Jessi Toms: Paving New Ground “Helping people is where it all stems from.” By Kaitlyn Evans

Jessi Toms has seen the rise and fall of the entertainment industry in her 20 years of experience. At just 37 years old, Toms has made an impressionable statement as a businesswoman, crushing any skepticism thrown her way. While being a woman has raised face-valued setbacks within the male-dominated industry, Toms has boss-ladyed her way through her career: “It was really difficult to break into the industry. Business-wise? I’m 4 foot 8, I'm a little girl, and I'm coming in. It was hard for people to take me seriously.”Don’t worry about sounding professional. Sound like you. There are over 1.5 billion websites out there, but your story is what’s going to separate this one from the rest. If you read the words back and don’t hear your own voice in your head, that’s a good sign you still have more work to do.

“I really had a lot of ground to prove before I could do anything or even accomplish anything. It was quite frustrating.”

As the kid who was always the first on the dance floor, Toms’s theatricality went hand-in-hand with the Arts and Entertainment industry. From doing her first stage management show at 16 in a crumbling barn with a speaker that only worked half the time, Toms’s passion for the Arts was “inevitable.” When it came time to choose her career path, Toms was constantly met with the clash between passion and sustainability: “I just realized that what was available versus what I really wanted to do was very niche, and finding security in that would be very difficult.”

“As I got older, people would always say you need to pick a career 'cause ‘music wasn't a career,’ and so I went into business,” says Toms.

“I really became impassioned with the entertainment industry and how it works, and I really wanted to become involved in that, so I thought, well, better be prepared business-wise.”

Entering the corporate world meant something different for Toms. Instead of throwing her passions aside, Toms incorporated the two symbiotically: “I kinda just realized that I have to blend the two. Having them work together made sense for me and so I started to pursue that and realized that my life belongs to the Arts and Entertainment industry.”

“I’ve always been very passionate about business…but music has never really left my side.”

While blending the corporate world with the Arts seemed like a no-brainer, Toms soon realized that her journey would not be a cakewalk: “People don’t like mixing the Arts with the corporate world, or accepting that the Arts is a business at times.” In paving new ground as not only a woman but a passionate representative of the Arts, Toms struggled with finding common ground in the business sector

“The time that I went to school was very different… it was very male-dominated. Especially the Arts and Entertainment industry. Anybody within the Arts that seemed to be making the majority of the decisions were men. As a consequence of this, I started letting people dictate what I should be doing, and that strayed me away from my original goal. My career ultimately took this kind of ‘S’ curve because of that.”

In sharing her experience within the corporate world, Toms’s message to other young women elicits a more structural approach: “While it’s good to take advice, it’s also good to take your own advice. Make a plan and really research it. Make sure that it's viable and something you can expand on. Give yourself options for adaptation. In terms of what to prepare for? Just stand your ground and stay firm.”

Twenty years later, Toms is not only the Founder and CEO of Muse Canada Inc. and the Artist Business Centre but is also the owner of I.Am. and Turn It Up To 11 Entertainment. Toms’s businesses strive to elevate local artists and create a platform to support the Arts and Entertainment industry. Without her passion and commitment to the Arts, Toms could have taken a much different path. An easier path. However, her perseverance in what mattered the most to her kept herself and so many others that she has helped along the way afloat.

“I’ve always had a different view on the Arts and Entertainment Industry, which is kind of what I'm executing now. It took me many years to get to this point.”

“It’s important to remember that a lot of artists are utilizing their work as not only a means of life and income but also a means of sanity and mental health. Art really has been the greatest gift that humanity has given this world, and yet so many people take it for granted.”

While Toms’s businesses are committed to giving a voice to the voiceless, prioritizing the Arts “needs to be more predominantly recognized on an economic level.” As a business owner within the Arts and Entertainment industry, Toms constantly stresses that “organizations need to remember that we’re not competing for the same dollar; we’ll expand the budget together on getting everybody funding. We have to adapt the industry to new needs.” In achieving this, Toms takes yet another unique approach.

“One of my biggest driving forces is what I call coopetition; instead of competition, where you’re working against your neighbour, I don't believe I have any competitors. I believe I have cooperators where we work together to drive the industry higher and faster.”

“Ultimately, helping people. That's my passion. I’ve probably put in more volunteered hours than paid in my lifetime. I just wanna be able to say I helped as many people as I could, whether it's achieving their goals, or helping them grow their businesses. I really just want to be able to give them the means and opportunity to do so, and I’m so grateful that I get to do that.”