How Do I Stand Out from the Crowd?

After I speak on panels, podcasts or for students, the common, perfectly valid question I always get asked is along the lines of: "How do I stand out from the crowd to be recognized for a potential position within the entertainment industry?"

Well, every HR representative, executive, staff member, college rep supervisor, intern manager, etc looks for different things & there's no set criteria to answer that question in a neatly-packaged manner.

Here's my professional experience in a nutshell: Want to know my secret for how I landed my role at MTV News? I applied online and was selected having had some other minor internships (no big, brand names) on my resume. HBO - I applied for the newly created role and they liked my past internship experience & the fact that I ran my own website. Want to know how I landed my position at Columbia Records? Through networking first and then some professional experience combined with side hustles in music that I was doing at the same time as HBO. How I shifted from Columbia over to Def Jam? Good timing, a strong rep (at least, so I've been told), competing opportunities not making the cut, networking, and proven results from my position at Columbia.

Although there's no secret formula, here are some tips that I can share with you below - in addition to the cliche recommendations of "work really hard," "network" and "get internships" - those three items should be common sense at this point.

1) Become an expert in everything related to the field you're going after. If you want to work in social media, you should know everything about everything when it comes to all social media platforms large and small. You should also take the time to pilot new and emerging platforms to be ahead of the curve. Research, test, study, immerse.

2) Become an expert on the company that you're applying to. Research the history of the company, know everything about its artists if its in music, read material about its executive staff, be aware of campaigns past and present. It's 2019 - all of this info is readily available online. You can use industry resources like HitsDailyDouble, HypeBot, Deadline, etc (where applicable). Its abundantly evident when a potential candidate is familiar - or not familiar - with the company in interviews and through resumes/cover letters.

3) Self Teach. I always tell people that, I think, one of the reasons people enjoyed having me on their teams is because I'm well-rounded outside of my immediate role. These are a few examples of things that I self-taught myself: Running a website, basic html editing, photography, videography, social media, photo and video editing, digital advertising basics, and more. I graduated with a degree in Communication studies with a minor in Journalism - none of the above was ever mentioned in my coursework.

4) Online coursework and certifications. There are thousands of accredited and affordable online courses from reputable sources that can enhance your personal profile to stand out from the pack. Coursera is incredible. NYU just opened up this music course in conjunction with Billboard. You can generally add completed courses to your LinkedIn profile as well. In addition to online coursework, there are many professional certifications you can train for and add to your resume, such as becoming YouTube Certified and taking Facebook Blueprint certifications.

5) Immersing yourself physically or digitally. One of the things I always say when I'm speaking is that I got ahead in music because I immersed myself in NYC music culture. You would catch me at every event/concert/etc solo or with a group of folks networking, taking photos, or just being seen in the mix. As a result, organic invitations to private events, mixers, shows, etc snowballed because I aligned myself as a "player" in the industry. How do you get started? Look for mixers, panels, and events in the closest major city. If they don't exist, be a pioneer and start something yourself! I look to my friend Drew De Leon's The Digilogue as an incredible example of something he built out of NYC and has since expanded to Detroit, LA, ATL, DC and more. If you don't have the luxury of being in a major city, be part of the conversation on socials, which leads me to my next tip:

6) Follow the right people on socials + interact. It's cool to follow the talent in the entertainment industry, but it's even more important to follow the right behind-the-scenes people. The music industry, in particular, is small - all record people generally follow other record people, so do some research and build up your profiles and interact by starting intelligent discussions (where appropriate). I know a lot of folks who have developed digital relationships that have lead to real, professional opportunities.

7) Don't hesitate to reach out. But don't get frustrated if you don't hear back. I always tell folks not to hesitate to reach out to people in the respective industry they're actively pursuing. Whether it's LinkedIn, Instagram, Facebook, E-mail. You'd be surprised at who will respond to you if you craft thoughtful, intelligent inquiries. On the flipside, do not get frustrated (or even worse, send angry follow ups/publicly show your frustration on socials) if you do not hear back - many people lead incredibly busy lives professionally & personally and simply don't have the time or energy to reciprocate. Unfortunately, my inbox gets so backed up nowadays that it's not feasible to get to everyone. I do what I can when I can.

8) Build an online portfolio and brand. Clean up your existing public profiles. We live in an uber-competitive time and it takes a lot to stand out from the pack. A standard resume doesn't cut it nowadays, especially in a creative field. I would strongly suggest building out an online portfolio to showcase yourself and what you've done beyond a resume. If you're not proficient in graphic design or building websites, use a digital resource like Fiverr to invest in yourself. Establish your own digital "brand" and sell companies on why having you on board would be mutually beneficial. Additionally, your digital brand extends out to your public social media profiles. Everything you post, comment, like, and share can be tracked down nowadays, so be smart. If you're not sure what you may have Tweeted 5 years ago when you were at a party in high school, I would strongly recommend utilizing a trusted indie company to delete all tweets.

Hope the above helps. May add more to this later.