Rick Milenthal isn’t in the music business.
And at 60, he isn’t looking to break into the music business, preferring to “stick to my knitting” and building his fast-growing digital marketing agency, The Shipyard.
Even so, Milenthal has played a key role in organizing a new event making its debut in Columbus this weekend, the WonderBus Music & Arts Festival.
The festival runs Aug. 17-18 on the grounds of Chemical Abstracts Service near the Ohio State University campus, featuring artists such as Walk the Moon, Ben Harper & The Innocent Criminals, The Revivalists, X Ambassarors, Trombone Shorty & Orleans Avenue and many more.
The festival is the result of a whirlwind 10 months for Milenthal and the other organizers, but the genesis of why he got involved stretches back to beliefs Milenthal has held for many years.
In an interview with Columbus Business First, the veteran entrepreneur said businesses need to have a purpose to thrive.
“I just think when a business is just about money … you lose heart in it as you’re trying to get through the vagaries of business,” Milenthal said. “Your employees don’t feel the same purpose. Your clients don’t feel the same purpose. … I think our people put most of their life and hours into being at our company (and) we need to give them the ability to have a purpose beyond money.”
The cause behind WonderBus is mental health awareness and suicide prevention. Proceeds from the event will benefit the Department of Psychiatry & Behavioral Health at Ohio State University’s Wexner Medical Center.
Ohio State President Michael Drake told Business First when the festival was announced that he sees it as “a wonderful way to raise awareness and support a worthwhile cause.”
“Our mental health efforts go toward research, to student services, and a multitude of other ways we can help,” Drake said. “So (Wonderbus) is very exciting for us.”
Milenthal said he has been a mental health advocate since his father-in-law took his own life more than 30 years ago, and vowed to redouble those efforts when the son of Shipyard Chief Strategy Officer David Grzelak did the same last year.
“A few months or so after, David and I sat and said, ‘We have to do something.’ … And we decided (on this) partially because in the case of mental health, it happens to be a space where what we do matters.”
He said that as marketers, they could have a greater impact on mental health awareness, versus for example research on cancer or heart disease. The Shipyard has been helping Nationwide Children’s Hospital with its On Our Sleeves campaign to raise awareness of mental health issues in children.
“Words matter in mental health,” Milenthal said. “They can inspire or they can depress. They can unite and they can divide. So we realized we actually have a part to play.”
The idea for WonderBus came to him soon after, via childhood friend Cliff Chenfeld.
Chenfeld, best known as co-creator of the Kidz Bop franchise, approached Milenthal in October about working with the producers behind the LaureLive festival in Cleveland to create a version in Columbus.
Milenthal said although he was skeptical they could pull it off in time for this summer, he jumped aboard, seeing it as a vehicle he and Grzelak were seeking for raising mental health awareness.
“It’s funny in a way, when you open yourself up to opportunity, (it) kind of came to us. It was like fate,” he said. “Opportunities like this are always there, but once you decide to do something, and you start to declare it to people, things happen.”
We spoke to Milenthal the day that Ohio Gov. Mike DeWine announced a number of measures in response to the Dayton shootings, including broader access to mental health services.
“We’re at a tipping point, not just broadly with mental health but the kind of mental health that leads to suicide, drug abuse or violent action,” Milenthal said. “And it’s one of those things people haven’t been talking about.”
Shipyard has grown to $50 million in revenue since its founding in 2013, so Milenthal has plenty on his plate, but he’s committed to the cause.
“When you (grow quickly), you’re really worried about that. You’re worried about business,” he said. “But I don’t think you grow up as a business unless you’re going to do something and get involved.”