Meet Madeline Usey

 

We caught up with the brilliant and insightful Madeline Usey a few weeks ago and have shared our conversation below.

Hi Madeline , appreciate you sitting with us today to share your wisdom with our readers. So, let’s start with resilience – where do you get your resilience from?

My resilience stems from embarking on the journey to heal my inner child. I truly refuse to give up on my dreams; knowing I am meant for something bigger than myself gets me out of bed in the morning. I am trying on the mindset that the only opinion that matters is mine, and I don’t want to let myself down. Theres still rejection, theres still feelings of loneliness, and theres still fear; however, I see it now as an exciting challenge. I am paying my dues, while navigating when it’s time to throw myself into the next venture. It is a lot of unlearning what I was made to think about myself in the past. To sum it up: I won’t go down without a fight.

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 love taking photographs; I specialize in 35mm film! I take graduation photos, concert photography, travel, and landscape/portrait prints. I have a huge respect for physical media and memory preservation! I have many, many scrapbooks in my house, and I have to give credit to photography for showing me theres something to look forward to in 30 years.

I am an avid blogger. I write about thoughts/situations that are sitting heavy in my brain, I write about monthly playlists I accumulate, and I write about the way other art affects me. I do this as an alternative to journaling; it hurts my hand. It just gives me an outlet when I feel like what I have to say isn’t worth saying out loud…it means a lot to me to be able to share my thoughts/opinions though; I have so many!

I paint as well! I love giving hand-painted portraits of my friend’s pets as gifts. I am currently painting the “Crystal Ship” from “Breaking Bad”. Anything that inspires me; Chappell Roan, “Fantastic Mr. Fox”, etc.

My greatest challenge and dream is an artist manager. I am in school for this currently in Tennessee which is wonderful! I am putting myself out there by showing up to local shows, networking with peers around me, taking my camera to shows to kill two birds with one stone, taking every opportunity emailed to me, and cold-emailing for mentorships! To keep it simple: I know I can give everything I have to help an artist succeed! This role excites me beyond anything else.

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. Resilience!
2. Networking/verbal communication
3. Attention to detail/music history

In my personal experience, these are labeled most important to least. The only thing you receive more than “no”, is nothing! For me, it allowed me to reach out to anyone without feeling nervous because I already know the worst thing that could happen. My advice would be to never give up, learn email etiquette, and absolutely do not be rude; their time is equally as important.

Having the confidence to go up to strangers and talk about yourself is so rare. It is the strongest attribute for an artist manager, and I have done plenty of things in my own time to improve. For example, I take LinkedIn free courses on communication when I have free time, I force myself to talk to people at shows and in classes, I practice saying sentences to myself, and I am not afraid to ask for guidance. One of the best pieces of advice I received was from my supervisor: “be friends first, network second”. It is so simple, but people can smell the inauthenticity a mile away. As someone who is unlearning crippling with social anxiety, this is the one time I’ll recommend exposure therapy.

This helps me greatly when pursuing a career in the music industry! I can remember almost anything I have seen that held significance. I could be biased, but I love when artists callback to their inspirations in their art. In my current tour marketing internship, knowledge on this has been very helpful so I can pinpoint if something has been done before, or what idea would align perfectly with a client. Having an insane attention to detail allows me to excel in audits and nitty-gritty work. I wish I could say something better than triple check everything you do, but thats what I do. Unfortunately I struggle with perfectionism, and I can’t be responsible for subpar work. I can tell you what I tell myself; that life is not that serious, enjoy what you’re able to do every day, and mistakes make you human.

Is there a particular challenge you are currently facing?

I moved to Tennessee from Texas 6 months ago, and I’m struggling with finding a group of friends. I go to plenty of concerts, do work and read in restaurants around the city, and go to local events; I just haven’t clicked with anyone yet. I have also found I am older than most of my peers. I work with more underage kids than I do adults, and find that my second chance at college is full of more obstacles. The love for music automatically opens up a conversation to have with classmates, I just struggle maintaining it outside of the classroom. I signed up for some group events like trivia, workout classes, and book clubs so hopefully I find my group within one of those. Luckily, I can exist without a close group of people beside me, but I find myself craving the intimacy you have with close friends more every day. I am actively working to unlearn habits I latched on to during my psst struggles with friendships to start small. I know i’ll find my group one day!

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Madeline Usey

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