Meet The Disruptors: Anthony Pisano Of Game Over On The Five Things You Need To Shake Up Your Industry

An Interview With Fotis Georgiadis

Patience is a virtue — I know being patient is difficult but it is something that everyone needs to practice. When I was younger I struggled with a lack of patience. As I have gotten older I have come to realize that continuing to work hard and staying focused will eventually start to get me to where I wanted to be.

As a part of our series about business leaders who are shaking things up in their industry, I had the pleasure of interviewing Anthony Pisano.

Game Over CEO, Anthony Pisano has worn many hats in his career, including being an entrepreneur, DJ/producer, songwriter, marketing specialist and a recording artist signed to Ultra/Sony Music. With Game Over, Anthony is working to bridge the worlds for music, eSports and technology, to create more avenues for talent and brands across these categories to collaborate. He is currently working with brands like Atlantic Records, Columbia, Warner, RCA, Interscope, APG, NFL, Google Play, Faze Clan, Amazon Prime, Fortnite, Fiverr and more.

Thank you so much for doing this with us! Before we dig in, our readers would like to get to know you a bit more. Can you tell us a bit about your “backstory”? What led you to this particular career path?

For the first 15 years of my career I was a professional DJ/Producer signed to Ultra/Sony Records. Throughout my label career, I have always had a love for marketing my own music. In 2017, I started making music for Faze Blaze and saw the opportunity for marketing music within the gaming space. The engagement in the gaming community was unlike anything I’ve seen before at the time. After making music for Blaze that opened the door for me to work with multiple big brands in the gaming space, which then opened the door for me to work with the major record labels to market music within gaming content.

Can you tell our readers what it is about the work you’re doing that’s disruptive?

Game Over a one-stop-shop for all things related to gaming. From talent management, to our proprietary gaming campaign software, to the games and immersive worlds we are building, we can offer our customers an innovative solution that has yet to be seen anywhere else.

We all need a little help along the journey. Who have been some of your mentors? Can you share a story about how they made an impact?

My dad was in the casino business for 40 years on a very high level and I consider him to be one of my biggest mentors. No one worked harder than him and his work ethic definitely rubbed off on me. My dad got me started in the entertainment business booking me DJ gigs at several notable venues in Miami, while he also pushed me to pursue marketing. Another mentor of mine when I first moved to Los Angeles was Carte Blanche Founding Partner, Zach Katz. Zach played a pivotal role in really teaching me the business side of the music industry and I will always be grateful for the time I got to work with Zach. Lastly, I’m grateful for linking up with Faze Blaze who introduced me to the gaming space, which ultimately led to where I am today with Game Over.

In today’s parlance, being disruptive is usually a positive adjective. But is disrupting always good? When do we say the converse, that a system or structure has ‘withstood the test of time’? Can you articulate to our readers when disrupting an industry is positive, and when disrupting an industry is ‘not so positive’? Can you share some examples of what you mean?

I think the best example here is Napster. At first Napster took away a lot of income from record labels and major label artists, but it also marked the beginning of the transition into the digital download era. We are starting to see the next disruption of the music business now with blockchain technology and NFTs. Power will start to transition more into the artists hands and music labels will have to learn to adapt with the times. Exciting times ahead for music and content creators.

Can you share five of the best words of advice you’ve gotten along your journey? Please give a story or example for each.

1. Patience is a virtue — I know being patient is difficult but it is something that everyone needs to practice. When I was younger I struggled with a lack of patience. As I have gotten older I have come to realize that continuing to work hard and staying focused will eventually start to get me to where I wanted to be.

2. Put in your 10,000 hours — Success does not come with cutting corners. Putting in the ample time and energy that it takes to become a master of your craft is very important. I’ve been on this journey for about 15 years now and I continue to be a student of the game every day.

3. Communicate — Communication is one of the biggest things for me. I strive to instill this into my talent and my team. I never like to hold anything in or hold anything back. Over the years I’ve learned that a lack of communication causes more issues and its best to handle things right away and keep it moving.

4. Be Consistent — Consistency is key! If you can’t be consistent then you can’t be anything.

5. Surround yourself with the right energy — Energy is super important to me and when someone in your circle lacks positive energy it will always cause issues and will effect everything and everyone on the team.

We are sure you aren’t done. How are you going to shake things up next?

Game Over doesn’t just focus on your traditional talent management and marketing. We are building IP that is going to drive the music and gaming industry forward. We’ve built proprietary software that is not only a growing database of gamers all around the world, but most importantly, a tool we use internally that allows us to filter which gamer is right for a campaign (for example, based on their geographical reach). We can now track the analytics around each campaign so that we can provide better visibility and data-driven decisions to our customers. In addition, we’re at the forefront of building games and immersive experiences where top artists in the music industry can expand their audience reach.

Do you have a book, podcast, or talk that’s had a deep impact on your thinking? Can you share a story with us? Can you explain why it was so resonant with you?

The Alchemist — The book makes it clear that everyone has a “personal legend/destiny.” We discover that destiny early in our lives and to realize one’s destiny is a person’s only real obligation. When you really want something, all the universe conspires in helping you to achieve it.

Can you please give us your favorite “Life Lesson Quote”? Can you share how that was relevant to you in your life?

Consistency and communication are really everything to me. Two words I live by.

You are a person of great influence. If you could inspire a movement that would bring the most amount of good to the most amount of people, what would that be? You never know what your idea can trigger. 🙂

I really would like to create mental health content in the near future to help the masses. I am a big believer in mental health and I want to help expand on this issue, especially for creatives in the music business and content creators.

How can our readers follow you online?

You can follow me on Instagram @pisano and check out my agency Game Over at gameovertalent.com

This was very inspiring. Thank you so much for joining us!


Meet The Disruptors: Anthony Pisano Of Game Over On The Five Things You Need To Shake Up Your… was originally published in Authority Magazine on Medium, where people are continuing the conversation by highlighting and responding to this story.

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