Working With Artists and Brand Partnerships at Wasserman Music — with Emily Yoon, vice president

On this week's episode of Girl Gang the Podcast, I interview Emily Yoon, Vice President at Wasserman Music.

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Transcript

SPEAKER_00 0:15

And I'm Emily Thralfall Yoon with Wasserman Music. I'm an agent vice president at the agency.

SPEAKER_01 0:20

So before we dive into your career trajectory before landing your job, if you could talk a little bit about your current position. I was researching it before this, and I've been to some of these shows before. And the idea of like what goes on behind the scenes is so new to me, and I'm sure to a lot of listeners. So yeah, if you could describe a little bit of your current position.

SPEAKER_00 0:39

Yeah, so my specialty is any type of genre of music uh on stage with an orchestra, but is not necessarily classical. Um I do work with a fair amount of conductors who do classical music and and you know blur the lines, um, but really specialize in um crossover artists with orchestras, um, IP, so movie projects, video games, um, you know, soundtrack work with symphonies. And we do concerts um all over the place: Bangkok, Taiwan, um, Australia, New Zealand, uh, all over the US, Canada, Mexico, Asia. It's it's amazing that there's just this little niche of uh real fans of these types of shows. So that's really my day-to-day.

SPEAKER_01 1:27

What was the path leading up to this point? If now we can really dive into this. Did you see yourself in the realm of this, or was this as you started your career path, it just kind of formed itself and co-created with your experience?

SPEAKER_00 1:39

Yeah, I'm I totally fell into it. I mean, it's it's one of those things where it's a combination of working hard and then luck just kind of combining together at some point. Um, you know, I started out at a classical music agency and even just getting into music management to begin with, I was in college and I was doing a music festival, and someone said, Oh, I think you'd be good at music management. And I was like, What's that? I was a double in history and Asian studies, you know, not so playing an instrument a lot, but not at all in the focus on the business. I thought you just had to work for an orchestra. And to me, that, you know, which tend to be nonprofits, and I wasn't really thinking that was something that would that would be interesting. So definitely kind of fell into it. I think it makes it it works for me though, because while I grew up playing classical music, um, I was I love classical music, but I'm not a lover of classical classical music. Um, and so with this type of um concerts, I can have the experience of a full symphony, which is like the coolest backup band you could possibly get. I mean, it's 85 musicians that have studied at conservatories and have spent hundreds upon hundreds of thousands of hours practicing their craft. Um, so to kind of have that experience, but then with your favorite soundtrack from Star Wars or your favorite, you know, uh indie artists with orchestra, and it's you know, it's kind of them stripped back. There's not a ton of extra instruments, it's uh in terms of a band, it's really that artist and this other huge band behind them. Just uh it it it um I don't know, it just it's really enjoyable for me. It's it's not classical, but it still has that that bit to it. Um, and it also makes its orchestras more approachable. You know, it's it's you don't have to know what Beethoven's Fifth Symphony theme, you know, you don't need to be able to hum that tune to be able to walk into a concert hall, you know, it's it doesn't need to be that formal.

SPEAKER_01 3:41

And so leading up to this actual role, can you detail a little bit the process of getting this for your jobs you worked before and then going to this company? Did you go into more a mid-level or entry-level job, work your way up, or did you get your experience other places and do a parallel pivot? Because, you know, the role you're in now is obviously very, you know, high level, um, I assume very sought after. So any advice you have on people that are kind of, you know, trying to figure out those, you know, either diagonal or parallel pivots. Yeah.

SPEAKER_00 4:11

I mean, I definitely so I was on the trajectory of I went in as an assistant, I was making the least amount of money of everyone and worked my bum off. Um, you know, and I really encourage um people in their 20s to just get ahead. You know, you can work the extra hours, you don't have you uh maybe a partner, you don't have children, you may not have other responsibilities. You know, you obviously have to pay your bills and feed yourself and you know, do your laundry, but you know, you can really focus on your your work and get ahead. Um, so I was at a company for 13 years, started as an assistant, left um pretty much at one of the top positions in the company. Unfortunately, it closed because of COVID. And so I actually was put in a situation where it was like one door closed and it was a really sad door to close and really hard. Um, but another one opened, you know, that there was opportunity, the company closed. I could take my clients and and do whatever I not do whatever I wanted, but you know, I could go to any other company and not have this, you know, when you take clients from one place to another, there, you know, it gets can get very complicated. Um, and legally and for and many other reasons. In this case, the company had closed and that kind of baggage wasn't going to be coming with me. Um, you know, and it was during COVID that it happened. So it was like one door closed, another one opened. I was still technically standing in the room that was COVID. You know, there was like one place in the world where I was able to do concerts at that time. It was, you know, summer of late summer, fall 2020, and it was Taiwan. Like that was the only place in the world, because all that for a lot of my projects, it's literally just shipping, it's a license. You get the license to perform the soundtrack to these clips of music. So I don't, we don't have to send a conductor, you know, the orchestra is already there. It's really files that are being sent um and access to that IP. And even with that, like no one needed to get on an airplane, we still couldn't get concerts going. Um, so anyway, it was uh I definitely done the tr uh traditional assistant and just working my way up within the same company. I would say though, being forced to have the experience of moving from company to company has been a really good thing that I was forced out of my comfort zone. I think um uh I've just learned so much about what I can do and just confidence in in what my role is and what I can cause to happen once you know COVID happened. Um, I started my own company briefly and then went into another larger commercial agency, and then um there was some that was then bought by another company, and then I ended up at Wassermo, which I'm super, super happy to be at. It's a great place.

SPEAKER_01 7:06

Your trajectory is something that is inspiring and hopefully can be relatable to people to like stick it through, not try to like skip forward to that role, go, you know, go into it and exercise that muscle and also be willing to, you know, once you get that expertise, either if you're forced to or you're open to it, there's you know, other opportunities in a parallel sense to like if you're craving those other experiences.

SPEAKER_00 7:27

Yeah, and it's really it's follow your gut. Your instincts are so can be they're they're just they will probably, I mean, I I could be wrong, but I don't think your instincts will prove will steer you in the wrong direction. I I really believe in, you know, being a hard worker, a good, good, smart worker, um, and following your instincts and just being a good person. I mean, that's the other thing I I feel really good about my spot is I have a I have a good reputation in the industry that I'm in, you know, and that's something that I'm I'm really proud of. Um, because it every industry is super small, you know, it it might appear really large once you just take a little step into it, but once you're in it, it is teeny tiny and everyone knows everyone or of people. Um, and your reputation will follow you everywhere you go. So, you know, that's the other thing I would say in your 20s, too, is just you know, treat everyone exactly how you want to be treated, whether they're the president of the company or assistants or people cleaning the office. You know, it's it that reputation will will matter and is super um, you should be able to sleep at night. It's important.

SPEAKER_01 8:36

So definitely. My husband says it often. It's a lot of people we moved from Los Angeles, and there it was like a lot of chit chat about who you know, who you know. And his whole thing he heard one time and it stuck with him was it's not who you know, it's how they know you. Yes, you know, your presence, like you could just go out there and really try to like network as hard as you can and not be present and not take it in. It's way more valuable to just like how someone knows you and that quality and value, and don't worry so much about like the climbing, because if you're focused on that, it's more likely than not that you're gonna be remembered the right way and like taken care of when that like split second matters.

SPEAKER_00 9:11

So yeah, and that's when the luck thing kicks in. You know, it's like if you if you're determined at what you do and you work hard and smart and you're a good person, the other stuff, you know, people will end up hearing about you. And so I definitely have clients where I didn't know, they just found me because they had talked to someone at some orchestra, like, oh, you should talk to Emily. Emily's doing this, she's really, you know, whatever. That, you know, I've have definitely gotten clients. It's just incoming because I've created this core of, you know, I think quality and trust. Um, so yeah, wait, we're I totally agree with your husband.

SPEAKER_01 9:49

So I'd like to talk a little bit on the personal development side of your career. Do you have any daily practices since you're in an ambitious field? I imagine there's like so much juggling and you like really have to be on it. If there's any overall life advice for people that are in it and might be feeling like distracted or discouraged, it's staying disciplined, it's being organ organized.

SPEAKER_00 10:13

You know, my inbox is my to-do list. My to-do list never ends. That's okay. And, you know, some things it takes a while to get off my to-do list, but um, I really treat my inbox as my to-do list. If it, if it um is done, I have I have the ball is not in my court, it is not in my inbox anymore. So it keeps it very clean in terms of what my action steps are. Um, I do color coding. Um, I have an email that I have been sending back and forth to myself, I don't know, probably for seven years now. And it's evolved over time, you know, how and that's you know, I'm constantly trying to think how can I work smarter? And that's a way that I'm tracking deals that I'm negotiating or contracts that need to be issued. And, you know, if it's in green, it needs action item. You know, I really need to try and get done today. If it's a blue, that's the goal for the week. If it's yellow, it's just being able to see changes. And I send that to my team. So and my team updates it also for themselves so that we're we basically have an active running to-do list with each other, and we could send that email back and forth to each other 20 times a day. So I find that keeps me on task for sure. Um, when I'm definitely feel like I'm, you know, swimming underwater and perspective. I think, you know, what we I do is hopefully create joy for people. They can go and sit in a concert hall or outdoor amphitheater and have a really great musical experience and escape from whatever they're doing. And um, you know, but it's I'm I'm not performing surgery, you know. So we do need to dot our eyes and cross our T's and stay organized. Um, but it's also, you know, having some perspective. I guess the other thing is really trying to, this is just kind of daily practicing of if something doesn't get done, like another colleague, it's not things aren't getting done, is trying to figure really trying to think, trying not to go straight into the negative of why didn't this get done, you know, but more of a what is there something that we can be doing to streamline to make this easier for that person to get the job done? You know, I'm constantly thinking about systems and just, you know, tweaking them because so much of what we do in in terms of being a music agent is we're not reinventing the wheel. We're in sales. You know, we are, you know, the more I don't know, SHIT I can throw up against the wall, something's gonna stick, and that's a sale, you know, and so that's a constant. It's like I just have to keep throwing stuff out there, keep trying, keep trying, keep trying, and things will stick and that will come through.

SPEAKER_01 12:48

I mean, this is helpful for anyone in any industry.

SPEAKER_00 12:50

Yeah, I don't know. My my my famous saying is the more shit you throw up against the wall, the more chances something's gonna stick. I mean, and that's you know, my inbox is that, you know, it's I'm in sales. So every answer every email, um, you know, that's a big pet peeve of mine. Of and I'm also not great about it. You know, I definitely have my moments where I need to just acknowledge I've received the email. Um, I've mailed to get to it, but I've gotten it. And I I know I need to be better about that. And I would say all of us generally probably do.

SPEAKER_01 13:18

Definitely. I think that's so good. Like such a focused, one tangible thing. If someone can like, including myself, like work on moving the needle in that, you will very, very, very likely see higher results of just like pushing out more. So anyone even, um, we have a lot of listeners as well that are like getting started and experimenting with like side hustles, things like that. And I feel like this advice is very applicable and good for this. Um, being a small business owner myself, when you get too hyper focused on like, okay, I'm gonna do just all this prep and do this one outreach, and then they're gonna say no. And now I'm a failure and it's fine, I'll just quit. Like it's so easy to get into that wormhole where, you know, adapting that mindset of the more that's put out there, it's you know, gonna be much more likely something might come back. So, like working out that muscle.

SPEAKER_00 14:06

Yeah, no, absolutely. I mean, my I would get frustrated sometimes with other colleagues because they'd be like, and they weren't they weren't agents, they had different jobs. So it made sense for them that their inbox, which was also their to-do list, would be empty. And it was like, you know, on one hand, I'm really frustrated because like I have a hundred and I consistently have a hundred and twenty-five emails in my inbox. Like that's just my, you know, I'll get down a little bit, but that's kind of the core spot. But I have those emails because those are all sales, those are all contracts that I need to close. Um, you know, or I'm I'm pitching something. And I it's yeah, it that is the more stuff you just throw out there, the more chances that something's gonna stick. I mean, it's just it's not rocket science. It's it's yeah. I mean, I have an e-blast list of I started doing e-blasts probably before they became a thing. Um, because I found it was a good way to to pitch new projects and stay in touch with larger groups of orchestras. Um, and I've been updating this e-blast list for probably 15 years, and I have it categorized by territory, by country, by city. Um, and it's you know evolved over the years because people move jobs, they leave the industry, all this kind of stuff. But I'll I'll send out an e-blast and it's it literally that is me throwing something against the wall. And, you know, of the thousand, some people on it, maybe I get like 10 responses in that moment. But I find, you know, a few weeks later, a couple months later, oh, I got this e-blast from you. You know, it was like I guess it was like two months ago or something. Is that still can we talk about that? You know, and it's just one of those things. It's just just throw, just keep throwing.

SPEAKER_01 15:49

Oh my god, I'm so excited. I'm gonna send this actually. I'm a business advisor for a nonprofit, and this is actually something I've been working diligently with a client on that's like trying to do outreach. The numbers need to be so much higher than what you are thinking to like get that result. Also, what you brought up too, like email blasting or any version of like automation, batch working, that's where I feel like it can get overwhelming thinking, like, I don't have time to email a thousand people, but there's so many ways to optimize and automate that it's still really hard work, like that isn't meant to be discounted, but like there's tools out there to help us with that and find those yeses. It's like I just picture it, it's kind of like a scavenger hunt. Like you can't just like walk to the result, you gotta just really spread it out. So I'm gonna start on this.

SPEAKER_00 16:31

Yeah, and I totally agree. It is, it is, it is just getting those two or three. I mean, with um, you know, there have been some film concert projects like Nightmare Nightmare Before Christmas. That this, I forget when we first started selling it. It's been a while, but when we first was putting it out there trying to get it booked, it was hard to sell. Like people were not like, oh yeah, let me go book that show. Um, we just had to have a couple of successes. We just had to get like two or three bookings. We knew it was gonna sell tickets, and then as soon as that had success, I e blasted everyone. Here, look at this success, look at this great success. That is now probably one of one of the most popular film concert licenses that we have. Um, you know, and then it's thinking, okay, that worked. Okay, there's a trend here. What else can we now develop? So then it was Coco in concert. Like we we started to see trends, and that's the other thing is like feed the machine. You know, they had a success with nightmare before nightmare before Christmas around Halloween. Okay, let's develop Coco in concert, let's develop Hocus Pocus in concert, let's develop Encanto in concert. You know, it's the same thing we do around the holidays. We've got, you know, a bunch of holiday titles now, you know, movies that you probably watched, you know, movie theaters when you were a kid at Thanksgiving time, we're now doing in concert with orchestras. So yeah, it it's it's those two or three. Once you get those two or three, it's whether it's catering or really anything, it's word of mouth, it's that success, and then promoting that success. So yeah, I'm tell her to email a whole bunch of people.

SPEAKER_01 18:03

Yes, definitely. Before we hop off, is there any additional words of wisdom or advice you want to tell? Don't forget your family.

SPEAKER_00 18:11

You know, it's it's a job, it's a rat race, you can get really caught up in it. But, you know, it's like being on a highway. There will always be another car in front of you. And I think just being able to remember to have that perspective that, you know, put the phone down, spend some time with your kids. You know, it's advice I'm saying now, but also giving myself, you know, it's it's as I was saying earlier, like it's not um in our our industry, it's not surgery. You know, we're not saving lives. Maybe hopefully we're helping people's lives and giving them joy and finding ways for them to find joy. But, you know, it's at the end of the day, it's, you know, spend the time with your kids, make the time for your husband, make time for your parents. You know, that's friends. Um, I really think that that's being a healthy person generally is just going to help you in your job as well. So definitely.

SPEAKER_01 19:02

I'm so happy you brought that up because yeah, when you were talking about that too during the life advice, I think that's something that um can often unfortunately easily fall to the wayside when we're so caught up in that like hyper level of stress and what's next, especially if um the trajectory is, you know, uncertain. So um I feel like that's you know, such a beautiful note to end on is like prioritize the things that like really, really matter. Work is valuable, but you know, that's the backbone of humanity and like our you know, micro communities we're creating at home.

SPEAKER_00 19:32

So yeah, amazing.