Why You Should Be Aggressive About What You Want: How An Email Can Change Everything

By Emily Miethner | Published: January 19, 2012

I just stumbled across a really old blog entry of mine from 2009. I think it’s worthy of a repost with some introductory hindsight.

Background:

One of my favorite professors, Tom Klinkowstein, occasionally had guest speakers come in to my New Media class. When I saw the flier for our next speaker that Spring, “Ian Wheeler, Knitting Factory / Partisan Records,” I almost died. At that point in my life I wanted to be a graphic designer for bands and musicians. I had been stalking every record label in New York City for months looking for internships.

The Email that Changed Everything

I emailed Klinkowstein and asking if it’d be possible for him to introduce me to Ian before class. Klink (as we affectionately called him) went a step further and sent an email intro to Ian to let him know I was super interested in what he was doing and his industry; adding that I was a great student. Copied on the email, I responded to Ian directly to let him know how much I wanted to get into the music scene and that I was looking for an internship.

He asked me where I was looking so I shot him a list of places on my wish list. I’ll always remember his response.

“One of my good friends actually owns +1 Records. And we’re looking for an intern too if you’re interested.”

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6 Books Every Creative 20-Something Needs To Read

By Emily Miethner | Published: December 27, 2011

Going to events and meeting new mentors and collaborators is important. So is taking time to pursue independent learning. Below NY Creative Interns brings you some of our top book picks for helping you pursue your creative passions and starting your dream career as soon as possible.

Linchpin

By Seth Godin

Why: Because you need to know how to make sure that you’ll never get fired and create awesome work.

Linchpin

 

Read the full post on NY Creative Interns.

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How To Get Shit Done: Surround Yourself with Amazing People

By Emily Miethner | Published: December 2, 2011

You are amazing and talented. Just buckle down, focus, and start doing work. I think it helps to read a lot about people doing amazing things.

Seriously. How can you sit there and do nothing when there are folks following their passions at such a young age…who’ve accomplished so much in so little time? How can you complain when you have all the tools you need?

This is How I Get Motivated


Rebecca Zhou. Founder of Raise Cache, a benefit that raised over $100,000 for hackNY. Proof that recent grads can do amazing things (she graduated this May).


Alexis Ohanian. Co-Founder of reddit, Founder of breadpig, Marketing dude at hipmunk. Now writing a book: “for aspiring entrepreneurs eager to embrace the future of the World Wide Web for fun, profit, and for the good of humankind.” Mantras: “make something people love” and “make the world suck less.”


Jenny Blake. Founder, Life After College. Author, speaker, career coach. General motivator of the world. Worth noting, she has a class called “Making Shit Happen.”

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Celebrate My Birthday With Me: Come to The NY Creative Interns One Year Bash

By Emily Miethner | Published: December 1, 2011

Dear friends,

I always get screwed out of a really good birthday because of the date. I was born on New Year’s Eve Eve aka December 30th. I never got to bring in cupcakes in elementary school, no one ever decorated my locker in high school, and my college friends were always away on break when I tried to get friends together.

This year, NY Creative Interns turns ONE! I’d like to use our One Year Anniversary Bash as my surrogate birthday party. It’s better than going to a bar. Tickets are only $10 and there’s an open bar, light snackage, there’ll be tons of awesome people and no awkward dudes trying to dance up on you (99% gaurruntee).

You can register at nycreativeinterns.com/oneyear. It really would be the best birthday present ever if you came.

Love,

Emily

PS: One time I did actually have an epic birthday. I went to a random comedy show for my 21st and Dave Chapelle showed up and did standup for 2 hours. Win!

Emily Miethner yay party

Photo by Diana Levine. www.dianalevine.com

Come party with me!

 

Posted in Career, NY Creative Interns | Tagged , , | 1 Comment

Four Tips for Using Social Media to Gain Public Support for Your Arts Organization

By Emily Miethner | Published: November 19, 2011

This past week I was honored to be a panelist in an event hosted by The Long Island Arts Alliance, “Schools Without the Arts: Mobilizing Public Support.”

I spoke about the inspiration for starting NY Creative Interns and how we have used social media to grow. Below is a summary of my presentation: tips on how arts organizations can gain support and awareness by starting to use social media.

Long Island Arts Association Panel Emily Miethner

Decide on a Goal

Brand awareness, ticket sales, petition signatures? What are you trying to accomplish by investing in social media? Be sure to base your resources (time and money) on what platforms will help you achieve those goals. For NY Creative Interns, our goal is for our community to attend our events. Through talking to our guests and taking surveys, we’ve found Meetup is the number one way people discover our organization, so that’s the only platform we spend money on ($140 a year).

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Notes From a Skillshare Class: Introduction to Business Development and Partnerships

By Emily Miethner | Published: November 16, 2011

Tonight I attended Introduction to Business Development and Partnerships taught by Alex Taub. The class was taught as a fundraiser for Raise Cache, which is a fundraiser for hackNY. hackNY aims to federate the next generation of hackers for the New York innovation community.

Alex and I were chosen as part of the nextNY fellowship program last April, so I’ve known he’s a superstar for a while and was excited to take the class; especially because the money went to a good cause. Below are my notes. Enjoy, future partnership makers.

Business Development Consists of:

Skillshare Class

  • Developing strategies for your company
  • Networking with other companies and forming partnerships
  • Repeating occurrences that can be translated into sales

Types of Business Development:

  • Business to consumer…think Foursquare, Facebook, twitter
  • Business to business…think Salesforce, Basecamp, High Rise
  • Business to Business to Consumer…think Microsoft, Aviary, Twilio

The Importance of Networking

  • Find the right events
  • Research who will be there and focus on finding them at the events
  • Follow up with the folks you meet…even if there’s not a direct connection right away. You never know!
Posted in Career, Events, networking, tips | Tagged , , , | 2 Comments

CreativeMornings: An Event Series You Need to Check Out [This Month: Jessi Arrington + Rainbow Parade]

By Emily Miethner | Published: November 12, 2011

Creative Mornings Jessi Arrington Rainbow Parade Brooklyn
Photo by placenamehere

That’s me in the wig on the left. I was finally able to attend Creative Mornings, an event series created by Tina Roth Eisenberg (swissmiss) for the first time. This is an event you NEED to attend at some point. NY Creative Interns has the full scoop on the awesomeness that is CreativeMornings.

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Video from “Start Something Why Every Creative Needs to Be an Entrepreneur”

By Emily Miethner | Published: November 2, 2011

Check out the first of many videos from our panel at The New School, “Start Something: Why Every Creative Needs to be an Entrepreneur.”

Thanks to Nick Hoefly for his fantastic editing skills.

Posted in Events, learning, NY Creative Interns, tips | Leave a comment

Skillshare Class Recap: Intellectual Property 101

By Emily Miethner | Published: October 25, 2011

Tonight I attended a Skillshare Class: Basics of Intellectual Property for Entrepreneurs: Learn the difference between Trademarks, Copyrights and Patents and how they affect startups.

RecordSetter hosted the class as part of our effort to give back to the tech community. It’s been a great experience so far and we were happy to host this class (our third one).

This was a really interesting class and great for anyone working…anywhere really. It’s important to learn about what you’re allowed to do online. As someone starting a business or as a creative person creating content…I highly recommend you take a class like this. Follow the teacher, William Finkel, to see if he adds a date for this class.

CLASS NOTES:

  • Copyright deals with artistic works (soft IP)
  • Trademarks differentiate brands from potential competitors (can last forever, as long as it’s in constant use) (soft IP)
  • Patents involved inventions and innovations (hard IP)
  • Utility – all patents not design
  • Design – ornamental creations that are functional
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How to Prepare to Find the Spring Internship of Your Dreams in New York City

By Emily Miethner | Published: October 24, 2011

PS: I did land my dream internship at Time Out New York Magazine as the Marketing and Events/Design intern. And I really think these four tips lead me to it.

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