From Start-Up Musician to Accomplished Entrepreneur, Michael Hemsworth

. Catherine: Today is the 88th day of the year, which means a day to celebrate

the 88 keys on a standard piano.

I celebrate piano players all over the world, especially my mom and other

family members who play the piano, and I celebrate Chris Noll, who composed.

Elevated intentions for your positive imprint.

And of course, I celebrate today's guest, piano player and amazing

entrepreneur, Michael Hemsworth.

Music brings harmony to the world.

And one of my favorite stats is that, some of the

discriminatory listening that you learned as a child stays with you for life.

When I get to 70 and if I have suffered hearing loss, I actually statistically

will be better equipped to still hear and communicate with other people.

It combats things , loneliness in

older age because I actually can better stay connected to the world

through my listening skills that I got just from taking two years of

piano when I was seven years old.

Your positive, positive, positive imprint, imprint, imprint,

imprint stories are everywhere.

People and their positive actions inspire positive achievements.

Your PI could mean the world to you.

Get ready for your positive imprint.

Hello there.

I'm Catherine, your host of this Variety show podcast.

Your positive imprint is transforming how we live today

for a more sustainable tomorrow through education and information.

Your own positive actions inspire, change.

Follow me on Instagram and my YouTube channel, your Positive Imprint, and

you can also follow me on Facebook and connect with me on LinkedIn.

Check out my website, yourpositiveimprint.com, where you

can learn more about the podcast and sign up for email updates.

Thank you so much for listening.

Music by the legendary and talented, Chris Nole.

ChrisNole.com C-H-R-I-S-N-O-L-E.

Thank you again for listening and for your support of this

podcast, your positive imprint.

What's your pi?

Today I am thrilled to welcome my guest, Michael Hemsworth, who is an

accomplished author, talented piano musician, and dedicated business owner.

His journey began in a challenging environment, having

lost his dad at a young age.

But he grew up unaware of these remarkable talents that he's going to share today.

He firmly believes that creativity is a vital component of happiness

and joy, as well as a means to leave positive imprints on the world.

He is the author of Mr. Michael's Music Maker Manual, A Parent's Guide to

Growing Creative Children which we will explore further in our discussion today.

Additionally, he is the founder and owner of New Songs, a thriving music school

that serves over 1,300 students each week.

Michael's vision is to nurture musical talent in everybody who

walks through his doors, and I admire his core values of curiosity,

acceptance, respect and expression.

Michael Hemsworth, welcome to your positive imprint.

So thrilled to have you.

Yeah, thank you for having me.

You have this background, which is not unfamiliar to others.

You have , new songs, music.

It's been a while since you started your own business and you were young

when you started and it was a struggle.

Yeah.

And look where it is today.

How did you do it?

In part one, episode 237, Michael Hemsworth shares how music invigorates

our brain circuits, and how playing an instrument enhances our fine motor skills.

Now in part two, he returns to share the secrets of establishing his music empire

at the very young age of 19 years old.

Michael Hemsworth now part two.

Yeah.

I mean, the biggest business advice I think is just don't give up on stuff.

Just don't give up.

You know, I started as a 20-year-old and I was teaching out of the

spare room in , the duplex that we rented as a newly married couple.

four years into the journey.

And I knew a woman that was opening up a theater program and she had opened a

fairly big space and wasn't using it all.

So I was , well, can I just rent that classroom?

So, a low overhead, way to get started which is really critical because,

if, if it all has to work perfectly right away that's such a high bar.

Yeah.

And so, you know, when, when my rent was 500 bucks a month, early on, that

gave me a little bit more room to fail.

That was important.

And of course you have to realize that, business is a journey.

And then life is a journey too.

, We're trying to build a business and raise kids and, make some

very major life changes and, in our first five years of marriage.

So you, you have to just, you have to stick with it.

And I think it would be very hard for me to have done this journey

if I was doing it for the money.

Obviously, we do our things to earn a living, there are

easier ways to earn money.

But this was one of those things that even as a. A 19, a 20-year-old, I didn't know

the way that I wanted to teach children.

I knew at least, , what I wanted to give to the world and it, and there,

there was no place like that yet.

And so it, it was a chance to then create our own school from the ground up.

And, and, and then there's a lot of things that, , you try and work and the

things that try and fail and, you know, we navigated all of COVID and, , flipped to

online learning and, , that was actually a, a wild part of the journey for us.

, I was not a new business at that point when, when the pandemic had

hit, but, we managed to be flexible enough at that point to keep our entire

staff, , we didn't, we didn't have to let go of anybody through that year.

And I think because of the societal changes, people really

turned to music quite a bit.

So once we got through that initial wave of, . Worry and, and whatnot.

We grew very quickly after that.

And by the time we had hit about a year after that, by spring of

2021, we actually had hit 500.

So it was probably one of the, the fastest growth bursts there.

I'd never experienced that in a single year, but, but there was this kind of

change, I think, in people's mentality that, oh, music is one of those things

that, if soccer practice gets canceled and play, practice gets shut down.

, , that is something a little bit more permanent.

So that was a huge growth.

We opened our second location in 22, and then we purchased two

small schools, one in 23 and one in 24 for owners that were leaving.

We don't want to abandon what's happening here, but.

We can't, we can't do this anymore.

So those schools folded into our network as well and have become

sort of part of the family.

Wow.

And so why new song?

Yeah.

So I, I wish, honestly, I had a great story behind this.

But I, I started this as a 19-year-old, printing my own little

business cards on perforated business stock from Staples, uh, doing,

uh, a camp with three kids at the.

, front room of, of my duplex.

There was a Bible verse about singing new songs and while we're not, , a

religiously based school, that definitely was a part of the, the references for me.

Part of what is really unique about being a musician is you get to do something

that literally never happened before.

I love listening to music, obviously, right?

But when you turn on a, an album, you get to hear again something.

And when I sit down and I'm gonna play what I'm playing never

happened before and it's never gonna happen again exactly the same way.

And, I think that that's really special.

And, and I think kids also need that as well too, because so much

of what they do now gets preserved.

They're on video and on on camera so much.

And so there's this idea of, , don't make mistakes because it's

gonna be preserved forever.

And and I, I kind of get some of the anxiety that comes from that.

And so the idea that I'm going to make something really creative that

is just for me and just for right now, that's a really powerful gift I

think that we can, can give kids and it's kind of covert, , we don't wake

up thinking that's what what we need.

But sometimes I think it is.

Yeah.

Well those are the positive imprints and they're incredible.

Yeah.

So I know we're short on time here, but right quick.

You started looking into the future at the age of 19, and you also lost your

dad at the age of 19 at a very young age.

So sorry.

Did that have any impact on your thoughts in the future, his modeling,

his role modeling, anything that he had said that you wanted to

keep that part of you with him?

Yeah.

Yeah.

I, my dad is such an interesting figure in my life.

My parents are very opposite.

There's an analogy actually in the book that's not mine, but that I, I harken

to a lot, that the carpenter and the gardener the idea of a carpenter that

you kind of have this fixed outcome in mind at the beginning that you're trying

to replicate and, and the gardener that

I have an idea of the direction I wanna go, but , you can't really control, , the

pumpkins are all gonna look this and the flowers are all gonna look this.

And and so you have these, these two, two models and it applies to parenting.

I think it applies to a lot of things in life.

And my two parents were definitely the epitome of those two sides.

Uh, my mom was always trying to look for the right blueprint that

was gonna , create the best result.

And she's that for herself as well too.

I mean, I, I love that about her.

She's always constantly, , started a new challenge, , mom, why, why are

you doing this challenge of, spending only $25 at the grocery store a week?

And she's like,, well, just to see if I can, you know, because it's, it's this

model and she just wants to see if she can , follow the plan and hit the

mark and, and it, and it's wonderful.

And my dad was very much, you know, . Let's get in the car and

let's just figure out where we're gonna stop when we get there.

Oh, so more, more free spirited.

Michael Hemsworth: Absolutely free spirited.

And I mean, I have so many fun stories about things that, you know, kind

of worked out, but not exactly, you know, we tried to tie the Christmas

tree on the top of the car, but you didn't necessarily have all the tools

or you forgot to do, but you know, all, all of these things where, you know.

We didn't follow all the steps of the plan.

And so the results were very much, , let's see what happens.

And I didn't necessarily appreciate that side of him as a child,

uh, as I did necess as an adult.

So, so yes, my, my my dad passed really the, the week after I

got married as a 19-year-old.

It, it, so there's many ways that , as an adult, as a parent, all those things, I,

I have to take that through reflection as opposed to being

able to experience that with him.

But I am so much more the gardener now than I ever expected that I would be.

I think, I think being a musician too, part of that journey of self-acceptance

and just realizing, you know there's not just one destination here that I have to,

, end up in the, in new songs as a company has to look exactly this or, you

know, , I don't have to write a book and, and get exactly these, , ratings on

Amazon or make exactly this much money.

I, I can follow the thing that I feel is genuine and true to me and I can work

and cultivate it, , have that gardening mentality that I am working hard on

the soil, but I'm also going to accept

what comes out of that.

That's very freeing.

And so that was, I think a lot of the reflection that I've gotten in

retrospect, looking at my dad's life and realizing it, it's okay to accept

the results , to have goals, but to know that I, I ultimately can't

control everything about the outcome.

That's a wonderful tribute.

Yeah.

That, that's a. That's great.

So in your book, you state that music enhances that connection and

personal development, I believe that.

And I believe dance can do that any, any way that we can express ourselves

poetry, music, uh, we definitely don't talk

but actually dance.

I actually have a little bit of background in dance . Yeah.

Actually might have one up on us.

They're, they're almost perfect as an art form because you have so

much musicality in it, but you have even an added level of physicality

so the connection that you feel to your body, I think is even greater and

usually has a stronger social dynamic of things you do with other people.

So, I mean.

I'm all camp music, but dance really has got it.

I mean, ballet is the classical music of dance.

I just wanna say that you have journeyed through life with music.

But not just with yourself.

You have journeyed and brought so many people.

Look, you've got 1,300 students and they're taking a journey with

you through their own development.

And I, I think that's incredible.

Thank you so much for doing that and for laying your positive

imprints in music the way you have.

Yeah, I, I often wish that people could just

follow me around because it is.

Such an inspiring job.

I mean, whe whether I've got 5-year-old with autism sitting on my lap and

trying to play guitar with me, or whether, , we're doing advanced piano

sonatas with teenagers, , I get to do really, really awesome things every day.

That's great.

Thank you so much for that.

So your last inspiring words to the listeners.

Yeah.

I think that, you know, as a musician, the real magic happens when y you

find out that your voice matters.

And so it's, it's not such a matter of being perfect, , that that music

is not a spot where you have to just be a hundred percent, , right

or a certain way, but that.

You matter and your voice matters.

And and so you bring something to the table that that we all

need that deserves to be shared.

So.

So I guess a shorter version is Your Voice Matters.

Michael Hemsworth, thank you so much.

You can learn more about Michael Hemsworth by going to newsongsmusic.com

and you can go to Amazon for his book, Mr. Michael's Music Maker Manual, A Parent's

Guide to Growing Creative Children, and it is available on Kindle Hard copy,

paperback, as well as audible.com,

it's so fun to be able to.

Share, , this is a, a chance to know that, uh, you're, you're passing on what

I find to be really empowering information that everybody can do this, , , you don't

have to have a doctorate degree in this.

Every, everybody can pass on that gift of creativity and,

and it's so crucial right now.

Thank you for those last wonderful inspiring

words, Michael Hemsworth.

Again, newsongsmusic.com,

your positive imprint.

What's your pi?

Thanks, Catherine.

If you'd like to buy me a coffee to help fund the production

of this podcast, here's how.

Go to buymeacoffee.com/Yourpositiveimprint and any support you offer

will be greatly valued.

Thank you so much for your support and for listening to your positive imprint.

And until next time, enjoy listening to over 200 episodes

of your positive imprint,

Listen to part one and part two with Cydian Kauffman

is your drinking water safe and what is in your drinking water?

Episodes 235 and 236.

your positive imprint.

What's your P.I.?