To Keep It 100: 5 Lessons from 365 Days with The Demo Tape

Time flies like we couldn’t believe in this lifetime, and before I knew it, today, my 1-year anniversary with The Demo Tape arrived. In my 23rd year of life, on the horizon of my 24th, I give praise to those I work with under The Demo Tape LLC publication. Many journalists have their 100th articles with their publications, but the story behind mine might serve as something many journalists may resonate with or may get a spark of inspiration from.

In context of one of the main takeaways expounded upon later in this story, I remember hearing a quote from a Naruto Shippuden anime filler episode where Jiraiya, the Toad Sage and mentor of Naruto, said something along the lines of:

Home is the place where people care about you.

Before officially signing with The Demo Tape in the beginning of July 2017, I was a locally commended writer in both my homes of Baltimore and Atlanta. Nothing big, for real. My friends, high school school contacts, college peers, mentors, professors and practically everyone I came across had told me once or a few times that this young Park Heights Baltimore native could write his ass off whenever he wanted to. On my old Facebook account, I was lauded for my music reviews on the newest albums, songs, and commentary on cultural happenings. For roughly a year, I was being hounded by my friends to try and start my own blog on the subjects I gave them essays about on the timeline. I wanted to call it New Golden Age and thought it would be a breeze with my serial entrepreneur mindset, as prior to this opportunity I had started my own record label, tech company, two non-profits, and other companies with others.

This mindset is where I messed up and learned my first lesson with the publication in my 365 days with The Demo Tape:

Learn to serve as much as you learn to lead. You never know how much you can grow in a group of leaders rather than just always leading by yourself.

It was June of 2017 and I saw an article from a future coworker that I disagreed with, and instead of typing viciously away in a reactionary rant that would be lost in the Twitter timeline threads of time, I decided to challenge it by joining the publication myself to go article for article rather than tweet for tweet on some Meek Mill 2015 behavior. That finalized my decision to apply to be part of something greater, and learning a lesson that would become prevalent throughout my entire time with The Demo Tape:

Great minds don’t necessarily agree. Great minds debate.

I started my career with The Demo Tape with my first article on July 30th, 2017, learning the easy AND hard ways of modern journalism with endless nights of edits in my pieces to have professional syntax whilst retaining my personality, tight deadlines, collaborations with other members, SEO marketing strategy implications, talks with the EIC, and more. I learned that although I was “nice,” there were those who were also “nice” if not “nicer” writing for the publication. With all of my alleged skill I was confident in, it wasn’t until my third month with the publication that I got a promotion for breaking a record of writing seven articles in one day, and it wasn’t until my fourth month that I received my first #1 article of the week with the publication. Prior to this unexpected win, given the colossal talent within our staff at that time, I felt as if my material was highly lyrical, nuanced and covered areas that no one ever wrote about before like me on the publication. However, that didn’t translate the way I expected in my rankings and I was horrendously erroneous in my original arrogance. Frankly, I NEEDED that, and I believe every journalist needs that as well when working within a larger staff. It is from that time that I learned:

If you ‘lose,‘ you don’t have to spend time being bitter if you can spend just as much time learning how to be better.

So that’s how a brotha started moving. My pieces would contain versatility on anything from modern racial politics, the intricacies of rap lyricism in today’s Hip Hop Culture, track-by-track album reviews, comments on the newest movies/TV shows, city events, and interviews of up and coming artists on local-regional-national-international levels of prestige. By putting the hours in, I became on par with the music journalist and writer that I dreamed of being rather than trying to be on par with those I was competing against. Traveling to Atlanta for a mini-vacation in October 2017, I met a Spelman Alumna at a conference that was a world class and nationally acclaimed writer. She told me the simplest, yet most important advice I would receive as a music journalist:

If you want to get comfortable with writing as well as being a great writer, you need to write EVERY day.

Little did I realize that this concept, reminiscent of the 10,000 hours concept, is applicable in any field one desires to be good in. Our instant gratification and social media influenced mindsets are psychologically embedded in us to rationalize how we should receive success and recognition almost immediately. However, you cannot graduate to the level of functionality your ideal position requires if you have not put in the inescapable time needed to master the essential skills that are prerequisites for your lofty goal.

Under the months of real-time experience, I fell in love with being a writer as opposed to being an “everyman” in the business world. Through mastering modern music journalism do’s and don’ts, I was able to also gain writing fellowships with Warner Bros., and paid freelance writing opportunities to support myself financially. Imagine getting your bills paid off of words that you write. That confidence kept me growing. Between Grad school, my own businesses, my day time job as a teacher, and The Demo Tape, I was chugging out 20-30 pages a week. Just like that, after the initial process of having to earn my stripes, I was a lauded writer in my area doing what I loved and what I mastered. The genuine comments and acknowledgment from people who liked my work in the area and even my favorite celebrities began to be a testimony to how much farther I could go.

There are a plethora of more positive comments, but I realized through all of the compliments that I COULD not have gained my success without my team.

The Demo Tape, after my 365 days, happens to be the greatest family in the Baltimore/Greater Maryland Area that I have ever known. It is of little consequence of how much I grow in stature and my range of skill sets if I’m the only one in my circle maximizing my potential. The Demo Tape’s staff ALWAYS forces me to evolve, and 365 days later, I pray any entrepreneur has a team this versatile, hungry, and talented. It is from them that I learned my final lesson:

Learning to be a great leader is learning to be both a great asset to your team and to a great leadership model that you yourself would follow.

Justice Gray, the Editor-in-Chief of the publication, is the best supervisor/boss I have ever served under in any profession I have held, with such a sagacious meticulousness as to the design of the website, maintenance, company fees, company administrative tasks, city partnerships, cross-department management, statistical analysis, and skills/immense natural intelligence that any modern EIC should be able to flaunt. What he has done for the city of Baltimore and its modern creatives in terms of platforming and support in all avenues cannot be understated. I wouldn’t be the journalist I am today without his peer tutelage and copious goldmines of journalist wisdom.

Brandon challenged me to shoot for quality, quantity, and precision EVERY single time if I was ever to call myself the best. His mastery of timing, versatility, and speed made his articles be placed in the Top 3, if not the #1 article, every single week. It took months with developing my skill to knock off his top spot, but his inspiring mercilessness showcased that I shouldn’t let up either.

BDJ showed me Jiraiya’s aforementioned quote in full, with his unwavering support of my initiatives for the publication, financial assistance, and blunt advice that got to the heart of the matter with issues inside/outside the workplace that I’ve carried my whole life. In under 365 days, BDJ became the brother and peer I waited my entire life to meet. His words altered my writing style for the better and assisted in me breaking The Demo Tape records up to this 365th day in terms of consistent posts, #1 articles, and more accolades in only my first year.

Justice, upon my first couple of articles, told me of praise that came from a praised young writer in Philadelphia who led her own publication. I started a writer peer-crush with a contemporary who had a 10 percent shooting range with the research, timeliness, and timelessness of her articles. Her style evolved mine in ways I never could have imagined: learning brevity and ultimate efficiency per word. So, imagine my wonderful surprise when this peer signed on to become a coworker/staff writer 2 months before my 1-year anniversary. Njera Perkins and I doing a collaborative article made the experience come full circle as she continues to be a large influence on my journalist hustle.

My other members I have collaborated with gave me so much support and experience to keep getting better, whether we’re tackling deadlines or sharing drinks at company events or get-togethers.

Looking back, I feel better being an asset and building an unforgettable legacy with a team instead of the solo glory. With personal achievements that will give me context of how much further I have to go, the ability to assist the publication in being a registered LLC, and so much more, I wouldn’t trade this experience for the world, to keep it 100.