I cannot recall ever picturing myself working within the music industry or in any aspect of the business world.  My background is in psychology and I always wanted to help people better themselves.  In 1991, I received my bachelor’s degree in psychology from Bowling Green State University and quickly found myself working as a social worker investigating child abuse and neglect in inner city Cleveland.  Yes, this suburban, sorority girl knocked on doors to deal with situations most will thankfully never have to experience.  But, my desire at the time was not to be a social worker.  I attended Cleveland State University part-time while working and was awarded my Master’s in Education, with a specialization of Community Agency Counseling.  My subsequent jobs entailed supervising foster homes for difficult to place children and working in a community counseling center.  

 

Happily married and a mother for the first time, I decided to stay home full time.  When my son and daughter were school age, we made the decision to homeschool.  Educating my children at home was my life for 7 years.  Through the advent of social media, an opportunity developed to manage a musician.  This was my first foray into the music industry.  Drawing upon my resources of  self-education, I thrived and accomplished many goals as a manager.  During this time, my kids enrolled in public school and have adjusted extremely well.  

 

I learned a great deal as an artist manager, but I was not satisfied with the traditional tasks of booking shows and releasing albums.  There just had to be more….  I left artist management and began to reach out to my contacts in the music industry about booking speaking engagements.  I was met with an overwhelmingly positive response, as they all seemed to want that “something extra,” whether as another source of income or a way to boost prestige as professionals.

 

I drew upon my college-educated background and comfort interacting with academics to poise myself in a unique position of being a liaison between universities and music industry professionals.