The Paradox of Sound – It’s a Silent Killer
5 Sound things you can do to improve well being, productivity and profit.

Photo by Jamie Mellor

Did you know you are largely unconscious to the negative impacts sound is having on you in your everyday life. If you live in an Urban environment you can bet it is.

Studies reveal that the well being of 25 to 50% of the EU population is significantly and negatively impacted by noise.

The estimated anual cost of noise in the EU is up to 54 billion dollars.

Tomorrow, I am giving a 1 hour presentation on the Paradox of Sound at the Vancouver Business Network. You’ll get the bad and the good and learn the things you can do to use sound to improve your well being, productivity and profitability (if you’re a business owner). It’s at the VSO’s wonderful Pyatt Hall, which means I have a gorgeous concert grand piano at my disposal. The presentation will incude a relaxing and de-stressing piano performance as well.

Come on out if you are available. Please share this with your music loving friends or business owners who want to learn some of the invisible money losing practices they might be unaware of in their work spaces.

Register here:
http://www.meetup.com/the-vancouver-business-network/events/151526872/

Many thanks for this opportunity Roger Killen

I need your brilliance please!

So here we are in the midst of the Holiday Season. For businesses such as my Under the Piano Sound Spa, this is the land of opportunity. There is the potential to sell a lot of gift certificates. Yet every year, I experience having missed that opportunity. I sell a few, but not anything close to what I could.

I’m setting myself a big challenge. To sell 30 certificates. I’m at 4 for 30 right now. I don’t know how I am going to do this. I’m seeking your brilliant or even not so brilliant ideas. This is kind of like brainstorming with Social Media (hey – that’s a new idea for me. Maybe not brilliant but I’m giving it a try). The trick is to shake things up. Doing what I have done in the past is not going to cut it – past actions will likely just produce the same limited results all over again.

So, do share your ideas. This could be valuable for others as well as me. Imagine how wonderful it would be if a bunch of businesses had record profits during the holiday season from sharing a few ideas with Social Media. That would be so cool.

For me, I have some challenging parameters for this game to sell 26 or more certificates

1. Very limited budget – I’m looking for things I can do or invite others to do that cost very little.
2. Not a lot of time

What I have done in the past

1. Attend more networking events and promote special offers for certificates.
2. Send out  newsletter to my email list
3. Share on Social media

Those activities have produced only limited results in the past.

I have some new ideas which I am implementing or considering

1.  I won a retractable banner (3 ft wide by 7ft tall). I’ve posted a picture here (It will be printed by Tuesday, Dec 10. I’ll be putting that up a presentations and public performances, but there are only a couple opportunities for that).
2. I’ve asked 4 past clients to give testimonials at networking meetings after I have given a presentation about my business. They have all said yes. That may have been responsible for 2 of my 4 sales to date although it’s hard to measure. I’ll ask for more of these even though I won’t be at all the meetings.
3. Wear a badge that says “What is Under the Piano”. Under the Piano has the advantage of being truly unique so most people really have no idea what it is. Wear the badge everywhere 24/7 (well perhaps not in bed) and then get out in front of people. Visit places like Granville Island and South Granville where people go to find unique and higher quality gifts and see if people ask the question. Wear an unusual hat or piece of clothing to draw attention to yourself. Then tell them about it if they do ask. I’m good at inspiring people about Under the Piano if they are open to the idea.
4. Ask past clients to wear a badge too. Give a commission for any certificates sales they cause by simply sharing about their own experience. They can give people my business card, phone number or website. Have them get the name of anyone who they chat with and send it to me so I can track referrals.
5. A colleague just told me yesterday that a business that purchases 5 or more certificates to give to clients can write this off (or a portion of it) as an expense. Follow-up on that. How can I get that message out to businesses looking for amazing and unique gift ideas.

Do you have any ideas?

So there I was lying on a yoga mat. Around me were about 15 other people on mats as well. To get to this place, I had walked past a few gorgeous horses with heads nodding in anticipation of treats from humans. Before that, a 45 minute trip from Vancouver in my friends adorably cute pale green Fiat 500. He brought me here for a birthday treat.

Then, as we all lay on our mats, healing sound started. First a steady drum beat. I could feel it resonating in my body as the drummer moved closer to me. Then the magic we were all there for began. The mysterious and cosmic sound of, not one, but eight gongs. During the session, the gong baths were interspersed with beautiful bells and singing bowls which were almost like palate cleansers. In total, we enjoyed 3 gong baths, each subsequent sound bath getting louder and more intense. I loved the intensity of the louder third bath particularly. I could feel the vibrations of the gongs traveling through my body. The gong players, Kathy Cameron of The Soul of Sound and her gong partner Paul, provide these wonderful healing experiences quite frequently.

If you are still wondering about the horses, that is because the location for our particular gong bath was the beautiful Wisteria Acres out in Fort Langley. At Wisteria Acres, the gong bath occurs in the renovated second floor of a barn, below which is the home of a number of beautiful horses. Driving out to Wisteria Acres was part of the adventure, but you need not travel far as Kathy provides Gong Baths quite regularly here in Vancouver

Upcoming Gong Baths in November & December can be found here
http://www.thesoulofsound.com/events.html

Sound Healing with gongs and Himalayan singing bowls from the soul of sound on Vimeo.

Many of us know the saying, Follow your passion and the money or success will follow.

I’ve been wondering about it recently. I’ve been following my passion for over 5 years now and it seems the money and success have yet to follow. Yes, an increased experience of satisfaction, fulfillment, and happiness has followed but where is the money? Where is the success?

Recently, I’ve heard a couple of influential and clearly successful people (at least from where I’m standing) refute the follow your passion belief. The first thing I noticed about both of them is how obviously passionate they are about what they are up to in life. I was left laughing when their passionate rebuttal of passion basically disproved itself.

Then, the other week, something happened. It had me question that maybe it is not so much about following the passion and a little more about being crystal clear about your passion or being bold about your passion. There is no doubt in my mind that I am passionate about music and the difference it  makes for people. So what’s missing, other than patience, if it is indeed true that following my passion will result in success?

What happened, was a client came for an Under the Piano session. That client was Mark E. Sackett who lives in New York and San Francisco. He produces music concerts and movies and participates in a whole slew of other amazing things in his life. He’s unquestionably a passionate guy. When his Under the Piano session was over he shared this on Facebook and then again shortly afterward at a live networking event:

“Well last night I had without question one of the top 10 experiences of my life here in Vancouver!!!!

…Craig has a beautiful simple business called Under the Piano… Telling you you lay under a piano as he composes a piece of music for you would be short selling this horribly!

Describing the emotions I went through from remembering my Grandma Harris playing the Piano when I was a child, to remembering past loves, to soaring in my memories from being at the top of a mountain at 14,000 feet all washed over me as I was taken on a 45 minute journey of my life. I was in tears at times and fell asleep in the middle for 5 minutes and then spent the greatest part of my experience with an ear to ear smile washing over my body while in total amazement of what I was hearing and feeling as I reached up touching the underside of the piano, to feel the powerful vibrations of this grand piano moving through my body. Not one to lay still or calm I was simply and blissfuly relaxed and centered.

I cannot say enough about Craig and what is is like to lay under his piano as he literally and spontaneously composes a 45 minute journey for you as you lay underneath it on a fluffy bed and comfy and beautiful pillows with aromatherapy and candles.

I am still chilled to the bone as I recall it here for you!!!”

I let this sink in. At the networking event, Mark got quite emotional and moved as he shared about his experience. So did I and some other people in the room. This experience of being profoundly moved, inspired and connected by music is what Under the Piano is about and this is what fulfills me most deeply. I saw that I get similar responses from many clients but not all clients. There is that “but” word which basically negates what precedes it. Then I saw what was missing for me.

Over the past year I have been creating and clarifying my mission statement. Getting grounded in my passion.

This is what I  had up until now

“My mission is to provide relaxing, beautiful and connecting musical experiences for individuals, couples and audiences. Unique and intimate environments dramatically increase and enhance the impact music has on people emotionally, mentally, physically and spiritually.”

Well it’s all just fine. It’s in alignment with my belief that the beauty of music can make a big difference for people and communities AND something is missing. Mark’s testimonial provided the gift of seeing what’s missing.

What’s missing is a challenge. My butt is not on the line. I’m already delivering that mission every time I do a session. It’s not a challenge for me at all. People can get what my old mission provides from innumerable places and experiences in any city or town. Under the Piano cannot not be experienced anywhere and neither can the music I spontaneously create. It’s not an anywhere and everywhere experience and my mission does not say that. I’ve been afraid to say that because of the fear that I cannot reliably deliver an experience like Mark had. My challenge is to have people be moved the way Mark was each and every time I do a session. I realize I have been boringly reasonable and sensible with my mission.

Here’s my new first draft:

“My mission is to provide relaxing, beautiful and connecting musical experiences for individuals, couples and audiences that leave them awestruck, full of wonder, and profoundly moved. Unique musical environments and the miraculous power of spontaneously composed music make this possible by dramatically increasing and enhancing the impact music has on people emotionally, mentally and spiritually”

So, I continue to believe the saying Follow your passion and success will follow. I just haven’t been clear enough or bold enough about my passion. This new mission is definitely a thing worth waking up to and a thing worth causing in the world.

Listen to the music I created for Mark
[soundcloud url=”https://api.soundcloud.com/playlists/12577023″ width=”100%” height=”450″ iframe=”true” /]

In an earlier post,  I wrote about how our brains are brilliantly engineered to filter out and ignore extraneous sound.

“…Our brains are masters at filtering out unwanted sounds. We need to do this in order to focus on what’s important to us. If we could not filter out unwanted sound we’d go nuts. Can you imagine having an important conversation with a friend if you could not help but pay equal attention to all the other conversations, noises, and music that was occurring around you? Long, long ago, we had to filter out little more than nature sounds like wind, water and rain. Now we must filter out much more noise. It’s got to the point where our brilliance at ignoring unwanted sound is our poison. All this louder noise is stressing our bodies. The constant clangor of urban life is causing our bodies to release our fight or flight hormones – adrenalin and cortisol. These are meant for emergencies, not to be part of a continuous diet.”

I thought I’d list off a small handful of everyday perpetrators of unhealthy noise that we encounter most days in an urban environment plus some less common examples that people rarely or never experience.

The numbers and items I am listing are from Julian Treasure’s excellent book Sound Business. I recommend this book highly for anyone interested in improving their business’ or personal environment’s soundscape. The measurements are in decibels or dB. Things to know as you read. The decibel scale is exponential, like the Richter scale used for earthquakes. There is a big difference between 70 and 80 dB and it is perceived as a doubling of the loudness to our ears. 85 dB is the level at which continuous exposure results in hearing damage. The listed dB levels are calibrated to indicate what the level would be one metre away from the sound source. The book includes a much more comprehensive list.

0 dB  – Beginning of hearing – a mosquito 10 feet away
40 dB  – Whisper
40-60 dB – Normal conversation
80 dB – Heavy Traffic at 10 Metres
85 dB – Beginning of hearing dammage, earplugs should be worn
100 dB – Typical car or house stereo at maximum volume, a loud shout
110 dB – Night club on the dance floor
120-130 dB – front row at a rock concert
140 dB – all frequencies are painful; extremely damaging to hearing no matter how short the time exposure
147 dB – Formula 1 racing car
150 dB – rock concert “The Who”
163 dB  – Whale song
191 dB – Explosion – 1 lb bomb or grenade
190 – 195 dB – Human Eardrums rupture 50% of the time
198 – 202 dB – Human death from sound (shock) wave alone
215 dB – Thunder from the largest “Positive Giant” lightning strikes
235 dB – Earthquake 5.0 on Richter scale
286 dB – Mt Saint Helens volcano eruption blew down trees 16 miles away and blew out some windows in Seattle-Tacoma 200 miles away.
310 dB – Krakatoa Volcano Eruption, 1883. Cracked one foot thick concrete at 300 miles; created a 3,000 foot Tsunami; heard 3,100 miles away…rocks were thrown to a height of 34 miles. Dust and debris fell continuously for 10 days after blast…shock (sound) waves “echoed” around the earth 36 times and lasted for about a month!

I’ve begun to do some of my own investigating. While it’s not precisely accurate, it gives you the world of things. I downloaded a free app to my iPhone called Decibel 10th. Then I went to several local coffee shops and they all had readings of between 75 and 85 dB. I measured from a variety of locations in each venue. What was most shocking was that the worst one was nearly empty.

Then I took a measurement at a pub in False Creek. I was attending a networking event. The level there was 95 dB!

All of these facilities are unnecessarily loud simply because absolutely no attention has been paid to the acoustic design of the venue. All the surfaces are reflective – concrete, exposed ceilings, tile or concrete floors, bare walls, wall to wall glass, metal or wood tables and chairs. There is nothing in the space to absorb sound.

The consequences are largely tolerated and ignored at great expense:  Damaged hearing, an inability to communicate effectively, and the continuous release of damaging stress hormones.

A big thanks  to Rod Janz and his RapidTime Radio interviews. He provides these to members of  the quickly expanding, leading edge networking organization called Rapid Time Networks or RTN.

What’s in this interview?

• What is Under the Piano?
• How did this one-of-a-kind business come to be?
• Basics. What does it cost? Available options. Where? What to expect during a session.
• Each session features original music composed on the spot
• One of my other passions:  Quiet Hearts – Musical Respites and Journeys. An after work de-stressor.
• A memorable story from past Under the Piano sessions. making a difference for people dealing with grief or illness.
• About my piano
• Contacting me

Listen to the interview now.

Last night I had the pleasure and honour of offering the gift of Under the Piano to Darren and Amanda. Darren Jacklin is a busy guy who travels throughout the world most of the year so it was great that we could find a time for him to enjoy this experience. Here is one selection from from the seven pieces I spontaneously composed for them.

After the session, here is what each of them wrote as a testimonial about their experience.

“The session with Craig was wonderful. From the moment we walked through the door the room had a calm and beautiful energy. Under the Piano was unlike anything we had experienced before. It was powerful, emotional and fun. Be forewarned. This romantic environment will make you melt.” Amanda

“I felt like I was on a flying adventure like a bird soaring across the sky. I lost track of time and came out of my head and was fully present in my physical body. This was a memorable mark the moment experience I will remember for the rest of my life and share with encouragement to others.” Darren

A note about “spontaneous composing”. As a musician who has being doing this for years, I mistakenly assume people understand what that means. What it means is the music has never been played, heard or even thought of before. It is created and improvised in the moment with nothing pre-planned. I sit, I pick a musical key, I play one note, then another, and then another. A pattern emerges which simultaneously evolves into an emotional and musical journey.

DA of DA Top Talent recently purchased the gift of an Under the Piano session to be shared by his mother and his son. Thank you DA for sharing your thoughts about the value of Under the Piano as a unique and memorable gift experience.

If you thought the top choices were perfume or flowers, think again. Those are nice, but you won’t be leaving a memorable mark for your mother or wife with those gifts. I’ve done a little research and found 10 surveys which actually asked mother’s and wive’s what they would like to receive for Mother’s Day.

The most recent survey I found is from  Ebates –  April 25, 2013

In the other surveys I found, the first 3 listed in Ebates are almost always in the top 3 (in varying order).

Ebates Survey Results

Local Vancouver options for a great Mother’s Day experience are an Embodywork Holistic Arts “Deep Flow Massage” and/or  an Under the Piano Sound Spa for music lovers. For more about these offerings and details on our special collaborative package visit this page…

Mother’s Day Massage & Music