New Gig

I honestly have a list like 10 deep of things I've been meaning to write a blog post about, but this week has seriously just walked away from me. Between catching up on house cleaning and laundry, applying for jobs, fitting in a couple 5 mile runs, and planning my lessons I have completely ignored the internet and haven't really felt like I did a good job of doing any of those things I previously mentioned haha.

Anyway, enough of my ranting... before we left for Philadelphia last week I hinted that we had some good news to share and then totally dropped the ball on actually sharing it. By now a lot of people have already gotten to share in the joy of this news, but nothing's official until you blog about it, right? Here goes nothing, I'm about to get REAL wordy...

KEITH HAS A NEW JOB!!!


I know it kind of feels like Keith just recently got a new job (he left American Eagle back in February) but if you've been journeying with us at all since then you would know that Keith was not having a great time at that job. The office he was working at didn't respect him AT ALL and completely overloaded him daily. They set him up for failure and were never pleased with anything he did... which made my poor husband completely miserable. He would come home every day in such a funk and was definitely not himself towards the end there. Part of the reason that Keith and I moved to Nashville was so that he could pursue a career in the music industry which is what he went to school for and now a year later he can finally make that a reality!!

So here is what has been going on: for MONTHS Keith looked and looked for a new job. He applied to any and everything he could find online and came up feeling defeated and worn out. He met with friends and friends of friends to try and make connections in the Nashville music scene but nothing seemed to be bringing up jobs. I tried my best to encourage him to stay positive, but I know too well how depressing it can be to feel like your gifts aren't being used at your current job and just wanting to be set free. He had a job offer that wasn't going to be very realistic but even that glimmer of hope left him desperate to get out of his current job. Meanwhile, our friend Brad left his job at a booking agency to pursue his freelance wedding photography business and gave Keith his bosses phone number to get in touch. When Keith called they said they weren't looking to replace Brad right away, but offered to have him come in to meet with a couple staff members and share his resume. This didn't seem like it was going to be very fruitful but Keith wasn't in a position to turn down an interview. His meeting with them went really well, but they still weren't looking to hire anyone so we kind of put it out of our minds. Then out of nowhere a few weeks later they contacted him again to come in and meet the owners. That was the only info they gave him though so we had no idea if this was an interview, or a job offer or just another meeting haha. Obviously, Keith went and I nervously waited for a phone call with info on what the meeting was about and by some crazy miracle they offered him a job! Cue the excitement? Not quite yet... Their original salary offer was about a $10,000 pay cut from his current job which was not exactly the news we were hoping to hear. It was so bittersweet because this job was going to be the perfect opportunity to get his foot in the door with the music industry and was going to be a great step in his career, but a pay cut like that was going to REALLY rock our family. The night he came back with that news, I shed quite a few selfish tears. I wanted Keith to be able to have a job he enjoyed but the immense sacrifice we would be making financially was a lot to think about. I cried mostly because I was really sad that it seemed all our friends were getting great job offers with bigger and better salaries but that wasn't coming true for us. Here's where the good part of the story starts though: The morning after their original offer Keith called them back and explained the situation and gave them the minimum salary he could accept for the position (which was about $6,000 than the highest number in their offer) He was pretty scared to do this because he was sure this was going ruin his chances of getting the job because most music industry places can just hire an intern and pay them nothing. But guess what they said? YES! They said yes AND because Keith won't be making commission for 6 to 8 months they also offered him an advance on commission to help us transition a little easier on the front end. SUCH A BLESSING. This was just a couple weeks ago and looking back I still can't believe what an absolute whirlwind that week was. We went from excited to crying in defeat to absolute elation in just 3 days time haha. So Keith got their updated offer on a Thursday, put in his two weeks notice at his crappy job on Friday and then we flew to Philadelphia in the evening. It was awesome and we've been celebrating ever since.

Everyone should DEFINITELY send Keith some congrats today because it is his absolute LAST DAY at his old job, and Monday morning he will be starting his job as a booking agent for Elite Talent Agency (who books tours for bands like: Switchfoot, Underoath, and THE ROCKET SUMMER!!!!) He's so fancy and I am so proud of him for being so patient and waiting for the right job to come along. With everything that happened to make this job a reality we can safely know that this is the right step for him and for our family and I CANNOT wait for Keith to have a job that he absolutely loves.