Recording Connection grad Alexa Cooper’s 3 Secrets for Success

For Recording Connection grad Alexa Cooper (Vancouver, Canada), the secret to her current success can be summed up in three things:

1. Make connections
2. Work hard
3. Say yes

Whether she did them intentionally or instinctively, Alexa wasted no time putting these principles to work. Not two months after starting her Recording Connection apprenticeship at Blue Light Studio in Vancouver, BC under mentor Kaj Falch-Nielsen, the connections she made in the studio ended up landing her a gig helping with audio and lighting for major touring shows coming through the area.

I started working in live events and working with some really big names,” she says. “I have set up AC/DC, I’ve set up a private show with Katy Perry, I’ve done Dave Matthews…I’ve worked with a lot of shows.”

It didn’t stop there; in fact, things started moving so quickly for Alexa that she couldn’t even keep up with her studies for awhile. While working a show in Vancouver, she met a guy who worked for VER, a company in Los Angeles that provides equipment for some of the biggest tours in the world. When she mentioned she was thinking of moving to L.A., he told her to look him up for a job.

The guy kept his word…He gave me all his info, I showed up, and…he walked me into the shop, had me shake hands, and within a week I had a job.”

As Alexa kept saying yes, the opportunities kept happening. Two weeks after starting with VER, she was offered an opening working on tour with none other than A$AP Rocky—an opportunity rarely offered to newcomers!

Typically when you go and start working for them…it takes at least six months before they put you on an actual tour…Since they needed somebody and…my name had been popping up a lot, they asked if I could do it…Now that I’m on the actual gig, they fly me out and put me in hotels wherever I go.”

Over time, Alexa eventually finished up her apprenticeship. Now she’s well on her way to a rewarding career, with plans to start her own studio, among other things. For the time being, she’s gaining lots of experience by working hard and staying ahead of her competition.

In the industry that I’m in with live events, for every 15 people that come in, there’s one that’s proactive. The other 14 are not really that good at what they do, and not trying to get better. So even if you put a small amount of effort forward in that, you’re going to stand out like crazy.”

Any questions?