Have you ever dreamed about quitting your corporate job and become a rock star? This Wed at 1:00-2:00 PST we talk to two people who will offer ideas on how to change your career. Both guests moved from traditional jobs to the music industry. We’ll hear about how they made transitions into a career change and how music has changed their lives. Once you figure out what you have developed a clear transition plan for your next job. The next step is networking. Many of my clients dread this part of the career process, however, it doesn’t have to be hard or painful. Check out the blog post from our upcoming guest on how he engaged his network.
Blog Post from our upcoming Guest
The lessons of those who have gone before
This business of music is changing almost daily. I am bombarded with new companies, blogs and slick new technology – it is hard to keep up. Often I turn off the clutter and lean on my reliable sources for the information I let come my way, experts I subscribe to on my computer screen or my phone line daily. I don’t need to be THE expert, I just need to know where to find the experts I need.
When I got into this business, I had a few months of calling myself a manager under my belt when I called Tim Collins, the longtime manager of Boston’s Aerosmith, arguably America’s biggest rock band. Tim was on top of the food chain for managers and I just wanted to meet him, touch his garment and hope that something would rub off on me. Tim was very generous of his time and we had a very nice, cordial meeting.
To my surprise, Tim called me the next day and asked me if I knew anything about a 200 capacity club in western Massachusetts, The Iron Horse. I did, and for the next 15-20 minutes I was able to download everything I knew about the club to Tim. He said “thanks” and we said good bye.
I hung up the phone and was amazed that I was able to help Tim Collins just months into this new career. So I called Tim back and said “Hey Tim, I just helped you” and he said “yeah, thanks” and I said “If I can help you, I”m sure you can help me out.”
Needless to say, managing Aerosmith for almost 2 decades at the highest levels of the music business made me confident that Tim knew a couple of tricks about managing artists and while I was on a roll, I told Tim that “we should get all the Boston managers together to help each other out”. Many years later, it sounds a bit naive, and it was, but this conversation was the birth of the Boston Manager’s group that is now still going strong after 14 years and with over 50 managers as members. With the birth of this group, I have my personal panel of experts I can contact to help me out of a situation that needs some extra finesse, and vice-versa.
As a manager, I need to be the leader of the Holy Crusade and I am supposed to know how to guide a career without question, the artist places their trust in my guidance. I need to be an expert.
This is quite a responsibility, sometimes it keeps me up at night, but often I relish in the wild west that is our business and the feeling of taking an artist up the food chain.
Where do I go for information? Often it is with lessons from people that have gone before me and blazed a trail that is still well traveled. It could be Tim Collins or John Lennon, or it could be Steve Jobs or Henry Ford.
Before the brilliance of Steve Jobs, there was a fellow named Henry Ford, who blazed a trail that changed the business world in a profound way.
When I was a kid I heard a story about ol’ Henry that I recently ran across in a blog by a writer of all things marketing, Sean Rasmussen, an Aussie ‘Success Communicator’. In this blog he wrote, it talks about my favorite Henry Ford story – he surrounded himself with smart, talented colleagues, just like Steve Jobs did. It takes a village, the manager should be the conductor of a talented team. Check out Henry’s story it is a great one.
(from SeanRasmussen.com)
