Looking at Mardi Caught, it's easy to see the very picture of success — though she's far too humble to brag about it when you ask her. In 2010, Caught moved on from Sony Music Entertainment to step into the role of General Manager at Atlantic. There was a three-year stint as WMA's General Manager Frontline Marketing before, in December 2017, Caught changed over to a marketing consultant role. Just six months later, this May, she launched her own business, The Annex, a "marketing services business working with talent, management and labels to deliver tailor-made marketing strategy".
When asked about the first few months of her new business, Caught is honest in sharing both the exciting and slightly less exciting elements of working on a start-up.
"Yeah, it's been — and it is literally a few months — it's been good, incredibly busy, incredibly humbling I would say as well, because there's a lot of… When you're in start-up mode, and I think everyone would appreciate this who's tried to go out on their own, there's a lot of stuff that you're doing that you've forgotten how to do. There's lot's of learning about Dropbox and things like that so that's been good," she laughs.
Now, Caught's just days away from delivering her keynote address to BIGSOUND, which looks at the very word used to describe her earlier — success. While Caught certainly could be excused if she wanted to take the time as an opportunity for a not-so-humble brag, she's opted not to and will instead look at the concept of success itself, what that means for each individual and the industry as a whole, and why maybe we should be changing our view of what it actually is to be successful.
"The broader topic is just about redefining success and what that looks like in the current marketplace at the current time. I think with the changing way the market is working — people now can release how they want or when they want — it's basically, well, 'What does that look like for you?' It doesn't have to be the same thing," she shares.
"I think everyone initially signs up to be in a band to have a number one record, but that may not necessarily be the right path. So there's a little bit around that, and how you can actually look at your own success and be the best judge of it rather than the best critic of it, but also how failure is actually a very, very important part of being on the road to success. It shouldn't be a cakewalk, it shouldn't be all easy. Sometimes you actually have to stumble in order to get to the end goal of having success."
"I think people are naturally moving that way anyway," Caught responds when asked what type of impact this idea could have. "And people are seeing that they can go and be an amazing touring act — but that's still as successful as someone who has a Top 40 hit. I think there's a little bit of movement towards that.
"I hope the one thing that would serve as change is that we actually all become a little bit easier on ourselves as well, because I think it's such a hard time at the moment for everyone and usually the person that's driving you forward is you, and sometimes you actually need to just take a moment and go, 'You know what, I am actually doing really well,' or, 'I didn't end up there, but now I'm here.' So if people can just feel better about where they fit then that's a great impact to have."
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