Laura Scaffidi, Artsci’18, MA’19, learned about doing things right the first time and staying until the job is done while working in her dad’s Ottawa music store beginning at 14 years old. Those lessons and her Queen’s master’s degree in arts leadership and management came in handy when she entered the world of politics as a press secretary in the Heritage Minister’s office. Today, Ms. Scaffidi continues to lean on her experience at Mike’s Music as she serves as the lead press secretary for Prime Minister Mark Carney.
My first job was working for my dad, who owned a small business, Mike’s Music. The shop specialized in band instrument repairs and rentals, and the customers were primarily the parents of middle-school and high-school kids renting instruments for their school music programs.
As I’m sure is often the case for others raised in a family with a small business, my job was to do whatever needed to be done. Summer was a busy time for the shop, and my summer camp was working at Mike’s Music. My sister and I were recruited to help with cleaning the instruments, sanitizing the mouthpieces, answering the phone, and greeting people – a little bit of everything. It’s influenced my attitude on work now. I like to jump in on any task to get something over the finish line.
When I reflect on what skills I learned from that first job that still serve me today, something that comes to mind is that my dad was known to have exceptional attention to detail – if the work started getting sloppy, he’d be the first one to say, “I don’t think you’ve done a good enough job here.”
I’ve tried to carry that with me since then, and it helps me in my work today, because I need to wrap my mind around a lot of new subject matter, all the time. Really paying attention to detail and asking lots of questions ensures accuracy. I feel so lucky to work with and learn from some of the brightest, hardest-working people, who would probably tell you I’m chronically early. That’s another habit I learned at Mike’s Music that stuck. My dad believed that “if you’re early, you’re on time, and if you’re on time, you’re late.”
The last thing I’d say my first job at the shop really instilled in me is that if you work hard, things will work out for you. I worked on Member of Parliament for Carleton Bruce Fanjoy’s campaign in the last election, and I felt that was the case when he won the riding against all odds. Putting in the work pays off. Especially during an election campaign when you’re working long days with no weekends off until the finish line. And I think my belief in that sense of hard work, and even just that the hard work itself is rewarding – just getting something done is motivating and energizes me to keep driving a project forward. And in my role now, what a privilege it is to play a small part in getting things done every day for Canadians.
