Maria Lloyd (00:01.454)
Hello and welcome to the My Local Marketer podcast which shines a light on the success stories, key learnings and insights from people and businesses based in Reading Berkshire. I'm your host, Maria Lloyd. I've lived in Reading for 20 years and I've only recently started to appreciate what our wonderful town has to offer. Join me as I explore Reading's opportunities and lessons in more detail. Now without further ado, let's jump in. Hello Laura and welcome to the My Local Marketer podcast. Thank you for coming on. How are you doing?

doing good, thank you. Thank you so much for having me. This is awesome to be invited on here. no, it's my pleasure. I should say thank you because this is a very special year for Hickey, so I was particularly excited to get you on because this year it's Hickey's 160th, isn't it? yes, absolutely. Yeah, we've been going for quite a long time. We are the third oldest music shop in the country. Really? Fun fact there, I didn't know that part. Wow. So since we've launched into it, could you tell us a little bit about yourself?

Yeah, absolutely. So my name is Lara McKim. I have quite a long history with Higgies. I suppose long, long for me. I've been there for around four years and I started there actually as a Saturday girl when I was 15 years old. It was my first job. I remember walking in and bringing my CV with me all scared in my little slipknot hoodie, but I started off there. Yeah. As a Saturday girl. And then I was there for about

I don't know, I suppose, couple years. And I was there throughout my A levels. And once I finished my A levels, I took a gap year out to work full-time at Hickeys. I was saving money for uni and I was traveling. And after kind of five months of working there full-time, I became, I believe, the youngest and first female shop floor manager. And then another five months after that, I became a managing director with my co-managing director at the time. He's now...

the sole managing director of Hickeys. And it was amazing. It taught me so much. I eventually had to step down from my role because I was going to university, but I still work there remotely now while I am at university as a events coordinator. I've just organized a songwriting competition in Reading, which is amazing. And yeah, I've been there for a little while. That's amazing. What do you like about Reading?

Maria Lloyd (02:30.21)
Yeah, so to be fair, think the big thing about Reading for me is how rich the cultural scene is. We've got such a mix of events going on constantly. We've got things like Reading Festival. We've got organisations like the Culture Mix Art Group, which we recently collaborated with for the songwriting competition, who do Caribbean kind of steel pans events.

We've got all sorts of carnivals and food festivals that come through Reading. I think it's so amazing how all of the cultures come together in the town centre. It feels really special. Yeah, Reading is a really wonderful town. Could you give just a bit more depth about your special connection to Hickies? I know you have one. Yeah, yeah, it's kind of crazy actually, because I didn't know about this special connection until I started working there. So...

To be fair, probably a couple months into working there, I was talking to my Nana and she said that back in the 50s, 60s, my great grandma worked at Hickey's, which is crazy to think considering that I am there now. I remember being around like six years old and in my great grandma's house and seeing this like upright, gorgeous acoustic piano in the living room and it had the Hickey stamp on it and

seeing that and then working there, connecting the dots. It's crazy because it feels like such a kind of history that is woven in personally to me as well as Justin Reading. I saw it in pianos in my secondary school. We had the Hickey stamp on some of our pianos. So it's really, really special that we're still there. We're still the same shop and we're still kind of giving to the community in the way that we are. It's wonderful. Now I do want to come on to

how Hickeys has developed over the years. But before that, obviously congratulations being the first female and the youngest MD. What did you learn being an MD for Hickeys, those lessons? I think the main things for me was to learn on how to change and adapt the shop that is so old and has been such a traditional shop while at the same time still kind of staying true to our core. You've always been

Maria Lloyd (04:52.762)
a piano specialist. So we started off as a piano specialist and selling pianos and tuning pianos and delivering pianos, doing all of it ourselves. And as we kind of evolved, we've moved over to more digital products. And it's mainly trying to find the mix of both because we're still massively a piano shop. A big part of it was learning how to diversify our product range and really showing

the fun that we have in the shop and the humanity that we've got as not just the business, but as just people that like to have fun in a music shop. Because at the end of the day, it is a fun job. That's very relatable. Could you just go into little more detail with how you were able to share that? like you said, with everything being digital nowadays and online, that's quite a jump. So how would you show Hickey's offerings and get it in front of the right audiences? To be fair, our main kind of promotion

is organic from ourselves. use a lot of Facebook posts and Instagram posts and YouTube to do product demos and trying things out and showing the public instead of just being like, look at how nice this looks. You know, we're really testing it out and showing them what it does to see if it is the kind of right product for them. If we're trying it ourselves and we're endorsing it ourselves, it's authentic.

We're going to promote things that we would actually recommend and not just things that are high price ticket items, that kind of thing. That's brilliant. Can you think of any memorable events? Particularly for me, while I've been there, I remember Post Malone buying guitars from our shop. There was a year that he came in and he was headlining at Reading Festival and he phoned up the shop. Sorry, he didn't actually come in. I wish he did.

He phoned up the shop to ask about what acoustic guitars we had. And I was this close to reaching the phone and my colleague got there before me and I was so gutted. He actually chose to buy two of the cheapest acoustic guitars that you can get, which is crazy. Two Fender CD60 guitars. And he sent in a crew member to buy them and pick them up. And he had Posty's crew written on the back of his shirt. It felt very, very...

Maria Lloyd (07:15.422)
strange in a good way. So that was one of the biggest surreal moments for me. Another thing is we've done live lounges in the shop where we've completely moved everything aside in the evenings and we've hosted local musicians and audiences and had a little acoustic set in the shop which has been really magical. It's been really kind of intimate and very different from your typical gig. That and this year we've been nominated for the Pride of Reading Awards which is very exciting.

That is very exciting. Not long now, only a few days left from time of recording. By the time this comes out, everyone will know the results. So fingers crossed for you. Thank you so much. I know you've done this already a little bit, but could you say a bit more about the range of products and services that you now offer? Yeah, so we do quite a lot. We're trying to cater to all kind of genres and all kind of musicians. I think particularly because there is

definitely a decrease in physical music shops nowadays. We do piano still, do digital, we do acoustics, we do little stage ones, we do baby grands as well, which is gorgeous. We've got guitars, acoustic guitars, electric guitars, which is a big thing in our digital push with all the accessories that comes with it. So amplifiers, a big range of amplifiers and guitar pedals and effects.

Even home recording software and digital drums. So electric drum kits. We've got quite a lot of technology that is really up and coming. People can even, you know, record their own songs from home using our equipment, their microphones and interfaces. It's really like a home studio. Wow. That's really impressive. Nowadays, what's the hardest thing about running a music business, would you say?

Yeah, I would say nowadays it is definitely the online competitors. It's incredibly hard to keep up with the prices that they're able to go down to because they have the warehouse space. That and kind of keeping up with the trends. So, you know, maybe sometimes one brand is particularly popular because of, I don't know, something's going on in the TV show, for example, like Stranger Things. That and it's...

Maria Lloyd (09:42.08)
really essential that people need to try out instruments before they buy them because it's such a personal thing. know, with people buying online they may be more tempted because they can find some deals that are cheaper. But if you buy from a physical shop then you're finding the right instrument for you. You you need to test out something to know how it feels, to know how it sounds actually, not through just like a computer. The look of it even in person can differ and the weight.

What I like to compare it to is in Harry Potter where the one shoots the wizard. It's exactly like that. You have to go in there and actually see the instrument for yourself instead of ordering it online. I would say that is the best way of phrasing it that I've ever heard, to be honest. And I know what you mean. When we were in lockdown, I bought a sewing machine and I went into just the shopping reading to buy it. And you're absolutely right, because it's not just

You go and you buy something like you do online. You go in, you ask them questions. They ask what you need. They show you the different ones and then they say which one suits your purposes. They can give you tips on how to use it. Because then I went back later and I said, I forgot how to thread it. So they were showing me how to thread it. So that personal one-to-one, that bit of tuition, it's totally worth the extra money just to keep independence in business, I think. You need that connection.

Thank you for that phrasing. I may borrow that going forwards, by the way. please do. So how are you celebrating Hickey's 160th birthday this year? Yes, so this year is quite exciting. We are working with the Purple Turtle, which obviously infamous venue in Reading. If you've been to Reading, then you know the Purple Turtle. We're going to be doing a Hickey's Takeover there, where we're going to have some special performances lined up.

but I can't specify yet as it is a surprise. So please stay tuned about that on our socials. We post everything on there, on Instagram, on Facebook. I believe the at is at HickeysMusic. So we're going to be doing a takeover there with some special performances and just a fun evening, hopefully with people from all around Reading. Everyone's invited, please come along. It should be a really lovely time. That and I've mentioned the songwriting competition.

Maria Lloyd (12:01.824)
So we just had the finals and our top three artists are going to be performing live at the Purple Turtle and at the Butler over the rest of the year. And with the winner receiving a £500 Hickeys voucher. So that was really lovely to give back, especially to young people. I think that's a lovely way to celebrate Hickeys 100th stick-kiss. So congratulations on all the hard work done on that. What are your plans going forward?

The plans for us next is to really go bigger and better in terms of online. I think that is definitely a big aspect that is a game changer nowadays. think making sure that we are promoting our products on there and showing what it's like and showing different services that we offer, repairs and tuition, really pushing it on there. That and keeping up to date with

products and trends and making sure that we're catering to people's needs. When people come in and they're looking for something particularly that we don't have, instead of saying, sorry, we don't stock that, looking at being able to get those niche items in. So we really are serving the people of Reading. Can people come to you for any instrument like said you do repairs and tuition? So is it anything to do with music that you can cover and offer? Yes. So we offer music lessons. So we do that in

Violin, a piano, a guitar, bass, ukulele, I believe saxophone as well, that we offer from the shop. That and we're recommending products. We do repairs here and there. Even if we can't offer them in-house because our technician is sometimes quite busy, we can refer to someone who definitely can. We like to think of ourselves as a middle point for people and musicians of Reading. We have a notice board where people put up about local gigs.

about people looking for new musicians to join their bands. We're really looking to nurture that community. That's the big thing that we kind of offer. As an independent business, do you have any other advice for other independent businesses? I know you've been there, you've been MD, you know what the struggles are. It's tricky. I would say just keep going. think

Maria Lloyd (14:20.098)
Being an independent shop can be really tricky, especially when you have these big chains all around England and the world. think showcasing what makes your shop special in comparison to others and having that personalized touch of people that really are passionate about working there for the sake of nurturing the business and nurturing this love, especially when it's a music shop, is something that is so passionate. I think really showcasing that

Once you showcase that and people come in and they see it in the employees, they go away with that feeling. And I think that's something that big chains can't do. It's the real kind of joy that it brings. I think that's a lovely message. And I totally agree on that. You're willing to pay more if you've got that special connection with someone and you trust them and you know you're going to get the quality from it. So absolutely. Do you have a key takeaway that you'd like to leave our listeners with? Yeah, I think

The main takeaway is more on a kind of broad scale than it is just on a business scale. I think the main takeaway for this is how special and enduring the power of music is to connect us all. think whether you're someone who's a professional musician that does it for, you know, a full-time job, nine to five, or you're someone who's just starting out and using it as a hobby.

I think it's such a good way to connect people and to make friends and to make a community. And the big thing that we like to say is that we're always going to be there to support you through your journey, no matter where you are with it. If you need help starting out, there. If you need repairs, we're there. If you need even support here and there of what's going on in highs and lows of gigs, we're always going to be there to support you.

Thank you so much, Lara, for coming on the podcast. I thoroughly enjoyed talking to you and I'm really looking forward to the birthday. Thanks, and hopefully to see you there. definitely.