Corporate Job to Music Industry - How My Background Helped
On stage in Montreal, BC 2022
When I first quit my corporate job in technology after 10 years to work for myself as a freelancer and consultant in the music industry, I was nervous as heck..
Sure, there was definitely a passion of mine in the live entertainment and music space, but the uncertainty of the work mixed with the naysaying of friends and family really made it a difficult decision for me at the time. Of course, now looking back several years later, I am extremely happy I made the difficult decision to leave. In fact, I found myself quickly excelling in the music industry and freelance world because of my previous experience in corporate technology, and it was an interesting realization, one that I did not expect to have at all. So today, I want to talk a little bit about how my time in corporate work set me up for success in the freelance and music industry fields.
Professionalism
Above all, my overall sense of professionalism that was taught and indoctrinated through my years in corporate work was the biggest benefit to my career in freelancing in music. Because the music and freelance world have such low barriers to entry, in the sense of general hobbyist and the simplicity of setting up an online store to sell various guides and services, it becomes a vast sea of people who don't know how to send an email the right way. As you can imagine, most of my years spent in corporate were very technical and detail-oriented when it came down to matters of communication, professionalism, dress code, and more. Above all, the corporate world taught me the most about how to maintain professional relationships with colleagues, clients, leadership, and more. I quickly learned in my time in music and freelance that other players in the field did not have this background or training.
It became very easy to stand out as someone who not only valued their job but also respected other people and communicated professionally in the music and freelance field, and this quickly caught the attention of senior-level music players who do have that similar professional etiquette. A very simple example is the amount of advanced email work that I do as a music manager, with venues, agents, promoters all across the world. They are frequently used to being contacted by individuals who are in it for the fame and glory, whereas my background taught me to come forward first with respect and professionalism. I watched many colleagues fall out of their roles in music and freelance because they lacked the sense of professionalism, whereas I, on the other hand, was able to maintain a status quo for myself and the people I worked with. That attention to detail and professionalism was all I needed for ongoing success in my fields.
Communication
My time in corporate tech can be summarized as a consistent, ongoing thread of communication between colleagues, leadership, clients, and more. Communication was annoyingly consistent in the corporate world, down to the exact minutes of meeting notes that nobody ever looked at but were recorded anyway. In the music and freelance world, many individuals did not have this attention to communication or even the desire to humor it, which left a lot of room for miscommunications and errors in partnerships and more. It became very easy for me to establish my authority as a good communicator by simply tracking all the conversations and notes from meetings with important players. Improved communication in the music industry, specifically, can help maintain all sorts of items that typically fall through the cracks, like production details, financial reporting, partnership expectations, and more. Of course, I'm summarizing a lot of this, but the point is that being in the entertainment industry that music is, attention to quality communication tends to fall short, especially at the lower levels of employees or management, which is an opportunity to step in and provide structure.
Organization
When I made the jump into music and freelance work, I was shocked at the lack of overall organization. There were certainly bits and pieces of information that were handled poorly in the corporate world, but music was a battlefield of disconnected thoughts and ideas that had no structure or sense of prioritization. My early years in the freelancing music world were mainly spent digging and catching up with various production and logistical pieces, none of which were thought through or connected in a meaningful way. Maybe it's the kind of person I am, aside from the technical corporate background, but I do not like disorder, so it quickly became my mission to organize all the various moving pieces of my client and event work. It probably isn't a surprise that many of the players I worked with found this attention to organization helpful and something they wished was put into place much sooner. For me, however, it was just second nature and honestly helped de-escalate my anxiety, lol.
Celebration
This may sound like an obvious one, but coming from corporate, I had a certain preference for how I celebrated and partied. Through years of training and indoctrination, I had trained myself to be very selective with how, when, and where I partied or celebrated. The music industry, for a lot of people, is one big party, which, of course, does not equate to a long career in the field. I watched very many talented individuals around me lose their opportunities because of an inability to handle and manage their own desires. At a very simple level, working in the music industry is often times surrounding yourself with temptations of drugs, alcohol, and more. As a tour manager, every night I am on the road surrounded by these temptations, but it is my duty to stay away from them and perform my role as I had agreed to.
My background in the corporate world taught me the importance of managing my time and desires, and to this day, I am very selective with how, when, and where I choose to partake in any form of celebration. It's really a breath of fresh air for my clients in the music field, who are typically used to individuals losing themselves in the party. It's understandable how someone without the mental resistance would give in to these temptations, but I believe that my background and training in corporate tech helped keep me away from these temptations.
Attention to Detail
Lastly, I have always had a strong attention to detail, but even more so, I developed my sense of detail through my corporate experience. Working in a technology field at the corporate level meant I spent a lot of time digging through the details of contracts, financials, and more. In the music world, there are a lot of moving pieces that sometimes slip through the cracks due to a lack of attention to detail. Sometimes these items could be quite substantial to the success of a tour or music event, and thus it was natural for me to pay attention to those details above the rest. I can name many specific situations where I have come to meetings in the music and freelance world with a laundry list of detailed topics to discuss that nobody else had brought to the table. For some, it may have seemed like overkill, but it's not in my nature to leave topics undiscussed, especially those that I foresee slipping through the cracks.
Overall, my background and experience in the corporate world taught me a lot about professionalism, communication, organization, and more. The music and freelance industries are the wild west of employment, and many of these SOPs that are found in the corporate world are nowhere near developed. For me, someone with that technical corporate background and attention to detail, it became very easy to demonstrate a higher level of performance to my colleagues and peers in the music and freelance industries, and to this day, my work continues to propel my career forward. After all, this is my life calling and it is my career, and I continue to treat it as such.
Hopefully, this read was insightful, educational, or possibly simply entertaining in some way. If you want to learn more about the type of freelance and music industry work I do, please consider subscribing to my newsletter at the bottom of this page. I also have links to my social media and an option to schedule a consultation call on my Linktree here. Thanks for reading, and I hope you enjoyed.