Creating a Thriving Art Agency featuring Amana Manori

[AI ] TRANSCRIPT:

“When we hear no, we always hear not yet. I know some people say they hear next, but we say “not yet” because in our view, we always feel that success comes from a time of watering the seed in the right season.”

Welcome to High Five. Today we get to talk about creating a thriving art agency. With me today is Amana Manori, who has this fascinating career bridging the worlds of finance, art and design, and publishing as she's created a really unique platform for innovation and cultural impact. Amanda is actually a respected global capital markets professional and securities lawyer. And she's also the founder and CEO of the Highness Group of companies, which includes a financial securities dealership and a contemporary art agency and design firm.

Welcome, Amana.

Thank you for having me.

So you have some really great insights from having created your agency, and you can share some tips for people starting a new agency and how to thrive as as an art agency.

You know, I say our agency, if I really think anyone new in any space this would work for. But these are kind of the five things that are ethos of our company that really work for us.

So the first thing is we believe to be boldly prolific. So the only way to build a brand is to be everywhere. And a perfect example of this is when we started and we were applying for public art applications. So although we had some really amazing high caliber seasoned artists in our roster right off the bat, we were told that we were never going to get the applications.

It was, you know, we're too new. No one knows us. And we knew that, but we still applied anyways. And the real point of that was that we wanted to get our name and our artist name in front of the decision makers. You know, we weren't nothing going for the outcome winning. We're going for the outcome of being recognized. And and it worked. Now our artists are winning. And, we've been quite successful in the public art space. And more importantly, we got so much practice writing hundreds and hundreds of public applications. So that's been good. Fantastic. Yeah.

The second thing is that we never really see rejection as the end. We really see it as a seed.

So for us it's, you know, not only to understand at the firm level as important to act this way, but we really find this trickles down to our artists that we, you know, we have to rethink how we got resilient to rejection. So when we hear no, we always hear not yet. I know some people say they hear next, but we say not yet, because in our view, we always feel that success comes from a time of watering seeds in the right season. And a good example of this is that our artist, Nyle McKenzie Johnson and Isaac Murdoch, recently won the Kitchener Public Library competition as chair of artist, actually be the first indigenous art in the city's collection. And how we got there was we actually used that concept and applied for the Oakfield Public Library public Art competition. We were shortlisted, but we didn't make it. So the artist took all that information we got from that application, from that process, and then went back to the drawing board. And then we went we pitched it to Kitchener and won. So that's a perfect example of how that rejection is a not yet and then the right time. And, you know, it's 1 or 2 stories in the seed in the garden and all that is so perfect for this as narrative with that project.

The third thing is that we always train for visibility. We really believe out of sight is out of mind. So, you know, we are working so hard to get our name always out there and in turned around and used. And we really think that, you know, consistency. Bell's credibility. And then once you got that credibility. Integrity is a thing that preserves art.

We deliver on our promises and we own up when we don't. We mitigate and fix and correct and always try to get the outcomes the client wants. And we follow through professionally, and we treat every interaction like the chance to reinforce our reputation. And, you know, at the end of day, always at business. Our business is our relationship businesses. So, you know, that's really important to remember. We really believe in a collaborative prosperity model. So we try really hard to turn our competitors into our collaborators. So once we let go of the fear of replication, the power of collaboration is more powerful than to be adversarial. So that's been really great for us. And that's why we believe in that at the firm level. We believe that on the client level, the artists believe that you know, we are constantly offering ourselves up to as resources to what other people might see as our competitors or our counterparties are as themselves, collaborate all the time with each other. They show up for each other. They're at each other's shows. They're sending positive messages to each other. You know, we really believe, and we only work with people who believe this, that building bridges, elevates everyone involved. And it's better than building walls. So, you know, and, you know, you, you know, when you work with someone who's not like that. And it's unfortunate, but we just, you know, we won't and we'll learn because it's just it's not sustainable. So that's sort of, you know, where we're at. And it's nice to be able to be at a position where we're at, where we can choose to not work because, you know, so that's also like, and then the last thing that we really found out, and I think you and I talked about this a lot, you know, kind of the growing pains and what we, what we really found end up being superpowers, actually being you. So, you know, while we respect all players and all traditions in the space, we really felt that we didn't have to play the old game the old way, the way it was done, because we were just we didn't know that. That's how it was. We didn't know. We were just so naive. We didn't know so. And that, you know, sometimes that we were being cute about it. We were never being disrespectful, but we really just, you know, as a visionary or creative being told that this is the way it's always been done is probably the least motivating thing you can say to a creative. So, you know, we really thought, okay, this is our time to like, bring our fresh ideas and fresh innovation. And if you're in the art space and, you know, art history is always been done this way, where disruptors often lead to like the biggest art movements. So we really believe in that. You know, we do, you know, we do try to take our creatives and embrace new, mediums, styles, but we always try to embrace and preserve their tradition. So it's not one over the other. It's both. And so we try to like do that on the creation of the art, but then also on the formation of our relationships and then on the outputs of our projects, kind of have it at both. And so it's been it's been lucky for us to be new.

Well, I love that each of your points that you said are both techniques and values. They could be looked at as values as at the same time as techniques of of running a company and of of how to approach things and how to think about things. Something you just said actually also reminded me about your Indigenous creators Lab, which sounds like an absolutely fascinating, part of global, with some mentorship with, contemporary art commissions. How does that work?

We just thought we created the Indigenous Creation Lab. Just to make people think about art a different way, are that are that they think they know about in a different way. And so then this creation lab is led by our. And it is artist now, Maisie Johnston. It houses seven indigenous artist right now Isaac Murdoch, Ken Hopkins, Jackie Travers, Lee Samson. You know, there's a whole, group of artists in there. But, you know, on top of being leading contemporary artists, you know, winning amazing projects are doing it like they have a private commissions.

They're also like working to share traditional knowledge in a different way. And that's incorporating the art. They are, you know, using innovative and new mediums and more environmental mediums. You know, sustainability is just about the land is so important in both indigenous traditions and the art, so that we're just trying to, like, give the creative the space to, like, really build out and do exactly what they want to do.

And, and very exciting and groundbreaking and, beautiful, beautiful way. So yeah, that's been a really great success of ours. And, and then a where can people find you online? Yeah, everywhere. So in terms of being prolific so you can find us on LinkedIn, you can reach out to me, I'm on I'm on LinkedIn. You can reach out on our Inas global account. You can check our website, highnessglobal.com.

Thank you so much for being with us here today, Amana, for sharing your insights and your tips. It's been a pleasure to talk with you again.

Thank you so much for having me. Heather.

Yes, building your visibility and your credibility with integrity is so essential to building an agency, but it also applies to arts professionals and and anybody working in the arts. “Success comes from watering the seeds in the right season.” And “no might be just not yet.” So hopefully that is encouraging. For those of you who are starting new endeavors and new initiatives in the arts and culture sector, join me next week for another episode of High Five, where we bring tips, insights and inspiration for creative entrepreneurs and arts professionals.

See you then.