Blendon Middle School welcomed USIC‘s CEO, Christian (CG) Graves, on Friday, Nov. 1 as a guest speaker during Student Development Day.
Graves is a Columbus native and founded a successful music management company that currently prides itself on being able to provide independent artists with resources, connections, and teams to mold them into the global musicians they want to become.
Ms. Whitney Hardin’s middle school class is full of young entrepreneurs that needed someone to teach them the essence of running their own company.
Graves told students, “Starting a business is not a walk in the park. I remember I moved out to L.A. and I was sleeping on a couch. Sometimes what you’re doing won’t even seem attainable and it’s hard to see success in what you’re doing all the time, but I always operate on faith.”
Students in the classroom were part of the discussion because of their deep interests in entrepreneurship. Graves was engaging and interacted with the kids on a more personal level, by exchanging Instagram handles and offering his mentorship to many of them.
“Be more than just a rapper. Be a music mogul, someone that can actually empower other people like [you],” Graves advised.
CG spoke of moments he nearly flunked out of college because he couldn’t find a relation to what he wanted out of life and his classes. Sitting with his mentor allowed him to see things differently, and taught him to be self-sustainable with the information he was being taught.
“This is a social media generation and companies are going after you to hire because you understand it better than anyone. Social media isn’t a bad thing, as long as you use it with intent,” he ended.
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