My Stand-up Act at UCLA
by Josh Levine
Last week I had the honor of presenting to a group of communications professionals from UCLA. It was great for me because I literally started my career there as an undergrad.
A very LA story: My roommate had a friend who knew a guy who was looking for an intern at Motown Records. I didn’t really know what a record label did, or what an internship entailed, but she said I would get free CDs, so I went for an interview. I probably impressed my interviewers because I wasn’t at all impressed with the entree they were giving me to the music business, which is I guess why people wanted to intern there. Never even occurred to me.
Anyway, I started loving the music business, and UCLA gave me my second foot in the door in the form of an unpaid writing slot for the Daily Bruin. Not your average college paper, it was the third largest daily paper in the nation’s second largest city, and they didn’t have anyone there who knew anything about rap music (now called hip hop), so I got to be the guy, without any of that pesky journalism training.
I basically got to write as much as I wanted, which meant I could meet as many people as I wanted in the music industry: a big leap forward in the trajectory of my career that led me to where I am today.
Long story longer, I told the communications folks about what a great opportunity they have to unleash an grassroots movement the likes of which we’ve never seen. UCLA is a massive school and has a small nation’s worth (at least a small state) of fans. I say put those people to work, and I told them how to get started.
You can see the presentation here:
Got any thoughts? I’d love to hear them. Post a comment. Or send me an email if you want me to come speak to your company or school. I can almost promise it won’t be boring.
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