industryLIFE: Veteran vs. Novice

We all start off as "newbies" but HOW you approach coming into an organization or professional situation can tell so much. Believe it or not, seasoned people can often tell a newbie right off the bat. Some of the tattle tale signs are coming in too aggressive, being disrespectful to others and name dropping. In the media, music and entertainment business these are some of the quickest ways to get your name placed on the "do not call them to work again" list. Here are two examples of what I mean...

While on assignment with the City of Atlanta for a relaunch campaign I encountered my first example. The campaign, already somewhat in motion, was not cohesive and basically not engaging enough to capture the eyes of the city. When I came on board I made efforts to get a handle on the media, posters etc that were currently being designed and shocked to find out that they were missing important pieces of information like the seal from the city and the dates and times of events. I immediately went into redesign mode and brought things up to par. The next task was to craft the official release about the relaunch of the city's services. As I was working on that, I got a call from one of the magazines we were working with inquiring about a woman whom had contacted them about the very ad that we had just spent hours revamping. The woman said that she would be the contact for things moving forward but the editor was not having it and called me immediately. She said she didn't believe this woman and to make matters worse her phone etiquette was horrible. I thanked her for the call and went back to my writing.

Just as I regained my focus on the press release, my line rang and it was the women. She was not very pleasant and some what demeaning at the same time. She started by telling me her name and going straight into questions like what so what are you doing on this campaign? Before I answered I asked her to explain her role. She stopped and replied, I will be marketing and media for this campaign. OK I thought, she is new to this. How did I know? She was so excited and she was more concerned with everyone's title vs. the actual work that had been done or not done! It was like she had been sitting home praying someone called her to work. Most seasoned people would start a call a lot different, they want to know where the bodies are buried, all the pertinent info to get this thing up and going without having to be on the no sleep team. Most of us could careless about the title they have, we want to know about the work! I ended that call by saying we can discuss all of that when you come into the office, can we expect you tomorrow? She seemed stunned by my answer but told me she would be there first thing tomorrow morning. Oh Goody, I couldn't wait...

When we finally did meet, she was very different from the phone. I don't know if she was on a sugar high or just excited to be on this assignment but she was different in a good way. That's when I decided she wasn't hopeless just clueless so I decided to share some wisdom. I told her to never ever approach a situation like that again. I informed her that the best way to handle it would be to ask, what is your role instead of asking "did they just ask you to write a release?" Pretty much the same question but a lot more professional. Her question nor tone showed me the professional she turned out to be (thank God!).  She agreed and apologized for the behavior. We worked together for months and actually collaborated on what would become a successful campaign for the city. When the assignment ended, I moved on to my next but got a phone call from the young woman. She said, "I just want to let you know I enjoyed working with you and hoped that we can keep in touch".  I don't hold many grudges so I agreed that we could stay in touch.

Then there was the email encounter I had with someone who limited himself to only doing PR for the hip hop community. I was working with a DJ who wanted to increase his bookings. We came up with a plan to do an email campaign. We combined our lists and sent the blast. Not 30 seconds after the blast hit in boxes, I got a reply from a guy asking..."How do you know DJ XXX?"....no introduction, nothing just how do you know him? First off I'm like why is he so protective of another man? And who the hell is this? Finally I replied is there something I can help you with? He replied, yes, I am a personal friend of his and was not aware that he was working with a PR (that phrase bugs real PR people but I'll save that for a whole other blog!)...I laughed because I knew this DJ was not committed to one PR person and worked with quite a few of us. I waited about an hour then replied...I've known him for 20 years, I drove him to many of his first gigs and even helped him carry crates...how do you know him again?

There was no rely. Then about 2 weeks later, I woke up to find a Facebook friend request from the newbie with a note saying "sorry". Do you think I added him? Ha Ha Ha!

industryLIFE: Can I Get Some Professionalism?

Over the years I have worked with some of the best people in the media and music industry however there seems to be a "thing-y" that happens when successful/famous people come into the picture...most people lose their professionalism, their focus and often their cool. So this is the story of one incidents.

On several assignments where I was working as a #BTS Producer for recording artists, I got to see professionalism lost first hand. Now as I have said before people come into the business from various walks of life so they approach situations from different vantage points and that's where things can go really bad!

On one particular assignment where I was working with a successful female rapper and her superstar music producer, we all witnessed the melt down of professionalism. The assignment was to capture the artist and producer working in the studio, on set and behind the scenes. The artist and producer were well known and their music was global. They were working on the next album for this artist and the project would require hiring several camera people to capture as much of the happenings that we could from Atlanta to Los Angeles. Since the project was “fluid” I was on call. Basically I had to wait for calls from the record label or management to give me the next location for shooting then assemble a crew to get the job done. At one point the artist would be in LA recording tracks for the album. The studio where she was working was pretty popular in the business and many artist had recorded there in the past. On this particular night she would be recording with a long time friend and pop superstar and the label wanted that footage. I was called at about 3am, yes 3am with all the particulars for the next night. Well I spent the next few hours reaching out to secure a camera person for the shoot. A friend at the time suggested using his brother for the shoot. Now I thought this guy had spent enough time around the business to know the drill but boy was I wrong!

I got in contact with the guy and he was willing to do it! I gave him the location and all the information that he needed to make it a successful shoot however I should have given him some lessons in professionalism too. I made sure the camera man arrived before the talent and stayed on the phone with him to make sure all was going well. He assured me that it was so I relaxed as much as I could since I was not physically their to manage the situation. A few hours passed and since I was in Atlanta all I could do was wait to hear how things had gone. Well about 3am my cell phone rang and it was the artist’s manager. She and I had known each other for a few years so there was a comfort level already established. When I answered she greeted me and then said are you sitting down? I was shook but yeah I was sitting and asked her to go on. She asked me if I had spoken to the camera man to which I replied not in a few hours, why? What happened? The manager went on to tell me that the artist was furious! I just sat quietly waiting for the shoe to drop. She told me that when the artist arrived the camera man was there but he had brought a few friends along. (WTF this is work, would you take your friends to your call center job?) Ok, I started taking notes. She went on to say that in addition to the friends tagging along this guy had no professionalism at all. First off when the artist arrived, he did not introduce himself. He simply grabbed his camera turned it on and started shooting her! Now maybe some celebrities are OK with this but she was not. She was known as being a hard core rapper so when she saw some strange guy shooting footage of her and her friends she went over to confront him. When she did, he told her that he had been hired by the label to shoot her session that night. She did not know anything about this and since he had already rubbed her the wrong way, she called her manager to find out what was going on. The manager assured her that he was just a little new and apologized on his behalf. She let it slide for that night but the manager asked me to NEVER use him again. I agreed.

When the artist returned to Atlanta, I made sure to be there for every session so that we could make her feel comfortable and to reassure her that we would not tape anything that she did not want us too. She and I talked about the incident in LA and I apologized again. She was cool so we proceeded with that night's work with a new camera person. Because of what happened in LA I had to stay there as they recorded through the night just to make sure there were no f*ck ups! The shoot went great that night! We got some great footage of them working together, we put the camera man in the booth with her as she recorded her latest song and it looked great on camera. When the recording session was over, I was ready to go home and get some sleep but that money has to always be taken care of. I told the camera man that he was done and that I would take care of invoice being signed off on. He left the studio to load his gear into the car and I went to find the producer to get his signature. Now he was hanging out in the TV room so I knocked on the door and was told to come in. When I got in the room he was there with a young lady that I knew so we said hello. (It was weird to me because I thought she was involved with another producer but there she was sitting with him at 4am!) Anyway, the producer said that he need to talk to me so we went outside to the bar and chopped it up. As we talked he signed the invoices and I began gathering my things to leave. Just as I was headed to the door, the camera man comes back inside speed walking. I had done a sweep of the studio to make sure we left nothing behind so I wondered where was he going. Then I saw that he was holding something in his hand. The producer was headed back into the TV room when the camera man yelled to him. As I'm standing there watching him I get the weirdest feeling but I wait to see just what he is about to say. The producer turns back and that's when the camera man professionalism went out the door. Seems this guy had a nephew who was an aspiring rapper and the camera man had agreed to get his demo into the hands of some people in the music business. This guy runs, yes runs over to the producer and begins to pitch him on listening to this demo. Again it was 4 AM!!!

As I stood there, my blood began to boil. We had just finished the longest days of this assignment and you now want to play A&R? At 4am? The producer looked over at me like, where did this guy come from? He then listened for a quick second and took the CD. I tapped the camera guy on his shoulder and said "let's go" in a way that he knew I was pissed! He turned and walked towards the door while asking me, "did I do something wrong?" I couldn't talk to him! I had to just keep walking. By the time we reached my car, I finally looked at him but for some reason I just couldn't snap on him about what had just happened. See his face was beaming with joy because he was able to put the CD in the producer's hand. I told him we would talk about it the next day but wouldn't you know it, the next day or rather later that morning, I get a call from the label saying don't bring him around anymore.

Now how was I going to fire this dude and keep my working relationship in tack?
 

Pick up Vol. II of Industry Life Book Series to get the rest of this story. (#ILBS)