From Popscure to Career

Sometimes to get experience, you have to make it! Just take it from our Social Media Manager Shannon, who Erik found and hired through her own projects.  If you’re someone in their mid 20’s worried about not having an adult job yet, don’t stress! Shannon was really nervous when she started at Array Digital about a year ago. Three years out of college and still working at a coffee shop, she applied to jobs to no avail. Right after college Shannon didn’t have any prospects, so she figured she'd make her own experience. With the encouragement & help from a couple friends, she grew a Tumblr page she started during college into a professional music blog with a domain at popscuremedia.com & writing for free on altdaily.org (RIP). It got her freelance writing work, but she wanted a salary, benefits - an "adult job." So she beefed up Popscure - threw events to get folks to know the blog, reached out to artists to interview and cross-promote, and got writers on board to jump-start their careers. It cost more than she made, and it didn’t pay off for a while - until it did. Erik reached out to her and said someone passed him Shannon's resume - to this day neither of them knows who, but that’s neither here nor there.  The moral is, she put in work towards something she was passionate about and even though it was dismissed a lot, it eventually paid off. More importantly, she didn’t wait for an opportunity to come to her - she made her own self-worth. So if you’re wanting to find a starting point in your career, do it yourself! Start a platform positioning yourself as an expert, and practice for the career you want. — Erik J. Olson is an award-winning digital marketer & entrepreneur. The Founder & CEO of Array Digital, he is also the host of the Journey to $100 Million Flash Briefing and daily podcast, and the organizer of the Marketers Anonymous monthly meetups. — Kevin Daisey is an award-winning digital marketer & entrepreneur. He started his first company when he was just 23, and is the Founder & CMO of Array Digital. Kevin is also the co-host of the Journey to $100 Million Flash Briefing and daily podcast, and the co-organizer of the Marketers Anonymous monthly meetups. — For more information on the show, and to check out past episodes, go to journeyto100million.com!