1. Time-sensitive Motivation
Recently, I was asked:
"What aspects play a factor in how quickly your studio grows? Would it take an extrovert or someone who's more comfortable doing various things?"
Here's my perspective on this: It's more about the goal and why the goal is important to you. So the people that I find that do best are people who, number one, are not afraid to ask questions. If they don't understand something or if they need support, they can post in our Facebook group on a regular basis to get help. If someone is hesitant to ask a question, then we can't progress them.
The thing that really makes someone successful in building a studio is a time-sensitive motivation.
For a lot of musicians, it's like, it'd be nice to teach on the side, which is true. I mean, that's a great way to, to look at it is this is something that is fulfilling, that I'm doing outside of my other career or my other work, but where that can limit us is that it's something that we constantly put off. Like I'm not gonna email the teachers today because you know, maybe like today isn't the exact right date. Maybe I should wait until Tuesday and then we'll try that and we'll see if that's that's a better date.
Or, "I'll start next week." That’s totally fine, you know, I was gonna start my diet on Monday, but then someone brought the donut to work.
So having a time-sensitive goal is really important. And if it's not something that you have a sense of urgency for necessarily, you can create a sense of urgency for yourself. Part of that is accountability working with another teacher or talking to someone like myself that could give you a push.
2. Ability to 'Do the Math'
The other part of the equation is identifying what it will do for you and some of that's doing the math, because income is a big factor for a lot of people. If they wanna add $5k to $10k a month, then we're looking at starting immediately. If it's like, a couple of hundred extra dollars here and there, it's going be a little bit slower.
3. A Passion for Teaching
The final factor is someone who really enjoys teaching. If you're looking at teaching because you think it might be a good side hustle, but you're not actually sure if you're going to like it, try it first of course, but people aren't motivated to do something if they're not actually sure it's going to be enjoyable.
I've talked to musicians that are excited about teaching because they're excited about the money but once we actually start to dive into what it's gonna take to get there and the work that we have to put in, I frequently have people say, this isn't actually something I think I wanna do. They like teaching in general and that's totally fine and I'm happy to help you discover that too. Hopefully your future students aren't miserable because you pushed yourself into something that wasn't really a passion of yours.
Podcast Transcript
Kelly
When I started my studio in about three months, I grew up from zero to 40 students. I just relocated, I didn't have anyone in the area at that time. I had to work really, really hard on building new connections and networking and creating an environment that was successful for myself.
Sam
It is September 20th, 2021. And you are listening to Episode 37 of the Candid Clarinetist podcast.
Sam
What's going on, everybody. Sam Rothstein here, acting principal clarinetist of the Indianapolis symphony orchestra and host of the candid clarinetist podcast. Thanks so much to everyone who participated in our 1000 Instagram follower giveaway. I was so thrilled to reach that milestone and congratulations to all of our winners, an easy way to help support the Candid Clarinetist. And all of our content is to follow us on social media. You can like us on Facebook or follow us on Instagram @thecandidclarinetist. Also, please be sure to subscribe to our YouTube channel as well as give us a rating on iTunes and subscribe to us on your favorite podcasting platform. On this episode of the podcast, I am joined by Kelly Riordan, who is a clarinet teacher and coach. Kelly has developed a program to train other musicians on how to build a private teaching studio. And I thought it would be valuable to have her on, to talk about what she does. Before we get started, if you have any questions for Kelly or interested in the services she provides, you can contact her at kellyriordan.com. Welcome to the podcast, Kelly.
Kelly
Thank you so much, Sam. I really appreciate it.
Sam
Of course.
So can you briefly describe your career and sort of how you've wound your way to where you are now?
Yeah, yeah. I obviously like most of us lifelong musicians. I started music when I was very young, I think aged four or five, somewhere in there was my first piano lesson. But I was lucky enough to study at University Wisconsin Milwaukee for my undergrad with Todd Levy, who's the principal Clarinetist for the Milwaukee Symphony, of course. After that I found my way down to the University of Georgia, where I studied with Dr. D. Ray McClellan for two years, my master's program. And then a few months before COVID found my way back to the Milwaukee area. I live about a half-hour, 45 minutes outside of the city. My parents are a little bit further west, so it was nice to come back after graduation, because it's been a little wild. The south was good, but I missed snow, sort of.
And then the first time it snows in Georgia and then everything sheds down because they don't have salt trucks.
Sam
I lived in Virginia and it snowed every year there, but every time it snowed, it just like completely.
Kelly
So I think our county had one salt truck that they had bought like a year or two before we moved down there.
Sam
So it was not gonna be enough.
Kelly
Yeah, yeah, yeah. It's not the right system, but that's all right. But yeah, so when I came back, I started teaching, that was the goal. I didn't wanna take a job elsewhere. So I started my own studio and shortly after the pandemic hit and other people needed help. So here we are.
Sam
So, you started this program coaching mentorship program and I read the testimonials on your website and it's fantastic. I mean, everyone had such great things to say. Was it your own success that drove you to start this program?
Kelly
That's a phenomenal question. When I started my studio in about three months, I grew up from zero to 40 students. Yeah. I just relocated, I didn't have anyone in the area at that time where I ended up settling is in between where I grew up and then the city of Milwaukee. So all the contacts that I have are just far enough away that a beginning clarinet student is not going to travel, you know, a half-hour, 45 minutes for a lesson. So I had to work really, really hard on building new connections and networking and creating an environment that was successful for myself. And when everything closed a few months later and in March 2020, we all had to move online. My students came with me. I didn't really give 'em a choice to be totally clear. I just told them, you already paid me for the month and this is what we're doing.
And if you absolutely hate it, then we'll re-evaluate later. But we're trying this for the next few weeks. And it worked really well. Everyone stayed all 40 of my kiddos, a couple of adults to move online and it was great. A couple of weeks in, I was realizing that I was not, I was not in great company in that boat. Most people were struggling. They gave the option to go online. Their studio was smaller. They had been performing and obviously, that wasn't an option anymore. So they wanted to be at that time transitioning into more of a teaching career. So I just started helping wherever I could taking all the data that I had logged to build my own studio and applying it to theirs. And it was fantastic. I saw a lot of great successes. It was about four or five months before someone sat me down and said, you're spending 30 to four 40 hours a week on Zoom with other teachers helping them. I think you have a business and you might wanna start charging for it. So it kind of fell into my lap and I've really been grateful because I love what I do, but I love being able to impact more students than just my own.
Sam
So a brief follow-up question to that. Did you, did someone like, see how quickly you kind of did this, and was like, how did you, and then asked you how you did it or was it like you, you were just friends with people.
Kelly
Yeah. The first few people that I helped were local colleagues that were in particular really uncomfortable teaching online. So I was just helping, to coach them on how to use zoom and the settings that you need and, how to make sure that music was accessible on your screen. So you could screen share and show students and follow along. And just some really, from my perspective, at that time, really basic tech skills that other people maybe just weren't as familiar with and then it evolved into, now I can use zoom. How do I find more students on zoom? And I, I still was using the same organic methods that I used to build my own studio on theirs. And it grew really fast. I had a percussion studio that I was working with that grew to 65 students in the middle of a pandemic online.
Kelly
And he was one of those first few people I was working with. What ended up happening though, a few months later, actually this idea to run an AP music theory course. That was really in my mind. I, that was my solution to the pandemic is I've got this knowledge, a lot of the schools in my area aren't able to offer AP music theory this year. I could do this on zoom. So I sat down and talked to a friend of ours who’s, does a little bit more business coaching and consulting for larger businesses. He's not really focused on the arts and kind of ran the idea by him. So that's a great idea. But tell me about this other thing that you're doing. I was like one other thing that you're doing, he's like, well, you know, you kind of mentioned that you've been helping other people online and that's why you're interested in teaching more online.
Kelly
I was like, yeah, I am. He goes, do you really wanna teach an AP music theory course? Or do you like what you're doing already? I was like, well, I like what I'm doing, but I don't know that I can make a lot of money doing it. And this AP theory course means I get to work with more students and he kind of challenged me and pushed me to refocus a little bit and just see what I could actually come up with as a formalized program. Instead of just hopping on zoom calls and people were available and so we did and took on a lot of its own. I've got right now, I'm working, with about 25 active clients.
Sam
Well, good for you. I just, it's, it's amazing. And it seems like it happened super fast as it did. I mean, you know, it's overwhelmingly, so yeah, right. It's like all of a sudden you build it and then you have, you know, there's 25 people that, that you're helping on a weekly basis that that's an incredible calling.
Kelly
You that you've never met before. And it's wild.
Sam
It's great. I mean, good for you. That's just, that's awesome. I mean, that's what we all kind of dream of is just, you know, creating this thing that other people want to consume. You know, that's part of the reason why I started doing what I do, and I didn't have nearly the success that you've had apparently. So, congratulations on that. And it seems like you know, so you moved back to Milwaukee and it was the sole goal just like you wanted to teach privately like that. That was what you wanted to do with your degree.
Kelly
Yeah, at that time. So a little bit of background when I was in high school, I worked as an intern for a local conservatory and there was a music store in the front. So I was mostly working for the music store. But part of what I got to do was that when people would call and ask for recommendations for lessons, I got to learn a little bit of that process and help them kind of get registered and get in contact, but all the teachers were independent contractors. So I was really just that initial starting point. And then I would help them, you know, get referrals into the studios. So I'd been around teaching and fresh out of school. To me, it was really clear in my mind that that was the fastest way for me to have a livable income. And, you know, taking auditions, obviously there's so many factors and somewhere in my grad program, I started realizing that it's not really where I wanted to invest my time.
Kelly
It's exciting to me. I love playing, but I really love playing chamber music. And that takes a little bit more self-funding to get going than, and, just taking auditions. And so I wanted to have something that would pay the bills so I could sustain this dream of mine. And I have a trio that I perform out of Athens, Georgia, you know, non-COVID times, we do travel and perform together. So I wanted to have funding for that. I knew what I could make. I do the math, on what people in my area had previously been charging from my recollection, like, I can make some decent money if I can fill this studio. Yeah, for sure. So I invested my time there. I knew I didn't wanna take a job outside of music because the odds of you coming back into music after that are a lot lower. So that was my big push, that's where I wanted to be.
Sam
Awesome! So you mentioned eventually you sort of formalized this coaching business about how long after you sort of started the initial conversations with people and helping people out. Did it become the formalised thing that it is today?
Kelly
Probably about four or five months. Cause it would've been March of last year. It was about March of last year that I was starting, right at the beginning of the pandemic, trying to help people. And that was about a year ago. Now last September I think is when I actually sat down and wrote a plan and tried to figure out what I was doing and what was working for people and we put together a significant amount of resources and tried to consolidate it all into one place. Instead of me just sending individual things in an email, as I was talking to people, and tried to actually create a structure that was duplicatable.
Kelly
For studios.
Sam
Is your program pretty prescriptive or is it kind of like, it depends on who, so, so for example, like I'm, I'm probably, I probably would be a unique client to you because obviously I, you know, I had this job in the orchestra and it's not really, you know, it's just kind of like a different, so, so would my plan be a little bit different for example, then, than someone, you know, graduating from undergrad?
Kelly
Yeah. Yeah. I mean, the biggest thing is when we're getting started, if you are looking for 10 hours a week or less of teaching, it doesn't need to be a significant push. So most of the studios that I'm working with want to be at that 15 to 30 hours a week mark, where teaching would be their main income. I have a few exceptions to that, of course, but those exceptions are usually people like. I've got a couple of clients out in LA or in New York that are vocal coaches that are charging 150 to $200 an hour. They only need 10 hours a week of work. So that's what they're gonna do, but we're also finding a higher level of clientele for them. So they're not looking at, you know, eight to 10-year-old beginners. They're looking at students who are ages 14 and up are looking to be in the industry and want work and want to take this as a professional career. So, where we spend our time a little bit different, it's all the same strategies. We're just targeting a slightly different group of people. But what we wanna do is make sure that from the get, we really understand what the goals are and who you wanna be working with. So it is, it is specific to each person's goals. For example, I also work with multi-teacher studios or music schools. Their goals are very different because we're adding, you know, students for many instruments and many different skills and levels.
Sam
Can you explain what that is? Just for my own sake.
Kelly
Yeah. Absolutely! So a multi-teacher studio would be typically a studio that had an individual teacher, their studio blew up and had a lot of success. And so they started hiring and they're usually composed of other independent contractors. And then that key person at the head of the multi teacher studio is just kind of delegating leads out to, out to individual teachers, versus a school which is a little bit more of a conservatory-style where they have an office and they're taking in leads and doing the marketing and then dispersing those to employees.
Sam
That makes sense. Well, that's terrific cause you know, obviously, it's not, it's like with anything else, like one size doesn't fit all. So for example, just to my story and how unsuccessful I was and why you should hire Kelly and not talk to me about it. um, so at the start of the pandemic, I was thinking, I was like, well maybe I can, in the fall I could try to recruit some students or whatever and like my strategy and you're probably gonna roll your eyes. It was, I was emailing like high school band directors. I was like, does anybody want to take, you know, students or whatever? And I got a couple of like leads on it, but it, but it wasn't like this thing. And I think part of the reason is I just wasn't targeting the right people. Cause the people that would wanna take lessons with me and would get value out of me, probably not like, you know, high school freshman.
Kelly
Right. Unless they're an incredibly competitive high school freshman.
Sam
I mean, it's not like I can't teach them or I can't, but you know, they wouldn't wanna pay me what I would wanna charge. Like it's just I wouldn't give them, they wouldn't get out of what they would pay me right. To, for a lesson. So as far as age ranges go, do you feel that it's easier to recruit a certain age level of the student? Like do you find that the most fertile ground being like beginners or people that are into it a little bit more?
Kelly
There are a million trillion, four to seven-year-old beginner piano students, they’re everywhere.
Sam
I'm a recovering pianist when I was four years old.
Kelly
As far as a student that's gonna grow the fastest, that's gonna be the one that, you know, I can take from and, and do take from zero to 40, in two to three months. Right. That's very easy for us to do because they're everywhere. They're looking. And most when we're talking about, reaching out to schools, for example, elementary school media teachers are way more likely to answer your email than a high school band director, because they just get fewer of those emails. When we look at more advanced students, it's not that they're harder to find. It's just that they're typically already working with someone. If they're advanced, they have a teacher, right? So there's two, two parts here. One when we're looking for advanced students, a really great thing for us to do is actually to network with the teachers they might already be working with.
Kelly
When I was in high school, my junior year of high school, my teacher who I'd been with for eight years, who phenomenal player, the incredible teacher had gotten me from eight-year-old Kelly whose fingers could not even reach all of the keys on the clarinet, but was persistent that this is what she wanted to be playing to, winning competitions. And I was principal for my orchestras in the youth orchestra. And I was getting solos at school and things were going really well. I was in state honors, all that great stuff. She sat me down at the end of my junior year and said, I'm no longer the teacher for you.
Sam
That's, that's very humble of her ‘cause that's often not the case.
Kelly
Yes. But she knew that with what I wanted to do and that I wanted to have a career in music, the person she recommended was professor Levy to Milwaukee. And so I reached out to him and had a try a lesson and we went down that path and I ended up working within my senior year of high school. I loved it, staged my undergrad because it was a great experience. And, but I would not have taken that leap on my own. I don't think I would've felt confident enough to just reach out to him without someone telling me this is the next step for you. So for a lot of advanced teachers, it's finding the teachers that are teaching the beginner to intermediate and even a little bit of advanced but are going to need to pass students off.
Kelly
At some point, for example, I have taught, I don't teach any piano students currently, but when I was first starting my studio, I did take on some beginner piano students. I had to give them off to another teacher once they hit a certain level. So I had a list of who I would hand them off to. And those people didn't take beginners. They needed someone like me to prepare them for that studio. And I knew what they were looking for and I knew what to prep them for and, and hand 'em off. So that's a big area too. And then of course, high school band directors are great, but you know, they get a million of those emails. Is anyone looking for lessons? You one in 57? They got that week.
Sam
And do you find that like, so just, I mean, I guess you teach online now, do you have certain schools that you teach out of? So for example, you are the clarinet teacher at X and Y high school.
Kelly
So I actually rent a commercial space. Because I, when I was first teaching, when we first relocated, I was teaching at my one-bedroom apartment and my poor neighbors were so incredibly patient, but that needed to change. So I rented a commercial space nearby that actually has a lot of music teachers and they got this great setup where the owners of the building are musicians and the rooms are sort of soundproof and we can have our own little spaces, but we can share a room. So if I'm not there five days a week, for example, another teacher can take on part of that lease and we can share that space. So I am not appointed at any schools in particular right now, what I am, I am appointed at the Wilshire county conservatory. That's one of them, areas that I, I teach in that's actually that commercial space, it's all independent teachers.
Kelly
They call it a conservatory. It's not a traditional conservatory structure. The other advantage of being an independent teacher and not being a teacher for a school is I set my own rates. I set my own schedule. And when I need to move things around, I move things around. If you're working for a music school, or if you're working at a high school where the band boosters, for example, are paying you, you're incredibly limited on rate and there's overhead, the overhead flat rate, the overhead for a band booster program. So they take a cut out of that to feed the booster program unless they themselves are paying you. But then again, they've got your hourly rate set at what they can afford. The other overhead is that, and this isn't an overhead so much as a limit. There are only so many clarinet students in that school district. And if they can't make it on Tuesday night, which is maybe the one night I'm at that school now I don't get those students. They go elsewhere. Instead, I'm in a position where I can pull from all of the area schools and I have students that are in, I think, five different school districts. So that's a big shift otherwise overhead, you know, if you're not renting a space and you're working for another school, they're talking about 40 to 60% of a cut out of every lesson you teach.
Sam
Wow. I guess I had a different experience, but it was probably because I went to the high school that I taught at. So I got a little bit of a better deal, I guess. This was a lot, this was ages ago, but that's great advice. I mean that I remember I was limited by scheduling because whatever they tested that week I can't teach or they have, they're on a band trip or whatever like I can't teach that week. So they were limited.
Kelly
Whether they're on winter break or summer break, you have to take off too.
Sam
You mentioned that obviously who you're targeting and who you're teaching is a big factor in how quickly you can build your private studio so you mentioned beginner piano students, obviously very fertile. What other aspects play a factor in how quickly? You know, so for example, let's take my case. I'm very introverted. I don't really, would it take me longer than someone who's more comfortable sort of doing all these various things?
Kelly
You know, my, my perspective on this is it's more about the goal and why the goal is important to you. So the people that I find that do best in my programs are people who, number one, are not afraid to ask questions. If they don't understand something or if they need support, I've got a Facebook group for my clients and they're posting there on a regular basis because they need help. If someone is hesitant to ask a question, then we can't progress. The thing that really makes someone successful in building a studio is a time-sensitive motivation. For a lot of musicians, it's like, it'd be nice to teach on the side, which is true. I mean, that's a great way to look at it. This is something that is fulfilling, that I'm doing outside of my other career or my other work, but where that can limit us is that it's something that we constantly put off. Like I'm not gonna email the teachers today cuz you know, maybe like September 20th isn't the exact right date. Maybe I should wait until September 27th and then we'll try that and we'll see if that's a better date.
Sam
It’s like me with the exercise and diet. It's like, oh, do tomorrow, I'll start next week.
Kelly
Start next week. That’s totally fine. Do you know? I was gonna start my diet on Monday, but then someone brought the donut to work.
Sam
Tuesday. It is.
Kelly
It's the same thing where we just procrastinate on it. So having a time-sensitive goal is really important. And if it's not something that you have a sense of urgency for necessarily, you can create a sense of urgency for yourself. Part of that is accountability, you know, working with another teacher or, or talking to someone like myself that could give you a push. If that's something that you're really serious about. But the other part of that is identifying what it will do for you. And some of that's doing the math, you know, income is a big factor for a lot of people. If they wanna add five to $10,000 a month, then we're looking at starting immediately. So we can do that. If it's like, I just like, you know, a couple of hundred extra dollars here and there, it's probably something that you're also gonna take a little bit slower.
Kelly
The final factor is someone who really enjoys teaching. If you're looking at teaching because you think it might be a good side hustle, but you're not actually sure if you're gonna like it, please, I mean, try it first of course, but people aren't motivated to do something if they're not actually sure it's gonna be enjoyable. I've talked to musicians that are excited about teaching because they're excited about the money but once we actually start to dive into what it's gonna take to get there and the work that we have to put in, I frequently have people say, this isn't actually something I think I wanna do. The teaching in general and that's totally fine. Like I'm happy to help you discover that too. So, you know, you and your student aren't miserable in the future because you pushed yourself into something that wasn't really a passion of yours. That's totally fine.
Sam
All great advice. I really appreciate you sharing that. I don't wanna spill all your vegans here, do you have any maybe just general tips on like just marketing, like how to market your yourself, how to get your name out to potential students again, like I, you know, people have to pay for this, so I'm not trying to, I'm trying to give it up for free, but, but just maybe some general comments that people are like, oh, maybe I, I wouldn't have thought about that. Like you, your comment earlier was great about how you need to get to know the teachers in the area. I think I thought that was very valuable.
Kelly
There are three big things that we need to have a full studio. And this is something that I talk about with every person I come into contact with. This is what you need, regardless of if I'm a factor, if you're working with someone else that's in this space, you need a profitable lesson package. You need a predictable source of students and you need a repeatable enrollment process. So I'll kind of dive into each of those a little bit of a profitable lesson package first. Most teachers are undercharging and it's a significant issue in our industry because it's undercutting everyone. Right now, industry-standard in the US is roughly a dollar a minute, which means that if you're out of undergrad and you have a degree in music, you should be able to get $30 for minutes or $60 for 60 minutes.
Kelly
Don't discount yourself. Last on an hourly rate. Your time is your time and you need to hold yourself to that because the time that it took for you to develop the skill is unique to our industry. I remind people a lot that most of us started our instrument when we read elementary school, maybe middle school, which means for most of our lives decades, we have been perfecting this and there are no other careers that you have to have decided and mastered at a certain level, by the age of 18, to even consider pursuing it in the future, people can decide at 18, 19, 20 years old to go be a doctor and they get paid a lot of money. It is an issue right now in our career field that people tend to undervalue themselves, either out of modesty.
Kelly
We all do kind of grow up in this system where we're expecting each week to go into a lesson to be told what we're not great at yet. So getting that feedback on an ongoing basis, I think diminishes our confidence a little bit in our value. The second big piece of this is that if, if you were undercharging at the level of player that you are, it also lowers the payment, for everyone else on the line. Yeah. And it's something that a lot of musicians struggle with is, you know, your rate should at least be a hundred dollars an hour. Absolutely. Not less than that.
Sam
They should raise my rates.
Kelly
So that people that are living in a suburban area and have, let's say an undergrad degree, they're talking 16 hours. If you've got a master's you should be in like that 70 to $80 an hour range. Of course, there are exceptions to this. If you live in a high cost of living area, you're in New York, you're in LA your rate should be higher. Right? If you're in rural Kentucky, then maybe your rate should be a little bit lower based on the cost of living. We can adjust for that. But the average is a dollar a minute. and then the other thing that we have to factor into that is it's not just the time spent in front of a student. Most of us are researching repertoire, finding additional resources, answering emails and text messages, and phone calls outside doing billing and invoicing.
Kelly
You have to have all of that factored into the time as well. So that you're fairly compensated for all of it. The second thing that we need is a predictable source of students. I like to compare this to a glass of water in a well, so if you're out at the park on a hot side day, you have a glass of water. Once you drink it, it's gone. You've got three big options to refill it. You can spend money to buy a new one. We can spend time and energy hiking across the park to refill it. Or we could just say, Ah, shocks go home, give up and try again tomorrow. If we're gonna do this in the studio building, the equivalent of spending money would be paid advertising. This would be, you know, Google ads, Facebook ads, YouTube ads, print ads, billboards if you really wanna get crazy with it. Paid advertising, I'm not saying it doesn't work.
Kelly
It absolutely can. But as someone who is marrying a digital marketer who was really Gung Ho about marketing her studio online from the get, it is an expensive experiment. And most individual studio owners are gonna get outspent by music and art and, and guitar center 600 to one. So, and when I say expensive experiment, in marketing you have to test everything that you're doing to make sure it's actually the right fit. So you have to test the post copy. You have to test the image that you're using or the video you're using. You have to test the link in what the call to action is to actually get someone there. Then there's the whole issue of does your website convert. And do you have the correct content in the correct order on your website? When we test, we run competing ads with the same image and then slightly different post copy to see which one gets more engagement.
Kelly
That's called AB testing. If the entire time you're doing this, you're investing money. It is an expensive experiment. You are investing money just to see what works before you actually run the ad that hopefully works to get you students. It is a lot of investment. Now, the second option, like I said, is investing time and energy. This would be working for another school like I mentioned, where they might have an overhead or a cut that they're taking. Usually, that's between 40 and 60% that they're gonna take out. Guitar Center for example, if they're charging $60 an hour, they're gonna pay you 20. The rest that they pocket. Now they have an overhead, they've got big buildings. Like I get it, they're running all that marketing. But, that is, that is their business plan. That's how it works. The other thing that we could do is look at some of these online platforms that are out there.
Kelle
There’s a million of these now after the pandemic last year. There's outschool.com, takelessons.com, lesson face, craigslist and KA Gigi. You can list Thumbtack as a really popular one. But again, they're gonna either take a cut out of all of your lessons. Those average, closer to 30%, you're completely reliant on their marketing and the students that are on their platform. And then the third thing is that you're competing with all these other teachers on those platforms and they're undercutting you, because what you wanna charge for your lessons versus what the, you know, the stay-at-home mom down the street, who just wants to teach piano cuz it's fun and she can do it out her living room on the side, those are gonna be very, very different rates and neither right or wrong. But when you put them on the same platform, put 'em next to each other, people are gonna go deal hunt and they're not gonna choose you.
Kelly
And then the third thing, if we wanna give up and go home every day would be social media. And by far the least of the three evils, I‘m not, I'm not saying that social media doesn't work. It absolutely can. It is something that I do invest time into, you know, in building studios, but you have to have a consistent strategy. And the biggest issue with social media is that most of us post once in a blue moon and then we wonder why it's not working or we go on this really big kick for like a week and then we don't post for a month again. And we're not, we're not sure why it's not working, but it has to be consistent. Otherwise, the algorithm just swallows your whole. So the flip side to all of that would be the well, and this would be mutually beneficial relationships with key people in your community.
Kelly
You already kind of hit on this. These are band directors, music teachers. This doesn't have to just be in the schools though. This can be vocal youth orchestras or other ensemble programs. This could be girl scouts and boy scout troops. This could be other youth organizations like religious youth organizations for example. This could also be homeschool networks and co-ops depending on what timing you're looking for in the day, too, if you wanna teach in the daytime, that's a great place to invest your time. But the mistake most of us made. And I'm, I'm sorry. Are you saying to pick on you and this is kind of what happened in your case?
When we send out these emails and these mass emails, our response rate is about 1% on all those emails we sent now, yours because you have a significant prestigious connection in your area will be a little bit higher.
Kelly
You might get five to 10% right out the gate, which is great. Most teachers are looking at a 1% response on those emails. And it's because like I mentioned earlier, you're one of the hundreds they get in a semester, right? Why should they answer you instead of everyone else, they probably have a friend they're already referring to you for that instrument. And they don't know you. They don't trust you. And they're not gonna hand off their students to someone that is a stranger over email. So the change here that we have to make in the shift that we have to make is leading with empathy. Instead of telling them what we want, I would like students, please give me students. We have to try to figure out what they want.
Kelly
I would never drive a stranger to the airport in my car because I get anything back out of it. And I really don't trust putting someone I don't know in a vehicle with me. Right? So similarly we wanna cause a familiarity in that relationship and, and a big part of that goal is going to be making sure that you're making an offer to them. Offer the favor first before you ask for one. Don't just ask for the ride right away. Great things to offer. Let's start with the schools. For example, I will come in and teach for a day, not a traditional sectional or master class, because what that does is it takes you in the clarinet section and it completely removes you from the ensemble and the rest of the class. They don't get to see your teaching. They still have to entertain the entire rest of the class for the day.
Kelly
And they're trying to rehearse now with an entire section missing. So it really doesn't help them that much. What does help them is if we can teach the entire class something for a period, they don't have to plan for that period. They also get to see you teach and watch the students interact with you. And if you can do this in more of a Socratic style and less of a lecture style, where students are discussing and engaging and answering questions, and everyone is participating actively, the students get a really good feel for who you are too. And they feel connected to you and they want you to come back, cuz it was fun. So by having those opportunities, again, this can be with school. This can be other organizations. This can be an offer at a local homeschool. Co-op a free workshop. For example, when we do that free of charge, complimentary, let me just come and meet your students. It's way easier for us to then ask. Could you send my flyer for example, out to all the families I was in contact with today?
Sam
Terrific! Incredible advice. Thank you. It's really helpful. And, and I think a lot of people will get a lot out of that. Just that little section.
Kelly
Before I forget, the third thing we need is a repeatable enrollment process and that's basically just covering everything after a student reaches out to you. We want low attrition. We want students to stay long-term, so you're not filling the same slots over and over and over again. Marketing is best done if those students are gonna stay for at least a year and a half to two years. The way that we do that is goal setting and that initial few conversations, you need to have very clear short term and long term goals for students. So they know exactly what they can accomplish by staying with you longer. And that's, we're gonna invest our time in making sure that they, they have that relationship. And then also asking them questions, not just about goals, but get to know your students. It is a professional relationship of course, but when they feel some kind of personal connection to you, they feel like, you know them just a little bit, they're way more likely to stay long term. And that's a really important key of the business too.
Sam
Before we wrap up, do you have any testimonials or like previous clients or stories that you wanna share that you think is a really good example of what you can do for people?
Kelly
Sure. Thank you for asking. A lot of my clients are teaching in traditional studios and when I say traditional, I just mean all individual lessons. It's all one to two instruments, you know, piano and voice, for example, or clarinet and saxophone where they're just teaching it’s small number of instruments. Most of those studios in the first six weeks of working together, they're adding about five students. After that, it's kinda like rolling down a hill, it gets easier. So I have multiple studios who have filled their full 20 to 25 hours in about, you know, 90 ish days. But what I would love to focus on is some people that are innovating right now in the industry, because this year has just been wild for education in a good way. I, I know it's been scary and, and I, I know not everyone sees this as a positive, but I think it's been great because it's opened the doors to show many other avenues for education.
Kelly
So for example, I've got a client who on the 1st of September just launched an asynchronous lesson program. So she's got her private lessons and she is fantastic. And the name is Becky Morris. I'll give her a shout-out cuz I just love what she's doing. She's got such a great program going. She works primarily online and only online, but works primarily with students that are diverse and she's teaching them piano lessons online. She also does group classes. And then this third program is this asynchronous, which is prerecorded material instructional material. That's provided to students. They go to practice. And then instead of getting on a live half an hour zoom lesson, they send a recording at their convenience to her to then receive either a video or text-based feedback in return. And then they can subscribe to doing that several times a month if they wanna do it once a week.
Kelly
So four times a month that they wanna do it six, eight, she's got different price points for that. But this is something that students are looking for right now, especially, you know, I, I would say students who are either later beginners, you know like we're talking ages eight and up. So not, not little tiny students so much, but students that are beginners on an instrument and just want a convenient way to get started and adult students because they don't have the time to invest a half an hour to an hour every single week at the exact same time. Most adult students ask for significant flexibility in their scheduling, which can be stressful for teachers. So, by providing them this leeway where they get to choose when they invest in the recording, it makes a big difference. The other advantage of the asynchronous lessons is that you can market it anywhere. It's not just your local area. So if you wanna focus on those higher costs of living areas and charge more, that is completely doable. Becky's business with her pre registration for next semester. I saw her the other day and she mentioned that her income starting January per month will be about $10,000 a month. Right now she's a little over seven, and just in revenue from this business. So she's got awesome things going. We've only been working together for a couple of months. It's exciting to see where that's going.
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