Originally from New Zealand, Milly Olykan had lived in England until the Country Music Association tapped the forward-thinking former tour manager and manager to come to Nashville a year ago as the org’s VP of International Relations and Development. One of her roles involves the Introducing Nashville series, which takes artists to Japan, Germany, Sweden and the U.K. as a means of exposing them to nontraditional audiences. With the Olykan-launched British/Irish C2C Festival at London’s The O2 now CMA’s crown jewel, attracting over 80,000 in the U.K., she focuses on developing and strengthening the organization’s international networks to help promote both artists and the genre in foreign markets.

With all the disruption, what’s the biggest hurdle?

The challenge for us internationally—where there isn’t Country radio— is how do you get country music in front of fans who aren’t engaging with a country playlist, or fans who think they don’t like country music, but only because they haven’t listened to a lot of it. Internationally, we’re working on shifting perceptions about what country music is. It’s a very broad genre, it’s evolving and it has a lot of subgenres.

Best lesson learned?

I have a few to choose from, but I’d say there is no formula. You can apply that to the music business, to your career or to any part of life.