Brent Faiyaz's manager Ty Baisden has done a masterful job at guiding Brent's career and helping him become one of the biggest independent artists in the world. Ty's interviews really resonate with me and are full of wisdom. Here are 4 of my favorite takeaways:.

One of the biggest mistakes I see artists making is spending so much money on creating the music (production, recording, mixing, and mastering) that they run out of money for all of the other pieces. Don’t forget about: . -Artwork.-Content .-Digital marketing .-General.

This is terrifying - as helpful as ChatGPT is, what other things don't we know about how our information is being shared? .

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"The focus isn’t on limiting ourselves. It’s about increasing our income and that is an abundance mindset right? Increase your income by increasing your value. Thank you to @SpenserLiszt for the interview!.

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5) Habits that separate financially successful music people. “It sounds so simple but I think mindset shift is one of the biggest things - instead of saying to yourself ‘I can’t afford that’, ask yourself ‘How can I afford that?".

Credits can be far more powerful than deductions depending on the scenario.”.

"A tax deduction reduces your taxable income. So if you make $100,000 and you have a tax deduction of $1,000, your taxable income is $99,000 and then the percent of your tax brackets get applied to that number.

4) Overlooked tax strategies. “There are common tax credits and tax deductions in the music industry. A tax credit directly lowers how much you pay in taxes - so if you owe $5,000 and get a $1,000 tax credit, you now only owe $4,000.".

"I also tell people that sometimes what can be more important than getting a really high return on investing is just being on track financially for the type of lifestyle you want to live.”.

"Global diversification is important and investing into different kinds of companies. Understand what kind of account you’re investing in and is it pre-tax or post-tax. Is it a 401k, 403B, IRA, Roth IRA, etc.".

"But the actual determining factor of your investments growing are taxes and fees - how are your investments taxed as they grow? What are the fees of the investments that you’re in?".

3) Investment strategies to build wealth. "When people think about investments, they normally think about their returns - what’s my return and how are my investments growing?.

"When people use the term “budget”, in many cases it implies it’s a limiting word - that it’s coming from scarcity or it’s limiting. Like…this is my “budget” for this, I can only spend this much on that item. It doesn’t really encourage an abundance mindset.”.

"There’s software that can help organize these expenses visually but if you look at these numbers in one place, you’ll be able to start to get a better understanding of how much money you actually need for your cost of living and where to shift money around.".

"Same with filling up gas for your car, going out to eat, traveling, utility bills, etc. You can add up all of those costs that are flexible and see what the total is.".

Flex. "Then you have flex(ible) expenses - these are expenses that vary each time. For example, your grocery bill probably isn’t the exact same amount of every time.".

"What are the bills & expenses in your life that are the exact same, whether it’s monthly or annually? They can even be subscriptions - Netflix, Hulu, etc. You can add all of those up and get the total amount.".

2) Budgeting income when it's inconsistent. “There’s a method called the “Fixed Flex” method. Fixed. Part 1 of that method are your fixed expenses and things that are the same every month. For ex: rent, health insurance premium, phone bill, etc.".

"That’s where having an emergency fund comes in. Additionally there’s insurances - the stolen instruments lead to another point of insurance. There’s insurances we can get to protect against the risks you face on a daily basis.”.

"Things happen in life - it’s important to have cash on hand for that kind of stuff. I’ll see people who don’t have an emergency fund start a Kickstarter for their music project or they’ll start a GoFundMe because their instruments got stolen out of their car.".