For over three decades, I worked in what I often referred to as the “nuts and bolts” of the creative process, encompassing the production of movies, TV commercials, documentaries, and various forms of visual media. I understood that excelling in my role was crucial for enabling others to achieve their best creative work.In my new career at the Diverse Emerging Music Organization and its signature initiative, The Minnesota Music Archive, the mission remains similar. My job is to ensure that the work of Minnesota’s musicians is preserved and promoted. As artist Nick Cave recently said in an interview:"I feel that music isn’t just entertainment. It’s possibly the last authentic opportunity for transcendent experience we have left to us in the secular world. I think that music is a moral force for good — that’s embedded within the nature of music itself: It can make things better, so I take that really seriously.”