Day In The Life of an OM Intern - Maddie Humble

by Maddie Humble

Hi y’all! It’s Maddie Humble the intern here!

Me and my puppy Charlie!

A little bit about me, I am originally from Chattanooga, TN (Go Lookouts!) but moved to Nashville to pursue a degree in music business at Belmont University in 2019. I am currently looking forward to graduating in May and then getting married to the love of my life in September!

However, that’s enough about me. I am going to be taking you through my day as an intern here at Olivia Management! I have so loved my time working here since January and am currently looking forward to the rest of the semester. It has been so much fun getting to work and make friends with Erin, Merk, Grace, and Maddy. They are the definition of #GIRLBOSS. Also, the artists here at OM rock my socks off!

Now, let’s get into it!

7:00 AM : This is the time I usually wake up. I get ready for the day and try to fit in a little pilates workout.

8:00 AM : I am ready and out of the door by this time. I leave an hour early. (Mainly to beat Nashville morning traffic and to grab myself a Strawberry Oat Milk Matcha Latté from Barista Parlor.)

9:00 AM : This is when my work day at OM starts! Once I get into the office and say hello to everyone, I log in to Slack and Asana to see what kind of tasks I have been assigned for the day.

What I love about working here at Olivia Management is that my assignments can vary from day to day which makes everything so exciting. Some assignments that I enjoy are sending out merch, adding to the wall calendar in the office, creating social media ideas for artists, and of course writing blogs.

The work environment here at OM is so amazing too. We all respect and get along with each other so well. The vibes in the office are always so fun. I have really enjoyed listening to our artists albums throughout the day while we work.

12:00 PM : After getting my morning tasks done, I take a lunch break around noon.

Here are some of our favorite lunch places where you can usually find us on our lunch break here at OM:

The Wash - Whether it’s poke or a cuban sandwich, The Wash has got it all! (And it’s walking distance from the office)

Tower Deli and Market - Try out my favorite, the Italian sandwich or Grace’s favorite, The Cali.

Eastwood Deli - Best specialty sandwiches ever!

Franklin Juice - We always go here if we are craving an acai bowl or a fruity drink.

12:30 PM : I am back in the office by this time finishing all of my tasks for the day.

5:00 PM : This is when my workday here at Olivia Management ends and I head home to Green Hills. After work, I usually wind down with a good book and a glass of wine and am in bed by 10:00 PM.

Thank you so much for reading and I hope this gave you more insight on what it’s like to be an intern here at Olivia Management!

Toodles!

Work! Life! Balance! Oh My!

Written By Kate Cosentino

Work life balance-the hardest balance to strike. There’s never enough time to live all of the lives I want to live, much less to check every box on my list or else I’d be a famous singer/songwriter, professional roller skate dancer, polyglot with the cleanest house you’ve ever seen. But alas— I’m only a fraction of that dream human being. In elementary school, I remember reading The BFG by Roald Dahl and learning that his mythical “Big friendly giants” did not have to sleep-saying, why sleep when you can live double the amount of time? That thought has always stuck with me. Life is so amazing and I don’t want to waste a second! It’s no wonder I’m a a three on the enneagram and I feel every single second cramming each one as full of as much productivity as possible. With that being said, I am constantly studying ways to combat my need to fit everything into the 7 days a week. Stephen Covey’s The Seven Habits of Highly Effective People is the most recent book to change my life layout.

Covey divides his schedule into quadrants to be re-evaluated weekly (or however regularly you want).

Image made by Kate Cosentino on Canva

As you can see in the image above, Quadrant 1 represents things that are both urgent and important. Examples include: deadline driven projects, urgent occurrences (like a car crash or leak in a pipe). Quadrant 2 are things that are important but not urgent. These are the things I typically care the most about like making music and working on my passion projects and career. Quadrant 3 is urgent but not important like maybe a call you have to answer or upkeep tasks you have to do. Finally Quadrant 4 are things not as urgent and not important so your Netflix and your Fortnite. Below is what a lot of my quadrant activities look like:

For me, Quad 1 & 3 are ever present so I use my planner to make sure I prioritize items in Quad 2. For example, I block out an hour or so daily for physical activity/exercise. That is not an urgent task but it is important to my mental and physical health. I also have to block out time where I’m working on me and my music because no one will give me that time but myself. Covey also suggests blocking in a healthy amount of leisure time from Quad 4. I think that is important or else you risk burning out and living in Quad 4. If I work too hard without a break I will get lost in movies and TV shows because I have no more brain power to keep going. If I schedule in fun nights with friends or time for my favorite show during the week, I get a healthy break that makes me more motivated to keep working.

I personally love using a physical planner with color coded pens and highlighters. I assign each quadrant a color. Quad 1 is pink, Quad 2 is purple, Quad 3 is blue and Quad 4 is yellow. It helps me visually how much time I am spending on each activity. This works well in Google Calendar where you can color coat activities as well-with the added bonus of a notification to your phone or two your email. Personally I love having the visual of these planners and blocking off time so that I don’t get too far behind on any of my goals—especially if they’re not urgent. And it makes sure I’m balancing work and play!

If you want a physical planner yourself I would recommend the Happy Planner of the Passion Planner. They come in varying sizes and layouts. I love the fun stickers and designs! Happy planning!

Rethinking Routine

by Mackenzie Fey

If you’ve been following along in the last couple of blog posts, you might’ve seen me fish out some tips for working at home and making yourself a pro at this. These tips included starting your days with intentionality, spacing things out mentally and physically, and the importance of taking breaks. All of these things emphasize keeping things as normally as possible within the confines of an abnormal time. There’s nothing wrong with this! For people like me, I need to maintain that mindset to continue being productive and get the responsibilities I have taken care of. But this came to a realization that during these abnormal times, it’s okay to have things be just that. Abnormal.

Don’t get me wrong! There is so much value in routine! Right now, however, times are evolving and changing. Nothing is how it was a year ago. I mean, not even a month ago! What’s the harm in evolving your own routine? Doing things a little differently and reminding yourself it’s okay to be imperfect and skip out on getting into normal people clothes on Tuesday morning and just staying in your pajamas. It’s actually kinda fun! This can even look like finally picking up that brush and paints you got forever ago and never actually used it. It could be listening to an artist or genre you haven’t taken the time to listen to during your work hours (see below!). Go ahead and eat cereal and a donut for dinner. Try a new tv show on a Monday night at 11pm. Now’s the time!

Having a hard time deciding what your new non-routine could look like? I can help with that:

Today, Ruthie Collins released her sophomore album Cold Comfort featuring singles like “Dang Dallas” and “Bad Woman”. It has everything you’d want in an album: truth, heartbreak, enchanting melodies, storytelling, incredible production, and a song that can relate to any one of us. Check it out at this link here and give it a listen! Try it out, you won’t regret it.

To further break up the “normal”, tune in tonight at 7pm central to hear the new album live from Ruthie’s couch in New York! Join us on her YouTube channel tonight at YouTube.com/RuthieCollinsMusic.

Work from Home like a Pro

by Mackenzie Fey

Some Tips for working in your new home office

If your kitchen table has seemingly become the hub for all things eating and working, tune in! This post is for you. These days, working from home is becoming the new norm. Your living and relaxing spaces are now coinciding as the same space as your concentration and effort. Check out a few tips on how to make all this crazy a little bit more manageable!

Photo from The Lighting Judge

Tip 1: Start your days off intentionally!

A long time ago (well, not really all that long ago), commutes to work were actually a thing. This could’ve consisted of getting up, starting the coffee, a quick workout and shower, the list could go on and on. Now that our “commute” is from our bedroom to the livingroom, we’ve seemingly gained a few more minutes to spare. It’s easy to fall into a pattern of waking up 5 minutes before you’re supposed to hop online. In experience, this can lead to lack of effort and motivation. Efficiency isn’t as high as it could be, well, because you woke up 5 minutes ago. You’re brain’s not fully awake! It’s possible that setting up your mornings a little bit earlier and setting up a slight routine will help, even if it isn’t much. For me, it’s getting up and still pretending that I’m heading into work. This includes getting dressed (yes, even jeans sometimes) and heading downstairs for a light breakfast and coffee. It starts my days off a little bit more motivated and gets things going!

Tip 2: Spacing things out

Spacing is everything for me. I tend to correlate my physical spaces to my mental spaces. If I’m relaxing, reading, and sleeping in my bedroom, that is no place for me to try and dive into work or homework. I have designated spaces for work, for hanging out, eating, and so forth. If I overlap my work spaces with any other, I find I can never really turn that work “switch” off. My brain really has a hard time differentiating what mode I’m supposed to be in at a given time. When your normal hours of work are over, turn off your computer and hide it away. Outta sight outta mind, I guess!

Tip 3: Take Breaks!

You do this at work, why would you not do this at home?! Avoid cabin fever and restlessness by taking your lunch and eating it outside, away from the screen. Walk to the corner and back with your dog for a quick 10 minute break of movement and fresh air. Do this a few times throughout your day. Maybe even call some family or friends for some outside of work social time and see how they’re doing. It helps, I swear!

---

Okay, let’s be real. None of this is purely factual or scientifically researched on our end of things, but more of what seems to help us at Olivia Management that might just help you! Take what you’d like, leave what you’d like. At the end of the day, we’re all just trying to get through this as quickly and safely as possible! Stay well, and wash your hands, y’all.

Juggling an Internship, Work and School

By Debbie Undercoffer

At times it seems like your college classes can be too much, but how do you handle going to school, working and taking on an internship? The best piece of advice I can give someone, is to work on your time management skills. If you’re not able to manage your time wisely, you can quickly get overwhelmed, over-worked and begin to miss important deadlines. There are a few things that I do to keep things in order and hopefully they will help you do the same:

First, I always start out by writing down my priorities and putting them in order. Say you have a class starting at 8am, then your internship from 10am-4pm and your shift at work starts at 5pm. Map out every single day and write it down so you have a visual aid. Once you have that mapped out, then break down each responsibility for each activity. For example, you have 2 assignments due on Monday for that 8am class. Then your internship is asking that you have a blog post written so you can post it as soon as you get in. Lastly, your shift manager needs you to have the budget report completed by the end of the week. If you write down everything that is needed for each activity and start to prioritize, then you’ll be able to manage your time correctly and make sure you hit all your deadlines.

Separating things out and prioritizing them like this will help you plan out your week and will give you a little more free time than if you did it on the fly and realize at 10:30pm on a Sunday that you haven’t started a single one of the assignments for the next day. It’s important to include giving yourself a little time to just relax. Don’t over-book or over-commit to things and burn yourself out. Your mental health should always come first. If you start feeling over-worked and you notice that things are starting to slip through the cracks, start asking for help. Maybe one of your classmates can help you study for that exam, or one of your co-workers can step in and assist with a project. Don’t be afraid to reach out for help. Sometimes even having someone pick up dinner for you can make a all the difference.

Of course everyone is different and the way I do things may not work for you, and that’s ok! Go and shuffle that playlist of your favorite Olivia Management artists to listen to while you set calendar reminders for yourself, leave sticky notes on your mirror, or make a calendar and hang it on your wall. Just be sure to find a process that works best for you and stick to it!