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.”

I didn’t realize right away but I had just landed myself two fantastic internships. All because I just went for it.

Understanding Networking

That was my first big epiphany as to the power of networking and reaching out. I learned so much that summer, including that the music industry wasn’t the right place for me (but it was oh so fun!).

What happened in that email? Klinkowstein saved Ian a ton of time by recommending someone. And who doesn’t want to save a ton of time looking through tons of crappy applications? I went in for interviews for both places, but I think the meetings were mainly to make sure I wasn’t crazy and were very informal.

Deer Tick Tour Poster

Tour Posted I Designed for Deer Tick

Original Blog Post: Live Notes from Ian Wheeler’s Talk at Hofstra University

Thursday, March 5, 2009
Ian Wheeler, Guest Speaker

Notes!

President of The Knitting Factory Label
-
Holy crap signed GIRL TALK hahahah. Woah. Small world. I submitted art work to Girl Talk on a whim.
-
Must be really great with contracts because describing the deal between Knitting Factory and his two companies was very complicated!
-
Worked with Corporate integration where he’d set up events to get them involved with his music scene. He was focusing 40% corporation, 60% artist focused, but the bad economy also hit him, because companies are limiting marketing money.
-
At any record label, marketing companies in general, you’re sending out packages. E-mail check-ups. Packages always very glaring, sparkly stickers on envelopes! Great design move. Everything is branding. Logo sticker (partisan) goes out in everything they send.Branding is ESSENTIAL! Lots of static images that are recognizable. It’s hard because everything is so saturated, so many brands and bands.
-
Unique selling points. Like vinyl with laser etching. Redneck bumper sticker. The product is everything. Simple and funny works well too. Taking art work and making variations to send to different media forms. Just changing using photoshop!
-
Digital Booklets. Same things as in CDs. Making them interesting is so hard. How do you give interesting content? How do you fill the physical void of buying music offline?
-
Disappointed with printing aspect, met really good digital marketing guy Adam. More interested in this aspect. Death of CDs in unavoidable.
-
All about networking baby. And Internships. Gotta do the unpaid labor bit. Gotta be nice and make friends and have fun. Fun industry. Be a good bull shitter man. The ability is paramount.
-
The need to learn something new. You’ve got to teach yourself. Ordering books off Amazon. Starting with, How to make friends and influence people. Get It! Amazon then recommends more that are similar. Read Warren Buffet too.
-
I want into this SO BAD!
Doing exactly what you want to do works. For the confidence. Can really make you successful.
Gotta be happy yo. Write your ideas down. ie. being green is a new money maker. BE GREEN FOOL! Then act upon those ideas and information. Information is useless until it’s used (thanks prof. caputi). Leap into ACTION.
-
Disappointment. Get used to it. Good things will happen that make up for the bad stuff. Don’t give up and be persistent. Take something away from everything. Make your mistakes but learn from them. FIX them.
-
You can figure out bad situations, that’s built into us.
Be willing to work hard and be on top of things at internships.

What I Learned That Summer

Below is the presentation I created at the end of my internships. Although it’s almost three years old, the advice is still relevant and rings true today.

Internship Presentation

What advice have you received in the past that you still believe in today? Share in the comments.
This entry was posted in Career, Goals, graphic design, internships and tagged , , , , . Bookmark the permalink. Post a comment or leave a trackback: Trackback URL.
  • http://twitter.com/NickHudson86 Nick Hudson

    Hey Emily, I had no idea you had this blog or did graphic design in the music industry. Keep up the great work (as usual) and see you soon!

  • http://nycreativeinterns.com/ NY Creative Interns

    Hey Nick! Yup, I’ve been involved in a lot of different things in the past. Hope to see you soon!