Skills Into Business

From founding and selling Monmouth Music Academy to growing Master Strap from 15 products to more than 1,000 strap offerings through NCAA licensing and expansion into guitar, luggage, camera, and bag straps, Abe Ovadia has built businesses around his experience and interests. His work also spans college teaching, headlining the Blue Note, developing library programs and school assemblies, authoring 15 books, and interviewing 200 jazz musicians through Rabbit Hole Sessions. Explore the projects behind his entrepreneurial journey and the different ways he has turned one opportunity into another.

Garth Brooks performs live in a cowboy hat with a blue Notre Dame guitar and matching strap.
Official collegiate team guitar straps in colorful NCAA school designs, with a Spirit Straps promotional logo centered.
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University of Washington graduate in cap and gown smiling with a family member holding a camera beneath purple balloons and blooming trees
Amazon-style advertisement for the paperback book “First Steps in Jazz Guitar: A Beginner’s Guide” by Abe Ovádia, featuring the author playing a yellow hollow-body guitar, a five-star rating, book highlights, and an Add to Cart button.
Advertisement for Abe Ovadia’s paperback book “Zero Pressure Sales: The Human Advantage in an Automated World,” featuring a Buddha statue working at a modern office desk and sales book details.
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Guitarist performing onstage under blue lighting beside a grand piano at Blue Note New York.
Group posing at a Shop Marlboro business ribbon-cutting ceremony outside a commercial building
Exterior of Monmouth Music Academy building with music-themed window graphics, beige siding, stone accents, and security cameras
Two musicians playing electric guitars together indoors, with sheet music on a stand.
Crowd gathered in a library for a live musical performance beneath colorful Children’s Department and Young Adult signs
Elementary school children watch two musicians perform in a gymnasium, with a “Jump Rope for Heart” banner behind them.
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Each project called for something different. The academy depended on earning families’ trust over time. The product business grew by finding new uses for a familiar design. The books and interviews gave Abe a way to share ideas with people he might never meet in a classroom or at a performance.