Nicole Kasper & Paige Kosinski: Odyssey Entertainment Group

Our interview of Nicole Kasper and Paige Kosinski for “The Creative Influencer” podcast is available today for download on iTunes, Spotify, and premier platforms everywhere.

Nicole and Paige are the co-founders of Odyssey Entertainment Group, an influencer and creator management firm. What makes their story particularly interesting is how Nicole and Paige found each other in Nashville’s competitive music industry, working at a music management company, and their journey to build a new influencer and creator management firm is a fascinating example of how the entertainment industry has evolved, especially during and after 2020.

Nicole and Paige have built Odyssey Entertainment Group around some compelling core values, including “Legacy over Likes” and “We take ‘No’ as a new opportunity”—philosophies that have helped them navigate the rapidly changing creator economy and establish themselves as a full-service management company that goes far beyond traditional brand partnerships.

A transcript of the episode follows:

Jon Pfeiffer:
I am joined today by Nicole Kasper and Paige Kosinski. Welcome to the podcast.

Nicole Kasper:
Thank you for having us.

Jon Pfeiffer:
So Nicole and Paige are the co-founders of Odyssey Entertainment Group. Now here's what I found when I was doing my background research, is that Nicole, you are a UCLA graduate, is that correct?

Nicole Kasper:
I am.

Jon Pfeiffer:
Which makes you a Bruin.

Nicole Kasper:
Yes.

Jon Pfeiffer:
And Paige, you're a Belmont University graduate?

Paige Kosinski:
Yes.

Jon Pfeiffer:
And they are also the Bruins. Yes, very true.

Paige Kosinski:
Did you know that Paige? I did know that. I

Jon Pfeiffer:
Feel like it's so weird. I know. It was like, wow, that's a coincidence. So you're both Bruins. How did you meet

Paige Kosinski:
A great story?

Nicole Kasper:
Yeah, so Paige and I both ended up in Nashville because of the music industry. This is the country music capital of the world. And I was working at a music management publishing company called Warehouse West, and Paige was actually my first intern. And when she walked in the door, I was so thrilled because all the skills that she had really complimented what I did. And she loved marketing and was such a creative person that it was everything that we were missing really on our team. And I loved the sales and the management side. And so she quickly grew to become our marketing director and we worked so well together that we were like, you know what? We got to do this forever. No matter what industry or company we're in, we got to continue working together. It's so hard to find somebody like that and we've been very blessed to find each other, to be business partners. A hundred

Jon Pfeiffer:
Percent. When did you first start talking about working together?

Paige Kosinski:
Oh goodness. Honestly, when I saw the press release come out about the company that we previously worked at, I was like, I want to work with her. She seems really cool. But I think it was mostly, honestly, as soon as we started working together, it was very clear that I had a lot to learn from Nicole. And she was truly one of the first female mentors I had in the entertainment industry that actually took me under her wing. And also wasn't afraid to connect me with other folks in the industry and let me kind of build my own relationships too, and grow as an individual. But once we really realized how much our brains worked well together, I think Nicole is a little bit more of a risk taker than I am, and I maybe am a little bit more step-by-step thinking than she is. So we have a good complimentary balance going. And then we realized that works really well when it comes to operating your own company. And

Jon Pfeiffer:
Then when you start talking about opening your own company.

Paige Kosinski:
So we started freelance managing content creators on the side in 2020, separate from our music industry gig. And I think that really kind of shed light on how well we can work together even outside of what we were doing within the current company. So that really helped us kind of bridge that gap and grow in that capacity.

Nicole Kasper:
And there was so much opportunity to grow in the creator economy at that time when on the music industry set of things, tours were getting canceled, the whole game completely shifted because people were up inside

Jon Pfeiffer:
And put this in context for the listeners that have very short memories, 2020 was the start of COVID.

Nicole Kasper:
Yes. That happened. And so we were seeing so much opportunity in the creator economy and creators that were going viral overnight and had no support, no direction, and we're like, Hey, I feel like it can't be that different from what we've been doing working with music artists. And these are people that actually love to market themselves. We had found with artists that it was a lot of an uphill battle to try and get them to use social media and promote themselves. And so getting to work with creators that really saw the value and how it could help grow their careers seemed extremely appealing.

Jon Pfeiffer:
And when did you formally form Odyssey Entertainment Group?

Nicole Kasper:
We actually launched February, 2021.

Jon Pfeiffer:
Okay, so you made it through the first year of COVID. Well, let me ask you, were you both in Nashville at the time?

Nicole Kasper:
Yes. Yes.

Jon Pfeiffer:
Okay, so I'm in California and we were completely locked down. What was it like to be in Nashville?

Nicole Kasper:
Oh my goodness, not that way. I mean, it was still, people were locked down, but we had a very small team at the time at our previous company, and our boss actually required us to go into the office two months into COVID. And so it was like four of us in the office wearing masks. It was a very weird time. We were doing grocery deliveries and trying to help the community out. I feel like the community really was brought together here and you kind of figured out who your people were and who you were safe to be around, and that's who you stuck with. And so we were all together consistently, and eventually

Jon Pfeiffer:
It is forever etched in my mind, pre COVID post.

Nicole Kasper:
Oh yeah.

Jon Pfeiffer:
So you are a post COVID company?

Paige Kosinski:
Yeah, technically, I mean, we built ourselves to be fully remote and we're still fully remote, which is very interesting, to say the least.

Jon Pfeiffer:
How big is the company now?

Paige Kosinski:
We have a team of 20 now, so we've grown quite a bit since 2021. And like I said, we're all over the country, all fully digital,

Nicole Kasper:
And we manage 66 influencers exclusively. So we've got a large client list, we should be at 75 by the end of the year, and we also work with 170 non-exclusive talent.

Jon Pfeiffer:
I want to come back to that, but first, you are obviously women and it is a woman run business. How is that mean? Have you found, well first lemme start with the music industry and then we'll go to creators in the music industry. Managing what percentage of it is male dominated versus female?

Paige Kosinski:
That's a good question. I would say in leadership, it's predominantly male leadership in music. But I will say we're starting to see a little bit of the tides start to turn, especially outside of country music. But I think that's a driving factor in why Nicole and I wanted to start our own company, is the influencer marketing and management world really is female driven and led, and particularly a lot of young females with new ideas and fresh concepts that are very open and inviting to mentoring and having that abundance mindset compared to the music industry.

Jon Pfeiffer:
I mean, from my experience, with the exception of one or two, all the best managers I know are women. That's very interesting. And they just are, I dunno what it is, but they are. So have there been any resistance at all on the influencer side to being a woman run business?

Nicole Kasper:
No, not at all. Do you think?

Paige Kosinski:
No, I think it's honestly more common in our space.

Nicole Kasper:
Yeah.

Paige Kosinski:
I mean there are some male power players in the game, but I would say it's more in the traditional agency space than maybe a company of our size.

Jon Pfeiffer:
Yeah, no, I would say, I think you're right on the agency side, it's the traditional, the CAAs of the world, but on the management side it's the wild west.

Paige Kosinski:
Totally.

Jon Pfeiffer:
So how you got the idea to form the business? Tell me how you built

Paige Kosinski:
It's question.

Nicole Kasper:
Yeah, how do we begin? Well, it's changed a lot. So when we first started talking about launching Odyssey, we had a very different business plan in mind. We did the full p and l, probably 20 page business plan. We did a lot of prep work going into it, meeting mentors in the space, trying to glean as much information as we could from people that have been successful in it already. And we're just blown away by how many people were willing to help us out and kind of coach us through the whole process with nothing to gain on their end, but just to be kind. And we'll never forget that. But we initially set out to start more of an artist management company that was funded by influencer management because artist management, it's lightning in a bottle. It could take you 10 years to break an artist and you won't see a cent until then.

Whereas influencer work, you can see a lot quicker return, there's already a deal flow, you're already getting inbound opportunities. We had no idea how much we were going to fall in love with the influencer space and how much we would enjoy it and find fulfillment in it. And so now it's completely flipped to where 90% of our business has been influencer management, and we work with two music artists still. So still have our feet in the music industry and get to work in that space. And we have fabulous talent that we work with, who we found on social media as well. But the influencer side, I mean it was really about building relationships, finding mentors, getting on calls with different talent. Our first client we ever had was this makeup artist named Cindy Chen Designs, and she took a chance on us even though we'd never had a client in this space.

And we ended up working together for about three years. But it was really just building relationships, cold emailing, doing a lot of pitching, figuring out how we can be the most efficient as well. So not only, I think our personal communication skills, getting on calls with people, building relationships was really what set us apart and we were able to bring on so many fabulous clients that way. But also we've become a very well oiled machine when it comes to the platform that we've built to manage all of our campaigns and our talent and the structure of our company and the services we offer, I feel like has really set us apart. And a lot of trial and error. I mean, we made mistakes. I think any business owner will tell you that it's not been smooth sailing by any means, but at the same time it's like, you know what? At the time, and we've learned from every mistake made,

Jon Pfeiffer:
Well, everybody assumes it's going to be linear, but it's never linear.

Nicole Kasper:
No,

Jon Pfeiffer:
It's never linear. So I want to come back to what you were just saying, but on your website, one of the taglines, there were two of 'em actually that I really liked. One was Legacy over likes. What do you guys mean by that?

Paige Kosinski:
That's a great question. Honestly, I would say that's always been to our core, one of our values, but we reformulated a lot of our values and the way we phrased them on our site recently when we did a rebrand and legacy of our likes, I think is really crucial for us just to kind of show that we want to make a long lasting impact with the talent we sign and the projects we execute and the work that we do as a company versus just trying to have a quick one-off moment on social that generates some buzz. And that kind of shows with the type of talent we sign that really have long-term vision and want to do good with their platform.

Jon Pfeiffer:
The other one, there was two of'em I wrote down. The other one you have on your website is we take No As a new opportunity. Yes. How long has that been the case?

Nicole Kasper:
Since the very beginning. Since before we started. So we got to know, and then we formed a new opportunity and here we are.

Jon Pfeiffer:
I think that's a lesson you could teach all young people is that that just opens the door. But I like it. You can tell that you guys spent a fair amount of time, fair amount of time, a lot of time working on your website, crafting the message. So in the early days, it sounds like you reached out to potential talent to manage them. How do you get your clients now? A lot of

Nicole Kasper:
Referrals. Yeah, it's a good mix. Paige and I still love to just find people on social media and reach out to them and get on calls. So we're never going to stop the cold emails and finding people on social. But I would say a lot of them now truly is referrals. And we've built a great reputation as a management company and the services that we offer. So our talent, we've got really great talent retention and those creators tell their friends. And most creators now, when you meet with them, they've already had a manager or two since most of them started out in 2020. And so now the sales pitch is very different where it's like we're trying to convince them that we're different and we're not going to be what they had before. And it helps so much when they're getting that, Hey, you should go to Odyssey. I've had a great experience from a friend.

Jon Pfeiffer:
No, I would say now 75% of all my clients, they contact me initially because they want to get rid of their first manager. They were so happy to get a manager at the start without really doing the due diligence.

Nicole Kasper:
Yes.

Jon Pfeiffer:
So what would you say to an influencer or a creator that is looking for manager? What should they look for? What sets you guys apart?

Paige Kosinski:
I think a few things. I think it's really helpful if you're a creator that has a clear sense of their brand and where they want to head. Because I think a lot of creators post content for fun, which is awesome, and don't expect it to become a full-time job. But having a good sense of self and being able to speak on your goals in a call with a manager helps that manager also determine if it's a good fit on their end and if their service offerings make sense for you. Also, having business to manage, so having a history of brand partnership and generally projects that you're excited about working on and have historically worked on, but also treating it like a dating process, like asking the questions to the manager that you want to see the value add in return. So hopefully that manager bringing you partnerships from their own relationships or assisting you with long-term strategy and vice versa, making sure the manager is really bought into your personal brand and feels like it's a good fit. And if they're excited and passionate about your page and account, then they'll probably work very hard on your behalf.

Nicole Kasper:
And things that set the Odyssey apart from other managers would be our communication, which I know seems like such a basic thing, but unfortunately a lot of the issues that you hear from creators are communication issues. They never heard from their manager. They didn't have consistent meetings. And so we do buy monthly talent meetings where we talk through strategy, how to help them grow their platforms. We also help with special projects, which would be anything outside of brand deals. So if a creator comes to us and they want to have a cookbook or they want to do a spice line or a co-branded product podcast, we have built so many relationships and can support them in that. So we're very much a one-stop shop, full service management company.

Jon Pfeiffer:
Yeah. Well, everybody's got to have their merge.

Nicole Kasper:
Yes.

Jon Pfeiffer:
So you were talking about that you still reach out on some occasions. I want to hear from both Paige and Nicole, how do you guys consume your media? What's your go-to platform? TikTok?

Paige Kosinski:
I would say the same, but I'm getting more into Instagram reels. Instagram stories for sure. I don't know if you're a big stories consumer, Nicole, but I feel like I'm

Nicole Kasper:
Stories. I'm not discovering new talent that way though. If I'm looking,

Jon Pfeiffer:
Is that

Nicole Kasper:
What you're asking? Yeah. Are you saying consuming new media or just in general? Social?

Jon Pfeiffer:
Well, just in general social because of the algorithms. If I'm on reels, you're getting more of the same. It's hard to discover new stuff if you're on TikTok because the algorithms, it's the same. So how do you break out of the algorithm binds, I guess?

Paige Kosinski:
Yeah, that's a good point. I feel like we're both big on seeing what creators, creators we follow to break out of the traditional what's being to us, like your creator's favorite creator and what they're kind of posting about might be a little bit more out of the box. What about you, Nicole?

Nicole Kasper:
Yeah, same. I mean, gosh, I've done so much of that looking at my favorite creators and then who they follow or who's, I might find a brand deal that one of my favorite creators did, and then who else did that same brand deal and was a part of that campaign? And just going through that

Jon Pfeiffer:
Kind of reverse engineer it.

Nicole Kasper:
Yeah.

Jon Pfeiffer:
Do you guys do collabs between your creators? Is that very common?

Paige Kosinski:
Sometimes? I would say it's less common than we'd like to. I'd love to do more of it. We do have quite a few people in similar niches, but at this stage there's quite a few that have become friends, which is nice. So two creators on our roster actually have a podcast together, which is awesome.

Jon Pfeiffer:
Yeah. How have you found, there was a period a couple of years ago where all of my clients wanted a podcast, but some of them were not. It's just a different media than when you can because you can't really edit it like you can a YouTube video or a TikTok. How have you found for your clients if they're wanting podcasts?

Nicole Kasper:
I would say with podcasting, it really is a lot more work than creators think it's going to be. So they either need to hire a freelance team who's going to help with the production and editing and all of the content creation, or they need to already be good at those things themselves and have enough time to dedicate to it because it can become a full-time job on top of their content creation for their own pages. And it can also be very expensive, but it takes a while to build to where you're able to monetize. And most networks are looking for anywhere from 30 to 50,000 downloads per episode to acquire a podcast. That's what we're looking at mean. You could have a creator who has 7 million followers and they're having a hard time doing more than 1500 downloads an episode. So it doesn't always convert. It's

Jon Pfeiffer:
So much more saturated than it used to be.

Nicole Kasper:
Absolutely.

Jon Pfeiffer:
I mean, when I first started the podcast, I had to explain what a podcast was. I mean, I'd always been a consumer. I loved it because I had a commute. So have a commute. It's just a great way to pass the time.

Paige Kosinski:
We love podcasts.

Jon Pfeiffer:
So I want to go back. I kind of got ahead of myself. And so when a new client comes in, can you tell me what you do for them?

Paige Kosinski:
Good question. First and foremost, we make sure they're matched with a talent manager on our team if we're not directly managing them. So we have an amazing team that typically raises their hand for talent that they're really interested in or they bring them in themself. And then when it comes to the services we offer, it's a lot of pitching outwardly to brand relationships we have. So making sure all of the context that we have, whether they're a home decor creator in that particular niche, kind of know that we have a new signing on our roster, what they're all about, what their goals are, how they can plug into those brands. And then additionally, kind of creating that roadmap, looking six months to a year down the line, what can we do to help them reach those long-term goals we have? And thinking bigger picture, do they want to launch a podcast? Do they want to write a book? Do they want to launch a product line? How can we set the stage and give them even the short term social strategy to get to those next steps?

Jon Pfeiffer:
So I'm shifting gears again. On your website page you have, it lists different things. One of them is most likely two, and you put most likely to be up to date on the latest social trend.

Nicole Kasper:
Oh,

Jon Pfeiffer:
Gosh. It

Nicole Kasper:
Has to be.

Jon Pfeiffer:
I know it's no choice. Absolutely. But now my question is how do you do that

Paige Kosinski:
Scrolling for hours on end? I wish I, that's the truth,

Nicole Kasper:
Really. You don't have any websites or anything you're looking at?

Paige Kosinski:
No, definitely. So we put together monthly marketing reports for a lot of our talent, and sometimes I subscribe to a lot of different newsletters to pull platform updates and things like that. Social media today is one of my favorites because I feel like they get a lot of the firsthand info, like the founder of Instagram hard launch. What do you thinks are the top things that help position you within their algorithm? Things like that. So definitely consume some of that, but I find some of the best tips literally just come from scrolling and seeing what works and what people are picking up on and what goes viral.

Jon Pfeiffer:
When you do that, are you just scrolling on what comes into your feed or do you do searches for particular topics?

Paige Kosinski:
I feel like the algorithms really sophisticated because I genuinely enjoy social strategy. I get a lot of that that comes to me. But there are some creators I've looked up in the past. If I'm using one of my other accounts for one of our other creators, I try to get the for you pages to be very particular based off of who I'm looking at. So there are sometimes where I do look on certain creators accounts, but usually it just kind of comes straight to me.

Jon Pfeiffer:
And so Nicole, you didn't answer it that way on the website, but I'm going to ask you what you do to keep up with the latest trends.

Nicole Kasper:
I'm going to be honest, John. I don't think I'm up to date with the latest trends. I feel like I get some really interesting stuff in my for you page that I'm like, I don't even know who's watching this stuff. I'm more focused on studying what other creators are doing in their bigger projects because I work with the talent more directly on the special project side. So seeing the creators that they're interested in and following that path and learning about who the partners are involved and how I can help them build their business.

Jon Pfeiffer:
So you've just explained why you're a good team.

Nicole Kasper:
Yes, yes. Clearly. Yeah. I'm like, I don't feel up to date. It's probably not that.

Jon Pfeiffer:
This is for Nicole. I had to look this up. I didn't know what it meant. You have favorite classic, excuse me? Favorite content, niche maximalism and dopamine decor. I had to look up both

Nicole Kasper:
Of them. What'd you think? Did you like it?

Jon Pfeiffer:
No, honestly, there's probably

Nicole Kasper:
Not that many men

Jon Pfeiffer:
Have. Dopamine decor, that's their thing. Yeah, no, but that's not my cup of tea. It's just like, okay, so how do you define dopamine decor?

Nicole Kasper:
Anything that just makes you happy and puts a smile, then I back up.

Jon Pfeiffer:
I like that. I like that.

Nicole Kasper:
Yes, dopamine decor would be buying a raccoon lamp, so unnecessary, but so cute. Or a strawberry vase.

Jon Pfeiffer:
So if you put it in Google and then you look at the images, I mean, they're just,

Nicole Kasper:
Wow. Yeah. Yeah. My favorite creators are in that space, and if I had more time, I would love to be one of them, for sure. My house is very much that aesthetic.

Jon Pfeiffer:
Has that always been your taste where your taste have gravitated?

Nicole Kasper:
No. I feel like when I moved to Nashville, I thought I was going to be a country music ranching style type of person. I don't know. That was more like farmhouse rustic aesthetic and then hard pivot to the cottage core and the dopamine decor.

Jon Pfeiffer:
So do you a cowboy hat?

Nicole Kasper:
No. Well, I actually do have a cowboy hat, but I don't wear it, no.

Jon Pfeiffer:
Okay. Okay. Now it's time to get out your crystal ball. What is the next big thing in content creation?

Paige Kosinski:
Definitely.

Jon Pfeiffer:
I personally did not tell you this question in advance. I just went off the top of your head.

Paige Kosinski:
I feel like we've had, and this is already happening, so I feel like this might be a little bit of a cop out answer, but UGC, obviously we've had so many creators shift towards user generated content, whether it's brands amplifying existing content where they're already speaking about that particular brand or creating content for brand pages because they're trying to get more savvy on social and realize it's more cost effective or just a smarter option to hire creators to do it than hiring someone. So that's one thing we're seeing as a huge spike for this year, and probably to continue to be on the rise.

Nicole Kasper:
I also would say, I feel like there's going to be a lot of partnerships coming through on Substack. We've already started to get a few inquiries here and there, but Substack is almost, I dunno if you're familiar with it, John, but it's a combination of a newsletter, a website, and it's a community. And so there's so many creators that are using that and gaining so much success and passive income, and so we're seeing more brands wanting to activate in that space.

Jon Pfeiffer:
What do you see about the role of AI with the creation of the content?

Paige Kosinski:
I feel like we both have mixed feelings about it because we're lovers of creativity, but also lovers of efficiency. So I think AI and our workflow, we use it pretty frequently and it's amazing. But I think when it comes to content creation, I feel like it's crossed a lot of boundaries lately. So that's one thing that we're always trying to be aware of and making sure that there's no content out there that's of risk to our talent or the way that it's being used in a negative light for paid partnerships and things like that. So definitely something we're seeing increasing a lot these days.

Nicole Kasper:
I don't think that creators are in danger though, by any means when it comes to AI content creation. I feel like the AI creators are, they're never going to be able to master the human touch. I just don't think it's possible. They can get close, but there's something that will feel too polished, too fake, and people love social media and influence marketing because of the relatability and authenticity.

Jon Pfeiffer:
I mean, I teach a class at Pepperdine to the undergrads. I can tell the second somebody is using AI to write a paper.

Nicole Kasper:
I bet

Jon Pfeiffer:
It just read

Nicole Kasper:
Dashes. It's all about the dashes too.

Jon Pfeiffer:
Yeah. Yeah.

Nicole Kasper:
I use those all the

Paige Kosinski:
Time. I'm always like, oh my gosh, I bet people think I'm using chat. GP

Nicole Kasper:
Tt. Yeah, dashes and then the word dynamic. Yeah. Yeah.

Jon Pfeiffer:
Okay. So what are you guys working on right now? What have I not asked you about?

Paige Kosinski:
Oh my gosh. So many things.

Nicole Kasper:
I would say something we're really excited about is we're going to be bringing on a PR and events manager because we really want to elevate the Odyssey brand as a whole. We've done so many amazing things that we're very proud of. We've hit massive amount of sales, we've brought in really impressive talent, and people just don't know about it. And so we're excited to elevate our brand and as well elevate our talents brand and continue to be that OneStop shop so that our creators do not need to hire a PR team, but we have a PR team in house that can help promote their product, launches, their books, anything exciting in their lives, expanding the team and becoming more full service is absolutely a top priority.

Jon Pfeiffer:
My last question to you guys, where can people find you on the internet?

Nicole Kasper:
OdysseyEntertainmentGroup.com. LinkedIn and Instagram. We got all the socials. We're always looking to hire amazing new people, so if anybody's listening is looking for a new role, please submit to our Evergreen post on LinkedIn and stay tuned on our LinkedIn. And then for creators, we have a pretty easy application on our website as well to share their socials, and we're always looking for new talent that want to make a positive impact with their platform.

Jon Pfeiffer:
Thank you!