Gorilla Productions - Part One

This article is the first in a two-part series about my experience working for Gorilla Productions.  I will begin by detailing how I started with Gorilla and what I liked about it.  Part Two will attempt to answer the question I have heard over and over since I quit several weeks ago – why?

First of all, I am a creative person.  I never intended to work in business, but somehow that is where I wound up after college.  I graduated  in May 2007 with a BA in Creative Writing and Spanish.  I was fresh off the plane after a semester in Costa Rica and my only career goal at the time was to secure a job that would pay for an eventual return trip.

Upon graduation, I spent some time living with my parents and waiting tables in my small Ohio hometown.  While slinging cheap steaks, I met car dealership owner Nick Mayer  and subsequently moved to a western suburb of Cleveland to work at Nick Mayer Lincoln Mercury in Westlake.

I was hired to use my Spanish translation skills to tap the Puerto Rican neighborhoods west of the dealership, but due to twists of fate and irresponsible amounts of optimism, I wound up establishing and managing a Ford Motor Company business development center at the dealership.

I spent about six months in that extremely stressful position, responsible for creating and tracking a process for turning leads into car sales during a credit crisis (and what no one yet recognized as the beginning of full-blown economic depression).  Desperate for a change, I answered a craigslist ad which asked the now familiar question “Wanna work in the music industry?”  Here’s the response I sent:

My name is Liz and I hate my job.  Working with you sounds like a lot more fun.  I meet all your listed requirements.

Highly Motivated:

I graduated from Ohio Northern University with a 3.6 GPA and two majors.  I studied abroad in Costa Rica half of my senior year and still finished school in only four years.

Up-beat Personality:

I like to have fun.  I’m looking for a new job because the doom and gloom of the car sales industry in Cleveland right now is more than I can stomach.  I’m considering just ditching my office job and returning to bartending, because I know I would hate it less.  I like to talk to people and be in fun atmospheres.  I’m very good at reading people and responding with what they need to hear to feel reassured.

Very organized, dependable, punctual and good on the phone:

I currently manage the marketing department (call center) of a car dealership.  I’m paid salary with no overtime and work over 55 hours a week.  I oversee all inbound and outbound calls.  I have been trained by Ford Motor Company representatives to sell appointments by phone…  Unfortunately, right now this means inventing the best way to get information out of people so that we can market to them, while politely informing them that they can’t have a car until their credit score is better and they have some more cash.  It’s very upsetting.

Now, I hope this email goes to Dan Cull because I just checked out his Myspace, and he looks like a fun guy who I’d like to work for.  Please contact me with some more details and I will send you my official resume.

Thanks,
Liz

This was March 2008.  I remember having a really difficult time finding the Gorilla Productions headquarters for my interview.  All the side roads in Ohio City were full of snow.  I drove my dealership demo car, the only vehicle I’ve ever had.  I interviewed with Gorilla Productions founder John Michalak and was hired as the new assistant to his brother, Dan Cull, company president.

I returned my demo car to Nick Mayer and began riding the Cleveland RTA bus system.  I traded my manager’s cublicle in Westlake for a freezing office of crumbling brick and a desk between the bathroom and a cat litter box, in a sketchy part of Ohio City.  I did this because I was genuinely stoked by the idea of working “in the music industry,” and I belived that working for Gorilla Productions would be healthier for me than working another day for Nick Mayer.

Working for Dan Cull was definitely easier.  I checked his voicemails and Myspace accounts, typed his emails and tracked his appointments. I learned how to make local shows profitable and began representing Gorilla Productions in the coordination of events across the country.  I made a few dollars above minimum wage, worked a required six-day work week, and was paid cash bonuses when Dan’s shows brought in large profits.  I even had the opportunity to help a band from my hometown, Dangerous New Addiction, by booking them on a Cleveland Battle of the Bands (which they won, but more on that later).

By mid-June, Dan had a new assistant and I graduated to “talent agent,” which consisted of booking local bands from Seattle, Las Vegas, Hartford, New Orleans, and Boston to participate in the Outburn Magazine and Pabst Blue Ribbon Battle of the Bands, presented by Gorilla Productions. I was paid strictly commission and therefore worked six and often seven days week.  I hung a hammock in my office and spent the majority of my work days swaying gently, feet up, cell phone glued to my face.  I had the opportunity to attend shows in Albany, Detroit, Las Vegas, and Seattle.  At my peak, I booked and attended a show that drew over 800 fans to Studio Seven in Seattle, WA.

In November 2008, fellow talent agent Brandon Zano left Gorilla Productions to work on recording and promoting the first record with his new band, This Is A Shakedown.  Watching Brandon walk out to follow his dreams had a huge effect on me.  I’d been working for Gorilla for almost a year and the time had flown by – I was afraid I’d stay there forever and never accomplish anything beyond stressing and sweating out my next paycheck.  Shortly after this, I pitched my idea to John Michalak for a new division of Gorilla Productions – Battle of the Films.

I got a green light to test this new show format, and took off at full speed contacting filmmakers and creating advertisements and contest rules.  Of all the fun I had at Gorilla Productions, nothing could ever match the thrill of recieving a new DVD in the mail from another aspiring filmmaker.

This is the turning point in my story.  After establishing Battle of the Films, I became bored and uninterested in my old work of booking bands.  I envied another co-worker who had recently moved to San Fransisco and now worked less hours while grossing the same and often more than the rest of the Cleveland-based agents.  I took a risk and managed to convince John and Dan that I could continue to book bands while operating out of the country via a Vonage phone line, and finally bought my plane ticket back to Costa Rica.

As with any extreme circumstance, my 45 day visit to Costa Rica gave me new insight on my life and my goals.  I returned to Cleveland in March 2009 determined to change my future for the better.  For more on how that has worked out, check back soon for Part Two.