Company Spotlight: Steve Popovich

Steve Popovich Jr. started his career in the music business while he was still a junior in high school. He went from promoting regional bands in the Cleveland, Ohio area to running his own record label and working at Sirius XM Satellite Radio.

Robert Plant and Steve Popovich Jr.

Steve’s father, Steve Popovich Sr. was a music industry maverick who had a successful 45-year career in the music business. Steve Sr. championed the careers of such legendary artists such as Bruce Springsteen, Bob Dylan, Johnny Cash, Boston, Cheap Trick, Janis Joplin and Ted Nugent. His most notable success is launching the career of Meat Loaf, whose debut release on Cleveland Int’l Records is the #3 Top Selling Album in the history of the music business.

Steve Jr. grew up listening to and loving all types of music and we had a chance to catch up with Steve and ask him some questions related to his musical past and why he’s working at Flashnotes.

Why did you leave the music business?

“I was blessed to work for my father’s label, Cleveland Int’l Records for a number of years and experience that atmosphere.  There’s nothing like being in a creative environment.  It’s infectious! Now is a great time to be independent with the right product.  If you can own your niche you’ll do fine. I look at the technology industry as being very similar to the music industry in that aspect, and it became an easy transition for me.”

Why Flashnotes?

“Dave and I went to High School together outside of Cleveland.  We stayed in touch, and talked about our latest ventures. Flashnotes stood out to me and I thought somewhere down the road I may be able to come in with my background and help out. I’ve been fortunate to be around some very creative and passionate people and Mike and Dave are up there. They believe in their mission statement: not only building a brighter future for higher education but revolutionizing the marketplace that has been struggling in recent years.”

“My attention span is that of a gnat.  Five minutes into my professors’ lectures and I’d be all stressed out trying to write down what little I could absorb from what they were saying. You can be certain that if Flashnotes were around when I was in college, I most definitely could have benefited from it.”

What’s the significance of partnering music artists with Flashnotes?

“Music is the soundtrack of our lives. Anyone can feel connected through music. I love that no matter what state you live in, you can still share a common musical interest with someone else. Flashnotes is the educational adaption of this belief. No matter what state you are in, you can share a common educational goal with someone else”.

Why Kenny Chesney?

“Flashnotes believes in partnering with viable brands that have proven track records.  If you look at an artist such as Kenny Chesney, he is one of those few brands that have been able to sustain his career. You know if you go to a Kenny Chesney concert, you’re guaranteed to have a great time.  Being able to launch our first sweeps with Kenny Chesney is very exciting and we’re looking forward to partnering with the right artists as time goes on.”

Excited about our partnership with music? So are we! Let us know if there is an artist or tour that you’d love to see.

4 Ways to Get a Job Using Social Media

Gone are the days where job searching meant scouring the newspapers and help wanted ads. Nowadays, job searching consists of searching the major hubs of job postings online. How do you know what’s a scam and what’s not? With hundreds of thousands of postings scattered across the web and scams everywhere, what’s a college student supposed to do? I’m glad you asked.

YouTube your resume. This is a great way for you to showcase your creativity to your future employer. Employers love watching video resumes because they can get a better feel for your personality and your attention to detail (not to mention the fact that they are probably tired of looking over hundreds of paper resumes). On the other hand, employers will be immediately turned off if they see a video of you reciting your resume or an unnecessarily long video. Some good examples: James the workaholic and Angelica the teacher.

Use Twitter to find out who is hiring. Most companies will tweet about positions they’re hiring for. With Twitter, you can peruse hundreds of companies at once. Use the search bar to type any key words associated with your ideal job position or field of expertise and watch the companies line up. There are also companies that take all the guesswork out of Twitter job searching. Their main objective is to find you a job through Twitter. My personal favorite one is The Creative Ham. They have a “forever incomplete list of agencies” and “irrelevant job listings” to make your job search easier.

Facebook is an easy way to expand your options in your job search. Figure out which companies are growing and hiring. Just like Twitter, Facebook is great for figuring out the status of a company. Look at the number of people who “like” the company and how many people feel passionately about it by looking at the comments left on the page. You can also easily see what companies “like” the company you’re looking at and how your company engages with consumers and competitors.

LinkedIn is the mother load of all job postings. If you’re not on LinkedIn, you need to be. Make a resume, join every group you can, and start looking at companies that you’re interested in. LinkedIn has a tab purely for job postings and companies that are expanding rapidly. Another great feature of LinkedIn is the ability to put a face to a name. Employers will want to see your face and you want to see who works for the company.

Arm yourself with all the knowledge that social media can give you. Knowledge is power.