Meet Julie Tecson | Founder of MPS Talent Management

We had the good fortune of connecting with Julie Tecson and we’ve shared our conversation below.

Hi Julie, what matters most to you?
I’m very passionate about helping creators stay creative. In the social media climate today it’s very easy to experience burnout, overwhelm, or pressure to go viral on every post. No one goes into a creative field because they love sales, they go into it because they love art. I love to come into that space and fill the gap with the business side. We take all of that marketing, negotiating, communication stuff off of creatives’ plates and act as the strategy brain for them so that they can stick to what they truly love. There is nothing more rewarding than finishing a brainstorming meeting with an artist or influencer who came in feeling burnt out and is leaving the feeling hyped and inspired.
Can you give our readers an introduction to your business? Maybe you can share a bit about what you do and what sets you apart from others?
When I first entered the professional world after college, I considered talent management from the start. Influencers were a very very new thing still, and not really an industry yet, but I was interested in entertainment and loved the idea of standing alongside creators as their “business brain” and even as a personal support. Most of my experiences with managers and stories I heard at first, however, were largely negative, ranging from managers that were completely burning their clients out to managers that seemed to ignore half of their roster and only gave time to their top earners. It seemed like a highly competitive, unfriendly environment and that turned me off at first. I decided to pursue art direction and other creative services for influencers instead.

Fast forward to the pandemic, I was contracting for an amazing marketing agency called Skies Fall, helping out on some influencer campaigns, and I realized that though I had initially decided not to pursue talent management, the reality was that I was acting like an influencer manager all the time anyways. My friends were regularly asking for feedback on their posts, strategy tips, and advice for getting brand deals. I was selling an e-book on how to get brand deals, and now helping corporate clients understand how to best work with influencers.

I also realized that the fact that so many creators were having mediocre or even negative experiences with their managers was all the more reason for me to start a company that could do it better. I decided to make it official at the beginning of 2021, and ever since then we have been working with a roster of influencers and are now opening up to musicians as well for management services.

Our core message is “We put the humanity back into hustle and help burned out creators make more money with less overwhelm.” We work with top global brands like Ford, Target, Olay, and more, and we are proud to say that 100% of influencers surveyed last year said they’re making more money with us than they would have on their own. Too often, social media becomes all about business, business, business, but we truly believe that selling-out is not a good long-term strategy, and you’ll make more money in the end if you continue to love what you do and feel confident that you’re offering content you can stand behind. It truly is so rewarding to help creators come back to that heart behind why they originally started creating, while negotiating great deals for them at the same time.

Let’s say your best friend was visiting the area and you wanted to show them the best time ever. Where would you take them? Give us a little itinerary – say it was a week long trip, where would you eat, drink, visit, hang out, etc.
We would need to do an OC Day, a DTLA day and a West Side Day! The beach and perfect weather is my favorite part of living in Southern California, so we would definitely prioritize that. I’d also be making sure to bring them to Salt & Straw from some Chocolate Gooey Brownie ice cream and do some window shopping in WeHo.

I’m a big aesthetics and design person and love creating content, so anywhere that’s pretty would be on the list!

Shoutout is all about shouting out others who you feel deserve additional recognition and exposure. Who would you like to shoutout?
I learned so much from the amazing creatives I worked for in my early career who taught me so much about the influencer world, showed me the back end of things, and inspired me to pursue entrepreneurship in a creative industry.

Special shout out especially to Taye Hansberry (@tayehansberry) and Michelle Berdan (@michelleberdan) who were my first peek into the influencer world and taught me so much, along with Megan Nicole (@megannicolemusic) who acted as one of my “guinea pig” first official clients and shared so much great feedback at the beginning, and my many close creator friends who are always so kind to collaborate with me, share their perspectives as influencers and cheer me on along the way. I also have an amazing team at MPS Management now and I could not do it all without them 🙂

Website: mpsmgt.com

Instagram: @mpsmanagement

Linkedin: https://www.linkedin.com/in/julietecson/

Other: tiktok: @mpsmanagement