Just Jaded

A Little Jaded with Nick Alley

By Jessie Strickland

March 31, 2023

In this month’s episode of “A Little Jaded”, Jade and Joanna sit down with industry professional

Nick Alley, who has made his way through the various corners of the live entertainment world.

He has recently dived into the world of marketing and is currently the project manager at Friends

of Friends, an agency specializing in live events. He is also a festival representative who has

gotten to work with various big names in the industry such as Live Nation, iHeartMedia and

Golden Voice. In this episode, the three discuss Nick’s ventures in the music industry and what it

took for him to get to where he is today, as well as the importance of networking and building

sustainable connections within the entertainment industry.

A Little About Nick

Nick got his degree in Event Management at 22 years old and when he graduated, he decided he

just needed to “go for it” when it came to his dream of working in live entertainment. His first

job was working for iHeartMedia as part of their street team. This job allowed him to get his foot

in the door and led him to start working in radio, which he says gave him an immense

opportunity for networking and industry exposure as he got to explore different aspects of what it

means to be in marketing or promotion. He acknowledges that these types of positions are often

freelance or volunteer, so to pay the bills, he’s done a variety of other jobs such as being a

bartender, lab technician and even a sales representative for a tech startup.

A Little Job Description

Nick describes his roles as a festival representative and project manager for those who may be

curious on what he does during the day to day. In both positions, he describes the aspect of

having to be a jack of all trades, referring to how he is performing different duties or interacting

with different departments on the regular, so it’s important for him to stay flexible and on top of

his game when it comes to those tasks. With the festival rep position, specifically, he states that

he got his start through working the ticketing department at music festivals, and through this

experience, he was able to meet new people who were able to get him into doing media

credentials. From his time as a festival rep, he was able to end up as the project manager he is

currently, which he describes as being a “middle-man” for various departments and ensuring

communication and active accomplishment of tasks. He also states that this position has him

learning to manage a social media account from ground zero and form a following “from

scratch.”

A Little Networking

All of his experience can be credited to Nick’s exceptional extroversion and networking abilities,

which he states are the cornerstones to finding opportunities in this industry. An important part

of networking, he emphasizes, is to not have your intention be solely based on finding work-

you’re here to build a connection. This means remembering people’s birthdays and reaching out

to them, or asking them to coffee every other month or doing “quarterly check- ins”- things of

this nature that embody a real and natural connection to someone in the way you would make a

friend. Nick does acknowledge, however, that he, himself, is an extrovert and that this form of

networking does not come easy to many, so he offers a few words of advice for those looking to

improve their connection and networking skills.

1. Utilize LinkedIn to your advantage. Posting on LinkedIn allows you to get noticed by

having an outlet and a platform to “market” yourself and gain attention towards your

experiences and personality- so use it to your advantage! LinkedIn Premium gives the

option of seeing who views your profile, and he states that he has used this feature to see

who is interested in him, and he then reaches out to them to build that connection.

2. Practice. Nick gives a scenario in which one may want to connect with someone higher

up, and may feel intimidated in doing so, in which case he recommends having “practice

people.” By this he means reaching out to certain people on sites like LinkedIn or

Instagram in similar positions or industry as the person you wish to connect with, and

using them to practice your “pitch” and build your own confidence from doing so. As

Joanna says in the episode, however; “When your profile emulates your personality,

there’s no need for the whole elevator pitch,” which then ties back to the importance of

having a solid LinkedIn or social media presence.

A Little Jaded

How does Nick come back from feeling “a little jaded?” When in a period of burnout or

frustration, he recognizes that there are days in his work life that are going to “suck”, but to get

out of this mental place he takes the time to acknowledge the pride behind the work he does and

the scale of it all. He makes sure to place gratitude into his daily mental outlook, and states that if

you are willing to put in the work, the results will follow.

Be sure to catch this episode of “A Little Jaded” wherever you stream your podcasts as there are

a plethora of other great tidbits and anecdotes from Nick, Jade and Joanna- such as how to

diversify your experience, or the skills you need to succeed in the music industry.