LOS ANGELES — During that first hard year of building my personal management company, I had lunch with Michael Levine, a celebrity publicist who seems to show up on TV every time a star overdoses, heads to rehab or goes to jail.
“Rick,” he said, “what you need is revenue. Doesn’t matter if you believe in the clients or not, it only matters if they help pay your rent.”
Several years later, with my company now mature and well established, he called me to remind me that it was his advice that led to my subsequent success.
“I do have to thank you,” I told him. “Every time I thought about taking on a client I wasn’t passionate about but was making money, I thought of your advice and chose not to take on the client.”
My business success was predicated on casting directors and producers believing in my sense of taste. How could I have asked the buying community to trust my belief in my clients if I didn’t believe in them?
