Music Makes Better Entrepreneurs

Entrepreneurs live busy lives as it is, which are often filled with stress and pressure from various angles. With the challenges that the current crisis brings and the uncertainty that the future beholds, they need more than ever to turn to methods and solutions that can contribute to their mental health. Music is one tool that brings energy to a lethargic mind and respite to a weary soul.

Let’s see how busy entrepreneurs use music as they go through the rigours of their journeys.

“Music has a significant effect on my mood and my emotions.”

– Kym Huynh

WeTeachMe Founder Kym Huynh finds music as an integral part of the human experience. “I use it to lift my mood and comfort, boost general happiness, and reduce anxiety. For me, music is an easy – and powerful – way to transform how I feel and, consequently, how I think.”

Kym, former President at EO Melbourne, also talked about how music has piqued his interest in the human mind.  “I'm particularly curious about how music can influence cognitive function. A tool I use for concentration –  https://brain.fm/ -- creates functional music that is optimised for focus. I find that the frequency of this music shifts me into one of focus and concentration, and the cerebral shift starts from minute 2 onwards.”

“I also listen to 432 Hz frequency music as part of my morning routine that was taught to me by Warren Rustand, called the 10.10.10. Without fail, this frequency of music, combined with the 10.10.10. in my morning routine, prepares me for an exceptional day. As a side benefit, music tuned to 432 Hz is softer and brighter. It is said to provide greater clarity and is easy on the ears,” Kym added.

“Music is good to start your day and end your night.”

– Tui Cordemans

For Tui Cordemans, Director at Koh Living, there is nothing like a hard trance to move your stress levels and get the energy flowing. “As COVID hit, I went back to my 20’s and started running and listening to hardcore trance which stopped any thought patterns and got me ready and pumped for the day.”

She described how she starts her mornings with energy-boosting music. “I have been listening to albums such as trance essential and hard trance anthems. I highly recommend this strategy if you are experiencing any negative thought patterns because the music is so intense and loud that you just have no place for any other thoughts. During stressful times, having an empty mind is potentially the best place to go to have a mental break. In the mornings, it is very easy to start with this music because your mind is not exhausted from the day.”

This is in stark contrast as to how Tui ends her nights, as well as the kind of music she listens to when she caps her day. “On the flip side, when I want to relax at the end of a night, I often enjoy pure silence. I find this extremely relaxing. I became accustomed to this after spending years doing meditation. If I do listen to music at the end of a day, it has to be classical as I find it dissolves my day into pure bliss. Pretty extreme change from my morning music, I know.  My brain is fairly exhausted from the day, so silence or listening to classical music works for me. Something like Swan Lake from Tchaikovsky, The Four Seasons, Vivaldi or even Rigoletto by Pavarotti – all great stress busters!”

“Music has a huge effect on my wellbeing.” 

– John Liston

“I would go as far as to say it’s the single most important thing in my day-to-day life,” said John Liston, Director at Liston Newton Advisory. “I have Spotify on throughout the entire day. I use it for energy and momentum when doing work. I use a good song to celebrate a win during the day or to get my energy back up if it’s been a hard day. I use it when cooking dinner and spending time with the kids to make things more upbeat and fun.”     

Apart from having it at home, music is also part of his work environment. “In the pre-COVID days, we would have a UE Boom in our open-plan office and play music throughout the day. It’s hard to always get everyone to agree on taste, but it’s a great way to generate mood and energy in the office,” John shared.

John’s top three chill songs include: “Give Me Tonight” by Dustin Tebbutt; “Old Pine” by Ben Howard; and “Fading” by Valis Alps.

“Music is core to me as an individual.”

– Dean Cherny

Dean Cherny has been in the music industry for so many years. He is the CEO and Founder of Marketing Melodies and storePlay, as well as Managing Director of DJ Dimension – all of which are related to music. “As you might expect, music plays a massive part in my well-being. It is core to me as an individual and something that compliments almost every part of my life. From training in the morning to hanging out with the kids, I love having a soundtrack to everything I do,” Dean remarked.

He shared an experience he recently had with his family. “Only last weekend, I watched my two daughters grooving and singing along to Donna Summer’s Hot Stuff as we built Lego, and it bought such a smile to my face. These soundtracks also allow me to build a bridge with my kids as I share stories about the artists and my time in the music industry.”

Outside of the home, music still plays an integral part in his entrepreneurial life. “While my company Marketing Melodies primarily focuses on using music to help create ambience in retail spaces, we also realise the importance of using music to stimulate, boost, and motivate the workforce in these environments.”

Dean stated the significance of music in a work environment. “The correct playlists can indeed help boost productivity in shops and offices. More laidback, relaxing music works best for periods of concentration, whilst more upbeat music helps to boost energy levels towards the end of the day.”

And if you’re curious as to what are Dean’s must-listen music, here are his top five ‘chill’ artists and albums:

1. David Gray - White Ladder

2. Massive Attack - Blue Lines

3. Maxwell - Maxwell’s Urban Hand Suite

4. Morcheeba - Big Calm

5. George Benson - Give Me The Night

What is music to you?

Let us know how music has played in your personal and professional journey. Comment below your thoughts or share your favourite songs that have become a significant part of your life.

Dean Cherny drives Marketing Melodies to success

"As an entrepreneur, you have to be quite visionary. But not just visionary, you have to be willing to drive it. You have to drive it.” - Dean Cherny, Founder and Director at Marketing Melodies

Throughout Dean Cherny's 28-year entrepreneurial journey as Managing Director and Founder of Marketing Melodies, he has navigated his company solo for the majority of its existence. When Dean attended his first EO event, he was faced with the following questions: If you have a bus and you need to fill it with people, who will be the people you want to take in? How will you arrange them inside the bus? Will you drive it yourself or will you stay in the passenger seat? These were key questions Dean pondered on, and two pertinent takeaways stood out: one, he needed the right people on the right seats in his bus; and two, he must drive his bus and not just be a passenger.

Since his hands took the helm, Dean has happily driven his figurative bus – his company, Marketing Melodies – through an exciting ride, with his eyes set towards a more thrilling journey ahead.

When it comes to steering the wheel, Dean is persistent and unyielding. One particular example: He pursued his biggest client for 27 years until he finally got them to join him on his bus. That is why his proudest moment ever was when he eventually got a resounding “yes” from the Just Group after wooing them for almost three decades. Another feather in his cap was the launch of storePlay, an online app that makes the in-store music experience more convenient and satisfying. Since they say ‘good things come in threes’ Dean’s third conquest came one week prior to this interview, where he signed a reseller deal that would change the whole in-store landscape.

All these feats have gotten Dean to whistle a happy tune. Despite his accomplishments, he never forgets to glance at his metaphorical rear-view mirror every now and then, to look back to where his entrepreneurial bus started. It was in a classroom during his final year in the university back in 1989 when they were discussing points of sale. He raised his hand during the lecture and, being a DJ, asked about music in the retail environment. The lecturer acknowledged his question but also challenged his idea, so Dean decided to do his final year assignment on in-store music.

With two classmates, Dean worked on his idea and, as part of the assignment, presented it to the marketing manager of Portmans. Unexpectedly, the concept caught on with the retailers. As a matter of fact, Portmans wanted Dean to roll out the proposal straight away. High from that positive outcome, Dean went ahead and took the plunge. On the other hand, his colleagues backed out from implementing the concept. “Once we had done the presentation, they actually didn't think there was much opportunity in it that they decided not to be involved. So, I did it by myself. I still see those guys and we do have a bit of a laugh on that fact that this business has gone on to become successful, and that they chose not to get involved,” Dean chuckled.

You might say that Dean had the right tools that gave him a good head start on his entrepreneurial journey: he had training in marketing and he had experience with music as a DJ. Getting into the in-store music line of business was a rational one. Yet, it was his exposure to business through his parents -- his father was in shirt manufacturing while his mother had a travel agency -- that gave him valuable inputs on how to run his own. They also went through ups and downs as entrepreneurs, which opened Dean’s eyes to the realities of running a business.

“My parents, when we were growing up, they were doing it very hard. We were middle-income. There were times when they couldn't afford babysitters,” a thoughtful Dean remarked. For Dean and his two other siblings, school holidays meant going with mom or dad to work. Their playground was their parents' offices. They would help or be present with people working with their parents. Those experiences and their parent’s conversations about their respective businesses over dinner table provided Dean with the exposure he needed that became a foundation for his own business journey.

Dean had seen his father hit some tough times in his business, so he had a good grasp of the challenges that the journey entails. “I think some people do not realize the risk that entrepreneurs take.” Dean was quite pensive when he pointed out, “What people don't think about are the pressures. Generally, I'm the one who's at risk; it's my investment. Because it's essentially funded by me, if things don’t go well, that can very quickly have an adverse effect on my family. I've seen things like that happen with family members who were entrepreneurs and things didn't go well. And I've seen how that can affect them.”

But being a focused and tenacious businessman, failing wasn’t an option for him. “I didn't think failures were even something that I contemplated. Like I said, it was a risk to do it. But I knew I was going to be successful. I had no doubt that I would succeed,” the determined entrepreneur professed.

For instance, when he was starting out and was making inroads, his competitor underestimated him. “What they used to say was ‘ Dean’s just a fly by night. He is just a little kiddie. He's not going to be around in a couple of years.’ But I’m still here, and I don’t think there is anyone else in my industry who has operated longer than I have.”

Dean was out to prove the naysayers wrong. When he decided to turn his assignment into a business, he went ahead and secured the licensing of music so that the service he would offer would be legal, even when he had to toil hard just to get this done. He did the mixing of the records – from cassettes to burning it on CDs to creating it on hard drives – within the confines of his bedroom. He looked for suppliers and dealt with them when he needed to outsource some of the production. He made presentations, closed deals and looked after his client’s needs. He did all these on his own as he ran the business by himself until his first employee mid-2014.

These were bumps he endured, but because he loved what he was doing, the ride on his entrepreneurial shuttle was an unbelievably exciting one. The flipside of the risks and the intensive labours was the excitement and the adrenaline of achieving the goals. “If you put together the right plan to achieve the goals, and when you finally achieve your goals, the reward is second to none,” said Dean.

Being an entrepreneur, the success is magnified. Dean believes that when you’re working for someone and you win a deal, “it doesn’t compare to the excitement and the thrill as when you’re the owner.”

Unwavering in his fortitude to take his business even further, Dean went ahead with his other passion: learning. He gorged on workshops and talks when he joined EO Melbourne three years ago. And in that length of time, he's only missed five events. “I’ve gone to everything. I think I can truly say that I've got something out of every one of them. In that regard, I just love hearing people's experiences and the sharing of going down the path of leadership. I've exposed myself to EO members on the global level through GLC and through Ignite. I'm just like this kid in the candy shop, and I just want more and more and more because I'm loving the opportunity to learn.” Those learnings also boosted his confidence, especially on how to deal with clients and prospects.

These days, Dean furiously devours business books, inspired by speakers he heard from the talks. He is a tech geek, so he is learning more about how he can use technology to expand Marketing Melodies, not just geographically, but to other territories. His EO journey has strengthened his resolve of developing himself as a holistic entrepreneur – a businessman, a father and a husband – while he continually improves his skills, his mindset and capabilities.

Dean is content that he has good life balance. “I work from home. So, that's great as I get to see the kids when they come home from school, and I can go have dinner with them at 5:00, and bath them, and put them to bed or help my wife with domestic duties. And then if I need to do a little bit more work, I can do that,” the young father revealed.

For Dean, the best thing about his business is that he gets to have the personality that he wants to be. “I am also a commercial creative. I think commercial creatives are quite rare. Generally, people are either commercial and not creative or creative and not necessarily commercial. And I think that held me in good stead so I've been able to flirt and move between the two.”

Part of that commercial creative personality is constantly having a good relationship with his clients. “Call it crazy,” Dean quipped, “but all my clients have my mobile phone number. I am unbelievably responsive to clients’ needs.”

That’s a good driver who knows how to take care of his passengers. Nevertheless, despite his business acumen, there are incessant twists and turns throughout his entrepreneurial voyage. One, he has to navigate through the retail industry, which is undergoing turbulent times. Many brands are price conscious even though Marketing Melodies price their products and services very reasonably, and second, there’s the need for continuing education of businesses. “We supply in-store music and we're essentially like a version of Spotify for business. But people don't understand that Spotify isn't legal for in-store music or to use in their business. And so, they are probably our biggest competitor even though they shouldn't be competing with us. So, there's a big education piece.”

With his “never give up” attitude, Dean is keen on working his way through it. Looking back to that moment in university, Dean didn’t get a good mark from his assignment, but that didn't stop him from working on his idea.

“As an entrepreneur, you have to be quite visionary. But not just visionary, you have to be willing to drive it. You have to drive it.” These are sound words from a sound guy.

More of Dean Cherny in his LinkedIn profile. Read about Marketing Melodies and its service Store Play at http://www.storeplay.com.au.