Fixing a mess in my music studio

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Subject: Fixing a mess in my music studio

You are receiving this email because you signed up for educational emails about studio business and marketing from GrowYourMusicStudio.com.

Yesterday, I shared with you how I caused a nightmare situation in my studio.

I trained my clients to disrespect me and to not value the lessons they had signed up for.

There were 5 “stages” to this terrible journey. Here's what I did wrong:

Reacting to my customer's bad behavior, instead of leading (poor planning!)
Adapting my habits and policies around this bad behavior
Blaming others for my own lack of leadership
Looking for quick fixes to these problems
Giving up and thinking that everything was hopeless

Today, I’m going to show you what I did to get out of this mess.

Quick Fixes Didn’t Work… Here’s What Did

Fortunately, these problems are well over a decade behind me.

With the benefit of hindsight, I can see what changed.

It wasn’t the quick fixes I mentioned yesterday (Retention bracelets! Stronger policy! No makeup lessons!)

Rather, I can sum it up in three short points:

1. Radical Ownership.

I took 100% blame for all of the outcomes that I was getting.

Even if it clearly wasn’t my fault (i.e., it’s not my fault that my clients wouldn’t pay on time, right? It wasn’t my fault that kids were overscheduled, right?)

I took ownership and made a plan to make changes.

I intentionally designed my program and marketing to account for these things out of my control.

I experimented.

In some cases, it took years (I spent many years perfecting my group lesson curriculum to eliminate the "practice problem" in my own studio).

But, it was worth it! (more on that below)

I’ll let Jocko Willink sum it up for me:

2. Deep Belief

Why did I make these plans and changes?

I deeply believed that I could solve these problems.

I looked at people like Suzanne Guy and other teachers.

I saw what incredible studios they had created. I looked at the “product” of their teaching.

I was inspired by their success.

I realized that they must be doing things differently than I was.

This gave me hope.

And that led me to...

3. Unwavering Action

I realized that there was nothing but pain behind me… so I was willing to go “into pain” ahead of me.

I had a core belief.

If I had more than enough students, I would get the “power” back.

I could be more demanding in my policies, in my expectations, in my rates.

So, I worked very hard at understanding how to get more students in my studio.

And, you know what?

It worked.

But...

Here’s the non-obvious truth…

Yes, getting really good at marketing helped me.

But, why did I invest my time so heavily in the marketing?

It was the attitude of 100% ownership!

That attitude and the vision it created is what caused the massive, amazing changes in my studio.

I brought that ownership attitude to every aspect of my business.

The content of my teaching, the marketing, and even the relationships I had with my clients.

It was transformative.

Does this story resonate with you?

Do you disagree with anything you’ve read here?

Are you stuck on a problem in your music school... and would you like me to take a look at it?

I’d love to hear from you. Write back… I read every email.

Best,

Daniel

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Subject: Fixing a mess in my music studio