Gary Stripling’s Blog

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We had a GREAT time this past week, spending the holiday in New York City. Thanks to the realtor for which Emily works as a nanny for his daughter, we were able to get a one-bedroom flat on the upper East Side (63rd & Lexington) for the week. It was small, but bigger than a hotel room, newly remodeled with a full kitchen.

We (Laura, Elliott and I) flew to NYC and enjoyed every minute of the non-stop “touristy” types of things we did. The photo here was taken at about 7AM the morning of the Macy’s Parade. We staked out this spot early enough to get a “front-row” view of the parade as it passed us at 67th & Central Park West. What an AWESOME way to kick off Thanksgiving!

Later after the parade, we walked through Central Park enjoying the crisp, cool fall weather in the city. After brunch at an fabulous French bakery next door to our flat, we rested a bit during the afternoon. That evening, we taxied over to Bistro Deseret for a wonderful 4-course Thanksgiving dinner. After dinner we went to Times Square to take in the sights and sounds of the bustling city.

During the days before Thursday’s turkey day, we crammed a lot into the hours - ferry over to Staten Island (right past the Statue of Liberty), lots of window-shopping and gawking at the windows at Macy’s, Lord & Taylor, etc., watched the balloons being blown up the night before the parade, went to the Metropolitan Museum of Art (awesome!), and ate a lot of great food (NO chain restaurant food!).

We were blessed to spend 5 days with Emily and enjoy a bountiful time together in NYC. We pray that your Thanksgiving was filled with enjoyable times with your families as well.

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It’s a beautiful day here in Houston. A little update is in order: I flew home a week ago and spent a wonderful week at home with Laura and Elliott. Of course my “honey-do” list was long and I doubt I accomplished all that I needed to do. But at least I was home with my family (except for Emily, who is currently living in NYC). I flew back to San Antonio on Thursday, picked up my car at the airport, met Conrad (my manager) for dinner, then drove 3 hours to Houston. Whew! What a day!

We got to Houston late Thursday night. I was a bit fearful of what kind of accommodations I would find here, but when we arrived I was immediately put at ease. Conrad, God bless him, found us a 2400 sq. ft. condo with 3 bedrooms, 2 1/2 baths, fully furnished kitchen (including washer/dryer!), formal dining room, living room, den with fireplace, etc.. I’m sharing these digs with 5 other men with whom I am building the Houston market for our client (AT&T U-verse).

The best part of the deal here is that I have my own bedroom upstairs, fully furnished (except for a desk, which I may buy today). Conrad, Dave Akins (the other manager), and I are on the “executive floor” and the other guys are downstairs on sleeper sofas and air mattresses. There is enough room here to accommodate us all without us feeling we’re on top of each other all the time.

And so, when I got up this morning - our first morning in Houston - I came downstairs to hear Paula White’s Church Without Walls morning service being broadcast on someone’s laptop, filling the atmosphere with powerful words from God’s messenger. Two others were gone to find a Catholic church for Sunday morning mass, and the remaining two men were still in bed sleeping off a late Saturday night.

The air is crisp and clean, the sky is bright blue and, in spite of not being home with Laura and Elliott this fine Sunday morning, it’s going to be a great day. Tonight we’re all going to see the new James Bond movie. This afternoon I’m doing a little grocery shopping (can you say “South Beach Diet”?), looking for a desk for my bedroom, and getting caught up on some client work for my TMA clients.

Have a great day and be a blessing to someone today!

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Here it is almost Thanksgiving and I’m sitting in my little hotel room in San Antonio wondering how the next few months will pan out. I never dreamed that I’d be working most of the time out of town, not seeing my family for 6 weeks to 2 months at a time. But alas, here I am.

The music industry is a fickle thing. And asking God to bring “course corrections” to one’s life can bring about daunting changes. Both of these factors - God’s correction and a fickle industry - brought me to the place where I needed to make some radical changes in my income-producing ways.

And so, as most of you know, I started working last November with 2020 Companies as a sales rep in Tampa, FL. Emily was in her senior year at USF, my company’s business was slow, and we needed to make up the loss in revenue some how. So I joined the sales team for Verizon FiOS and made some decent income through the end of the year.

I’ll make this part of the story short - I left Florida on New Year’s Day, flew to Denver in the dead of winter, and worked there for 2 months. In the spring I returned home, enjoyed Emily’s graduation festivities, then went to Durham, NC for 2020 again (this time working for Verizon Strat). After a month, I was back home in Florida. In July I opened the AT&T U-verse market in Chicago (LOVED Chicago!!) and stayed there for a month. Back home. Then on July 29 I was asked to open San Antonio’s U-verse market for AT&T. And that’s where I’ve been ever since.

I’ve been home twice since July. And we enjoyed a family vacation in The Berkshires in Massachusetts with Emily while she was interning at Jacob’s Pillow in August. But it’s been a very busy 6 months and I’m ready to get home. I’m living in an extended-stay hotel “suite” (bed, TV, full kitchen, bath) and getting tired of missing MY house. I flew home 2 weeks ago and drove the car back here so I’d be mobile. I hate depending on others to get around. Having my car here is one small concession that’s making it sort of worth-while.

So, a year later since beginning as a sales rep with 2020, I’m now the General Manager for the San Antonio AT&T U-verse market. The money is decent (I get an override on what my team produces) but the trade-off is that I’m gone from home ALL THE TIME!

I’ve prayed constantly that God would open a door back to ministry for me but nothing has turned up. Last month I was called about a position for which I was being considered at a large church up in Maryland, but I knew God wasn’t calling me to move the family out of Jacksonville. The economic news lately has made me VERY grateful to be gainfully employed. However, in the back of my mind and in my spirit I still hope and pray for an opportunity to move back into ministry.

Yes, this has been an interesting year, to say the least. I’m confident that God has me in the palm of His hands and that He will direct my path and open any doors He wants opened to me. In the meantime, I keep my ears and eyes open for opportunities and try to keep my mind focused, knowing that I must “do all things as unto the Lord.” Even working for 2020 Communications. In San Antonio, TX.

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The Management Agency, Inc. and RainMusic Productions have teamed up to offer quality, affordable demos and music videos for artists and bands. Our new music demo package includes the following:

Nick Coetzee, owner of RainMusic Productions based in Tampa, FL, is no stranger to the world of worship ministry and production. Nick has a heart to see worship leaders and songwriters released to reach their potential in God. As a worship leader, songwriter and producer, Nick has worked with and produced for some of the most celebrated worship leaders, artists and record companies in the world including Darlene Zschech, Israel Houghton and Integrity Music artists. His million-dollar multimedia production studio allows him to produce world-class, high-end music videos and demos at a fraction of the price you would pay in L.A., New York, or even Nashville. Nick’s website is www.rainmusic.org. For an example of Nick’s music video production, click here.

The Management Agency, Inc. provides complete artist development and management as well as multi-media production and complete advertising, marketing, and design services. As president of The Management Agency, Gary Stripling regularly consults with touring artists and bands providing career counseling and developing customized management plans that are strategically implemented to help take their ministries to new levels. As a graphic artist, Gary has designed numerous commercial, artist/band, and ministry-related websites, print advertisements, and other advertising and marketing projects.

For more information about our Audio/Visual Multimedia and advertising/marketing products, please email gary@themanagementagency.com or call 904.680.7450 (Jacksonville, FL).

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“I want to commend you for your incredible work on designing and printing the press kits for one of my international clients. Your work is always impeccable and on time. Keep up the good work. I also love the work you are doing on my new website. I would recommend any ministry or business to retain your services for artwork, design, web development, and branding.”

Nick Coetzee
Director Rain Music

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“I knew Gary was the right man for the job when we met for the first time and he reached out to give me a hug rather than a handshake. What has been most important to me in the process of choosing representation is finding an agency and manager that shared my heart for the MINISTRY of music, and not just someone that saw me as an object of financial gain.

After the consultation, I felt that I had found that. Along with that, I believe that Gary’s experience in the music business and the efficient way he goes about executing a plan for his clients is truly the missing element in my personal journey. What the Management Agency offers its clients is worth so much more than what they charge for their services. I am excited about our partnership and would recommend The Management Agency to other Indie Artists like me.” — Sheena Lewis (consultation client, Houston, TX, Sept. 15, ‘07).

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I get asked this question a lot. The indie artist or band can get easily overwhelmed with all the details, logistics, planning, and questions that come with navigating through the waters of the music industry. So, we recommend a good management team in place to raise the level of professionalism of the artist and take the administrative burden from them so they can focus on what they do best! Why do you need management?

You need a management company to administrate your bookings and handle all the details. If you can handle all of the logistics yourself, then perhaps you’re not ready for us. You need to review carefully all of the services we offer so you’ll understand what we do and why, some day, you’ll need management.

The work of management is very different from the work booking agencies do. In fact, several well-known booking agency execs have personally told me that managers don’t like to do bookings and booking agencies don’t like to manage. So, there exists a wide divide between the two and it always most affects the artist who needs both services.

We span that “great divide” by providing an umbrella of services that includes both booking agency work and management. We know that most, if not all, artists at your level need management, but you need bookings, too, so you can pay management. It sometimes seems like a vicious circle, doesn’t it? We make our services as affordable as possible, realizing that most artists at this level do not have the income to support the various fees and commissions to pay multiple entities their industry-standard rates, i.e., a manager, a publicist, a booking agency, a business manager, a tour manager, etc.

The Management Agency (TMA) does not simply manage artists. Rather, we provide advice, guidance, counsel, and other services an artist may reasonably require to further his or her career as a musician, composer, actor, recording, and performing artist; we help develop new and different areas within which his or her artistic talents can be developed, and we work with other firms or persons who may be retained for the purpose of securing contacts, engagements or employment for our clients. Our clients do not have to hire publicists, art directors, marketing firms, promotions or image consultants, and career counselors - The Management Agency provides all of this and more for our clients. We only work with Christian artists who share our core values rooted in the Word of God. As a worship leader, musician, and songwriter myself, I fully understand the needs and temperament of the Christian artist. As a professional manager with over 23 years’ experience in non-profit business management and development, I understand the business needs of the touring minister.

We are a “full-service” agency dedicated to providing quality, affordable management and administrative support for both established artists and those seeking to take their ministries to new levels. The primary goal of The Management Agency’s AMA (Artist Management & Administration) Division is to help Christian musicians fulfill their calling to serve God through their musical gifts. We do this by being a resource provider, ministry facilitator, guidance counselor, and yes, manager. To provide the most customizable management plans for our clients, we have divided our services into two main areas of support: artist management and artist development.

We have great flexibilty in customizing management plans for our clients within their budgetary limits. As I’ve said before, I’ve had major record company executives tell me that, unless the artist has a management team in place (not just a booking agency), they will not even consider discussing a record deal with them. Anyone can hire a booking agency - the truly serious ones have managers!

There is a need for the artist to expand his/her circle of exposure, moving from “small-town” band to national recording/touring artist (if that’s what you want). That’s not done overnight - and in the process, if you don’t have professional management guiding you through the industry’s waters, you could sink. We encourage our clients to develop what we call “concentric circles of contacts.”

Basically, you work outward from your hometown, to more regional events, eventually developing a national presence. This is done very methodically and carefully making sure to make the most of every contact. Of course, along the way you may pick up a major record deal which will catapult you past some of these steps. When/if that happens, though, you’ve built a solid foundation of grass-roots support that will carry you to the national level and beyond.

And that, my friend, is why you need management!

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The past 24 hours have been pretty emotional for our family. My wife’s mother, Camille Mizell, passed away early yesterday morning. She was 82 years old and had been suffering from Alzheimer’s for the past 7 years. Other than that cruel disease she was in pretty good shape for someone her age. She became suddenly ill at the nursing home, was rushed to the hospital and within 6 hours she had slipped into eternity.

I loved my mother-in-law. We didn’t have the “usual” bumpy relationship husbands have with their wive’s mothers. I was her only son-in-law and she loved me as one of her own. When my wife’s step-father, Clarence, passed away and everyone realized that he had been covering for her memory loss, confusion, and the other early symptoms that accompany this awful disease, I was one of the “sons” she trusted. When we moved her from her home into an assisted living facility for seniors, I was the one who stayed with her at night to make sure she didn’t try and leave.

[Clarence raised my wife when her own father died too early from cancer when she was 10 years old. Camillie married Clarence after sufficient time passed for her own mourning and they began a marriage that grew stronger as they grew older together.]

At Clarence’ funeral, Camille was in the early stages of her disease and didn’t really know what was going on. She was confused and kept asking me “where’s Clarie?” It took a while for her to realize that he was dead - just like her first husband - and she fought guilt and dispair, wondering what she had done so bad to deserve losing two good men.

Camille moved to Charleston, SC when she was 15 years old. Her own father - a Baptist minister - provided a good life for them. Her mother - Nan - was a good woman who knew how to raise a daughter properly in the genteel life of Charleston. When Camille and Charlie, my wife’s biological father, married it was done in the proper Southern manner befitting a Southern Belle (though they weren’t wealthy, they were proud). A big church wedding, lots of parties, all the silver and crystal gifts. Nan even made her wedding dress - the same one my wife wore when we married 26 years ago - out of expensive slipper satin, something not in great supply during the wars. The pictures of Camille as a young bride wearing that formal gown with the cathedral train is stunning. She was a beautiful new bride and loved every minute of all the festivities a young bride celebrates.

Years later she would participate in the celebrations of the debutantes and society people in Charleston, but this time as a floral designer. She became president of the Charleston Garden Club (one of the largest and oldest in the USA). She was president of the Council of Garden Club of Greater Charleston, Eastern Lowcountry District Director for the Garden Club of South Carolina, member and president of Charleston Pride, president of the Isle of Palms Garden Club, and flower show judge extraordinaire. The ribbons she won for her entries in garden shows were innumerable. For many years she was in charge of decorating the magnificent old mansions in downtown Charleston at Christmas each year. Her work was known far and wide because she was good at what she did. I’m blessed because my own wife is just as talented and shares many of the same passions for decorating and flowers as did her mother.

And yet in the last years of her life she couldn’t remember her own name. In the past year she lost all recollection of who we were. I could see her eyes light up when I walked into her room at the nursing home, even though she could no longer speak. I know she knew who I was, and so I would sit beside her and she would lay her head over on my shoulder and cozy up to me. She couldn’t speak but she communicated. She didn’t need words. For someone who created magnificent award-winning floral arrangements that welcomed the visitors in the finest old homes in Charleston, she became reduced to a fragile shell of the woman we once knew.

About 36 hours ago this wonderful woman passed from this life into the presence of her King. Her mind instantly returned to her. The skills to create beautiful things from God’s creation returned to her at that moment. Her mouth began to utter praises to our God in a way she had not done in several years on this earth. Her strength returned to her and that worn out body she once inhabited no longer kept her bound. She is reunited with Charlie, her first love; with Clarence, the man who raised my wife from childhood into the woman I love today; and with Nan and Papa, the parents who instilled a strong work ethic in her growing up. With those innumerable angels in heaven they are all worshipping God around His throne together.

And so we weep because of our loss. But we can also rejoice because of heaven’s gain. Camille will be missed, but one day we will join her in the presence of Jesus and together we all will dance before the King of Kings.

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