It’s Funny How Things Work Out
Meryl Klemow can usually be found lost in a podcast, choking on dog hair in her apartment or giggling at the ridiculous tasks she calls work.
Her story is a reminder that when you listen to your gut and give your best effort to accomplish something, the last step is to be in the right place at the right time.
She is 34 years old and lives in San Diego, Ca. She turned several “side hustle/ passion projects,” including Podfly copywriter and Tonight in San Diego writer, into a full time career.
“My job has to be ridiculous,” Meryl said. “I don’t do well with corporate type of stuff.”
Meryl is a proud Scranton, Pa. native. Since she was young, she had her sights set on a life on the west coast to work in the music industry. After a valiant effort at learning to play an instrument in middle school, her parents offered a gentle nudge…
“That’s great, but why don’t you try something else,” they said.
She turned to music publicity instead. She spent her teenage years handing out flyers and physically posted them to bulletin boards. She did internships at the Syracuse Jazz Fest and the Syracuse University Concert Union in college. Meryl got all the right experience that would carry her to her next musical endeavor, LA.
“I never gave myself that time in college that some people take to find themselves,” Meryl said. “So, my thought was to come to San Diego and bum around for a year after college, then go up to LA to get a job.”
Similar to many transplant San Diegans, she never left. She got sick of lazy beach life in a matter of weeks and frantically sent out applications. Meryl remembered the particularly embarrassing emails she sent to Belly Up, an infamous live music venue in Solana Beach.
“I think I even said I’ll scrub the bathroom with a toothbrush because I needed a job at a music venue,” she said. “It was beyond a calling at that point. I just knew that’s where I needed to be.”
Meryl had one of those “right place at the right time” situations. Belly Up simply needed someone to answer the phones, so that’s what she did.
She worked at Belly Up for 11 years and transitioned into a marketing role, which included the Belly Up podcast.
Then, after a lifetime of working in the music industry, her passion started to fade. The same way she fell into this job, she started to fall out of it.
“For about a year I would get home and listen to different podcasts by myself and walk around with my dog,” Meryl explained. “I started attending Podcast conventions and immersed myself in the medium.”
The Belly Up podcast she produced at the time was edited by a company called Podfly… sound familiar? After Meryl took the leap to quit Belly Up, Podfly had an opening for a copywriter. Once again, note the timing.
For the first time in her life, Meryl feels like all of her skills and passions–writing, marketing, music, podcasts and comedy–have come together in her work.
“Who knows how it will fit my personality 5-8 years from now, but right now my jobs are very much aligned with what I’m in to,” she said.
As I talked to Meryl, she started to connect the dots of her own story. Looking back, she realized the timing of it all makes perfect sense. It might sound like she’s just lucky, but she made it clear that timing was only part of it.
“We are always stuck in stuff longer than we should be,” Meryl said.
She loved her job at Belly Up and the opportunities it gave her, but she created her perfect career because of her courage to walk away.
“I am a big believer that opportunity comes when you free yourself of things that were once part of your identity but don't align with you presently.”
Meryl not only moved on from a job, she moved on from her career in the music industry and went a different direction... actually many different directions.
We don’t have to follow the dreams we had when we were 13. We are allowed to change our minds. Meryl did.
“Don’t wait for other people to give you opportunities,” she said. “Don’t make excuses. Make a bold move.”
Check out Tonight in San Diego at: www.tonightinsandiego.com or say hi to Meryl at MerylKlemow on Facebook!