Put Your Dreams First: Handle Your Entertainment Business »

A cornerstone of integrity and stability in a highly competitive business, Thembisa has worked for over 17 years in service to the entertainment industry, spanning the areas of touring and management, magazine publishing, recorded music and technology, advertising, music supervision for film, voice over and most recently, television in her role as the Telly Award-winning Copy Director for BET Networks. The former GAVIN rap editor has also written for Honey, essence.com, LAUNCH, and served as contributing editor for The Hotness.com and BLAZE. A native of Los Angeles, Thembisa is an alumna of Mills College in Oakland, California. She now resides in the Bedford-Stuyvesant neighborhood of Brooklyn with her husband and son.

There is a great mystique about the entertainment industry and a fervent desire in many to be part of it. But what many women don't realize is that most entertainment career guides are written from the point of view of the male executive, or are filled with industry and legal jargon-making them difficult to read and understand.


Now, in PUT YOUR DREAMS FIRST, Thembisa Mshaka uses her 15 years of experience in the music industry to expose the hidden truths that women need to know as they aspire toward entertainment careers, such as how to avoid compromising one's self-respect and the little-known fact that women run a large part of the business. This highly informative guide is for every woman wanting to know how to navigate the entertainment superhighway and find that job of a lifetime.

Foreword Vanessa Williams xv

Introduction Sister Swans 1

Chapter 1 Getting In 5

Chapter 2 She's Playing Your Song: Radio, Deejaying, and Turntablism 25

Chapter 3 Mad Skills: Not-So-Plain Janes 52

Chapter 4 Imaging: Beauty Is a Beast 70

Chapter 5 Before the Music: Songwriting, Music Making, Publishing, and A&R 94

Chapter 6 Read the Label 120

Chapter 7 So You Wanna Be a Supastar? 152

Chapter 8 The Art and Nuance of Production for Script, Stage, and Screen 172

Chapter 9 President and CEO 205

Chapter 10 Have Passport, Will Prosper: Going Global 225

Chapter 11 The Revolution Will Be Feminized: Women of New Media and Mobile 251

Chapter 12 Exit Stage Next 272

Appendices Recommended Resources 289

Recommended Resources 295

Endnotes 297