{"id":253,"date":"2020-06-17T18:17:25","date_gmt":"2020-06-17T18:17:25","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/resources.newhouse.syr.edu\/cdc\/?post_type=podcasts&#038;p=253"},"modified":"2022-05-10T16:16:55","modified_gmt":"2022-05-10T20:16:55","slug":"ali-matosky","status":"publish","type":"podcasts","link":"https:\/\/resources.newhouse.syr.edu\/cdc\/podcasts\/ali-matosky\/","title":{"rendered":"Ali Matosky"},"content":{"rendered":"\n<iframe loading=\"lazy\" id=\"kmsembed-1_yrox0x27\" width=\"480\" height=\"270\" src=\"https:\/\/video.syr.edu\/embed\/secure\/iframe\/entryId\/1_yrox0x27\/uiConfId\/45992161\/st\/0\" class=\"kmsembed\" allowfullscreen webkitallowfullscreen mozAllowFullScreen allow=\"autoplay *; fullscreen *; encrypted-media *\" referrerPolicy=\"no-referrer-when-downgrade\" sandbox=\"allow-forms allow-same-origin allow-scripts allow-top-navigation allow-pointer-lock allow-popups allow-modals allow-orientation-lock allow-popups-to-escape-sandbox allow-presentation allow-top-navigation-by-user-activation\" frameborder=\"0\" title=\"Kaltura Player\"><\/iframe>\n\n\n<article id=\"transcript-block_5eea5e1a55b24\" class=\"transcript--item\">\n\t<div class=\"transcript--item--toggle\">Show transcript <img decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/resources.newhouse.syr.edu\/cdc\/wp-content\/themes\/cdc-resources-theme-master\/img\/plus-solid.svg\" alt=\"Plus sign\" class=\"transcript--item--toggle--icon\"><\/div>\n\t<div class=\"transcript--item--raw\">\n\t<p class=\"p1\">Navigating the Unexpected: Ali Matkosky<\/p>\n<p class=\"p1\">Thanks for listening to \u201cNavigating the Unexpected\u201d, the podcast series from the<\/p>\n<p class=\"p1\">Newhouse Career Development Center in which we chat with communications industry<\/p>\n<p class=\"p1\">professionals about the career obstacles they have overcome and how they have made the most<\/p>\n<p class=\"p1\">out of unexpected situations. I\u2019m Kelly Barnett, in this episode we\u2019re chatting with Ali Matkosky<\/p>\n<p class=\"p1\">who graduated from Newhouse in 2010 with a dream of applying her PR degree to the world of<\/p>\n<p class=\"p1\">country music. Ali shares with us how she made her way into the Nashville music scene,<\/p>\n<p class=\"p1\">working her way to National Promotions Manager at Warner Music Group before moving to Big<\/p>\n<p class=\"p1\">Loud Records. I\u2019ll let Ali tell you about the rest. This conversation took place via Zoom in front<\/p>\n<p class=\"p1\">of a student audience, so you\u2019ll hear some of their questions at the end. Some portions of the<\/p>\n<p class=\"p1\">conversation have been edited for clarity.<\/p>\n<p class=\"p1\">Kelly: Ali it is so great to have you here. Ally graduated from Newhouse in 2010, and so we\u2019re<\/p>\n<p class=\"p1\">gonna talk about her whole process, how she ended up where she is today, but just the general<\/p>\n<p class=\"p1\">overview. She started off with Provident Music Group and made her way up to National<\/p>\n<p class=\"p1\">Promotions Manager there, continued at Warner Music Group, and today she\u2019s at Big Loud<\/p>\n<p class=\"p1\">Records down in Nashville as the National Director of Promotions, and she\u2019s excited to talk to<\/p>\n<p class=\"p1\">you, so please help me welcome Ali Matkosky.<\/p>\n<p class=\"p1\">Ali: Hi guys, I\u2019m happy to be here. Thank you for having me, Kelly.<\/p>\n<p class=\"p1\">Kelly: Yeah! I think maybe it\u2019s helpful to talk about where you started out. Maybe you can give<\/p>\n<p class=\"p1\">us a little bit of background about where you\u2019re from and where you started out in your career.<\/p>\n<p class=\"p1\">Ali: I\u2019m originally from western New York, south of Buffalo. My dad and his family actually<\/p>\n<p class=\"p1\">grew up in Camillus, so I grew up kind of a Cuse loving family. We watched basketball games, it<\/p>\n<p class=\"p1\">was a thing that we did, so when I realized that I wanted to pursue a degree in some form of<\/p>\n<p class=\"p1\">communication, Syracuse and Newhouse was obviously my very first choice of college, so I<\/p>\n<p class=\"p1\">applied, I think I applied early decision, and graduated high school in 2006, went to Newhouse. I<\/p>\n<p class=\"p1\">was very fortunate to have a work study job in the Career Development Center with Kelly which<\/p>\n<p class=\"p1\">was awesome, and we\u2019ve kept in touch all of these years, obviously.<\/p>\n<p class=\"p1\">So, I had a PR degree from Newhouse, and, probably, the summer before my senior year, I<\/p>\n<p class=\"p1\">realized I wanted to pursue the music industry. The Bandier program was not an option when I<\/p>\n<p class=\"p1\">was in school, and so I realized I wanted to be in the music industry, I didn\u2019t really know what<\/p>\n<p class=\"p1\">that meant. I knew that I had had some internships, like I interned for a PR firm in New York<\/p>\n<p class=\"p1\">City. I\u2019d seen that side, and realized maybe that side wasn\u2019t for me. I wanted to move to<\/p>\n<p class=\"p1\">Nashville, so I did that late summer of 2010, and then, like Kelly said, I had, and we\u2019ll probably<\/p>\n<p class=\"p1\">get into that a little later, but I had four family connections. I had one family friend who knew<\/p>\n<p class=\"p1\">four people in Nashville, introduced me to them, and I just moved to Nashville and started<\/p>\n<p class=\"p1\">networking and eventually got a job in the industry, and have kind of continued since then, and<\/p>\n<p class=\"p1\">now I work at Big Loud Records.<\/p>\n<p class=\"p1\">Kelly: Excellent, thank you! One thing, when you and I were talking about you coming and<\/p>\n<p class=\"p1\">speaking to students, that we touched on was that you didn\u2019t really graduate into the healthiest<\/p>\n<p class=\"p1\">economy either, and that was kind of a struggle. Do you want to talk to us a little about , you<\/p>\n<p class=\"p1\">know, leaving Newhouse, and what that process was like to get you to Nashville, and get<\/p>\n<p class=\"p1\">working, maybe, that first job.<\/p>\n<p class=\"p1\">Ali: Yeah. I graduated in 2010 and, I was telling Kelly that I was on a phone call with my sister<\/p>\n<p class=\"p1\">yesterday, who graduated in 2008, and we were kind of joking about having graduated into a<\/p>\n<p class=\"p1\">recession, and that is exactly what it was, so there was not a job available to me as soon as I<\/p>\n<p class=\"p1\">graduated school. There was not, honestly, even a hint of said \u201cjob-promise\u201d, so I decided I<\/p>\n<p class=\"p1\">wanted to move to Nashville, and I drove down just me and my car with all of my stuff, and<\/p>\n<p class=\"p1\">drove down to Nashville because I knew that if I wanted to work in Nashville I needed to be in<\/p>\n<p class=\"p1\">Nashville. And, you know, Nashville is a small town atmosphere, if you will, so just by being in<\/p>\n<p class=\"p1\">Nashville, and going to the bar, or playing in a kickball league with random people, I was<\/p>\n<p class=\"p1\">meeting music industry people all the time. It was really important for me to be here, but I had a<\/p>\n<p class=\"p1\">family friend, like I said, who knew four people, so they said, \u201cOK, I\u2019ll set you up some<\/p>\n<p class=\"p1\">meetings with these four people. I remember going into one of the meetings and it was an artist<\/p>\n<p class=\"p1\">manager and he said, \u201cOK, here\u2019s the good news. The good news is: you seem pretty smart and<\/p>\n<p class=\"p1\">put together, and I think you\u2019ll do well in this industry. The bad news is: it\u2019s gonna take you nine<\/p>\n<p class=\"p1\">to twelve months to get a job here in the music industry. And I was like, hmph, buddy, have you<\/p>\n<p class=\"p1\">met me? No it\u2019s not, like, I\u2019m pretty determined, I\u2019m gonna meet a bunch of people, like, it\u2019s not<\/p>\n<p class=\"p1\">gonna take me nine to twelve months. Challenge accepted. Right? So, I got a waitressing job<\/p>\n<p class=\"p1\">because I had to pay my bills, I worked as an office manager, just doing what I had to do to stay<\/p>\n<p class=\"p1\">in Nashville because I knew that that was the most important thing if I wanted to pursue my goal<\/p>\n<p class=\"p1\">of working at a record label. And I continued to meet people and stay in touch with those four<\/p>\n<p class=\"p1\">people that I knew, and exactly twelve months later, I got my first job in the music business. So,<\/p>\n<p class=\"p1\">it took me a year, and I thank him for that because I also feel like, that was almost a little<\/p>\n<p class=\"p1\">challenge to me, and it really motivated me, and if I hadn\u2019t been so motivated, it might have<\/p>\n<p class=\"p1\">taken me 18 months, so it was really challenging, and I just had to do, I had to do what I had to<\/p>\n<p class=\"p1\">do to make ends meet, and I think, because I was so passionate about my career path, it was easy<\/p>\n<p class=\"p1\">and it felt worth it, and I knew what I wanted the end goal to be. It was not easy working double<\/p>\n<p class=\"p1\">shifts at a restaurant, which, by the way, the restaurant that I chose to work in was one, when I<\/p>\n<p class=\"p1\">first moved to town, one person I met said, \u201cOh! This restaurant called Cantina Loredo,\u201d which<\/p>\n<p class=\"p1\">guys might know of it\u2019s a small chain, \u201cthis restaurant called Cantina Loredo, that\u2019s where all the<\/p>\n<p class=\"p1\">music industry people hang out. That\u2019s where managers have their lunches and yadda yadda.\u201d So<\/p>\n<p class=\"p1\">then, I was like, OK that\u2019s where I have to work. So it was little things like that, that just made<\/p>\n<p class=\"p1\">me very determined, but it did take me a year to find the job that I wanted, which was an entry<\/p>\n<p class=\"p1\">level job that, honestly I, A: didn\u2019t even know existed, and B: was not the perfect job that I<\/p>\n<p class=\"p1\">wanted.<\/p>\n<p class=\"p1\">Kelly: So, you got that first job. Was that a result of any of the meetings that you had?<\/p>\n<p class=\"p1\">Ali: One of the four people that I met with was an artist manager, and she managed a couple of<\/p>\n<p class=\"p1\">Christian acts, and I had never been, you know, I didn\u2019t grow up listening to Christian music,<\/p>\n<p class=\"p1\">Christian radio,that was not a huge passion of mine. Obviously very fortunate for those<\/p>\n<p class=\"p1\">connections, and maybe like four months in, somebody was hiring a promotion coordinator, so if<\/p>\n<p class=\"p1\">you don\u2019t know, record labels have radio promotion teams, and so just because Blake Shelton or<\/p>\n<p class=\"p1\">Ariana Grande release a song to radio and say \u201cthis is my next single\u201d, it just doesn\u2019t get played<\/p>\n<p class=\"p1\">by itself. There\u2019s an entire team of people that have relationships with those radio stations to<\/p>\n<p class=\"p1\">make that happen and eventually get number one songs. And, so there was a promotion team at a<\/p>\n<p class=\"p1\">Christian label that was hiring a coordinator, and she recommended me, sent my resume, I went<\/p>\n<p class=\"p1\">in for an interview, I didn\u2019t get the job. And I was bummed, and I was like man, I just, I felt like<\/p>\n<p class=\"p1\">I killed it, you know, they said I was in their top two, they hired somebody else, that just really<\/p>\n<p class=\"p1\">sucks, and probably six months after that, I get a text and it says, \u201cHey, we\u2019re hiring a promotion<\/p>\n<p class=\"p1\">coordinator. I got your resume from Andrea Clyde,\u201d who I had interviewed with before, \u201care you<\/p>\n<p class=\"p1\">interested in the job?\u201d It didn\u2019t say the person\u2019s name, it didn\u2019t say the company, it said nothing!<\/p>\n<p class=\"p1\">And so, I replied and just said, \u201cYes, who is this, and what company?\u201d And so, I met him for<\/p>\n<p class=\"p1\">lunch the next day, and I got hired as the promotion coordinator, in a role that I didn\u2019t even know<\/p>\n<p class=\"p1\">existed, and now has become my entire career path, but obviously I was open, I wanted to get<\/p>\n<p class=\"p1\">into the industry any way that I could, and even though it was six months down the road, it<\/p>\n<p class=\"p1\">resulted directly in a connection that I had made in the beginning.<\/p>\n<p class=\"p1\">Kelly: Yeah, maybe, you wanted to get that first job because that would\u2019ve been great and less<\/p>\n<p class=\"p1\">stressful, but you never know where it\u2019s gonna go when you meet somebody. It could be an<\/p>\n<p class=\"p1\">interviewer, it could be one of your family friends, like you just never know.<\/p>\n<p class=\"p1\">Ali: Absolutely. Even down to, like, I joked that I played in a beer kickball league, and I just got,<\/p>\n<p class=\"p1\">like, randomly assigned to a team, and my time was an entire group of friends who worked at<\/p>\n<p class=\"p1\">William Morris Agency, which is a booking agency. And they, and they\u2019re still to this day,<\/p>\n<p class=\"p1\">they\u2019re some of my closest friends in Nashville, and, you know, now they\u2019re booking agents, and<\/p>\n<p class=\"p1\">they\u2019ve got these thriving careers, and, you know, we would go to Chewy\u2019s happy hour just to<\/p>\n<p class=\"p1\">eat the free chips and salsa when we were playing beer league kickball and none of us had any<\/p>\n<p class=\"p1\">sorts of jobs. So, you just never know where those connections are gonna come from.<\/p>\n<p class=\"p1\">Kelly: Yeah, you never know what you\u2019re going to bond over, every relationship you have in<\/p>\n<p class=\"p1\">your life is because you have something in common with somebody, and at first it was kickball,<\/p>\n<p class=\"p1\">but then it was chips and salsa, and then it was the music industry. That\u2019s pretty great.<\/p>\n<p class=\"p1\">Ali: Exactly.<\/p>\n<p class=\"p1\">Kelly: So when you were dealing with that year that you didn\u2019t want to be job hunting, but ended<\/p>\n<p class=\"p1\">up job hunting, how did you keep yourself motivated and moving along and just, you know,<\/p>\n<p class=\"p1\">trusting that the process was going to work for you?<\/p>\n<p class=\"p1\">Ali: Yeah, I would be lying if I said that sometimes it was really, like it wasn\u2019t really hard, like,<\/p>\n<p class=\"p1\">sometimes it was just super unmotivating. I felt like, man I remember telling myself I could work<\/p>\n<p class=\"p1\">at a restaurant anywhere, like I don\u2019t know, why am I here, serving, I could serve and live at<\/p>\n<p class=\"p1\">home if I wanted to. My family lives in Skaneateles, I could be in Skaneateles working at<\/p>\n<p class=\"p1\">Doug\u2019s Fish Fry and not have to be in Nashville trying to pay my own bills, serving. So I<\/p>\n<p class=\"p1\">remember feeling pretty discouraged a couple of times, but the best thing I ever did was move to<\/p>\n<p class=\"p1\">Nashville and be around the industry that I wanted to be in. And then, I would go, you know<\/p>\n<p class=\"p1\">there\u2019s a ton of free shows all the time, so I would go to those, and that\u2019s what kept me<\/p>\n<p class=\"p1\">motivated. I just, every time I would go out, see a show, go down the Broadway and see live<\/p>\n<p class=\"p1\">music, I was like, you know, this is what I want to do. I am not here for nothing, this is what I<\/p>\n<p class=\"p1\">want to do, and I think if you\u2019re passionate about that, then it will pan out in the end, but I mean<\/p>\n<p class=\"p1\">my passion for country music, which I didn\u2019t even start in country music in the first seven years<\/p>\n<p class=\"p1\">of my career, but my passion for country music is what kept me in Nashville, and now here I am,<\/p>\n<p class=\"p1\">I\u2019m working at, you know, one of the most thriving independent country record labels right now.<\/p>\n<p class=\"p1\">And although, sometimes, it felt like it took a really long time to get there, you know I graduated<\/p>\n<p class=\"p1\">ten years ago, that\u2019s really nothing in the grand scheme of things, so I think just my passion and<\/p>\n<p class=\"p1\">you know being really being determined, I\u2019m a little stubborn, being determined to move to<\/p>\n<p class=\"p1\">Nashville to do what I wanted to do and prove to everybody that it was possible was really<\/p>\n<p class=\"p1\">motivating.<\/p>\n<p class=\"p1\">Kelly: Do you find that you did anything in particular to keep your spirits up? Like, were you<\/p>\n<p class=\"p1\">celebrating each tiny little win, or, like, what were you doing?<\/p>\n<p class=\"p1\">Ali: Yeah, definitely celebrating each little tiny win. Every email that I got back from somebody<\/p>\n<p class=\"p1\">that I had made a connection with felt like, OK that\u2019s a step in the right direction. And, you<\/p>\n<p class=\"p1\">know, I had to be my own biggest cheerleader. I had to tell myself, like all the time, like, hey,<\/p>\n<p class=\"p1\">you\u2019re capable, and worthy, and you, like, you will bring value to a company. And if I didn\u2019t<\/p>\n<p class=\"p1\">believe in myself, nobody was gonna believe in me. If I didn\u2019t walk into a job interview that I<\/p>\n<p class=\"p1\">didn\u2019t get, with confidence, then they surely weren\u2019t gonna feel confident in picking me, so I just<\/p>\n<p class=\"p1\">was always my biggest cheerleader, and everytime I met somebody, I remember, I met this girl<\/p>\n<p class=\"p1\">through one of my friends who was in beauty school, and she was dating a guy in the music<\/p>\n<p class=\"p1\">industry, and that felt like the biggest win to me. I was like, perfect! If we all go to happy hour<\/p>\n<p class=\"p1\">together, I\u2019ll meet him. I never did, but that drove me for the next three weeks, right, I was like<\/p>\n<p class=\"p1\">maybe one day we\u2019ll all go to happy hour and I\u2019ll get to talk to him, and then I\u2019ll figure it out.<\/p>\n<p class=\"p1\">So, just, like, holding onto little glimmers of hope, and, again, knowing that I would make it<\/p>\n<p class=\"p1\">work being my biggest cheerleader, and confident in myself and my ability.<\/p>\n<p class=\"p1\">Kelly: I think you brought up a lot of really great points there. I really love the, you know, I<\/p>\n<p class=\"p1\">might meet that boyfriend that\u2019s great. OK, so you didn\u2019t, but that\u2019s great, that\u2019s goal setting, and<\/p>\n<p class=\"p1\">that was keeping you making progress. You probably did a lot of other things in those three<\/p>\n<p class=\"p1\">weeks too that maybe were more fruitful in the end, um, but you were keeping your eye on a<\/p>\n<p class=\"p1\">goal and moving toward it.<\/p>\n<p class=\"p1\">Ali: Yeah, exactly. And seeing what those friends that worked at William Morris, they were<\/p>\n<p class=\"p1\">working in the mail room, I mean, I wasn\u2019t getting a tone of exposure to things, but when they<\/p>\n<p class=\"p1\">had an extra ticket to a show, they would invite me, and I had to sometimes drag myself out of<\/p>\n<p class=\"p1\">the house on a Friday night when I just was exhausted from working all week because I knew<\/p>\n<p class=\"p1\">there could be a small win in that place. And, to this day, some of that stuff that I feel like didn\u2019t<\/p>\n<p class=\"p1\">make a difference, and although it wasn\u2019t super tangible, like at this point now, I work with three<\/p>\n<p class=\"p1\">booking agents at William Morris every week. We\u2019re always in contact, and two of them I met<\/p>\n<p class=\"p1\">going to shows with in the very beginning, so just even though that didn\u2019t feel tangible, we just<\/p>\n<p class=\"p1\">feel like now we have had a ten year connection, and it just makes our conversations and our<\/p>\n<p class=\"p1\">jobs just that much more fun and light, and we feel like we\u2019ve kind of done it together.<\/p>\n<p class=\"p1\">Kelly: You came up together from all of that. That\u2019s great. If you had to go back, and I know this<\/p>\n<p class=\"p1\">is really simmering a lot of experience and a lot of happenings down to just a couple things, but<\/p>\n<p class=\"p1\">are there a couple of things that stand out to you as, like, real turing points for you in your job<\/p>\n<p class=\"p1\">search, getting that first job, or along your career?<\/p>\n<p class=\"p1\">Ali: Definitely the interviewing and not getting a job felt like a big turning point, which feels<\/p>\n<p class=\"p1\">kind of weird, right? But, it made me realize that I was a top-two contender, and I might not be<\/p>\n<p class=\"p1\">for everybody, but I\u2019m definitely the right fit for somebody, and it wasn\u2019t personal to me. It just<\/p>\n<p class=\"p1\">was, I think, they just wanted a different kind of personality in that role. I ended up working at<\/p>\n<p class=\"p1\">that company, by the way, that was Warner. I ended up working there probably three years later,<\/p>\n<p class=\"p1\">and it was an ongoing joke with my VP of Promotions, who would say, \u201cremember that one time<\/p>\n<p class=\"p1\">you interviewed and I didn\u2019t hire you, and then three years later I\u2019m calling you trying to hire<\/p>\n<p class=\"p1\">you away from another company.\u201d So, that was a pretty big turning point in my job search, and<\/p>\n<p class=\"p1\">then, just the text out of nowhere, like you guys, you just never know. You just never know. It<\/p>\n<p class=\"p1\">was a random text from a random number, didn\u2019t even say his name or the company that he<\/p>\n<p class=\"p1\">worked for, and it had been six months, so you just, you just never know.<\/p>\n<p class=\"p1\">Kelly: You really don\u2019t. Take every opportunity, right? Just because you never know where it\u2019s<\/p>\n<p class=\"p1\">gonna come from.<\/p>\n<p class=\"p1\">Ali: Yeah, exactly. And, you know, I never listened to Christian music or wasn\u2019t passionate<\/p>\n<p class=\"p1\">about that format, and I got this job in Christian music, right, and so, at first, it was really<\/p>\n<p class=\"p1\">exciting. I was the promotions coordinator and in eight weeks I got promoted and they gave me a<\/p>\n<p class=\"p1\">regional title, and what the regionals do is they\u2019re the main point of contact between the radio<\/p>\n<p class=\"p1\">station and the artist. So, any time the radio station wants an artist interview, or wants to meet the<\/p>\n<p class=\"p1\">artist, or wants the artist to come play a show at the radio station, it would go through me. Any<\/p>\n<p class=\"p1\">time that I needed the radio station to play my artists\u2019 songs, it would go through me, right, so it<\/p>\n<p class=\"p1\">was kind of like a two way funnel. It was really exciting, I was getting promoted quickly, I got<\/p>\n<p class=\"p1\">hired away to another company, and I remember being like five years into it thinking, OK but<\/p>\n<p class=\"p1\">I\u2019m not passionate about this format, like, I\u2019ve learned a lot, and I\u2019m so thankful for the people<\/p>\n<p class=\"p1\">who gave me these experiences, but I really want to be in country music. I don\u2019t, I don\u2019t want to<\/p>\n<p class=\"p1\">be in Christian music. And I remember somebody telling me, \u201cwell, hey, you\u2019re five years in and<\/p>\n<p class=\"p1\">you\u2019ve pigeonholed yourself now, like, you\u2019re never gonna get hired out of Christian music and<\/p>\n<p class=\"p1\">into country music,\u201d and I was like, devastated. I was like have I made all of the wrong<\/p>\n<p class=\"p1\">decisions, right, should I have not taken that first job because it wasn\u2019t the perfect career path for<\/p>\n<p class=\"p1\">me? Should I have said no, and been like, no I don\u2019t want to work in Christian music, so I\u2019m just<\/p>\n<p class=\"p1\">gonna say no to this job and wait for a country gig to come up, and, like, totally doubting that.<\/p>\n<p class=\"p1\">And then it was two and a half more years before I got a job in country, and I\u2019m just so, I\u2019m<\/p>\n<p class=\"p1\">really thankful I didn\u2019t think that way, and that I took the jobs that were available to me, and I<\/p>\n<p class=\"p1\">learned from what I learned from. And, you know, now I\u2019ve been taken out of the Christian<\/p>\n<p class=\"p1\">format and into the country format, and my boss said to me the other day, she said, \u201cyeah<\/p>\n<p class=\"p1\">somebody called and they were looking to hire a national promotion,\u201d which is what I do, and<\/p>\n<p class=\"p1\">she was like, \u201clisten, you need to hire outside of the format, you need to hire somebody from<\/p>\n<p class=\"p1\">another format, and bring them in.\u201d And now it\u2019s become this kind of thing for us in our<\/p>\n<p class=\"p1\">business, right, like there\u2019s a lot of really good people that you just haven\u2019t met yet, they\u2019re just<\/p>\n<p class=\"p1\">living out in another world here just parallel to ours. And, so I\u2019m just very, I feel like what I want<\/p>\n<p class=\"p1\">to tell everybody is, like, you are not making the wrong choices in taking a job that you feel isn\u2019t<\/p>\n<p class=\"p1\">the perfect job for you because it\u2019s gonna teach you a lot, and as long as you\u2019re willing to learn,<\/p>\n<p class=\"p1\">and thankful, and progressing, like, you should always be kind of, you know, setting your next<\/p>\n<p class=\"p1\">goal and moving forward, like I was moving up in the Christian music industry. As long as<\/p>\n<p class=\"p1\">you\u2019re progressing, it is not the wrong move, and it is not the wrong move for you, and, for me,<\/p>\n<p class=\"p1\">it took a long time, but for the last year and a half I\u2019ve been in my dream job, and it\u2019s incredible,<\/p>\n<p class=\"p1\">it\u2019s just incredible.<\/p>\n<p class=\"p1\">Kelly: That\u2019s a really important point, you know, it\u2019s all about transferable skillsets, right? You<\/p>\n<p class=\"p1\">were doing things in the Christian music sphere that could translate over into country and you<\/p>\n<p class=\"p1\">just had to wait for the right time and the right place. So, I\u2019m glad you brought that up.<\/p>\n<p class=\"p1\">Ali: And the right person that could see, not like, I didn\u2019t want a job with somebody who, you<\/p>\n<p class=\"p1\">know, couldn\u2019t tell that my skills could transfer. The same job, just a different format, just a<\/p>\n<p class=\"p1\">different set of program directors at radio stations to learn, and if somebody couldn\u2019t see that, I<\/p>\n<p class=\"p1\">didn\u2019t want to work for them anyway. You know? And now my current boss, our current VP of<\/p>\n<p class=\"p1\">Operations has just been amazing, and she could see that right away, she had the vision and she<\/p>\n<p class=\"p1\">and I are, like, lock step in line doing really awesome things together now I can\u2019t, neither of us<\/p>\n<p class=\"p1\">can, imagine having it any other way, so it\u2019s been, yeah it\u2019s perfect.<\/p>\n<p class=\"p1\">Kelly: That\u2019s fantastic. That\u2019s so important, you know, to be thinking about as you\u2019re looking for<\/p>\n<p class=\"p1\">that first opportunity out of school. A lot of the things you talked about, when you\u2019re living in<\/p>\n<p class=\"p1\">those moments, it\u2019s so stressful, that\u2019s so much, there\u2019s so many unknowns, you don\u2019t know<\/p>\n<p class=\"p1\">what\u2019s gonna happen, and I feel like when we\u2019re all in those types of scenarios, if we could just<\/p>\n<p class=\"p1\">know that it\u2019s going to be OK, we\u2019d be patient, we can wait for it. But we don\u2019t have that luxury,<\/p>\n<p class=\"p1\">so how did you cope with that stress? What did you do, I mean, it ties into the motivation things<\/p>\n<p class=\"p1\">we were talking about before, but can you just talk about how you dealt with the stress of the<\/p>\n<p class=\"p1\">unknowns?<\/p>\n<p class=\"p1\">Ali: Yeah, when you\u2019re in that time, every day feels like a year, every year feels like three years,<\/p>\n<p class=\"p1\">and it just, it felt like I\u2019ve been on this grind forever, and nothing is happening. I would say, I<\/p>\n<p class=\"p1\">was in Nashville, I didn\u2019t know a single person, I moved completely alone, and I had probably<\/p>\n<p class=\"p1\">three people in my life that I would talk to every day that would keep me grounded and keep me<\/p>\n<p class=\"p1\">motivated. One thing my mom would say to me all the time, she would be like, \u201chey Ali<\/p>\n<p class=\"p1\">remember, remember when you wanted to move to Nashville and work in the music industry.\u201d<\/p>\n<p class=\"p1\">Especially when I had my first job in the Christian industry and I was getting frustrated about not<\/p>\n<p class=\"p1\">being in the country industry. My mom would say, \u201cremember when you wanted to do that, and<\/p>\n<p class=\"p1\">now you\u2019re down there doing it.\u201d And it would just, like, make me take a deep breath and I\u2019d<\/p>\n<p class=\"p1\">exhale and be like, you know, you\u2019re right, and so I think just surrounding yourself with people<\/p>\n<p class=\"p1\">who believe in you, but also, like, kind of keep you grounded, like, \u201chey, you started here, and<\/p>\n<p class=\"p1\">this was your goal, and you really are well on your way.\u201d And then, you know, for me, like, my<\/p>\n<p class=\"p1\">personal stress reliever is going to the gym, things like that, like creating that daily routine for<\/p>\n<p class=\"p1\">myself was really important.<\/p>\n<p class=\"p1\">I learned so much from Kelly, from the CDC, about maintaining my contacts and just having a<\/p>\n<p class=\"p1\">little, I had a white board and I would have a checklist of things that I wanted to do. It would say,<\/p>\n<p class=\"p1\">like, follow up with Kat Davis at this management company or whatever, and just being super<\/p>\n<p class=\"p1\">organized, and not feeling like my world was an endless thing of endless things I was supposed<\/p>\n<p class=\"p1\">to be doing. That, I felt like, for me, would bring me a lot more stress, so if I had five tangible<\/p>\n<p class=\"p1\">things that week that I needed to do to advance my career forward, or my job search forward, I<\/p>\n<p class=\"p1\">would write those on a whiteboard on my fridge and try to work through those every week, and it<\/p>\n<p class=\"p1\">made me feel like I had small victories throughout the week, even if it was just sending an email<\/p>\n<p class=\"p1\">that maybe I didn\u2019t even get a reply to. But I felt like, OK I did that, that\u2019s a tangible thing and<\/p>\n<p class=\"p1\">moving forward, instead of feeling just like the world is spinning around you and you should be<\/p>\n<p class=\"p1\">doing everything and there\u2019s just no possible way you can do everything.<\/p>\n<p class=\"p1\">Kelly: Yeah, that\u2019s so important. Giving yourself tangible goals that you can look back on and be<\/p>\n<p class=\"p1\">like I am making progress. I think that\u2019s a really great point.<\/p>\n<p class=\"p1\">Ali: Yeah.<\/p>\n<p class=\"p1\">Kelly: Thinking back to that process, you were trying to get your foot into this industry, and<\/p>\n<p class=\"p1\">combining that with your experience now, as somebody who has made it, right, you\u2019re at a great<\/p>\n<p class=\"p1\">level at a great position at a great company, what do you see as things people who are trying to<\/p>\n<p class=\"p1\">get into the industry or from your own personal experience, things that people should or should<\/p>\n<p class=\"p1\">not be doing with this specific industry? Is there anything in particular that stands out to you?<\/p>\n<p class=\"p1\">Ali: I would say the little things are the big things, and to piggyback off of that I always say, I\u2019ve<\/p>\n<p class=\"p1\">probably said for the past five years, anything that I needed to know to succeed in my job as a<\/p>\n<p class=\"p1\">professional, my mom probably taught me when I was five years old, and that\u2019s looking people<\/p>\n<p class=\"p1\">in the eye, saying thank you. I got my job, I don\u2019t remember if Kelly remembers this, but I got<\/p>\n<p class=\"p1\">my job at the CDC because I was one of, like, two students that wrote a handwritten thank you<\/p>\n<p class=\"p1\">note after my interview, and my mom taught me that when I was five years old. I always sent<\/p>\n<p class=\"p1\">hand-written thank you notes, right, and to this day, I still do it. When I meet a radio station for<\/p>\n<p class=\"p1\">the first time, they get a handwritten letter from me at the end, and that\u2019s a little thing, but it\u2019s<\/p>\n<p class=\"p1\">such a big thing and it makes you feel so connected. So, those are the things that impress me. I<\/p>\n<p class=\"p1\">mean, we went, probably, in December we went to a job search, we were hiring a new<\/p>\n<p class=\"p1\">coordinator in my department, and it\u2019s an entry level role, but it\u2019s a really really big role for our<\/p>\n<p class=\"p1\">team to just keep us all kind of on the same page, and there\u2019s a lot of confidential things that go<\/p>\n<p class=\"p1\">into that. We probably interviewed 20 people, and, I bet, I think I got two thank you cards, and<\/p>\n<p class=\"p1\">those really stuck out to me though because in a time when, I don\u2019t want to speak \u201cyour<\/p>\n<p class=\"p1\">generation\u201d and \u201cmine\u201d because we\u2019re not that far apart, but in a time when those things are just<\/p>\n<p class=\"p1\">falling, and it\u2019s just so much easier to email somebody, I get 600 emails a day, an email thank<\/p>\n<p class=\"p1\">you, although it means something, it\u2019s a lot less impactful than getting a handwritten thank you<\/p>\n<p class=\"p1\">note. And guess what. I get to know so much about your personality based on which pattern of<\/p>\n<p class=\"p1\">stationary you choose, which is also really fun! Right?! Like, I think it just could say a lot about<\/p>\n<p class=\"p1\">you. So, I would say, in the entry level things, I think, even for me getting my first job at the<\/p>\n<p class=\"p1\">Career Center in college, to the connections I made when I first moved to Nashville, to now me<\/p>\n<p class=\"p1\">being in a hiring position, hiring specifically, entry level employees, the little things have always<\/p>\n<p class=\"p1\">been the big things, and it has been a lot less about, somebody coming in and just wowing me<\/p>\n<p class=\"p1\">with their experience, and just saying something profound industry-wise. It\u2019s way less about that,<\/p>\n<p class=\"p1\">and more about do you have something tangible that we can work with? I have a PR degree. I<\/p>\n<p class=\"p1\">didn\u2019t do radio, television, and film, you know, like, I didn\u2019t know a lot about how the radio<\/p>\n<p class=\"p1\">station worked, but did I have a skillset that they could work with? Yeah, and I figured out a way<\/p>\n<p class=\"p1\">to make that applicable, and then I was the right person, so I just, I just think, and you might see<\/p>\n<p class=\"p1\">your personality as being a little thing, it\u2019s a big thing, you know, you might see your work<\/p>\n<p class=\"p1\">experience as being a really big thing, and it\u2019s a little thing. But, it\u2019s just, it\u2019s important to keep<\/p>\n<p class=\"p1\">those things in perspective, and, um, back to the basics of human interaction.<\/p>\n<p class=\"p1\">Kelly. I think that\u2019s so important, and to add onto that, when someone meets you and they\u2019re<\/p>\n<p class=\"p1\">interviewing you for a job, they have to like you, right, if I\u2019m gonna have to spend eight hours a<\/p>\n<p class=\"p1\">day with you, I&#8217;m not gonna be like, ugh this person, right? I have to actually like you, so all of<\/p>\n<p class=\"p1\">the things you brought up really factor into that.<\/p>\n<p class=\"p1\">Ali: Yeah, and I think too, one 20-minute meeting with someone might be all that you have, and<\/p>\n<p class=\"p1\">you hire them on to spend eight hours a day together, and put a lot of trust in, right, so first<\/p>\n<p class=\"p1\">impressions are huge, and liking the other person is huge. And, maybe, someday that job hiring<\/p>\n<p class=\"p1\">process will change to be more involved so that we can all learn a little bit more about each<\/p>\n<p class=\"p1\">other, but right now it\u2019s like going in to buy your first house. You walk in for ten minutes, you<\/p>\n<p class=\"p1\">have no idea if there\u2019s an outlet in the kitchen where you need a hand mixer. You just have no<\/p>\n<p class=\"p1\">clue, you learn as you go, so it is just very, it\u2019s really really important.<\/p>\n<p class=\"p1\">Kelly: Yeah we can\u2019t stress that enough. They gotta like you. First impressions. And what you<\/p>\n<p class=\"p1\">said about thank you notes, we hear that from so many employers, so I love that you do that for<\/p>\n<p class=\"p1\">the stations you go to. That\u2019s awesome. You know think about when you get real mail. It\u2019s like,<\/p>\n<p class=\"p1\">someone took the time to put pen to paper, this is amazing, oh my gosh, like the time, the<\/p>\n<p class=\"p1\">thoughtfulness.<\/p>\n<p class=\"p1\">Ali: And go to the post office and buy stamps. Sometimes they would drop stuff off at the office,<\/p>\n<p class=\"p1\">I\u2019ve seen that, and that\u2019s been kind of fun too, like a little box of chocolates or something.<\/p>\n<p class=\"p1\">Kelly: Who doesn\u2019t love chocolate, you know.<\/p>\n<p class=\"p1\">Ali: I definitely like chocolate.<\/p>\n<p class=\"p1\">Kelly: Same. So, just kind of wrapping things up, because I do want to get people the chance to<\/p>\n<p class=\"p1\">ask you questions, just generally, you know, advice, here we are, time of unknowns, you<\/p>\n<p class=\"p1\">graduated into a time of unknowns, there\u2019s obviously a lot of parallels there. Anything that you<\/p>\n<p class=\"p1\">want to just pass along, wisdom wise, insights?<\/p>\n<p class=\"p1\">Ali: Yeah. I had a phone call yesterday with a graduating senior from the University of<\/p>\n<p class=\"p1\">Tennessee at Knoxville, and her resume got passed to me. She wants to move to Nashville, she<\/p>\n<p class=\"p1\">wants to be in the music business, and she asked for a ten minute phone call, and I was talking<\/p>\n<p class=\"p1\">to her and she said \u201cI feel bad following up with an email with everybody, I don\u2019t want to be<\/p>\n<p class=\"p1\">annoying.\u201d And, the only thing annoying about your email is gonna be if the content of your<\/p>\n<p class=\"p1\">email is annoying, you know, the fact of you emailing somebody and following up and wanting<\/p>\n<p class=\"p1\">to continue a connection is not, so I love having those conversations, I think people did that for<\/p>\n<p class=\"p1\">me and I want to continue that for the next generation coming into the workforce. So, don\u2019t be<\/p>\n<p class=\"p1\">afraid to ask the question. Kelly, I know, is telling you guys have to compose those emails, and<\/p>\n<p class=\"p1\">making sure they\u2019re not extremely open ended. I mean, so much of that, that I learned in the<\/p>\n<p class=\"p1\">Career Center, I still use and I still maybe judge emails on, you know, if I don\u2019t have anything to<\/p>\n<p class=\"p1\">respond to, I\u2019m not gonna respond, you know, so I know that Kelly\u2019s telling you guys how to<\/p>\n<p class=\"p1\">compose those emails, and you should pay attention.<\/p>\n<p class=\"p1\">That, and even if you can\u2019t be physically present right now, if you can\u2019t travel, if you want to<\/p>\n<p class=\"p1\">move to Nashville and you can\u2019t just up and move to Nashville like I did. I sit in front of this<\/p>\n<p class=\"p1\">computer on Zoom all day long. I think I have six meetings on Zoom today, so there are ways, I<\/p>\n<p class=\"p1\">mean our entire company is figuring out how to work remotely, and we\u2019re not gonna go back any<\/p>\n<p class=\"p1\">time soon, so I just encourage you to maybe think outside the box, and that, it is possible, it\u2019s<\/p>\n<p class=\"p1\">possible to continue to make connections. My company, Big Loud, we hired a new digital, like a<\/p>\n<p class=\"p1\">graphic designer, who starts on Monday. We hired her, they hired her two weeks ago. The entire<\/p>\n<p class=\"p1\">process was on Zoom. They\u2019ve never met her in person, and she has a full-time salary job that<\/p>\n<p class=\"p1\">starts on Monday. So, it\u2019s possible, and, you know, there are innovative companies who want to<\/p>\n<p class=\"p1\">keep growing and keep hiring. Fortunately, I work for one of those. It might not be right for<\/p>\n<p class=\"p1\">every company, but there are pockets where you can win, and I would encourage you to focus on<\/p>\n<p class=\"p1\">the pockets where you can win and where you can get stuff done from home. We\u2019re hiring<\/p>\n<p class=\"p1\">summer interns. I\u2019m never gonna see them, but they\u2019re gonna work over the summer remotely,<\/p>\n<p class=\"p1\">so why can\u2019t that happen with an employee? It can. So, I just encourage you to keep connections,<\/p>\n<p class=\"p1\">and keep your eye on the prize, and if you\u2019re going after something that you\u2019re really passionate<\/p>\n<p class=\"p1\">about, I think you\u2019ll figure out a way.<\/p>\n<p class=\"p1\">Kelly: Well, please know that once it\u2019s safe to send you things in the mail, I\u2019ll write you a<\/p>\n<p class=\"p1\">hand-written thank you note, so know that\u2019s coming. Fear not.<\/p>\n<p class=\"p1\">Ali: My mail\u2019s gonna be flooded!<\/p>\n<p class=\"p1\">Kelly: I know. You\u2019re gonna have so many, so just keep a look out for that, but I do want to give<\/p>\n<p class=\"p1\">people the chance to ask questions, Nicole?<\/p>\n<p class=\"p1\">Student 1: Hi, I\u2019m Nicole. I\u2019m actually a junior PR major, and I\u2019m looking to get into the music<\/p>\n<p class=\"p1\">industry, so I was wondering how you used your PR foundation and the skills that you learned in<\/p>\n<p class=\"p1\">Newhouse to make yourself, kind of, known about and wanted in the industry.<\/p>\n<p class=\"p1\">Ali: Yeah, that\u2019s a really good question. I would say the thought that comes back to me the most<\/p>\n<p class=\"p1\">when I\u2019m, like, doing my job or thinking about my career path is just overall communication, but<\/p>\n<p class=\"p1\">my PR skill that I use the most is, honest communication. And I remember, like, I don\u2019t even<\/p>\n<p class=\"p1\">remember the name of the course anymore because I\u2019m not, I\u2019m not just PR all the time right<\/p>\n<p class=\"p1\">now, but it was disaster communications, whatever that word, whatever they call that course.<\/p>\n<p class=\"p1\">And I just remember, I remember thinking so much, like, companies really need to be ahead of<\/p>\n<p class=\"p1\">their mistakes, and, you know, you don\u2019t want to just hide and not communicate because when<\/p>\n<p class=\"p1\">that happens people create their own narratives. You want to be able to create your own<\/p>\n<p class=\"p1\">narrative, and feel like that\u2019s the skill, I think, that I come back to the most from my PR degree is<\/p>\n<p class=\"p1\">that I need to, A: become a communicator, and I need to communicate my own narrative. If I\u2019m<\/p>\n<p class=\"p1\">not out there being my greatest ambassador, then somebody else is just making something up in<\/p>\n<p class=\"p1\">their head about me that is not gonna be true, so I need to be the most communicative, greatest<\/p>\n<p class=\"p1\">ambassador of Ali Matkosky, and make sure that everybody knows that from my mouth. So, I<\/p>\n<p class=\"p1\">feel like that\u2019s my skill, my PR skill I come back to from my career at Newhouse, and, in the<\/p>\n<p class=\"p1\">beginning, that\u2019s why I would set up so many meetings and have coffee. I could be a name on a<\/p>\n<p class=\"p1\">page, I could be, you know, I don\u2019t even think Instagram even existed when I moved to<\/p>\n<p class=\"p1\">Nashville, but I could be, like, and Instagram profile, but what does that really tell them about<\/p>\n<p class=\"p1\">me? Nothing. They\u2019re just connecting their own dots and their own narrative, and I need to be<\/p>\n<p class=\"p1\">the person creating my own narrative. And I feel like that all stemmed out of whatever that PR<\/p>\n<p class=\"p1\">course is called where I had to make a whole poster communications plan with my team on what<\/p>\n<p class=\"p1\">we would do if something went terribly wrong within our company. And it was A: being forward<\/p>\n<p class=\"p1\">and communicative first, and now, even in my job, the people that work beneath me, I tell them<\/p>\n<p class=\"p1\">all the time, you need to be overly communicative with me because if I\u2019m not being<\/p>\n<p class=\"p1\">communicated to, then I&#8217;m not creating a narrative and it might not be true, but I have no other<\/p>\n<p class=\"p1\">option but to connect the dots in the way that I see them in front of me. So, over communication<\/p>\n<p class=\"p1\">is, like, one of the biggest things for me currently in my job and I think that all stems from my<\/p>\n<p class=\"p1\">PR degree.<\/p>\n<p class=\"p1\">Kelly: Ah, Morgan.<\/p>\n<p class=\"p1\">Student 2: Hi Ali. I actually applied to some positions and internship positions in Nashville that I<\/p>\n<p class=\"p1\">was either rejected from or the summer programs got cancelled, so I was, like, planning on<\/p>\n<p class=\"p1\">picking up and pursuing a career there and living there. Do you recommend moving there<\/p>\n<p class=\"p1\">without a position because I know you said that you spent some time there job hunting, and, in<\/p>\n<p class=\"p1\">addition to that, would companies even consider you if you\u2019re not already located there?<\/p>\n<p class=\"p1\">Ali: Two really good questions. So, I can\u2019t say blanket companies will not consider you if you\u2019re<\/p>\n<p class=\"p1\">not in Nashville because we just hired a promotion coordinator on my team and we actually just<\/p>\n<p class=\"p1\">relocated her from Charlotte. But I will say that her name came to us from another company that<\/p>\n<p class=\"p1\">had interviewed her and she was their second choice, they didn\u2019t hire her, they us her resume, we<\/p>\n<p class=\"p1\">wanted to interview her, and she, without us even knowing, decided, to be honest we didn\u2019t even<\/p>\n<p class=\"p1\">know she was still in Charlotte, she hopped in the car and drove however, 12 hours to get to<\/p>\n<p class=\"p1\">Nashville for us to interview her, and we didn\u2019t even know any different, and then told us that<\/p>\n<p class=\"p1\">she actually lives in Charlotte. So, it\u2019s not impossible, but, I will say that there is such a demand<\/p>\n<p class=\"p1\">for music industry jobs, I mean, everybody wants them, they\u2019re cool, they\u2019re sexy, like being in<\/p>\n<p class=\"p1\">the music industry is freaking awesome, like, a lot of people want it and there\u2019s 300 people that<\/p>\n<p class=\"p1\">they don\u2019t have to relocate that they can meet in person that are already in Nashville, so, you<\/p>\n<p class=\"p1\">know, it\u2019s not impossible, but I\u2019d be lying if I said that I could have gotten the job that I got if I<\/p>\n<p class=\"p1\">was still, you know, in Skaneateles. I couldn\u2019t have, probably. So, I would encourage you, when<\/p>\n<p class=\"p1\">the time is safe and right for you to be in Nashville. I just think a lot of the natural connections<\/p>\n<p class=\"p1\">that you would make are gonna be easier, and you could have a 30 minute coffee with somebody<\/p>\n<p class=\"p1\">on a random Tuesday that\u2019s gonna be super beneficial to you. So, I would encourage you to do it<\/p>\n<p class=\"p1\">if it\u2019s possible for you, and safe, but it is not impossible because I just hired a girl that lived in<\/p>\n<p class=\"p1\">Charlotte, and we relocated her, so I wouldn\u2019t say that it\u2019s impossible.<\/p>\n<p class=\"p1\">Student 2: Thank you.<\/p>\n<p class=\"p1\">Ali: You\u2019re welcome.<\/p>\n<p class=\"p1\">Kelly: Macella.<\/p>\n<p class=\"p1\">Student 3: Hi Ali, my name\u2019s Marcella, um, thank you for taking the time to come chat with us<\/p>\n<p class=\"p1\">today, um, I\u2019m an audio arts grad student looking to enter the music industry in the marketing<\/p>\n<p class=\"p1\">sphere of things, and I\u2019ve had a few industry experiences and internships already. My question<\/p>\n<p class=\"p1\">is, I know the touring is essentially an artist\u2019s biggest money maker and arguably the best way to<\/p>\n<p class=\"p1\">authentically promote your artist and get fan outreach, so how is your day to day, and your<\/p>\n<p class=\"p1\">overall goals, and targeted promo adapted to the COVID world, and what can we, as newcomers<\/p>\n<p class=\"p1\">to the business, do to prepare for an entry level position in a post-COVID world that will likely<\/p>\n<p class=\"p1\">be very different?<\/p>\n<p class=\"p1\">Ali: Very good question. And, although it feels like we\u2019ve been in COVID forever, we have to<\/p>\n<p class=\"p1\">realize it\u2019s been, what, five or six weeks at the most. We\u2019re still learning that. Some of our artists<\/p>\n<p class=\"p1\">are fortunate enough to have made a good living, they have their band and crew on salary, and<\/p>\n<p class=\"p1\">everybody is still being able to be paid, but many artists are not that fortunate. Probably where an<\/p>\n<p class=\"p1\">artist is still maybe making some residual income, it\u2019s really their band and crew that have taken,<\/p>\n<p class=\"p1\">you know, a big impact, so right now the bigger wins are pretty small. We have been looking<\/p>\n<p class=\"p1\">into an insane amount of new technology. There\u2019s this app called Looped. I probably talk to that<\/p>\n<p class=\"p1\">technology team once a day, brainstorming ways to, my job specifically is to connect the radio<\/p>\n<p class=\"p1\">station with my artist, and for radio stations, their win is to connect their listeners with my artist,<\/p>\n<p class=\"p1\">so I\u2019m on those phone calls daily about how can we get creative using this new technology and, I<\/p>\n<p class=\"p1\">will say Looped Live is one of them, but there\u2019s probably 15 others, but Looped has become<\/p>\n<p class=\"p1\">probably the cleanest interface that our team is looking at, so how do we connect the dots, right.<\/p>\n<p class=\"p1\">So, this week it\u2019s just as simple as my one artist, Chris Lane, is getting on Lopped, and my one<\/p>\n<p class=\"p1\">radio station in Bakersfield California is giving away 25 meet and greet codes, and they are<\/p>\n<p class=\"p1\">connecting on the app and having a little Facetime just to keep him relevant, but then I have<\/p>\n<p class=\"p1\">another artist, his name is Hardy, and he\u2019s fine, but his band and crew isn\u2019t making any money,<\/p>\n<p class=\"p1\">so he\u2019s actually getting on Looped and I think maybe charging, like, five dollars per meet and<\/p>\n<p class=\"p1\">greet, which is a Facetime call which is kinda pretty cool. So, he can get some income and he can<\/p>\n<p class=\"p1\">disseminate that out to his band and crew, so everyone is getting creative. Nobody\u2019s jumping on<\/p>\n<p class=\"p1\">anything super quickly because we don\u2019t know, we don\u2019t know what we\u2019re gonna have to<\/p>\n<p class=\"p1\">monetize in the coming months, like, there\u2019s things I might want to give to a radio station right<\/p>\n<p class=\"p1\">now for free to give them something to connect the dots. I have a radio station last week that<\/p>\n<p class=\"p1\">called me, they called me and said, \u201cAli, we lost seven million dollars in seven days.\u201d They\u2019re<\/p>\n<p class=\"p1\">struggling and their currency is access to the artist, so I want to help them. I don\u2019t want to give<\/p>\n<p class=\"p1\">them so many things for free that I end up hurting my artist\u2019s business model because it could be<\/p>\n<p class=\"p1\">all they have for the rest of 2020, so it\u2019s a daily struggle. I mean, Big Loud really cool company,<\/p>\n<p class=\"p1\">we have a publishing company, we have a record label that I worked at, we have an artist<\/p>\n<p class=\"p1\">management company is with Maverick, so a lot of our artists are also managed in-house, so one<\/p>\n<p class=\"p1\">of our managers said yesterday, \u201chey, we\u2019re not even talking touring until June first. I know<\/p>\n<p class=\"p1\">there\u2019s dates on the calendar and I know you might see somebody is coming to the amphitheater,<\/p>\n<p class=\"p1\">but we\u2019re not even gonna readdress it again until June first.\u201d So, it\u2019s just changing so so much,<\/p>\n<p class=\"p1\">and if I were job searching in a post-COVID world I would say two things. One, we will get<\/p>\n<p class=\"p1\">back to the basics at some point. Artists will still find a way to get in front of fans, it just might<\/p>\n<p class=\"p1\">look a little different. We might not ever have a physical meet and greet again. You might never<\/p>\n<p class=\"p1\">get to say hi to your favorite artist in person because germs, so what\u2019s the next best way to do<\/p>\n<p class=\"p1\">that? And I think if you just kind of keep your eye open to the newest technology, I would follow<\/p>\n<p class=\"p1\">all of your favorite artists on social, see what they\u2019re doing. Something that I wanted to do the<\/p>\n<p class=\"p1\">other day, somebody was like, \u201coh, Cassidy Pope did that and she has a highlight reel on her<\/p>\n<p class=\"p1\">Instagram.\u201d So I would just follow those people and just be in the know of how people are<\/p>\n<p class=\"p1\">changing things, like in the country format, Luke Combs has done some really cool stuff, for<\/p>\n<p class=\"p1\">example, and we\u2019re watching that, and seeing how people are reacting, and I think if you\u2019re<\/p>\n<p class=\"p1\">watching that and you\u2019re educated too, then you\u2019ll be able to have those educated conversations<\/p>\n<p class=\"p1\">with somebody post-COVID, and it will feel impressive if you care enough.<\/p>\n<p class=\"p1\">Student 3: Awesome, thank you so much.<\/p>\n<p class=\"p1\">Ali: You\u2019re welcome.<\/p>\n<p class=\"p1\">Student 4: Hi, my name\u2019s Annelise. I\u2019m a junior public relations major who also wants to work<\/p>\n<p class=\"p1\">in the music industry. It was kind of asked and answered, but I was kind of just wondering, like,<\/p>\n<p class=\"p1\">before all of this, what a typical day in your life was.<\/p>\n<p class=\"p1\">Ali: So, I do radio promotion. My team of people we\u2019re the liaison between the radio station and<\/p>\n<p class=\"p1\">our artists, right, so I\u2019m what you would call our \u201cnational of promotion\u201d which, if I\u2019m a big<\/p>\n<p class=\"p1\">umbrella, then underneath my big umbrella are what you call \u201cregionals of promotion\u201d, they<\/p>\n<p class=\"p1\">each have a region of the country that they work with, they work with those radio stations in that<\/p>\n<p class=\"p1\">region. They might have 40 radio stations that they might talk to on a weekly basis, and they\u2019re<\/p>\n<p class=\"p1\">talking to the program director, so at WBBS, in Syracuse it would be 104.7, his name is Rich<\/p>\n<p class=\"p1\">Lauber. Rich Lauber is the person we talk to every week, and we say, \u201cRich Lauber I have a<\/p>\n<p class=\"p1\">Morgan Wallen single that\u2019s going for number one next week. I need the most spins that you can<\/p>\n<p class=\"p1\">give me. I need you to play it as many times in one week as possible,\u201d because that\u2019s how we get<\/p>\n<p class=\"p1\">number one singles. So, the regionals are really talking to the radio stations and having those<\/p>\n<p class=\"p1\">conversations and then also, when my artist comes to Syracuse, the regional is there making sure<\/p>\n<p class=\"p1\">Rich Lauber is having a great time at the Morgan Wallen show. So they\u2019re having those<\/p>\n<p class=\"p1\">conversations. My job is to make sure that all five of them are firing on the same cylinder. I can\u2019t<\/p>\n<p class=\"p1\">have Rich Lauber playing Morgan Wallen 70 times a week and then this station in Colorado<\/p>\n<p class=\"p1\">playing him five times a week because if we\u2019re not all kind of moving and gaining together, then<\/p>\n<p class=\"p1\">I\u2019m never gonna get a number one song, and my main job is to get a number one song. That\u2019s<\/p>\n<p class=\"p1\">what I do. I work solely for the number one plaque on everybody\u2019s wall. That\u2019s my job. So, my<\/p>\n<p class=\"p1\">week starts every Monday. We get a report card every Monday, the chart, and if you don\u2019t like<\/p>\n<p class=\"p1\">report cards every week then this isn\u2019t the job for you. If you&#8217;re motivated by seeing something<\/p>\n<p class=\"p1\">tangible, it\u2019s the job for you, and I would say, kind of the two ends of the spectrum are maybe<\/p>\n<p class=\"p1\">the marketing team who is kind of always working on something a little bit more ongoing and<\/p>\n<p class=\"p1\">building an artist\u2019s brand would be the marketing team, and then my team, we have something<\/p>\n<p class=\"p1\">tangible every week. We\u2019ve either won or lost on a Monday with a song. It either moved up the<\/p>\n<p class=\"p1\">chart or it moved down the chart, so my week consists of managing those spins, those<\/p>\n<p class=\"p1\">conversations all week long, and then, you know, regionals are the main, they\u2019re the front line<\/p>\n<p class=\"p1\">contact, but I probably, I don\u2019t know, talk to 15 to 20 program directors across the country every<\/p>\n<p class=\"p1\">week to kind of back them up in conversations that they\u2019re having. And then I\u2019m also the point<\/p>\n<p class=\"p1\">of contact, the liason, between our team and the artist or manager, so I have weekly Zooms with<\/p>\n<p class=\"p1\">each of our artists, and I talk to them about the landscape of radio, how we\u2019re doing, answer<\/p>\n<p class=\"p1\">questions, I ask them to do the meet and greets over Looped, all of that kind of stuff, so it\u2019s like a<\/p>\n<p class=\"p1\">tenfold job, but it\u2019s mainly with radio stations. Radio airplay chart. Everyone wants the number<\/p>\n<p class=\"p1\">one song, so they like to talk to you about it.<\/p>\n<p class=\"p1\">Student 4: Thank you.<\/p>\n<p class=\"p1\">Student 5: Hi Ali, my name\u2019s Elizabeth. I just wanted to say thanks so much for being with us<\/p>\n<p class=\"p1\">today. It\u2019s a very stressful time for everybody, and, you know, very uncertain for everybody,<\/p>\n<p class=\"p1\">even professionals in the industry, you know. While we\u2019re people looking for jobs, everyone has<\/p>\n<p class=\"p1\">families they\u2019re worried about, and so much is going on, so I was just wondering, again, what<\/p>\n<p class=\"p1\">your thoughts might be on that.<\/p>\n<p class=\"p1\">Ali: Yeah and it\u2019s funny I didn\u2019t really think to draw this parallel to you guys before this<\/p>\n<p class=\"p1\">moment, but my job is to, my job is to, my job is a relationship based job, completely, 100<\/p>\n<p class=\"p1\">percent. I, if my program director doesn\u2019t want to sit down in the same room as me, he doesn\u2019t<\/p>\n<p class=\"p1\">want to go to dinner, she doesn\u2019t want to go to a show with me, then I\u2019m not winning. I\u2019m in a<\/p>\n<p class=\"p1\">completely relationship-based job, and I\u2019m having to do this job from this 12-by12 bedroom in<\/p>\n<p class=\"p1\">Nashville. In a pre-COVID world I travel. I travel once a week, easy. I might be in three cities in<\/p>\n<p class=\"p1\">one week. I mean, I\u2019m gone on weekends, I\u2019m at shows, I\u2019m always in front of these people.<\/p>\n<p class=\"p1\">Always. Always. Always. Always. Because I need to have the benefit of the doubt making<\/p>\n<p class=\"p1\">decisions for their radio station, so my job is a relationship based job, and I\u2019m having to figure<\/p>\n<p class=\"p1\">out how to do that from home, in front of this computer screen, in this 12-by-12 bedroom, kind<\/p>\n<p class=\"p1\">of the same way you guys are trying to figure out how to do what you\u2019re doing from home. You<\/p>\n<p class=\"p1\">guys can\u2019t move to Nashville to be in the industry, I can\u2019t fly to San Jose because the program<\/p>\n<p class=\"p1\">director refuses to play my new artist because he doesn\u2019t think she\u2019s talented. I can\u2019t put her and<\/p>\n<p class=\"p1\">me on a plane and be in front of him and say, \u201clook she\u2019s talented, she\u2019s worthy of your time.\u201d I<\/p>\n<p class=\"p1\">can\u2019t do that, so I\u2019m having to be more creative as well. I\u2019m doing virtual happy hour with these<\/p>\n<p class=\"p1\">radio stations. We sit on Zoom, we have a margarita, we laugh with each other, I mean, we\u2019re all<\/p>\n<p class=\"p1\">kind of in that same boat, so you\u2019re just gonna have to get creative and even if you came to<\/p>\n<p class=\"p1\">Nashville, I couldn\u2019t see you, right? So, even if you could be in the house, three houses down, I<\/p>\n<p class=\"p1\">wouldn\u2019t be able to come hang out with you, so it\u2019s almost so off the table that it\u2019s a little<\/p>\n<p class=\"p1\">irrelevant. It\u2019s like, yeah you\u2019re right I couldn\u2019t do that, but what can I do? I can talk to you on<\/p>\n<p class=\"p1\">Zoom, I can look at your socials. I have literally taken selfie videos and told my program<\/p>\n<p class=\"p1\">director, \u201chey here are my three music priorities this week,\u201d and just sent them to them, just to<\/p>\n<p class=\"p1\">break up the monotony of an email or a text or even a Zoom at this point. We\u2019re on Zooms a lot,<\/p>\n<p class=\"p1\">and, you know, we\u2019re all kind of in the same boat, we\u2019re doing the same thing, and we\u2019re all<\/p>\n<p class=\"p1\">trying to do it from home, so just be encouraged that you\u2019re not the only one and that everyone<\/p>\n<p class=\"p1\">feels it. I don\u2019t want to tell you to not feel sorry for yourself or something, but like, at the same<\/p>\n<p class=\"p1\">time, we\u2019re doing the same thing, we\u2019re all kind of doing the same thing, so don\u2019t be discouraged<\/p>\n<p class=\"p1\">that you\u2019re the only one trying to navigate relationships and a job hunt in a new format, or, you<\/p>\n<p class=\"p1\">know, in a new world.<\/p>\n<p class=\"p1\">Student 6: Hi Ali, I\u2019m Andrea. I just have a question for you. I\u2019m from Syracuse, so I\u2019m still here<\/p>\n<p class=\"p1\">in Syracuse, and I really want to move to Nashville. That\u2019s my plan right after my lease is up<\/p>\n<p class=\"p1\">here in August, so I was wondering, when you did take that leap to Nashville, what was the<\/p>\n<p class=\"p1\">biggest thing that you did, do you think, moving forward to get to that spot where you wanted to<\/p>\n<p class=\"p1\">be down there. Like, what was your search like in terms of finding an apartment, kind of just<\/p>\n<p class=\"p1\">getting settled in Nashville.<\/p>\n<p class=\"p1\">Ali: So, I was at our house, and sitting there, our family friend was there, and this was right after<\/p>\n<p class=\"p1\">graduation, and I am a motivated, driven person, and after graduation all I knew was that I didn\u2019t<\/p>\n<p class=\"p1\">want to work at Edelman in New York City. And there\u2019s nothing bad about that, it just wasn\u2019t for<\/p>\n<p class=\"p1\">me, and I just knew that. So, I was sitting there and our family friend just said, \u201cwell what do you<\/p>\n<p class=\"p1\">want to do?\u201d And it almost just like, I had thought about it so much, but never said it, and I said,<\/p>\n<p class=\"p1\">\u201cI want to move to Nashville, and I want work in the music business,\u201d and just saying it out loud<\/p>\n<p class=\"p1\">was half the battle, and he said, \u201coh well I know a few people, I\u2019ll connect them to you.\u201d So,<\/p>\n<p class=\"p1\">before I moved, I emailed all of them, and they emailed back and one person I got on the phone<\/p>\n<p class=\"p1\">with and she said, \u201cdo you have any questions?\u201d and I was like, \u201cwell yeah, like, where should I<\/p>\n<p class=\"p1\">live?\u201d and she was like, \u201cwell a lot of people live in this area of town,\u201d so I sight unseen I just<\/p>\n<p class=\"p1\">got an apartment, I just, whatever, I figured if I didn\u2019t like it I would move to a new one in a<\/p>\n<p class=\"p1\">year, you know? So if you know somebody, me? Email me and ask me what part of town you<\/p>\n<p class=\"p1\">should live in, and I will tell you. I will at least tell you what part of town to not live in.<\/p>\n<p class=\"p1\">Student 6: Thank you.<\/p>\n<p class=\"p1\">Ali: You\u2019re welcome. And then just, literally I had a Nissan Altima, I put everything I owned in<\/p>\n<p class=\"p1\">it, I started driving. I didn\u2019t think too much. I just had said it, and I felt like, OK I have four<\/p>\n<p class=\"p1\">connections, that\u2019s enough, OK well I\u2019ll just sign this lease for a year, that\u2019s enough, and I\u2019ll just<\/p>\n<p class=\"p1\">move down to Nashville and figure it out when I get there. And the day after, say I got to<\/p>\n<p class=\"p1\">Nashville on a Wednesday, Thursday I walked in and got a waitressing job because I had to pay<\/p>\n<p class=\"p1\">my bills, and then from there I took it a day at a time, and kind of planned it all out. So, I would<\/p>\n<p class=\"p1\">just say if you want to do it, when the time is right obviously, I didn\u2019t move to Nashville until<\/p>\n<p class=\"p1\">August after I graduated, for the record, I graduated in May, Nashville had a huge flood that<\/p>\n<p class=\"p1\">May, things were weird, I just waited, I spent the summer in Syracuse, and I nannied, and then I<\/p>\n<p class=\"p1\">moved to Nashville in August.<\/p>\n<p class=\"p1\">Student 6: Alright, thank you.<\/p>\n<p class=\"p1\">Ali: You\u2019re welcome.<\/p>\n<p class=\"p1\">Kelly: Well thank you Ali, so much, for being here. We so appreciate your time.<\/p>\n<p class=\"p1\">Ali: Thank you guys! I\u2019m really excited about so many people wanting to move to Nashville<\/p>\n<p class=\"p1\">because I feel like a lot of people see the music industry and they want to move to New York or<\/p>\n<p class=\"p1\">LA, and there are just really really cool things happening in Nashville, you don\u2019t have to be in<\/p>\n<p class=\"p1\">the country music industry. We have a big rock scene, a big indie rock scene, if you want to be in<\/p>\n<p class=\"p1\">the Christian music scene, it\u2019s here, and so it just makes me really excited to see so many people<\/p>\n<p class=\"p1\">havean interest in Nashville.<\/p>\n\t<\/div>\n<\/article>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"","protected":false},"featured_media":363,"template":"","tags":[25],"podcast-series":[21],"acf":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/resources.newhouse.syr.edu\/cdc\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/podcasts\/253"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/resources.newhouse.syr.edu\/cdc\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/podcasts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/resources.newhouse.syr.edu\/cdc\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/podcasts"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/resources.newhouse.syr.edu\/cdc\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/363"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/resources.newhouse.syr.edu\/cdc\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=253"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/resources.newhouse.syr.edu\/cdc\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=253"},{"taxonomy":"podcast-series","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/resources.newhouse.syr.edu\/cdc\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/podcast-series?post=253"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}