We were lucky to catch up with Ash Wolk recently and have shared our conversation below.
Ash, so great to have you with us and we want to jump right into a really important question. In recent years, it’s become so clear that we’re living through a time where so many folks are lacking self-confidence and self-esteem. So, we’d love to hear about your journey and how you developed your self-confidence and self-esteem.
That really is a question, isn’t it? At risk of hedging arrogance, I actually like who I am. This took and will continue to demand a lot of self-work, but I’m proud that I (for the most part) like who I am as a person. In my experience, my confidence grew outward from healthy self-esteem. I speak to the part of self-esteem that calls for being a good person – feeling good about how I treat others and taking those actions and practicing that behavior internally. Humility is sacred to me. I work to practice humility constantly, with every single thing I do and all who I meet. Working in the music business requires copious amounts of confidence, though, and elevated levels of confidence is where we risk crossing the blurred line into cockiness or arrogance. I let the work I do and the treatment of those I work around to fuel my voice and confidence in a room. It’s common that women are especially undermined in the entertainment industry, but radiating my own self-worth and smarts in any room is how I feel confident that not only am I being taken seriously, but that I am well-liked regardless of how tough the conversations might be at times.
Let’s take a small detour – maybe you can share a bit about yourself before we dive back into some of the other questions we had for you?
I am currently an Artist Manager at Range Media Partners in Nashville, TN. Artist Managers are the full-stop members of the music industry who truly “do it all”. In my opinion, artist managers have the most challenging job in music outside of being artists themselves. It is truly an honor and a privilege to do what I do and to have my clients instill maximum amounts of trust in me to guide them and partner with them in their careers. As a manager, you’re exactly that: you are in charge. It is up to you to compliment and elevate your clients above and beyond what they want. And I know for a fact that now, more than ever, managers (and pretty much all executives in music) are required to know and execute 360 degrees around. It’s a challenge every day, but these challenges are not soaked in negative connotation – it’s simply a fact and I am hungry to continue building and developing artists. Some of the duties include negotiating contracts (record label, publishing, touring, etc), helping and executing social media content, setting up writing opportunities, touring schedules, press, release strategy & execution, the list is truly endless, but it is all so, so cool. Previously I worked at CAA in Music Touring, and then at One Riot Music as an A&R Manager, so I have a unique experience history in the industry. Two things remain absolutely the most important: relationships and minutia. It’s about who you know on a big scale, but answering email and tending to the “unglamorous” duties is what keeps your clients’ businesses running.
Looking back, what do you think were the three qualities, skills, or areas of knowledge that were most impactful in your journey? What advice do you have for folks who are early in their journey in terms of how they can best develop or improve on these?
Being able to alter communication style to who I speak to, listening effectively, and doing my best to radiate positivity are three skills that have been absolute game changers for me in all aspects of life. I am a people person, through and through, and having top notch social skills has helped me fit in, in nearly every room. And note that “fitting in” in certain, important rooms sometimes means listening and being a student to those around me.
What would you advise – going all in on your strengths or investing on areas where you aren’t as strong to be more well-rounded?
What an amazing question. I’d say the latter. Investing time in being well-rounded means you have the opportunity to, at the very least, be able to speak effectively to many different subjects. Sheerly having knowledge about multiple skills is invaluable because it sets you up for the opportunity to tap individuals in a certain field who are the experts that can help you or your client focus on whatever it is you need to get done or accomplished. For example: I am not a social media manager, I am an Artist Manager, but as I mentioned, a big part of being an artist manager is advising/helping your clients with their socials – and though I know just enough about algorithms and many things synonymous with that, I still have social media experts in the industry who I lean on to answer specific questions, build plans, or bounce ideas off of so I have more strength in delivering for my clients. To me, it is more important to garner knowledge in many subjects rather than focus solely on the things I know I excel at, because those strengths will still remain, even if I push borders to learn about what is necessary to be good at what I do as a whole.
Contact Info:
- Instagram: @ashwolk
Image Credits
Tabitha Turner Visuals
