Mount Pleasant has been a place for music and celebrity culture throughout the recent years. During the school year of 2011-2012, the Wayside Central of Mount Pleasant opened their doors for Jersey Shore star Deena Nicole. In the same year, CMU hosted Dayglow twice (known as Life in Color) and sold out both shows. Then in the fall of 2012, Krewella performed a live show at Wayside, weeks before their hit single, “Alive” was played on every radio station around the country. The most recent event was this past winter 2014, when the Wayside sold out for SoMo, an up and coming R&B artist, whose album will drop this April.
So, who is the person behind some of the greatest events the Wayside has ever offered? The man behind the scenes is Central Michigan University’s very own, Thomas Lorentzen. How did Lorentzen land such a unique job in the midst of his college career you may ask? Well, here is the low down from the man himself.
Lorentzen quickly found his passion for events and entrepreneurship after he unintentionally helped fellow CMU student, Anthony Lazzaro, sell tickets for a New Years Eve party. They quickly developed a partnership and made the decision to take a leave from CMU in order to pursue their dreams.
Lorentzen’s first event featured Deena Nicole at the Wayside Central, and after the event, employees of Dayglow (Life in Color) approached him to consider having CMU host the paint party everyone was raving about. Lorentzen and Lazzaro went for it, and had the opportunity to work with some of the biggest artists in the country and several different kinds of performers. Lorentzen was most grateful to experience seeing what a large-scale production included. To their benefit, Dayglow was a success, and this was just the beginning of a wild ride.
During his time away from the university, Lorentzen traveled the country constantly. Through mutual connections, he traveled with Krewella for one week on a tour bus, provided by Lorentzen and Lazzaro’s company at that time. “We were in real life situations where you have to think on your feet and your toes, and you can’t learn that in a classroom,” said Lorentzen of his experiences.
Although Lorentzen’s original plan for leaving CMU did not continue to grow in a way he had hoped, he gained experiences that he feels will benefit him for the remainder of his life, especially in his career. “The amount of people we met and the experiences we had helped us grow as business people. Life isn’t always going to go your way and you just have to take as many great experiences out of it as you can,” Lorentzen says looking back on his leave from CMU.
For a young man of only 24, he has experienced things that most people never will, and it was a bit shocking to hear that he feels his greatest accomplishment so far had been returning to CMU. “Once you get into this industry, in the real world, and start working towards your career, it’s really hard to come back to school,” he explained, “college can give you opportunities you can’t find anywhere else.”
Lorentzen has only just begun and he is looking forward to many more life experiences, including finding out who he is and where he belongs in his career. When asked what his ideal career would be he said, “I can’t just say. It’s something that I am going to create. When I think “career,” I think I‘m going to do this for the rest of my life. My career is in the making.”
Lorentzen leaves students, young adults, and anyone who has big dreams with a piece of advice: “Get your head out of the books, go out and meet people, take chances, take risks, really dig deep about what you are truly passionate about in life.” Lorentzen encourages everyone to experience life in order to find what you truly love. “Stay hungry, stay motivated, and never become complacent in your life because as soon as you do, you should move on to the next step.”
Lorentzen has already begun paving a path towards success; it will be exciting to see where the next step takes him.
Photos taken by Andrew Coutts Photography