Meet Maya Dottin | Tour Manager

We had the good fortune of connecting with Maya Dottin and we’ve shared our conversation below.

Hi Maya, we’d love to hear about how you approach risk and risk-taking
Risk helps me differentiate what I want versus what I need. I feel like everybody has had a circumstance in life where they knew they could excel more if they went out of their comfort zone or took more risks. Much like studying every day for a week before a test instead of cramming the night before or working those longer hours at work instead of the regular hours you’re comfortable doing. When I make the conscious (or sometimes unconscious) choice not to take that risk and stay where I am most comfortable – the circumstance is only something that I WANT to get better at, but not willing to risk my comfortability for it. I felt like that for a lot of my previous jobs or school subjects until I began looking into a career in touring.

In my career, networking is a huge thing – it’s how you get to know more people with the jobs you want, possible future employers and really understand the skills needed for touring. Being a very introverted student at the time with no experience in this career at all, networking was one of the biggest risks I had to personally overcome to be able to start and grow my career. I was so passionate; however, about wanting to tour that I could not see my life going anywhere else: I NEEDED to tour. So although I was anxious and pacing around my room all day before getting on a networking call, I knew this was the risk I had to take to be able to reach my goal of touring full-time which I’m doing now and I couldn’t be happier.

Let’s talk shop? Tell us more about your career, what can you share with our community?
I’m a Tour Manager! I do all the budgeting, accounting, logistics and production preparation for a band or artist going on the road and carry it out every day on that tour.

I think what I value the most in this career is how much it pushes me to be better. I have been touring consistently for 9 months and every day on tour is different. Rarely, things go perfectly no matter how much you prepare so you have to think on your feet a lot. Being that go-to person when things go wrong is very stressful, especially when you are new to Tour Managing and being in that decision-making position so early in your career. It drives me though to do better because in the end, I want better for my crew, my artist, the managers, and the fans. I think doing right by them is what makes me a better TM every day.

I am most proud of how loyal and kind my network has been so early in my career. Without my network, I wouldn’t have had so many accomplishments so soon and consistently after graduation. I tried really hard to show people how determined and passionate I was to get my foot in the door and I’m proud of the people that I surrounded myself with where we help each other uplift emotionally and work-wise.

I got to where I was by truly believing that the career and professional life I wanted was inevitable. Because so much of touring is experience-based, if you have not toured before or have relations to the music industry, it is hard to believe in yourself that people will take you seriously enough to take you on tour. As a result, I had to not only prove to others that I was ready and competent to take on a touring role (especially as a Tour Manager), but to myself that I have the determination to succeed in this although I have never done it before. It’s hard to convince yourself that you can do something that you have never done before, especially in a role where everyone is counting on you. I went into this career with the mindset that I would mess up for a long time before I felt comfortable enough in the role. It is normal for things to go wrong, especially in touring and since you begin with no experience, you can have the best mentors and nothing will prepare you for the issues that pop up on tour. I’m always grateful for those mistakes because it gets me a little closer to my dream tour gigs.

The lessons I learned in being a Tour Manager:
– Never compare your career journey with others coming up with you. There are endless entry points in this career, so don’t only strive towards one path because you can be losing out on what may not be labelled as ‘conventional’ to you yet.
– Don’t be afraid to make mistakes. As a TM, it’s our job to prevent mistakes and circumstances for our artists and crews. In the first few years of doing this job; however, you won’t know what issues there are until they happen for you to prevent it from happening again. So those mistakes are good in the long term!
– Always ask those ‘stupid’ questions. I promise you it is better to feel dumb when asking it than to run into a larger issue because you were too afraid to ask.

I want people to take from my career journey what’s possible when you go into a space that you’re not familiar in, but are eager to be a part of. I never had ties to the music industry, let alone played an instrument for longer than 4 months, but I knew how concerts made me feel, how creative I felt watching them, and how badly I wanted touring to be a part of my life. Since there’s no course for unconventional jobs like this, I went in with no experience or knew anybody to teach me and I think that’s where a lot of people limit themselves before reaching their full potential. It’s the fear of messing up a potential work relationship or doing the wrong thing that holds us back before we even start. No matter how anxious I was about meeting professionals, how scared I was when there was an issue that I never dealt with before, how mad I was when something I planned so hard for didn’t turn out correctly, I know these are things that will make me better at my job in the future because that’s what it’s all about. I hope for people to look past their insecurities about what they don’t know and get excited about what success they can reach with what they do know.

Let’s say your best friend was visiting the area and you wanted to show them the best time ever. Where would you take them? Give us a little itinerary – say it was a week long trip, where would you eat, drink, visit, hang out, etc.
In Toronto, I would suggest the Dumpling Noodle House on Spadina. All their dumplings are made fresh and to-order! My friend went in there randomly and had the best meal.

I would also suggest Bloor Street for some cool vintage clothing and jewellery and Kensington Market for some great Spanish cuisine, especially the Birria Tacos at Birria Catrina.

For some fun Karaoke, Sneaky Dee’s hosts Karaoke night every Monday which is always a good time!

The Shoutout series is all about recognizing that our success and where we are in life is at least somewhat thanks to the efforts, support, mentorship, love and encouragement of others. So is there someone that you want to dedicate your shoutout to?
I will forever be grateful for Whitney Smith, Allyson Smith and Craig Tiede – like forever.

Whitney Smith was the first Tour Manager I ever shadowed. She was tour managing for a band that was coming to my city and I randomly messaged her online saying that I wanted a job like her to see if she would allow me to follow her around for the day. She agreed immediately which is still crazy to me seeing as we were complete strangers, but it was honestly one of the best days of my life. In meeting Whitney, I met Allyson Smith as well who was the Merchandise Manager on the same tour. They both showed me what a rider looks like, how MasterTour worked, showed me a tour bus for the first time, I did merch for the first time and they made me feel a part of the team just by spending a few hours with them. It really gave me a glimpse into what I envisioned for myself and I wouldn’t take anything less. I then went on to tour with both Whitney and Allyson where I got that same family feeling I got from shadowing them 2 years ago and I couldn’t be more happy with the relationship I have with them.

Craig Tiede is a Tour Manager who reached out to me and I almost didn’t meet him. He reached out because we had a mutual connection on LinkedIn and I was posting about small things I did at the time to get music experience (Eg. Merch, Production Running, Doors, etc.). I was finishing my first TM gig with a local Toronto band the day he was in town and I was almost sure I wasn’t going to make it to the show. It ended up working out and I drove 2 hours to meet Craig! He showed me what day sheets and advance emails looked like, how to prioritize an artist’s needs and a detailed version of his day as a TM looked like. After that, we kept in touch for a while and the next year, he brought me on my first-ever tour to Europe and the UK. He fought to have me aboard, to get a good pay rate, and believed in the determination I had despite never being on a tour before this. I don’t know where I’d be if I never got to meet him that day.

Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/maya_j_main/

Linkedin: https://www.linkedin.com/in/mayajdottin/