Daily Inspiration: Meet Natalie Bailey

Today we’d like to introduce you to Natalie Bailey. 

Hi Natalie, can you start by introducing yourself? We’d love to learn more about how you got to where you are today?
I am a Brand Manager and a Music Publicist. My first introduction to the business side of the music industry was while managing my own music projects as a professional independent touring & recording artist. During my time as a full-time artist, I was honored to perform on some renowned stages and at many songwriter festivals, including the 30A Songwriters Festival in Rosemary Beach, Florida in 2010. I was also fortunate enough to open for and perform alongside, some songwriters I greatly admired including Mat Kearney, Jennifer Knapp, and Shawn Colvin. In 2011, my song “To California” was a finalist in the International Songwriting Competition and I had several songs licensed to the Discovery Network, MTV, Showtime, and BRAVO. It was during this time that I believe I truly found my passion for management and public relations. 

In 2013, I made the move to Nashville and began working with a couple local rock bands on their branding, tour booking, and press campaigns. At the same time, I was also working during the day at SESAC, one of the three largest Performing Rights Organizations in the US, where I gained a wealth of knowledge when it comes to copyright, licensing, royalties, and most importantly, fighting for the rights of songwriters. It was an amazing place to work and I valued the community so much there, but I knew I wanted to make the move into full-time Music PR and Management. I landed an internship with a Nashville-based branding company and was quickly added to the staff as Brand Manager where I was honored to work with some amazing clients who worked with Artists and Brands such as Reba McEntire, Brooks & Dunn, Alan Jackson, Dolly Parton, RCA Studio A, HGTV, TEDx, Intuitive Entertainment, The Today Show, and LIONSGATE. In the Fall of 2019, I launched my own boutique brand management and public relations firm, Lady Savage Management & PR. My mission is to help independent artists, songwriters, and creative entrepreneurs make their dreams a reality, too… In a real-life, cost-effective, get things done, artist-friendly, no big flashy gimmicks kind of way. 

Can you talk to us a bit about the challenges and lessons you’ve learned along the way? Looking back would you say it’s been easy or smooth in retrospect?
There were, of course, a lot of hard lessons learned and plenty of obstacles I had to overcome as an independent artist. All of those defeats and hard-won victories gave me some of the wisdom and experiences needed to be able to advise my artists today while they navigate their own unique path to success in the music industry. It hasn’t always been a smooth road and there are still daily challenges to be faced as an entrepreneur, but as a business owner in the local Nashville community, I hope to be an example to any young person out there who may be dreaming of a career in music and who shares the same unique quality of being able to marry their administrative and managerial skill sets with their passion for the creative arts! 

Thanks – so what else should our readers know about your work and what you’re currently focused on?
It’s my passion to find out exactly what makes an artist tick and in turn use strategic brand building processes and PR campaigns to amplify their unique brand and get their message out to the masses. Every time I am able to land a major media placement for an independent artist it is not only exciting but also a proud “mama bear” moment for me because it allows us to take a step back together as a team and see the rewards from all of our hard work and time spent on building their strong branding foundation. But even more importantly, I aim to be my client’s biggest champion. The landscape of the music industry has changed significantly over the last ten years since I was a full-time independent artist… It was overwhelming back then, it’s 100 x’s more overwhelming now. To have someone in your corner fighting the fight with you, encouraging you, making sure you meet deadlines… I think that’s invaluable to have as an artist. It’s one of my greatest goals to make certain I’m not only developing, nurturing, and leading my artists but also walking alongside them, so they remember they’re not alone and they have someone on their side who believes in their music and that their message is worth fighting through all the obstacles. It’s all about the long game in this business. My clients will tell you I like to call it the “slow burn.” Work incredibly hard on your craft, make genuine relationships, build a community amongst your peers, and never waver in what you believe in… the rest will come. Success looks different for everyone and in my role in an artist’s career I wear many hats, depending on their overall career goals and the size of our team with the artist. I think my friend and veteran Talent Agent/Artist Manager, Clif Doyal, said it best when he said, “In short, I do whatever the job requires. [The artist’s] success is my success. And every skill set that I possess is brought to the table to help them, and us as a team, to achieve it.” 

The crisis has affected us all in different ways. How has it affected you and any important lessons or epiphanies you can share with us?
A silver lining, I have found during these incredibly difficult times is that technology has done a pretty great job at keeping us together even when we can’t be together in person. There were a few times during this pandemic I was not able to be on set with a client for a photo or video shoot and technology, coupled with folks’ kindness, made it possible for me to be there with my artists. For instance, due to Covid, I was unable to attend a filming in Kentucky with my client Bridget Rian and the lovely and gracious Director/Host of Marquee Backstage, Julie Milam, had some of her crew carry me around on a laptop the entire day so I could be there in real-time with Bridget and the team. Pretty awesome!… And that’s just one of many examples of how innovative, collaborative and kind the music community has been to our company and clients during these hard times. 

Contact Info:

• Email: hello@ladysavagemanagement.com
• Website: www.ladysavagemanagement.com
• Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/ladysavagemgmt/
• Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/ladysavagemgmt
• Twitter: https://twitter.com/ladysavagemgmt
• Youtube: https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCnlmBPUWNPKjCLF6yPw23NQ
• Other: https://open.spotify.com/playlist/7avaJBEIYkJtXldvNtmndu?si=AuM6bF02S3u0mdYR_HVq3Q&nd=1

Image Credits
Kelsey Maggart
Erika Rock