By: Nora McGonigle
This summer I made the trip from the University of Georgia in Athens, Georgia to Nashville for an internship at Olivia Management. 11 weeks flew by way too fast and I wish I had more time, but I am so happy to have had this experience and I learned so much. Now that I've settled back in and am getting ready to start my last year of school, I've had time to reflect on my time at Olivia Management and what I've learned this summer.
1. Trust Your Instincts
I've always been the kind of person who goes after what they want and works hard to make it happen. I knew I wanted to intern in the artist management field and I knew I wanted to go to Nashville. After interviewing with Maggie for the position, I knew that this was a place I could see myself working. I loved the idea of working for a smaller company rather than a large corporation and Erin's story was inspiring to me and I knew I wanted to learn from her. It was a little scary to think about moving to another state where I didn't know nearly anyone, but I had a good feeling about it, so I went for it. I took a second job for the days I wasn't interning in order to offset costs. It was a lot of work, but it eventually paid off!
2. Independence/Problem Solving
My favorite thing about working at Olivia Management was all the hands-on opportunities interns have. I have heard so many stories about friends who have interned with companies who spent their days only on coffee runs and watering plants in the office. I was so grateful to get to contribute valuable work everyday and be involved in projects. I loved the weekly staff meetings on Mondays because Erin always updated us on what the artists were working on this week and what their goals were. Questions and thoughts were always welcome and she would explain why some things are done a certain way. While Maggie, Erin, and Madeline were always willing to answer questions, we were given lots of independence with our tasks. This was beneficial because not only were we trusted with our work, but we were also able to figure things out for ourselves and learn more in the process. I learned a lot about all the systems we used such as Bandsintown, Songkick, Artist Growth, MailChimp, etc. and they are all things I would use in the future. We were given a lot of freedom with our blog-writing which was something I sometimes struggled with, but when I would finally come up with an idea and get it written down and posted, it was a good feeling!
3. Hard Work Pays Off
Erin, Maggie, and Madeline are three of the hardest working people I know. They are extremely passionate about their artists and dedicate themselves to making their careers as successful as possible. It was really cool to see all the big and small victories that happened every day that make everyone's hard work worthwhile. Whether it's a successful first single release, getting a song placed on a big Spotify playlist, a Grammy nomination, or a sold out show, these victories were exciting to see and reminded me why I want to work in the music business. One of the coolest things I got to do this summer was go backstage for my first time at the Ryman and see The Secret Sisters perform to a standing ovation. So many people came to the merch table afterwards saying how much they loved their performance. This is something any artist's management team would be proud to be a part of!
Overall, this summer has been a great learning experience and I'm glad I took the chance to spend my summer here in Nashville. Erin, Maggie, and Madeline have been great mentors and have each taught me so much! This internship has made me fall in love with artist management even more and I can't wait to see where my career takes me next (hopefully back to Nashville in a year!). I've learned valuable lessons and skills that will help me in any area of music or business! I highly recommend an internship with Olivia Management to anyone looking to learn more about the music business. I may be biased, but I think they are some of the best at what they do! I will always be a fan of Olivia Management and their artists and am so grateful to them for giving me this opportunity!
