Alright – so today we’ve got the honor of introducing you to Matthew Valencia. We think you’ll enjoy our conversation, we’ve shared it below.

Matthew, thanks for joining us, excited to have you contributing your stories and insights. Can you share a story with us from back when you were an intern or apprentice? Maybe it’s a story that illustrates an important lesson you learned or maybe it’s a just a story that makes you laugh (or cry)?

At the age of 17, I was offered a position at a local music shop where I became an apprentice learning band instrument repair. My tasks initially involved mundane tasks like cleaning and polishing instruments, however I quickly learned more advanced repair techniques. From my time there, one memorable incident stands out from that period.

One day, a customer contacted us seeking help with his tuba. I was anticipating a routine repair job, which would typically involve removing some dents and fixing broken solder joints. To my astonishment, the customer walked into the shop with a cardboard box that seemed far too small to contain any tuba.

The customer described the situation as an ill-fated attempt at refurbishment by a friend who ran an automotive rim shop. As it turned out, the tuba had been subjected to a process meant for car rims—immersion in liquid lacquer and baking in an industrial oven to cure. Unfortunately, the intense heat of the oven caused the solder joints of the tuba to melt, leaving behind a mess of hardened lacquer, puddles of solder, and tuba parts.

Over the course of the next few months, we all took turns working on this tuba when things got slow. In the end, we stripped away all of the lacquer, removed every single dent, and essentially rebuilt this tuba from the ground up.

Looking back, this memory stands out because it taught me that just about anything can be repaired given enough time and effort. Oftentimes people come to me hoping to get instruments restored that are family heirlooms- not necessarily always worth the cost of repair from a financial standpoint, but certainly worth the cost and effort of restoration so that they have a precious item that’s important to them back in pristine condition.

Awesome – so before we get into the rest of our questions, can you briefly introduce yourself to our readers.

I often joke that I should carry 10 different kinds of business cards on me at all times. This is because I wear many hats- I work full time in the electrical industry as a fleet and asset manager, overseeing around 150 delivery vehicles in a few states. However, I’m also known as a piano tuner, a professional saxophone player and multi instrumentalist, a music teacher, a vending machine owner, a composer/arranger, a band instrument repair technician, a recording engineer, and as a photographer/videographer.

Since there is so much overlap in the music/entertainment side of my business, I like to corner the market wherever possible to monetize my interests. I love photography and videography, so to make money with it I do photoshoots and record video/audio of events, often for musicians that I already know and work with. Since I also do band instrument repair, those colleagues of mine also become customers when their instruments break or need maintenance. Additionally, I have a home recording studio where people can hire me to record their musical projects.

I feel like my competitive edge is the overlapping skillset that I possess, while I work with other musicians, artists, and creatives, I also provide a wide variety of solutions to them while already having an established relationship with them. As a result, I’ve never spent a single penny on advertising any of my services while maintaining a large client base comprised of many repeat customers.

My driving force is the desire to improve my skillset in any way that I can. I’m constantly researching, talking to others in the field(s) that I work in, and trying to learn how the best in the business achieve the level of excellence that I strive for.

How’d you build such a strong reputation within your market?

I believe that my obsession with quality has been the biggest factor in the reputation that I currently have. I’m constantly using my free time to learn new skills and improve upon skills I already possess. In general, I will not put out a product/charge money for something that I wouldn’t be happy to receive, that’s my rule of thumb. I obsess over quality and try to fill gaps in areas that others may overlook.

Do you have multiple revenue streams – if so, can you talk to us about those streams and how your developed them?

I own two vending machines that are placed in a break room at the company that I work for full time. Location is everything in vending, so I was lucky to strike a deal with the company to bring in machines at this particular location and make some semi-passive supplemental income.

Contact Info:

• Instagram: @mottrepairs

Image Credits
Matthew Valencia