Ben & Emiy from Ole

i've had an extremely lazy past two days. like i haven't left the house. but i've read two books. the day before, Friday and before that, Thursday were both good! one of the groups on Rounder was playing at the Ryman and i was asked if i wanted to go so i went with Corey and it was really cool to be at the Ryman and everything. and after that we got ice cream and chips and queso and walked across the bridge. it was fun. and then Friday was spent with Corey again as she was getting her car fixed so we hung out at a coffee shop while i made phone calls to hotels to try to book places for Taylor's house show tour - another story - and then went to the opry hotel and walked around there and had dinner at Johnny Rockets! so it was fun.

but then she had to babysit yesterday. and our church had their sunday hangouts today and i thought we were going to go to together but no response from my text and she didn't answer my phone call...i probably could have just went, she was probably there. but i wasn't feeling confident enough to take on an event full of beautiful, happy, confident, successful people in Nashville - because that is what our church is made up of. i mean i am sure they would have been nice and taken me in but i didn't want to have to deal with the awkwardness. and Corey will probably be like, why didn't you just come? but i'm still working on my whole confidence and not being shy thing. usually i'm pretty good once i get somewhere but i usually need someone there with me just to get me out of the house and you know. i am not going to beat myself up and get mad at myself for not going. i am who i am and i didn't go so that's okay. i will have more chances to put myself out there. and in three weeks i won't be here anymore anyways. i'll be galavanting across ireland and then living in shanghai.

but i was about to start binge watching netflix and i told myself i have to be at least a little bit productive. i haven't written up the last meeting i went to so i have to do that. then i might do a chinese lesson and maybe write a blog post. and then i can be lazy for the rest of the day. and then tomorrow i have to make more phone calls to hotels and i have two meetings.
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okay so i went to Ole and met with Ben first. he told me about Ole (music publishers), started in Canada in 2004 and they have 3 offices (Canada, Nashville, New York) and had a 15% ROI. so they manage the writers, schedule co-writes, use songs on records, and pitch songs to records. so a lot of cold emails, networking, meetings with A&R, artists, and managers. it's all about developing relationships and pitching actual songs. so in the Nashville artists they focus on country, LA is more pop. he mentioned that Josh Dorr, Zach's roommate is signed to them. they are acquiring catalogs too, they have Taylor Swift's. so for Ben actually he went to school for music business. he was bartending and met someone from Song Records and went to work in their mail room and then in the tape room and then the assistant to A&R but then his company wanted to get into publishing so he was moved to work on that which because Sony ATV and then ended up at Ole. he said that publishers also act as managers before songwriters have a manager. he said the business is about getting a job and working two times harder.

then i met with Emily who was absolutely adorable and i really liked talking to her. she showed me the cool writing rooms that songwriters will go and write together in. she went to Belmont and she wanted to help songwriters. so that is someone how she got here because she loved helping songwriters. she helps set up co-writes and strategically puts together different people. she will often have pitch meetings and have lunch with publishers to get writers together. she was just so sweet and i really liked her.

this meeting really opened me up to this kind of music publishing, not just old catalogs or whatever. but working directly with the songwriters. i wouldn't mind working at a place like that!

so i told Zach that i went to the place where his roommate is signed to. and he was all excited asking who i met with. apparently he is buddies with all of them. so then i few days later he says: "Ben had nothing but amazing things to say about you. He was so impressed with the fact that you emailed them and met up with em. Keep going Molly!! ... Yeah he's one of my buddies. he was super impressed. Said you have a big future ahead of you" so it was awesome to get that kind of feedback. but then of course since then i've been sitting on my bum not doing anything. well i do have two meetings tomorrow but i haven't been sending out any new emails or doing anything great. but at least i have done something. and even if i'm feeling kind of stuck and blahh here and feeling like i can't really do anything else since i will be leaving soon - i'll be in china and hopefully be able to explore the music scene there. and i'll just figure it out one day at a time. i have time. even though it feels like i'm wasting time and like i should be doing something, i don't have to have my life together right now. i don't have to be doing big things right now. i'm learning and seeing. right? or is that just an excuse for sitting like a bum in my room all day? could go either way.