5 Billion Dollar Career Lessons – The Cynthia Morgan Story

The very talented Nigerian dance-hall artiste – Cynthia Morgan also known as Madrina, got signed up with NorthSide Inc. in 2013.

However, as at 2017 she declined renewing her contract with Northside Inc, and it was revealed that she breached the contract before its expiration by taking on private performances, without the permission of the record label that signed her up, as there was an agreement of 50:50 royalties sharing between her and the record label, on her performances.

Thus, in the bid to recoup the funds invested in her, NorthSide Inc held unto the Cynthia Morgan VEVO account.

However, to keep building her career as a solo artiste Cynthia Morgan formally changed her brand name from Cynthia Morgan to Madrina and released a single with the Madrina name titled Billion Dollar Woman.

Her song and story inspired this post. Four (4) of the billion dollar tips apply to career professionals and the last one (1) applies to business owners, here you go:

1.     Look beyond the money, focus on the bigger picture: In one of Cynthia Morgan’s songs – I am Taken, she said “...Me all about the cheese, me no care about the fame”, this can imply that she was interested in the money and not the fame.

Moreso, when she decided not to extend her contract with Northside Inc., the label held onto the Cynthia Morgan VEVO account, which hosts all her songs and has a subscriber list of 26.3k compared to the VEVO subscriber list of Madrina - her new brand name, which is about 2.2k (Data as at Monday June 1st, 2020). Obviously the Cynthia Morgan brand name is more famous with the tendency of bringing in more “cheese” as at now, maybe Madrina brand name in the long run, but in the long run are we not all dead (Laughs).

Billion Dollar Tip: In the Cynthia Morgan case, her fame can be likened to her brand name or community. Do you know that your personal brand can get you opportunities, deals, collaborations? Why would you ever say you are not interested in it, but the "cheese" it brings? You must be able to identify and be very intentional in the other key parameters that tie up to your “Cheese”.

2.     Be smart in accepting partnerships with organisations that represent your interest: In the music industry the Manager of the Artiste is ideally different from the Record Label signing the artiste, that way the artiste’s manager can negotiate in ways having the artiste’s best interest at heart. In my view, Cynthia’s manager can easily be likened to Outsourcing companies that have the likelihood of shining more this period, because companies will prefer fixed term employees or project based employees to execute their business projects in order to manage costs, particularly due to business uncertainties courtesy COVID-19.

You maybe very talented, as a career transitioner, but if your ‘agent’ is under pricing your value to a firm, or negotiating with the firm to their advantage alone, and short-changing you ie. Enjoying most from the negotiation. You will bear the brunt of the sour negotiation.

Billion Dollar Tip: As a talented professional, you need to be cautious of companies or agents who represent you. It would be great to be knowledgeable of how your value-offerings are priced in the market, so you can make informed decisions on when to or not to accept an offer. Better still you can negotiate for yourself, and on your own terms.

3.     Your story is your power: Cynthia Morgan was quiet for long, her collaboration with Davido or any other artiste may have come earlier than now, at least immediately her contract ended with Northside Inc. Your story can be a powerful tool, it is infact your connection power and how you share it matters.

The courage to share your story can empower you and others, in Cynthia’s case after she shared her story, Peter of Psquare and May-D started tweeting about their experience too.

Billion Dollar Tip: You empower others by sharing your story or perspective. You also empower yourself because there maybe people who will connect to your story and decide to collaborate with you or give you a chance on that opportunity you really wanted to be a part of. Social media is also a powerful tool to share your story.

4.     Seek professional guidance before signing any contract: In the business world, your contract can make or mar you, your contract is the Alpha and Omega on how contractual decisions are made. However, from all the interviews which Cynthia Morgan spoke in, I perceived that she did not have an Entertainment Lawyer guiding her in her decisions. Did you see the threat tweet of her ex-manager? "...Emails do not lie and much more", that is someone who understands the contracting game.

Billion Dollar Tip: Yes the jurisdiction you live in, will have labour laws protecting you as a professional, but you also need to be well informed on what you sign, in any contract. Don’t let desperation make you sign a contract that you consider unreasonable, you may not even know what is unreasonable if you don’t engage a lawyer to review your contract.

I hear someone still arguing internally, saying “Ijeoma I want to just enter that company or industry”, “I want to make that career switch desperately, what do I care about what the contract says”. My thoughts to you on that is, “Talent topped with business ignorance is peril. Talent is never enough”. Please be wise to engage a lawyer before you sign off on any contract.

5.     Be mindful of your contracts with vendors as a Business: Based on the different interviews it was revealed that the person Cynthia Morgan was not happy with was her manager (who I likened to be like an Outsourcing or Workforce contracting company, connecting talented professionals to companies).

However, you will notice that Cynthia Morgan's fans were not focused on tarnishing the reputation of the Manager (the agent or middle man), but that of Northside Inc., the business and popular record label, actually investing in and benefiting from the artiste’s talent. Jude Okoye saved his company name by providing publicly the contract which was a proof against some claims which Cynthia initially made.

See Cynthia Morgan’s testimony:

“The first 3 years of my contract, I wasn’t happy. The person I actually had an issue with was Joy and not Jude. Joy as a manager was more of a dictatorship.”

See Jude Okoye’s testimony:

"… I'm going to send you Cynthia Morgan's contract, it's a five-page document and when you see it, you can tell me where it says my company owns a right to her name. I didn't even prepare the contract, it was Cynthia Morgan and her former manager, Joy [Tongo] who prepared the contract."

Billion Dollar Tip: Businesses who will be taking on third party employees have to be careful, as third party employees can sue the company, if processes are not well managed. As a business owner, you must do your due diligence when engaging vendors or outsourced companies, and put processes to protect your business by clearly defining the rights, duties and obligations of all parties on the contract, and put people in charge of regularly monitoring that all statutory requirements are covered by such vendors, doing business with your company.

I trust this article served you and you found it insightful. I would be curious to know what Billion Dollar Lesson resonated more with you, and what your major take-home was.

Also, please share with your network, "sharing is caring", if people know better, they will do better. Let us all win together.

Ijeoma Nkwonta is a Career Management Specialist with multi dimensional experience in the Consulting and Energy industries covering countries such as Nigeria, US, UK and India. 

She supports skilled professionals in discovering their super-powers, and making novel transitions in career paths they love and consider sustainable.