In the Summer of 2009 I had reached the halfway point of my undergraduate career at The Ohio State University and spent many of my days searching for internships that would help to pad my resume and offer me the chance to do work that was relevant to my career path. During this search I stumbled upon a posting from the world’s best jazz violinist, Christian Howes offering “a chance to operate internet marketing for a real business and also to work in the entertainment and music business with a proven successful music industry business“. Working in music in entertainment was especially attractive to me, so I jumped at the opportunity by writing to Christian right away.
Prior to working with Christian I had already spent a few years working a crazy schedule: in high school going to school then practice for a sport and then off to work, and in college I had already been working 30 hours a week and going to school full time. However, working with Christian gave me a whole new perspective on working crazy hours, self-learning and doing whatever was necessary to be accomplish one’s goals. I’m still in the very early part of my career, but I’ll reflect on the experiences I have from working with Christian for the rest of my life.
My main responsibilities while working with Christian included promoting his 3 businesses (educating, touring and production services) online, booking tour dates, contacting local media outlets for show promoting, doing his dry-cleaning, selling merchandise at shows, learning how to use a ton of online marketing tools and implementing some ingenious guerrilla marketing tactics, including heavy use of Twitter – then in its infancy. At the time I might not have appreciated how many marketing tactics Christian was aware of as a one-man-band (literally), but now I’m amazed by it.
While working with Christian I quickly realized how important it is for someone in a field like Christian’s to have an intense desire to learn and to get things done. No one else was around for Christian or I to pass the buck to. Either we learned how to use a piece of software, worked to get the attention of the right people at music clubs, or we didn’t make money. Another important piece of knowledge I picked up from Christian was how important it was to surround yourself with a network of people who had the same drive and similar goals to yourself. Christian was – and by all appearances still is – fantastic at capitalizing on the top guerrilla marketing tactics of the moment, whether it was gleaned from a webinar from his brother Lewis Howes or from research he had done on his own. Perhaps the most important point to make is that all of this work was in support of what I assume was and still is Christian’s goal: to be the best violinist in his category, in the world.
If I had worked for the last 3 – 1/2 years at large corporation where I was plugged into a role with a very specific set of documented responsibilities I might not be writing this right now and likely would feel much less fulfilled than I do. However, my current – and first – job out of college was as the first ever marketing employee for a then-23 year old company. Early on I had to pull more from my time working with Christian than I did from my years in school, including my time at OSU. For that I’m extremely grateful for the time that I spent working with Christian and for the opportunity he gave me to get my hands dirty, learn, and to have a first-hand look at the results of the work I did. As I continue in my career I still pull from experiences and skills I learned working with Christian and hope to reach the heights that he has by staying at the top of my game through continuous self-learning and by striving to be the best in my field as well.
Curious about Christian’s music? Check this cover of Gnarls Barkley’s “Crazy”.
Questions/Comments? Shoot me a comment.
—
Tonight’s Box Score: 36 points, 11 boards, 5 dimes, 0 Blocks, 0 Steals, 0 Turnovers.
Jeremy King Marketing 
Leave a comment