Informational interview

1. Informational interview ALLISON NOTHDURFT, Jared Johnson, owner of pepper entertainment and the district in Sioux fallssouth dakota

2. BACKGROUND INFORMATION • Jared Johnson is the owner and entertainer of pepper entertainment and the district in Sioux Falls, SD. He grew up here in Sioux Falls South Dakota and moved to Nashville, Tennessee at the age of 18 to go to school at Belmont University for music business. He got a 4 year bachelor's degree at Belmont University and went on to work for 2 different label groups in Nashville and he created connections with many artists. Then in 2012 he moved back to Sioux Falls South Dakota to pursue another dream of his which was owning his own entertainment business as well as running his own entertainment plaza to run concerts in and out of. He started building the district in 2012 and in 2014 it opened its doors for business. Since then he has brought so many country artists like Blake Shelton, Carrie Underwood, and now Garth brooks to name a few big country artists. He has become a very successful man here in South Dakota. 

3. Background information  • Question #1: What was your career path to this position? At the age of 18 I moved to Nashville Tennessee to go to belmontuniversity got a bachelors degree there in music business and worked for warner music nashville and met all of there artists. Then I was sitting there thinking I don't want to do this so he moved back to Sioux Falls, South Dakota and started pepper entertainment and opened the district in 2014. Since then he's branched his business to all parts of South Dakota and he gets everyone to come here. 

4. Question #2: What are the core responsibilities of your position? Some of my responsibilities on a daily basis is bringing in artists from all over the world. I do a lot of paperwork to make sure they make it here. I either book them a hotel room or they stay on there bus. I plan out there entire trip here and I transfer it to there tour manager. I'm constantly on the phone whether it be transfering money to someone so they can get payed for coming here or scheduling the next artist to come here or it's getting ticketmaster or etix ready for the general public to buy the tickets. I do a lot of things as you can see this job is for multitaskers if you cannot multitask your in the wrong profession. 

5. Question #3: What are the basic prerequisites, training, and educational requirements for this position? Well like you are doing right now Allison I went for music business just like you the only thing I did differently is took an entrepreneurship class on top of music business so I could someday own my own business like I'm doing now. I then did internships like you will someday do internships and I did an internship with warner music Nashville and they fell in love with me and they hired me as soon as my internship was done. It was just like fate had an answer for me and it worked. Some educational requirements would be entrepenuership and a music business degree if you know nothing about the entertainment industry. 

6. Question #1: what are the most critical skills a manager needs to successfully lead their team? First off I'd say they need to be a leader they need to show that their the boss. If your not a leader you are not in the right position to be a boss. Another crucial key to leading your team to success is making sure that your team is doing their job at all times. Sometimes they need that sort of tough love and they will understand where the path leads. My last piece of advice would be to communicate with your team if you can't communicate well everything goes to crap. Nothing is organized if you can't communicate well.  

7. Question #2: What are your top priorities in your business at the moment? Some of my top priorities right now are to fill the last few spots for some summer concerts and make sure that everyone loves who comes to town. As you know Allison Brett Young is coming to Sioux Falls and in order for him to come to Sioux Falls I need to get his itinerary ready and make sure everything is organized for his arrival. By the time he rolls into town everything will be perfectly ready to host a new artist who is up and coming in nashville and we can't wait to have him in our town. 

8. Question #3: WHEN YOU THINK OF THE BEST EMPLOYEES WHO HAVE WORKED FOR YOU, WHAT MAKES THEM STAND OUT IN YOUR MIND? I like employees who are driven, have a spunky attitude and can make me laugh even when I'm really mad. I had an employee last year who sticks out in my mind because he was this shy little kid when he first started and within a few months he had broken out of his shell and he was talking to artists coming into the district. He was a very driven young man and today he is working for an artists in Nashville and he is this hot commodity and I was happy to be able to help him achieve greatness. 

9.  how do you motivate your employees/ team members and encourage them to bring value to the organization? I motivate my employees by doing this kickball game once a month. Where all of the team members get together and we play a kickball game and we show leadership and teamwork skills when we play kickball. Each kickball game has a theme whether it be for when an artist is coming into town or who is coming to town next and during the kickball game we do our meeting and we talk about how we can bring the team together more often. Or what we need to work on for the next week. Or what needs to be improved and it helps a lot of people feel like they have a voice because were out in the open. 

10.  when evaluating an employee or team members performance what factors are most important to you? When I'm looking at an employees performance some factors that are most important to me would be to see that there a driven individual meaning they want to get the job done in an organized manner. Other factors I may look at would be that they are outgoing and can talk to just about anybody. Somethings that may make me turn my head and say hey I don’t want this person on my team would be if they have a lot of drama and cant separate there personal lives from there professional lives. Also if they constantly have to be told what to do if your going to work for me your going to know your title and do those things and be indipendent about it. I want someone who will be indipendent and not have to rely on other employees to get the job done. Even though teamworks important we want our employees to stand out and be awesome all on there own. 

11.  what part of managing employees do you find the most challenging or the most satisfying? The most challenging thing about managing employees is working with all of these different personalities and sometimes those personalities clash and it doesn’t work so we have to relocate them and put them some place where those two aren't forced to work together. At the end of the day the thing we want the most is for all of our employees to feel welcome. Some satisfying things about the job though is seeing employees grow from the time they started to a time when they really shine. I like seeing our employees grow into people who can talk to artists and no longer get starstruck. When Garth Brooks comes to town all of my employees will get to meet him and I will give them a free pass because who doesn't get starstruck when they meet an icon like that. 

12. Some interesting things I learned about people management is that your not going to be able to make everyone happy. No matter what you do or where you go there is always going to be someone who doesn’t like you for you and that’s okay it has to be a match before it works. Jered uses a saying that he lives by and it goes my career is better than your vacation and I hope someday I can use that as well. I think I've learned more about teamwork skills more than I ever thought I would when he brought up the kickball games he holds once a month. It's a unique way of getting to know your team members and what there strengths and weaknesses are. 

13. Some interesting things I've learned from Jered is that to be in this industry you have to be a get up and go person, so that is something I'm going to have to work on. I also learned a lot more about the music business than I ever thought I would. Just by meeting someone and talking to him and interviewing him I was able to learn more about what I need to do when I get to Nashville. He taught me that if I'm going to be successful I need to shine all on my own and make sure that they know who I am. He is going to spread my name around to his contacts so I have a place to go when I'm ready to do internships I can maybe do an internship with warner music Nashville. I am happy I met him because I've now learned how I am going to make my way up the ladder and make sure I make a spot for myself somewhere in country music. 

14. Jered and his beautiful daughter kalilynn 

15. References:  • http://pepperentertainment.com/main.html