Rosen Music Company was established April 1955, at 716 Main Street in downtown Little Rock, by Marty Rosen. From the outset, Rosen's was a full service retail music store supporting the equipment and accessory needs of beginning and professional players alike. In 1962, Rosen developed a fiberglass process he used in the manufacture of percussion instruments under the name Romco Drums. Romco is a contraction of Rosen Music Co. Today, Rosen Music now operated by Marty Rosen’s son David, returns to Downtown Little Rock after nearly 40 years on Little Rock's Kavanaugh Blvd. In their new location at 1214 Main Street, Rosen Music remains a full service retail music store, providing music lessons, and sales and service for all wind, string, and percussion musical instruments.
The owner and operator of Rosen Music Company, David Rosen is an accomplished trumpeter that has, at various times throughout his career, backed the likes of Rosemary Clooney, Isaac Hayes, James Brown, and Tony Bennett.
Speaking with him, you would never suspect that David Rosen has rubbed elbows with so many Greats, and done some great playing himself
David Rosen of Rosen Music Company is Kerry’s guest this episode. Up In Your Business is a Radio Show by FlagandBanner.com
UP IN YOUR BUSINESS WITH KERRY MCCOY - EPISODE 09 - TRANSCRIPT - DAVID ROSEN
[INTRODUCTION]
[0:00:03.2] TB: Welcome to Up in Your Business with Kerry McCoy. Be sure to stay tuned till the end of the show to hear how you can get a copy of this program and other helpful documents.
Now, it's time for Kerry McCoy to get all up in your business.
[INTERVIEW]
[0:00:19.5] KM: Hello, you’re listening to KABF in Little Rock, Arkansas. I’m Kerry McCoy and it’s time for me to get up into your business. You may be asking yourself, what makes this lady qualified to do this? I’ll tell you, experience. 40 years ago with just $400, I started Arkansas Flag & Banner. Since then, it’s morphed into simply flagandbanner.com with sales nearing 4 million. That’s worth saying again. I started Arkansas Flag & Banner with just $400, and today we have sales nearing 4 million.
I started by selling flags door-to-door, then went to telemarketing, next, mail order and catalog sales, and today we rely heavily on the internet. In addition, over the last 40 years, I’ve navigated Flag & Banner through two recessions and two wars. I hope not three recessions. I don’t think I could take another.
When people find out I’m that woman who owns Arkansas Flag & Banner, they often say, “Oh! I’ve heard about you,” and begin asking me business advice. I amaze even myself with all the knowledge I’ve gained, so be prepared for the truth. It’s not always easy to hear. For instance, you may not want to hear this. In business, there are very few overnight successes. Starting and owning a business takes persistence, perseverance and patience.
When I started Arkansas Flag & Banner, I supplemented my income by waitressing all while I pedaled my flags door-to-door. After nine years — Did you hear me? Nine years of working a part-time job, the company began to grow and solely support me.
My first hire was a bookkeeper to handle the clerical side of the business. My first expansion was to begin the manufacturing of custom flags, so a sewing department developed. The next decade ushered in Desert Storm Warm, flags were scarce, so a screen printing department was hardly built to meet consumer demands.
In addition to sales and manufacturing, Flag & Banner now has a purchasing department, a shipping department, technology department, marketing department, call center, and a retail store, and I spearheaded the development of every one of these departments. My experience is deep and wide and my advice is free. It’s unbelievable! Isn’t, Tim?
[0:02:36.3] TB: Absolutely.
[0:02:37.3] KM: Before we start taking calls, I want to introduce the people at the table. We have Tim Bowen, our technician who will be taking your calls and pushing the buttons. Say hi, Tim.
[0:02:44.5] TB: Hi, Tim.
[0:02:46.1] KM: You got to say that every time. I love it. We got a little routine going. My guest today is David Rosen, owner of the Rosen Music Company, known to some as Romco Drums. The Rosen Music Company was founded in April of 1955 by David’s father, Marty Rosen. From the beginning, Rosen was a full-service retail music store supporting and selling instruments and accessories for beginners and professional musicians alike.
In 1962, David’s father; Marty, developed a fiber glass process which he used in the manufacturing of percussion instruments. He called this new business Romco Drums. In addition to being a business owner, David Rosen is an accomplished trumpeter. I think I’m saying that right. Or is trumpeter?
[0:03:36.6] DR: Either.
[0:03:37.5] KM: Either one? He has played with such greats as Rosemary Clooney, Isaac Hayes, James Brown, and Tony Bennett. Today, Romco Music Company has moved back to its roots in downtown Little Rock and continues business as usual as a retail music store providing music lessons, sales and service for all wind, string and percussion musical instruments. Welcome to the table, musician and small business owner, David Rosen.
[0:04:08.2] DR: Thank you, Kerry. It’s nice to be with you. Both of you, actually. It’s a crowded room, but we’ll get by.
[0:04:14.7] KM: It’s a hot room. Listeners need to know, it’s hot in here. We’re suffering. We got to get more air-conditioning. You don’t think so?
[0:04:20.8] TB: I think it’s delightful.
[0:04:22.3] KM: He’s sitting right in front of the fan. Okay, you’ve played with some great musicians.
[0:04:29.6] DR: I was fortunate to be in positions, places to be able to do that. I started my education career — I finished high school at Hall High in 1959 but they decided we didn’t need school that year.
[0:04:44.0] KM: What do you mean? Was that the year?
[0:04:45.1] DR: They closed the school. That was the year, yeah.
[0:04:48.2] KM: The year of the end of the Central Nine. Is that the year?
[0:04:52.1] DR: Yeah. No, I think that was the year before. I’m not sure of the chronology.
[0:04:56.5] KM: I didn’t realized they actually closed schools.
[0:04:58.3] DR: Oh, they closed the high schools.
[0:04:59.3] KM: I didn’t realize that. Okay.
[0:05:00.1] DR: Oddly enough, they didn’t close the elementary schools. My brother was at Williams and they paraded the kids over from Williams to Hall to take Spanish. The faculties were still on board, but there were no students at Hall, at the high school. It was kind of a —
[0:05:19.0] KM: You didn’t finish school, but I guess they gave you GEDs.
[0:05:21.8] DR: No, we went away into school.
[0:05:23.0] KM: Where did you go?
[0:05:23.8] DR: Ended up in Colorado. My father was fron — I grew up in — He was born in Chicago but was raised in Colorado. That family out there was just —
[0:05:34.8] KM: What happened to all the other kids that don’t have family anywhere?
[0:05:36.9] DR: They went everywhere. There were schools started this year. There were some really hard working consciousness people who bridged that gap for business. Some people —
[0:05:46.5] KM: They didn’t really closed the school. You said they closed the school. They didn’t really closed the school.
[0:05:50.9] DR: Yeah, the schools, the public schools were closed, but they built schools. There was one called Rainy, which was a private school. Different schools started. Of course, the county schools were still in operation.
[0:06:01.6] KM: They’ve just dispersed them out to the county and all that. Okay. I got it.
[0:06:03.6] DR: Sure. Yeah. Which is all feeling —
[0:06:05.9] KM: Okay. You went out to Colorado and went to school.
[0:06:08.9] DR: Yeah, finished there. I hit my freshman year at Colorado and I came home after my freshman year and my father said, “Son, you’ve had four years of fun. You’re going to come home and go to school now.” Lucky enough, I went to down to Henderson State Teachers College in Arkadelphia at the time. They had a wonderful jazz band which I really liked. I was good enough to tour each summer. We went to the far east; Japan and Formosa and all the islands [inaudible 0:06:43.1].
[0:06:44.2] KM: From Henderson State College?
[0:06:45.2] DR: Yeah.
[0:06:45.6] KM: Did they still do that?
[0:06:47.1] DR: Not so much anymore. That was a USL function.
[0:06:50.5] KM: That is really neat.
[0:06:50.9] DR: Caribbean another year, but it was quite a good band.
[0:06:55.4] KM: Had you been playing music all your life?
[0:06:57.4] DR: Yeah, I wanted to be a drummer. My dad said, “No, son. One stupid drummer in our family is enough,” and that was it.
[0:07:04.4] KM: I was going to say. What did your dad play? He plays the drums.
[0:07:06.9] DR: Yeah, he gave me the trumpet. There were many times I thanked him for that wisdom because at the end of the show, for example, I could put my horn in a case and walk out the door, and he was still — The drummer was just getting his cases out to pack. There was a lot of wisdom in that.
Yeah, I came home, we were lucky. Now, another fortuitous aspect of it, or [inaudible 0:07:28.1] I guess was the proximity of hot springs in Arkadelphia. I started playing — I guess my last two years down there, I played then the Vapors Club, which was —
[0:07:39.8] KM: I remember that.
[0:07:40.4] DR: …wonderful. Full-blown casino in Cedar Lounge. The casinos, of course, weren’t illegal, but there were —
[0:07:47.4] KM: Private ones.
[0:07:48.3] DR: Ways to do that, I guess at that time. That’s when I played for a lot of those people. Luckily, each week there’ll be a new show. It’s either five day or a nine day show. In many cases, actually most cases, the acts would come through there breaking in a new act and go straight to Las Vegas and do that.
[0:08:07.2] KM: Where were they coming form, New Orleans?
[0:08:08.4] DR: Oh, just wherever they were heading forward.
[0:08:10.6] KM: Because we’re kind of in the middle of the United States, I guess.
[0:08:12.3] DR: Yes. It was an interesting time, very.
[0:08:17.3] KM: That’s a great story. Do you only play the trumpet?
[0:08:20.2] DR: Yeah, for public consumption. I make racket on every sitting —
[0:08:23.7] KM: Are you kidding? Let’s take a break so I can tell everybody that you’re listening to Up In Your Business with Kerry McCoy on KABF. This is a mentoring show for small business owners or for those who dream of owning a small business. My guest today is trumpeter, David Rosen and owner of the Rosen Music Company in downtown Little Rock. If you’ve got questions or comments for either of us, call —
[0:08:46.4] TB: 501-433-0088.
[0:08:50.2] KM: What’s that again?
[0:08:51.3] TB: The number is 501-433-0088.
[0:08:54.8] KM: Or you can send us an email if you’re shy. You can send us an email to —
[0:08:58.5] TB: questionsatupyourbusiness.org.
[0:09:01.5] KM: That’s questions with an S. David, your dad started the business in 1955. You had to be just a child. He was a — I gathered from reading a little bit that he was a success musician.
[0:09:15.8] DR: Yeah, he toured a lot and World War II came and everybody went to war. After the war, we settled back here. My mother from Arkansas, so they met here and we came here after the war. During the war, we were out at about Seattle, Tacoma area and up Washington State, up in McChord Field —
[0:09:35.4] KM: I thought you said Colorado. Your family is from Colorado. Are they from Washington State?
[0:09:39.9] DR: No. My father grew up in Colorado, born in Chicago. This is World War II —
[0:09:46.7] KM: Oh, he was stationed up in Washington. You know, that’s where my mother and father got married, Walla Walla, Washington.
[0:09:50.6] DR: Walla Walla.
[0:09:51.3] KM: There must have been a lot of people up there in World War II.
[0:09:53.1] DR: There were. They were on the way out. Usually, they’re heading west. In fact, they were going to so far west, they were going to east.
[0:10:03.2] KM: Yeah, that’s good. You just played the drums right there. But instead you went “dun-dun-dun”. Your dad was successful, I guess. He decided to — I guess he saw a niche or a need. What made him decide to open a music store? He had children? Was that to settle down?
[0:10:18.5] DR: Yeah, that was it. There were two kids in and mother said we were approaching school and my mother said, “Well, it’s time to settle down.” He said, “Okay.” We settled here in North Little Rock first and then Little Rock. We started school. He was in the insurance business for a while. Then Gill Colaianni who had Colaianni Piano Company. Young Gill’s dad, Gill senior, his brother; Arthur, who was a really good obo player said, “My brother is coming here. I need to get something for him to do.” Gill convinced my dad to go into the music business. They opened Colaianni and Rosen Music Company just a little time before that. Apparently, didn’t agree with Art Colaianni very much and my dad took it over. It became Rosen Music Company thereafter.
[0:11:11.7] KM: You have got a really long legacy of musicians in Arkansas. The Colaiannis are big, and then the Rosens are big. Your business — I did the math, is 76 years old. He grabbed his heart on that one. Yes, it is.
[0:11:33.9] DR: I couldn’t get my shoe off fast enough for that high social. That was — you kick your loafers off. It was fortunate, but my dad’s brothers were all up — He had five brothers, three of them in music in Colorado. One; Sydney Robert Rosen is in the Colorado Hall of Fame, distinguished curator from University of Colorado. He’s a composer and a conductor.
[0:11:54.2] KM: I bet y’all was great family functions.
[0:11:58.7] DR: No. Families are interesting.
[0:12:00.9] KM: Really?
[0:12:01.3] DR: Yeah. They get together and it’s World War II.
[0:12:04.9] KM: If you can play music, you don’t have to talk. You can just sit around singing drum on the Hudson Bands.
[0:12:12.8] DR: It was seen that way, but I guess it’s one of those things when you do it all the time, that’s the last thing you want to do.
[0:12:18.6] KM: Is your wife a musician?
[0:12:19.7] DR: She was. She’s Louisville, Kentucky.
[0:12:22.2] KM: Piano?
[0:12:22.7] DR: Flute, actually.
[0:12:24.5] KM: Oh, how pretty.
[0:12:25.7] DR: Good tennis player. She was an all-around person. Took me a long time — I had to finally convince her that I was trainable in order for her to marry me.
[0:12:35.5] KM: That’s a good story.
[0:12:36.7] DR: We met in Dallas. She had been with IBM for a long long time. She was a systems engineer. Real smart and I had to kind of sneak up on her.
[0:12:46.6] KM: You’re a nice looking man.
[0:12:48.0] DR: You’re kind to say that.
[0:12:49.1] KM: I bet you didn’t have to work —
[0:12:49.8] DR: You don’t have your glasses on, do you?
[0:12:51.6] KM: Yes, I do. I just can’t see out of them. No, you are a nice looking man. I want to hear about your playing with James Brown. Did you see him doing lines of blow? Is he crazy-crazy-crazy, tell me, tell me, tell me. It’s not like I’m doing blow now, don’t I?
[0:13:09.5] DR: No. He was enormously professional. Really talented. Very professional. He didn’t do any of that stuff when he was on. In fact, he couldn’t read music. I guess parenthetically, when he was in this area, I was one of the people he would call to get the horn section together. I would get that together and we have a quick rehearsal. He would get a thought of a song, for example and he would keep his rhythm section there; drums, the bass, guitar player and the organ player and he would start singing this line, or beating out the rhythm first and get the drummer to start it. When the drummer had it just as he wanted it, then he would start with the bass line, and the drummer keep this going and then he would layout the bass line, telling him exactly what to do. Then he changed it here and do this, this, just the way he wanted it. Bang! It was off to the guitar players.
He didn’t read music, but he knew music, and he would, in 30 or 40 minutes, they’d be playing a new chart.
[0:14:08.4] KM: You know, Elton John doesn’t read music. Isn’t that weird?
[0:14:10.9] DR: No. George Herring doesn’t read music.
[0:14:15.0] KM: Who’s that?
[0:14:15.1] DR: [inaudible 0:14:15.3]
[0:14:17.2] KM: Who’s that?
[0:14:17.7] DR: George Herring is a marvelous British piano player, was. He was blind. That was a little bit bad.
[0:14:22.2] KM: Oh, that was really funny! If I had known that.
[0:14:27.6] DR: That was soul inside, it was outside —
[0:14:30.7] KM: That’s exactly right.
[0:14:31.5] DR: Seriously, James Brown —
[0:14:32.4] KM: If you just said Stevie Wonder, I had gotten it.
[0:14:34.5] DR: I didn’t even think of that. Let’s see how much younger you are than I am.
[0:14:38.1] KM: No, you’re just more musically educated than I am.
[0:14:41.6] DR: The James Brown that I’ve ever experienced was truly professional even they’ve been involved in all those drugs and things, but I never saw any of that.
[0:14:50.7] KM: He always looked like a train wreck, I just love to watch people that look like train wrecks. Everybody likes to watch people that look like train — Why is the Kardashians so popular? Because you’re just waiting for them to do crazy stuff.
[0:15:02.5] DR: I didn’t think he was on the verge of anything. When he was on stage, he was 100% professional.
[0:15:07.6] KM: His music was great. Let’s give the man his due. His music was really really great.
[0:15:12.6] DR: He was perfectly professional. I didn’t interact. I didn’t travel or anything.
[0:15:17.7] KM: You know that Tony Bennett’s got to be professional. He comes off as professional.
[0:15:22.6] DR: He’s a really nice man. One of my other favorites is —
[0:15:25.7] KM: You kind of have his aura, actually. You do. You do. I hope by the end of the show people can see what a gentleman you are.
[0:15:32.9] DR: You’re kind. You’re very kind.
[0:15:35.0] KM: Thank you.
[0:15:35.2] DR: Vic Damone was a marvelous person. Rosemary Clooney and Keely Smith were two of my favorites, because they were absolute princesses, if that’s a right word. They were delightful people, ladies of the highest award. Marvelous singers.
Vic Damone was another great —
[0:15:52.1] KM: Oh, I forgot about him.
[0:15:52.0] DR: Oh, he was incredible.
[0:15:54.6] KM: Did you ever play with Tina Turner or anybody like that?
[0:15:57.8] DR: No, I didn’t play for Tina Turner. The Tempts.
[0:16:03.8] KM: The Tempts?
[0:16:04.2] DR: Temptations —
[0:16:06.7] KM: That’s my favorite group, The Temptations, and Marvin Gaye & The Temptations. I just love them.
[0:16:11.9] DR: The Platters had a big review. I remember this, this was in the early 60s. I was home — It was in the summer. I guess I was home from school and they came on a big tour. It was a real full-blown big band with all the acts that came with the spinners, the tops, the Tempts. One other group —
[0:16:34.0] KM: Is The Tempts the Temptation. Is that what you’re — I guess that’s just lingo for — Okay.
[0:16:40.2] DR: We played that show. I got the call because one of the trumpet players had to go back to Detroit on personal emergency. I got the call to play that, and I played it. I went and read it down and they were pretty pleased with it. I thought that was kind of fun.
[0:16:56.1] KM: What’s your favorite memory of all the things you done like that? What’s the one that just — Your adrenaline was pumping and that’s the clearest in your brain. They say you really remember the things when your adrenaline is — You guys — Really?
[0:17:16.4] DR: The first pit call ever. I had played on an orchestra pit was The National Touring Company of Hello, Dolly! with Carol Channing and that was really interesting, because I was pretty young then.
[0:17:27.6] KM: What city was that?
[0:17:28.4] DR: Here.
[0:17:30.2] KM: Really?
[0:17:30.6] DR: Yeah. Then it went around. That was interesting.
[0:17:35.1] KM: You lived in Little Rock all your life. Do you ever have the desire to move away to follow your music career?
[0:17:39.4] DR: I did for a while.
[0:17:40.9] KM: Because you met your wife in Dallas, so you must have —
[0:17:43.0] DR: That was well after all of that. Let’s see, when was that. Anyway, I wanted to play. I played some, that was kind of fun. When we finished school, I played — I mentioned the Vapors Club earlier. We finished school, I think, in ’63 —
[0:18:01.0] KM: Finished college. College.
[0:18:02.9] DR: College, yeah. Had my undergraduate and I think there of us, maybe four of us, a guy named Archie Will, a really good alto player. Ron Helbey was a good tenor player. Maybe there were just three. We went to Reno, played out there for a while in Lake Taho. That was really fun. We were trying to get out, making up money to get down to Las Vegas.
At that time, we went to Las Vegas. I didn’t do this, but I almost did. You couldn’t have a steady job for six months.
[0:18:35.8] KM: Be a resident?
[0:18:36.9] DR: You had to work at your union card. You joined the union and you couldn’t have a steady job. The best job in town was a relief fan, which went from club to club every night and gave the house band a night off.
[0:18:49.2] KM: Boy, you are glad you’re not a drummer if you have to do that.
[0:18:52.4] DR: Well, all the stuff’s out, but I was a trumpet player, but we did that for a while and would have done that. When we got ready to go to Las Vegas, it was just about the time of the Cuban Missile Crisis I said, “I’m tired of playing. I’ve been around a bunch of guys who’s older. Great players, but they were grumpy.” It was as though they had been doing this all the time. One day they looked up and that’s all they’d ever done. I felt trapped. I didn’t like that feeling.
When they went to Las Vegas, when Archie and Ron went down there, I came back and messed around for a while. Ron Helbey became the secretary of the musicians union in Las Vegas and Archie Will is still playing out there.
[0:19:36.3] KM: Really?
[0:19:36.4] DR: Yeah, they’re still out there.
[0:19:37.5] KM: You go out to Las Vegas and see them?
[0:19:39.5] DR: Once or twice. Recently, we had — I guess it was the Net Center Gals or something, they had a Red Pack review and a couple of the guys, the bass player knew Ron and Archie. He lives in Las Vegas. We had a good visit about that.
[0:19:58.1] KM: That’s fun, the Red Pack review. For everybody who wants to know, that’s Frank Sinatra —
[0:20:01.9] DR: Sammy Davis Jr. and Dean Martin.
[0:20:02.8] KM: Oh, I love those guys.
[0:20:04.7] DR: Marilyn Monroe was involved —
[0:20:06.2] KM: Of course she was. All right, listen. You are listening to Up In Your Business with Kerry McCoy on KABF. This is a mentoring show for small business owners or for those who dream of owning a small business. My guest today is trumpeter David Rosen and the owner of the Rosen Music Company in downtown Little Rock. If you’ve got questions or comments for either of us, call —
[0:20:28.4] TB: 501-433-0088.
[0:20:33.2] KM: Or you can email us, questions —
[0:20:35.6] TB: Questions@upyourbusiness.org.
[0:20:38.7] KM: Today’s Veterans Day. I want to give a shout out to my veterans. I’ve got something to say to my veterans. I want to take this time to say it’s Veterans Day and that I really admire and appreciate all my veterans and my current men and women that are serving right now, my active duty people. Starting today, Arkansas Flag & Banner begins our week-long honoring of these brave men and women and I’m excited to say we’ve joined forces with two of my favorite things, Annin Flagmakers, it’s a company in New Jersey. Five generation, family owned, making the American Flag in the United States. We’ve also joined forces with the American Red Cross to send holiday cards to our active military and veterans.
If you come by Flag & Banner, you can sign a card that the American Red Cross is going to pick up and send to them during the holidays. When my team at Flag and Banner first brought this idea to me, I loved it. It brought me a host of memories that flooded my mind. I know everybody has heard of the Red Cross and I know everybody knows they collect and distribute blood exceptionally well and that their name is synonymous with disaster relief, but they are really more than that. The memories that I had were — I don’t know what the listeners’ first memories were, but it reminded me of my very first memories about the Red Cross.
My father was a prisoner of war during World War II, he was shot down in Germany in 1944. He spent two years in Stalag 13, that’s the same as Hogan’s Hero, but it was not like Hogan’s Heroes. Like so many war veterans, my father didn’t like to talk about the war. He didn’t want to think about the hard times and the people that he’d killed or the people he’d seen killed. As time went by, he healed and became proud of his service. The colorful war stories and his Purple Heart.
When I was about 12, at the dinner table, my father began to talk about the end of the war and how he was released from prison camp and that is when I first heard about this magical organization called the Red Cross. Dad said, “The day the war was over, we were released from prison and walked out the prison gates to a Red Cross truck loaded with coffee and donuts. They were the first Americans we saw. We were so happy.”
At the time of my father’s release from prison, he weighed 90 pounds. The Red Cross story was the first positive thing my father ever told me about the war. I believe there are many more Americans with similar stories of hope brought by the Red Cross.
Anyone can drop by the showroom at Arkansas Flag & Banner in downtown Little Rock to sign or have your kids make a card to show your love and appreciation for our veterans and our active military. We have a table set up for both adults and children. I hope that my listeners will find time to drop by. We love our brave service men and women. Let’s show them.
Isn’t that a great story?
[0:23:44.1] DR: Yeah, very great.
[0:23:45.4] KM: I know. You just don’t — That really was the greatest generation and it was your father’s generation too.
[0:23:50.6] DR: A lot of people got involved. Over a half million loss in that. We recently saw the movie Hacksaw Ridge which was to do with the Okinawa invasion. That was really a preamble to the plan — That time, plan invasion of the mainland Japan. I think the estimates were something — They projected half million Americans being killed in that invasion if it had taken place. I guess what promoted President Truman to decide to drop the bomb.
In a true manner of speaking, it was the most humane end you could have because if they had gone into the mainland, the Japanese weren’t going to surrender. There would have been millions lost.
[0:24:39.6] KM: I never thought of it like that.
[0:24:40.0] DR: It was a pretty formidable enemy, the kamikaze for example.
[0:24:48.1] KM: It’s a lot like our ISIS guys. What do they call them now? Suicide bombers?
[0:24:51.5] DR: Something like that. The kamikaze— I think kamikaze means divine wind and they taught them to take off and then all they did was — They didn’t know how to land plane and so they crashed it into a boat or a ship or something.
[0:25:03.8] KM: Oh! Interesting. Don’t even put any breaks or landing gear on that plane.
[0:25:10.6] DR: The poor guys —
[0:25:11.9] KM: They’re going up and never coming down.
[0:25:13.8] DR: It was an heroic ending for them, I guess.
[0:25:17.0] KM: Yeah. 17 virgins, or 7 virgins. How many virgins?
[0:25:21.1] DR: That’s the other one, 71, but the average weight is 312 pounds.
[0:25:30.0] KM: I’m taking back that thing I said about you being a gentleman. Okay. You’re listening to Up In Your Business with Kerry McCoy on KABF. This is a mentoring and funny show for all small business owners or for those who dream of owning a small business.
My guest today is Trumpeter, David Rosen, and the owner of the Rosen Music Company in downtown Little Rock. If you’ve got questions or comments for either of us, call —
[0:25:56.1] TB: 501-433-0088.
[0:26:00.2] KM: Or email us at —
[0:26:01.1] TB: Questions@upyourbusinses.org.
[0:26:04.5] KM: David, your dad invented something called the Ramco Drum. I’m so confused by your name, because there’s Ronco — There’s Rosen and there’s Romco.
[0:26:16.0] DR: Romco, to start, is the contraction of Rosen Music Company. When my father developed — He didn’t invent it, he developed fiber glass process, so mat and resin process for drums. The theory was it was a very thin, very strong shell and the mat portion of it defused the sound waves so they didn’t bump into each other. You really got a smooth surface that go straight back at you. The mat and resin, the mat defuses it.
You got the stability and consistency of the metal, for example, and the warmth of wood. It was a great concept. He and Bud Slingerland, the owner of Slingerland Drum Company in Chicago had been good friends for years. My father was one of their endorsers.
[0:26:59.9] KM: Was it lighter weight to move around also, which kind of solved one of those problems?
[0:27:02.1] DR: It was lighter, but that wasn’t the reason for it.
[0:27:04.5] KM: What was the reason for it?
[0:27:05.9] DR: The acoustics and the stability of the material.
[0:27:08.5] KM: Was plastic like a new thing and he was playing with plastic?
[0:27:11.4] DR: No. Fiber — No.
[0:27:13.5] KM: No? Because Steve McQueen died from fiber glass or something, didn’t he? Yeah.
[0:27:17.5] DR: I don’t know.
[0:27:19.1] KM: I think that’s a different kind of fiber glass. Yeah, he used to do boats with all that fiber glass and that fiber glass got in his lungs. Yeah, they’re in the war and it got in his lungs.
[0:27:28.8] DR: You have to be careful. It was a good concept and it proved itself. He showed it in Chicago, went to a tradeshow up there at the Slingerland Drum Display. My father and Bud Slingerland just about work out all the details for a joint venture and Bud Slingerland was diagnosed with cancer and he was dead within four months. It was a very virulent form in the lungs, I guess.
[0:27:53.9] KM: Probably with all that fiber glass.
[0:27:56.2] DR: He didn’t. Probably that smoke —
[0:27:58.3] KM: Is it patented?
[0:28:02.3] DR: It was. It was a custom company after that and he made him for people on small scale. I still have the prototypes and —
[0:28:11.2] KM: You don’t meant they’re not being made anymore.
[0:28:12.5] DR: No, we don’t make them anymore.
[0:28:13.9] KM: The patent is expired and the need is no longer there. Why would the need ever disappear?
[0:28:20.0] DR: I don’t know that it did. We just didn’t have the wherewithal to go forward with it on a national basis. It was just a custom basis.
[0:28:26.7] KM: Yeah, and you just don’t do it anymore. When I tell people that you were coming on, they think it’s Ronco Drum, R-O-N-C-O.
[0:28:34.8] DR: I get phone calls. It’s kind of funny. I’ll answer the phone, Rosen music or Ramco. They don’t even ask what is this. They just start asking, “I need 755 gallon drums this color.” Then I say, “This is a music store.” “Oh, crap!”
[0:28:53.9] KM: There is a Ronco Drum?
[0:28:56.5] DR: Salvage company.
[0:28:57.6] KM: Salvage Company. That’s what they’re doing. We’re transposing those two. Mixing them up. I get you.
[0:29:03.6] DR: There’s a difference and there’s one —
[0:29:07.8] KM: Thanks, David.
[0:29:08.3] DR: You’re welcome.
[0:29:09.6] KM: How old were you when you came into the family business?
[0:29:12.6] DR: Oh, I didn’t come until ’72. Not age 72. The year ’72.
[0:29:16.8] KM: You’re not even 72 now.
[0:29:21.2] DR: I guess that would make me — I don’t know. 40, 36 or something like that.
[0:29:26.3] KM: Oh, really?
[0:29:28.1] DR: I don’t know. I was born at ’41, so 41, 31, that was 31.
[0:29:31.9] KM: You were young. Was your dad still on the store?
[0:29:33.3] DR: Yeah.
[0:29:34.3] KM: Did you all work together?
[0:29:34.9] DR: Mm-hmm.
[0:29:35.9] KM: How was that?
[0:29:36.7] DR: It was interesting.
[0:29:38.1] KM: What does that mean?
[0:29:38.8] DR: It means a lot of stuff. It was interesting and instructional and at times difficult. My dad was an interesting guy to say the least. He had come up to the depression, and people in the depression really became the greatest generation. They’re so indicated as of the World War II. Had scrap for everything. There were no programs. You could find a job and get something to eat. He scrapped. That was your reflect was to work. It was interesting.
[0:30:13.4] KM: I think you were very responsible for yourself. Very very —
[0:30:18.9] DR: I was interested, the parallels entry. You started your company on $400. He started Rosen Music Company on $5. That was years earlier. There’s probably a correlation there.
[0:30:32.4] KM: Well, I think that’s an entrepreneurial spirit.
[0:30:35.1] DR: Yes, you don’t quit.
[0:30:36.4] KM: You don’t ever quit.
[0:30:38.1] DR: Losing is an option, or failure is not an option —
[0:30:41.7] KM: That’s a very good way of putting it. Failure is really not an option.
[0:30:44.8] DR: I had a good friend, we used to golf a lot together. He was an old baseball guy and they played — Their gloves were real flimsy and almost no gloves. We would always talk and he’d say, “Yeah, when it’s tough, you just got to wake up each morning and dip your hands in salt water and come out swinging.
[0:30:59.9] KM: Oh! That’s awful.
[0:31:02.2] DR: That way they toughened up their hands though in early baseball. That’s what that meant. Yeah.
[0:31:08.2] KM: Really?
[0:31:08.5] DR: Yeah.
[0:31:09.1] KM: I’ve never heard that.
[0:31:10.2] DR: What he meant, it doesn’t matter. You got to dig in and do something right every day.
[0:31:15.4] KM: Yeah, the guy we had last week, Rick St. Vincent, was talking about exactly that. I hear that a lot from entrepreneurs that they cannot not be an entrepreneur. They just go for it all the time. I hear that from people all the time.
You’re still kind of the same company you were back then. You’re still a full-service company. You still sell products.
[0:31:40.2] DR: What we do, this was the case from day one in 1955. My father decided, if you’re going to sell a person something, they have to know they can get it fixed, and you can learn. Our mantra or motto is we’ll sell it to you, teach you to play it, and fix it if you break it.
[0:31:58.2] KM: Golly! That’s full-service, all right?
[0:31:59.3] DR: They come back, it’s face time. Small business is face time. You meet people. In our case, we got generations now. I even know a lot of them. If you can assure the customer at some point in the relationship that if something happens, you’re going to take care of that for them and you could come maybe one level above a customer client type thing.
[0:32:25.0] KM: Like guitar center.
[0:32:27.0] DR: Maybe. Probably. Yeah, exactly.
[0:32:30.9] KM: They’re a franchise, I think.
[0:32:32.5] DR: Yeah, they’re very large. Yeah, it’s the main capital. I didn’t know that we recently sold, but, yeah, it’s a national company.
[0:32:39.3] KM: I had laughed more on this show than any other show I think I’ve ever been on. I don’t know why. You’re funny.
[0:32:44.6] DR: Because you’re kind. You’re putting up with an old guy who don’t know much to say.
[0:32:48.5] KM: You’re pretty darn funny. They’re going to have to edit all my laughs out. What about guitar center? Is it threatening to your business?
[0:32:57.6] DR: It’s a different level altogether. They’re so big. They’re a huge conglomerate in a way. Although, they’ve wobbled a little bit, because it’s essentially a leverage situation.
[0:33:13.0] KM: You mean by a leveraged situation that they got cash flow issues or they’re living on cash flow.
[0:33:18.7] DR: Living on financing inventory.
[0:33:20.7] KM: Yeah.
[0:33:21.5] DR: They could buy —
[0:33:22.8] KM: They’ve got a lot of inventory.
[0:33:23.8] DR: They sell entry level guitars, for example, less than we can buy them for. We don’t really compete — One year I did try to compete with drums with them. These $199 drum sets, but getting back to our mantra, we’ll sell it to you, teach you to play it, fix it if it breaks. I sold six of those cheap drum sets and spent the whole next year fixing those six drums. That was my one foray into that level. We don’t deal in that kind of stuff.
[0:33:55.5] KM: I think of them like a big box store. You get a price but there’s no service and no support after it’s over with.
[0:34:03.3] DR: That’s what a lot of people tell me.
[0:34:04.4] KM: It’s kind of a disposable product, and there’s a place for that. There’s a place for that. You’re like Tim over there moving around all the time. You’re like, “I’ll just leave that drum set. I’ll get another one.” Maybe not, but yeah maybe.
Then there’s people like me who wants to buy something one time and I don’t ever want to buy it again and I want it to last the rest of my life and I don’t want to check that off my list and be done with it.
[0:34:30.9] DR: Value is the primary component, and that’s the position we deal from.
[0:34:35.9] KM: That’s exactly Arkansas Flag & Banner’s philosophy.
[0:34:37.9] DR: I thought it might be.
[0:34:39.6] KM: That’s the only way a small business today can really set themselves apart is to give service and value because you can’t compete with these people buying products from China in a truckload and bringing it over here.
[0:34:55.7] DR: Interesting too, what happened recently —
[0:34:59.5] KM: Not just from China, from anywhere.
[0:35:00.3] DR: With South Korea, for example. I’ve forgotten the name of the shipping company, but they went bankrupt and they had one big ship stuck in Long Beach and it was blocking the port and they couldn’t bring the other boats in to unload, so a lot of retailers are kind of scrambling right now.
[0:35:17.3] KM: What do you mean? When was this? Is this recent?
[0:35:18.9] DR: Yeah. It just got resolved last, or earlier this week, I guess. Anyway, the point is that you’re right. As a small business, your responsibility not only is to your people and your bottom line or your bank if you have a bank, but to your customers —
[0:35:38.6] KM: And your employees.
[0:35:39.9] DR: Yeah. It’s, in a very real sense, the symbiotic relationship. You can’t operate without customers. You can’t function without people working for you to make sure the customers are pleased with what they get. It’s just one of these little — There’s a rare South Pacific bird called a whiffle bird and this happens to a lot of companies. They fly lazily around in concentric circles and then they suddenly fly off their own rear end and disappear.
[0:36:11.2] KM: That is not true.
[0:36:15.0] DR: It’s kind of a metaphor again for companies that don’t really tend to customer.
[0:36:20.4] KM: Just flying around in circle until they fly up their own rear end.
[0:36:23.5] DR: They disappear.
[0:36:24.8] KM: Do you have grandkids?
[0:36:25.3] DR: No.
[0:36:26.5] KM: It’s too bad, because they would love you. You should.
[0:36:29.9] DR: I’ve got nieces and grandnieces and we have good times. I have kids in the store. It’s a good time with them.
[0:36:36.3] KM: Boy! Ain’t that the truth? I’m very pleased that you remember that my children, right before I came on the show, listeners, David told me he remembered me bringing my kids down there, like two or three or my four children took lessons, drums.
[0:36:52.2] DR: It was so interesting, because Kerry would drop them off and they come in and all of a sudden she’s leave and relax.
[0:37:00.2] KM: Imagine that.
[0:37:01.8] DR: Take their lessons and get real good and at the end of the lesson they’d kind of trepidatiously walk out to the door, waiting for Kerry to get there and they go, “I’ll tie it again.” No. That’s not right.
[0:37:12.5] KM: That’s why everybody does it around me. Not just my kids.
[0:37:15.3] DR: That was not an accurate statement.
[0:37:17.5] KM: Yeah, really. Take that back.
[0:37:19.0] DR: I took it back. I took it back.
[0:37:20.5] KM: My kids love their mother.
[0:37:23.2] DR: Your kids were great.
[0:37:24.1] KM: They are great kids. All my kids are great kids. All of them are gifted and talented and musically inclined, but only one of them is still singing, a paid singer. I have one as a paid singer at a church. The rest of them could be — I think this is interesting about children if the listeners are listening, that once they get into a choir and they get that choir mentality, like mine did in school or in church, they want to be in a choir all their adult life. It’s interesting. There’s a choir mentality that the kids just like.
[0:38:00.3] DR: It’s not vocal music, it’s music. It’s one of the greatest activities a kid can be forwarded.
[0:38:07.1] KM: Well, I know it.
[0:38:07.7] DR: The community band movement is very huge now. North Little Rock Community Band has grown enormously, and they’re all former high school, junior high school band people.
[0:38:16.7] KM: If a person wants to get into music and wants their child to get into music. Did you take band in school?
[0:38:24.5] DR: Oh, sure. Yeah.
[0:38:25.2] KM: Is that where you think they should start or do you think it should be like all these other pressure on parents to start their children at four? Tell the listeners how you think they should start.
[0:38:35.5] DR: The best way to start, if there is a school band program, and Arkansas is noted as a good band state all around the state. If they get an opportunity to start beginning band, they need to find a way to do that if there’s any way possible.
[0:38:51.6] KM: Junior high is not too late or high school is not too late.
[0:38:55.0] DR: No. Your age is not too late, 29.
[0:38:58.8] KM: That’s right.
[0:39:01.1] DR: 28 or 29?
[0:39:02.3] KM: 29.
[0:39:03.2] DR: 29. Yeah, you could start today and get real good. The point is all music is — First of all, music is athletic. Your training your mind and body to become reflexive in terms of playing an instrument.
[0:39:20.2] KM: Really?
[0:39:20.5] DR: Yeah, you have to view the note, your eyes sees a note. It transmits it to the brain, the brain sends the message to the various digits or arms or feet or hands that need to come into play in order to produce that sound. The more you practice, the quicker you get. It’s like catching a ball. The first time somebody threw somebody a baseball, a little kid. He says, “Ooh! Here comes the ball. Oh, my glove.” Hopefully he gets it up or dodges before it pops him between the eyes.
Over a period of time, it’s just reflex. He catches that ball and throws it back in one motion. It’s an acquired skill. The beauty of it is it stays with you and it really applies to everything that you do. If you deal in math, it’s very mathematical.
[0:40:10.9] KM: I’ve heard that before.
[0:40:12.3] DR: And reading and interpretive. It’s the right side brain. Yeah, it’s a very very important element in the educational scheme. Sometimes, in my opinion, we get a little bit too wrapped up in technology and forget the ABCs of learning, literally.
[0:40:31.2] KM: I’m glad to hear that our schools are not negligent in the areas of music.
[0:40:38.0] DR: There haven’t trouble. Finances are always a problem, and I don’t know why that is. There’s just problems with it. The sad thing is when their budget cuts have been made. It’s always the passive least resistance. In this case, in the arts. That’s true countrywide.
[0:40:56.5] KM: They don’t cut the sports. They cut the arts.
[0:40:58.5] DR: They cut those down some too.
[0:41:00.1] KM: Do they?
[0:41:00.3] DR: Yeah. Budgets are budgets. You know that. You deal with budgets everyday probably. Not necessarily budgets just before the next payments comes.
[0:41:11.1] KM: I don’t think people that are in small business realize how much we do live, hand them out in small businesses.
[0:41:17.5] DR: The people outside of small business —
[0:41:18.5] KM: That’s what I meant to say. People outside — People always go, “Oh, carry your rich.” I go, “Well, maybe this year, but next year I might be broke.”
[0:41:25.4] DR: Maybe next week.
[0:41:27.1] KM: You never know.
[0:41:29.6] DR: Just this last period has been pretty flat —
[0:41:32.4] KM: Yes, it’s always that way before an election. You and I were talking about that before we went on the radio that everybody is always scared. If their person doesn’t get in, that the world is going to hell in a hand basket.
[0:41:44.0] DR: I think just any disruption.
[0:41:45.0] KM: Any election. Yeah.
[0:41:46.7] DR: Any disruption.
[0:41:46.7] KM: You said it happened with —
[0:41:47.9] DR: For years, it was the racing season. When Oakland opened in February and our retail component, it flattened out. Just about the end of the race track you take a little breath and, bang, it’s tax season. Nothing much happens until May.
[0:42:04.5] KM: I think we’re going to have a pretty long dry spell here coming up. We’re going to get our budgets out and start looking at them right now.
[0:42:12.4] DR: I think it’s going to be a very very boom period.
[0:42:15.4] KM: Okay, good. Keep saying that to me. I need all the —
[0:42:17.0] DR: It’s going to be a boom period. Sonic boom.
[0:42:19.9] KM: Text me that every day, will you? You’re listening to Up In Your Business with Kerry McCoy on KABF. This is a mentoring show for small business owners or for those who dream of owning a small business. My guest today is the trumpeter, David Rosen, and I can’t believe you didn’t bring your trumpet. I can’t believe that. I told my daughter to call you and tell you to bring it. You probably would’ve blown us out of here though.
[0:42:41.8] DR: Yeah, absolutely. I could play Happy Days Are Here Again.
[0:42:46.8] KM: We’d have to put you in the other room and make you play for —
[0:42:50.4] DR: What you’ll have to do is the next time a big band plays, you’ll have to be sure to come down here.
[0:42:55.5] KM: I absolutely will. Listen, if you’re going to invite me, I’m going to invite you — Oh gosh! Time is flying by. Let me make sure I get everything we want to talk about. I want to talk about your — did want to tell the listeners about how to get their kids started with you. How do kids get in touch with you?
[0:43:11.8] DR: At the store, Rosen Music Company. The number is 501-666-0814, or rosenmusic@aol.com. We have a rental program. It’s very very simple, very easy —
[0:43:22.6] KM: You do?
[0:43:23.4] DR: Oh, sure. Beginning students. It’s like 27, 25 a month and it’s a month-to-month rental.
[0:43:30.6] KM: $7.
[0:43:32.4] DR: $27.
[0:43:33.5] KM: Oh, $27.
[0:43:34.3] DR: And 25 cents a month.
[0:43:36.5] KM: For a rental program.
[0:43:37.6] DR: Yeah, it’s $20 rent. There’s sales tax in that and a little bit of damage, insurance on that. $20 of that each month may be applied toward a purchase of that or another instrument if you decide to buy. As I said, a month to month rental, so you maintain your return privilege throughout. It’s a simple way to go, for clarinets, flutes, trumpets, trombones, saxophones, percussion.
[0:44:04.1] KM: That is wonderful. Anybody could get involved with that. You’ve taken the barriers down. Anybody could do $27 a month.
[0:44:13.0] DR: A lot of people really bust it to do that. We’ve got strain times in a lot of cases, but that’s due.
[0:44:22.6] KM: Do you sell only wind instruments?
[0:44:26.9] DR: We sell all wind, strings, and percussion.
[0:44:29.8] KM: You have classes in all of those?
[0:44:31.7] DR: Sure. Everything we sell we teach and repair. Yeah. Perry Israel is our guitar teacher. Brian Withers is our percussion teacher.
[0:44:40.1] KM: I think that’s who taught my son.
[0:44:41.4] DR: It is.
[0:44:41.7] KM: That’s been — He’s still there?
[0:44:43.6] DR: Yeah, he’s younger than I am.
[0:44:45.4] KM: Tell him that my son is a crazy ukulele player.
[0:44:48.2] DR: I will
[0:44:48.4] KM: Aha! He’s got lots of them.
[0:44:50.4] DR: Yeah, we sell ukuleles.
[0:44:50.7] KM: He even got a banjo size one.
[0:44:53.2] DR: Yeah, we got those too.
[0:44:55.9] KM: Tell Perry he had influence on him.
[0:44:58.2] DR: I will. Perry Israel is as good a teacher and —
[0:45:02.2] KM: Who’s doing the drums these days?
[0:45:03.0] DR: Brian Withers.
[0:45:04.0] KM: Same guy.
[0:45:05.5] DR: Yeah. I don’t let him go. In fact, Brian, we were talking one day — I don’t mean to take all your time.
[0:45:11.3] KM: No. You’re good.
[0:45:12.7] DR: Brian’s first teacher was my dad.
[0:45:15.0] KM: What?
[0:45:15.5] DR: Yup.
[0:45:17.0] KM: God, y’all are family. People out there listening, it’s Rosen Music Company down on Main Street. They are awesome. Y’all have gone full circle and moved back down to Main Street where your father started. You were gone to Cavenaugh for how many years?
[0:45:28.6] DR: We were on Cavenaugh right across the old Heights Theatre for I guess 40 years. That’s where we were when I got in. His dad started 55 to 716 and we went out there and back down to 214 to 60 or down. I was going to retire —
[0:45:44.7] KM: No.
[0:45:46.9] DR: I saw that place and said that looks a lot like my dad’s first store, so I took that. Thinking for a year. I looked up the other day and it had been six years.
[0:45:56.6] KM: Wow! Oh, you’ve been down there that long. It’s like providence when that kind of stuff happens. When you feel it in your heart and your soul and you’re like, “No. I’m supposed to do this.” There’s a bunch of music companies down there too, and you’re down by south of Main who’s rocking the house with great music.
[0:46:08.9] DR: Yeah, we get to — Our big band plays there.
[0:46:10.0] KM: And the piano?
[0:46:12.0] DR: Yes. You get south on Main, Piano Kraft, Richard Deutsch.
[0:46:17.3] KM: Then Romco Drums. Man! It’s just a music center.
[0:46:19.6] DR: That was another bit of irony. I want to sell this location. My dad’s first store at 716 was right in the middle of the block. On the north corner, that was an economy drug store which was a bakery, snack bar and a pharmacy, and then Colaianni Piano Company on the south corner at 8th and Main. When I saw this place, I looked here, and I saw Community Bakery, and I saw Piano Kraft. The irony is palpable.
[0:46:46.1] KM: Your dad is watching down at you and saying it’s time to repeat it.
[0:46:50.4] DR: He’s laughing at me probably.
[0:46:53.2] KM: He’s laughing at you. David, I want to come see you play and I want you to have these two tickets to Dancing In The Dreamland. Bring your beautiful bride. I’d love to meet her.
[0:47:01.7] DR: I’ll do that. I will.
[0:47:02.0] KM: It’s next Friday. It’s six days from today, and it’s a really lovely event and it’s early to bed. You don’t have to stay up late.
[0:47:10.0] DR: That’s for me.
[0:47:11.5] KM: That’s for me. It starts at 7. You get your seat and your appetizers and sit down, and at 8:00 the competition, dance competition starts. From 8 to 9, you watch the dance troops compete, and then you take notes and they’re judged by a panel of judges, just like Dancing With the Stars, and then you text vote in your favorite. Ain’t that fun? It’s really great group of people.
Being a musician, you understand how people just put themselves out there. This group of people at Dancing in the Dreamland, this is our 7th year. Our family of musicians and people, I guess, because they just really lay it on their lines. Some of them are professionals. Some of them are not.
[0:47:57.7] DR: I don’t like to plug, tell — But I have to plug this.
[0:48:00.0] KM: Go ahead.
[0:48:01.3] DR: Dancing with the Stars. That is the most phenomenal show, in my opinion, because the music is live, and it is a heck of a band. It’s as good a band that you will get to hear, and it’s what television was when we were growing up.
[0:48:15.4] KM: It’s Sullivan.
[0:48:16.4] DR: It’s Sullivan, Jackie Gleason, Shower of Stars with Sid Caesar and Imogene Coco. Live music. This is a life production, and the dancers were —
[0:48:26.6] KM: Oh, yeah. I love the dancing.
[0:48:28.2] DR: The music — When you think about it, it’s not recorded. That’s happening right now. The singing. It’s quite good. Yeah, this is going to harp to that. maybe one of these days, you want a real band, and I have one.
[0:48:40.4] KM: I think we talked about having you one time, but you have to carry all your instruments upstairs because we’re on an elevator. That’s why we keep having fundraisers to try to get an elevator.
[0:48:48.1] DR: I’ll help you all I can.
[0:48:50.1] KM: You’re a good person. I love that Dancing With The Stars and I love dancing, and that’s why I thought, “Well, my fundraisers should be focusing on dancers,” because people don’t really feature dancers. The reason they don’t, I think, it’s because it’s hard to put together. We have a rehearsal the night before that goes on for 12 hours. It’s a big production. You’re going to love it, because the tables are all the way up like Dancing With The Stars up to the dance floor. You could reach out and touch their legs when they kick them up, and we’ve got some great people, and we got a surprise. Amy Garland is going to surprise us and sing a little song.
I know. That’s good. Let me see if there’s anything else I forgot to ask you. You talked about education. You don’t have to go to school. You stayed here, made a great career. Your guitar center is what is and you are what you are and it doesn’t really matter. You offer a great opportunity to young artists who want to just see if there’s a place for them in music by offering a $27 rental. I think that is just wonderful.
[0:49:57.8] DR: It’s handy.
[0:49:59.6] KM: Does anybody else do that?
[0:50:00.4] DR: Other stores have rental programs. I’m not sure what their fees are.
[0:50:04.8] KM: I love that idea.
[0:50:04.2] DR: We’ve cut it down as far as we can. I think it’s pretty nice.
[0:50:09.6] KM: It’s very very nice.
[0:50:12.1] DR: The instruments are all first quality.
[0:50:13.5] KM: Of course, because they’re yours.
[0:50:15.0] DR: That’s right.
[0:50:16.6] KM: Let me know when you’re going to play somewhere. I want to come and see you. I’ll stay up late even. That’s impossible, but I’ll try.
[0:50:22.7] DR: We don’t play late. Our average age is up, up, up.
[0:50:25.7] KM: Oh, good. Good. Look what I got you?
[0:50:30.8] DR: Oh my goodness! Oh my God!
[0:50:33.4] KM: It’s a cigar.
[0:50:34.0] DR: I know it is.
[0:50:34.9] KM: You know what’s that for? Birthing a business.
[0:50:38.6] DR: Really? Thank you.
[0:50:40.0] KM: You’re welcome. You can go and enjoy that with your scotch. Is that right?
[0:50:44.5] DR: That’s correct.
[0:50:45.0] KM: Yeah, you’ll like that.
[0:50:46.6] DR: Brian called me the other day, he’s going to come by for a drink — Ryan Harrison, South of Main, and he said, “Is the beer cold? I said, “Ryan, the Scotch is old, the beer is cold. Come on down.”
[0:51:01.1] KM: It’s good. Thank you, David. That cigar came from the Humidor Room at Colonial Wine & Spirits on Markham in Little Rock. That is a great room. If anybody likes to smoke cigars, they’ve got a wonderful selection at the Humidor room in Colonial Wine & Spirits on Markham.
Thank you to my guest today, the talented, humble, and handsome — How about that? David Rosen, from the Rosen Music Company on Main Street in Little Rock, Arkansas.
My guest next week will be Allen Engstrom, owner and founder of CFO Network. You’re asking yourself, what is that? Well, it’s an accounting business analysis and consulting firm for all types of business. Allen is going to give advice and he’s also an entrepreneur because he started this business. Allen is super smart and has a really creative way for small business to outsource their accounting needs. I love this business model he has for small businesses with accounting needs. You people need to hear this, so put it on your calendar.
Also, if you have a great entrepreneurial story and would like to share it, I’d love to hear from you. Send a brief bio and your contact info to questions —
[0:52:19.9] TB: Questions@upyourbusiness.org.
[0:52:22.4] KM: And someone will be in touch. Goodbye to my veterans. Come see me at Arkansas Flag & Banner. We’re doubling your discounts from 15% to 30% this week because we love our vets, active and retired. Finally, to our listeners, thank you for spending time with me and my guest, David Rosen.
If you think this program has been about you, you’re right, but it’s also about me. Thank you for letting me fulfill my destiny. My hope today is that you have heard something or learned something that’s been inspiring or enlightening and that it, whatever it is, will help you up your business, your independence, or your life. I’m Kerry McCoy, be brave and keep it up.
[END OF INTERVIEW]
[0:53:06.7] TB: You’ve been listening to Up in Your Business with Kerry McCoy. Want to hear today’s program again or want someone else to benefit from it? Jot this down. Within 48 hours the podcast will be available at flagandbanner.com. Click the tab labeled “Radio Show”, there you’ll find today’s segments with links to resources you heard discussed on this program. Kerry’s goal: to help you live the American Dream.
