S3E4: Taking Career Breaks and Becoming a Digital Nomad with Katrina McGhee

Mike Allen, the Wake Forest Listening Room founder, joins Allie in this week's episode. Mike and Allie discuss Mike's experiences with organizing benefit concerts for causes he is passionate about and the founding of the Wake Forest Listening Room. They also discuss Mike's latest project, Be Good to Yourself, a non-profit that provides mental health assistance to musicians in North Carolina.
About Mike Allen:
Mike is a 1986 graduate of UNC-Chapel Hill and graduated with a BA in Journalism, concentration in advertising copywriting.

He worked in ad agencies as a copywriter, associate creative director, and creative director in Birmingham, Asheville, Cincinnati, Dallas, and Raleigh. Mike now works in-house at the AICPA (Association of International Certified Professional Accountants) in their Durham, NC office.

Mike has organized benefit concerts for the animal rights advocacy group The Coalition to Unchain Dogs. He also managed and ran Stand Against HB2, a series of six benefit concerts for EqualityNC in 2016 to raise money to overturn HB2. The HB2 concerts were held in Saxapahaw, Winston-Salem, Wilmington, Asheville, Charlotte, and Carrboro and included more than 120 different NC musicians.
In 2017, Mike started The Wake Forest Listening Room in Wake Forest, NC, bringing live, original music to downtown. Now the series attracts local, regional, national, and international talent (including Madison Violet of Canada, Steve Nieve of Elvis Costello and the Attractions, Robbie Fulks, Lou Barlow, and Jill Andrews, among others).

In 2020, he co-founded Be Good to Yourself, a non-profit dedicated to providing free mental health care for North Carolina musicians. Their double CD, LP, and EP collection of 27 songs performed by 60 different NC musicians to raise funds and awareness is currently available for purchase on their website.

Connect with My Guest!

• Instagram:https://www.instagram.com/wakeforestlistening
• Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/wflisteningroom/
• Website: https://begoodtoyourselfmusic.com/about
• H2B Resources:
  • https://nchb2history.omeka.chass.ncsu.edu/collections/show/5
  • https://journalnow.com/news/local/n-c-musicians-push-back-against-bathroom-bill-with-stand-against-hb2-concert-in-winston/article_c5e921d8-aee6-516b-a0fc-a07d354dcb88.html

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