Today we’d like to introduce you to Jena Stephens Allison.
Hi Jena, please kick things off for us with an introduction to yourself and your story.
In the summer of 2008, I was set to become a senior in high school. My friends and I set off to Cellairis Amphitheater at Lakewood (then just called Lakewood Amphitheater — which I would eventually help manage around 12 years later) to attend Warped Tour in the middle of a brutal July heatwave in Atlanta. Another friend (who still works in entertainment) and I pinpoint this trip as the moment we felt destined to try our hand in the music industry. I ended up attending Kennesaw State University, where I got a Bachelor in Communication: Media Studies, a Film minor and a certificate in their now world-renowned and BillBoard Magazine accoladed Joel A. Katz Music, Entertainment and Business (MEBUS) program.
My journey into (and out of) entertainment isn’t linear. I fell into an internship with Q100 (now called Q99.7)’s promotions department, where I traveled as an unpaid intern to festivals every weekend, living off free Mike and Ikes and giving away tickets to sobbing Justin Beiber fans. I say that lightly but with total transparency. I also marched in Atlanta’s Gay Pride Parade alongside the members of the Bert Show, which was one of my favorite experiences in entertainment, even now. The next semester, I took another internship with the Moby in the Morning radio show alongside radio veteran Moby Carney, who is both a biting, brutally honest employer and a lovely human. My experience with Moby was the first of many demonstrations of the necessary “tough skin” you need while working in this industry, but he’s like an uncle to me and I have nothing but good things to say about him as a person. Then, just before graduating in December 2013, I took another internship with Sixthman — a brilliant and effervescent concert festival company who I would later work for full-time. This was my first experience in music outside of radio and I believe it’s where I got the desire to be someone who puts on concerts in a venue or festival capacity.
But then I graduated. Despite my various internships, my networking, my Honors status and 3.7 GPA — I didn’t get a job in music immediately. For a year and a half — and during what I pinpoint as one of the most depressing times in my career — I worked for an (unnamed company), mind-numbingly editing HTML as a Junior Copywriter. I ended up getting laid off within a week of accepting another job offer from local but famous singer-songwriter venue, Eddie’s Attic.
Eddie’s Attic is where I truly cut my teeth in music. There’s a magic in that room that draws me in, even now. I managed their PR and Box Office for nearly a year before becoming Marketing Manager over that venue — leading all communications as before and taking on social media, email and artist relations, as well. I was the last hire, I believe, of music mongul, Alex Cooley before he passed and spent years working under well-known Live Nation talent buyer Andy Hingley. I can’t begin to cover everything that room taught me about this industry. I worked with stadium-names who were then up-and-comers, every major artist management company in music, poets, artists, actors from my favorite TV shows and more in that room. I booked my first artists on that stage, I met my best friend, I learned more than half of what my resume lists and got job offers solely because I was associated with it. I only left because I’d reached an all-time high — breaking ticket sale records and knowing the venue like the back of my hand — but I’d stopped growing. I ended up getting a job as an Event Manager for Sixthman and spent a year putting on festivals abroad for their company, managing guests and communications for the Walking Dead Cruise and the Melissa Etheridge Cruise, and assisting in various capacities on their numerous excursions. Having a job that gives you one-of-a-kind experiences is hard to leave. I still find myself drawn to Sixthman’s unique business model; I imagine they do so well because guests feel the same way.
I left Sixthman because I entered into music with the aim of working for Live Nation – specifically Lakewood Amphitheater – and I received a call about hiring me as the assistant to the General Manager. Their team is full of industry veterans; I’ve come across them time-and-time again in other capacities and I care for those people and that old-school, outdoor venue. I was with Lakewood for a full season and split time over the summer as a marketing assistant for Live Nation’s House of Blues department (primarily Tabernacle, Buckhead Theater, and Coca-Cola Roxy) while still working door (as a show manager, night of) for Eddie’s Attic. I’d grown in a ten years span from a promotions assistant to assisting or managing 5-7 venues at a time for the largest music entertainment company in the world… and then Covid happened.
When Covid hit, it devastated the music industry (and the world). 30-year industry vets lost their jobs, artists stopped touring, venues permanently closed. I left Lakewood that season, thinking I was going back when they reopened their doors in the spring, but never got that luxury. I ended up taking a job as a preschool teacher in Atlanta, which I loved. Teaching is something I’ve always had a passion for and had I not fallen into the Q100 internship more than a decade prior, it’s a profession I very easily could’ve ended up switching to. A year later, I was engaged to be married and ended up working in ticketing management for Gas South Arena; only this time, some of the young passion I’d had for the industry had fizzled and I didn’t know it. I spent a year managing ticketing for sports teams and live events at that venue, working with monster truck drivers, rodeo cowboys, ice skating Disney stars, Olympic gymnasts, hockey players and, of course, musicians. Gas South has very talented management and I have been back to that venue a few times since leaving; it just wasn’t for me anymore. I was a wife and a mom at this point; staying somewhere that kept me working 3-6 nights a week was difficult in a family capacity (plus, I found out I hate ticketing management and missed marketing), and I needed a better solution. So, I left for Fernbank Museum in March 2022. What resonates with me about this lesson is that years ago, my Eddie’s Attic mentor warned me of the difficulties of having a family and working in music, which I assured him that I wasn’t worried about. He was right. I still maintain that it’s absolutely doable, but it takes someone who is more available to be outside their home than I’m willing to be.
Today. I’m the Communications Manager for Fernbank Museum of Natural History. I have an incredible boss and team, an exciting workplace and a never-ending capacity to facilitate learning. I manage email, press and social media communications in a hybrid capacity. Truthfully, I’ve never had a better work-life balance. I’ve learned more about marketing here than I had in years and I feel really fulfilled career-wise in a way that I hadn’t for a long time.
Do I miss music? Or course I do. I probably always will; it’s in my bloodstream. As of last month, though, I’ve been back to managing a few nights a month at my favorite Decatur Square listening room (Eddie’s Attic) so I’m still around it in a smaller role. That’s more than enough for now.
Alright, so let’s dig a little deeper into the story – has it been an easy path overall and if not, what were the challenges you’ve had to overcome?
Like I said, it hasn’t been linear. I did exceedingly well in college, graduating with honors, accolades, multiple internships and a scholarly publication — but I still didn’t manage to get a career in my field until 1 and 1/2 years later. I got laid off from a job I hated at 24, I worked 2-3 jobs at a time in my mid-20s because young music careers don’t pay well, and right at the height of my decade-long career, my industry got shut down by Covid (along with the rest of the world).
I think adversities like this have made me stronger and allowed me to explore other passions that I didn’t know still resonated with me until I faced them head-on. Without the trial in education during 2020, for example, I wouldn’t be nearly as prepared for my role at Fernbank Museum, an educational establishment. I don’t think that anyone really has a smooth road and I thank God and those around me for giving me the support to move forward, even in times when it has been difficult.
Can you tell our readers more about what you do and what you think sets you apart from others?
The primary way in which I describe my work is that I’m an expert in Communication. Alongside my degree, I specifically excel at social media management and I’m proud to have created and spear-headed the social content you’re seeing on Fernbank’s channel these days. I feel like my humor and quick writing style give me an edge that has worked well for social media, from Eddie’s Attic to Live Nation and now with Fernbank. I hope to continue on this path and to maintain success in this medium.
I’m also a successful freelance writer. I’ve penned both authored and unnamed copy for a myriad of industries; everything from album reviews and artist interviews to articles about vacationing, technological innovations, a societal look into sorority friendships and more. Upon leaving college, I researched and published a scholarly journal which delved into the evolution of the Disney princess and franchise as a whole; it has gone on to be cited in research papers, taught in college classes, and quoted in textbooks. Writing is undoubtedly my strongest technical ability and it’s probably the part of my skillset that I hold at most value, professionally and otherwise. I pride myself on being someone who can write for any industry and I think this skill has always been the asset to set me apart.
How do you think about luck?
Anyone who has worked in a competitive field knows how luck (or fate or God’s plan) fits into the equation. I ended up in the MEBUS program because I, by circumstance, ran into a former sorority sister who happened to be in it and pitched it to me in a university parking lot after she found out I worked for Q100. I got my internship with Moby because he was friends with my professor at the time — long-time Atlanta radio veteran Rhubarb Jones. I started at Eddie’s Attic because my resume was passed along by the boyfriend of one of my best friends, who worked there at the time, and I had it pulled for Live Nation because the Operations Head there happened to also manage a Sixthman artist and was familiar with the company. Even with Fernbank, which is a competitive institution in a whole separate field, I had my resume passed to the VP of Marketing and Communication by a friend who already worked there.
Timing isn’t everything, but it’s a huge factor, and knowing how to use opportunity when it’s afforded to you plays possibly the biggest role in success — because the chance will come sooner or later. It’s just a matter of allowing yourself to take it. You have to be talented once you get there, most definitely, but getting there at all is a feat.
Contact Info:
- Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/allisonjokay/
- Facebook: www.facebook.com/jsteph63
- Twitter: https://twitter.com/allisonjokay
Image Credits
Channel2InterviewforFernbank image — credit to WSBTV’s Nelson Hicks Sixthman images – credit to Troy Walsh
