“I’ve learned lessons from people here that changed the way I do business”: A Q&A with Creative Entrepreneur Larry Mickie
Written by Meg Seitz · Photography by Julia Fay
What if a coworking space could also be part-business school and part-personal branding school?
Meet Larry Mickie, Founder & CEO of MusicLinx and Kanari – and learn more about how lessons he learned at Hygge have helped him to grow his businesses.
Larry Mickie
Founder & CEO of MusicLinx & Kanari
Kanari makes running a business easier for creative professionals and freelancers
What were your biggest questions, concerns or fears when you started your business?
My biggest fear was not being able to deliver on the experience I wanted to provide to every, single customer. Another big concern was not being able to find the right ecosystem and community of people who that could help me to learn, grow and evolve into a better and stronger entrepreneur. Building businesses can get pretty lonely and stressful at times, and I knew that I wanted to put myself in a position and in a space where, when I looked around, I saw people with the same passion in their eyes.
“My biggest fear was not being able to deliver on the experience I wanted to provide to every, single customer.”
How did hygge or the hygge community help to calm that fear?
hygge is a great community of bright and talented people who are always there to lend a helping hand. I knew I was in in the right place for me the first time I felt like like everyone around me at hygge wanted me to succeed; that’s a pretty powerful feeling on those hard days running a business.
How’d you know hygge was YOUR place to build your business?
I remember my first day looking for coworking spaces. It was a random Saturday. I knocked on the door at hygge, and I was greeted with a warm smile by a woman whom I eventually learned was Torie Leslie. She asked me who was I there to meet, and I told her I was just interested in checking out the coworking space if there was a day pass available. She told to reach out to Garrett, but then told me to tell him that I was her guest for the day. At that moment, I was slightly blown away, not because of how cool hygge looked, but how this lady – who didn’t know me from a bag of chips – invited me in and claimed me as her guest. I’m not sure if she remembers the moment, but for me that was the first moment I saw that this was more than just a coworking space, it was family. I still feel that warmth.
What’s become more possible for you and your companies because of hygge?
Being a member of the hygge community has allowed me to perfect my personal branding and then how my brand communicates with the world. On top of that, I’ve not only been able to build my businesses, but also I’ve learned lessons from people here that changed the way I do business.
Being a hygge member really makes you bleed Yellow.
“Being a member of the hygge community has allowed me to perfect my personal branding and then how my brand communicates with the world.”
Meet the Author: Meg Seitz is the Founder and Managing Creative Partner of toth shop, an agency with one goal: Elevate your brand’s content through powerful writing, creativity, and strategy. She also serves as an Adjunct Professor with Queens University and Founding Partner of the children’s book series, “Bea is for Business”.
She’s an English major with an MBA, so she can talk Homer’s “The Odyssey” just as well as she can talk sunk costs – though she’d much prefer the former.
Meet the photographer: Julia Murray, owner of Julia Fay Photography, feels most at home behind a camera with a story to tell on the other side. Her business began during her sophomore year of college, while majoring in radio and tv broadcasting. Now residing in Charlotte NC, she primarily shoots weddings and other local small businesses like her own. Her favorite part about her job is the connection it brings between art and people.
