Background:
Matt Wigler is originally from Baltimore, Maryland. He first came to Miami to attend music school at the Frost School of Music at the University of Miami, where he studied jazz and piano. He started playing jazz and blues piano professionally at a very young age when he was in high school in Maryland. He graduated with a double major from the University of Miami in Music and Spanish Language. He fell in love with Miami and decided to stay and get his MBA from the University of Miami. Matt is now the Founder and CEO of MHW Live Music and Wigler Group.
Matt founded MHW Live Music in 2016, with the mission to become the leading provider of entertainment for hotel food and beverage outlets in the United States. Today, their team provides top local musicians and DJs to dozens of hotels in every US region, focusing on guest experience and stress-free scheduling for our hotel manager clients. Their clients are luxury hotels under the Waldorf Astoria, Ritz-Carlton, JW Marriott, Marriott, Hilton, Hyatt, and other brands. They’re active in various hospitality, food and beverage, and meetings and events industry associations.
Matt founded Wigler Group in 2020, with the goal of helping small-to-midsize businesses achieve a consistent flow of qualified sales meetings. Their team handles the prospecting and schedules the sales meetings for dozens of B2B clients in software, advertising, and other industries. Matt has an active career as a jazz and blues artist and performs with his trio at venues and festivals worldwide. In this episode, he speaks on topics including entrepreneurship, business-to-business sales, and building strong company culture in a remote environment.
Time-Stamped Show Notes:
- [0:23] Alex introduces himself and his guest Matt Wigler.
- [1:12] Matt talks a little about his background in music and his businesses.
- [3:58] Alex briefly discusses the trial and error for buisnesses during COVID-19.
- [5:10] Matt goes into detail about how being a musician has helped him with being an entrepreneur.
- [9:20] Alex tells musicians or anyone pursuing art, in general, is that the biggest thing you have to have that aligns with entrepreneurship is that you have to take risks, and failure is part of the journey.
- [13:37] Alex asks Matt, how do you deal with family and friends understanding that you have to put time a lot of time into music and buisness?
- [16:09] He feels fortunate to have a wife that supports him and his dad, who has gone down the same path as him. He loves what he does, so it’s hard for him to find that distinction between working and not.
- [20:34] Alex brings up the most recent study done in Iceland based on work-life balance. Where they took 2,400-2,500 public works employees and gave them four day work weeks for an extended time, they found the performance was better, and the employees were happier.
- [21:53] Matt discusses the structure they’ve put in place for both companies because they’re 100 percent virtual.
- [29:10] The number one reason Matt took the path he’s on is because of the freedom he has of his own time, even if it means working on a Saturday so he can play golf on a Tuesday.
- [32:22] Alex and Matt switch gears to talk about lead generation, marketing, and customer service.
- [37:58] Wigler Group has a bunch of media and advertising agencies that are big and small. They define their target markets, and they know they only need to get one new customer out of their relationship to get a phenomenal return on investment.
- [40:33] Alex asks Matt when they’re reaching out to customers, what’s more effective? Is it electronically or via phone call?
- [44:15] Matt says the real thing that improves the connection and response rate is when the person who is about to reach out sits and thinks for a minute about who this person is and what background information or possible connection they can tie into their approach.
- [47:35] Matt always tells his clients that there is a wide range of understanding about how much persistence over a long period of time it takes to really produce a result.
Key point from the interview:
“You’d be surprised how many people are willing to help you if you ask in the right way, especially people who are older and more successful that have walked the same path.”
– Matt Wigler
Where you can find Matt:
- LinkedIn – https://www.linkedin.com/in/mattwigler/
- MHW Live Music – https://mhwlivemusic.com/
- Wigler Group – https://www.wiglergroup.com/
- Matt Wigler – https://www.mattwigler.com/
