We caught up with the brilliant and insightful Bo Bestvina a few weeks ago and have shared our conversation below.

Hi Bo, thanks for joining us today. How do you feel about asking friends and family to support your business? What’s appropriate, what’s not? Where do you draw the line?

Sometimes at a party with friends, the last thing I want to talk about is my business. But friends refer music students my way, so its got to be talked about. And the typical conversations like “my daughter has played piano for four years…etc.” have to happen. But at some point I change the topic to something like sci-fi movies. This actually happened at a piano, where someone there was thinking about piano lessons and wanted to talk to me all night. I answered questions for 10 minutes before asking her if she’d seen any good movies recently.

With family, I just ask for inspiration. Money would be great, but there would be strings attached. Pun intended :)

Bo, love having you share your insights with us. Before we ask you more questions, maybe you can take a moment to introduce yourself to our readers who might have missed our earlier conversations?

I offer music lessons to community members, at-risk youth, and seniors. I also link people who want to volunteer to teach music with places looking for that, like our juvenile detention center and local teen rehabs. Music builds self-confidence and self-expression, and learning to play and perform can provide life-transforming experiences and epiphanies that are hard to quantify. These could include someone in midlife who awakens a dormant excitement for life when learning an instrument. Or it could be a teen in juvenile detention who, while playing the djembe drum in a drum circle, feels a connection and presence so powerful that it gives them a feeling of hopefulness about their upcoming court hearing.

I am proud when I hear things like “I felt comfortable playing in a drum circle when you are there” from a student I taught at the juvenile detention center. Also pretty proud that as a non-profit, we got our first grant for $10,000 back in December. This shows other people believe in our work.

Have you ever had to pivot?

I was trying to work things out as a public school teacher and it just wasn’t working. It was actually a 7th social studies student of mine who inspired me to step back from social studies and pursue music. In the middle of a quiet work time, he raised his hand and in front of the class said, “I’ve heard your music online, you’re pretty good. Maybe you could teach music?” After work I thought about what he said. Over the next year, I saved up some money to be able to leave public school teaching, took a college course to help me get certified to teach music, and started a music teaching business. So it wasn’t my idea to pivot in my life, it was a wise 7th grader’s!

Can you open up about how you funded your business?

Over COVID I was offered a place to live rent free for 6 months, in Seattle of all places. Seattle is expensive so I was able to save a good amount during this time. The following year I went to Spain, but did it over summer, when the school district was still paying me, I was able to barely touch my savings for my travel. That initial savings, held over two years, allowed me to launch my business.

Contact Info:

• Website: https://www.giftsofmusicnw.org
• Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/bo_bestvina/
• Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/GiftsofMusicNW
• Youtube: https://www.youtube.com/@GiftsofMusicNW