{"id":16491,"date":"2019-05-08T05:30:12","date_gmt":"2019-05-08T09:30:12","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/blog.musoscribe.com\/?p=16491"},"modified":"2019-05-10T08:29:13","modified_gmt":"2019-05-10T12:29:13","slug":"musical-matchmaker-paul-heumiller-of-dream-guitars-part-three","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/blog.musoscribe.com\/index.php\/2019\/05\/08\/musical-matchmaker-paul-heumiller-of-dream-guitars-part-three\/","title":{"rendered":"Musical Matchmaker: Paul Heumiller of Dream Guitars (Part Three)"},"content":{"rendered":"

Continued from Part Two<\/a>…<\/i><\/p>\n

Life and Livelihood Entwined
\n<\/b>With success, the demands of running Dream Guitars grew over the years; Heumiller loved the work but found that his life\/work balance wasn\u2019t what it should have been. A few years after relocating to North Carolina, he attended a real estate buying seminar (\u201ca momentary dabble of mine,\u201d he says with a chuckle) and found himself struck by a point the presenter made. \u201cThere were about a hundred people in the room,\u201d he recalls. \u201cThe guy said, \u2018If you work for yourself, raise your hand.\u2019 We all did. Then he asked, \u2018If you walked away from your business for two years, would it grow?\u2019 Everybody\u2019s hands went down. He told us, \u2018None of you owns a business. You own a job<\/i>.\u2019\u201d Heumiller pauses, savoring the memory. \u201cHe was completely right. And that made me reevaluate everything.\u201d<\/p>\n

If he needed further encouragement along that path, he soon received it. Heumiller recalls a discussion with a yoga instructor during private sessions focused not only on physical movement but on way-of-life issues. \u201cI was complaining about running Dream Guitars,\u201d he says. \u201cHonestly, I was getting burnt out on the business because I was fighting it. And he stopped me in my tracks: \u2018What about your business is not yoga? What about your business is not pure joy?\u2019 And that really made me reflect on everything I do.\u201d By focusing on the idea that his work is service, Heumiller achieved a different perspective. \u201cBefore I would answer a phone call, I would breathe and think, \u2018How do I serve this person?\u2019 It completely changed my interaction with everybody. And ever since then, I\u2019ve had so much joy.\u201d<\/p>\n

Heumiller also set about developing a very small yet highly skilled staff to help him with the business. Today the \u201cDream Team\u201d includes eight people, handling everything from marketing to video production to routine business matters. And their enthusiasm absolutely radiates. Scott Bresnick works in both marketing and operations at Dream Guitars. He views his work as an opportunity to be \u201cright in the middle of what I consider the Golden Age of Lutherie.\u201d That kind of passion means that even when Heumiller\u2019s not in the shop, Dream Guitars is well looked after. \u201cSo now, I\u2019ll go for builder training for a week, or a ten-day meditation, or whatever,\u201d Paul says. And the business is in good hands. \u201cWe don\u2019t miss a beat.\u201d<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/p>\n

For his guitar business, Heumiller draws much wisdom from yoga. An experienced practitioner himself, with extensive experience teaching yoga and meditation, Heumiller brings the lessons of yoga to his work matching people and instruments. \u201cIt\u2019s about service,\u201d he explains. \u201cEverybody I deal with\u2014whether it\u2019s a builder or a client\u2014I ask myself, \u2018How do I serve them best?\u2019 That\u2019s how I try to approach everything. And if you\u2019re coming at it from that angle, the rest kind of works itself out.\u201d<\/p>\n

Today, the Weaverville house is primarily used for Dream Guitars; the showroom, photo booth, audiovisual recording studio and shipping\/receiving areas take up much of the available space. Heumiller lives nearby, in a small, remote mountain cabin 4500 feet above sea level. \u201cI\u2019m a morning person,\u201d he says. \u201cEvery day for me is total joy; I\u2019m happy to get up every day to experience life, interact with people, and be a part of this wonderful world.\u201d Having achieved a balance, he doesn\u2019t feel the need to draw a line between his life and work. \u201cBecause I enjoy my work so much, it\u2019s no different than me sitting at home with friends, being with my son, reading a book, or playing guitar,\u201d he says. \u201cMy whole day is full of joyous stuff.\u201d<\/p>\n

Several times each year, Paul takes week-long classes in yoga; he\u2019s currently in the middle of a 1,000-hour program. \u201cThat\u2019s just for my own growth,\u201d he says. \u201cI don\u2019t need to have any certification in that regard, but I just enjoy it.\u201d He also launched a yoga program for inmates at the Buncombe County, N.C. jail a few years ago. And he rides his Triumph motorcycle whenever he gets the chance; the mountains of Western North Carolina are ideal for such a pursuit, but he sometimes ventures farther afield. \u201cI like to travel, and often I\u2019ll combine it with business. I\u2019ve motorcycled in about ten countries,\u201d he says.<\/p>\n

Heumiller is motivated in all things by what he describes as oneness<\/i>. \u201cI\u2019m really of the mindset that we\u2019re all one, and this whole world is one big thing that we\u2019re all part of. I\u2019ve learned to try to be my best self and my highest self; that\u2019s where the service part comes from.\u201d That philosophy informs his day-to-day life. \u201cIf we\u2019re each true to ourselves, then the whole thing will work perfectly well,\u201d he says. \u201cIt took me a long time to learn that, but that\u2019s where I\u2019m at.\u201d<\/p>\n

That sort of measured approach to life\u2014one that places focus on the things deemed important, and away from stress-inducing activities\u2014characterizes Heumiller\u2019s daily existence. \u201cI can do my part of the business anywhere I am,\u201d he explains. \u201cOther than shipping or touching the guitars, we can do everything else that the business needs remotely. And that\u2019s very much by design.\u201d Paul\u2019s an early bird: his day usually starts by 6:30 a.m. \u201cMy clients will tell you that by seven, they\u2019re already getting emails from me. I tend to work long hours, but it will be at my own pace. I might take an hour off and exercise; I might go take guitar lessons.\u201d<\/p>\n

Click here for the conclusion<\/a> …<\/i><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Continued from Part Two… Life and Livelihood Entwined With success, the demands of running Dream Guitars grew over the years; Heumiller loved the work but found that his life\/work balance […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":16502,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_exactmetrics_skip_tracking":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[41,3668],"tags":[2439,3793],"class_list":["post-16491","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-interview","category-music-business","tag-dream-guitars","tag-paul-heumiller","cat-41-id","cat-3668-id","has_thumb"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/blog.musoscribe.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/16491","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"http:\/\/blog.musoscribe.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"http:\/\/blog.musoscribe.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/blog.musoscribe.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/blog.musoscribe.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=16491"}],"version-history":[{"count":4,"href":"http:\/\/blog.musoscribe.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/16491\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":16814,"href":"http:\/\/blog.musoscribe.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/16491\/revisions\/16814"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/blog.musoscribe.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/16502"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/blog.musoscribe.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=16491"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/blog.musoscribe.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=16491"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/blog.musoscribe.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=16491"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}