This Week as an Esente Music Group Intern

I had another mediocre day with leads this morning.  Most of my time was spent sifting throughout the Educational Services listing of Lawrence, MA.  Apparently of the 90-some-odd "educational services" in Lawrence, only a dozen or so include the Internet in their curriculum.  We're starting to build new lists this week.  I had been under the impression that we would be working on shopping malls and state fairs where Becca Levy and Jayna Linginger can perform, which I have already started on, but this morning there was some mention of high schools so perhaps we'll be doing both.  My media list is done.  Our National Anthem list is fairly complete but I happened to look over some of the other sections at the end of last week and found them pretty lacking so we may have to play a little bit of catch-up.

On a more general note, there is has been a lot of talk over the past couple of weeks about re-inventing the wheel, or to be more accurate, not trying to re-invent the wheel.  The basic premise is that nothing new is being done anymore.  For example, no one has done anything new in music for the past five years or so.  There are definitely some more fringe-culture bands who have truly unique sounds, but they don't make much more money than they need to survive, if that.  There was some mention of Mumford & Sons allegedly having developed a new sound, but there's really nothing new about them.  All they did was take bluegrass and ruin it.  But I'm not sure that that isn't indicative of a trend.  You may not be able to successfully reinvent the wheel, but it seems you can certainly break the wheel and sell it as something else, a horrible chair perhaps.  

Travis Long

Esente Music Group

PR Intern  

Internship week 5, Monday

On Wednesday, I spent the first part of the day working on the Cambridge lead list, conducting internet research on financial companies in the area. After an hour and a half, I resumed work on the Pennsylvania media list I was given. The list was partially completed by another intern who wound up leaving Esente, and was a total disaster - it was completely disorganized, seemingly random, and potentially incomplete. On Monday, I had begun the work of sorting out what was what, as well as what was from USNPL and what wasn't. Wednesday, I was able to complete comparing the now-organized list to the list on USNPL. Many of her contacts had missing information like email addresses and phone numbers, so I went back through the entire list and filled in all of the missing information (which is odd - how she didn't find the info that I found rather effortlessly is a mystery). After that, I noticed that she had skipped many of the papers that were on USNPL's list, so I finished up with any extra papers that I could find.

After another hour and a half, I was able to move on to graphic design work. I finally finished working on the Becca Levy fan art. I sent both files I had been working on to my supervisor Amanda. She and the other girls who were still around by that time (around 5-6pm) seemed to enjoy both of them despite my discontent for the first one I had created and abandoned. For the remainder of what little time I had left, I revisited my anti drunk driving posters. Next, I will be making fan art for Jayna Lininger as well as wrapping up my drunk driving posters.

What I've been up to

Valerie Nelkin

St. Lawrence University ‘10

2013

Graphics Intern

So last week, as always, we worked a bit more on leads, and then were split up into groups to do some research on a few different things.  In my group, we researched kickstarter.com to see if it had any potential for the One Night Stand campaign, which it turns out, it didn't.  Kickstarter requires that a project have a definite goal and end, and that an actual product be made from it.  It does not allow charity or cause funding, so that kind of automatically means it won't allow this particular campaign.  After that, we worked on learning more about crowdfunding on the Music Think Tank blog, which gave us a lot of in depth information to work with.

I also got an idea for a new anti bullying poster -- kind of going along the rather morbid lines of school shootings, taking it from the perspective of a first person shooter video game.  The wording needs work, but my general idea is to talk about how 'experts' blame video games for the violence, but that most students say school shootings are motivated by the desire for revenge against bullies.  Soon as I have a rough draft, I will post it for feedback.

Moving Foward

Today, I can finally say that I have finished the state media list for Massachusetts! Woo-hoo! After working on it sporadically throughout the last few weeks, I have finally completed all necessary media contacts. The list includes media contacts for newspapers, magazine, radio, college newspapers and college radio. The interns were expected to have these lists completed by the very end of the month. Once they are all completed, I believe we are going to begin reaching out to these contacts.

As usual, the first task I started when walking into the Esente office was conducting more Internet research for OnPoint Media. I began by finishing up a "Building and Construction" list of businesses in Lawrence, MA and then proceeded to "Electrical" and now "Electronics". So far I have accumulated roughly 30 leads, and hope to reach about 50 in total today.

Now that both the state media list and the National Anthem lists are completed, we are going to start another master list and moving forward with other projects. I'm not entirely sure what this new list will be, but it should be interesting to say the least. Several interns have been assigned projects to work on. Last week I was given the task of breaking down and taking screen shots of an informative video, which we will be using. I'm not sure the direction that this will go, but I am excited to see!

I also plan to keep working and creating my anti-bullying posters. One is just about completed, which addresses verbal bullying. I have yet to start the other two, that will be similar in their design and appeal. I will post (very soon) some of the progress I have made on these posters. It has been a while since I have shown some of the graphics I have been working on, so I think it's almost time again to post what I have accomplished.

Joe Wing
Salem State University '14
Esente Graphic Design Intern

Surprising News!

Exciting news today in the intern world! Next week we are meeting one of our amazing artist that we have been working hard to promote! Tuesday and Wednesday Becca Levy will be coming in to say hi. What I most value about Esente is that in a big company, we would not be able to have the opportunity to meet the very people we are helping.

Its going to be exciting!


Sara McClory
PR Intern
Esente Music Group

Rio Dupris 2/21/2013

I did 14 leads today. I must look into how some of my fellow interns get better numbers.
We had a good meeting with Ron today, he made a good point; "catch people doing a good job." He said corporations are mostly concerned with catching people doing a bad job. Maybe that's why a lot of people are miserable at work. He gave us all a dose of gratitude for doing a good job, and it felt nice! It really helps to know you're appreciated, I think better results are attained that way rather than saying nothing until someone messes up and then jumping all over them. People want to work harder and happier when they know their efforts are getting noticed.
He also emphasized the importance of standing out at work, making your self valuable by going above and beyond the call of duty. Always strive to your best and then find ways to make it even better. Shine like a star! Don't baa like a sheep!

Don't Be A Sheep

Today upon arrival at Esente, I began just as I would any other day at the office. I started conducting Internet research for OnPoint Media under the "Building and Construction" list. So far I have collected about 25 "leads" for the company. Members of the staff then inquire these companies in order to redesign their website or sell them one. This system of Internet research seems very efficient in collecting potential clients/candidates for the website sales.

Shortly after plunging into the Internet research, Ron had a short meeting with the interns. He wanted to emphasize the importance of making yourself valuable to a company. Instead of being a "sheep" and blend in with the rest, try to make yourself stand out. Don't just do what you are told to do and leave it at that, go above and make decisions and brings your won ideas to the table. What can I offer a company, that others can't? You essentially have to self promote in order to make a lasting impression.

Don't be a sheep. Be a wolf...in sheep's clothing.

Joe Wing
Salem State University '14
Esente Graphic Design Intern