The Entrepreneurial Musician: David Vining of Mountain Peak Music

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David is one of the people in the music business I look up to. While at the height of the brass profession he overcame dystonia by completely reevaluating how he approached and even conceived of his playing.

He also started the very successful Mountain Peak Music publishing company. I loved hearing his approach to the publishing business and how it applies to all of us in the music business.

Topics covered in this episode:

• Finding a core customer base
• The advantage of "drilling down" to cater to a specific niche
• Not assuming different customer bases have the same needs
• How his battle with dystonia taught him to not always approach problems in a linear and traditional manner
• Creating an environment where people can create their own improvement rather than follow step-by-step instructions
• How critical communication skills are to all entrepreneurs

A big thanks to David for joining me on this episode! I learned a lot!

The Entrepreneurial Musician: Jeff Conner of Boston Brass

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SoundCloud
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Jeff Conner was my colleague in Boston Brass for 14 years. He is the only original founding member that remains in the group today. In this interview he talks about how they went from a college group playing small gigs around the Boston area to an internationally touring, full time ensemble.

Topics that Jeff touches on:

• How he got a powerful Boston businessman to financially support Boston Brass
• The importance of having mentors that inspire you
• Perseverance being a key to success
• Not being afraid of the word no
• Networking being a longterm process
• Why developing your own brand is essential

Jeff also talks about the book he wrote with John Laverty, The Porfolio Musician, in which they detail the careers of over 40 different musicians.

I have learned a lot from Jeff's approach to the business and I'm really happy that he joined me for this interview.

Links:

The Portfolio Musician: Case Studies in Success
Boston Brass