Berklee Blogs follows Scott Beardsworth, Music Business Major, as he begins his internship at PAID, Inc.– a celebrity services organization focused on VIP ticketing events, merch, and other direct-to-fan marketing initiatives. We’ll follow Scott as he navigates the waters of his first internship and teaches us his lessons learned on the job. Stay tuned!

I finally feel settled at work. After long hours of getting our new office space set up, everything is coming together. New furniture, new offices, and even a new cubicle for me! No longer do I feel like I am intruding on other people’s space. In our old location, our organization definitely outgrew the physical constraints of the building. For example, here is a funny story: When we were in our old location, I was sharing a desk (unbeknownst to me) with someone who splits his time between our Worcester office. I was making calls to Ad executives at VH1, leaving phone messages. Little did I know that the person who’s desk I was squatting at, set up automatic call forwarding to his cellphone. An hour or two later, James sent me an email, letting me know that although I was using his desk, It was still his phone. Oops… Now I know.

But here at the new space, an open floor plan (with lots of comfortable couches) gives us room to work and grow. No longer am I keeping all of my work supplies in my backpack, I now have file cabinets, a nice large desk and room to work, and more importantly, think. I still haven’t gotten my own phone line yet, but that will come. (Still no cellphone either after it was stolen)

Lately, my scope of involvement has grown from being just the gatekeeper; a term Dave used to stress that I am the first line of contact for much of the Client Services department, to becoming a sort of task master for the entire department. Last Friday, I spent some time masking up a two month calender on my large white board. Now I am responsible for knowing when and what deadlines there are, and making sure those who are responsible for the deliverables are on track to get them done. This has given me a bit more insight into how the flow of responsibilities tracks, and who actually handles specific aspects of projects that we take on.

As it’s been about a month that I’ve been here, I can give a fairly accurate breakdown of what a day in the life of Scott looks like:

My day usually starts a bit before 8:00am, with my daily goal of getting to the office between 9-9:30am. (Luckily the 9:00 Berklee class kickoff got me prepared for that…) My commute is not quite as painless as It was before we moved locations. I live in Medford, and with traffic the commute can take anywhere from 50 minutes to just over an hour. Definitely not ideal, but it works, and I’m happy. Once at the office, I usually spend the first hour responding to email messages. After that, I reference Dave’s calender (which, because of my job title has really become my calendar as well) to schedule meetings for the next few days (usually about 4-5 meetings a day). My entire morning is usually taken up by these two tasks.

Around noon-ish, once the list of immediate to-do’s dies down, I try to focus on longer term projects. For example, one that I am tied up with now is doing research on behalf of one of our clients (Eddie Trunk) who has a radio show in syndication across the U.S., a show on VH1 (Eddie Trunk’s That Metal Show), and a weekly radio program on Sirius XM radio. I have been putting together a spreadsheet of radio stations, the associated Arbitron ratings, advertising costs, etc. This kind of work is not hard per se, but It keeps me busy, is of value to the upper management team and gives me a taste of how the radio business works while brushing up my communication skills talking to radio sales advertisers. Usually I stay busy with these projects in between weekly meetings I must attend, and they keep me going until I leave the office, usually around 5:30-6:00PM. Luckily there is not much traffic on the way home, and I’m back in the house around 7 usually. Long days make the time go fast, and before I know it, I’m already looking at the weekend!

I’m thankful to be working with who I am, as they already value me as something more than an intern. For example, last week when we were getting shipments of furniture, and supplies for our new place, there were MASSIVE amounts of garbage, and cardboard that needed to be taken care of. Not having much to do myself, and realizing that It would probably all sit in a pile for a long time, I started breaking down the cardboard and cleaning house. Keith Garde (President of Client Services) stops me and asks how I got stuck with that job. I responded ” I volunteered, I didn’t get stuck with it”, to which Keith said, “That’s great, thanks buddy; but that’s not why you’re here.”

Everyone seems to check in on me and see that my workload is appropriately challenging, and that I’m not stuck with menial tasks, which some would associate with a more typical intern set of duties. This is one of the best parts about the job for me- I’m treated like an employee and per my earlier prediction, many of the “intern” barriers have faded, leaving me with a good balance of responsibilities. Every day brings some new insight and challenges, so I love coming here, simply because I don’t always know what to expect. (Not good for all, but great for me).

Feel free to reach me with any questions!!

Until next time…

 

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Read Scott’s Other Posts

From Last Minute to Top of the Pack

Snowstorms and Car-chases – All Part of a Day’s Work

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BIO

Scott Beardsworth has been studying music in some way, shape, or form, for the past 17 years. Starting on Piano and moving to electric guitar and tuba, until finding his true instrumental calling of Electric Bass. Upon acceptance into Berklee, Scott chose to pursue the Music Business major.

With an equal love for all things business and music, this major was a perfect fit, allowing him to learn the business ropes, in an exciting field, close to his heart. Most exciting to Scott was his required MB-495 internship. He remembers sitting at the first internship meeting in his sophomore year, thinking about how exciting it will be to get real experience in the field he loves. Two years later, Scott has started his internship at a dynamic company located in the Boston area. PAID inc. is a turnkey celebrity services outfit, specializing in VIP events, merchandising, online marketing promotion, video production and more. The company serves industry A-listers such as Aerosmith, Iron Maiden, Motorhead, and many more.

In his free time, Scott loves playing music with people of all walks of life and disciplines, especially with his two bands Goliath in Transit and Skylab. If anyone has questions or wants to reach out to Scott, feel free to do so on his personal Facebook, or by email at sbeardsworth@paid.com. Check out his band Goliath in Transit on Facebook!

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