Episode 226
Overcoming Adversity: How the Pandemic Sparked a New Venture
We discuss the profound and transformative journey of a musician who navigated the tumultuous landscape of the pandemic, leading to the inception of a thriving business, Juice's Music Shop. The cancellation of multiple tours prompted a pivotal decision, which ultimately resulted in the establishment of a music store that not only sustained the individual and his family but also contributed positively to his community. Through faith and resilience, he embraced the challenges presented by the global crisis, thereby creating a platform that facilitated his ongoing commitment to ministry and evangelism. This episode encapsulates the essence of adaptability and purpose-driven entrepreneurship, as the speaker reflects on the serendipitous emergence of opportunities during an era of adversity. We further explore the implications of this journey on personal fulfillment and the intersection of faith and business in fostering community relationships and spiritual growth.
Takeaways:
- The tumultuous period of the pandemic led to an unexpected flourishing of our business, which was not anticipated prior to its onset.
- Through unwavering faith and resilience, we managed to navigate the challenges posed by the pandemic, ultimately leading to the establishment of a new enterprise.
- As the world shut down, our focus shifted from performances to building a sustainable business that aligned with our core values and community service.
- The creation of our music shop was not merely a commercial endeavor but a conduit for ministry, allowing us to contribute meaningfully to our community and beyond.
- Our experiences during the pandemic underscored the importance of adaptability and innovation in the face of adversity, highlighting the unpredictable nature of life and business.
- Building relationships within the music community proved invaluable, as it facilitated the growth of our business and fostered a supportive network during challenging times.
Companies mentioned in this episode:
- Juicy Ears
- Juice's Music Shop
- All Nations Worship Assembly
- Chandler Moore
- Todd Delaney
- Naomi Rain
- Israel Houghton
Transcript
We sell out.
Speaker A:And this is.
Speaker A:This is before any years or anything.
Speaker A:This is just bases.
Speaker A:This is basic bags and strings.
Speaker A:And then all of a sudden, March and my tours, I had three tours lined up, right?
Speaker A:February, March, April.
Speaker A:February comes.
Speaker A:Hey, we're not going to do the San Francisco show.
Speaker A:Hey, we're not going to do the LA show.
Speaker A:And then all of a sudden, hey, that tour is canceled.
Speaker A:I'm like, okay.
Speaker A:I told my wife, I'm like, at least I have, you know, the two other tours.
Speaker B:Right?
Speaker A:Okay.
Speaker A:Hey, right, yeah, March tour is canceled.
Speaker A:We're in March now.
Speaker A:Yeah.
Speaker A:And then I realized, I'm like, oh, everything's done.
Speaker A:Like, no more touring.
Speaker C:Yeah, yeah.
Speaker A:I was kind of pressed because I thought to myself, man, this sucks because I was counting on that money.
Speaker A:But at the same time, I was like, I didn't want to do them anyways.
Speaker A:Like, I didn't want to play anyways.
Speaker A:Right.
Speaker A:I wanted to do the job stuff.
Speaker A:Yeah.
Speaker A:The world shuts down, right?
Speaker A:We know this.
Speaker A:The world shut down.
Speaker A:And it wasn't just the States, it was the world, right?
Speaker A:The world shuts down.
Speaker A:Church shuts down.
Speaker A:I'm preaching remotely now.
Speaker A:I was.
Speaker A:My first Sunday was the Sunday before my birthday.
Speaker A:And that was the first Sunday I went live stream for my youth.
Speaker A:And then.
Speaker A:And then that was it.
Speaker A:No more church.
Speaker A:I wasn't playing, so I wasn't making a check from church.
Speaker A:I wasn't making a check from work.
Speaker A:I wasn't nothing.
Speaker A:That's it.
Speaker A:It was just.
Speaker A:Yeah, whatever we.
Speaker A:Whatever we had.
Speaker A:Yeah.
Speaker A:The music store popped off.
Speaker A:Hey, yo, I can't go on this vacation.
Speaker A:I have an extra thousand dollars.
Speaker A:Want to buy bass?
Speaker A:Okay.
Speaker A:Buying bases.
Speaker A:I'm buying.
Speaker A:I sold out.
Speaker A:Within a month and a half, I sold out.
Speaker A:I'm like, wow.
Speaker A:I had no idea.
Speaker A:But because I just trusted in God, God sustained us through the pandemic, right?
Speaker A:Through this.
Speaker A:Through this brand new store.
Speaker A:Yeah.
Speaker A:It's like, yeah, perfect timing, you know?
Speaker A:And.
Speaker B:Yeah.
Speaker A:And then to fast forward, I sold everything.
Speaker A:I didn't know that I would like.
Speaker A:The.
Speaker A:All my manufacturers were like, you're not going to get product till maybe September.
Speaker A:Right.
Speaker A:We're in April, Right.
Speaker A:Like, maybe you'll get product in September.
Speaker A:Because the world was going to open up.
Speaker A:And I told my wife, I'm like, yo, we're going to have to wait the pandemic for us.
Speaker A:I know for some people, unfortunately, it was tough.
Speaker A:Of course.
Speaker A:Yeah.
Speaker A:For me, my wife and my best friend, we were having the time of our life.
Speaker A:We were literally hanging out every day, movie night, ordering food.
Speaker A:I would tell my wife, I'm like, man, babe.
Speaker A:I'm like, it's as if the government's paying us to learn how to run a business, you know, in juices Music shop.
Speaker B:Like, yeah, yeah.
Speaker A:And I was able to be with my wife every day, you know, like, not having to go to church every day.
Speaker A:I'm like, wow, this is crazy.
Speaker A:Right?
Speaker A:It didn't mean that we weren't.
Speaker A:Like, I was still having.
Speaker A:I was still doing inspirational messages every morning.
Speaker A:I was still doing morning prayer every Friday with my youth.
Speaker A:I was still doing church on Sunday.
Speaker C:Right.
Speaker A:So I wasn't, you know, remotely.
Speaker A:But.
Speaker A:But, yeah, I was like, wow, God, that's incredible.
Speaker A:Like, I had no idea.
Speaker A:And because I was willing to take that leap of faith and trusting God, the business was born.
Speaker C:Yeah.
Speaker A:Yeah.
Speaker A:And that's obviously before.
Speaker B:That's incredible.
Speaker A:Juicy ears and juicy bases and sticks and stuff like that.
Speaker A:It was just Jesus Music Shop.
Speaker A:And the business was born from that.
Speaker A:So that was pretty wild.
Speaker B:Yeah.
Speaker B:Yeah.
Speaker B:That's intense, actually.
Speaker B:And that's.
Speaker B:I mean, a lot of businesses started shortly before, and a lot of businesses crumbled shortly after.
Speaker C:Exactly.
Speaker B:Yeah.
Speaker B:There's something to be said.
Speaker B:I mean, and just that whole story, eating Taco Bell or possibly McDonald's, I can't verify that, but.
Speaker B:And just that moment where you just heard the voice and it was like, this is what you have to do.
Speaker B:And you listened, right?
Speaker C:Yeah.
Speaker B:And look what.
Speaker B:Look what that obedience has done.
Speaker B:Right?
Speaker B:Through the hardest time that the world has seen, at least in our lifetime, you and your family were able to.
Speaker B:And your business thrived and you continued to do.
Speaker B:Maybe you said, you're still preaching.
Speaker B:Maybe in your pajama bottoms, you're still doing the work that had to be done.
Speaker B:And.
Speaker B:And.
Speaker A:And.
Speaker A:And look, it was just insane.
Speaker C:Yeah.
Speaker A:Yeah, it was insane.
Speaker A:The business.
Speaker A:A lot of my friends started businesses.
Speaker A:Some people didn't do well, you know, and some people did really well.
Speaker A:I saw it.
Speaker B:I'm like, wow.
Speaker A:I didn't even know this was possible when I started the business, Mind you.
Speaker A:I'm first generation, right?
Speaker A:My, I.
Speaker A:My parents, you know, speaks most predominantly Spanish.
Speaker A:And I told my dad, I said, hey, I'm gonna start a business.
Speaker A:And my dad said, oh, no, it's not gonna work.
Speaker A:Because he didn't understand it.
Speaker A:Yeah, he didn't understand my business.
Speaker C:Yeah.
Speaker A:He never understood that I could make a living from playing music.
Speaker A:And.
Speaker A:And that was five years ago.
Speaker A:Right?
Speaker A:That was Five years ago, two kids ago, where I, I, I brought that up at a Thanksgiving dinner and my dad was like, I don't know.
Speaker A:And, and now we're here and I, I've.
Speaker A:Of course there's hard work and of course there's relationships that were built, but honestly, it's.
Speaker A:Without the help of God, it wouldn't have never been possible because I would have doubted myself and I would have never done it.
Speaker A:I'd still be playing True, like, exclusively now.
Speaker A:I play because I want to.
Speaker A:So.
Speaker A:Yeah.
Speaker C:And that's when it, when it comes, like.
Speaker B:Yeah.
Speaker C:Because for a lot of musicians, like you said, you reach this plateau of just playing and going through the motions of playing, and that passion is kind of getting dwindled because of the necessity to play.
Speaker C:But when you open up your opportunities and you can do other things that don't make you have to play and you just want to play it, it's, it's a beautiful thing.
Speaker C:I've seen it with a lot of people where now they can pick and choose when they can refuse gigs because they don't have to take the gig.
Speaker C:And that's when I feel musicians really get to blossom into who they want to be.
Speaker C:Do you, do you think with opening up the business, with being a youth pastor, father of two, playing music, you know, you had so much going on.
Speaker C:Is there anything else that you feel you want to challenge yourself and do?
Speaker C:Because, I mean, it's incredible that you were able to do the business, but is there anything else where you're kind of like at that same moment just before you ate the Taco Bell, where you're considering doing something?
Speaker A:Yeah, absolutely.
Speaker A:At that time, my goal, I was going back and forth between opening up a donut shop and doing the business, doing the music shop.
Speaker A:Yeah.
Speaker A:I wanted to do something.
Speaker A:I know, right?
Speaker A:I wanted to do something that was just like, people need it.
Speaker A:I didn't want to try to sell coffee.
Speaker A:I didn't want to try to sell know bracelets.
Speaker A:I wanted to do something that I know that it's going to, People are going to want it all the time.
Speaker C:Yeah.
Speaker A:So, yeah, there was that.
Speaker A:But my heart's always been in ministry.
Speaker A:Like, even now, my heart is 100% in ministry.
Speaker A:I'm the, I'm the music director of my church, and I oversee a lot of things.
Speaker A:The whole thing about Juice's Music Shop was, and, and, and, and what it came to be was so that I didn't have to worry about leaving and gigging.
Speaker A:I could devote my time to my local community, my church, where I could sew back in ministry.
Speaker A:And that's what Juicy Music Shop allows us to do.
Speaker A:It allows me to sow back into my.
Speaker A:Into the ministry that I'm a part of without me having to be like, oh, guys, well, I gotta go because I gotta leave Thursday and I won't make rehearsal.
Speaker A:You know, that's.
Speaker A:That's where I.
Speaker A:That's where my heart was, to build church.
Speaker A:You know, to build churches.
Speaker A:Our mission for Juice's Music Shop is eventually to travel abroad and do missionary work because God called me personally and my wife to be evangelists, which we do now.
Speaker A:But we're.
Speaker A:We're doing that through.
Speaker A:Through Juice's Music Shop, right?
Speaker A:Which I couldn't have done in any other way because this has opened up so many doors in church.
Speaker A:That's always been.
Speaker A:Since even before Juice's Music Shop, my heart's always been in evangelism.
Speaker A:It's always been in preaching.
Speaker A:And now we're able to travel.
Speaker A:Now we're able to.
Speaker A:I'm talking to you guys, right, That.
Speaker A:I mean, I give honor and glory to God for that, because I know these relationships eventually will grow and we might be over there and have a Juices Music Shop revival, right?
Speaker A:Let's just say, right, we believe that everything is absolutely intertwined, but that's always been our heart.
Speaker A:Our heart has always been absolutely.
Speaker A:In growing the kingdom without having to put a name to it as far as, oh, this is hillsong or this is elevation.
Speaker A:Yo, this is Jesus.
Speaker A:That's it.
Speaker C:Yeah, yeah.
Speaker A:You know, lives are changed.
Speaker A:It just so happens that, you know, JMS is.
Speaker A:Is funding this, you know.
Speaker C:Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah.
Speaker B:And I love that, man.
Speaker B:There's so much value, so much purpose in the business.
Speaker B:And, yeah, honestly, I mean.
Speaker B:I mean, people need donuts too, so I guess it could have been any business, truth.
Speaker B:Truthfully.
Speaker B:But I think it's what you.
Speaker B:You put into it.
Speaker B:And the fact that no matter.
Speaker B:I believe that no matter what business you opened up or what businesses you continue to open up, I can see that you're still going to have that solid foundation of your belief and your obedience to Christ.
Speaker B:And I think that that's going to come through all of the work that you do.
Speaker B:So that's incredible.
Speaker B:I look forward to more of that.
Speaker B:I want to.
Speaker B:I know our time's getting a little shorter, have a lot of questions about the shop and some of the other things that have happened since, you know, like recently after the pandemic.
Speaker B:So I want to talk about Juicy Ears and some of that other stuff.
Speaker B:But I also want to hear about.
Speaker B:We've talked a lot about relationship, and I want to ask you a bit about artist relationship and how that's all come into play as a business and as your value system.
Speaker B:Maybe talk us through that and I'll pick your brain a little bit more about some of the details there.
Speaker A:Yeah, so I, I, after, you know, during that, the height of the pen, we call it the Panda.
Speaker A:During the height of that.
Speaker A:Because YouTube would flag us if we said pandemic.
Speaker A:So let's just say the Panda.
Speaker A:And.
Speaker A:But yeah, after that, I sold everything.
Speaker A:I was also endorsed by an in ear company and I was gonna approach juiciers to them.
Speaker A:I said, you know what?
Speaker A:Let me be your guy.
Speaker A:I'm a salesman.
Speaker A:Like, I can sell anything.
Speaker A:I could sell a rock.
Speaker A:I can sell a rock to a desert.
Speaker A:Like, I know what I can do.
Speaker A:But the guy that might contact me while you're there now, my contact say what?
Speaker B:I said, is that why you're in the desert now selling rocks?
Speaker A:Yeah, pretty much.
Speaker A:That's why me, I'm reconnecting.
Speaker A:Christ is my firm foundation.
Speaker A:That's why.
Speaker A:But what's it called?
Speaker A:I was pitching the idea to them, and the guy, my contact, I think he quit or he got laid off, whatever the case is.
Speaker A:I didn't have a contact anymore.
Speaker A:Okay.
Speaker A:So I said, you know what?
Speaker A:I'm going to go along.
Speaker A:I'm going to just run it.
Speaker A:My wife said, do you know how to do it?
Speaker A:And I said, no.
Speaker A:Took me a while.
Speaker A: the pandemic or at the end of: Speaker A:Once I did that, the world started opening up a little bit more.
Speaker A:I started playing again.
Speaker A:Then I started playing with bigger names, Started playing with Chandler Moore, Todd Delaney, Naomi Rain.
Speaker A:And I was taking this product everywhere.
Speaker A:People would say, hey.
Speaker A:I would tell them, what are you using?
Speaker A:Oh, I'm using this, I'm using that.
Speaker A:And I said, no, you got to use Juicy Ears.
Speaker A:What is Juicy Ears?
Speaker A:And I'm like, they're my headphones.
Speaker A:I made these headphones.
Speaker A:And I was making them in house in, In Whittier, California.
Speaker A:And they're like, okay.
Speaker A:They would try them.
Speaker C:Wow.
Speaker A:And then their minds would be blown because everything that they were using was just like entry level, you know, and.
Speaker A:And I was just bootstrapping everything.
Speaker A:Like, I would just take 10 with me everywhere.
Speaker A:I started growing it then there with my friends.
Speaker A:I had five friends that I still.
Speaker A:I just played with them.
Speaker A:Last weekend.
Speaker A:We had a concert that pretty much helped me just, nice.
Speaker A:Push this Juicy Ear idea.
Speaker A:At that point, it started growing really fast.
Speaker A:All my local community started buying it.
Speaker A:It wasn't this.
Speaker A:Juicy Ears wasn't the thing where it was like, I have to convince people.
Speaker A:It was more like, hey, dude, what are you using?
Speaker A:What is that?
Speaker A:I want it.
Speaker A:That's what happened.
Speaker A:So then it started growing, and then.
Speaker A:And I.
Speaker A:The highlight point in the beginning of this, even though I was playing with Chandler and all them and I was.
Speaker A:I was really involved with this church organization called All.
Speaker A:All Nations Worship Assembly.
Speaker A:They would.
Speaker A:They would have me come out to Vegas once a month to do, like, this new church launch that they were doing.
Speaker A:I got called to play for Israel Houghton, right?
Speaker A:And I remember they called me.
Speaker C:Wow.
Speaker A:And they said, hey, man, Israel's gonna come down to do a thing called Cafe New Breed.
Speaker A:And I said, no.
Speaker A:I said, dude, like, the shop is doing well.
Speaker A:Like, I don't need it.
Speaker A:I don't want a gig.
Speaker A:I don't want to travel to San Diego.
Speaker A:So I kind of was like, you know what?
Speaker A:I have a buddy that I know could benefit from playing, and he could add that to his resume.
Speaker A:But they, like, insisted.
Speaker A:They're like, dude, no, they want you.
Speaker A:They church would love to have you be.
Speaker A:And it really was.
Speaker A:It wasn't just so much for the Bas playing.
Speaker A:I think it was just for, like, the leadership and.
Speaker A:And.
Speaker A:And the relationships that I built with that church, you know, through ministry.
Speaker A:And I said, all right, cool, I'll do it.
Speaker A:So I said, at the very least, because I didn't know what the pay situation was, like, I'm like, the very least, I'll take Juicy Ears and I'll sell some, and then I'll pay for my trip, you know?
Speaker A:So I took 12 juicy ears as soon as I got there, Gone.
Speaker A:Sold them.
Speaker A:I sold them right away.
Speaker C:Beautiful.
Speaker A:We had sound check.
Speaker A:Israel didn't have any ears.
Speaker A:And everybody's like, you got to get some Juicy Ears.
Speaker A:You got to get some juiciers.
Speaker A:Now, at this point, juiciers locally was a thing.
Speaker A:And then he said, well, what's Juicy Ears?
Speaker A:What's juiciers?
Speaker A:And then they pointed at me.
Speaker A:And then he's like, okay, we'll talk after soundcheck.
Speaker A:So then after soundcheck, we talked, and the video kind of went mini viral, right?
Speaker A:Of him unboxing the Juicy Ears and was, like, just blown away.
Speaker A:And after that, he said, how much are they?
Speaker A:And I'm like, well, it is for 70 bucks, right?
Speaker A:They're cheap.
Speaker A:And he's like, well, let me pay him.
Speaker A:Like, no, it's okay.
Speaker A:Like they're free.
Speaker A:You know, I grew up listening to you.
Speaker A:To me, it's just cool to be here, right?
Speaker A:And he said, well, then let's cut a promo.
Speaker A:He's like, let's cut a promo video.
Speaker A:And I said, stay less.
Speaker A:So we did a promo video.
Speaker A:I held on to that video for about a month and a half because I had to get my inventory up right.
Speaker A:Mind you, I'm still learning how to make this.
Speaker A:I was making like four or five juice years a week if I'm lucky.
Speaker A:So I boosted up my inventory.
Speaker A:I invested more money with that we had.
Speaker A:I've just invested everything.
