The following account of my professional life's work is intended to sell the reader on my candidacy as an applicant for a position in Sales, Facilities Management, Marketing, or Production.

 

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ACADEMIC accomplishments:

• A highlight of my collegiate studies.. I applied to one school, Belmont University for Music Business because it's the best. I got in! My plan was to get into the prestigious Belmont East Program because I liked NYC better than Nashville. One year later, I was accepted into that program and going to classes in Entertainment Law and Management in the Empire State Building while interning at Interscope Records.

• Withdrew from Belmont to pursue acting after getting incredible feedback in New York City for my natural abilities as an actor. Over the course of the next 5 years, I produced a few theatrical productions Off-Broadway, starred in a couple student films at Columbia University and NYU. The purpose was to focus on becoming very, very good at the craft. I did not pursue getting a quality agent at that time, and I partially regret that choice. Since then, I have learned how to become better at project management and branding. If I had chosen a better business direction for my acting brand, you would no doubt see me on your television screens at home. Lesson learned.

• Applied to NYU, Yale, and ACT as an MFA Acting student. Some actors take as many as 3 or 4 tries before getting accepted. For me, it took 1. After final auditions, I accepted enrollment at the MFA Program at the American Conservatory Theater in San Francisco.

• Back to academia…3 years of science courses, Dean's List status, Emerging Leaders membership, 3 jobs while in school full time and finding the time to tutor children at the Salvation Army, a research assistant position for a well-written Psychologist, a featured public speaking engagement at a luncheon with Child Guidance and Family Solutions, Bachelors in Psychology, Propel Ohio delegate invitation (I could be in politics by this point) and all prerequisites for physical therapy grad school complete…IN 3 YEARS. At this time, I was invited to NASA in Cleveland by one of the directors at Glenn Research Center for my scientific research regarding long-term space flight on the human body. I became a member of the Aerospace Medical Association (AsMA) as a result of my academic proclivities. Then, I was accepted into Walsh University's Doctorate of Physical Therapy Degree. I was one and a half years away from receiving a Doctorate. Before clinicals, I made the executive decision to pivot because it was ultimately not the path for me.

  • Traveled to Thailand to help the world and self-reflect. Lived in a wildlife preserve ecovillage for a few months to help with the Human/Elephant Conflict. Learned a lot about how to be resourceful in a foreign land, link diverse people together for a common goal, and be a better person.

 

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Last week, I began my search for a full time career position in Cleveland, Pittsburgh, and Northeastern Ohio. I moved to Ohio for personal reasons and am not willing to relocate at the current time of this post.

 

A professional trajectory began when I worked at Live Nation HQ and Artist Nation at Beverly Hills. I began as a full-time temp. Then, I was brought on as an official LNE employee in less than two months, which was the fastest Live Nation HQ had ever moved a Facilities employee from Temp to Hire in the history of the company. My manager was really smart! She recognized talent and knew how to take care of her people.

 

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SENIOR FACILITIES accomplishments:

• Played a pivotal role in managing facilities during unprecedented rainstorms in 2022, coordinating repairs and maintaining communication with approximately 300 affected employees, efficiently.

• Due to my persistence, Live Nation saved thousands of dollars on printing costs after I swayed key personnel to upgrade to a new model of printer. The resultant knowledge was gleaned from a series of phone calls I made to our vendor. Then, we had to orchestrate installing those 12 or so printers with IT in various locations throughout the Beverly Hills buildings.

• It is also important to note that I was employed after the pandemic layoffs. I was the first and only Facilities Coordinator in those buildings to tackle the widespread initiative of employees coming back to work.​​ In addition, I authored manuals, documents, and training materials for Facilities Coordinator positions while I was titled Senior Facilities Coordinator.

 

SALES accomplishments:

• Cold Calls: worked at FBC Vacations in Queens selling vacation packages. My sales exceeded every team member staffed at that time on a team of 40 employees.

• Cold Emails: linked a digital artist to one of the top downloaded podcasts for creativity in the world. That was only one of four emails sent at the time of this writing. 25% success rate is pretty good odds, don't you think.

• Interpersonal: was at the top of the weekly leaderboard for magazine sales for over a year at Best Buy.

 

CREATIVE WRITING/PRODUCING accomplishments:

• I have only ever sent one piece of writing for submission to a contest, so far. Everything else that I wrote to completion, I produced on my own. Anyway, this writing, a two-act play, was accepted as Official Selection at ACT's Sky Festival.

• You can listen to some of my producing, editing, and writing talents online. Search Future Drifter Stories on any major podcasting platform or YouTube. Check out a story called Cry Alchemy.

• Only sent one finished visual production to a contest or festival. A short film called "Collab" that I made with over 20 creative professionals in an attic at an artistic commune. Completed on time and on budget. I won Best Director at the Upstart Awards ceremony in Los Angeles. It was the only festival that I thought was appropriate for this piece because my intention was not to run the festival circuit. Anyway, 100% success rate there.

• Bonus tangential accomplishment: At 19 years old, I was the stage manager and talent manager for a band that played at Powers Auditorium in Youngstown. I helped market the show, build the set, and sell the CDs. I even performed. An audience of 200 people attended the show.

• When you produce your own creative work, especially when you've been doing it for the past 20 years, you become really good at design and editing. Adobe is my platform of choice. I consider myself intermediate level for audio editing, video editing, photo editing, and beginner level at graphic design. A good use of my talents would be to hire me on a managerial level where I could lead a team. When I was working side jobs in New York City, the two companies where I temped would always try to promote me to a managerial level position a couple months in. I always turned these companies down, because it was my goal at that time to become a professional actor.

 

MARKETING accomplishments:

• Working with J Cutt Productions, I have been able to practice the social media and marketing strategies that I have learned after building my own businesses. In the past six months, my involvement has helped the CEO to grow his social media presence with extraordinary speed. The data we have analyzed has shown evidence of effectively directing traffic to his YouTube channel. Sometimes generating viral view counts. Although I cannot take credit for the 1,000% increase in subscriptions within the past month, I can certainly say that I have helped scale his business to global proportions over the past six months. He will have an episode airing on Creative Boom on May 6th, 2024 where he will be the featured podcast guest. I CAN take credit for that, however.

 

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Thank you for reading! If there is one takeaway that I would like the reader to glean from this autobiographical display, it is apparent in the following circumstance.

 

There was one day at the American Conservatory Theater where the Conservatory Director brought me into her office and explained that I was the best actor she had ever seen come through that program during her time as its leader (about 20 years at that point). She told me that she, in fact, cast me in the company first, and organized the rest of the seven other actors in the company around my initial casting. I cannot take full credit because there is such a thing as natural talent as an actor. Another factor is that I had a coach who helped with my branding via the monologues we chose for the conservatory audition. But I can take credit for the amount of time and persistence I dedicated in honing my skill. I am a workaholic by nature. I loved reading the 250 plays that I read while in NYC as a practicing actor. I loved dissecting every word, finding monologues, and studying the text. The moral of the story is that I excel at everything I do.

 

 

- Ethan Frank Markowitz. April 4th, 2024.