We recently connected with Yelena Ovando and have shared our conversation below.
Yelena, looking forward to hearing all of your stories today. Let’s kick things off with your mission – what is it and what’s the story behind why it’s your mission?
Music Box’s Mission is to help aspiring musicians of all ages to become a better and more confident version of themselves, through the power, joy & transformational force of music.
Our names are Yelena and Alex Ovando and we created and now own and run a one-of-a-kind music school in Germantown TN. As musicians and parents to two musical children, we know the value, growth and beauty music brings to one’s life. We experienced it firsthand, and continue to see the positive impact that our mission has on our students, teachers, fans and the local community.
The story behind our mission is quite simple. We were looking for music programs in the area for our kids and could not find anything that they would enjoy or stick with, or be inspired by. One night we were watching “The Greatest Showman” as a family, and the kids said: “Let’s open up our own school”. We looked at each other, smiled, and the rest was history. At the time, Alex has taught music lessons in the area for over 20 years, and Yelena was an award-winning marketer with 20+ years of corporate experience. We knew, that together, we could use every inch of our cumulative ex[erience and complimentary skill-sets, to imagine, launch and grow a music school, to serve our community, to allow us to work together, and grow as human beings. This new dream was bigger than us and we could not not try to make it a reality.
Music Box’s mission was born very early, in the ideation stages. We knew we wanted to help, empower, unleash, inspire, serve, create, make music and do good. We knew we wanted to bring all walks of life, all ages, cultures, instruments, music preferences, identities and skill levels together, under one roof, as diversity and inclusion is what makes us stronger, more innovative and forward thinking, more empathetic and humble. We knew we wanted students to learn from a relaxed, curious and empowered place, in a creative and safe environment, at their own pace. We knew that we could stand by and unapologetically evangelize these concepts.
Early on we agreed that we believed that playing an instrument was easier than people thought. That music could be learned as a language, as it is heard, read, written & conveyed. That music lessons & performances could be fun, without sacrificing the quality of education, or making real progress. That musicians make our World a better place. We believed in the growth mindset. We believed in choosing community over competition. And finally, we believed in enabling a whole musician, who always learns and grows, and shares their skills, talents and voice for good. We had our “why”!
Next we worked on the “what”, the “how” and came up with the name, our logo, our tag line, our location, our building layout, our target market, our programs, our plan of action, in less than a year. Music Box opened it’s doors on August 5, 2019.
We are now 200 students and 10 educators strong! Our programs and lessons win national and local awards! Our kids are our biggest supporters, testers, students, program participants, critics and cheerleaders. We are grateful for the opportunity to serve our community in such a meaningful way, and to enrich our arts and music programming in the area.
Awesome – so before we get into the rest of our questions, can you briefly introduce yourself to our readers.
My name is Yelena and I am originally from Russia and even though music wasn’t my original career, it was always part of my life, since I was little. My parents played multiple instruments, sang, were part of various local band, and instilled the love for music into me and my sister. I graduated from a music school where I learned singing and piano at 15, and continued to sing and play piano for my college and at local events, both in Russian and in the US. Once I graduated with my Masters in International Business, I worked in Business Development, Sales & Marketing (including Branding, Pricing, Customer Engagement, Digital Channel optimization and many other business disciplines), for nearly 20 years. At Music Box I lead all Branding, Customer Engagement, Service, Acquisition, Retention, Marketing, PR, Talent recruitment & management, Forecasting, Revenue management and general business development initiatives. This type of work feels natural and exciting to me. I get to use my experience and training, lead and coach others, and continue to learn every day. When we first started the business, I was still working a full-time corporate job, all the way through the pandemic, but shortly after Music Box’s 3rd anniversary, I was able to fully transition to working full time at Music Box.
I also now sit on several board of directors in the local music industry, i.e. Memphis Youth Symphony Orchestra and Iris Collective, manage partnerships with local non-profits, like “Girl Scouts Heart of the South”, and “Spreading Sunshine” and educational institutions, like University of Memphis’ Center for Entrepreneurship and School of Music, to name a few.
My music training as a child was so rigid, and rarely enjoyable, as I could not relate to the all-classical repertoire I was playing, thinking that that is just something I had to do for my parents and to fit in. So, while I had a solid skill, I did not identify as a capable, creative musician, or allowed myself to have fun with my music. What it taught me is what not to do when it came to long term music education. That is why I am so intentional about Music Box’s mission and vision to be a fun first school, while offering a comprehensive, ambitious and aspirational programming. Since music is a language, we can teach the same concepts on any genre or style of music, but the style that students relate to and appreciate. We treat everyone that walks through the Music Box front doors as a musician, and a creator, whether they are a beginner or an experienced instrumentalist.
Alex Ovando is from Guatemala City, Guatemala and his degree and early career was actually in business. He was always in music lessons as a child, and enjoyed them so much that as an adult, he had to become a music teacher, as this is where his heart was. Alex taught guitar, drum, bass and piano lessons in the greater Memphis area for a long time. After the Music Box idea was born, Alex took on a role of all things Academics, Programming, Training, equip[ment, tools and technologies, day-to-day operations, performances and more.
As a dynamic boss-duo, we let each other shine in our own lanes of expertise and know enough about each other’s jobs to fully appreciate them. As leaders, we believe in focusing on and managing to everyone’s strength, not weaknesses. This is definitely how we hire our team, how we teach and what we preach. We train our staff to always be positive, kind and encouraging, to embrace growth mindset, to practice empathy, to keep our customers first, and to learn from everyone that crosses their professional path. We love our differences and we believe we attract diverse folks to our Music Box family too.
Organically, we have 30+ languages represented between the staff and students that we served in 3 years. Our youngest student is 3 and the oldest is 73.
And what we realize is that we represent so much more than a music lesson to our clients. We offer transformational experiences and help students discover and strengthen life skills. In our lessons and on our stage, students get to express themselves through their music, conquer their fears & anxieties, gain confidence through accomplishment, build grit, discipline and comradely. Students get to practice and learn from failing in a safe and encouraging environment. Students get to enjoy themselves and lift up their fellow musicians. Parents get to see their kids evolve beyond their dreams. Teachers get to impact their students lives every day.
During the pandemic, Music Box had to pivot and adjust, but also continue to provide the sense of normalcy and safety to our students and community. We offered free lessons to those that were in need, to our local heroes, to families of children with serious illnesses, and in the end, Music Box emerged from a pandemic stronger and with better processes. (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bUQ8EF-vHik)
We are most proud of our students who are well on their road to success and developed into life-long passionate musicians and leaders, who follow our student success tips (www.musicboxinc.com/student-success-tips) and participate in our Band Program (www.musicboxinc.com/band-lessons) in addition to taking 1-1 lessons at the school (www.musicboxinc.com)
We are proud of our award-winning Summer Camps (www.musicboxinc.com/camps) and all other recognitions we continue to receive (www.musicboxinc.com/awards-features)
If you are looking to try playing an instrument, or looking to pick up where you left off in your music learning journey – please know that Music Box’s doors are always open, and we would love to help.
Can you open up about how you funded your business?
We are 100% self-funded enterprise. We set our financial targets, timelines and resources and stuck to them. We researched, benchmarked, borrowed best practices, failed fast, reinvested into our business, and focused on achieving our goals, end-to end: ideation, scoping, design, launch, & growth stages.
Our funding came from:
– Re-financing our home
– Borrowing from the 401K
– Our personal savings
– Our children’s 529s
We also made some smart decisions to help us save on the amount of funding that was actually needed:
– Sourcing used instruments, gear and equipment
– Buying our building vs. leasing it
– DIY as much as we could while renovating and designing
– Doing our own branding, copywriting, marketing, social media, PR
– Making sure to have a CPA and a Financial planner who help you put together and stick to the multi-year plan of paying your debts to yourself
– researching, opening and managing most advantageous credit cards
– open a line of credit (HELOC) for a rainy day
What else should we know about how you took your side hustle and scaled it up into what it is today?
I (Yelena) have worked in the corporate America for 22 years. 8-5 with 2 weeks vacation is all I knew, all I aspired to. Climbing the corporate ladder was everything to me. I never thought about myself as an entrepreneur, and the thought of leaving the safety of corporate world, with Retirement and insurance benefits never crossed my mind. The grit and grind of interviewing, hopping from job to job within the company in order to get diversified experience, taking extensive leadership and professional training classes, and working to live started taking a tall on me, as managing my work-life balance was getting harder and harder. Until… my husband and I started ‘dreaming up our school’ in 2018, and in the process of design thinking (where you think of an ideal state without any limitations or hindrances), working for myself and with a greater sense of purpose seemed more and more appealing to me. I kept thinking, if only I could use all of this time, experience and skills that I have gained here, at Music Box!
So in my long-term planner fashion, it took me 4 years to pull the plug on my corporate job. As one of my past managers said, “You don’t look like someone that does anything part time”, the struggle was real. I was hustling to create something from nothing, while keeping up with the demands of a full time job and all the deliverables, raising our 2 active and oversubscribed children, and managing through the pandemic. At times it all seemed like I was on a rollecestor, and in a survival mode, on autopilot. At times exhaustion was so real that it was hard to have the strength to keep on keeping on. At times like this I turned to my family and friends. I also turned to therapy and self-care modes when I needed those. And these 4 years would not be possible without my supportive, encouraging, and loving partner. We are lucky that we like each other to the point of living, working, parenting, and leading together.
Meanwhile, our business Music Box continued to take shape, grow, evolve and bring so many rewards, my faith in my side hustle got stronger and the dreams got bigger. The responsibility to our staff and students called for my full attention and share of mind, all leading to my 5 year exit plan made possible in 4 years! I resigned shortly after Music Box’s 3 anniversary. And I consider it a huge win!
Milestones:
– 2018: While planning for the business, we calculated how much sustainable profit we had to turn so we could maintain our current lifestyle with just Music Box. That required financial, retirement, insurance, etc. planning, advise, consultations, etc., evaluating of our life goals, quantifying everything our family did and plans on doing in the next 5-10 years. This was also an opportunity to improve our documentation and records.
– 2019: Establishing the business: heavy investment stage with lots of uncertainty, when I felt that things could go terribly wrong, but one step at a time, we were able to buy, renovate, open up, recruit staff and students and start our programming
– 2020: Pandemic took out 60% of our student and teacher base. We had to innovate, pivot, manage through change, invest more, deal with health issues. This was no time to give up my corporate job income.
– 2021: Still pandemic, but things were looking up and great things were happening for our business in terms of recognition of our efforts and the impact to the community, and as students were making actual progress and breakthroughs, the word of mouth both on the talent and student acquisition sides helped us return to pre-pandemic standing. We still have not reached the required level of financial standing for me to resign from my corporate job
– 2022: Revenue levels at Music Box are promising, very close to the targets we set for ourselves. My heart was not with the corporate job any longer, I start turning down growth opportunities there and start preparing for my resignation, staging my retirement, insurance and networking affairs. September 1, 2022 was my “freedom” day! I am yet to sleep in one day :)
Contact Info:
- Website: www.musicboxinc.com
- Instagram: www.instagram.com/901musicboxinc
- Facebook: www.facebook.com/901musicboxinc
- Linkedin: www.linkedin.com/in/901musicboxinc
- Youtube: www.youtube.com/@901musicboxinc
- Yelp: https://www.yelp.com/biz/music-box-memphis
- Other: Music Box Germantown on google my business –
Image Credits
Yelena Ovando