A short story about my first year teaching piano. I was 23 at the time of this incident.

I will never forget this as long as I live.

I was contacted by a mother of two older boys (10 and 12). Their teacher retired, and mom wanted to enroll her boys with someone else.

I met with them - even drove to their house and gave them two free lessons.

Answered all of her questions.

Worked with the boys each week. Tried my very hardest to help them overcome some of their struggles.

Answered frequent emails from the mom... emails that had an undertone of distrust. Questioning what I was doing. Asking why the boys were having this problem or that problem.

One month, I received her tuition check in the mail... and it was short by two lessons.

I sent an email... inquiring about the discrepancy.

The reply?

"We were gone for fall break last month... and we don't want to do the makeup lesson. So, I just adjusted the tuition."

My stomach and throat tightened up. I got anxious.

But, I knew what I needed to do.

I called her up.

I explained my policy: "It doesn't work that way."

What ensued was a subtle "tug of war" over my policies and tuition.

Her final words to me (almost word for word):

"You're a young guy, and I just don't think you understand business yet. I'm trying to help you."

That drove me up the wall!

Better Customers = Happier Studio

A lot has changed since then - almost all of it good.

My favorite change?

Appreciative, respectful, supportive parents.

But, gaining the respect of my studio parents didn't happen just because I wanted it to.

I didn't "complain my way" into getting supportive studio families.

I had to change first.

Here's a list of things I did:

• Ask the right questions of parents... and then know how to change my marketing based on the answers I was getting

• Create messaging that positioned me as a professional - not merely a "teacher"

• Put that messaging into every part of my studio's marketing funnel (including a few non-obvious places)

• Reinforce the value they were getting even after they joined my studio through a consistent communication system that I used on every studio family

Once I implemented these changes (plus a few I didn't mention here), I turned my studio families into huge fans of my studio.

It helped word of mouth.

I even had a few parents suggest that I should be charging more (this is not an exaggeration).

Imagine that...

Studio families telling you they would pay you MORE in tuition.

That's how you know that you've won. That is how to know that you are really valuable to your customers.

And that is the best studio growth hack of all...

Blast studio families with a fire-hose of value through your marketing and communication skills.

For every person who joins the Studio Marketing Masterclass on May 10th...

I'm going to show you how to do exactly that:

• In Week 2, I'll show you how to read the minds of your studio families and then use their thoughts to create your marketing... you don't need to be creative when you can just steal the words right out of their mouth

• In Week 4, I'll show you how to take those words and use it to create persuasive, effective messages for your website, email, intro lessons, and phone conversations with potential customers... you will feel so much more confident about your messaging!

• In Week 6, I'll give you my follow up communication sequence that raised my retention rate by years... again, no creativity required. You can just copy and paste it!

• In Week 7, I'll go over all of your marketing with you personally in a one-on-one session where you get personalized feedback from me.

All of this begins when you register this coming Monday, May 10th.

But...

You won't get the opportunity until you apply to join the class.

You can do so here.