Episode 017 – Jolene Madewell on Building a Skype Flute Studio

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Summary

Lots of teachers transition in-person students to Skype students out of necessity when someone has to move, but today I’m talking to a flute teacher who has done the opposite.

When Jolene’s local studio wasn’t gaining traction, she decided to focus on teaching virtually. She ramped up her social media presence and built her studio of mostly online students. After a couple of years, her local community started taking notice of her work online and she started picking up more in-person students as well!

There are a lot of gems for traditional and online music teacher in this episode.

Takeaways

When traditional student recruiting methods weren’t working out for Jolene, she decided to use her social media following and blog to establish a Skype teaching studio.
Promoting an online studio allowed Jolene to present herself authentically, something that she found to be more difficult in person.
From the professional musician who is seeking instruction to the student who lives in a different country, Skype lessons offer flexibility that can benefit many students.
When many in-person studios lose students in the summer, Jolene said that she actually sees an increase in her Skype studio enrollment because she captures college students who are home on summer breaks and preparing for auditions.
Jolene has made her social media presence feel more casual and inviting by really showing her personality. Whereas her blog presence is more educational and structured.
Instagram tends to be the place she fosters her community, but her blog and YouTube videos are where she delivers her most in-depth educational content. This deeper content is also the primary driver for new student enrollment.
Jolene’s advice for teachers trying to grow on Instagram: share your personality in a professional way! Provide examples of how you do something, rather than telling others how it should be done.
There are differences regionally that can impact how quickly students are acquired. For Jolene it took four years to establish a studio that could be her full-time job. Don’t give up! Sometimes it just takes some time, and in her case, identifying a creative way to provide lessons.