132: The Journey of an Entrepreneur with Connie Houlihan

Today's guest: Connie Houlihan Connie began playing piano when she was 5 years old and by the time she was 13, she had started her first business – a piano studio, Journeys in Music. She continued teaching during college and worked at LaDeDa Entertainment while earning a bachelor’s degree in Music Business from Fontbonne University in St. Louis, MO. She developed a unique system to teach piano, incorporating her love of technology and composition, so all her students composed and recorded their own music. She partnered with Yamaha to train piano teachers around the Midwest using her system. After 20 years of running her own studio, she earned her Master’s in Education at the University of Missouri, St. Louis and spent 5 years in the St. Louis Public School system teaching general music classes, preschool through 8th grade. She secured a grant with VH-1’s Save the Music foundation and helped create a curriculum for the music department in St. Louis Public Schools to utilize the keyboard lab. Since 2009, she operates Houlihan Fence & Repair, their family fence company, handling marketing, sales, and accounting. In addition, from 2009 - 2014, she founded and operated NannyNurse Network, an online, sick childcare agency providing medically trained caregivers in the patient’s home so parents can go to work when their child is home sick. In 2020, she founded Nontoxic Safe Zone Solutions, which features ANGEL Shield anti-microbial products that inactivate microbes for up to 3+ months. Their line of face masks, laundry detergent, hand sanitizer and antimicrobial spray is launching in August. She is also a Quantum Living Advocate with Solex, using frequencies to balance the body, mind, and soul. She is an advocate of the CEO program (Creating Entrepreneurial Opportunities) with Midland Institute of Entrepreneurship which trains high school students to create their own business with a local mentor in their community. She has also co-founded 2 women’s business networking groups (Wise Women Connect and Connecting &amp