¶ Intro / Opening
Sales Maven Podcast - Levi Ware: Welcome and thank you for listening to the Sales Maven Show. I'm your host, Nikki Rausch, your own personal sales maven. Here to offer you tips, strategies, and techniques to master your sales conversation. Today is one of our Mastering excellent series. This is where I bring on somebody. Who has achieved exceptional results in some area of their life or business.
Aaa, rock and indie music in 2010. Levi and his wife Stephanie, co-founded the Melodic Caring Project MCP. It's a nonprofit organization dedicated to uplifting, hospitalized children and individuals facing profound illness through streamlined concerts featuring personal shoutouts. MCP Connects patients, they call 'em rock stars with world class musicians.
Levi, welcome to the show friend. Thank you so much for having me, Nikki. I appreciate it. I'm excited to have this conversation with you. I always like to give the audience a little bit of like how we know each other. We just met each other back, it's been a few months now, but I was asked to come and do a training for an organization and, and their affiliates, and you happened to be in the room, not there as an affiliate, not a part of this organization, but there, tell everybody a little bit about what you're doing.
So I came in because that's what Melodic Caring Project essentially is, is a production company, We use our production to connect kids in hospitals with artists that are performing on stage, but we're a production company. And he called with some questions about how would I capture this? And I said, easy.
And to learn about your mission and what you were doing and how sales could actually play a role from the donation conversations with your donors was really kind of what spurred you and I getting to work together. But tell everybody a little bit kind of beyond the, the bio about melodic Caring project, because it is such an incredible organization and what you and Stephanie have built is absolutely amazing.
And yeah, it just felt like a genuine community of support, people helping each other, accomplish their goals or better what they're doing. So, uh, I really appreciated that. And, uh, so melodic quickly, I'll do a quick, uh, yeah. I want it all give synopsis us of how melodic started and kind of where we're at now, yeah. I would say for your listeners, because I think a high percentage, I'm sure of your listeners that are independent business owners mm-hmm. Launch their businesses based on need. And seeing a need in the market, or seeing a need in, in, in their, that their particular skillset could provide.
I've played for 30 plus years, and for me, I've just always. Known, right at a very core level that music is about so much more than entertainment. And I've felt that in the shows I've played, I've felt that as I've toured, across the nation, but in other countries too, Where I. You're performing in a country where they don't speak your language.
And to support my music habit, you almost might say, because I just had to play music. Yeah. But was always looking for that deeper level impact that music was intended for and playing bars and playing colleges and forever. And I had a conversation with my wife about, well I will actually say my wife had a conversation with me because I was investing money into music making albums.
Would I love for them to pay for it? Sure. Would. I love to make money on it. Absolutely. Have I realized that that's probably not gonna happen? Yes, indeed. I have. And I know it's about more than that. So for me, as we make money on other businesses, I invested in this because I believe this is what I'm supposed to be doing.
So she's from a small town, small school. He says, my student was diagnosed with leukemia and it's a really heavy diagnosis and it really has shaken the whole class, and really our school, I don't know what to do with it, and I wanted to call you to see if you had any ideas of how we could support Katie.
And he said, I love it. Let's do it. So we hosted a concert, had 300 people there from the community, friends, family, classmates, and we were really just there to let Katie know she was not gonna be alone. And it turned out the day of the concert, Katie was quarantined. In the hospital going through a bone marrow transplant and it was completely alone and it was so the opposite of what we were trying to accomplish.
Mm-hmm. I had had a music experience where they had live streamed my show globally through another organization that I was playing for, and I thought, what a cool. Technology. You know, I don't know when I would ever use this, but this is super cool. And so I signed up for a live streaming account on livestream.com, just as a kind of a by thought, like, ah, maybe that'll come in handy sometime.
Holy smokes. Yeah. That actually worked. You know, I mean, we could, we could do this for kids anywhere, and so this is where that, like I was saying, your other. Sales Maven community are you create a solution for what you see as kind of an industry need. And yeah, for me, I wasn't looking for an industry need.
At what level are they doing it? It turned out nobody was doing it, and, and it just was a very obvious, and I was looking for this connective thing that my music could do that was beyond entertainment. And it was like all the pieces, 20 years of me searching for the, the application that I believe my music was supposed to be used for all fell into place and so we thought.
Braden had had a really heavy, like a double dose of chemo that morning just 'cause of how the, the treatments landed, because calendar-wise, and he was vomiting all day. And his mom, Renee, said. I just, we came up to the time of the show and I was so sad because I thought this is the only thing he's been looking forward to all week and now he's gonna miss it 'cause he's too sick, and she said that he leaned over, vomited, came to the time of the show. She kind of panicked, opened the computer, hit the link. The show came up. Braden was still wiping his mouth leaning over, and the artist said, Braden. Man, everybody is here. We're all thinking of you. We just want you to know we love you, and you're not alone.
This whole crowd is here to support you. And everybody cheered for Braden. And she said that he wiped his mouth and he leaned up and, and looked at the computer and looked at his mom and said, mom, they just called me by name. And she said, yeah, Braden. This is for you buddy. You know? And, and then the show happened.
And started with independent artists from Seattle and has now gone on to some of the biggest artists in the world, and supporting kids all around the globe has been such an incredible experience. It's absolutely, I mean, obviously I'm so touched by both those stories. I don't, I don't know how anybody could listen and not be, it's unbelievable what you guys are doing and this fact that you, you've said a couple things already that really hit home and I think.
Whether it's, for me, teaching sales or, or if it's something. Much more profound of what you're doing with like, everything that you learned about music and touring and audience and engagement and all of these things that you can bring it and then make this impact in this world. And I know that a lot of the people that I have the real privilege of working with have, uh, uh, that feeling of wanting it to matter.
That you can do or maybe feel called to do in some way. Again, maybe it's not nonprofit for you, but that's okay. Like make an impact in the world in whatever way that that resonates. But I'm really excited to dig into these, these questions with you and find out kind of, and I love the backstory, it's, it also speaks to how important it is to surround yourself with people who will, in a supportive way, question.
She's like, no, I think people pay you for this, Nikki. And it's been the most, rewarding experience career wise of anything I've done. And I was gonna say, you know, I think it's really interesting because I, I believe that purpose is, it's central and I think becoming more central to people's motivation. Yeah. I mean, we all have to work, we all have to make a living. We all, those are all things that are necessary, right? But purpose is, that's what provides the passion that gets you up every morning to go and do what you do, How do you make your money?
That's purpose, that's power, that's connection with people, and that's where your work takes on more than a corporate. It's more than a corporate endeavor. It's something that you're providing goodness into people's lives. You're providing that sense of connection. You're providing.
And I know that's not everybody's necessarily. Cup of tea and maybe they don't buy it and they think, oh, Nikki's a little woowoo. But to me it is always back to the, the relationship and and why it matters. No, I think that's the thing that stood out to me most. Because when I saw you the first time and you were talking about sales, sales feels like a.
I am out, I mean, you call it pitching, but I'm telling stories about the impact. Why does this matter to me? Why am I passionate about it? Why do I believe that other people should hear about it? Because for me, it has provided so much purpose in my life and so much goodness in my life, and I've watched it provide so much purpose in goodness in other people's lives.
That there, there is a need for donations. Just like there's a need for revenue in a business, Like without donations. Melodic is probably not gonna go very far. And I mean, it's, you're 15 years in, you guys are, doing a great job, but there's always that like, where's that next, donor coming from and to make it that relationship based.
I wanna be in that crowd cheering and saying, I love you and I'm, you're not alone. Like, you know who, who doesn't wanna be there? And from a sales perspective, and I know this is a conversation you and I've had too, is that your donors want to be involved. They just need to know. How to do it, how to get involved, what melodic, is about, and, and how they can participate at whatever level they want.
For anybody who's like, I wanna know more about this and how Levi really thinks about this because you've done it successfully. You guys are 15 years in to this project. So my first question is always, if I were to stand in for you for a day, so I get to like take on the persona, Levi, think the way you think, act the way you act.
Okay. So it was when he was young. And he was in a room, in a board meeting with Steve Jobs. And the board for Apple. And he said that around the conversation around the table, all of the board members were talking about profits and how to, how to make more and how to blah blah. It was all bottom line conversation. Mm-hmm. And he said that it was kind of before the meeting had started and Steve was just standing at the end of the table, just watching and, and listening. And he said at one point Steve walked up to the table and just went. Wham and slapped his hand on the table,
Business, uh, where they recognize that their solutions are people oriented, What they want is to make people's lives better, easier, more meaningful. That's what melodic is. Our entire mission, our entire focus is relational. It's connecting with these kids. It's letting them know you are not alone.
Mm-hmm. Everything, every, every. Business decision that I, that we make at melodic starts there. Because anything we do, any new program, we, we add any new any new connection that we make is all based on making the kids and the family, because it's not just about the kids that are sick either with melodic, There's a, a, a really profound impact that illness has on patients and rock well, patients and families, I'll say, Is that the patient is sick. So in the case of melodic caring project the child that's sick feels obviously very impacted, very alone. That resonates out when the kid is sick.
It's the siblings. It's the parents we send songs to, to everybody because they all need it. Yeah. And so it's, it's very, very. Like I say, relationship based. I mean, I think the same goes for any successful organization. You're looking at how can you better people's lives because your product is only a commodity if it's bettering lives, yeah. I love that you said that, this idea of, that your passion. When you focus and make it people oriented and that it's about making it easier or better for the, for the recipient of whatever it is that you're doing, that if that is the focus and everything starts with that, then you're gonna like get there and make it work,
Like of course there's more that goes into it, but if you're not starting with that, you might be missing the mark 'cause it matters. Yeah, and I think, I think whatever you're offering at the same time then is if you're only offering it to make money, then it's not a commodity, I mean, it's something if, if you're offering it to better somebody's life as they purchase it, it's a, it's a necessary for them,
What are the goals? What are your goals when you are turning your passion into the nonprofit? So, it's funny, I think this, I will say that this. Maybe it relates to everything. I don't know. I, I can't figure this out yet. For me it's very, it's very closely related to music. Okay. So, music for me was something that started as passion.
It's a high likelihood that you can lose your vision and your passion for it in that moment because all of a sudden your, your focus goes from the passion that started and inspired you mm-hmm. To the thing that you think other people are gonna want the most. And you lose your passion in that moment.
So I think that for most businesses, definitely for nonprofits, I mean, that's, that was the question. So I'll stick with nonprofits where what you don't wanna do is lose your passion, lose your motivation for what you were doing. Because when you lose your passion, you lose that intuitive sense of what you need to provide to people.
What, what your specific skillset is, what your particular offering is to people. And people will connect with. What you genuinely are bringing to them. If you lose your authenticity in pursuit of success, not only do you lose your person, your purpose for what you're doing. Yeah. But probably you lose that real, genuine relationship connection that you were providing out of your passion, yeah. So I think that's a critical thing, is keep your eye on your passion, on your inspiration that that created what you were doing. I love that. I, I will say from a, from a business standpoint, from a sales standpoint, conversations that I have with clients, a lot of times it's like there's a lot of things you can do, and just because somebody's asking you to do it doesn't necessarily mean that you should, because if it isn't something that you feel passionate about, then.
And any decisions that you're making have to still support that because as soon as you start to get away from it, then not only do you lose that authenticity like you said, but chances are it will not resonate with your ideal donor or with your, recipient of what it is that the nonprofit is supporting.
I know, I know. Like I have this conversation with myself from time to time. When I think some days it's like, should I just go work at like the mall because I could crush sales of jewelry or cars or whatever things I've done in the past. But it doesn't light me up inside, and therefore, I'm willing to have those days where it feels like I'm trudging through mud to, to, to keep going because businesses is not for the faint of heart, and I can't imagine nonprofit is, is either.
We say this all the time here, get, ask six people, you get seven opinions, So people will tell you so many things. Yeah. You can't please everybody. Yeah. And the reality is the things they're saying probably won't even please them. They're just, everybody has an opinion, yeah. You don't chase every opinion.
They take a second and go, Nikki, I see you out there. Everybody here loves you. We're all thinking about you. So that was our program. Mm-hmm. And we did that program for 10 years and it was really powerful and connected with a lot of kids. Then guess what? Covid hit Oh bad. And there was not a concert to be had in the nation.
innovation is a natural step. If you're doing something that is just a job. That's where innovation becomes really stilted, because guess what? You're not passionate about it. You're not looking at ways to approach it differently or what are exciting things you could do to add to this? You're not excited about it in the first place.
That's what I do anyway, so great. Let's do that. So would connect for a Zoom call or whatever and just play 'em a couple of songs and then you see that. But that was really powerful. They actually really loved hearing my music almost as much as they love Coldplay, right? As, as they're in this situation where they feel really alone.
Hey, my son is, he has a long week in the hospital this week. He would really love a song, he loves Imagine Dragons. Great. Then we have a group of artists around the nation. That we'll send a song request out to you, So we'll say, Hey, Braden just requested a song. He's gonna be in the hospital this week.
We've heard from families that they just broke down crying. 'cause they just needed, they just needed that. They needed that one connection. Yeah, they needed that one. You know that, that one moment of love where they just felt like they were completely alone, but somebody out there cared, yeah. And we've heard from hospitals that. We had a patient who we needed to place port, or we needed to do, uh, needle pokes or injections, and they were squirmy and they wouldn't sit still, and they were scared and there were all these things. We brought up that song, dedication, and they just, they calmed down.
¶ Welcome to the Sales Maven Show
I know we're, we're coming up on some time constraints and I wanna make sure that I get, uh, that we get a little bit more about how people can get involved, uh, in the nonprofit. But before I do that, as, uh, I, I think it's fun for people to learn a little bit more about you. You're such an interesting person.
I just absolutely love it, well, that's so amazing and super fun to know that about you. What is something people would be surprised to learn about you? Let's see. I. Well, it's interesting 'cause when Steph and I launched melodic, I was working construction full-time, she was doing property management full-time and we realized pretty quickly that we couldn't do everything right.
It was 2010. So the 2008 crash had happened, I was in, like I say, construction and our whole family construction company was failing. We, we were in a really tough spot and we thought, oh, okay. And Steph's dad was a, just a corporate, slow, steady, worked at a tech company, had been there for 25 years and got laid off.
We had six months of reserve in our, in our account. And we thought by six months time, this thing should be hopefully getting funded in some way, shape, or form. Six months in, we had no funding, but we had a, we had a strong partnership with the hospital and we had these. Incredible connection stories that we thought, we can't walk away from this.
The apartment was riddled with mold and we both got chronically sick living in this place trying to run melodic caring projects. Steph ended up with an illness called mast cell activation that she still is balancing, and I lost my voice for six years, almost couldn't hardly sing, and that simple, profound joy that I was talking about mm-hmm.
So, yeah. I love that. I love that. Alright. Uh, what's exciting going on with melodic caring project right now? What's, what's something exciting you guys have coming up? Man, I think I'm super excited because like I say, 2020 was a really complex thing to navigate. We came out of it with four new programs and I.
And that's exactly what happened with Melodic, We, we were so focused on our one core program, we never would've added the other, three core programs to the organization. We just didn't feel like we had the time or the head space when we were put into a position where we had to add the other programs.
They're very relationship based and our, our melodic has grown 627% in the last three years because of these other core programs that we added, and that's what I'm excited about. I'm just excited that what we're doing, what I'm passionate about, what I know is. Just so fundamentally good, There's very few things in life that I've ever seen that you can look at and go, everybody wins with this.
Mm-hmm. Yep. That's not normally the case. Usually somebody's giving more than somebody else. Somebody's sacrificing more than somebody else. With this, that's just not the case. Everybody walks away going, that was such an incredible experience, and so for me to see the demand growing, the excitement growing with artists, yeah, it just feels like there's energy and uh, people, people are investing their passion into what we are doing, and that's what it takes for anything to grow. It can't just be us. It's these partnerships and these people that come along and go, I love this. I wanna be involved. I. Yeah. Fantastic. Okay, last question for you, for people listening who wanna get involved, what's the best way, whether they want to, donate, whether they know somebody who would benefit from the program, whether they, uh, have their own skillset that, could participate in being an artist or like, what's the best way to connect with Levi and Melodic caring project?
There is a donate button so you can donate if you're in a position to do that. And if you resonate with the work we're doing. That's always incredibly helpful. Another thing that I think is maybe underappreciated but like we were saying earlier, everything is relationship based. And there are people that are just very natural connectors.
People care and that they're seen. And so please connect. Thank you for listening. Levi, thank you for being here and sharing your story. I'm so inspired by you. I feel really, uh, grateful to know you and thank you so much for being here today. Well, likewise Nikki. Thank you so much for having me, for shining a light on what we're doing, but also just for the, the wisdom and the insight that you have shared on the sales Maven calls that I've been on.
Message from Nikki (end of episode): Hey, before we end the episode, I wanna mention that there is a campaign going on right now with Melodic Caring Project around giving a dollar a day. It's called the thousand Fans, and it's a great way to get involved with the organization. So here's some information about it directly from Levi and Stephanie.
So join us as a sustaining partner and true fan to support our mission. Help us bring connection, joy, and hope to families around the world. Sign up [email protected].