Steve Payne’s Post

In the music industry, very few are actual music business owners and understand what it’s like to develop an operation and continually carry the duties of a successfully run business. Not everyone ever will or should be a business owner. After all, businesses need employees, right? And employees are what make it happen. To my fellow business owners who do more than merely own a legal entity…PROPS! Props for… Stepping out and doing hard things; Building something to turn a thought into a valuable reality; Choosing a complex industry that is not meant for the faint of heart; Doing things that employees do not understand; Learning business management, law, and taxes; …and so much more. 💪🏻 Feeling grateful for a successful 13-year run already as Watershed Music Group LLC continues evolving in its trajectory with might.

An Ode to Being the Worst at Something A few months ago I was invited to join a trombone ensemble; we play together once a month with some performances on the horizon. Due to scheduling conflicts, attendance varies each month, but regardless of who comes in and out each month, I'm always the weakest player. Always. Each month, a little tiny part of me sort of hopes I’ll have a legitimate conflict so I have an excuse to miss practice. But I keep going because I like playing in the group. After a few months, I have reframed my experience. Yes, I’m still the weakest performer in the ensemble and I still get a little nervous when I walk in the rehearsal room. But, I’m learning a few things: 1) Brutal, straight-forward humility...like when I stop playing and just look at the conductor because I’m lost 2) How to ask for help...like when I ask the player next to me which position I should use to play a (very standard and common) note…and 3) The beauty of getting better at something from practice...like how I feel every time I play a piece for the 2nd time and it sounds *pretty* good.  At Deloitte, we try to focus on each other’s strengths and I honestly still think that is the best way to engage with my coworkers - who wants to constantly be focusing on our weaknesses? However, my experiences with my new ensemble have reminded me that I’m not too far along in my career to take something I’m not great at…or even…the worst at – and get a little better.

A tool that helped me in my internship... --- Before I started my internship at If Not For Music, for a while I didn't know what to do to create a good evaluation of our org. There are so many strategies out there, and as someone who loves detail, I needed one that could ensure I touched on everything. Suddenly, what came to me was a strategy I learned in one of my marketing classes: the Strategic Marketing Steps (SMS) strategy. For those who don't know what that is, it's basically a marketing audit where you go through multiple steps, looking at multiple aspects of the marketing strategy, like audiences, current state of the marketing strategy, possible improvements, etc. I also abridged the strategy to make it more friendly for our nonprofit status (the strategy is really good at doing that, I think!) After I finished the SMS spreadsheet, I sent to our team, and when I went to INFM's first meeting, turned out there were a lot of parallels between their plans and my suggestions! (Keep in mind, I completed the spreadsheet before I was given access to their marketing plans.) They liked how it was useful to have a "fresh pair of eyes" looking over their media footprint. Now obviously, we can't do everything I suggested but any appreciation is better than none at all. I do recommend doing the SMS strategy, or something similar, if you're unsure of where to start on your marketing strategy. If you'd like, I can give you a spreadsheet template too! I may even post about the SMS strategy here eventually. I think my audit will be great for our team because we can then expand upon our presence and show our potential! --- If you'd like to learn more about what we do here at INFM, visit our website: www.ifnotformusic.org

I recommend a quick read at the very least the “harp string” part. It’s an important allegory that I fully embrace.

The Thing I Did Before Starting My INFM Internship --- After I received the offer for my current internship at If Not For Music, I was so excited!...but I knew I had to make a good impression. For a while though, since this was my first internship, I didn't exactly know how. I asked myself, what could I do that shows that I did my research on the organization? I knew that I would have to do my share of work in terms of a potential strategy plan that we would work with. So I decided to use a strategy I was taught years ago...the Strategic Marketing Steps process. It's basically an intensive 10-step auditing process analyzing an organization's audience, and my inputs on their current marketing strategy. From my analyses, INFM's marketing team and I echoes very similar sentiments: we all want to work on building basic awareness of our brand and establish a consistency on posting social media stuff! Keep in mind, I did this process as a first impression of INFM's social media efforts before my first impression with the marketing team 😉 I learned a lot more about INFM's strategy during our first meeting, and some of that information didn't necessarily match with my marketing audit, but that's okay by me! If there's something I would say to people figuring out how to make a good impression on their first internship, I would tell them, be sure you do your research, but don't be too hard on yourself if you don't have all the answers you need right away. If you'd like to learn more about what we do here at INFM, visit our website: www.ifnotformusic.org

The journey continues! We're rolling into Thanksgiving next week (it hardly seems possible!) and I've got a lot to be thankful for. Including today's news: I start a new project on Monday! I'll be providing program management consulting services to a small consulting company that needs advisory and execution support during a complex digital transformation. The company heard about me through...you guessed it...my network. The CEO told one of my former colleagues about the need, he recommended me, and we went forward from there. I'm so excited and thankful! (I won't call him out here because I don't have his permission, but he knows who he is!!) It's been a long journey to get to this point. I met wonderful new people, received and gave advice and feedback, and changed direction a few times along the way. It took over 7 months, but I found my next adventure! As the great Patricia Romboletti says, don't believe the hype about people not getting hired during the holiday season. It happened to me, and it can happen to you too. I firmly believe that if we stay committed to our search (whether for clients or for a new position), and take a people-first approach, good things will come. You never know who will remember you at a key moment and become the butterfly that flaps its wings in your world. Happy Thanksgiving to you and yours! #nextadventure #backtowork #connections #peoplefirst #happythanksgiving #gratitude #mindset #butterflyeffect https://lnkd.in/gseEKwUA

Meet Thomas! In his time with Creed, Thomas has gone above and beyond to ensure that each of his projects go smoothly, so it’s no wonder he’s celebrating being promoted this week from Associate Developer to Developer! Read more about his journey with Creed in our blog post here: https://lnkd.in/gZuvxdcx

“The expert at anything was once a beginner.” - Helen Hayes (Emmy, Grammy, Oscar and Tony Award winner) It's a comforting reminder that expertise isn't something people are born with; it's something that's built through time, effort, and persistence. Think about it this way: imagine a world-renowned chef. At one point, they were probably struggling to boil water or chop vegetables just like any beginner. Or consider a skilled musician; they likely started out learning simple melodies and chords before mastering complex compositions. So, whenever you feel intimidated or overwhelmed by trying something new, remember that everyone starts from square one. Embrace the journey, keep learning, and trust that with time and practice, you'll progress from being a beginner to an expert in your own right. Just be at it! #MondayMantraWithMU #HigherEducation #GrowthMindset #SuccessJourney #MondayMotivation

How I Landed My Internship at If Not For Music! --- Throughout the first few weeks of my very first internship, I feel I've done enough experience with it to start making these posts regularly! Throughout these types of posts, I'll simply post about all I feel is worth sharing about my internship, since I'm sure some of you are dying to know what I do in it. I actually found out about INFM through an email that was sent out by WCU's Communications and Media department. They send out regular emails during job/internship application season (I love them for that!), which really helped me and other people have better access to opportunities and employers in the area. INFM popped up in one of those emails. During my interview with (my current supervisor for my internship), I talked about my passion for music when I was in middle and high school (fun fact: I played violin for 8 years and did color guard for 6 years!), my desire for real-world content creation experience, and how I want other people to achieve their music dreams. I think me being in INFM's target demographic at one point was a big factor in me getting the internship. Something I didn't realize right away (and I should have) is that INFM is a newly founded organization, founded last year. So, they don't have a lot of published projects yet. I'm that someone who will kickstart those projects, and to say the least, working with a young nonprofit is certainly a unique experience! Now that I have the internship, I'm finally building on my content creation skills to the real world, and I'm real excited to see the impact of my projects. My other mentors, Jae Winter and Terri Shadle have been amazing people who have been helping me through all of this, offering feedback and input on our goals for this year. If you want to show your appreciation for their work with me and INFM, consider giving them a follow :) If you'd like to learn more about what we do here at INFM, visit the website:

Ain’t Talkin’ ’bout Love. Nope, at our family holiday, we were not talking about love. Yup, however, we might have been talking about that Van Halen song used on The Sopranos S3: E1. Feels like a double triple bonus of favorite things. So, what exactly were we talkin’ ’bout here? Well, the big Van Halen fan sitting to the right of me in this picture, Eric Rubenstein, MSCJ, CFE, was talking about what makes a good investigator. It is something similar that makes a good auditor. The devil is in the details – not ‘devil in the details’ – ‘Runnin’ with the Devil’ – of course, another great Van Halen song. But rather, the Van Halen Brown M&M Demand. For years, Advize has posted small items in our job descriptions to see if we would receive questions or requests for clarification. We would request applicants to send certain types of emails or attachments in a particular way to see if our potential new hire is detail-oriented enough because this is such a key area for us in our audit and investigations world. For me, my name is a big one. My name is posted as one word; everyone who knows me knows that my name is Jeanmarie. When people apply or contact me as JeanMarie, I know that they might not have looked that close, and we cannot afford to make small mistakes for our clients. Answers from the applicant the way we requested. Without knowing it, we took a page out of the Van Halen book, as David Lee Roth, not too long ago, explained. The bowl of M&Ms was an indicator of whether the concert promoter had actually read the band’s complicated contract. By having the ‘absolutely no brown ones’ in the concert rider, Van Halen tested to see if the venue would be able to keep up with their elaborate set-up. Thus, if the venue gave them M&Ms without the brown ones backstage, then Van Halen felt confident that the quality and safety needs for their large-scale shows were going to be met. By Jeanmarie Loria, MBA, PMP, CPC