If you’ve dreamed about working in the music industry, you’re going to love our first guest of season 4! Laura Whitmore is the Senior Vice President of Marketing for Positive Grid, one of the most popular music brands in the industry. In today’s episode, Jenn and Kalli chat with Laura about how to effectively market new products, what the future of music marketing is heading, and more.
imPRessions S4 EP 1 Transcript
Jenn
Hey, Kalli.
Kalli
Hey, Jenn.
Jenn
Happy premiere of season four.
Kalli
Happy premiere of season four to you, too. It’s very exciting.
Jenn
Very exciting, especially as it’s a new year. This particular guest, I think, is a great way to kind of start this new season for us and kind of hit the ground running in January. I’ve talked a few times on the podcast about how I used to work in the music industry. And our guest today, Laura Whitmore, was really somebody that I looked up to. She currently is the Senior Vice President of Marketing at Positive Grid, which many musicians are very familiar with. They’re an incredible, innovative music brand. And we’re going to talk today just about the evolution of music marketing. There’s a lot of changes in the world today and trends and different things, you know, utilizing AI and social media, and there’s a lot of things that are no longer what they were when I was in the music industry. So, I thought it might be kind of cool to check in with her and kind of see where things are going.
Kalli
Yeah, that sounds awesome. I would love to take a trip down memory lane with you and see what you know and how things have changed. Great way to start the year.
Jenn
Agreed. So, this is a great way to launch season four. Excited for our listeners to tap back in, and here we go. Most young professionals dream of working in the music industry, full of creativity, passion, and the opportunity to connect with artists and audiences alike on a deep level through sound and innovation. Positive Grid is one of those brands leading the charge in reimagining how music is made and experienced. Today’s episode covers the evolution of music marketing with Laura Whitmore, Positive Grid’s Senior Vice President of Marketing, who has been a staple in the industry for decades. Today we’ll uncover how Positive Grid continues to strike the perfect chord between creativity and community, and what other brands can learn from its notable innovation. Hi Laura, thanks for joining us today.
Laura
Hello. Thank you so much for having me.
Kalli
Hi, Laura. So, before we jump into the core of our conversation today, can you just give us a brief background on how you got started in the music industry?
Laura
Yeah, I’m probably like every other person in the music industry was in that I wanted to be a musician. And I’m a singer-songwriter. And of course, I started out performing and going to school for music business. And I just love music so much. I’ve been focusing on storytelling and brand building in the music industry, mostly in the musical instrument part of the industry for my entire career. I did start out working at CBS Records for a couple of years as my first job out of school, and then moved into the music products industry, which is, you know, guitar amps and keyboards and instruments and things like that. And I think I’ve been very fortunate to work in the kind of rock and roll side of the music industry. And I really have a passion for, you know, connecting the creativity and the passion and the love of music with communication and marketing and the business side of things. And I just, you know, I feel like when you’re working on something that you really connect with, it shows, and most of my team that I work with are musicians or have some musical past. And it’s just a really great way to intersect, you know, all of those elements, creativity and technology and love of music.
Jenn
Yeah, that was, I mean, when I started my career, I started in the music world as well, as you know, and it was the same thing. I’m a musician and I just having the ability to kind of just do something that I loved and that really didn’t feel like work. I know that’s corny, but it really didn’t feel like, you know, really work. Like there was so much more to it than just, oh, you know, I got to wake up and go to the office and, you know…
Laura
Yeah.
Jenn
It just was really fun for me. And I think a lot of people kind of feel that in the industry. And especially at Positive Grid. I mean, I’m a piano player, but I know the products really well. My husband is a musician and guitarist and he loves Positive Grid. And the company is really well known for being very innovative. You have a pretty enormous, dedicated following, you know, on social media and just of fans and customers. How do you sort, how would you describe the brand’s marketing DNA? Like what is kind of like the foundation of your marketing and how you connect with so many people that follow your brand?
Laura
Yeah, I mean, I think you’re right. We are sort of innovative first when we think about our products and our company as a whole. We’ve had these conversations where we can’t just be innovative in our product. We have to be innovative with everything we do, how we tell a story, how we connect with the customer, how we connect with our retail partners, all of that. And so, we’ve definitely focused on breaking the mold there. I think we do think a lot about the emotional connection with the player. What is this going to make them feel? You have no idea how much time we spend on that. What is this going to make them feel? What do we want them to feel? What pain point does this solve for our customer? And we’re very focused on working with real musicians. Every time I do a photo shoot or a video or whatever, I insist on using real musicians and not models. I think it’s like that genuineness and that passion for music and technological innovation sort of intersect in our marketing, and we’re very genuine about how we talk to a customers in our community.
Jenn
I love that. And musicians can tell.
Laura
Yeah.
Jenn
Musicians can tell too. It’s like your customers will know, oh, you’re just, you know, looking for a pretty face. Like that person’s a legitimate musician. They legitimately know how to play. So, I think that’s really important.
Laura
Plus, I love giving musicians that opportunity for that visibility. I think that’s a real passion of mine personally is giving, you know, giving people opportunities like that. And that’s pretty cool.
Kalli
That’s definitely amazing. And just when you’re talking to a musician crowd, like I’m actually not a musician. I enjoy music, but never really played. Appreciate it. My brother is a musician. My co-host is a musician. They’re on the same level in my mind. But I do know that, especially musicians, and I’m sure that this can be said of other industries as well, But this is one in particular where people are extremely passionate. And I think what you said before really struck a chord with me. So, I didn’t mean to do it. I didn’t, but it happened. But it’s, you know, how does it make you feel? And I know like that is a huge part of music. It’s the way that, you know, how you’re playing it or how you’re hearing it, you know, how it makes you feel is a huge part of music, which can’t be said for everything. So, when you’re marketing these products that are going to help people achieve their musical goals, especially with popular products like Spark Amps, you’re blending the tech, you’re blending the creativity, what goes into building a go-to-market launch? Because I can’t imagine it’s the same as, let’s say, potato chips, the new flavor.
Laura
I mean, maybe it is. The crunch of potato chips is very satisfying.
Kalli
It is. That’s something I’m personally very familiar with.
Laura
But no, you’re right. There’s probably quite a few differences. I mean, just stepping back, I think, when you think about the emotional connection with the customer who’s making music, I mean, there’s so many levels of it, right? It’s like, what does it do for you personally, like internally? And if you’re just playing in your home, like it’s got to satisfy something that you like feel driven to do. But then also when you’re sharing that with other people, like that’s pretty terrifying, right? Like you’re sharing a performance, something you wrote, playing live, what have you, like it’s this experience that has such a deep meaning to the person creating it. So yes, we’re very conscious of that. You know, when we’re launching a product, we’re probably a little bit insane because we are so; we go so deep into so many levels of considering our messaging. Like I said, the emotional connection, building an experience, not just a product. Like, what is that going to feel like, for all our channels? Like, how are they going to understand, what this is and what it means to them? And we are, we create this like insane content matrix of every touch point that we’re going to have with the customer, and what story are we going to tell there? And what is it going to mean to the different target audiences and personas that we’re talking to? And then what does that mean globally? Because that’s going to have a different meaning to somebody on the other side of the world than it might in the US. So, we are thinking on so many axes and parameters as we’re building the launch. My favorite part though is the creative part where we’re coming up with the story and what does it look like and what is the language we’re going to say and how are we going to get people excited about it because that gets me excited too, as I also think about it from my own like level as a musician, like what would this get me? Would this get me excited? Does this language get me excited? And I’m also a, this is dumb, but I’m a copywriter and a graphic designer from my past. And I get very involved in all of that because I do really love that layer of the marketing mix. And I love dialing in the right story that really hits on that thing, that special thing that this product is going to bring into someone’s life. So, it’s a lot.
Kalli
No, that’s awesome. Can you, do you mind just diving in a little bit deeper in like, let’s say with Spark Amps, I know that’s one of the most popular products that you have. Like what was the go-to market launch for that?
Laura
The launch of Spark was really interesting because we launched that at the end of 2019 and we really didn’t know what we had. We knew we had something really innovative. And for those of you that don’t know, the Spark Amp is an amp for guitarists that also has an app that goes with it. And the app has like a whole boatload of amps and effects and other elements that you can use to change the sound of your guitar and what’s coming out of the amp. And then it also has a bunch of features that help you learn how to play. So, you can jam along with a backing track. You can have it build a backing track based on what you’re playing. You can have it glean what the chords are from a recording that you run through it, and it’ll show you what to play. So, it has all these really great features to help musicians learn and enjoy their playing. And we launched it right before the pandemic. And it actually was, it was launched like a Kickstarter, but it wasn’t on Kickstarter. It was on our own website, but we did, we really used FOMO pretty intensely to get people to buy now and get excited. And we did a pre-order. And the launch, the pre-order was supposed to end in December, and we were supposed to ship for Christmas. And then the factories all shut down from the pandemic. And we didn’t end up shipping our first units until February of 2020. We were in pre-order until August. And at that point, we had sold like tens of thousands of units. It was really the perfect product for people who had to be at home. And I think a lot of the music products industry did fantastic during the pandemic because people were home, they had time, they could indulge their passion in music making. And so, I think we were a pretty young company then. We hadn’t really been focused on marketing and selling hardware. So, we had a lot of growing pains and learning how do we ship this product and how do we support this product and how do we make sure our customers are having their questions answered. And a lot of communities built up around Spark. And I always kind of felt like it became almost cult-like because there was a hashtag, where’s my spark? And people were literally weighing in. Like if somebody said they got one, they’re like, wait, what was your order number? Like, where are you on the planet? Like, how come I didn’t get mine? And it became this like crazy viral moment.
Jenn
Oh my God, that’s so funny.
Laura
Yeah, it was really insane. I was saying I should just write a case study about it because it was very unusual. And we got to August, and we wanted to go into regular sale, and we still hadn’t shipped a ton of these products. And we had to figure out like, how do we ship this so we can get out of pre-order? And that was a whole other challenge. So, we’ve learned a lot since then. We’ve extended the line to many other products that are called Spark, Spark Mini, Spark Go, Spark Live. And we’ve learned a lot about launching a product. And we did use the pre-order model for a long time because it does enable you to get a feel for demand and start selling earlier, right? But we’ve kind of shifted away from that and expanded into more channels. We’re on Amazon, we’re in retail channel. And at that time when we launched Spark, we were only B2C. We have really expanded our team and thought a lot about, what is the right story in this channel? Like, how do we make them all work together? How do we get everybody on our side and be excited about a product launch? And it’s a lot of juggling, but I think we do have a product that people are genuinely into and excited about. And, we just launched earlier this year we launched a headphone version of the Spark. It’s called Spark Neo, and it’s literally a guitar amp that’s in your headphones. And it was our first time ever launching multi-channel at the same time. So, we like held inventory and we made sure we could launch on Amazon retail and B2C on the same day. And it was a phenomenal product launch. So, there’s pluses and minuses in all of it, but we do value all those channels, and we found a way to make it all work together.
Jenn
That’s awesome. That’s very exciting. And I guess the timing kind of did work in your favor because of the pandemic. And you’re right. I mean, my husband at the time was working for a music company and their products were flying off the shelves because people had nothing else to do. So, they’re like…
Laura
The virtual shelves.
Jenn
Virtual shelves, yeah, exactly right. So, I think that the timing probably was in your favor, if anything.
Laura
I think it was. I mean, I will say like Spark was, the Spark launch itself in 2019 was very successful. Like it surprised us.
Jenn
Yeah.
Laura
But I think that the pandemic sort of injected it with like, you know, a super launch that would have taken longer to get to, but it was pretty crazy.
Jenn
Yeah, and what is, something I’m curious to hear your thoughts on. Because I left the music industry before like TikTok came out, which is huge right now. Of course, we had YouTube and stuff, but TikTok really has transformed social media. So how do you implement that into your marketing? And how do you think that it has changed the way that music companies in general market their products to their customers?
Laura
I mean, I think it’s, you know, you wanna talk to audiences where they like to be, right? And so, if we’re on TikTok, we’re talking to probably a younger audience. Maybe we’re not going super deep; we’re telling pieces of a story, or we’re just having fun, attracting new audiences. I think we can use it a lot for visibility. I think it’s one of those things that we’re still figuring out, like what is the, you know, how do we measure how effective efforts are on TikTok, like we’re pretty much everywhere, we’re on TikTok, we’re on YouTube, we’re on Reddit, we’re like everywhere. But I do think that same as anywhere, that authentic sharing of like how much you love something resonates no matter where you are. And it could be fun and it could be serious, but I think it’s as long as you’re, you know, showcasing real users and making sure that you’re, you know, participating and commenting and being part of that like feedback loop and kind of embracing creators and getting them excited, then they share their excitement. All of that matters to us.
Kalli
So, what makes a music partnership authentic today? Because I’m sure between working with influencers and artists, it’s hard to balance wanting to partner with voices that have really large followings while also remaining sincere.
Laura
I mean, it’s interesting. For years, we didn’t work with artists at all. We were this amp for home playing, and it wasn’t really about what are the pros doing, right? So, we work with tons of influencers, big and small, and I think the influencer landscape has shifted a lot. A few years ago, people really got excited by what influencers had to say, and I think they still have influence, but maybe it’s dimmed a little bit. It’s not as, maybe crucial in some ways when you’re launching a new product. But I do think what they say and what they do have value. I think it’s like anything else. If you feel like it’s inauthentic, oh, this guy’s getting paid. Of course, he’s going to say it’s great. That’s the thing that we try to avoid. Now we work with tons of small influencers, like loads and loads of them. But the big ones, we’ve more honed in on people who are genuinely; we think of them as friends, like they love our stuff. We sometimes even have them involved like early on when we’re working on a new product to see what they think, that kind of relationship where we really only want to share it with people who are really going to be authentic about what they’re saying to their audience. When we work with artists now, we’ve worked with a lot of artists, and I think you’ve seen we’ve done some collabs with artists, including a recent one that we have done with Steve Vai, who we actually have a signature Spark Mini with Steve Vai. I mean, that came about so organically. You know, Steve, during the pandemic, you could see he had a Spark in his studio, like in the background. And we were like, look, Steve’s using Spark. And I had known him for years. And at one point, he started using the little Spark Mini, which is a battery powered 10-watt version of Spark. And he would use it backstage to warm up. And I went to see him play somewhere and he had his Spark Mini and he showed it to me. He’s like, look, look what I’m plugged into. And I’m like, oh, that’s so cool. And at one point when we started doing customization of the grill where you could print things on the grill, I printed his logo on a little grill, and I brought it to the show he was doing and gave it to him in another amp. And he had that one backstage for like a year. And then I reached out to him and said, hey, I know you love Spark Mini so much. Like, would you be interested in doing like your own signature version? And we worked together for maybe like nine months, figuring out what does it look like? What sounds are going to be in it? What’s the rest of the experience? Because we have like a lot of backing tracks and things that players can play along to and his own tones and all of that. So just like everything else, like we go pretty deep in how we work with artists and what it means and what those relationships look like. It can’t just be transactional because nobody in the music industry has that money. We’re not just paying somebody thousands of dollars to play our product. It’s not really about that. I’m not saying we don’t pay anybody, but I think the relationship has to feel of value on both sides. And when we launched Spark 2, for example, we worked with Nuno Betancourt. He genuinely loved the product. We had a really fun time shooting video content with him and he took it on tour to use backstage and just a lot of really real moments that happened there. I think it’s the same thing we were talking about before is that sincerity. You can tell. A lot of our collab content that we do now with artists and things is we don’t need to talk about our amps all the time. Let’s just share with our viewers, what are these guys doing? What do they love? What guitars are they using? What’s their warmup? All of this really valuable content that people want to see and it has intrinsic value. And yes, is the amp there? Of course, but it’s more about the storytelling than it is about us selling a product.
Jenn
I definitely agree with that. And this is a good segue because I was curious your thoughts. As Positive Grid evolves, now, you have integrated artists into your marketing, your business model. And we do know that music creation is subjective, right? And you’re going to have people that are just starting out that are amateurs who just maybe like to dabble. And then you’ll have some of the more experienced, you know, people that want to build out their gear and have a variety of different brands and amps and try out different things. So how do you market to both types of audiences? Because they really are kind of two different entities. So how do you differentiate how you’re going to market, whether it’s Spark Amps or any other product line that you want to be able to kind of like hit all of the boxes and be able to attract both types of musicians? So how would you go about doing that?
Laura
Yeah, I mean, it’s what I mentioned earlier, that massive content matrix. We do think about that. Okay, so if somebody just gets excited and they’re going to start learning, what’s the story that they need to hear to make a purchasing decision or get excited about the product? Somebody who is a pro might be influenced by other pros, their friends, other touring musicians, people get talking about it. But I think just creating those different levels of content and knowing how to target that. And then also on our website. We just launched BiasX, which is a new software product. We’ve had Bias software for a long time, but the BiasX version is actually AI empowered. And it’s actually really technologically very cool. So, we did grapple with like, how do we just tell like the enough of the story to get people excited? And then if they want to know more, you know, they can go to another layer of content. And of course, we look at how do other companies do this? How does Apple approach it? How does DJI approach it? Like what happens when you need to have different depths of information. And it is a very tricky thing to do because if you’re everything to everyone, then you’re nothing to anyone. So sometimes you have to pick a lane, like just know, here’s the thing that this product does really well, and here’s how it might resonate with those different target audiences and share that piece of the story with them. I think SparkGo is a really good example of that. So, we have this little 5-watt guitar amp that looks like a Bluetooth speaker And it actually can be a Bluetooth speaker as well. And we started out marketing it to just like, you know, the general guitarist who isn’t super deep or just sees the convenience of this portable little guitar amp. And then it later sort of migrated so that it became a really useful tool for touring pros. Like it’s in every guitar tech’s case now. It is the thing that they check guitars and warm up with and tune with and make sure, you know, they have on the bus and it became this, you know, it sounds so good that it’s the one that pros want to have when they’re, when they can’t be with their regular amp. So, it’s, you know, it’s just recognizing those, you know, different use scenarios and what’s important to those purchasers and making sure that you are telling the right story. But I also will say we didn’t go to pros and say, “hey, this would be great in your touring case.” It sort of organically went in that direction as people got to see more and more people using it and understanding like how great and useful this product is. So, sometimes like patience is important too in that whole mix of things.
Kalli
Yeah, of course. People, a lot of times you don’t know it until you try it.
Laura
Yeah, or you start to see like this critical mass of people using it and then you’re like, oh, wait a minute, I saw this other guy had this. Let me check it out.
Kalli
Yeah, I just want to go back a little bit because one of the things that you mentioned was, incorporating AI. So, as technology advances and companies all over plan to incorporate AI into their business models, how do you see this impacting the music industry? Like, where do you think the music industry is heading with AI?
Laura
Yeah, I mean, I think AI is like, you love it and you hate it, right? It’s a tricky thing, but we’ve all been really, you know, we use AI in our regular business world and there are some tools that are crazy useful, right? And I think the key is that they’re helpful. They’re not replacing you. They’re not taking away like your creative mind. They’re the thing that gets you to where, you know, point A to point B quicker. And when I think about it in the music industry, we view AI as a creative partner, not a replacement for creativity. Like we want you to get to the creative place that you love so much faster. So, you’re not dealing with like, how do I take this tone in? You know, what do I do next? It’s just this tool that empowers, you know, your creative flow. And that’s where we view AI and what we’re doing with our products and what’s coming next from us. And we just want musicians to have this like instant inspiration, so there’s no friction in their creative experience. I do see other companies doing things where they’re, we were talking the other day about some, I can’t remember the name of it, but some program where you can sing into it and you don’t have to be good and it’ll just take your vocal, your demo and make it into like ready to be released. And I’m like, that’s kind of sad. Like nobody has to be good anymore.
Kalli
That’s my dream. I could be Hannah Montana.
Laura
But see, right, there’s that side of it too. Like maybe for some people that’s really fun and really cool, so…
Kalli
Yes, because I, like I said, I’m not a musician. I’m terrible. Like no one wants to hear me sing. So that for me is like, I could live my dream.
Jenn
That bums me out, honestly. I just, I don’t know. It’s like, isn’t that what the point is that you’re supposed to be good? Like not everyone can do it, right? Like not everyone can be a pro athlete.
Laura
Yeah, right.
Jenn
So now it’s like, I don’t know, it kind of takes away the talent. You don’t have to be talented anymore. It’s like kind of sad.
Laura
I think the thing that, I forget who said this recently, I was, I can’t remember who told me this, so I’m sorry if I’m misquoting somebody, but they were talking about how in the future, like you don’t want AI to be creative for you. You don’t want it to replace the thing that makes us human, right? Like if we’re outsourcing creativity to AI, then we’re not being creative anymore. And that is what really made me really sad. I think the idea of you still needing to be good, I mean, I’m with you about that. I think that’s important, and I think most musicians would agree. But I also don’t discount this idea about, well, it’s just super fun to make your voice sound as good as, you know, your favorite singer.
Jenn
Yeah, I mean, it’s fine if it’s just for like entertainment purposes. I just would hope that we’re not getting like albums, and you know what I’m saying? Like that would kind of bum me out. Like, oh, the novelty of being a musician now is no more. Anyone can do it. It’s, so, but it, but for somebody like Kalli wanting to, what would I sound like if I actually was a singer? That’s kind of fun. I can understand that, but just as like a toy more than anything.
Kalli
Yeah. I, you know, I don’t think I’m going to get rid of my day job just yet.
Laura
But AI is tricky. It’s tricky. It’s like a balance like anything else. I think of it as a tool, right? Honestly, at the beginning when we were like, “You must learn AI,” it was kind of scary. I’m not gonna lie. I’m thinking like, oh, am I gonna put all my heart and soul into creating this GPT and then it becomes me, and they don’t need me anymore? Is that what I want? But I think I got over that hump and now I’m like, okay, let me bounce ideas off of this and really hone in on where am I.
Jenn
Yeah, I think that’s a great way, great way to use it and totally agree with you on that approach. I want to ask you, just outside of Positive Grid, you’ve been an integral voice, especially for women in music, and you founded the Women’s International Music Network. So, I was curious if you could maybe share a little bit about how that got started and maybe for our listeners, you know, how they can get involved as well. It’s a really exciting initiative.
Laura
Yeah, thank you. You know, it’s one of those things where you sit there and go, well, gee, I wonder why there’s no event or organization that will help me connect with other women in the industry. And then I, silly me, said, well, maybe I need to do something. But in 2012, I launched the Women’s International Music Network after I had been writing a column for Guitar World Magazine that focused on female guitar players and other women in the industry. And I just realized, like, we don’t know each other. People have the same negative experiences and nothing’s getting better. And so, as I had that thought, oh, there should be an event that connects women in the industry. I launched the idea for an event called the She Rocks Awards where we honor women in music and that includes like, you know, name performers as well as women behind the scenes. It happens every year in January during the NAMM show, which is the music product’s really big, enormous trade show that happens out in California. And the Women’s International Music was launched at the same time because I thought, well, this can’t just be about one event a year. This has to be about more than that. So, we launched the Women’s International Music Network as kind of a hub to give Women in music visibility and connection and opportunity. And we do a lot of other events and panels, and I have a podcast and just a lot of opportunity for learning and connecting and collaboration. And yeah, you can join our group. Our website is thiwimn.com. It’s T-H-E-W-I-M-N.com and we have a newsletter. So, if you sign up for that, you’ll know about all the opportunities and things we have going on. And we share a lot of what other women’s organizations are doing as well. We like to think of ourselves as a hub of information. And there’s no charge. We’re just out there trying to keep advocacy and equality and equity as a focal point in the industry. And I have seen progress, which is also really nice. So, our next She Rocks Awards is January 23rd, and it’s open to the public. And it’s a really exciting and inspiring event. And I really do enjoy sort of connecting people and being there and inspiring people in the industry to step up and get involved.
Jenn
I can attest; I have gone to the awards. I’ve gone to a couple of, during NAMM, a couple of like the sessions that you had. And I went to the Lisa Lope Show in, which was really fun a few years ago. Well, more than a few years ago now. This was before the pandemic. But yeah, it’s a really great, great, wonderful initiative, as I was saying before. So definitely recommend it to anybody listening that is a musician that is a woman. And it’s a great place to just have that community for sure.
Laura
Yeah, thank you. And yes, there’s a website just for the She Rocks Awards too. If you go to sherocksawards.com, the tickets are actually on sale right now for this year. And we also live stream so you can see the show if you’re not out in Anaheim as well.
Kalli
That’s amazing. And you know, it sounds like you really have been such an influential part of the industry. So, you know, before we let you go for the day, we have to ask what advice do you have for those people that are looking to break into the music industry, you know, in the marketing side of things?
Laura
I think marketing in the industry, I think it’s really fun. For some reason, this industry, though, is still pretty traditional, but I like to think that we can kind of think outside the box. I think my advice might be, be endlessly curious, be very open to learning and connecting, and yeah, show up at events, show up at things. I always say, like when I’m talking to students, I’m like, your superpower is showing up because not everybody shows up and then do what you say you’re going to do. I think sort of networking through contribution, like providing your help with organizations that are, you know, trying to build something, you know, like the Women’s International Music Network or many, many others is a great way to get to know people in the industry. And, you know, the industry is looking for people who, you know, are progressive, who can think about data and analytics as well as artistry. So, if you have some background in that, or you will, you are, maybe you’re a musician, but you’re working in another industry, just thinking about how those skills can connect, I think is really important. And just getting out there, I think, when I move somewhere new, my thing to meet other musicians is to go to open mics and just play and be open and talk to people and have no expectation, just that you love it and you all have a common thing that you love. And I think that there’s so many opportunities to step into and meet people.
Jenn
I didn’t have said it better myself and completely agree with everything that you mentioned. And yeah, it is really fun. It is hard work. As somebody who was lucky enough to start their career in the music industry, you know, this was great. Today’s episode was definitely the quintessential blast from the past. So, thank you so much for joining us today, Laura. I know you shared some incredible insights on your music career and what’s happening at Positive Grid and what people can do to get started. So, thank you. It was a pleasure.
Laura
Oh, thank you so much. I really enjoyed it.
Jenn
And thanks again to our listeners for tuning in. Be sure to follow The Pollack Group on all social platforms so you can stay up to date on new episodes from Impressions. If you have a guest idea, a question, or just want to say hello, drop us a line at impressions@pollackgroup.com. Until next time.
