201: Bea Ayala-Muñiz (Musicasa)

Bea Ayala-Muñiz on Innovation City

“I am sparking joy through human connection.” -Bea Ayala-Muñiz

Welcome to Season 6 of Innovation City (The Miami Edition), a podcast featuring innovators, creators, and disruptors to discover how business is changing in the modern world.

Created and produced by SLAM! Agency and Aīre Ventures, Innovation City gives you an inside look at how rapidly business and culture are changing thanks to increasing diversity and inclusion, heightened creativity, and a stronger and better-connected business community.

Today’s guest is Bea Ayala-Muñiz, founder and CEO of Musicasa, an organization that’s changing the way people connect through live music in intimate gatherings. In this episode, Bea sits down with the team to discuss what she learned during a year of world travels, how she infuses music into everything she does, and the power of small gatherings for human connection.

They Discuss:

Bea’s Superpower

• Bea is a connector of ideas and people. And she loves life. 

How do you amplify joy through a connected experience?

• When you’re not present and you’re not connecting, you miss out on life. You’re missing the magic and the miracles that life shows you every day. 

Bea’s Career & Journey

• Bea started her career in advertising about 11 years ago. She’s managed large brands including M&M, Bacardi, Snickers, Proctor & Gamble, and more.
• She saw the power of language and music as connectors between humans and brands. 
• Advertising was a huge moment in Bea’s career and it gave her a front row seat to so many unique experiences. 

Stops in the Road

• Three years ago, Bea quit her career in advertising. She was emotionally burned out and she couldn’t see herself doing anything anymore. 
• Bea quit her job, opened a savings account, sold everything, and went to travel the world. She traveled for eleven months with Unsettled, a company that creates coworking experiences around the world. 
• She ended up doing six trips with Unsettled, met one of the cofounders, and introduced him to her best friend. They ended up getting married.
• In recent years, Bea has found herself to be a matchmaker. 

Bea’s Musical Journey 

• Bea’s talent isn’t in playing instruments or singing. She says she has “blessed ears.” She 
• She hears things people can’t hear, and feels things people can’t feel. 
• She has been curating music since before she can remember, to express feelings.  
• Every playlist that Bea creates, has the purpose of taking people on a journey. Don’t put her playlist on shuffle. 
• Bea’s always tried to bring music as the source of connection in everything she has done. 

Musicasa

• Musicasa is her greatest work of love. It’s a product of her getting to know herself again. It brought her to life. It was never meant to be a company; it was a way for her to connect with people after three years of making no income. 
• Musicasa is not a music company, it’s a human connection company. They connect people through art, culture, and community in a way that opens access to people who don’t have access.
• They do it in people’s homes because homes are the most intimate space. Homes are turned into cultural centers with Musicasa. 

Traveling and Life Experience

• The first thing Bea learned in her travels is that it’s all about community, which you see very intentionally in the Eastern part of the world. 
• Bea observed the enormous power of small gatherings in changing people’s lives. 
• Another observation made during Bea’s travels surrounds culture. Culture used to start from the bottom up, but now culture is being dictated by pop stars and influencers. This is dangerous and doesn’t take into consideration many of the facets that culture needs to transcend time. 
• These observations about small gatherings and culture informed the creation of Musicasa. 

Lightning Round:

• How do you define intimacy?
  • Silence
• What are you listening to right now?
  • Adele
• What is most important to you?
  • That I’m true to myself
• What challenge do you want to overcome?
  • Fear of abandonment
• Who is your hero?
  • Bozoma Saint John, CMO of Netflix
• What moves you to tears or gives you goosebumps?
  • Seeing the art form of someone’s deep sorrow and that’s music

Get in Touch

Visit the Musicasa website

Connect with Bea and Musicasa on Instagram

Follow Bea and Musica on Twitter