Combining Your Passions to Build a Business You Love

with Ine Wilmé Coetzee of Inner Voice Institute of Music

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Highlights:

• Hobbies can translate into profitable business ventures
• The skillsets used to learn music can mirror the skills you need as an entrepreneur
• Your limbic brain and how it connects the cello and branding

“You have to speak to one person in order

to speak to the masses”

Description:

• Ine was diagnosed with ADD as a child.  At the time, her parents looked for ways to develop her attention skills and focus and they introduced her to the cello!  A few years later, her ADD subsided but she maintained the hobby.  As a young teen, Ine says there was a phase where the cello began to feel like a chore.  She wasn’t sure if she wanted to pursue it anymore.  Ine was able to find some quiet time to reflect on the role of music in her life and decided that her life was much richer with the cello in it.
• As a teenager, music was one of the best ways Ine could express herself. Essentially it gave her a voice. This realization inspired the name “Inner Voice” of her school.
• Ine started her first business at 18, but it wasn’t something she was in control of.  During that time she realized that business wasn’t a fit…and she realized she had a passion for teaching…but she LOVED the idea of being an entrepreneur.  During Covid, she realized there was an online market for online cello lessons and she fell in love with it! Inner Voice Institution of Music was born and started teaching her course Simply Sound in 2021.
• While seeing her students show resilience and grit while learning to play cello, Ine realized these same principles are helpful when building a business! Business owners face lots of things throughout entrepreneurship that they need these tools to overcome.
• Human brains are amazing and complex, especially learning to use your limbic brain! This part of your brain doesn’t use words, but relies on emotions. Playing the cello develops the limbic area of your brain; when playing the instrument, both the musician and an audience can feel the emotion of the music by using the limbic part of their brain. This mirrors branding perfectly! When designing your brand, it needs to speak to people  the way music affects people.
• If you’re thinking of picking up an instrument as an hobby, particularly the cello, it’s important to consider your emotions and your energy levels before committing.  If those levels are too low, I recommend a different hobby first to help access your emotions and raise  your energies to set you up for success.
• You can learn the cello in only 15 minutes a day! This makes it attainable for even the busiest person and it’s such a valuable way to spend those fifteen minutes.  Practicing the cello daily helps put your brain into a flow state – a time period where you focus so intensely on your work, you forget about time.  When you come away from a practice session while in your flow state, you emerge feeling so accomplished and are easily able to focus on other tasks in a similar manner.
• Playing the cello can give you an emotional outlet that lets you decompress and show up better and refreshed in other areas of your life.  This can improve your work, marriage, parenting…  so many wonderful things!
• Learn about Ine’s routine from personal cello practice, running her business, and balancing her growing family. She incorporates exercise, work, and makes sure she gets her 15 minutes of cello in to ensure she has a great day.
• Building a brand isn’t about all of the pretty colors; it’s about how that business brand makes you feel.  This is why identifying your deepest values before building for brand is so important.  That foundation will help you build trust with your audience and set your business up for success.

I thoroughly enjoyed spending time with Ine and learning more about her passion-based business.  If you also loved hearing about her journey, you can keep up with Ine via her newsletter or check out the Inner Voice Institute of Music website to learn more and follow her on social.  If you’ve enjoyed The Brand Files and want to see more episodes, visit our blog to find more.

Until next time,