Heroes in Business - Teryn Reché, Founder of Above the Record abovetherecord.com

Episode Date: November 2, 2024

Teryn Reché is the founder of Above the Record, a platform that empowers artists and creators. With a strong passion for helping talent shine, she changes how artists connect with their audiences. Teryn’s work inspires others to explore their creativity and reach their dreams. Join us to hear her thoughts on music and entrepreneurship on the Eliances Heroes Show with David Cogan, founder of Eliances community.

Welcome back to Alliances Heroes, where heroes in business align. To be part of our super community and find out more about Alliances, visit www.alliances.com. All right, so welcome back to the show again. As you always know, tremendous amount of activity going on within the Alliances community and also to the number of interviews that we've done. Don't forget to check out Eliance's.com. That's E-L-I-A-N-C-E-S.com to check out previous recordings. And also to thank you again for the feedback we continue to get from when I had the founder of E-Entertainment on. And don't forget too, he'll be attending the next Eliance's grand table. So make sure that you go to E-L-I-A-N-C-E-S.com.

All right. Well, I'm excited today about our next guest. We have with us today, member Taryn. She is the founder of Above the Record. Now you're going to be learning some great things about what she's doing in regards to it what above the record is all about so make sure you stay tuned through the entire part so welcome to the show taryn taryn how are you doing today hi david thank you for having me on um thank you for having me part of the community um i'm doing well absolutely wonderful wonderful well so um what is above the record i mean the buzz is starting to get out there. By the time this interview is over, it's going to be, you know, and people hear it, it's going to be all over. But what, give us kind of some of the sneak peek. entertainment specifically in Tacoma and Pacific Northwest. And so we're excited to increase awareness of the music community and entertainment and so many legends and great people that have contributed to it. And then just with me being a woman and a woman of color, I'm excited

to kind of bring in those cultural lenses as well. What are some of the objectives of it though? Like what, you know, well, I guess actually let's take a step back. I think it's born and rose kind of how did this even become to be like, what, what inspired you to do it? And then we'll talk more detail about it. Um, so many people, so many things, um, it would have to be my love for music and entertainment in general, because no one does something if they're not passionate about it. But there was a there's a lot of needs in the community as far as being able to bring in funding and awareness and basically just the need of like bringing in the funding for a lot of musicians and artists out in the area. And so as I was going through my own journey, I recognized that I wasn't the only one struggling.

And so the goal of this is to help alleviate the tensions from a lot of different community members that love music, that love entertainment, that love to also go and experience it, to be able to experience it at quality levels and have mentorship and support in order to make, I guess, yeah, just to bring awareness around it in a community where I feel like the industry is not at large or supported there just because there hasn't been representation in that way before.

Yeah. And I'm not a musician, but it seems like it's kind of almost a lonely business, you know, especially if you're performing by yourself or even that, or I guess even with a band of, you know, trying to get that exposure you mentioned in regards to mentorships. So what is Above the Record? You talked about community and stuff, but maybe more about AboveTheRecord.com, the community part and showing that support. Because am I right? Can it be a lonely business? It can be, but if you want to get there really fast. And so part of what people don't understand that about the Rutgers journey was because I wasn't

about getting there really fast. I was about getting there with people I trusted and people that I knew had the same intentions that I did, which it's lonely when you're around a lot of people that don't have good intentions with not just you, but if you're building a company, I'm trusting people not with my career, but with other people's careers.

And like I said, I'm bringing my lenses as a woman and a woman of color. And so I feel obligated to make sure that my experience and so many people in the industry's experiences that haven't been the best aren't representation of the music industry as a whole because i've met some amazing people in this industry and i have a lot of people that have a lot of mentors that have volunteered and gave time to for it to be what it is so um i don't think it's, I don't think it's lonely. I think, like I said, if you

want to get there really fast, it's lonely, but I think I haven't been lonely. I've been alone. Right. A lot to process and I'm an internal processor. So I'm very, it's, there's so much information coming at me to me at one time. And so I don't want to misrepresent the information that's coming to me. And I don't want to misrepresent the people that I'm helping to support. And so I need alone time to process that. So I'm under, because I'm in the forefront telling those stories. And so one small slip up and I could offend someone and I really have not done the best job of not offending people. So I'm trying to make sure that I take the time to say, hey, like,

let me understand this before I'm rushed into step. And I'm I'm totally doing a horrible job of making sure the people that have poured into me are being seen and visible as well. And Taryn, how do you go about kind of rounding up the rounding up people to be able to kind of participate in and go with your vision? Knowing that it's a collective vision. So like there, it's never, I feel like in this world, nothing's ever really yours. We come in with nothing, we leave with nothing.

So it's more so that it was like i would say above the record wasn't really my vision it was more so like how can i protect the the beautiful things in music and entertainment that i want to bring in um and work with the people that i want to initially and then it turned into like there's so many cool people at cool visions that i also like to partner with and do stuff so like when you're acting when you're doing different stuff like you can't do all the roles and nobody nobody wants to do all the roles like it's horrible um i honestly if i there's a lot of hats that if i don't have to wear them because i'm fulfilling a need because somebody else can't fulfill that need like i said i've been fortunate to be in positions where people have invested in so I can donate time or be in those places, but other people are like doing multiple

hustles and things so they can't be at that table. So I'm kind of that representation for them as well. So honestly, a lot of people don't want to wear a lot of hats. Like I can speak on that now. Some people just want to fool and do acting or fool and just be silly and do music and not be silly, but just be free in their freedom of the creation that they want to bring in. So I don't know if I'm answering your question. No, you are.

That's great. No, that's great. And again, you're watching, listening to me, David Kogan, host of the Alliances Hero Show. Make sure that you go to alliances.com. That's E-L-I-A-N-C-S.com. If you want to hear some past episodes, go ahead and make sure that you click on the radio section of that. And again, we have with us member Taryn. She is the founder of AboveTheRecord.com. Once again,

that's AboveTheRecord.com. In fact, Taryn, you're part of the Alliances community in that. Why did you want to be part of Alliances? Because entrepreneurs need support. First off, I was honored to even be considered. And then I was, first of all, just, I'm honestly still, I was told this by the late, great Dr. Mims to stop saying that, have imposter syndrome. But there's so many amazing people that have done amazing work. And so for me to be in that room, I was like, I have so much to learn. So I was just excited to be in a lot of rooms where people knew more than me that I've achieved a lot. And I knew I was in those right rooms because it was going to push me in a good direction where I can honor my commitments and quality and

assurance to whoever I was expected to give deliverables to. Excellent. And we're all here to support one another. In fact, talk to us about partnerships, what partnerships means to you. Everything. I take partnerships very, very seriously because I just feel like a lot of people, like I said, it's not one person involved in partnerships. Like I said, when the vision of Above the Record, it wasn't, you think it's never, nothing's yours. It's almost like a baby. So I think with the partnerships, they're a big part of being able to elevate and move. That's part of our main tagline is elevate and empower, of being able to elevate the mission, the vision, and propelling a lot of the people that are underneath that.

And partners fulfill things that you can't. So whenever I partner with someone, I'm looking at, yo, I can't do this. So you can do this, but here's how I can offer you the support. And here's how you can help me. And here's how we can still do our own missions because partners are answering mission and things that I can't do. Like one of our partners with the martial law band and our music for everybody nonprofit there, they've done amazing work in Seattle and I've been like following their stuff for a while and I can't do that work alone. They have a band coming together bringing free events bringing uplift in the

community helping career development with musicians so that's a big part and we're not talking about just quote unquote local musicians because first of all I hate that term because it's just musicians wherever they want to be. But they're giving a platform to help elevate people's careers, period. And so that's the great part of those partnerships. So then as I'm working with execs and different, I have an exec in LA, I have an exec in Las Vegas, like all those mentors that are pouring into me as I'm working with them, I'm saying, hey, we have these Fremont Fridays in these groups and we're checking out talent here and we're checking out there. So it's just, it's almost like I look at it as a relay race and a relay marathon because I don't like the word race, but passing off the baton. So, hey, you did

this part, bet, your turn, like sprint, run, and you get coaching on different levels so i i love partnerships i love partnerships because first of all i get a break second of all i get to just get beyond it's like people don't understand sometimes it's just really fun being a cheerleader like it's just fun to be like oh my god yeah you did it right absolutely very nice. And I'm curious, who is like who's some of your favorite artists? Don't put me on that. Too many to name. Everyone. There's too many to name for different for different reasons. And I people don't understand my my music repertoire is eclectic. So I play piano, violin. I've done I've done upright bass. I was raised in music. So if I say a favorite

artist, I feel like I'm going to offend a lot of great legends and I just can't. And then I'm also immersed in hip hop. I'm not a rapper, nor will I ever be, but hip hop raised me. So there are so many greats in that. And that's why I don't do old beefs because I'm like, look, one day I'm listening to this artist, the next day I'm listening to this artist. So there's a lot of legends in the game. And I just love seeing everyone be at their peak positions. Awesome. Well, absolutely phenomenal. And Taryn, what you're doing for the community, what you're doing for artists, it's needed.

It is absolutely needed. And you're making a difference in the people's lives that you touch. Make sure that you reach out to Taryn and go to abovetherecord.com. Once again, that's abovetherecord.com. This has been David Kogan with the Eliance's Hero Show. How's this music, Taryn? Is that all right? You've got to dance with me a little bit too. You've got to dance with me a little bit. Okay. Awesome.