Meet Emmanuelle Abel

We were lucky to catch up with Emmanuelle Abel recently and have shared our conversation below.

Emmanuelle, so good to have you with us today. We’ve got so much planned, so let’s jump right into it. We live in such a diverse world, and in many ways the world is getting better and more understanding but it’s far from perfect. There are so many times where folks find themselves in rooms or situations where they are the only ones that look like them – that might mean being the only woman of color in the room or the only person who grew up in a certain environment etc. Can you talk to us about how you’ve managed to thrive even in situations where you were the only one in the room?

Hello, my name is Emmanuelle Abel. I’m a 23-year-old woman and I live in Fort Collins Colorado.
For the past three years, I’ve worked in the music industry. I was introduced to the music business industry in college in my last year. Since, I’ve completely fallen in love with it.
My life in music begins at the Mishawaka amphitheater in Bellevue, Colorado. My first year I was hired to be an intern where my responsibilities consisted of taking care of all wants and needs of the bands from a hospitality standpoint to helping facilitate the operation needs of the venue. After my very first shift, it was cleared to me and my boss that this was something I happen to be very good at.
I knew that at the end of this internship, my goal would be to continue working in the music industry, and specifically at the Mishawaka, a place that Aligned with the vision I had for what music business should look like.
The Mishawaka is an independently owned venue. One of very few still standing and given this, the team is quite small. Therefore getting a position to stay past an internship is quite uncommon, especially if you’re looking for something full-time.
I spent the next six months after my internship, focusing on live music production to hopefully learn the skills for a role I was shooting to be hired on for at the Mish. The role was production assistant, in other words assisting the production manager of the Mishawaka.
As I spent those six months working shows at much smaller venues I made sure to keep in contact with my old boss/ the production manager. After months of chatting, discussing what he was looking for and worry, my boss sat me down and told me that he was looking for not only a production assistant, but a stage manager. I had spent the last six months learning to be a production assistant I had no idea what being a stage manager meant. I thought I had no chance of being hired to go back to the Mishawaka for another season. When I responded to him saying “but I’m not a stage manager,” he said, “but you can be.”
He told me there’s no one else he would rather have work with him and that he believed in me.
Long story short, I accepted the job a job that I felt unqualified for and a job that I never existed at the Mishawaka amphitheater until now.
I had three worries at the beginning of this second season. 1 I worried that I lacked the knowledge and skills needed to gain the respect to direct a crew. 2 knowing the production side of the music industry is overwhelmingly male dominated, I worried how I would be treated being the only female on the crew 3 I was 21 about a decade, if not more, younger than everyone else I was working with.
This was two years ago now. I’ve just finished my third season at the Mishawaka and it’s quite incredible to see how my worries have changed.
Today I feel completely confident in my role as stage manager to the point that I’ve actually been able to define it and create a checklist for whoever takes on my role in the future. I’ve been able to do this through the guidance of our house crew which consist of our engineers, lighting designers and production manager. By following their lead in times I felt doubt I slowly owned my role. I realized I wasn’t expected to know everything and found a lot of power and asking questions.
While, I have been the only woman on most show days. I think I’ve turned it into something impowerinf rather than something to worry about. I’ve learned I have to work a bit harder to earn my respect by being patient and showing my knowledge. I sort of love this because I know I can trust the respect I’ve earned, but I also get to teach the men who’ve been in this industry much longer than me, that a woman can be just As capable. It does take a lot of patience, however. The days can start off, very uncomfortable, A crew comes in and completely overlooks me and seems to have no faith that I do much more than what women commonly do in the industry i.e. hospitality. Instead of getting frustrated and insisting what my role is, I’ll find patience and trust in my house crew to direct the bands crew to me. Slowly through my language they find trust. The knowledge, skill, confidence and direction I offer in what I say becomes evident and by the end of the night, 9/10 they are blown away and overwhelmingly grateful for their experience at our venue.
lastly and shockingly, my age has never felt like it’s impacted me. Not in the ways I originally worried. If anything I commonly get the “Oh you’re only 22/23?!” I think being young can feel a bit lonely. I feel a bit of imposter syndrome but at the same time it’s made me focus more on the fact that I’ve got that much more time to learn that much more and get that much better at what I do.
I would like to acknowledge that a lot of the success that I’ve had is deeply rooted in the trust, support and belief that my boss and close friends have had in me from the beginning till the present. My boss has been my mentor my teacher and has become more of a partner at work. We equally value the others opninion and often make decisions together. Without his guidance and reassurance, I’m not sure I would’ve been able to feel this confident in a role where I truly am the only one in the room who looks like me.
On the other hand, I do want to give myself some credit as well. It has not all been smooth there have been tears and breaking points and burnout throughout the entire process. I think being confident in what I know and feeling empowered to ask questions when I don’t know, has been extremely important. I think finding the courage to speak up when I have an opinion and knowing when it’s time to listen is extremely important. But overall, no matter what I’m feeling inside, it’s important to just keep on going push through any uncomfort any doubt and stand strong because you have a job to do. Not only that, but I’m now at a point where I have interns who work for me and who look up to me. Most of which are women. I want them to see my strength. I want them to see me stand up for myself. I want them to feel inspired that they can absolutely do anything they set their mind to.

Appreciate the insights and wisdom. Before we dig deeper and ask you about the skills that matter and more, maybe you can tell our readers about yourself?

I graduated College in four years with a degree in Business and a certificate in music business. I spent the first Three years very successful in school, but lacking a passion in a vision for what I would do when I graduated. In the last year that all changed. At the time I was going out with a drummer who played in a local band. Well, that relationship did not last long. He did introduce me to the music scene in Fort Collins and encourage me to take the intro courses to the new music business program that had just started that year. Those courses I quickly realized the business of music, not only aligned with my strength and business, but also offered a passion that I see. I believe in music and what it does for people. I also realized how much bullshit there was in the industry. Musicians get taken advantage of. how venues get bought out or crushed by big promoters…. This all began to create a big drive in me, and I found myself becoming slowly more and more dedicated to being part of this industry, but even more to be a change in the industry one that we had been taught in school would be nearly impossible. But I found it through my work at the Mishawaka amphitheater. It’s not necessarily about changing the world it’s about becoming the change that you would like to see, and hope that that has some effect on the rest. I’ve gone back-and-forth with what my next step will be once I leave the Mishawaka amphitheater one day, but one thing I do know is I would like to own my own venue one day. I see myself working with people I trust , have equal belief in myself as I do in them. Who share the same vision and desire to share the same respect and love that should be spread from the artist to the venue to the ticketing company to the ticket buyer. As I keep working as a stage manager, I keep this idea and dream in the back of my mind always and focus on what the steps will be to get to a point to begin a new venue from the ground up. How my venue be different how will I be able to pay artist better? How will I overcome getting bought out? How old is venue succeeded?

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?

1 drive: I have always been an incredibly driven individual. Once I have a goal, there is a little that will stand in my way from achieving it.
2 resilience: I’ve always had a strong ability to push through and deliver no matter the circumstances I may be going through. Being able to leave personal at home and focus on work when I arrive is hard but vital skill.
3 confidence: i’ve always felt confident. Confident in my brains in my decision-making in my opinions, and in my willingness to learn and listen.

I think it’s important to realize that in whatever you do it’s who you are it’s not what you do. Anyone can do any job anyone can learn any amount of skills, but it’s who you are and what you value set you apart. I think it’s important to be driven in something that you’re passionate about and that you believe in to have the confidence in yourself to not let anything get in your way or let anyone put you down and have the resilience to keep doing that.

Before we go, maybe you can tell us a bit about your parents and what you feel was the most impactful thing they did for you?

Both my parents are successful entrepreneurs who graduated UCLA my dad with a PhD in neuroscience and my mom with a Masters in Business. Coming home to tell them I worked in music with bands was maybe not exactly what they invisioned. But as they saw my passion, my success and my love for what I was doing they quickly got on board. The most impactful thing my parents did happened during college right before my 21st birthday. My dad got in contact with the president of the music business program Chuck Morris who happened to be the previous president of AEG for the western side of the United States. AEG is one of the biggest music promoting companies in the world. Chuck Morris and Eric Griffin both began and run the music program. They both have become extremely important mentors in my career. They encouraged me from the beginning, wrote letters of recommendation for the my internship and have always been there when I have struggled. I was recently recently I asked to be interviewed for a mini documentary on the impact that this program has had in Colorado. And to bring everything full circle the class that first inspired me to Work in the music industry is the very class. I was asked to be a guest speaker for by both Eric and Chuck.
But to get back to the question, my dad reached out to Chuck and Eric to see if there was anyway I could go to red rocks with a guest for my 21st birthday. on May 22 for my 21st I was sent a letter saying that I was going to see Michael Franti and the spearheads at red rocks. It was an insane experience. I was escorted from backstage through all the green rooms, catering, through the famous tunnel out to front of house where the engineers mix sound and into the VIP section. I was even able to meet Michael Franti. This was an extremely important moment. it was the most inspiring thing that I ever could’ve imagined. I think it was the first time I ever realized that I could really do this. I could regally make a living and make a career out of music. Something About the unity between two mentors, I looked up to and my parents who had shown their support in me was an incredible and indescribable feeling Today I can now say that I’ve worked for red rocks I’ve gone from being the patron to now working in an office right by the side of the stage for renown names. It’s quite shocking to see how such a small moment can completely change your trajectory.

Image Credits

Sunny Side Production