Godwin Tom
Twenty-five years behind the art.
I started as an artist. I've spent the years since in service of other people's gifts — managing, teaching, building, and learning from people more talented than me. Most of the work has been quiet. I've come to believe that's where the useful work usually is.
I keep a farmer's patience: the best work takes time, and most of it happens where nobody's looking.
From time to time, I write letters to an industry I love. You can find them in Letters.
Black, white, and the loud things built quietly in between
Things I have built
Things I have built.
Twenty-five years leaves a trail. These are the mile markers — the entities I built, and the people and brands I worked with along the way.
iManage Africa
The management practice where two decades of careers were built — one of the continent's most respected talent management companies.
Music Business Academy for Africa
Founded with Music Ally to train the managers, lawyers, producers and executives the industry lacked — over 1,800 alumni worldwide, and still counting.
Sony Music Publishing Nigeria
The company's first Nigerian office — opened and led as its inaugural Managing Director, championing the region's songwriters on the world stage.
The talents
Wizkid · M.I Abaga · Waje · Wande Coal · Bez · Ice Prince · Show Dem Camp · Beverly Naya
— and more than sixty careers managed and advised across music, film and entertainment.
The brands
MTN · Globacom · Amstel Malta · Guinness — and more
— brands I've worked with over the years, representing talents and clients.
Things I am building
Things I am building.
Whatever I gather, I plant in the next generation. The next generation of creative and business talent — the artists, and just as much the managers, producers, lawyers and executives who will stand behind them — should inherit structure, not guesswork: the knowledge written down, the paths visible, a career that doesn't have to begin with a decade of guessing.
I can't build that alone, and I wouldn't want to. Each of these is carried by people who deserve more credit than I do. If you want to see the work, follow them — not me.
Creative Talent Foundation
Developing the next generation of creative talent — before the industry gets to them.
The Journey of a Learner
A manual for the new creative entrepreneur — the book, finishing now. The e-book series that started it is already out.
About me
Artist first. Then manager. Then an executive and entrepreneur… Always a learner.
I spent my first seven years in this industry on stage. The rest I have spent behind it — as a talent manager and consultant across more than sixty careers, as a publishing executive, and as a teacher — the role I've come to love most.
Along the way I opened and led Sony Music Publishing's first Nigerian office. That chapter has closed, with gratitude, and I've returned to running the things closest to me: C.I.I.F.A Limited and the Creative Talent Foundation, which between them carry everything I'm working on now. I write letters to the industry I love; they're called Feathers for Flight. And I'm finishing the book of what those years taught me. Mostly, I'm still learning it.
I live and work between Lagos and London.
The Creed of a Learner
The principles these twenty-five years wrote into me — written out in full, on one page. Take it with you: for a wall, a studio door, or a phone screen.
Consulting
An hour of my time, if it's useful.
Some questions don't need a programme or a platform — they need a conversation. I hold a small number of private sessions for artists, managers, founders and executives working through something specific: a deal, a team, a career decision, a business that needs structure.
I won't pretend an hour solves much. But the right hour at the right time once saved me years — several times. These are paid sessions, so the time is protected and we both take it seriously.
The focused session
One question, taken seriously. A deal on the table, a clause you're unsure of, a decision with a deadline.
Paid session · By appointment
The deeper session
The whole board. Career strategy, company structure, the plan for what's next — and the honest questions that come with it.
Paid session · By appointment
Letters
Feathers for Flight.
Letters to the industry I love. Feathers, offered for someone else's flight.
Dear Artist… I am talking to you. Your gift will open the door. Structure will help keep it open.
From Feathers for FlightDear Artist… I Am Talking To You
Lessons from the management years, written as letters to the talent who might find them useful.
The Journey of a Learner
A manual for the new creative entrepreneur. For everyone who has ever stood in a room they weren't sure they belonged in. I still stand in those rooms. Finishing now, releasing soon.
The Company
Company, in the older sense of the word.
The Godwin Tom Company is not a business. It is company — the people I walk with. My mentees, and alumni of CBA for Africa. Friends of the work, and of each other.
It is small on purpose. Membership is by invitation only, and every invitation is considered carefully — even for those who qualify. There is nothing to apply to and nothing to buy. If the work brings us together, it will bring us together.
One line from the creed holds it: the true test of power and influence is the distribution of power and influence. Whatever this network gathers, it exists to give out.
The Inner Circle below is different — it is the open door. Anyone who wants the letters can have them.
Inner Circle
I write when I have something worth saying.
A Feathers for Flight letter now and then. No noise, no schedule worth setting a watch to. Unsubscribe whenever you like.