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Music Maverick: Interview with Colton Sleister
91 Plays3 months ago
Colton Sleister is the founder and co-owner of Sleister Music, a company specializing in renting, repairing, and selling musical instruments to support school band programs. Colton began his entrepreneurial journey at the young age of 14. He is a graduate of Drake University with a degree in chemistry and has a deep passion for both music and business. Colton also actively performs with the Central Iowa Wind Ensemble, demonstrating his continued dedication to the musical arts.
Episode Summary:
In this engaging episode of the Uncommon Wealth Podcast, host Phillip Ramsey sits down with Colton Sleister, a young entrepreneur and founder of Sleister Music. Starting his business at only 14 years old, Colton shares his journey from a high school student looking for a better trombone to a successful business owner specializing in musical instruments for school band programs. The episode delves into his early influences, especially his father, a serial entrepreneur who had a significant impact on him. Listeners will gain insights into Colton's entrepreneurial spirit, his approach to scaling Sleister Music, and the lessons he learned along the way.
Throughout the episode, Colton reflects on overcoming common business challenges, from managing a growing team to navigating product market fit. He also talks about the critical role of customer relationships and school partnerships in the success of Sleister Music. Colton emphasizes the importance of creating a low-barrier, month-to-month rental model that makes it easier for children to try out musical instruments. With a clear vision for the future, Colton aims to make Sleister Music the most trusted and valued partner for school band programs in Iowa. Tune in to hear about his successes, setbacks, and the strategies he employs to sustain and grow his business.
Key Takeaways:
- Early Entrepreneurship: Colton started Sleister Music at age 14 by selling used trombones through platforms like Craigslist.
- Family Influence: His father, a serial entrepreneur, played a crucial role in shaping his business acumen and providing initial financial support.
- Product Market Fit: One key to Colton's success was identifying and meeting a specific need within the local school band community.
- Customer-Centric Approach: The month-to-month rental model offers a low-barrier entry for parents and students, demonstrating a thoughtful, customer-focused business strategy.
- Future Goals: Colton aims to make Sleister Music the top partner for school band programs in Iowa, continually improving their services and expanding their reach.
Notable Quotes:
- "Everybody who's joining band for the first time in this part of the country, central Iowa, most of them, they'll start in the month of September." - Colton Sleister
- "I was frugal. I hated spending money because I could make it into more money." - Colton Sleister
- "One reason that was a great fit, me going to Drake University, is that I could, after classes, take the calls, line up appointments to show them instruments." - Colton Sleister
- "We'll be able to make partnerships with more and more schools, more and more parents like yourself in those schools, and word of mouth, us reaching out to them." - Colton Sleister
- "If you're dealing with people, at some point, you're gonna have people issues, probably right away." - Colton Sleister
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Transcript
Introduction to Uncommon Wealth Podcast
00:00:00
Speaker
Everyone dreams of living an uncommon life, and the best asset you have to achieve your dreams is you. Welcome to the Uncommon Wealth Podcast. We're going to introduce you to people who are living uncommonly. We're also going to give you some tools and strategies for building wealth and for pursuing an uncommon path that is uniquely right for you.
Meet Colton Slyster
00:00:27
Speaker
Hello and welcome, everybody, to another episode of the Uncommon Wealth podcast, where I'm your host, Phillip Ramsey, and we get to interview people that love their life and are living their own uncommon life. And we have no exceptions today. We have Colton, who loves his life. Colton Slyster, everybody. He's in studio. These are my favorite ones. If you guys have listened for a lot, you know this. But let me give you three things that I think about when I think of Colton, because I know him a little bit, right? Not only do I know him, I've been a customer of his business, so we're gonna get into all of this. But here's my three words. I believe ah Colton is thoughtful. He always asks really good questions, which is a really good quality to have. He's smart, come on now. That's great. And the last one is he's musical, which makes it perfect segue into your slicer music. That's what he does. Colton, welcome to the show.
00:01:21
Speaker
Hey, thanks for having me. I'm glad to be here. You have a wonderful home. and i Thank you. Glad to get to join you in the studio here. Yeah, man. Can't wait to unpack this. So yeah you started this whole entrepreneurial thing very early. And that's what I kind of wanted to unpack a little bit first. And then we're going to go into all this stuff. ah But you love you are a Drake bulldog through and through. You got your undergraduate. You got your master's from there. And you started your business at what age. yeah So um I started Sliced Your Music in 2013.
Starting Slyster Music at 14
00:01:53
Speaker
I was 14 years old. I was a freshman in high school and I myself had been looking for the next trombone as I auditioned for Allstate was getting pretty serious, taking private lessons, practicing all the time. And I had a really, really difficult time finding that and wasn't really happy with the options that I've found locally for for getting that next level instrument. And I was talking with my father, he's a serial entrepreneur um himself. And ah we realized that there was this opportunity to buy, um essentially use trombones off of eBay in,
00:02:30
Speaker
parts of the year that people were not joining band, maybe January, December, April, and then clean them, have them fixed, and then sell them in the back to school rush in first and background here, everybody who's joining band for the first time in this part of the country, Central Iowa, most of them, they'll start in the month of September, the kids go back to school, yeah they'll get to test the and different instruments out, figure out which ones they like the most, and then the ones that ah were gonna play trombone, they would then need to go and get one. All of them will actually need to to go and get them, but ah the ones with trombone needs we were particularly interested in because we happen to have 14 used trombones that we were listing. I worked with my fifth grade band director to get our information in front of the students of hers. um That's in Ankeny. Shout out to Rachel Urban. You're fantastic.
00:03:21
Speaker
That's great. And also listed them on Craigslist and sold out, made good money for a high school
Family Influence and Entrepreneurial Roots
00:03:28
Speaker
student year old. Yeah, that's fantastic. It was like two summers of detasseling earnings. yeah and ah Didn't have to detassel for the record. Didn't have to touch any corn. Yes. If you're if you know you know, you know. Yeah, yes. Okay, so first off, there's a lot to unpack there. Like your father. Yes. Serial entrepreneur. Yes. Holy cow. What a blessing that was. So as you got old, like as you were growing up, you saw that as a blessing because it like shaped who you are. That's something like I always think about. Like as these people step off into the old uncommon path, like what are the kids observing? And is it positive or negative? Yes. There can be probably both of that. So tell me what,
00:04:10
Speaker
was your dad always entrepreneurial? And then how did you view that being a child? ah Yeah. And you're 14 years old and you're stepping into business yourselves. Like, I think that's pretty good. Yeah, so ah some of his bio here. Darren Slicer, that's his name. That's my father and business partner now. And he had a ah career early on, you know right after he graduated from university in the investment world. He worked at a subsidiary of principle. So he was in international small cap equities. So that was that was the the game he was playing. He did pretty well at it. He was able to then um you know take the the money from the W2 job yeah and go into a series of businesses, which include, but probably shouldn't be limited to. I'm probably forgetting some. He owned a car wash.
00:05:02
Speaker
He owned part of a dairy farm with his brother. hu He's owned apartments, um commercial real estate with a partner. He has commercial and residential real estate that he owns. He's done industrial plastic recycling. So those milk jugs, when you put those in the curb, he's been involved with the stream of turning those, not necessarily picking them up, but processing them, turning, you know, the post consumer, uh, wow, plastic. post-industrial plastic into a product that can be, you know, turned back into new recycle items. Yeah. Wow. So he's done all those things. He now owns half of a music store. Yeah. And I'm sure there's a few other things. What what did his parents do? they were um He grew up on a farm. So they were in in agriculture. his Kind of entrepreneurial. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. And I mean, his,
00:05:47
Speaker
Yeah, so and anyone in in Ag and his father, so my grandfather's name was nickname was Crazy Larry, so he he would try different things and yeah was no fan of the Orthodox. Ah, the old uncommon. Yeah, yeah he so that's maybe how I get the and the the urge to be uncommon. It's probably from him.
Growing Slyster Music through High School
00:06:06
Speaker
um Huh. Okay. So 14, you step off into the path because you see an opportunity. Yes. An opportunity that would serve you and that you didn't have when you were there. So it's going to fill the need that you know is there. You don't know how big it is. Yeah. But after that first 14 trombone thing, you realize like we got something here and then you don't have it to tassel. So things are going well in your world. Yeah. Uh, and then when did you start like scaling that up? Yeah. Well, I, it worked so well. I decided, Hey, let's do this again. and I took every dollar that we had and I bought more instruments and we cleaned them, we fixed them. Was that scary or not really when you were 14? Not really. Yeah. It was awesome. Yeah, I bet. It was great. Yeah. It was so good. Oh my gosh. And yeah, we just lather, rinse, repeat, do that for a few years. Come on. And then by the time I'm in college, it's like, hey, this is something that at that point it wasn't early in college necessarily something I could make a living just doing that. Yeah. But you get the return on the capital, you reinvest in capital, you don't take the money out and spend it.
00:07:03
Speaker
Frugal hated hated spending money because I could make it into more money. yeah Oh my gosh, Colton, I nailed those three words. You're thoughtful, you're smart, and you're musical. Let's go. That seems like I'm pretty good. Thank you. yes Okay, so you keep doing it. I keep doing it. But now you have to step, so all through high school you do that. yeah And so from the freshman year to your 18, so four years, started with 14 trombones, yeah and then what did it grow to in the last in that four years? um By the end, it was probably the order of maybe 50 to 100 instruments in my senior year. That's pretty good. Yeah, because it would have been my sophomore year was the first, because I saw them in the fall, so I started it. I had year one was 14, year two was probably 25, and year three was probably around 50. Okay.
00:07:53
Speaker
I have exact numbers if you want after this. No, that's okay. That's fine. i just I think for the listeners, it's good to see like scaling. yeah and and And again, I think that you did it the right way when a lot of 14-year-olds would be like, and we're going to go buy more candy. yeah You were like, we're going to go buy more instruments because it's working. And it seems like you had your pricing model fairly decently priced. yeah We were priced you know We would make good money on each instrument, but it was also still pretty competitive because it was selling instruments out of my garage. Yeah. Home out of my parents house, um, in our dining room on Craigslist. So good. All right. So now you step into college and realize like, Hey, that's good. But now I have other things I need to study for. I have a lot more plates to spin, if you will. Yeah. And so what happened to Slyster Music yeah when that happened, when you stepped into college? Yeah. I mean, we kept doing it. I mean, the business was basically we buy instruments throughout the year and then we sell them in the fall. So it's it's a once per year cash conversion sales cycle, which yeah as a business now is like, oh, that's kind of interesting. Yeah. um yeah A lot of you know retailers don't like to do that. So it's, it's uncommon unique, but.
00:09:07
Speaker
It's also a niche that it's very seasonal, right? Yeah. Like if you have a haunted house, you're not going to probably do it
Business Growth and Challenges
00:09:11
Speaker
most of the year, but no, it's, it's similar to a haunted house is a good example or like a fireworks fireworks are the thing. yeah Like, and they still have buildings and so the cash flow that happens in the peak season is, is well enough to be able to open and keep that open or keep that building there. Yeah. So we kept things lean and just, um, growing the pool of instruments, growing our expertise, knowledge you of. instruments until 2020, 2021. And that was when we realized that this has outgrown the house that we're in. Because I didn't take it with me to college. So had I gone out of state, had I gone to Oklahoma or yeah one of the coasts, it probably would have been the end of of the business, at least the trajectory that I ended up having here. So that was one reason that was a great fit me going to Drake University. is that I could, after classes, take the calls, line up appointments to show them instruments, and then if it's on campus or if it's in Ankeny, I could do that. So I have some memories of ah of that right after marching band practice of being sweaty, getting my flip phone out and getting some calls. business owners. Yes. yes Okay. Uh, and so then that's, that's where we're at now. Like you've kind of gone through and now you've obviously graduated college and now you're doing this full time. Yeah. So when you stepped out to your house, did you get like a standalone building? Yeah. Um,
00:10:35
Speaker
We were looking at a few different properties in Ankeny, didn't know if this was something that we should say, hey, let's buy a different house and I will live at that house and have most of it be this business. And we actually ended up really stumbling across a physician who was retiring and he had a whole, it was like about 6,700 square feet. And my father business partner, he does real estate and he was I'm not sure if he 1031ed into it or or not, um but he ended up buying the build building. Yeah, he leased it to us. which So it's a business that he owns part of, but there's also ah ah a friend that we have that runs a piano teaching studio that also leads some space. So there's other tenants in the building, sure and but we didn't build it ourselves. ah we We just purchased an existing building. Yeah, a pre-owned, pre-owned. Yeah, that's good. Okay. And then you, so you've now graduated. Mm-hmm.
Academic Paths vs Business Focus
00:11:28
Speaker
And at what point in your business did you realize that like, okay, we have a official business here where I know I'm going to college, but I could step out of college at any moment and jump into this and know that I can be okay. Yeah. Probably made a way through college. 15 years ago old. I don't know. When I went into college, I was open to. potentially winding down the business. If I, I mean, I studied chemistry in college, so I had you know ambitions to do something that maybe was different than but renting, repairing and selling musical instruments to support the drive music and school band programs. I had, I had scientific dreams. And then, um, just the opportunity was so, so good. and
00:12:11
Speaker
the people that we worked with seem to enjoy it so much and had such a good time doing all of the you know activities that go into the business that, yeah like, hey, maybe i'll maybe I'll just keep doing this. I i have a ah chemistry degree, um but probably halfway through I realized, okay, I'm probably going to be running this business after college. But I yeah i mean, i like most college students, I really didn't know. I mean, I can say I figured out at this time, I had a hunch, like, but, you know. You never know. or yeah You never know. yeah yeah yeah It seems like everything in your career is going great and so I wanted to step back and be like, when is it not going great? So think about that because I feel like our the reason why I love helping people walk through to this uncommon wealth side of things is because people learn so much so quickly. yeah And you're constantly like trying to figure something new out about your business or you're learning more about yourself. But at the end of the day, they get an education far bigger than they ever could have purchased or even if they would have invested their money into the market and it grows a hundred times or even loses all of it.
Lessons from Failures
00:13:14
Speaker
They're not learning much, but that's what I love about this uncommon path and helping people walk through that is because I get to like have a front row seat of people learning and and succeeding and having failures and processing through that. I love that. So let's talk about a time in your business where you were like, Oh dear, like this is not going well. Maybe there wasn't maybe for you, Colton, you didn't have that, but I have a feeling you did. Yeah, I think your feelings is correct here. um I'll have maybe two things that are illustrative of things that have we've mistakes we've made or things that i've just that have been hard because probably what I've illustrated so far is, hey, this seems easy. Let's let's do this. Maybe it takes some time, but this is a sure thing.
00:13:57
Speaker
It's not, it takes hard work. Some days are great. Some days are awful. Burn it to the ground. Yeah. Yeah. And you got to, you got to take the good stuff up. Yeah. Yeah. And, and you got to keep going. Um, so the first thing that, we've We were pretty lucky to have you know pretty good, it's a product market fit. Going you know right from the very beginning, we sold instruments for a customer we knew existed because I i was that person. so yeah if you know If someone's listening to this and they have an idea, okay, this thing drives me nuts and there's all my friends, that it drives them nuts too. That's what you know in the in the business world we call product market fit. and yes it's you know
00:14:34
Speaker
the opposite of a Solution looking for a problem. You have a you have a problem and yet you're like, hey, here's here's the solution You've got both someone will pay you for it ah But there have been things that we've done that have not had product market fit. So we at one point we're looking at hey, let's let's we have a music store Let's sell other things. Let's sell guitars and drums and and and that that's kind of which I see where you would get that Yeah, it's kind of one plus one. Let's go three and a lot of other stores that do that school band instruments also do that and And we discovered i don't I don't have any expertise there myself. A lot of the people on my team didn't. The customer is also a different person. They're not the parent of a student in a school band program. They're someone that likes to play in their church's band. And how you meet those people, it's two different things. And I wasn't nearly as good at it. And as a company, we didn't do nearly as well. And so we we invested thousands and thousands of dollars in it. And we you know sold the inventory for cents on the dollar. And we're happy to
Managing People and Business Dynamics
00:15:27
Speaker
be out. That's right. Good lesson learned. Yeah. Good. Um, and the other thing is is managing people. So when I was first doing it, it was, you know, just me and my father, you know, we're very tight. Uh, we understand each other. Um, but as you grow, you start to have other people on your team. You were telling me about your own situation with this earlier, Phillip things. You have this, you know, people have different styles and sometimes they mesh well. Sometimes they don't. And it's going to, if you're, if you're dealing with people at some point, you're going to have people issues. Yes. Probably right away. If you're not dealing with people, that might be the issue is that you need people. um But people are very different. They're not unpredictable. They're not computer code. yes they're very Emotions are, then you have the history of that person, that they have things and perspectives. It's a whole different ball of wax. It is, it is. And so that's been something that I've
00:16:16
Speaker
grown with a lot gotten a lot better out but um you know when I first did this I was you know a shy minor as a child the teenager you seem like a very big introvert I am at heart yeah but like you mask that so well yeah that's the one thing that I've observed from you Colton early on when I got to know you I was like wow like he really pushes himself in a good way out of his comfort zone. And like that only has probably benefited you in the long run. Like I'm sure there's been times like, woo, overstepped my bounds there. but But I think that you've done a really good job of compensating for some of your like, introvert ways of you like, I'd rather just not talk to anybody. Yeah. Right. Code. Yeah. And I think, yeah. And I think understanding people, that's not something that I necessarily naturally just, I look at someone like, Oh, this person's feeling this emotion. Maybe they had this kind of day. I don't really read yeah that quickly with it. Right. If you give me, you know, a spreadsheet, I can you know get to the quickly, get there quickly, or you know, ah maybe a balance sheet that can get there quickly. Um, but people are different and some people have that gift and I don't. So I've, that's something else I've tried to intentionally practice. You can develop the skill. You can't. I wasn't necessarily born with
00:17:27
Speaker
Gosh, it's so good. You can tell why I'm intrigued. And I wasn't. I was not born with the skill. I had to had to learn that. But you have. Yeah. I think you've done a great job. You can listen to podcasts. Again, try it, and then you get better. My first word for you, thoughtful, asking good questions. I feel like that's such a good way to overcompensate for times that you're like, I don't really know what to say here. Ask questions. yeah People love talking about themselves. Yeah, that's brilliant. yeah It works. OK, so those are the two things that you were like, oh, didn't quite work. Or it was harder than I thought. So how many is your team currently? There are...
00:18:00
Speaker
I have to think here for a second. That's all right. I'm going to say eight. Okay. Yeah. We have some people that are seasonal. Yeah. Um, right. Part-time, but, um, it's eight or nine. Okay. Somewhere in that range. That's right. Yeah. Okay. Let me, uh, this is now taking a left turn quick. Cause this is just for Phillips questions. Yeah. What was the time of a nightmare thing when you got an instrument back and you're like, what is this? Like, has there been any of that from a, from a student? Yeah. Okay. from yeah For like so something that wanted part of our. fleet of instruments that came back. and Yep. Yep. Honestly, most people take pretty good care of them. Okay. Um, but we have some that are just, um,
00:18:41
Speaker
a nightmare. okay Honestly, it's not really a nightmare for us. It's more so a nightmare for the the parent that has to bring it in, because they're they're usually mortified. They're like, my kid had this. We lost it. It's so it's so embarrassing for them. And for us, it's like, hey, we can replace this. We have lots of these. We see this happen all the time. Some things that look terrible to them aren't really a big deal to us, but okay um sometimes, you know, brass, it's a soft metal. yeah It'll don't break. You can tear it in half. yeah and some things aren't worth fixing, but it happens. We have a large pool. We can say, hey, we can spread the risk around. And they're like, this looks so bad. I feel terrible. But we try to make them not worry about that. It's funny because there's me dodging your question. No, it actually is brilliant. It shows you kind of your heart of like, oh, we can replace this stuff instead of like, oh, you're going to have to take a second mortgage out for that thing. You're not like that, which I think is kind of winsome in that.
00:19:35
Speaker
regard But it was fun when I first met you, because I was like, wait a second, I think that we rent from you. like and ah I'm going to bring back such a beautiful instrument for you, because my son isn't practicing at all. But one thing I think is really quirky and cool about your business plan is it's a month-to-month rental. yeah I think that's brilliant. It's brilliant because one, the kid is just testing it out. And then two, it's just like non-committal, but like you really do, like you can see the heart in that decision is that you want people to learn the instrument and enjoy it. yeah
00:20:08
Speaker
And there's a lot of times like, no, you need to ver rent this for 10 months. You know, I'm like, Oh gosh, that's just a big commitment. But for you, it's just a very low barrier entry. Hey, my kid wants to play trumpet. Let's try it. It's once a month. If it doesn't work out, he ended up going to the full completion of it and not even going to his last recital, but whatever. Anyway. And then I just brought it back and it
Ambitions to Lead in School Band Programs
00:20:28
Speaker
was fine. And so I think that's really quirky about your business plan. I'd love, and I think a lot of people have to love that too. Yeah. So. Okay. Let's talk about the future. Okay. The future. Let's talk. Yes. Sliced through music, baby. Going the future. Where is it? What's your opportunities? Where are you seeing things going? Where would you like to grow it? Yeah. did Yeah. Um, I would say in the next.
00:20:52
Speaker
five to 10 years, our goal is to become ah the most trusted, most valued, most loved ah partner for school band programs in the state of Iowa. yeah Maybe defining that geographically as well. um For the instrument getting instruments fixed, renting them, if they are purchasing them, being their partner with that. So we're all in on the school band program. and and everything that that goes on in there. And we're going to be still very focused on that. That's the the vision. And so that means we have to have a team that really knows their stuff with with fixing them, maintaining them, giving advice on, hey, is this working or not? oh yeah And it's seasonal. You got to really bulk up on that season. Yeah. And so it's, it's, you know, it's assets, asset intensive in that regard because we have to have a fleet, but it's also, you know, labor intensive on the fixing it. So there's a lot of things that you have to get right. And it's, it's hard. I've been trying to, you know, master it and a couple of years in, we still have not mastered it. We do some things really well, but there's tons of things that we're going to get better and better at that we have opportunities. So that's where we're headed. Um,
00:21:55
Speaker
So it'll be the the same city market, but just doing it better and better. And our intuition is that as we do it better and better, we'll we'll be able to make partnerships with more and more schools, more and more parents like yourself in those schools and you know word of mouth, us reaching out to them. yeah that that's the That's the goal. What do you do for marketing right now? Yeah. ah the Marketing. we I don't think that you need to. Like you have a really good reputation in the schools. I mean, there's only one way that we would have got referred to you is because of the music direction. i yeah Yeah. Yeah. Go to slice your music. Okay. okay Yeah. We'll do that. Yeah. And that's.
00:22:33
Speaker
kind of like with that marketing funnel. Usually people just all of a sudden they jump to, they have a need and they need to fill it right away because they've got a joint band for the parents. And so really, we can't really reach those people because they don't know, they don't exist until they go through school testing. yeah So with that, we focus on working with the the schools and letting them, Hey, we try to make it super easy for a student to join instrument, join band, have a good quality instrument. We're betting that they're going to do this for the long haul, so you know we include all the accessories and things. Those just come with it. It's all inclusive. It's it's easy. It's simple. yes Get them in the band room. Then they can do their thing and delight the students, encourage them to practice, yeah lift them up when they're
00:23:16
Speaker
you know, off the path that you, because it's it's it's hard. It's a delayed gratification, which is not in vogue. No, it sure is not. So most of the marketing is, you know, by making relationships with the people in the schools, but then also, you know, parents like yourself, make decision because you I'm sure you'll have friends that you know, they're like, Hey, Where do I go? Maybe my school said this, maybe they didn't get the letter because their kid didn't bring it home. yeah All these situations situations exist, so it's it's a lot of just doing things, delighting our customers, and letting them tell each other, hey, I had a good experience with Slyster, or I had a bad experience. I mean, if if that happens, we want we want to know that too, because then we can stop doing that. but For his sure. But we don't really do a whole lot of advertising yeah on Facebook, you know maybe some paid search on Google, but it's
00:24:00
Speaker
It's so we such a particular thing that you really just have to do a really good job and you trust that people can make it easy for people to find you and work with you. Yeah, it's a small window that they actually need to fill that void. yeah It's not like, oh, okay, it's coming up. I got to figure out what to do with college. And then you talk to your friends and like, what do you do for college? you know It's like two weeks. You
Musical Background and Continuing Passion
00:24:20
Speaker
got to get it done. Okay. Yeah. And the college is a huge decision. It's four years. It's hundreds of thousands of dollars. ours yeah it's Maybe it's 20, 30, 40 bucks a month. College is way more than that. so What did were you trombone? Yeah, you were trombone. I was a trombone player. Okay. All right. And that's how you know Vince. Yeah. from Yeah. I was, I was a student. oh He's a, french hor he's a euphonium player. you like mini tuba Ah, yeah that sounds about right. Yeah. That's great. And then have you guys performed together?
00:24:49
Speaker
Yes, I believe we have. Yeah, I think we've played in some trombone choirs or low brass ensembles together. What was your highest level of playing? Yeah. um In college, I played with the auditioned, the top audition concert band at Drake. So that was the wind symphony under the direction of the magnificent, um brilliant barboa And, um, we, we performed, there was a year that we recorded an album every four years or so, the group will record an album. And that's an experience I had not had before. You're just sitting there and you know in our performance hall, doing take after take, while listening to every single thing, making sure that you sound exactly the way that you need to sound. It's probably the most focused I was in all of college because several days of just sitting there. in just reporting tens Yeah. And then after that, we got to perform at the Iowa Bandmasters Association ah conference. So that's kind of our industry conference. It's where all of the people that direct bands in schools in the state go and each year, you know, they'll have a and um elementary, a middle school, a high school group, just play, just do a concert, just to, Hey, here's, here's an exhibit basically. Yeah. And we were the college group then and we played so well. It was, ah it was one of those. Yeah. And I play with a group now called central Iowa wind ensemble. It's fantastic. They've got free concerts opened at anyone. They're usually in Franklin junior high in the wine. Yes. So it's kind of four times a year during the the academic year. It's
00:26:12
Speaker
really high level as well. Um, probably the, the best like that you don't have to pay for. I mean, the wine symphony is fantastic, but we're going to pay for it. We're all, we're all, we're all, you know, volunteers or amateurs just that we just love making music and we want to do it with other people that are wanting to do it at a really high level. So they give you the music to practice and then you go and practice and then you go perform it? Or you just like... You you rehearse too. you reversearse So yeah, so you practice at at home and then you come and then in rehearsal, you should know your parts already yeah and you are making them work well together. And then your performance is the performance. so Yeah. Let me go back to Bob. but Yeah. yeah you know him mean bob and I don't okay hes don't. He's Vince's.
00:26:51
Speaker
boss. Okay. But they're pretty good. How do I get the respect that whenever somebody says my name, oh, they say the brilliant or whatever you said, those two before I was like, whoa, that's what I want
Family Partnership and Future Plans
00:27:04
Speaker
to get to. Okay. Yeah. The magnificent Philip Ramsey. I'm just going for something quick. You know, I don't know. Yeah. Um, I think it comes down to a career of awesome wiring and sharing expertise in some field. And for for him, it was making music. That's amazing to me. So like would everybody who talks about Bob Panet, would they have an adjective before his name? Maybe not those exact ones, but would they have something? They would all say they love Bob. Everyone loves Bob. Sure. Wow. It's a consensus. Wow. Good on you, Bob. OK. Sorry. At least I think so. i So tangent. But i like when you said that, I was like, it's going to be awesome. And it was.
00:27:45
Speaker
Okay, so tell me in your career who do you feel like was the biggest mentor for you? Yeah I would say my father. sure so I thought so too. yeah um He was had years more experience than me at at every turn because he's 30 years older than me and he's run different businesses. He's been involved, especially in like the finance strategic side. so He's brilliant with with those things. and um so I've learned so much from him on that, but I think yeah you can never have
00:28:17
Speaker
too many mentors. absolutely and And over time, you know, you'll learn one thing from one person. You'll learn another thing from another person. I'll learn things from you that I might not learn from my father. So yeah. Yeah. I always say mentorship is the cheat code of life. yeah yeah yeah but Yeah. I won't have time to make all the mistakes myself. So yeah so but tell me what you've done. And especially what hasn't worked, right? yes If I can just not do those things. I can do better off. Yeah, it's good. Yeah. Okay. So you say that your dad owns 50% of slice of music. Yeah. Okay. Is there ever any path to like start kind of paying, buying it out his ownership or like, what's that trajectory? Hasn't been discussed. Okay. Yeah. We have no, that's no plan.
00:28:59
Speaker
Yeah, I think we're we're very happy. there's There's definitely things with the 50-50 partnership that don't happen. But for us, it's usually what we'd say is if if we're not both in on something, we don't do it as opposed to one of us just does it and the other person is like, hey, like we need to talk about this. So so there's a level of of respect that you have to have and consideration for that. and like hey like we we're going to be more conservative than either one of us probably would by ourselves. yeah And so there might be some things that we talk about, hey, we need to figure out some way to do this and we just don't. And if we can't figure out the right way to do it, we don't do it. Cause there's been times that I've, like I just got to do this and yeah you, that's how you, you can burn, burn bridges, you know, quickly yeah yeah cause problems, but trying to you know force things that aren't meant to be happening. Right. And so his half is is really the finance financial part and then the wisdom of kind of how to run the business. yeah Is that right? fit's it The running of it and even the finance part, he's stepped more and more away from that as I've, you know, when I was 14, there's a lot of stuff I didn't know. yeah Now there's a lot of stuff that I do know that I can do. And he has other things that he, you know, most of his time actually is spent on on his real estate ventures. okay so he's not really a
00:30:12
Speaker
At this point, he's not like actively involved with any of the operations of the business.
Conclusion and Future Encouragement
00:30:17
Speaker
so There is a transitioning of him from you know being kind of on the org chart to actually like you know in the owner's box, if you will, yeah to use an EOS term. Yes, I get it. get it and so that's That's where we're at right now, but i'm not we're not planning on taking him out of there. yeah Huh. Dude, I just love the story. I love the whole thing. I'm a huge fan and will continue just to refer people if I ever hear, because I thought I just had a great experience. Even when I took in my kid's trumpet the last like, the employee was really nice. yeah she was She was great. So I think that what you're building and what you have built in the past is like perfect for your three. cat and like
00:30:55
Speaker
your three characteristics. I said, you're thoughtful, you're smart, and you're musical. So I just want to keep encouraging you. So if our listeners wanted to hear more about you or your business, where would they reach out to you? Yeah. If they want to learn more about the business, we have some of that history on our website. That's just slicedyourmusic.com. Hopefully, we can put some kind of link to that in the notes here. Is that something you can do? Oh, yeah. Fantastic. I mean, the team can do that. Yeah. I'm not that guy. You've got people. Yeah. ah So that if they want to reach out directly to me Say just give me shoot me an email. That's gonna be just sliced your music at gmail dot.com or my cell number It's 5 1 5 4 0 2 3 4 1 2 hit me up be great. Yeah, awesome. It's on the air. it's in public It's in public It's also on our website. So it's already on the internet listeners are could be calling you at a moment I don't please reach out. That's be happy to to talk with you with whatever capacity that is Well, thank you for not only taking a step into the uncommon, but thank your dad. Like he's, that's cool to see like that partnership and then him pouring into the next generation in order to, for you to succeed and thrive, I would say. And I'm a big fan. I hope that all your goals in the future, your five and 10 year goals are not only achieved, but surpassed.
00:32:13
Speaker
ah Because, like I said, i just I'm rooting for you, man. Thank you. It means a lot. Cool. So you've been listening to the Uncommon Wealth Podcast. I've been your host, Philip Ramsey. Until next time, go live your own uncommon life. Thanks for listening. That's all for this episode, brought to you by Uncommon Wealth Partners. Be sure to visit uncommonwealth.com to learn more about our services. Don't miss an episode as we introduce you to inspiring people who are actively pursuing an uncommon life.