January 23, 2025 • 52 mins
In this episode of Wildly Wealthy Life, Kat and Lee welcome Neil Moore, founder of Simply Music, a revolutionary music education program taught in over 135 countries. Neil shares his journey from bankruptcy to creating a global movement, offering profound insights on creativity, resilience, and the transformative power of music. Discover how fostering creative capability in children and adults can unlock human potential and prepare us for the future. Neil’s wisdom and stories will leave you inspired to live fully, contribute meaningfully, and embrace life’s challenges with courage.
Discussion Links:
00:00 Neil’s perspective on creativity vs. creative capability
01:15 Introduction: Neil Moore’s journey and the founding of Simply Music
04:16 The bold decision to move from Australia to the U.S. to pursue his dream
07:07 Challenges in building a global organization and the importance of resilience
09:21 Going from $250K to $1M a month—and the lessons from failure
12:08 Finding faith and purpose during tough times
18:18 How music develops neural connectivity and enhances creativity
24:03 Practical ways parents can nurture creativity in children
33:56 Neil’s inspiring story of losing everything and discovering his calling
41:22 Why music education must evolve for the future
46:20 Neil defines what living a “Wildly Wealthy Life” means to him
https://theneilmoore.com/
https://www.instagram.com/theneilmoore/
https://x.com/theneilmoore
https://simplymusic.com/
How Music Can Future Proof Your Brain | Neil Moore | TEDxJacksonville
https://youtu.be/HBtGurhQC64?si=yeZkK7h9KQOejCZq
Mentioned in this episode:
Mark as Played
Transcript
Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
Neil (00:00):
Creativity is king.
There's an important distinction betweencreativity and creative capability.
Just let me draw an analogy to that.
And if I just talk about performance,for example, if I'm walking down
the street with Usain Bolt, who tothis day still holds the record as
the fastest person in the world.
If we're both walking down thestreet together, four miles an
(00:22):
hour, whatever our performanceexpression is exactly the same.
Our performance capabilityis completely different.
He has the capability for profoundlygreater importance than I do.
Creativity is the expressionof creative capability.
Creative capability is the machinerythat determines how creative we can be.
Kat (00:53):
Today's guest is Neil Moore, an incredible human being that
you will just so be inspired by.
He is an author, a musiceducator, a speaker.
He was born in Melbourne,Australia in 1957 and moved
to the United States in 1994.
He's the founder of Simply Music,an international organization
that is the world class leaderin playing based music education.
(01:15):
His breakthrough methodology transformed300 years of music education and its
focus on bringing music to the masses.
The Simply Music program is taughtby a global community of teachers
around the world spanning 135countries, and I get to be one of them.
And Neil's massive, transformativepurpose is to cause a global
(01:35):
transformation in music education.
To transform access to musicalself expression and to elevate the
creative capability of humanity.
I can't wait to welcome Neil Moore.
Lee (01:46):
Stay tuned.
Kat (01:49):
Hey, my name is Kat.
Lee (01:51):
And I'm Lee.
Kat (01:52):
And welcome to the.
Lee (01:53):
Wildly Wealthy Life Podcast.
In this show, we explore the journeyof what it means to live a truly
exceptional and fulfilling life.
Kat (02:02):
Each episode focuses on how a foundation of brilliant minds and
brave hearts Nurtured through thearts leads to lifelong success.
Lee (02:09):
Get inspired with actionable tips to foster a growth mindset,
leadership values, and creativityin children and adults, turning
their potential into lastingcontributions for their communities.
Kat (02:20):
We hope you embrace the challenge to shift your perspective as we equip
you and the next generation for a
We just talked to Neil Moore and itwas an incredible conversation and
we just want to tease our audience alittle bit before you bring him in.
(02:43):
What are the a few main thingsthat was like really standing
out to you in that conversation?
Lee (02:49):
Neil is a deep thinker and I think the best piece that you're going to pull
away is just the way To look at life, howthings that we sometimes imagine as giant
mountains in our life are really justlittle molehills, as they say, and the
way the elegant way that he describes howto live a wildly wealthy life is amazing.
Kat (03:15):
Yes.
I would say this is oneof those episodes that.
I really think you have to listen frombeginning to end and might be worth
listening to a second time, a thirdtime, because of just the wealth of
experience that Neil has had in his life.
There's so much wisdom that he isgoing to share and nuggets that you
(03:36):
are going to just be so inspired by.
His life experiences are just amazing.
And so stay tuned.
We'll bring him in, make sure youlisten all the way through to the end.
So Neil, thank you for being here.
(03:58):
I would like to start with what has beenone of the hardest decision that you've
had to make, where you really had tostep out in boldness and encouraged to
kind of, you know, get to that otherside of a situation that you were in.
Neil (04:16):
Well, the biggest looking decision that I had to make was deciding that, Hey,
let's pack up our lives in Australia, acountry that we love, um, with families
that we love and, uh, my wife and I, andour children, and let's move to the other
side of the world to pursue a dream.
(04:38):
And, uh, you know, people look at thatand said, that was a really big decision.
Huge decision and a huge risk.
And there are, there are a lot ofthings that ordinarily people would
consider to be, uh, risky and itwould be considered the enormity and
the weight of that decision would beconsidered to be very significant.
That wasn't my experience of it at all.
My experience was, I just feltso strongly about this being
(05:00):
something that I was called to do.
And I've always had extraordinaryloyalty from my wife.
And so it's like, Let's do it.
Let's go.
And so the, the bigger challenges havebeen those times when trying to give
birth to my organization and bring it tofruition, uh, where there have been, uh,
enormous financial challenges and, andwipeouts and, you know, having to really
(05:25):
confront things that we thought were goingto have a really positive, successful
outcome, not coming to fruition and thencreating all sorts of logistical issues.
And the challenges have been more.
Personal from that point of view and,uh, you know, I run the organization.
I don't think I should be running it.
I'm not really that goodat it, to be honest.
(05:46):
Um, and I think at best, youknow, I've done an adequate job
at keeping the organization alive.
What I have contributed most isthe methodology that I've created,
um, and what that has contributed.
But from the point of view ofrunning the organization, what did
I know about, Building and growingan international organization and
managing the logistics of that.
And I got into this in thevery beginning for the music.
(06:09):
That's I've always felt like Ibelonged to music and I got into and
created simply music for the music.
But at some point of time, it.
Became about being in the businessof being in business and running the
organization and the logistics and thecontracts and the trademarks and the
agreements and the licensing and thefinancial aspects and the recording
(06:31):
and the reporting and the paperworkand it just has become this thing.
Um, a great deal of which I, I, I'm notgood at doing, and I don't enjoy doing.
And, uh, and there've been times when the,the demands of just managing the logistics
of this organization, uh, have been reallyproblematic, but my strength has been,
(06:52):
you know, I always get back into the ring.
I just get, I just pick myself upand I get back into the ring and,
um, so I couldn't nail it down toone particular incident is just being
lots and lots of those, which is verytypical on the entrepreneurial journey.
You know, I've had the privilege of beingaround a lot of really, really successful
people that are enjoying all of the.
(07:14):
You know, the perceived benefits andtrappings of, you know, financial
success, uh, as well as life success.
And if I were to look at what's consistentamongst all of the people that I know
that have successful lives, and thatis that this has been one heck of a
rollercoaster ride, um, with lots and lotsof times Rob looked and thought, you know,
Is this the hill I'm going to die on?
(07:36):
I, no, I just, I couldn't allow myselfto look back and say this thing that
happened, this incident, this event,this thing that didn't turn out,
this was the thing that stopped me.
This was the thing that I, you know, whereI gave up on, on what I dream, you know.
Lee (07:52):
Can I ask, um, The tenacity that you have to get yourself back
in the ring, the fortitude andthe trust you have in yourself.
Um, can you think back and remembermaybe moments, instances, positions
you were put into where you had tomake that choice for yourself and
(08:15):
for your goals and your dreams?
And, and move forward with it.
Cause a lot of times when there'schallenges, sometimes people step
back, you know, or they get woundedand they don't, don't really heal
and are not able to move forward.
But do you remember from some momentswhere you just felt that, ah, you know,
if I just trusted myself, press intothis music thing, that's where my life
is, my life fuel is going to come from.
(08:37):
And then, yeah, you know, as we gothrough life, we do get derailed
and we need to get back on.
So what would be a.
Yeah,
Neil (08:47):
well, when I first came here, um, the, in the early years, it was very
much nose to the grindstone, completelyfocused on developing content and, uh,
you know, developing the methodology.
And, um, there was a certain point oftime where we had an investor come on
board and the strategy they felt wasbest suited to where we were at was to
(09:14):
my method, create a self study programand market that program nationally,
like on an, on an infomercial.
So, you know, simply music.
Is, and has always been a, uh,a program training teachers
how to teach the methodology.
And so in this instance, we weregoing to say, let's actually create
a product that we would marketdirectly to, um, to the public.
(09:36):
And so it became a selfstudy learn at home program.
And we marketed that on an infomercialand it, that project was, um,
it was the most extraordinaryexperience that I had at that time.
Our annual revenues were about.
You know, 250, 000 a year.
It was just me teaching and, youknow, developing the content and, um,
(09:57):
uh, we launched this in the, in aninfomercial format and we went from
doing a quarter of a million a yearto doing a million dollars a month
overnight, just like that ramp up.
Um, it, it just went from.
You know, from night to day instantly,and that created all sorts of breakdowns
and, you know, we looking back onit now, we were just absolutely
(10:21):
woefully unprepared to handle whathad happened, and we even didn't
have access to information and data.
Um, all the costing was wrong.
We had no idea that everydollar in revenue we were
generating, we were incurring 1.
40 of costs.
By the time we got data, you know,we had already accumulated hundreds
(10:43):
and hundreds of thousands of dollarsof debt and this thing imploded.
Fortunately through that whole process,I, you know, I built my organization on
relationships and being transparent andfull disclosure and everybody who was
involved, the vendors of, you know, therewere all sorts of things involved in, um,
(11:03):
you know, media buying and advertising andshipping and production and duplication
and distribution and reporting andaccounting and, you know, the marketing,
you know, there's just lots and lots ofcomponents to doing something like this.
Everybody was aware of exactlywhat was happening and was willing
to ride True, um, and supportme asked through that process.
(11:23):
And, uh, by the time we had data that wasmeaningful and we saw the disaster that
was on, uh, on my shoulders, really, westopped that project and thought, okay,
well, I've got to completely redefinethis and redesign this whole thing and
go to market again with a, with a more,um, and more thoroughly thought through.
Structure and, uh, we spent that next12 months just redefining, redesigning
(11:48):
absolutely everything and we're ready tolaunch and we, the, the last of the funds
we had, we'd invested in this national,um, you know, television marketing by,
and that was set to launch on Septemberthe 13th, 2001, and on September 11th,
Lee (12:03):
2001,
Neil (12:04):
um,
Lee (12:05):
yeah,
Neil (12:06):
September 11th happened.
And, and my issues and concerns andthe impact is nothing compared to
what happened to, you know, the, thelives that were lost and the, and the,
and the families that were destroyed.
But I remember my sister in Australiacalled me early hours of the morning
and said, have you watching the TV?
I said, no, she said, turn on the TV.
And I turned it on andI saw what had happened.
(12:28):
And I just realized that, wow,our, our lives have changed.
Just changed and any hope of us beingable to trade out of that debt and
rely on the, um, I have, I think Ihave had about 427, 000 of personal
debt, but it wasn't so much that thenumber of the debt that was the issue.
It was really more.
I saw no, no possibility of howI was going to move forward under
(12:52):
the circumstances that I was in.
And it was, um.
A really confronting experience.
Um, I, I don't want to say it wasa dark time for me, but it was a
very difficult time emotionally.
And one of the things that I, one ofthe practices that I've developed,
which I don't know, I don't eventhink I could recommend it to
anyone, but it's a practice thathas worked for me, is I do something
(13:14):
that I call prescribe the symptoms.
And what I mean by that is like, Ohgosh, you know, is this going to fail?
Is this going to implode?
Am I going to be able to make it through?
And I have found, listen, if I,what I'm going to do is I'm going to
let myself get fully, I'm going tofully experience the weight and the
burden and the sadness and the upset.
(13:34):
I'm going to stay in bed and pullthe doona or the duvet over my
head and I'm just going to give up.
And I lie in bed long enough andit's like, what the heck am I doing?
This is so boring.
I'm done.
And I actually recreate what theexperience of giving up would be like.
And I also relate to this,look, not everybody, we all see
the world differently, right?
(13:55):
We all have different public systems.
And I like to see, My life and my journeythrough the eyes of divine design.
So it's a God thing for me.
Now, I don't even carewhether that's true or not.
I get value out of believing it's true.
And that's all that matters for me.
Faith trumps fact every time.
And so for me, I've always thoughtof, listen, I, My organization, it
(14:19):
comes from the codification of theway that music occurred for me, even
before I was aware of my own existence.
I've had my relationship with musicsince infancy, and it was evidence
since infancy, and I, I think of it fromthe point of view of my relationship
to music and the opportunity forme to bring that to the world.
That was something thatwas all preordained.
(14:41):
I was born with thathardwired into my system.
And you know, there's that oldsaying that many are called,
but few answer them calling.
I just remind myself that, listen,I have a partner in the divine.
I've been asked to do this.
I know that every, every single timeI've had something go wrong in my life,
(15:04):
at some point in time, three months,six months, two years later, I look
back and, and I'm glad that it happened.
Because something elsecame out as a result.
And so I've had that happen enoughtimes where it's like, when I get to
those stages, it's like, I can remindmyself, one, I'm doing the work of a
higher purpose and a higher calling.
Secondly, this is something that makesa contribution to the world and very
(15:25):
few people have the opportunity ormaterialize the opportunity to make
a contribution to people's lives.
And so it's a privilegedposition that I'm in.
And Honestly, let's just cut to the chase.
Small life, small problems,big life, big problems.
Now that that would be like, I'm goingto, I'm going to live in LA and then
being annoyed because there's traffic.
It's like, no, if, well, you're goingto be in LA, you know, you're going
(15:48):
to be deal, that's the reality of it.
And I understand that the realityof taking on a big project is that
there's big, complex, chunky problems.
Bigger opportunity is to be, tolive in that question of who do I
need to become in order to elevate.
Myself to the next level inorder to meet this challenge.
It's not the hill I'm going to die on.
I'm doing ordained work.
(16:08):
This is God's work.
I'm in a partnership with the divine.
I'm contributing to people.
It's an absolute privilege.
Get the heck out ofbed and get on with it.
Kat (16:16):
I love it.
It's so many good things out there.
I just, um, I'm picturing you in bed,just covering yourself and be like,
okay, I'm just going to give up such a.
Funny picture, but it's true.
Like you're, you're probably layingthere and you're like, well, if this
is what giving up looks like, I don'treally want this, this, this is boring.
That's so true.
(16:37):
Um, I love that, you know, youkind of talked about how, um, cause
I'm experiencing that right now torealizing that the level of, uh, growth
that my business is going to reachis based on the level of problems
that I'm going to be able to handle.
You know, so if I exactly like bigproblems, you know, big growth, small
problems, probably smaller growth.
(16:58):
Right.
And I just want to acknowledgeyou, Neil, because, you know, you.
Doing all of that, right?
Like, I mean, I didn't even know, Ididn't know a lot of these stories
that you're sharing and you sharingthat right now, it just makes me
think if you had given up, like Iwouldn't have simply music right now.
You know, I wouldn't have thiswonderful tool that I could use this
(17:18):
process and this method that I coulduse that is impacting so many kids.
And so just thank you for thatbecause gosh, like I wouldn't know.
What life would be likewithout simply my music.
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(17:40):
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(18:01):
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(19:30):
Because I have, um, you know, forthe listeners out there, especially
for the parents, some of mystudents are very entrepreneurial.
I can already see that they're,they're creating products.
They're, they're selling it likeon, on, you know, school fairs.
And it's really fun to see that.
What would your advice be to.
Parents or educators or caregiverswho are nurturing kids who have
(19:54):
that entrepreneurial mindset, right?
Or entrepreneurial spirit alreadycoming up at such a young age.
What would your advice be to themas to how would they nurture that in
their child and what type of leadershipskills should they already introduce
to their child or to their students whohave that spirit of entrepreneurship?
Neil (20:16):
That's a really great question.
The thing about it is I see it.
Is that creativity is King, but there'san important distinction between
creativity and creative capability.
So if I can just draw thatdistinction for a moment,
creativity is the expressionof creative capability.
(20:37):
Creative capability is the machinerythat determines how creative we can be.
And, uh, and just let medraw an analogy to that.
And if I just talk about performance,for example, if I'm walking
down the street with Usain Bolt.
Who to this day still holds the recordas the fastest person in the world.
(20:58):
If we're both walking down the streettogether at the same, you know, we're
walking with four miles an hour,whatever our performance expression is
exactly the same, but our performancecapability is completely different.
He has the capability for profoundlygreater importance than I do.
(21:19):
If I'm driving down the car and, uh,and you're in a Lamborghini and I'm in
a 1960 Volkswagen and we're both rollingdown the street at 20 miles an hour,
our performance expression is the same,but the performance capability of the
Lamborghini is exponentially greater.
Similarly, with regards tocreativity, in order for anybody
(21:40):
to deal with any situation, weneed to see things differently.
We need to think about things differently.
We need to do things differently.
And it's the seeing and thethinking and the doing things
differently that I say is creativity.
So anything that we can do, if youare on an entrepreneurial journey, you
are going to have far more challengesthan successes for the most part.
(22:05):
One of the greatest skills you canlearn is how am I going to resolve
the issues that I come up against?
And that is going to require thatyou look at things differently, that
you think about things differently,that you do things differently.
And so from that point of view,I think the focus needs to be
on what is it that we can do?
Anything and everything we can doto help develop creative capability
(22:27):
will give us the ability to beable to look at situations and see
more potential solutions to thechallenges that we're going to face.
So anything we can do that helps todevelop creative capability is really
important for us to be able to explore andassimilate and absorb and take advantage
of one of the great things that I think,and one of the fortunate, well, it's a
(22:49):
privilege, but certainly very unfortunate.
We're learning something very new aboutmusic, learning about musicianship.
We're learning that it has avery unique impact on the brain.
And as we understand moreabout that impact, we've always
known that it's a good thing.
And in decades gone by, we've learned moreabout what we mean by a good thing with
(23:10):
music learning that, you know, it helpswith math scores and it helps with IQ.
And, you know, there are certainbenefits that we've known about
music, but what's happening now withour understanding is, is different.
We're understanding now thatlearning music more than listening
to music, actually learning music.
It provides the brain with thiscritical neurological nutrition.
It changes the white structure, thewhite metastructure of the brain.
(23:33):
It actually changes the graymatter, grows the gray matter.
It increases theconnectivity in the brain.
And from that point of view, as indoing that, The correlation is neural
connectivity translates to increasedcreative capability and increased creative
capability translates to the ability toconsider and think of more options, which
(23:54):
is exactly what every forward thinking.
Not just an entrepreneur, every, everyperson needs to be able to have a skill
set and an enhanced and expanded skillset to be able to deal with any and all
of the problems that we're going to facewith in our lives and our ability to
deal with those situations has everythingto do with creativity and creativity
(24:17):
has everything to do with creativecapability and creative capability has
everything to do with neural connectivity.
So as a parent, what can we do?
We can focus on developingchildren's neural connectivity.
Is there anything that wecan do that enhances that?
Lots of things.
Because anytime the brain confrontssomething new and different,
it actually requires that newneural pathways be established.
(24:39):
And we've learned with neuralplasticity that the brain will
continue to alter and adjust.
It'll create new neural pathways,it'll alter existing neural pathways
in order to accommodate and deal withnew situations and circumstances.
So, as a practice, there are so manysimple things that we can do that
will help develop neural connectivity.
(25:00):
Anytime we do something different.
Lee (25:03):
Yeah.
Neil (25:03):
So what did that mean?
Try eating different foods,get the sensory stimulation,
new flavors to think about.
The brain will have to adapt.
Listen to different musicthat you're not familiar with.
The brain will have to adapt.
Learn a language that you can't speak.
The brain will have to rewire,reconnect, create new neural pathways.
(25:27):
There are games you can play.
Sit down, you know, with your childrenat a table and put an object in the table
and say, five minutes, here's the game.
You've got to write down everypossible use that you can think of
with this fork and whoever's got themost unique answers wins the game.
Okay, well a fork could be used asan eating tool, yeah, it could also
(25:49):
be used to scratch my back, wellthat's true, I could use it as a
spade to plant seeds in the garden,well that's true as well, I suppose I
could use one of those sharp bits asa toothpick, well that's true as well.
Now, as we're doing that, we're takingsomething that's practical and right in
front of us, but we're forcing the brainto see it differently, see it differently,
think about it differently, think aboutit differently, new neural pathways,
(26:10):
impacting creative capability, createsa more creative person, Gives them the
tools and skills to be able to dealwith issues and problems in their life.
So neural connectivity is key.
Doing things differentlyis the key to get there.
And fortunately, we've got this addedbonus that musicianship impacts the
brain so uniquely and so profoundly.
We, we're seeing now like that studythat came out of the German Institute for
(26:32):
Economic Research that showed musicianshipalters the brain and helps develop.
Uh, this capability more than twice asmuch as sports and other forms of art.
I mean, it's amazing.
And this is still an area ofscience that's in its infancy.
And my prediction is we're justseeing the tip of the iceberg.
Kat (26:52):
Yeah, absolutely.
Thank you, Neil.
That was really wonderful.
With that, you know, you're sayingseeing things differently, right?
And you earlier said you've hada lot of wipeouts and how did you
see things differently every timeyou had, you know, a wipeout so
that you can step out of that.
Neil (27:13):
At the end of the day, it's the action that one is willing to take, right?
And, and I, I consider thatto be an act of free will.
And when I say free will, what I meanby that is that sometimes we have to
enter into, we have to enter into a.
An arrangement with our spiritand our body to do something that
the mind doesn't want us to do.
Lee (27:33):
And
Neil (27:34):
so from that point of view, that often involves,
okay, I said, I would do this.
I don't feel like doing this atthe end of the day, though, where
am I going to direct my actions?
Am I going to direct my actions inline with how I feel, or am I going to
direct my actions in line with, withwhat it is that I'm being called to do?
Lee (27:54):
Hmm.
Yeah,
Neil (27:56):
easy choices.
Translate to a harder life, harderchoices translate to an easier life.
So in those situations, I've hadsituations where I've had to really,
you know, creatively think about how amI going to, I'll give you a scenario.
We went through a financialwipeout, total like wipeout.
Uh, you have a memory of standingat our fridge with my three children
(28:16):
there and opening the fridge andthere's absolutely no, no food
in the fridge to feed my family.
What am I going to do?
You know what?
I've got a wedding jewelry that, um, wecould sell and actually get some money
in order to be able to feed my children.
So, I mean, it's not even the enormityof the problem that is the issue.
It's more a matter of, can I lookat anything and everything that
(28:37):
will provide a potential solution?
One of the things that I've foundquite amazingly, uh, consistently over
my lifetime is that when I act in theface of difficult circumstances, I get
more lucky, opportunities show up now.
They're, um, There's a, there's aspiritual interpretation that some people
(28:59):
would say, well, that's, you know, that'sGod lending a hand when you need it.
There are others that would lookat it from a, you know, from a more
like an energetic point of view,like putting something out into the
universe and the universe responds.
I mean, at the end of the day, there'sdifferent languaging, but I tell you,
um, regardless of what your language isand how you interpret that situation.
I've seen it not only againand again in my life, but in
the lives of people I'm around.
(29:21):
And that is that the more committed inaction they are towards what they're
being called to do, the more thatcircumstances and situations seem to align
to support what it is that people are.
Kat (29:33):
Yeah.
It's a universal principle.
Yeah.
It's just universal truths.
Wow.
That's amazing, Neil.
Lee (29:39):
When you get to those points.
It's amazing just seeing the, therejuvenation of the hope when you take
those steps and then you have that, thefavor, the coincidences, you know, the
return of however people interpret it, uh,and it's such a big, big encouragement.
When.
You made that firstleap of coming to the U.
(30:00):
S.
You had that, like, just thatextreme confidence that you
were coming, uh, for a purpose.
You had, you know, just thiswill, as you said, to prove it.
It, whatever's going to happen,you're going to make it work.
Do you have a memory from your childhoodof when that first was instilled with you?
(30:21):
Like when, when did you kind of startto feel that, that divine connection
and what were some of the signsfor you that this is your calling?
That's
Neil (30:31):
also a good question.
There's a couple of layers to that.
I.
Lee (30:34):
Hmm.
Neil (30:35):
I always knew, I think I said this before, I always knew that
I belonged to music and I didn't,I didn't even really understand
when I was young what that meant.
I just felt like if I had a, theplace where I was situated, I felt
most me, if that was in music, likelistening to music, playing music.
(30:56):
Uh, thinking about music, havinga desire to do music that has
never, ever not been with me.
That feeling, that, that way ofthinking has been with me for as
long as I have a memory of thinking.
But I didn't think of it as a calling.
I was too, I was a kid.
(31:17):
I didn't have the maturity tobe able to see it that way.
I don't think I really started to seeit as a calling until early adulthood.
And, um, I came from a family, myparents were self employed, successful
business people, amazing people.
I definitely won the parents lottoand born into a beautiful family.
(31:39):
And I knew that I wanted to getinto businesses at a young age.
And my thinking had always been, Iwant to get into a business at a young
age so I can do well enough and makeenough money so I can then pursue music.
The opportunities to havea very successful career in
music are limited in Australia.
You know, here, you know, Australiais a country that's the same
physical size as the United States.
(31:59):
In the United States, we'vegot what, 350 million people.
50 million people driving an economy inAustralia, you know, had, had at that
time, like, you know, 15 or 18 million.
So it's just not as big a,um, yeah, an opportunity.
Um, casserole.
And so from that point of view, it'slike, well, I couldn't really see
opportunities to pursue that wouldsuffice what it was that I wanted
(32:21):
to be able to do with my life.
I'll tell you, I'll get into business.
I'll do business.
I'll get successful.
I'll make enough money really young.
I'll retire and do music.
I still didn't evenknow what do music was.
So my first venture in my early twentiesinto business was, um, in the restaurant
industry, I, you know, I bought a.
An established Frenchrestaurant and cook that over.
And that was an amazingexperience to do that.
(32:43):
And I was very successful, doublethe business within a year.
The business was this one, but,but I was just unsatisfied.
It's a weird thing to be success,sort of successful financially,
but really unsatisfied.
Now I didn't understand that.
And I thought, well, what do I do?
Should, you know, I need toget into another business.
I, you know, got anotherrestaurant and the same thing.
I was able to build it up, increasethe business, but not be satisfied.
(33:06):
And, um, I ended up getting out of it.
We had three restaurants over a periodof time and I got out of that industry.
I won't get.
There's a whole story about that,but I made a series of really
bad financial decisions and wewent through a bankruptcy, just
lost everything in Australia.
When you lose everything, youliterally lose everything.
And so, um, I remember there wasthis particular day where, um,
(33:27):
you know, there were, Our home wasbeing sold in, in Australia, they'll
often sell homes via public auction.
And they put this big board upoutside your home announcing that
there's an auction coming up.
And on the day the auctioneercomes outside your house and all
the people gather in the streetand they auction your, your home.
There was this day where they wereputting up the board to sell our home.
The truck was there, you know, it came totake our cars, we were losing everything.
(33:49):
And I, I remember I had this really.
Extraordinary experience, two things.
I actually saw my life as an equation.
I thought, Oh, wow.
I've been pursuing business toearn money, to do what I love.
And it suddenly occurredto me as a broken equation.
It's like, Oh, I'm going to flipthat a whole equation around.
(34:12):
I need to be doing what I love.
And if there is such a thing as divinedesign, a pathway will reveal itself.
What occurred to me was, wow,I'm losing everything I have, but
I'm losing nothing of who I am.
And I felt completely whole andcomplete it's like, okay, from this
day forward, I'm going to pursue music.
(34:32):
It's like, this is what I'm meant to do.
And I think probably that was thefirst time where I felt utterly
viscerally connected to my relationshipto music as a spiritual calling.
Wow.
At the same point in time, I was broke.
I've got a wife, I've got three children.
How are we gonna live?
(34:53):
I mean, you know, I'm, I'mcommitting myself to do this.
And by the way, I mean, I've beenplaying musical all my life, but
I'm not an advanced musician.
I mean, if you're a total beginner andyou hear me play, you'll probably think,
wow, you're, you know, he's pretty good.
If I compare myself to, I listen to,I'm not even, I'm not even the ballpark.
I don't consider myself,I'm not a performing artist.
My strength is incomposition and in education.
But not in performance and, andalso my, my relationship to learning
(35:17):
music was completely different.
I never learned how to read musicwhen I was going through all
those years of music lessons.
I didn't really, I couldn't read.
I didn't have theoretical knowledge.
I wasn't that great a player.
And here, here's me in my thirties witha wife and three children saying, Hey
guys, I'm going to do music as a career.
It's like it made no logicalsense through the lens of what
people would consider to be.
(35:37):
Responsible adult decision makingwas absolutely the right decision,
even though I had no idea.
So if anyone said, what's the plan?
No plan.
Or what are you going to do?
No idea.
How are you going to live?
Don't know.
How are you going to feed your family?
Don't know.
But you're going tocommit yourself to music?
Absolutely.
Why?
Because that is what I'm told to do.
And then I had a miracle happen.
(35:58):
A gentleman who I, uh, I had met, but Ididn't really know he, um, his girlfriend
at the time had worked with me and,um, I, you know, I think I'd been an
assistance in her life and he just rangout of the blue and said, I know you're
going through a difficult time and, uh,I'm in a really good financial position
and, um, I'd like you to, you know, tosupport you in your path moving forward
(36:21):
and provided a means of us financiallybeing able to take care of the family
and allow me to be able to, um, Beginmusic studying and start learning how
to read and learning about music theoryand, you know, all of that process.
And I discovered that I had theability to teach and started teaching
and there have been a whole seriesof miracles that occur, you know,
(36:41):
through this whole journey wherethings, and that was a significant one.
Kat (36:46):
There's so much to unpack there, Neil.
Um, you know, when you're saying thatdoesn't even look like a logical, smart
decision, you just lost everything.
And then you're goingto go into music and.
You don't even knowwhere to start with it.
And it just didn't look logical at all.
But the other thing that I wantedto kind of gather from that is, you
(37:07):
know, back then, maybe we don't havea term for it, but now, you know, they
call it the imposter syndrome, right?
Where you realize that.
It's not, you don't thinkyou're an advanced player.
You don't have strengths and youknow, you don't feel like you're a
strong, uh, performer as a pianist.
You didn't read notes, like all thesethings that, especially back then, when
(37:29):
you think about a music teacher, a musicteacher is someone who probably went to
school for music and learned how to readmusic and would teach the traditional.
Right.
And, and even nowadays, uh, we still, alot of people still have that thinking.
Neil (37:46):
Absolutely.
That's still prevalent.
That's the problem.
Kat (37:49):
It's still prevalent.
I mean, I see a lot of, you know,people on Facebook groups talking
about like, well, you know, dothey teach, it actually had a very,
um, tangible experience of that.
I had a student, um, And the mom wasso, so stuck on, like, making sure that
the student learns how to read first.
And so, and obviously with SimplyMusic, that's not what we do.
(38:11):
So I just kind of stuck with what I do.
And then I taught thechild, uh, improvisation.
And this was very early on.
It was the first four lessons.
And this child loved theimprovisation, like enjoyed it so much.
And he was getting so much valueout of that and so much joy.
And then at the end of the four, youknow, trial lessons, the mom said,
(38:31):
I really see that he's enjoying it.
It's really awesome.
He's never done anything like that before,but I really want him to read music first.
So we're not going to continuewith you, you know, and.
And I was like, okay, youknow, I mean, it is what it is.
It's, it's your choice.
Are you worried your child feelsdefeated when things don't go their way?
Do they struggle to adaptin challenging situations?
(38:52):
My free video training is here to help.
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If you want deeper insights on the smartlearning method, check out episode 4.
(39:15):
Download your free videotraining today at katzkeys.
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Again, that's k a t z k ey s dot com slash mindset.
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And that life isn't justfor the crazy rich folks.
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Go to wildly wealthy life podcast.com,my tools to grab your copy today and
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What would you kind of say or adviceyou would give to those people who they
feel like they don't have the skills?
(40:41):
Like to, to pursue something thatthey love, or maybe they lack
the quote, unquote, what peoplesay would skills should be right.
Like the, the, the common, uh, so societalnorms that are like, Oh, you need to be
this, this, this to be able to teach that.
Um, how would you encourage those people?
Neil (41:01):
Well, we have a number of things on our side.
I mean, as you know, Kat, in, in theworld of simple music, given that this
is such a non traditional program,we deal with that all the time.
You know, that we are, we're in a culturewhere the, um, what is most prevalent
is the illusion that some people aremusical and other people are not.
Culturally, we think there aresome people that are creative types
(41:23):
and others are, are not all humanbeings are profoundly creative.
I mean, just look what your braindoes every night when you dream.
I mean, it is astounding what the brainis capable of doing and everyone's,
you know, carrying this device preinstalled we're all profoundly musical.
And, you know, there's such afine line between obvious and
oblivious and we are so musical.
(41:46):
We are utterly oblivious to it.
We're not, we're not conscious ofthe musicality that underscores
walking and underscores talkingand underscores gesture.
And I know if I, if I hung around anyperson who was absolutely convinced
they're not musical, if I just spent amorning with them, I could drive them
crazy with examples of things that they'redoing that demonstrate a mastery of their
musicality and they're oblivious to it.
Lee (42:08):
Yeah.
You
Neil (42:08):
know, I can just see him getting to the stage an hour after
an hour being like, I get it.
I get it.
I'm musical.
I get it.
Even so culturally peopleare oblivious to it.
In fact, if I could only achieve onething, if I had to choose only one
thing that I could achieve with my life,if that could be that I could bring
into human consciousness the fact thatwe are a profoundly musical species,
(42:31):
that and in and of itself would have aglobal transformative impact, I believe.
So first thing is.
If someone is not aware of that.
It's just like, forgive them father forthey know not what they do, you know, it's
just that they're just not aware of it.
They're well meaning, butthe reality of it is we're a
profoundly musical species yet.
(42:52):
So then history's on our side becausewe've been approaching music education
a particular way for hundreds of years.
And I'm of the view that the fundamentalcharter of music education is to
equip the population with the abilityto be musically self expressed.
And at some point in time, Ithink it's fair to say, okay,
how are we doing after 300 years?
(43:14):
Have we fulfilled our charter?
And the reality of the matter isthat Only a tiny fraction, tiny
percentage of the population havereally been able to acquire music and
retain it as a lifelong companion.
And I think it's time for usto look and say, Hey, are we
going about this the right way?
Well, one way of doing that would beto ask the question, is there any other
(43:37):
model that we could compare it to, tohave a look and see how we're doing?
And I think there is a, there is a veryobvious model and that is speaking.
We speak, speak, speakingis just truncated singing.
Okay, what's, what's the modelfor imparting speech from
one generation to the next?
Well, it's left up to the parents.
(43:57):
Have they studied speaking?
No, they just speak.
You know, do they understandthe theory of speech?
Well, no, they just speak.
We know that if you just allowa child to be in an environment
where there's speaking takingplace, language will emerge.
Why are we not doing that with music?
Are we asking children to learnhow to read and spell as a
means of learning how to talk?
No, that's preposterous.
(44:19):
Why are we doing that with music?
Why do we say music's a languagebut not treat it as a language?
When we're learning how to speak,we're not teaching children adverbs and
adjectives and participles and pronouns.
We're not teaching any of that.
Why are we teaching theoryin the early stages?
Well, firstly, we learn how to speak,then we learn how to read and spell
and we learn grammar and we learnnouns and adjectives and adverbs.
(44:41):
All of that comes later onthe foundation of performance.
Why are we doing that with music?
Lee (44:46):
Hmm.
Neil (44:47):
Yeah.
And, well, because we believe thatwe should do it a particular way,
well, maybe that's valid if the goalis to create some highly advanced
adult concert level performers.
But that's not what we need.
What the world needs now is to understandthat musicianship provides the brain
with Critical neurological nutrition.
(45:08):
We are facing a revolution in existence,unlike anything that we have ever
seen in the history of humanity.
That being advanced technologies comingdown the pipeline that will absolutely
transform life on earth, and that willredefine what it means to be human.
And it will require, it'll demand of usto completely rethink who and what we are.
(45:30):
And this is going to happen very quicklyover these next several years, we're
going to have to really seriously adaptand we have to look at what can we do to
prepare our ourselves and our childrento not just function in the new future,
but to flourish in the new future.
And we're seeing that now thatmusicianship has this unique
role to play in, in helping todevelop a more creative brain.
(45:52):
So we've got to look at what canwe do to get music into the hands
of as many people as possible.
We've tried this way for several hundredyears, and in and of itself, the way we
are teaching creates a barrier of entry toimmediately connecting to a musicianship.
So let's treat it like language, let'sdemocratize it, let's deformalize
it, let's move away from the theoryand the math and the technique and
(46:14):
the technicalities and the scalesand the drills and the exercises.
Let's just get people playing.
And let's create a system that'sdesigned to bring music to the masses.
And just like we do language.
And just as we would never question, aparent would never question their ability
to impart language to their children.
The same thing can betrue of musicianship.
I can show an eight year old childhow to play this simple song,
(46:36):
and they can go right home andshow their friend how to do it.
And that friend can showtheir friend how to do it.
And that is what I call democratization.
But we not only need torevolutionize that, that method.
But we also need to revolutionizeaccessibility because if this method
could only be taught by that highlytrained, formally qualified person, then
we've created a social barrier of entry.
(46:56):
So we need to revolutionizethe teaching process as well.
And say, listen, this is a skillsetthat you can learn adequately.
Are you going to produce adultconcert level, uh, pianist?
I'd probably not.
For the average person, if youhaven't gone through that route
yourself, it requires a veryparticular set of skills and
understanding and knowledge, et cetera.
But that's not what we need.
What we need is something that's, that'sideal to be able to get people connected
(47:20):
and have them enjoy the sheer fun andabsolute pleasure and all the emotional
benefits and the psychological benefits.
And you can get total beginners that areplaying great sounding music being taught
by relatively total beginners themselves.
That's what the world needs.
We need a democratization.
We need to revolutionize both themethod and who can teach the method.
(47:42):
Wow.
And, and that's going to requirepeople being sort of evangelists about
this saying, look, what we've done.
Has been great for traditional times,but we are far from traditional times.
We're about to enter a new era and we havea tool at our disposal that will really
help us to flourish in the new future.
(48:02):
And we have to disseminate this on ascale, unlike anything that we've ever
seen before, revolutionize the method,revolutionize accessibility, who wants to
join that and be able to make an enormouscontribution to helping to elevate
the creative capability of humanity.
I'm, I'm up for that.
Kat (48:18):
It's so powerful.
It's
Neil (48:19):
awesome.
Kat (48:20):
I just, that last night I was, uh, it was, uh, was it
last night or the other night?
But anyway, um, I was tellingLee, I'm like, babe, you can
learn how to read rhythm.
You know that?
Like, like right now you'lllearn how to read rhythm.
So I just pulled up like one of themasters of rhythm exercise and I told
him, look, this is how you read it.
And then I like have them like marchit and just put it in his body.
(48:40):
And then like in literally like aboutfive, 10 minutes, he was reading rhythm.
I was like, did you knowyou could read rhythm?
And he's like, No.
I was like, see, like, you just read it.
I'm like this.
And, and I, you know, Neil, right?
Like I, I do this every week.
But the magic and the profound wonderthat I have for it doesn't go away.
(49:03):
Every single time.
I'm still like, that was so cool.
Every single time.
I'm always like, that was the coolestthing because it's not the way I learned.
The way I learned was so cool.
Difficult and so tedious and I didn'thave this experience of fun, you
know learning, you know Of course,I think I just naturally love music.
So over time I actually enjoyedit, you know But just the learning
(49:26):
process was so difficult and thisway it's just been amazing . Yeah.
Well, Neil, um, we'regonna come to a close.
I guess
Lee (49:36):
as a, maybe a final question.
With everything that you've experienced,uh, the training that you'd be able to
put out and produce for kids, adults,you know, humanity as a whole Mm-Hmm.
being at the top of the game, top ofthe pile, and then all the way down
to the bottom where people are takingyour home and everything else away.
(49:57):
Um, from all of those differentexperiences, could you define
what a wildly wealthy life is?
A few things
Neil (50:06):
to experience being fully and freely self expressed to experience
contributing to the quality of life ofothers on as large a scale as possible
to experience adventure andexcitement and a lifestyle that's
not thwarted by any form ofinsufficiency or constraint or disease.
(50:28):
And most importantly, I thinkto be immersed in the experience
of both loving and being loved.
That's amazing.
Kat (50:37):
That's good.
I love that last one.
Lee (50:39):
Yeah.
Like precise, just boom, boom, boom.
Kat (50:43):
Awesome.
Well, Neil, thank you for your time.
This was incredible.
I'm so excited to.
To share this and, uh, yeah, I'mjust so incredibly thankful that
you took the time and I got to learna couple more things about you.
I feel like Neil, every time I talkto you, I'm just like, just really
in wonder, just in awe and wonder.
(51:05):
So thank you.
Thank you.
Thank you.
Neil (51:07):
Thank you.
My pleasure.
Thanks for having me here today.
And Kat, thanks for what it isthat you contribute to others.
And thanks for valuing music to such anextent that you're willing to commit.
And bring that level of commitment.
I know how much you care about yourstudents, and I've seen, I see how
continuously it moves you to tears,um, what it is that they experience.
Even like right now, I'veonly got to mention it.
I can see that it just
Lee (51:28):
brings it up
Neil (51:28):
here.
And, uh, you got that man behind youthat's committed to you being the biggest,
brightest, best version of yourself.
And so
Lee (51:37):
we basically just pay for the hair to get dyed.
That's it could be bright and wonderful.
Just kidding.
I appreciate that.
Neil and Neil, just being on the backin the background, just knowing the
contributions that you've made already.
With your life, it's really inspiringand it's also beautiful to see because
(51:58):
I think about like I see cat, I seethe impact that she has on the students
that she connects with and everything.
But then I think about the tens ofthousands of instructors you've probably
inspired in the course of your lifetime.
And then that ripple effect.
And, you know, when, wheneveryou connect with that divine,
hopefully, you know, yeah.
(52:18):
50, 60, 70 years from now, but tosee that, that ripple, that stone
that you threw in the pond of lifeand how far those waves really
carried, it's, it's going to be.
Uh, a beautiful, beautiful moment.
I think.
Yeah.
Thank you, Lee.
I appreciate that.
Uh, Neil, where are a couple of placespeople can find you and connect with you?
Neil (52:38):
On social media at the Neil Moore and the neilmoore.
com or simply music.
com.
Beautiful, I just
Lee (52:48):
want to make
Neil (52:48):
sure we give you a chance to show you very much.
Yeah, have people check out my TED talk.
That's
Kat (52:54):
it.
Yeah, I've shared that.
I'm going to share.
I'm doing a whole round of like emailsequences, reengaging my my email list.
And that's part of the thing thatI already have in mind to to share.
I'm excited.
Thank
Neil (53:05):
you very much.
Yeah,
Kat (53:07):
awesome.
Thank you, Neil.
Neil (53:08):
Bye guys.
Thank you.
Bye.
Listening to you guys.
Kat (53:13):
Alright, friends, that's a wrap on today's episode of Wildly Wealthy Life.
We hope you're feeling firedup and ready to take on the
world with your brilliant mind.
And Braveheart.
Lee (53:21):
If you love this episode, make sure you hit that subscribe button on YouTube
or your favorite podcast platform.
It helps us keep bringingyou the good stuff.
Kat (53:28):
And hey, while you're at it, drop us a rating or review.
It takes like.
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Lee (53:35):
Also, if you know someone who could use a little guidance on growth,
mindset, leadership and creativity,share this episode with them.
Sometimes that one conversationcan spark up a whole new direction.
Kat (53:44):
Thanks for hanging out with us today.
Go out there, live wildly, be wealthyin all the ways that matter to you.
And we'll catch you on the next one.
Creativity is king.
There's an important distinction betweencreativity and creative capability.
Just let me draw an analogy to that.
And if I just talk about performance,for example, if I'm walking down
the street with Usain Bolt, who tothis day still holds the record as
the fastest person in the world.
If we're both walking down thestreet together, four miles an
(00:22):
hour, whatever our performanceexpression is exactly the same.
Our performance capabilityis completely different.
He has the capability for profoundlygreater importance than I do.
Creativity is the expressionof creative capability.
Creative capability is the machinerythat determines how creative we can be.
Kat (00:53):
Today's guest is Neil Moore, an incredible human being that
you will just so be inspired by.
He is an author, a musiceducator, a speaker.
He was born in Melbourne,Australia in 1957 and moved
to the United States in 1994.
He's the founder of Simply Music,an international organization
that is the world class leaderin playing based music education.
(01:15):
His breakthrough methodology transformed300 years of music education and its
focus on bringing music to the masses.
The Simply Music program is taughtby a global community of teachers
around the world spanning 135countries, and I get to be one of them.
And Neil's massive, transformativepurpose is to cause a global
(01:35):
transformation in music education.
To transform access to musicalself expression and to elevate the
creative capability of humanity.
I can't wait to welcome Neil Moore.
Lee (01:46):
Stay tuned.
Kat (01:49):
Hey, my name is Kat.
Lee (01:51):
And I'm Lee.
Kat (01:52):
And welcome to the.
Lee (01:53):
Wildly Wealthy Life Podcast.
In this show, we explore the journeyof what it means to live a truly
exceptional and fulfilling life.
Kat (02:02):
Each episode focuses on how a foundation of brilliant minds and
brave hearts Nurtured through thearts leads to lifelong success.
Lee (02:09):
Get inspired with actionable tips to foster a growth mindset,
leadership values, and creativityin children and adults, turning
their potential into lastingcontributions for their communities.
Kat (02:20):
We hope you embrace the challenge to shift your perspective as we equip
you and the next generation for a
We just talked to Neil Moore and itwas an incredible conversation and
we just want to tease our audience alittle bit before you bring him in.
(02:43):
What are the a few main thingsthat was like really standing
out to you in that conversation?
Lee (02:49):
Neil is a deep thinker and I think the best piece that you're going to pull
away is just the way To look at life, howthings that we sometimes imagine as giant
mountains in our life are really justlittle molehills, as they say, and the
way the elegant way that he describes howto live a wildly wealthy life is amazing.
Kat (03:15):
Yes.
I would say this is oneof those episodes that.
I really think you have to listen frombeginning to end and might be worth
listening to a second time, a thirdtime, because of just the wealth of
experience that Neil has had in his life.
There's so much wisdom that he isgoing to share and nuggets that you
(03:36):
are going to just be so inspired by.
His life experiences are just amazing.
And so stay tuned.
We'll bring him in, make sure youlisten all the way through to the end.
So Neil, thank you for being here.
(03:58):
I would like to start with what has beenone of the hardest decision that you've
had to make, where you really had tostep out in boldness and encouraged to
kind of, you know, get to that otherside of a situation that you were in.
Neil (04:16):
Well, the biggest looking decision that I had to make was deciding that, Hey,
let's pack up our lives in Australia, acountry that we love, um, with families
that we love and, uh, my wife and I, andour children, and let's move to the other
side of the world to pursue a dream.
(04:38):
And, uh, you know, people look at thatand said, that was a really big decision.
Huge decision and a huge risk.
And there are, there are a lot ofthings that ordinarily people would
consider to be, uh, risky and itwould be considered the enormity and
the weight of that decision would beconsidered to be very significant.
That wasn't my experience of it at all.
My experience was, I just feltso strongly about this being
(05:00):
something that I was called to do.
And I've always had extraordinaryloyalty from my wife.
And so it's like, Let's do it.
Let's go.
And so the, the bigger challenges havebeen those times when trying to give
birth to my organization and bring it tofruition, uh, where there have been, uh,
enormous financial challenges and, andwipeouts and, you know, having to really
(05:25):
confront things that we thought were goingto have a really positive, successful
outcome, not coming to fruition and thencreating all sorts of logistical issues.
And the challenges have been more.
Personal from that point of view and,uh, you know, I run the organization.
I don't think I should be running it.
I'm not really that goodat it, to be honest.
(05:46):
Um, and I think at best, youknow, I've done an adequate job
at keeping the organization alive.
What I have contributed most isthe methodology that I've created,
um, and what that has contributed.
But from the point of view ofrunning the organization, what did
I know about, Building and growingan international organization and
managing the logistics of that.
And I got into this in thevery beginning for the music.
(06:09):
That's I've always felt like Ibelonged to music and I got into and
created simply music for the music.
But at some point of time, it.
Became about being in the businessof being in business and running the
organization and the logistics and thecontracts and the trademarks and the
agreements and the licensing and thefinancial aspects and the recording
(06:31):
and the reporting and the paperworkand it just has become this thing.
Um, a great deal of which I, I, I'm notgood at doing, and I don't enjoy doing.
And, uh, and there've been times when the,the demands of just managing the logistics
of this organization, uh, have been reallyproblematic, but my strength has been,
(06:52):
you know, I always get back into the ring.
I just get, I just pick myself upand I get back into the ring and,
um, so I couldn't nail it down toone particular incident is just being
lots and lots of those, which is verytypical on the entrepreneurial journey.
You know, I've had the privilege of beingaround a lot of really, really successful
people that are enjoying all of the.
(07:14):
You know, the perceived benefits andtrappings of, you know, financial
success, uh, as well as life success.
And if I were to look at what's consistentamongst all of the people that I know
that have successful lives, and thatis that this has been one heck of a
rollercoaster ride, um, with lots and lotsof times Rob looked and thought, you know,
Is this the hill I'm going to die on?
(07:36):
I, no, I just, I couldn't allow myselfto look back and say this thing that
happened, this incident, this event,this thing that didn't turn out,
this was the thing that stopped me.
This was the thing that I, you know, whereI gave up on, on what I dream, you know.
Lee (07:52):
Can I ask, um, The tenacity that you have to get yourself back
in the ring, the fortitude andthe trust you have in yourself.
Um, can you think back and remembermaybe moments, instances, positions
you were put into where you had tomake that choice for yourself and
(08:15):
for your goals and your dreams?
And, and move forward with it.
Cause a lot of times when there'schallenges, sometimes people step
back, you know, or they get woundedand they don't, don't really heal
and are not able to move forward.
But do you remember from some momentswhere you just felt that, ah, you know,
if I just trusted myself, press intothis music thing, that's where my life
is, my life fuel is going to come from.
(08:37):
And then, yeah, you know, as we gothrough life, we do get derailed
and we need to get back on.
So what would be a.
Yeah,
Neil (08:47):
well, when I first came here, um, the, in the early years, it was very
much nose to the grindstone, completelyfocused on developing content and, uh,
you know, developing the methodology.
And, um, there was a certain point oftime where we had an investor come on
board and the strategy they felt wasbest suited to where we were at was to
(09:14):
my method, create a self study programand market that program nationally,
like on an, on an infomercial.
So, you know, simply music.
Is, and has always been a, uh,a program training teachers
how to teach the methodology.
And so in this instance, we weregoing to say, let's actually create
a product that we would marketdirectly to, um, to the public.
(09:36):
And so it became a selfstudy learn at home program.
And we marketed that on an infomercialand it, that project was, um,
it was the most extraordinaryexperience that I had at that time.
Our annual revenues were about.
You know, 250, 000 a year.
It was just me teaching and, youknow, developing the content and, um,
(09:57):
uh, we launched this in the, in aninfomercial format and we went from
doing a quarter of a million a yearto doing a million dollars a month
overnight, just like that ramp up.
Um, it, it just went from.
You know, from night to day instantly,and that created all sorts of breakdowns
and, you know, we looking back onit now, we were just absolutely
(10:21):
woefully unprepared to handle whathad happened, and we even didn't
have access to information and data.
Um, all the costing was wrong.
We had no idea that everydollar in revenue we were
generating, we were incurring 1.
40 of costs.
By the time we got data, you know,we had already accumulated hundreds
(10:43):
and hundreds of thousands of dollarsof debt and this thing imploded.
Fortunately through that whole process,I, you know, I built my organization on
relationships and being transparent andfull disclosure and everybody who was
involved, the vendors of, you know, therewere all sorts of things involved in, um,
(11:03):
you know, media buying and advertising andshipping and production and duplication
and distribution and reporting andaccounting and, you know, the marketing,
you know, there's just lots and lots ofcomponents to doing something like this.
Everybody was aware of exactlywhat was happening and was willing
to ride True, um, and supportme asked through that process.
(11:23):
And, uh, by the time we had data that wasmeaningful and we saw the disaster that
was on, uh, on my shoulders, really, westopped that project and thought, okay,
well, I've got to completely redefinethis and redesign this whole thing and
go to market again with a, with a more,um, and more thoroughly thought through.
Structure and, uh, we spent that next12 months just redefining, redesigning
(11:48):
absolutely everything and we're ready tolaunch and we, the, the last of the funds
we had, we'd invested in this national,um, you know, television marketing by,
and that was set to launch on Septemberthe 13th, 2001, and on September 11th,
Lee (12:03):
2001,
Neil (12:04):
um,
Lee (12:05):
yeah,
Neil (12:06):
September 11th happened.
And, and my issues and concerns andthe impact is nothing compared to
what happened to, you know, the, thelives that were lost and the, and the,
and the families that were destroyed.
But I remember my sister in Australiacalled me early hours of the morning
and said, have you watching the TV?
I said, no, she said, turn on the TV.
And I turned it on andI saw what had happened.
(12:28):
And I just realized that, wow,our, our lives have changed.
Just changed and any hope of us beingable to trade out of that debt and
rely on the, um, I have, I think Ihave had about 427, 000 of personal
debt, but it wasn't so much that thenumber of the debt that was the issue.
It was really more.
I saw no, no possibility of howI was going to move forward under
(12:52):
the circumstances that I was in.
And it was, um.
A really confronting experience.
Um, I, I don't want to say it wasa dark time for me, but it was a
very difficult time emotionally.
And one of the things that I, one ofthe practices that I've developed,
which I don't know, I don't eventhink I could recommend it to
anyone, but it's a practice thathas worked for me, is I do something
(13:14):
that I call prescribe the symptoms.
And what I mean by that is like, Ohgosh, you know, is this going to fail?
Is this going to implode?
Am I going to be able to make it through?
And I have found, listen, if I,what I'm going to do is I'm going to
let myself get fully, I'm going tofully experience the weight and the
burden and the sadness and the upset.
(13:34):
I'm going to stay in bed and pullthe doona or the duvet over my
head and I'm just going to give up.
And I lie in bed long enough andit's like, what the heck am I doing?
This is so boring.
I'm done.
And I actually recreate what theexperience of giving up would be like.
And I also relate to this,look, not everybody, we all see
the world differently, right?
(13:55):
We all have different public systems.
And I like to see, My life and my journeythrough the eyes of divine design.
So it's a God thing for me.
Now, I don't even carewhether that's true or not.
I get value out of believing it's true.
And that's all that matters for me.
Faith trumps fact every time.
And so for me, I've always thoughtof, listen, I, My organization, it
(14:19):
comes from the codification of theway that music occurred for me, even
before I was aware of my own existence.
I've had my relationship with musicsince infancy, and it was evidence
since infancy, and I, I think of it fromthe point of view of my relationship
to music and the opportunity forme to bring that to the world.
That was something thatwas all preordained.
(14:41):
I was born with thathardwired into my system.
And you know, there's that oldsaying that many are called,
but few answer them calling.
I just remind myself that, listen,I have a partner in the divine.
I've been asked to do this.
I know that every, every single timeI've had something go wrong in my life,
(15:04):
at some point in time, three months,six months, two years later, I look
back and, and I'm glad that it happened.
Because something elsecame out as a result.
And so I've had that happen enoughtimes where it's like, when I get to
those stages, it's like, I can remindmyself, one, I'm doing the work of a
higher purpose and a higher calling.
Secondly, this is something that makesa contribution to the world and very
(15:25):
few people have the opportunity ormaterialize the opportunity to make
a contribution to people's lives.
And so it's a privilegedposition that I'm in.
And Honestly, let's just cut to the chase.
Small life, small problems,big life, big problems.
Now that that would be like, I'm goingto, I'm going to live in LA and then
being annoyed because there's traffic.
It's like, no, if, well, you're goingto be in LA, you know, you're going
(15:48):
to be deal, that's the reality of it.
And I understand that the realityof taking on a big project is that
there's big, complex, chunky problems.
Bigger opportunity is to be, tolive in that question of who do I
need to become in order to elevate.
Myself to the next level inorder to meet this challenge.
It's not the hill I'm going to die on.
I'm doing ordained work.
(16:08):
This is God's work.
I'm in a partnership with the divine.
I'm contributing to people.
It's an absolute privilege.
Get the heck out ofbed and get on with it.
Kat (16:16):
I love it.
It's so many good things out there.
I just, um, I'm picturing you in bed,just covering yourself and be like,
okay, I'm just going to give up such a.
Funny picture, but it's true.
Like you're, you're probably layingthere and you're like, well, if this
is what giving up looks like, I don'treally want this, this, this is boring.
That's so true.
(16:37):
Um, I love that, you know, youkind of talked about how, um, cause
I'm experiencing that right now torealizing that the level of, uh, growth
that my business is going to reachis based on the level of problems
that I'm going to be able to handle.
You know, so if I exactly like bigproblems, you know, big growth, small
problems, probably smaller growth.
(16:58):
Right.
And I just want to acknowledgeyou, Neil, because, you know, you.
Doing all of that, right?
Like, I mean, I didn't even know, Ididn't know a lot of these stories
that you're sharing and you sharingthat right now, it just makes me
think if you had given up, like Iwouldn't have simply music right now.
You know, I wouldn't have thiswonderful tool that I could use this
(17:18):
process and this method that I coulduse that is impacting so many kids.
And so just thank you for thatbecause gosh, like I wouldn't know.
What life would be likewithout simply my music.
When President Roosevelt passed awayin his sleep, they found a book under
his pillow proof that even in his finalmoments, he never stopped learning.
(17:40):
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(18:01):
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(19:30):
Because I have, um, you know, forthe listeners out there, especially
for the parents, some of mystudents are very entrepreneurial.
I can already see that they're,they're creating products.
They're, they're selling it likeon, on, you know, school fairs.
And it's really fun to see that.
What would your advice be to.
Parents or educators or caregiverswho are nurturing kids who have
(19:54):
that entrepreneurial mindset, right?
Or entrepreneurial spirit alreadycoming up at such a young age.
What would your advice be to themas to how would they nurture that in
their child and what type of leadershipskills should they already introduce
to their child or to their students whohave that spirit of entrepreneurship?
Neil (20:16):
That's a really great question.
The thing about it is I see it.
Is that creativity is King, but there'san important distinction between
creativity and creative capability.
So if I can just draw thatdistinction for a moment,
creativity is the expressionof creative capability.
(20:37):
Creative capability is the machinerythat determines how creative we can be.
And, uh, and just let medraw an analogy to that.
And if I just talk about performance,for example, if I'm walking
down the street with Usain Bolt.
Who to this day still holds the recordas the fastest person in the world.
(20:58):
If we're both walking down the streettogether at the same, you know, we're
walking with four miles an hour,whatever our performance expression is
exactly the same, but our performancecapability is completely different.
He has the capability for profoundlygreater importance than I do.
(21:19):
If I'm driving down the car and, uh,and you're in a Lamborghini and I'm in
a 1960 Volkswagen and we're both rollingdown the street at 20 miles an hour,
our performance expression is the same,but the performance capability of the
Lamborghini is exponentially greater.
Similarly, with regards tocreativity, in order for anybody
(21:40):
to deal with any situation, weneed to see things differently.
We need to think about things differently.
We need to do things differently.
And it's the seeing and thethinking and the doing things
differently that I say is creativity.
So anything that we can do, if youare on an entrepreneurial journey, you
are going to have far more challengesthan successes for the most part.
(22:05):
One of the greatest skills you canlearn is how am I going to resolve
the issues that I come up against?
And that is going to require thatyou look at things differently, that
you think about things differently,that you do things differently.
And so from that point of view,I think the focus needs to be
on what is it that we can do?
Anything and everything we can doto help develop creative capability
(22:27):
will give us the ability to beable to look at situations and see
more potential solutions to thechallenges that we're going to face.
So anything we can do that helps todevelop creative capability is really
important for us to be able to explore andassimilate and absorb and take advantage
of one of the great things that I think,and one of the fortunate, well, it's a
(22:49):
privilege, but certainly very unfortunate.
We're learning something very new aboutmusic, learning about musicianship.
We're learning that it has avery unique impact on the brain.
And as we understand moreabout that impact, we've always
known that it's a good thing.
And in decades gone by, we've learned moreabout what we mean by a good thing with
(23:10):
music learning that, you know, it helpswith math scores and it helps with IQ.
And, you know, there are certainbenefits that we've known about
music, but what's happening now withour understanding is, is different.
We're understanding now thatlearning music more than listening
to music, actually learning music.
It provides the brain with thiscritical neurological nutrition.
It changes the white structure, thewhite metastructure of the brain.
(23:33):
It actually changes the graymatter, grows the gray matter.
It increases theconnectivity in the brain.
And from that point of view, as indoing that, The correlation is neural
connectivity translates to increasedcreative capability and increased creative
capability translates to the ability toconsider and think of more options, which
(23:54):
is exactly what every forward thinking.
Not just an entrepreneur, every, everyperson needs to be able to have a skill
set and an enhanced and expanded skillset to be able to deal with any and all
of the problems that we're going to facewith in our lives and our ability to
deal with those situations has everythingto do with creativity and creativity
(24:17):
has everything to do with creativecapability and creative capability has
everything to do with neural connectivity.
So as a parent, what can we do?
We can focus on developingchildren's neural connectivity.
Is there anything that wecan do that enhances that?
Lots of things.
Because anytime the brain confrontssomething new and different,
it actually requires that newneural pathways be established.
(24:39):
And we've learned with neuralplasticity that the brain will
continue to alter and adjust.
It'll create new neural pathways,it'll alter existing neural pathways
in order to accommodate and deal withnew situations and circumstances.
So, as a practice, there are so manysimple things that we can do that
will help develop neural connectivity.
(25:00):
Anytime we do something different.
Lee (25:03):
Yeah.
Neil (25:03):
So what did that mean?
Try eating different foods,get the sensory stimulation,
new flavors to think about.
The brain will have to adapt.
Listen to different musicthat you're not familiar with.
The brain will have to adapt.
Learn a language that you can't speak.
The brain will have to rewire,reconnect, create new neural pathways.
(25:27):
There are games you can play.
Sit down, you know, with your childrenat a table and put an object in the table
and say, five minutes, here's the game.
You've got to write down everypossible use that you can think of
with this fork and whoever's got themost unique answers wins the game.
Okay, well a fork could be used asan eating tool, yeah, it could also
(25:49):
be used to scratch my back, wellthat's true, I could use it as a
spade to plant seeds in the garden,well that's true as well, I suppose I
could use one of those sharp bits asa toothpick, well that's true as well.
Now, as we're doing that, we're takingsomething that's practical and right in
front of us, but we're forcing the brainto see it differently, see it differently,
think about it differently, think aboutit differently, new neural pathways,
(26:10):
impacting creative capability, createsa more creative person, Gives them the
tools and skills to be able to dealwith issues and problems in their life.
So neural connectivity is key.
Doing things differentlyis the key to get there.
And fortunately, we've got this addedbonus that musicianship impacts the
brain so uniquely and so profoundly.
We, we're seeing now like that studythat came out of the German Institute for
(26:32):
Economic Research that showed musicianshipalters the brain and helps develop.
Uh, this capability more than twice asmuch as sports and other forms of art.
I mean, it's amazing.
And this is still an area ofscience that's in its infancy.
And my prediction is we're justseeing the tip of the iceberg.
Kat (26:52):
Yeah, absolutely.
Thank you, Neil.
That was really wonderful.
With that, you know, you're sayingseeing things differently, right?
And you earlier said you've hada lot of wipeouts and how did you
see things differently every timeyou had, you know, a wipeout so
that you can step out of that.
Neil (27:13):
At the end of the day, it's the action that one is willing to take, right?
And, and I, I consider thatto be an act of free will.
And when I say free will, what I meanby that is that sometimes we have to
enter into, we have to enter into a.
An arrangement with our spiritand our body to do something that
the mind doesn't want us to do.
Lee (27:33):
And
Neil (27:34):
so from that point of view, that often involves,
okay, I said, I would do this.
I don't feel like doing this atthe end of the day, though, where
am I going to direct my actions?
Am I going to direct my actions inline with how I feel, or am I going to
direct my actions in line with, withwhat it is that I'm being called to do?
Lee (27:54):
Hmm.
Yeah,
Neil (27:56):
easy choices.
Translate to a harder life, harderchoices translate to an easier life.
So in those situations, I've hadsituations where I've had to really,
you know, creatively think about how amI going to, I'll give you a scenario.
We went through a financialwipeout, total like wipeout.
Uh, you have a memory of standingat our fridge with my three children
(28:16):
there and opening the fridge andthere's absolutely no, no food
in the fridge to feed my family.
What am I going to do?
You know what?
I've got a wedding jewelry that, um, wecould sell and actually get some money
in order to be able to feed my children.
So, I mean, it's not even the enormityof the problem that is the issue.
It's more a matter of, can I lookat anything and everything that
(28:37):
will provide a potential solution?
One of the things that I've foundquite amazingly, uh, consistently over
my lifetime is that when I act in theface of difficult circumstances, I get
more lucky, opportunities show up now.
They're, um, There's a, there's aspiritual interpretation that some people
(28:59):
would say, well, that's, you know, that'sGod lending a hand when you need it.
There are others that would lookat it from a, you know, from a more
like an energetic point of view,like putting something out into the
universe and the universe responds.
I mean, at the end of the day, there'sdifferent languaging, but I tell you,
um, regardless of what your language isand how you interpret that situation.
I've seen it not only againand again in my life, but in
the lives of people I'm around.
(29:21):
And that is that the more committed inaction they are towards what they're
being called to do, the more thatcircumstances and situations seem to align
to support what it is that people are.
Kat (29:33):
Yeah.
It's a universal principle.
Yeah.
It's just universal truths.
Wow.
That's amazing, Neil.
Lee (29:39):
When you get to those points.
It's amazing just seeing the, therejuvenation of the hope when you take
those steps and then you have that, thefavor, the coincidences, you know, the
return of however people interpret it, uh,and it's such a big, big encouragement.
When.
You made that firstleap of coming to the U.
(30:00):
S.
You had that, like, just thatextreme confidence that you
were coming, uh, for a purpose.
You had, you know, just thiswill, as you said, to prove it.
It, whatever's going to happen,you're going to make it work.
Do you have a memory from your childhoodof when that first was instilled with you?
(30:21):
Like when, when did you kind of startto feel that, that divine connection
and what were some of the signsfor you that this is your calling?
That's
Neil (30:31):
also a good question.
There's a couple of layers to that.
I.
Lee (30:34):
Hmm.
Neil (30:35):
I always knew, I think I said this before, I always knew that
I belonged to music and I didn't,I didn't even really understand
when I was young what that meant.
I just felt like if I had a, theplace where I was situated, I felt
most me, if that was in music, likelistening to music, playing music.
(30:56):
Uh, thinking about music, havinga desire to do music that has
never, ever not been with me.
That feeling, that, that way ofthinking has been with me for as
long as I have a memory of thinking.
But I didn't think of it as a calling.
I was too, I was a kid.
(31:17):
I didn't have the maturity tobe able to see it that way.
I don't think I really started to seeit as a calling until early adulthood.
And, um, I came from a family, myparents were self employed, successful
business people, amazing people.
I definitely won the parents lottoand born into a beautiful family.
(31:39):
And I knew that I wanted to getinto businesses at a young age.
And my thinking had always been, Iwant to get into a business at a young
age so I can do well enough and makeenough money so I can then pursue music.
The opportunities to havea very successful career in
music are limited in Australia.
You know, here, you know, Australiais a country that's the same
physical size as the United States.
(31:59):
In the United States, we'vegot what, 350 million people.
50 million people driving an economy inAustralia, you know, had, had at that
time, like, you know, 15 or 18 million.
So it's just not as big a,um, yeah, an opportunity.
Um, casserole.
And so from that point of view, it'slike, well, I couldn't really see
opportunities to pursue that wouldsuffice what it was that I wanted
(32:21):
to be able to do with my life.
I'll tell you, I'll get into business.
I'll do business.
I'll get successful.
I'll make enough money really young.
I'll retire and do music.
I still didn't evenknow what do music was.
So my first venture in my early twentiesinto business was, um, in the restaurant
industry, I, you know, I bought a.
An established Frenchrestaurant and cook that over.
And that was an amazingexperience to do that.
(32:43):
And I was very successful, doublethe business within a year.
The business was this one, but,but I was just unsatisfied.
It's a weird thing to be success,sort of successful financially,
but really unsatisfied.
Now I didn't understand that.
And I thought, well, what do I do?
Should, you know, I need toget into another business.
I, you know, got anotherrestaurant and the same thing.
I was able to build it up, increasethe business, but not be satisfied.
(33:06):
And, um, I ended up getting out of it.
We had three restaurants over a periodof time and I got out of that industry.
I won't get.
There's a whole story about that,but I made a series of really
bad financial decisions and wewent through a bankruptcy, just
lost everything in Australia.
When you lose everything, youliterally lose everything.
And so, um, I remember there wasthis particular day where, um,
(33:27):
you know, there were, Our home wasbeing sold in, in Australia, they'll
often sell homes via public auction.
And they put this big board upoutside your home announcing that
there's an auction coming up.
And on the day the auctioneercomes outside your house and all
the people gather in the streetand they auction your, your home.
There was this day where they wereputting up the board to sell our home.
The truck was there, you know, it came totake our cars, we were losing everything.
(33:49):
And I, I remember I had this really.
Extraordinary experience, two things.
I actually saw my life as an equation.
I thought, Oh, wow.
I've been pursuing business toearn money, to do what I love.
And it suddenly occurredto me as a broken equation.
It's like, Oh, I'm going to flipthat a whole equation around.
(34:12):
I need to be doing what I love.
And if there is such a thing as divinedesign, a pathway will reveal itself.
What occurred to me was, wow,I'm losing everything I have, but
I'm losing nothing of who I am.
And I felt completely whole andcomplete it's like, okay, from this
day forward, I'm going to pursue music.
(34:32):
It's like, this is what I'm meant to do.
And I think probably that was thefirst time where I felt utterly
viscerally connected to my relationshipto music as a spiritual calling.
Wow.
At the same point in time, I was broke.
I've got a wife, I've got three children.
How are we gonna live?
(34:53):
I mean, you know, I'm, I'mcommitting myself to do this.
And by the way, I mean, I've beenplaying musical all my life, but
I'm not an advanced musician.
I mean, if you're a total beginner andyou hear me play, you'll probably think,
wow, you're, you know, he's pretty good.
If I compare myself to, I listen to,I'm not even, I'm not even the ballpark.
I don't consider myself,I'm not a performing artist.
My strength is incomposition and in education.
But not in performance and, andalso my, my relationship to learning
(35:17):
music was completely different.
I never learned how to read musicwhen I was going through all
those years of music lessons.
I didn't really, I couldn't read.
I didn't have theoretical knowledge.
I wasn't that great a player.
And here, here's me in my thirties witha wife and three children saying, Hey
guys, I'm going to do music as a career.
It's like it made no logicalsense through the lens of what
people would consider to be.
(35:37):
Responsible adult decision makingwas absolutely the right decision,
even though I had no idea.
So if anyone said, what's the plan?
No plan.
Or what are you going to do?
No idea.
How are you going to live?
Don't know.
How are you going to feed your family?
Don't know.
But you're going tocommit yourself to music?
Absolutely.
Why?
Because that is what I'm told to do.
And then I had a miracle happen.
(35:58):
A gentleman who I, uh, I had met, but Ididn't really know he, um, his girlfriend
at the time had worked with me and,um, I, you know, I think I'd been an
assistance in her life and he just rangout of the blue and said, I know you're
going through a difficult time and, uh,I'm in a really good financial position
and, um, I'd like you to, you know, tosupport you in your path moving forward
(36:21):
and provided a means of us financiallybeing able to take care of the family
and allow me to be able to, um, Beginmusic studying and start learning how
to read and learning about music theoryand, you know, all of that process.
And I discovered that I had theability to teach and started teaching
and there have been a whole seriesof miracles that occur, you know,
(36:41):
through this whole journey wherethings, and that was a significant one.
Kat (36:46):
There's so much to unpack there, Neil.
Um, you know, when you're saying thatdoesn't even look like a logical, smart
decision, you just lost everything.
And then you're goingto go into music and.
You don't even knowwhere to start with it.
And it just didn't look logical at all.
But the other thing that I wantedto kind of gather from that is, you
(37:07):
know, back then, maybe we don't havea term for it, but now, you know, they
call it the imposter syndrome, right?
Where you realize that.
It's not, you don't thinkyou're an advanced player.
You don't have strengths and youknow, you don't feel like you're a
strong, uh, performer as a pianist.
You didn't read notes, like all thesethings that, especially back then, when
(37:29):
you think about a music teacher, a musicteacher is someone who probably went to
school for music and learned how to readmusic and would teach the traditional.
Right.
And, and even nowadays, uh, we still, alot of people still have that thinking.
Neil (37:46):
Absolutely.
That's still prevalent.
That's the problem.
Kat (37:49):
It's still prevalent.
I mean, I see a lot of, you know,people on Facebook groups talking
about like, well, you know, dothey teach, it actually had a very,
um, tangible experience of that.
I had a student, um, And the mom wasso, so stuck on, like, making sure that
the student learns how to read first.
And so, and obviously with SimplyMusic, that's not what we do.
(38:11):
So I just kind of stuck with what I do.
And then I taught thechild, uh, improvisation.
And this was very early on.
It was the first four lessons.
And this child loved theimprovisation, like enjoyed it so much.
And he was getting so much valueout of that and so much joy.
And then at the end of the four, youknow, trial lessons, the mom said,
(38:31):
I really see that he's enjoying it.
It's really awesome.
He's never done anything like that before,but I really want him to read music first.
So we're not going to continuewith you, you know, and.
And I was like, okay, youknow, I mean, it is what it is.
It's, it's your choice.
Are you worried your child feelsdefeated when things don't go their way?
Do they struggle to adaptin challenging situations?
(38:52):
My free video training is here to help.
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What would you kind of say or adviceyou would give to those people who they
feel like they don't have the skills?
(40:41):
Like to, to pursue something thatthey love, or maybe they lack
the quote, unquote, what peoplesay would skills should be right.
Like the, the, the common, uh, so societalnorms that are like, Oh, you need to be
this, this, this to be able to teach that.
Um, how would you encourage those people?
Neil (41:01):
Well, we have a number of things on our side.
I mean, as you know, Kat, in, in theworld of simple music, given that this
is such a non traditional program,we deal with that all the time.
You know, that we are, we're in a culturewhere the, um, what is most prevalent
is the illusion that some people aremusical and other people are not.
Culturally, we think there aresome people that are creative types
(41:23):
and others are, are not all humanbeings are profoundly creative.
I mean, just look what your braindoes every night when you dream.
I mean, it is astounding what the brainis capable of doing and everyone's,
you know, carrying this device preinstalled we're all profoundly musical.
And, you know, there's such afine line between obvious and
oblivious and we are so musical.
(41:46):
We are utterly oblivious to it.
We're not, we're not conscious ofthe musicality that underscores
walking and underscores talkingand underscores gesture.
And I know if I, if I hung around anyperson who was absolutely convinced
they're not musical, if I just spent amorning with them, I could drive them
crazy with examples of things that they'redoing that demonstrate a mastery of their
musicality and they're oblivious to it.
Lee (42:08):
Yeah.
You
Neil (42:08):
know, I can just see him getting to the stage an hour after
an hour being like, I get it.
I get it.
I'm musical.
I get it.
Even so culturally peopleare oblivious to it.
In fact, if I could only achieve onething, if I had to choose only one
thing that I could achieve with my life,if that could be that I could bring
into human consciousness the fact thatwe are a profoundly musical species,
(42:31):
that and in and of itself would have aglobal transformative impact, I believe.
So first thing is.
If someone is not aware of that.
It's just like, forgive them father forthey know not what they do, you know, it's
just that they're just not aware of it.
They're well meaning, butthe reality of it is we're a
profoundly musical species yet.
(42:52):
So then history's on our side becausewe've been approaching music education
a particular way for hundreds of years.
And I'm of the view that the fundamentalcharter of music education is to
equip the population with the abilityto be musically self expressed.
And at some point in time, Ithink it's fair to say, okay,
how are we doing after 300 years?
(43:14):
Have we fulfilled our charter?
And the reality of the matter isthat Only a tiny fraction, tiny
percentage of the population havereally been able to acquire music and
retain it as a lifelong companion.
And I think it's time for usto look and say, Hey, are we
going about this the right way?
Well, one way of doing that would beto ask the question, is there any other
(43:37):
model that we could compare it to, tohave a look and see how we're doing?
And I think there is a, there is a veryobvious model and that is speaking.
We speak, speak, speakingis just truncated singing.
Okay, what's, what's the modelfor imparting speech from
one generation to the next?
Well, it's left up to the parents.
(43:57):
Have they studied speaking?
No, they just speak.
You know, do they understandthe theory of speech?
Well, no, they just speak.
We know that if you just allowa child to be in an environment
where there's speaking takingplace, language will emerge.
Why are we not doing that with music?
Are we asking children to learnhow to read and spell as a
means of learning how to talk?
No, that's preposterous.
(44:19):
Why are we doing that with music?
Why do we say music's a languagebut not treat it as a language?
When we're learning how to speak,we're not teaching children adverbs and
adjectives and participles and pronouns.
We're not teaching any of that.
Why are we teaching theoryin the early stages?
Well, firstly, we learn how to speak,then we learn how to read and spell
and we learn grammar and we learnnouns and adjectives and adverbs.
(44:41):
All of that comes later onthe foundation of performance.
Why are we doing that with music?
Lee (44:46):
Hmm.
Neil (44:47):
Yeah.
And, well, because we believe thatwe should do it a particular way,
well, maybe that's valid if the goalis to create some highly advanced
adult concert level performers.
But that's not what we need.
What the world needs now is to understandthat musicianship provides the brain
with Critical neurological nutrition.
(45:08):
We are facing a revolution in existence,unlike anything that we have ever
seen in the history of humanity.
That being advanced technologies comingdown the pipeline that will absolutely
transform life on earth, and that willredefine what it means to be human.
And it will require, it'll demand of usto completely rethink who and what we are.
(45:30):
And this is going to happen very quicklyover these next several years, we're
going to have to really seriously adaptand we have to look at what can we do to
prepare our ourselves and our childrento not just function in the new future,
but to flourish in the new future.
And we're seeing that now thatmusicianship has this unique
role to play in, in helping todevelop a more creative brain.
(45:52):
So we've got to look at what canwe do to get music into the hands
of as many people as possible.
We've tried this way for several hundredyears, and in and of itself, the way we
are teaching creates a barrier of entry toimmediately connecting to a musicianship.
So let's treat it like language, let'sdemocratize it, let's deformalize
it, let's move away from the theoryand the math and the technique and
(46:14):
the technicalities and the scalesand the drills and the exercises.
Let's just get people playing.
And let's create a system that'sdesigned to bring music to the masses.
And just like we do language.
And just as we would never question, aparent would never question their ability
to impart language to their children.
The same thing can betrue of musicianship.
I can show an eight year old childhow to play this simple song,
(46:36):
and they can go right home andshow their friend how to do it.
And that friend can showtheir friend how to do it.
And that is what I call democratization.
But we not only need torevolutionize that, that method.
But we also need to revolutionizeaccessibility because if this method
could only be taught by that highlytrained, formally qualified person, then
we've created a social barrier of entry.
(46:56):
So we need to revolutionizethe teaching process as well.
And say, listen, this is a skillsetthat you can learn adequately.
Are you going to produce adultconcert level, uh, pianist?
I'd probably not.
For the average person, if youhaven't gone through that route
yourself, it requires a veryparticular set of skills and
understanding and knowledge, et cetera.
But that's not what we need.
What we need is something that's, that'sideal to be able to get people connected
(47:20):
and have them enjoy the sheer fun andabsolute pleasure and all the emotional
benefits and the psychological benefits.
And you can get total beginners that areplaying great sounding music being taught
by relatively total beginners themselves.
That's what the world needs.
We need a democratization.
We need to revolutionize both themethod and who can teach the method.
(47:42):
Wow.
And, and that's going to requirepeople being sort of evangelists about
this saying, look, what we've done.
Has been great for traditional times,but we are far from traditional times.
We're about to enter a new era and we havea tool at our disposal that will really
help us to flourish in the new future.
(48:02):
And we have to disseminate this on ascale, unlike anything that we've ever
seen before, revolutionize the method,revolutionize accessibility, who wants to
join that and be able to make an enormouscontribution to helping to elevate
the creative capability of humanity.
I'm, I'm up for that.
Kat (48:18):
It's so powerful.
It's
Neil (48:19):
awesome.
Kat (48:20):
I just, that last night I was, uh, it was, uh, was it
last night or the other night?
But anyway, um, I was tellingLee, I'm like, babe, you can
learn how to read rhythm.
You know that?
Like, like right now you'lllearn how to read rhythm.
So I just pulled up like one of themasters of rhythm exercise and I told
him, look, this is how you read it.
And then I like have them like marchit and just put it in his body.
(48:40):
And then like in literally like aboutfive, 10 minutes, he was reading rhythm.
I was like, did you knowyou could read rhythm?
And he's like, No.
I was like, see, like, you just read it.
I'm like this.
And, and I, you know, Neil, right?
Like I, I do this every week.
But the magic and the profound wonderthat I have for it doesn't go away.
(49:03):
Every single time.
I'm still like, that was so cool.
Every single time.
I'm always like, that was the coolestthing because it's not the way I learned.
The way I learned was so cool.
Difficult and so tedious and I didn'thave this experience of fun, you
know learning, you know Of course,I think I just naturally love music.
So over time I actually enjoyedit, you know But just the learning
(49:26):
process was so difficult and thisway it's just been amazing . Yeah.
Well, Neil, um, we'regonna come to a close.
I guess
Lee (49:36):
as a, maybe a final question.
With everything that you've experienced,uh, the training that you'd be able to
put out and produce for kids, adults,you know, humanity as a whole Mm-Hmm.
being at the top of the game, top ofthe pile, and then all the way down
to the bottom where people are takingyour home and everything else away.
(49:57):
Um, from all of those differentexperiences, could you define
what a wildly wealthy life is?
A few things
Neil (50:06):
to experience being fully and freely self expressed to experience
contributing to the quality of life ofothers on as large a scale as possible
to experience adventure andexcitement and a lifestyle that's
not thwarted by any form ofinsufficiency or constraint or disease.
(50:28):
And most importantly, I thinkto be immersed in the experience
of both loving and being loved.
That's amazing.
Kat (50:37):
That's good.
I love that last one.
Lee (50:39):
Yeah.
Like precise, just boom, boom, boom.
Kat (50:43):
Awesome.
Well, Neil, thank you for your time.
This was incredible.
I'm so excited to.
To share this and, uh, yeah, I'mjust so incredibly thankful that
you took the time and I got to learna couple more things about you.
I feel like Neil, every time I talkto you, I'm just like, just really
in wonder, just in awe and wonder.
(51:05):
So thank you.
Thank you.
Thank you.
Neil (51:07):
Thank you.
My pleasure.
Thanks for having me here today.
And Kat, thanks for what it isthat you contribute to others.
And thanks for valuing music to such anextent that you're willing to commit.
And bring that level of commitment.
I know how much you care about yourstudents, and I've seen, I see how
continuously it moves you to tears,um, what it is that they experience.
Even like right now, I'veonly got to mention it.
I can see that it just
Lee (51:28):
brings it up
Neil (51:28):
here.
And, uh, you got that man behind youthat's committed to you being the biggest,
brightest, best version of yourself.
And so
Lee (51:37):
we basically just pay for the hair to get dyed.
That's it could be bright and wonderful.
Just kidding.
I appreciate that.
Neil and Neil, just being on the backin the background, just knowing the
contributions that you've made already.
With your life, it's really inspiringand it's also beautiful to see because
(51:58):
I think about like I see cat, I seethe impact that she has on the students
that she connects with and everything.
But then I think about the tens ofthousands of instructors you've probably
inspired in the course of your lifetime.
And then that ripple effect.
And, you know, when, wheneveryou connect with that divine,
hopefully, you know, yeah.
(52:18):
50, 60, 70 years from now, but tosee that, that ripple, that stone
that you threw in the pond of lifeand how far those waves really
carried, it's, it's going to be.
Uh, a beautiful, beautiful moment.
I think.
Yeah.
Thank you, Lee.
I appreciate that.
Uh, Neil, where are a couple of placespeople can find you and connect with you?
Neil (52:38):
On social media at the Neil Moore and the neilmoore.
com or simply music.
com.
Beautiful, I just
Lee (52:48):
want to make
Neil (52:48):
sure we give you a chance to show you very much.
Yeah, have people check out my TED talk.
That's
Kat (52:54):
it.
Yeah, I've shared that.
I'm going to share.
I'm doing a whole round of like emailsequences, reengaging my my email list.
And that's part of the thing thatI already have in mind to to share.
I'm excited.
Thank
Neil (53:05):
you very much.
Yeah,
Kat (53:07):
awesome.
Thank you, Neil.
Neil (53:08):
Bye guys.
Thank you.
Bye.
Listening to you guys.
Kat (53:13):
Alright, friends, that's a wrap on today's episode of Wildly Wealthy Life.
We hope you're feeling firedup and ready to take on the
world with your brilliant mind.
And Braveheart.
Lee (53:21):
If you love this episode, make sure you hit that subscribe button on YouTube
or your favorite podcast platform.
It helps us keep bringingyou the good stuff.
Kat (53:28):
And hey, while you're at it, drop us a rating or review.
It takes like.
30 seconds and it makesa huge difference for us.
Lee (53:35):
Also, if you know someone who could use a little guidance on growth,
mindset, leadership and creativity,share this episode with them.
Sometimes that one conversationcan spark up a whole new direction.
Kat (53:44):
Thanks for hanging out with us today.
Go out there, live wildly, be wealthyin all the ways that matter to you.
And we'll catch you on the next one.
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