Meet Lindsay Teske

We’re excited to introduce you to the always interesting and insightful Lindsay Teske. We hope you’ll enjoy our conversation with Lindsay below.

Hi Lindsay, we’re so appreciative of you taking the time to share your nuggets of wisdom with our community. One of the topics we think is most important for folks looking to level up their lives is building up their self-confidence and self-esteem. Can you share how you developed your confidence?

Obviously, a part of it is the result of time and experience. For instance, I’m significantly more confident now than I was when I had my first internship at nineteen. Primarily, though, I’ve always been pretty confident and had high self-esteem because I have no reason not to. I don’t believe anyone does. The relationship with the self is paramount, and we are always our own best advocates. It was a muscle I had to work to develop in the early years of my career, but eventually I arrived at a point where I realized that doubting if I could undertake certain endeavors or tackle certain challenges was a form of self-sabotage, and that’s not productive or healthy. Why would I want to get in my own way, you know? I know this sounds like a Disney movie platitude, but I really do believe that we flourish best when we believe in ourselves. If we believe ourselves, then we take bigger swings. When we take bigger swings, we learn how capable we are of so much more than we imagined. I think that’s the coolest thing.

I have also always had a high awareness of gender in the workplace, having come up in an intensely male-dominated field. I noticed that men rarely question their competence, so I vowed to default to operating with the same mindset. What started off as a thought experiment became a thought pattern, so now I absolutely never feel like I’m incapable of something. I suppose this is also an act of micro feminism I practice, but most importantly, it’s a belief system. The sense of confidence and self-esteem this belief system has given me is the reason why almost everything in my career has happened. For that, I am so grateful.

Thanks, so before we move on maybe you can share a bit more about yourself?

Carnival of Oddities is a public relations agency that exclusively represents independent and/or emerging artists in heavy music sectors. This is an amalgamation of my background, which consists of a BA in Public Relations and Advertising from DePaul University, a MA in Creative and Cultural Entrepreneurship from Goldsmiths, years of working professionally as a music journalist, and more music industry internships than I can count. The heavy music part exists just because that’s what I like the best, so I only wanted to work with artists who made the kind of music I most enjoyed.

I started the business because I was so tired of this ridiculous notion the music industry continues to perpetuate, which is that an artist is already meant to have some sort of platform before intermediaries will start working with them. Well, how on Earth is that meant to happen if people won’t come along to help them get said platform in the first place? That’s the gap in the market I created Carnival of Oddities to help fill. Artists need someone to champion them earlier in their careers to help them get off the ground, so that’s what I set out to do. I don’t want to work with anyone who already has an agent, a label, a manager, a famous parent, whatever. If an artist has even one of those things, they’re already out of the market I want to work with. I’m here for the bands who play bars on weeknights after their day jobs are done — that sort of thing. I’m only interested in true up-and-comers, since they’re the ones who can stand to benefit from having a publicist the most. A lot of other PR agencies will wait until an artist has already achieved a substantial amount before they’re even considered for a place on their roster, and I proudly stand in contrast. I want Carnival of Oddities to always be something that helps to nourish the talent pipeline for the sake of the talent itself, and not because of how much affluence or status artists may already have. It baffles me when other intermediaries in my industry keep moving some arbitrary goalpost about when an artist is “ready to have an investment made in them.” The music being good and the artist(s) being pleasant to work with should be the only criteria. It’s not in most cases — far from it — but it’s mine. That’s what I suppose I’m most proud of.

It took me a long time to find my footing with the business despite my longstanding conviction in the mission statement I created. I think I’m only just starting to now, three years or so in. As I mentioned earlier, I spent too much time working on things that I didn’t actually feel that passionate about. Now, I’m learning to to find joy in the work again, and a lot of that comes from picking the right relationships and the right projects. As previously mentioned, my tolerance for what doesn’t serve me is as low as it has ever been, and I think this will lead to the most exciting era of Carnival of Oddities yet. The way I was working before didn’t make me feel excited about the future of the business, but my approach to it now absolutely does. It re-invigorates me fully. I want to continue to totally and actively reject the way the music industry works for emerging artists in order to fight for a fairer world to be built. For example, the next time I have someone tell me that a client is “too green” for an opportunity despite “digging their music,” I’m going to really grill them on why they think that and where that line of thinking is coming from. Chances are, it’s coming from a prohibitive sense of risk aversion, but emerging talent isn’t a risk — a lot of people just may not know about them yet. That’s all. It’s annoying when people who have the power to change that don’t want to. It’s how we end up in situations where creative careers become something for people who are privileged.

It’s definitely not easy to start a business that seeks to open doors for others in an industry that just wants to close them, but I have always viewed it as a fight worth fighting. The early stages of being in a band can be so difficult. It’s vulnerable, often thankless, and it can be hard to feel like anyone cares. So many bands give up before they can get ahead due to reasons like these, and it’s a shame because this would likely not be the case if the industry was more hospitable to fresh faces. But, if they have someone in their corner to go to bat for them and embolden them to keep marching on, that can make a huge difference. For, if they keep going, then the global talent pipeline is further nourished. My belief in how important “being that guy” is is why I always feel like I’ll be in this line of work in some capacity.

If you had to pick three qualities that are most important to develop, which three would you say matter most?

In the music industry, people forget to reply to emails — even important ones — all the time. You have to get comfortable with following up with different people regularly, and that said, you have to develop a system of keeping track of who you need to follow up with and when in order to ensure deadlines are hit. I used to be really worried I was bothering people and put things like this off until the last minute I reasonably could, which was ridiculous because I wouldn’t have to be contacting them again in the first place if they had just gotten back to me. I wasn’t being annoying, I was doing my job. So, I’d say it’s important to be diligent, thorough, and shake off your hangups when handling this process.

Secondly, I think it’s important to not be afraid to walk yourself to the front of the line. Put yourself out there, jump in the deep end, and get comfortable leading. You’re always more ready for it than you think you are, and infinitely more capable than you think you are. So, volunteer for that task. Send that email. Start that project. Let people know your name and how good you are. Doors are so rarely opened for you in life, so you have to get used to fighting to open them for yourself. I couldn’t possibly overstate this, but nearly every exciting thing that has ever happened to me career-wise started with me cold emailing someone. There’s an argument floating around out there that you can’t gain authority from self-authorizing, but I couldn’t disagree more. If you’ve got a good attitude and a willingness to learn and work hard, you’re putting yourself in a position to accomplish a lot. So, go forth and do so. After all, it has to be someone, and there’s no reason it shouldn’t be you.

Lastly, I think having hobbies and interests that have nothing to do with your job is so integral for professional success. Especially if you’re self-employed or thinking about going down that path, it’s imperative to have several tools at your disposal that engage different parts of your brain and help you switch off. In the same way you can’t use your phone until you’ve charged it, you can’t be good at your job without taking physical and mental time away from it to replenish. This is a relatively new lesson I’ve finally gotten the hang of, and one it took me many years to get a proper grasp on at that. I’m a better business owner and a happier person since improving in this area. Find what works for you and schedule it into your day as you would an errand or appointment. You’ll feel a thousand times more refreshed and ready to tackle whatever comes your way by the time you open your inbox the following morning. Burning the candle at both ends isn’t cool, smart, and certainly doesn’t make you a hard worker. To be a hard worker is to be a savvy worker, and the savviest thing you can do is look after your physical and mental health.

How would you describe your ideal client?

I have never answered a question like this before but am so excited to. My clients have mainly been bands of men, and I’d love for that to change. So, if you’re a band of female-identifying folks who make angry and/or goth-y guitar music, I totally want to work with you. If you’re driven, ready to commit to the process, and are diligent about answering emails on top of it, I probably won’t ever want to have you off my roster.

Contact Info:

• Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/carnival_of_oddities/?hl=en
• Linkedin: https://www.linkedin.com/in/lindsay-teske/
• Other: https://carnivalofoddities.substack.com/