This LA talent manager started her own business only using handshake deals. Here's how she landed top clients and helped them achieve what they care about most.
- Leanne Perice is the founder and CEO of digital talent management agency Made By All.
- But she doesn't sign contracts with her clients, instead focusing on genuine relationships.
12 years ago, Leanne Perice had just moved to the West Coast to start an internship at Interscope Records' brand partnership division.
"Quite honestly, I was so bored in the internship that I was like, 'Okay, this is really cool, but I need to find an artist to manage,'" she told Insider. So on her first night out in Los Angeles, she went to a nightclub and decided "That's my DJ. I'm gonna manage that DJ.'"
She got his email from the person standing next to her, and ended up managing him for a year and a half — booking shows across the eastern seaboard and in Europe, thanks to connections made while studying abroad in Florence, Italy.
Today, she's the CEO of her own digital talent management agency, Made By All. Its client list boasts the likes of Ice Spice and Teyana Taylor, with whom Perice shares a dog.
Talent managers might have a bad rep with overbearing contracts and hefty fees, but for Perice and Made By All, clients are only held to a handshake.
"I don't believe in contracts, so everything is a handshake for me, and my word is my contract," she said. "I take it really seriously, and if I give someone my word that I'm going to do something, I really make sure I prioritize it."
Deals between clients and brands are done with signed contracts, but Perice still communicates with the NFL via DMs and texts. "I make sure like people feel really comfortable to come to me, because that's how I run this company," she said.
And Perice says she isn't worried about this backfiring because she builds relationships with her clients – who are more like best friends than business opportunities. "My character is everything in this space," she added.
"Teyana is like family to me," Perice told Insider. They first connected eight years ago after Perice got talking to a man outside a Fairfax Avenue clothing store – who happened to be the vice president of Kanye West's record label, where Taylor was signed at the time.
"We try to create these partnerships that, truly, both parties care about. And then they have a ripple effect – they have these massive impacts and their communities love them," Perice explained.
One of her favorite deals was setting up celebrity stylist Ugo Mozie with the CMO of UPS to speak about Black-owned businesses and sustainability. There's also a partnership between influencer Helen Owen and a reusable box company because she was concerned about all the waste from PR packages. And because Taylor was interested in directing, she had Old Spice hire her production company for a shoot she was also starring in.
She also emphasised the importance of creators' social responsibility to uplift people, which is perhaps best shown in her work with Adam Waheed, a comedian with five million Instagram followers who was named in last year's Forbes 30 under 30.
They've known each other for five years, but beyond ads with Old Spice, it's his charity work that she's most proud of. In partnership with the charity Karmagawa, Waheed has built two schools for over a thousand underprivileged children in Bali.
"Adam lights up" when he sees the impact, Perice says. "Adam loves giving back, so we're able to really tie in the things that he cares about his brand."
She says it's this rejection of contracts and genuine relationships which produces such rewarding results. "Because we know our clients so well, we can create moments for them that are impactful for their careers, for the content, for the brands – and it becomes a really good marriage."