Breaking and Entering

In the music industry, it’s all about who you know. Since very few people start off well connected, relationship building is critical to working one’s way in. But people are busy, and the walls of Record Labels and Management companies present themselves as impenetrable. So, in order to penetrate them, I’m finding that I have to get comfortable with being aggressive. I’m in Los Angeles now, and it’s Show Business, baby.

The rules are different here, and I’m learning as I go. I seek insight from authorities and follow their lead, but I often feel like I’m playing with etiquette boundaries. Persistence, almost to the point of irritation, is necessary. But one must carefully walk the line between persistent and pushy. This is about building relationships after all.

I’ve always been driven, but this degree of relentlessness took some getting used to. I grew up in the south, where people generally err on the side of restraint. Restraint gets you nowhere in Hollywood. Speak up, and get to the point, or fall through the cracks. Nobody is going to wait while you beat around the bush. And nobody is going to remember you unless you make yourself unforgettable. So, in order to get a foot in the door, you need to plant yourself outside of it and bang bang bang until it breaks. Then, when it does, try to enter as gracefully as you can, act like you belong and make yourself indispensable.

I’m doing my best and, after a tireless month of knocking, the door is finally beginning to crack. LA Times likes Beat and suggested I pitch freelance ideas to them. And I may have an interview at a certain live events promotion company in the upcoming weeks. I haven’t made it inside yet, but I’m going to keep banging on that door, as politely as I can, until it finally breaks. And then I can make my entrance.

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