By James Muller
The start of this internship was a little bit different than I had expected because of COVID-19 and everything that came with it. You would think that working remotely for the first few weeks of an internship would make for a confusing and difficult landscape to navigate, but it was honestly quite the opposite. Getting started with this internship was about as smooth as a new intern could hope for, and it almost felt like we were all working in the same office despite being physically apart. Part of what made this such a smooth experience, besides how awesome, patient, and communicative our team is, are the systems that we use. I’m not sure if it would have been possible to get things done in an efficient manner if it weren’t for the instant communication that Slack offered us. Slack is basically a virtual office space where we can all come together online and talk to each other in real time as if we were communicating in person. During the first few weeks as an intern, I would start the day by signing on to Slack to let everyone know that I was online, to which I was greeted by everyone online, and it genuinely felt like I was physically there, ready to work.
Fast forward to the present day, we have transitioned to working at our new office in East Nashville. It is a shared office space from a company called Three One Three, and it has been nothing but a great experience to come in every day to a bright, cheerful space where we can safely make things happen and work together in person.
Now that I’ve thought a little bit about how this internship has been productive and a great learning experience despite the strange times, let's get down to the nitty gritty of what a day in the life of an Intern at an artist management firm like Olivia Management looks like!
When I arrive at the office, I am greeted by the smiling faces of our awesome team, and then I get on my computer, log into all of our systems, and get to work! The first order of business is logging into Asana, which is an organized system for tasks that need to get done. I check to see if there is anything pressing that has been assigned to me. This would be tagged as high priority, and typically needs to get done ASAP. These tasks typically involve anything from adding artists’ shows into Artist Growth, a system that allows us to add in information about specific shows, so our artists can have an organized place where they can see all of the details for the show. Although most of the live, in-person shows have been canceled for the foreseeable future, our artists’ have been staying busy doing online shows, and finding other creative ways to interact with their fans. This has been keeping us busy, too! In order to maximize the outreach and exposure of these shows, I often find myself adding Eventbrite pages for artists’, which gives fans details about the livestreams, and a link to buy the tickets. Ruthie Collins recently added four Live Stream From the Airstream dates, so adding these shows to Eventbrite, and editing the show posters in Canva are something that I find myself doing often in my day, not just for Ruthie, but for all of our busy artists!
One of the things that I love the most about this internship is that I never know what I’m going to be doing next. It seems like everyday I am going to be introduced to a new system or process that helps our artists grow, and make money.
If you had told me a year ago that I would be helping put together a socially distanced tour for Jill Andrews, that effectively brings live music to fans in a safe way during a pandemic, I would have been scratching my head, but it has been one of the most rewarding experiences about this internship. Never knowing what I’m going to be doing next, and then jumping into a new situation where I have to learn as I go has been a great growing experience for me, and I look forward to it every day.
While I love having tasks thrown my way, and learning new things, one of my favorite parts of my day as an Intern is taking time to work on my semester-long projects. At the beginning of the semester, I chose to take on two semester long projects: writing the monthly Olivia Management newsletter and acting Wikipedia Master. Learning how to draft a newsletter in Mailchimp has been a very insightful experience and one that has really helped me learn about email marketing and writing in general. The Wikipedia Master task has been challenging, but I think a good challenge is important. I had no idea before this internship that creating a Wikipedia page was such an intricate process, but I have learned a lot in the process.
It’s difficult to explain what a day in the life of an Intern is like at Olivia Management because a typical day is not typical compared to another job or internship. There is always something new and exciting happening, but one thing that stays constant is the positive and encouraging attitude of the team. Everybody works hard day in and day out and is committed to doing their very best work to promote the beautiful music that our artists make!
Hey, you!
Yes, you! Liking what you’ve read? We’re currently on the lookout for new interns to join the team for the Fall Semester of 2020 for school credit. Contact us at mackenzie@oliviamanagement.com with your resume and cover letter attached to begin the conversation!