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Kyle Reynolds’ journey epitomizes the true meaning of putting yourself out there, taking risks, dreaming big, and never taking no for an answer. Pursuing a new career and starting a business of your own can be a nerve-wracking endeavor filled with lots of uncertainty. Despite all of this, Reynolds’ successfully put his dreams into action and created Top Floor Management. Before going into detail about Top Floor, let’s explore what led up to this very moment.
What You Should Know About Kyle
Reynolds grew up in southside Chicago playing sports. Extremely talented at basketball, he climbed his way up to being one of the Top Prospects in High School for the state of Illinois. Basketball offered many opportunities for him and he went on to play for Elmhurst University, finishing out his sophomore season. Being a part of his high school basketball team opened up many more doors besides a college ball scholarship.
Reynolds attributes his development of sharp social skills to basketball. He also credits turmoil with coaches and the game to his discovery of music as an outlet for his emotions. Through these events, his passion for music grew exponentially and Reynolds began creating his own songs and started forming relationships with people who were creative as well.
He began building his platform through the live stream app “Live Meet” where he joined a group called Top Floor. Top Floor grew to be one of the largest groups on the platform. During his time playing ball and building his platform, he flew out to Los Angeles, California to develop new relationships and landed multiple deals with agencies in Los Angeles, Italy, and Germany.
These deals enabled Reynolds to be on various sets with diverse individuals which gave him opportunities to form more connections within the entertainment industry. If you cannot tell yet, Reynolds has an innate talent for working with people. After the conclusion of his sophomore season at Elmhurst, he packed his bags and flew to Los Angeles.
Kyle started the University of California Los Angeles (UCLA) extension music production program because he wanted to fulfill his desire of learning how to engineer music. While completing this program he worked with the UCLA Fast Program helping to connect models and agents. Shortly after, he landed a position working for Create Music Group as an A&R (Artist and Repertoire). In this position, he was responsible for finding new talent.
Founding Top Floor Management
Fast forward to August 2019, Reynolds and Dilara Yuksel, a friend of his from UCLA, created the logo and website for Top Floor Management. His 2017 aspirations were finally coming true. Originally, Top Floor was a side gig for Reynolds where he would connect clients and brands here and there. As business became more robust, he realized he could turn his side gig into something tangible.
Thus became the official creation of Top Floor Management in August 2019. The connections he made throughout the years and the past six months has enabled him to prosper and turn Top Floor into what it is today. As Top Floor continues to expand, so does Kyle Reynolds’ team.
Artist Management at Top Floor
Top Floor Management offers packages geared towards smaller influencers that need additional resources or are looking to get into the industry. These packages are affordable and give the flexibility to pay monthly.
If an influencer wants a brand deal, they can purchase a package and Top Floor does email outreach, brand research, and deal set up for the influencer. The company also offers duet packages that give smaller influencers the freedom to work with larger influencers such as Naomi Skye who has 1.8 million followers. The purpose of the duet package is to grow the influencer’s presence and following.
Top Floor currently works with TikTok and Instagram influencers Naomi Skye, Maya Echols, Jaylin Howard, Easton LaPLaca, and Nathan Donaghy. Reynolds said to look out for influencers Mya Mitchell, Alex Harman, and O’Brien Holt.
In addition to packages for influencers, Top Floor offers showcases for artists to compete in. They have a showcase coming up which requires a $100 entry fee. The winner of the showcase wins $500, a flight to Los Angeles if applicable, and a label meeting with any major label. Reynolds also said to be on the lookout for upcoming artists Peri Crawford and Deezy Dior.
Top Floor in Action
Top Floor has worked with brands such as Princess Polly, Revolve, Windsor, Manscaped, doTerra, Muddy Body, Kosas Cosmetics, and more. Reynolds said his favorite campaign to work on so far has been the Windsor campaign because each of the girls got clothes shipped to them to showcase. He also is extremely excited about a deal with a cosmetics company they have in the works right now. In addition to the cosmetics company, he hopes to have the chance to collaborate with the new app Clash.
Kyle Reynolds: Dedicated to Dreamers
In addition to services offered to influencers and artists, Top Floor has an established intern program providing hands-on experience and training to its interns. Top Floor has a total of thirty interns split between three divisions: outreach, A&R, and Creative Development.
Outreach interns focus on emailing clients, searching for new influencers, and practicing pitches to companies. A&R interns work on pitching to artists and negotiating contracts. These interns gain experience by sitting in on meetings with Reynolds and potential clients. Lastly, the creative development interns create ads, designs, merchandise, and help with social media platforms. So far Reynolds has brought on two of his creative development interns to work for him.
Top Floor distinguishes itself from other agencies by building authentic relationships and creating a family atmosphere for employees and clients. Reynolds states he feels a strong connection with people who remind him of himself when he was starting out in the industry creating his own music and finding his own way. He seeks individuals who need the extra push and resources to get them to where they want to be. Reynolds approaches helping people as “how can I make this person’s goals and dreams come true?” Additionally, he emphasizes that he always tells his interns and people he works with that “money comes and goes so fast, relationships can last forever”.
A Day in the Life of Kyle Reynolds
For Reynolds, client relations take up the largest chunk of his typical workday. He tackles other tasks such as marketing and consulting as they flood into his office. He still maintains his position as an A&R for Create Music Group, so he works between both companies to seal deals and contact influencers and artists.
Reynolds creates relationships through Create Music Group and filters them through Top Floor. Through his work, he has had the opportunity to collaborate with notable influencers such as Cameron Dallas and Taylor Bennet. Right now, Reynolds focuses on building his clients’ careers through brand deals, social media collaborations, and music. His work has been hindered a little by COVID-19, making it more difficult to connect his clients with the imperative in-person relations and shoots.
He notes he has an artist in Australia that he cannot get to the states, so they are looking to build their reputation abroad in order to secure a deal for her there. Reynolds says the best thing to do during this time is to continue building the influencers’ and artists’ reputation and social media presence.
The Future of Top Floor
In the next five to ten years, Kyle Reynolds sees Top Floor growing to a national scale and hopes to open a Top Floor Exclusive influencer club in Chicago. He also hopes to get a College Tour started where they partner with Greek Life to set up stages and recruit artists and influencers to perform. It would be an on-campus, open call situation. He sees this as beneficial for artists and influencers on campus to work, perform, and receive recognition along with sealing deals with brands.
Takeaways from Kyle
Over the past few years, Reynolds has gained some wisdom and was willing to share what his three biggest lessons were throughout his journey.
- You have to believe in yourself and speak things into existence. You have to dream big. Everyone in LA has the same dream, so focus on your goals and make sure they are as big as they can be.
- Find other people who are on the same path as you. Find like-minded people and build a team to make goals come true.
- Execution is key. Don’t work on other people’s tomes, get it done however it needs to get done.
Additionally, if he were to give one piece of advice to someone trying to do what he’s done it’d be “Don’t give up on yourself and find a team. Everyone needs a team. People try to do it themselves, they can’t, it’s not possible.”
Follow Kyle Reynolds as he rises in the artist management industry
| Social Media | Handle |
|---|---|
| @iamkylerey | |
| Top Floor Management | @topfloormanagement |
| @TopFloorMgmt | |
| Create Music Group | @wearecreatemusic |
