#54 Kyana White | Breaking Into Touring, Building Range, and Knowing When to Pivot
Mar 17, 2026
Recorded live at Rock Lititz, this episode of The Giggs Podcast gets into one of the most useful backstage career conversations we’ve had on career progression. Nikki Sanz sits down with Kyana White, a tour manager and production manager who came up through TV production, award shows, internships, and low-paid PA work before carving out her place in touring.
What makes this conversation so valuable is that Kyana doesn’t tell a polished version of the story. She tells the real one. She talks about getting started in entertainment through the WME mailroom, moving to Los Angeles to chase TV work, realizing the economics of that path were not lining up with her life goals, and figuring out how to pivot into touring by using the skills and contacts she already had.
Highlights — What You’ll Learn
How Kyana moved from TV and award show production into touring
Why cold outreach helped her land a real opportunity
What transferable skills matter when shifting lanes in live events
How she became both a tour manager and production manager
What small-room and club-level touring crews really need
Why she is now pushing toward arena and stadium-level production
TV taught her more than she realized
Kyana started in entertainment on the TV side. She talks about interning in the WME mailroom, then moving into other opportunities at Octagon Entertainment and Jesse Collins Entertainment. That led to work around major award shows including the Emmys, Grammys, Billboard Awards, Oscars, and more.
What stands out in this part of the episode is not just the resume-building. It’s the way she learned to observe. Kyana describes herself as more of an observer than someone who barges in with a list of questions. Her advice is simple and sharp: read the room. That mindset helped her learn how teams communicate, how departments work together, and how big live productions actually run behind the curtain.
She also makes an important point for anyone early in their career: being in the room matters, but knowing how to carry yourself in the room matters too. She paid attention, took strong notes, learned how executive producers communicated, and built a reputation for being thorough.
“Read the room and decide which approach makes sense for the room.”
The PA grind is real, and it pushed her to pivot
One of the most useful parts of the conversation is Kyana’s honesty about money, trajectory, and burnout. She loved the work, but she also had a personal goal of buying a duplex by 30. At the rates she was making in Los Angeles, she could see the gap between cool opportunities and a sustainable future.
That tension pushed her to think differently. She describes how easy it is to get stuck in the PA world, even when you’re working on major productions. You can be moving from show to show and still not be moving forward fast enough.
Kyana started realizing that touring might be another lane. A conversation with someone on the Emmys planted that seed. Then she connected the dots: award shows are a lot like tours in one place. You build, rehearse, execute, and solve problems under pressure. Touring just moves the show from city to city.
Cold outreach opened the first real touring door
Once Kyana decided to make a move, she did not wait for a perfect introduction. She started reaching out. She looked up artists, crews, and camps online and sent cold emails. That outreach led to a response from someone connected to Janelle Monáe’s camp, and by the end of 2018 she was doing one-off PA work on the Dirty Computer tour.
That part of the story is a reminder that cold outreach works best when it is backed by something real. Kyana had already done the work. She had already built the resume. She had already developed the grit and the operational mindset. The email was the opening. The substance was already there.
She also shares another great takeaway here: sometimes your resources are closer than you think. In her case, people around her were already handing her access points. She just had to recognize them and act on them.
From one-off gigs to becoming the main person
After getting some touring experience under her belt, Kyana connected with Chris Patterson and then stepped into work with Ari Lennox. Her first solo show with Ari was at the El Rey in Los Angeles, and she describes it as intense but manageable because the prep had been done well and she was ready to run point.
That sequence becomes a theme throughout the episode: prepare early, show up calm, and keep taking responsibility. Kyana explains that over time she was simply added to more emails, trusted with more decisions, and eventually seen by management as the main person.
She also advocated for herself when the moment came. Rather than settling into a narrower role, she pushed to take on both tour management and production management. That mattered. It let her become the central point of contact, handle logistics, and lead a team in a more complete way.
Why being both TM and PM matters
A big chunk of this episode is practical for anyone trying to understand crew structure. Kyana explains that at the 650-cap level, budgets are tight and roles often overlap. On Tank and the Bangas, she says she is tour manager, production manager, and stage manager, working alongside front of house and monitor engineers.
She also explains why managers love having one main point of contact. It simplifies communication, reduces crossed wires, and keeps advancing and show-day execution tighter. That kind of clarity matters even more on smaller tours where everybody is wearing multiple hats.
What really comes through here is her leadership style. Nikki points out the calmness that strong production managers tend to have, and Kyana backs that up by talking about posture, diligence, and how preparation earns respect when you walk into a room.
She’s thinking beyond clubs now
Kyana loves working in R&B, but she is also thinking hard about what it takes to reach the next level. She talks openly about being at a crossroads and wanting more technical knowledge around the parts of large-scale production she hasn’t touched yet, including things like rigging, flying PA, and pyro.
That’s part of why this conversation lands so well. It is not framed like she has already arrived. It is framed like someone who has already built a serious career and still wants to keep learning. She wants arena- and stadium-level knowledge, stronger technical range, and more exposure to how the biggest productions in the business come together.
She also leaves listeners with one of the clearest takeaways in the episode: keep going, keep showing up, and do not get discouraged if your path changes. In her case, TV was the original dream. Touring became the real fit.
Check out Kyana White at ONE9 Touring: https://www.one9touring.com/
If you work in live events, touring, production, or artist support, this episode is packed with real-world value. Listen now, follow The Giggs Podcast, and find more stories from the road at Giggs: https://giggs.live
