10 Questions with ... Sarah Anderson

BRIEF CAREER SYNOPSIS:

There will never be a shortage of ambition within the Nashville music industry field, and Sarah Anderson is no exception to that trend. One of Christian radio promotion's rising stars, the upstate New York native is perhaps the only current CCM industry professional who not only has worked at all three major record labels within a 14-month timespan (and each label pursued her), she's also sandwiching her day leading classes at a local gym as a fitness instructor, before and after work.

1. What is the career path you've taken that's brought you to your current gig at Capitol?

I moved to Nashville from upstate New York in 2010 to study Music Business at Belmont University and I had my sights set on a career in the Country music industry. The summer between sophomore and junior year, I took an internship with Broken Bow Records (Country label home to Jason Aldean and many others) as the radio promotion intern. I knew nothing about radio promotion, and just thought it'd be a good foot in the door for a first internship.

After one semester, I knew that it was exactly what I wanted to do and I spent two more semesters doing the same internship there. For my last semester of senior year, I switched it up and took a radio promotion internship at Warner Music Nashville. At that time, Word Entertainment was owned by Warner. A week before I graduated, my internship supervisor told me that the coordinator position for the Word radio team was open. I don't even remember having a chance to apply for it before several people on the Warner team had reached out to Andrea Kleid about me. I took an interview with Andrea and Kenny Rodgers on a Tuesday, met with the rest of the team on Wednesday, HR on Thursday and Friday morning (the morning of my college graduation), Andrea called to offer me the job.

I served as the coordinator from December 2013 until April of 2015; and at that point, the team thought I had what it took to be a promoter and moved me up to a manager role. I held that position at Word from April 2015 through June of 2017. In July 2017, I made the switch over to Provident Label Group, keeping the same title but having the opportunity to work with an entirely new roster of artists and further develop my relationships with stations. After a short but valuable 11 months at Provident, I decided to round out my "tour of Christian record labels" by joining the Capitol Christian radio team as a National Promotion Manager and working with stations across the Northeast/Midwest.

2. Was it a goal for you to get plugged into a career in the Christian music industry?

Not. At. All. As mentioned, I had my sights set on Country and that was it for me, that was the plan, or at least my plan. But you know what they say, if you want to make God laugh, tell him your plans, right? Before I started in this industry, I couldn't have named a single Christian artist. I was somewhat hesitant to take the Word coordinator position because I was pretty determined to be in Country music and didn't want to waste anyone's time. But I also knew that I was pretty much being offered my dream job right out of college and felt I didn't have the right to be picky yet. I also figured it'd be a good foot in the door to Warner, or just to get some coordinator experience so I could eventually jump ship to Country.

Once I started, I had to give myself a crash-course on artists in the format. The more I listened, the more I liked it. Suddenly, I found myself not wanting to leave, but instead wanting to grow in the format. Looking back, God knew exactly what He was doing and what I needed when He led me to a career in the Christian music industry.

3. What was the toughest learning curve for you, entering into the industry as a new promoter?

Having the time as the coordinator helped buffer the learning curve of getting to know the basics of the Christian music industry, the artists, the stations we work with, etc. And I truly had the best team that all wanted me to succeed. I got my start learning from the best, no doubt about it (shoutout to Andrea, Kenny, Brian, Ali and Ruthanne). Hands down, the toughest part of it for me was overcoming my own insecurities and the comparisons I made of myself to others. The industry was filled with promoters who had been doing it way longer than me, who had the relationships already, and I just felt like if they could all do it better than me then what did I have to bring to the table? Why would these programmers care to know me?

Honestly, I still feel like in some ways, I'm still working through it and learning. But part of my decision to move from Word to Provident was to see how I stood as a promoter once I broke out of the walls I felt safe doing it in, and to help me figure out who I am and what I can offer to this industry. For the short amount of time I was at Provident, a lot of growth happened, and I think making an effort to ignore the comparisons I was making in my mind and just getting to know as many people as I can has helped me overcome a lot of self-doubt.

4. How have you grown the most-as a promoter and as a person-over your five years in promotion?

As a promoter: Going back to the insecurities and comparison thing, it's like all of a sudden, I blinked and I've been doing this for five years. I look at the people I've gotten to know, I've made career changes, I can see where growth has happened for me, and thinking back to the industry as it was when I started, a lot of those people I would compare myself to or felt intimated by have either become some of my closest friends or have moved on from the industry (or both!) I've had a lot of opportunities to work with so many of our stations at this point too, and truly just enjoy that I get to know and meet so many amazing people. I've stopped operating in a comparison mindset, and I've even been trying to stop labeling myself as "Sarah from XYZ label", and just be "Sarah Anderson."

As a person: Three part answer here! If you asked my family, they would tell you about the 'Sarah' they knew growing up who kept to herself and wouldn't be caught dead talking on the phone. I shocked them all taking a job that required phone calls and talking to people. That's probably the most obvious growth. Second, the "fall" of the Word team was really hard for me. That was my first job post-college and all I knew. I went through an identity crisis when the team I had associated myself with and that had become my whole world was no longer in existence. It was really uncomfortable for a while. I struggled with depression and faced a lot of uncertainty about who I was and what I was doing with my life. Really, I've probably just started to completely come out of all of that within the past six months. All of that ultimately led to me making two job changes and putting more effort info figuring out who I was outside of the office, trying to find bits and pieces of my identity that weren't tied to a job title.

Last and most importantly, working in this industry taught me about building a relationship with God. It led me to my faith as it is now and showed me just how powerful God's love and grace is. This is an element that I was completely missing in my life before working in this industry, and I'm not sure I ever would've found it if I wasn't here.

5. What is the biggest apprehension you've experienced in your decision to switch from one label to work at another?

Each switch had a different apprehension. When leaving Word, I had a lot of loyalty to the artists and staff members that created a massive amount of guilt when I did decide to leave. I was also afraid of what people in the industry would think of me, and if I would confuse or mess up any of the relationships with radio that I was developing. I was also leaving the first job I ever had, so the process in general was emotional, exhausting and scary.

In this most recent switch to Capitol, the biggest apprehension I had was just making sure that I was listening to God clearly, and that it was part of His plan and truly the best next step for me. Obviously, it's not fun to leave behind people you enjoy working with and I know now I've ultimately confused everyone with where I work (myself included); but God made it pretty obvious that this was right for me, which gave me a lot of peace in the transition.

6. You talk with dozens of programmers every week, but who are some of the programmers you found yourself connecting with the most, right away?

This feels like asking a parent to pick their favorite child, haha! I love talking to and getting to know everyone, and even with programmers I haven't felt were "fast friends," it's awesome seeing those relationships grow as time goes on. Some of those "fast friends" include Rob Anthony, Chalmer Harper, Todd Stach, Steve Swanson, Wally Decker, Terese Main, John Lawhon, Todd Amlin, Jeff Evans...l could probably keep going, but I just feel very fortunate that I've had the opportunity to work with so many amazing people, even if it's only been here and there or for short amounts of time. It feels more like we work in an industry filled with friendships rather than business partners, and I like that.

7. What are some projects you've been the most proud to be a part of?

Getting Stars Go Dim "You Are Loved" to #1 remains one of the best moments of my career. That was the first single I worked as a promoter from launch to finish. It was their first radio single, I was still new to the promoter thing, and the song itself meant a lot to me personally. We fought hard for it to get up there and almost lost it a couple times, so once it got there, it felt like a massive victory. It was also great to see a new artist's first single reach the top.

It's fun to look back at launching We Are Messengers and see how radio has completely embraced Darren Mulligan, and additionally catching the wave of Tauren Wells' success while at Provident. I know Sarah Reeves is just starting to release music and I'm not involved in it anymore, but I did get to know her heart well while taking her on several promo trips, and I know the music she is putting out is 100% true to her style and who she is, and I'm excited to root for her career from afar.

I love fighting for the underdogs so any time I've been able to be a part of a success story for someone new to the scene, those moments mean a lot to me.

8. What have been your favorite radio promo tour story/stories at this point?

I will never forget my first promo trip ever. It was with Stars Go Dim, and everything that could've gone wrong went wrong. Flight cancellations, a flat tire on the interstate in Chicago, showing up to the wrong location with a bunch of pizzas and finishing the week off with a go-kart outing that resulted in one of the band members fracturing a rib (I think they all still had fun though...?). There was also a trip back at Word where we brought radio out to Red Rocks to see Switchfoot and NEEDTOBREATHE, and that trip stands out as one of the most memorable for sure (awesome show, awesome venue, etc).

Another highlight from more recently is a trip the Provident team brought radio on to Seattle. I had never been out there, so I had mentioned staying the weekend and visiting Portland too, and Justin Benner, Lindsay Crane and Sarah King from the team all stayed with. We had a blast, and Justin and I even found a half-marathon to run in Portland that we both ended up getting personal best times at!

9. When you're not at Capitol, how are you most enjoying your time?

When I am not at Capitol, I'm either at a coffee shop studying fitness stuff or writing, going for a run, or at the gym. I belong to a gym here in Nashville called Shed Fitness that has become my second home. Earlier this year, I actually started teaching classes there (I have my personal training certification, too). On the days I teach, I wake up and get my workout in super early in the morning, then finish out the day teaching in the evening.

10. Share a little about your personal training experience so far. How is that new facet of your life and career helping to shape you?

I was standing in line to board a flight from Columbus to Nashville, thinking about how I would even begin to answer this question, when a woman came up to me and said, "You teach at Shed right? Sarah? I've taken your class!" That moment fits right into how crazy and unreal my workout instructor experience has been so far. This whole journey has had me at a loss for words because of the way it keeps writing itself. It all began after a moment of desperately asking God to reveal what else He had in store for my life, and since then He's continued to rapidly open doors here.

Working at Shed doesn't feel like a "job" to me, which makes it really easy to leave work after a long day at the office and spend the rest of my night at the gym. There's really nothing else I'd rather do with my spare time. I am a 'two' on the Enneagram (known as 'The Helper'), and there's something about helping people become the best and healthiest version of themselves that gives me so much joy and energy, and there's nothing like seeing people leave class smiling or saying that they enjoyed it.

My greatest hope is that they walk away from class having as much fun in it as I had teaching them, and that I can teach and encourage each person to love their fitness journey more. Teaching classes has pushed me way outside my comfort zone and forced me to (quickly) get over several insecurities that I wrestled with for two years. I never thought I'd be one to throw on a headset mic and lead a room of up to 30 people but I love it, and it has impacted my life in more ways than I can count. It's also made me realize that if you ask for God's help and He starts to open a door, no matter how much it challenges you or scares you, just say yes. I think those feelings of being scared or uncomfortable are where growth begins to happen, and if God's opened the door then He's ready to give you what you need to walk through it. I've been trying to live with that as my mantra this year and my life has changed radically. I wouldn't trade this opportunity for anything.