass it forward to help advance and improve the quality of living for others.
Below I’ve included some of the criteria that I depend on to stay a course:
Writing my goals out and in turn, marking them off upon completion
Staying humble
Remaining focused
Avoiding distractions
Assessing achievements and losses
For every win, give back twice
For every loss, in hindsight, look for the life lesson. It will go along way.
Encouraging others to step outside of their comfort zone
“My circumstances do not define me; my choices do.”
Contact Info:
- Website: www.1mmanagement.com
- Phone: 678-871-6919
- Email: m.hill@1mmanagement.com
- Instagram: instagram.com/idomea
- Facebook: facebook.com/1MManagement/
Image Credit:
Keaton Parker
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