A former employee and friend of mine often said: "When crises strike, some start crying while others start selling tissue boxes".  The saying can be misconstrued as praise to people lacking scruples, but his intention and true meaning referred to a much more positive attitude to take when things get turned upside down, and today we're taking a closer look at someone who definitely embodies that positivity of cleverly turning things around for the better.

Entrepreneur Ben Pawson sat in his home countless hours during the lockdown as most of us did. Many people had to face up to demons they weren't ready for, and others found their lives tumbling down due to the financial strain of the pandemic, but people like Ben had an epiphany that not only made him take advantage of all the time he had on his hands but also turned this (global) problem into an opportunity for himself and countless others.

'Cadence Talent' is an influencer management agency with global reach, focusing primarily on TikTok Creators to help them grow and expand their branding and impact across audiences. Speaking about his agency Ben reveals: 'I ideated it over Covid Lockdown when I was made redundant from my events job so had to pivot very quickly. We take bedroom creators from all parts of the world, transition them to IRL moments and generate profit for them." Ben prides himself in the quality and reach of the stock roster that his brand manages, with a vast array of diverse artists from across the globe representing the LGBTQ  community, People of color, cosplayers, and differently-abled creators with a reach of 150 million followers across 3 continents.

In his search to empower content creators, Ben has allied Cadence Talent with some of the biggest record companies out there after witnessing TikTok's leverage in the world of music "Record labels are spending 10’s of millions a month on the app to drive Spotify streams through viral trends." He says. To accommodate this new business model, Cadence has gone on to work directly with Universal, Sony, and Warner daily to move his nascent TikTok music stars onto the music industry's mainstream.

But Cadence's work doesn't stop with just music. Ben has made it so that the company has a healthy portfolio of brands across Music, fashion, and technology in order to maximize the outreach of his TikTokers. Some of the brands that Cadence works closely with include Dior Beauty, Prada, Nike, Amazon Prime, Netflix, Paramount, Disney, Epic Games, Tilbury, and Ray Ban; just to name a few.