Transcript 107 – Cheyenne Olson on Using Music Clubs to Relaunch a Studio

Transcript: 107 – Cheyenne Olson on Using Music Clubs to Relaunch a Studio

Transcript for 107 – Cheyenne Olson on Using Music Clubs to Relaunch a Studio

 

[00:00:00] Andrea: Hey, it’s Andrea with Music Studio Startup, the podcast about the business of teaching music. Learn from the startup stories of music teachers who are doing incredible things with their studios. Be inspired by creating musicians who are branching out and thriving as entrepreneurs. Be empowered by the insights of experts who will help you grow your own studio.

Let’s get started.

Over the next two episodes, you’re going to hear from two teachers who have moved and restarted their studios in new cities. The circumstances are pretty different, so I think you’ll enjoy hearing the contrast between the two experiences. Today I’m joined by a teacher who relocated from Colorado to Utah. We talk about the steps she took and the timeline she followed to close one studio, and how she went about filling her new studio.

Here’s my conversation with Cheyenne. Hi, Cheyenne, welcome to the podcast. Thank you so much for being here today.

 

[00:01:06] Cheyenne Olson: Thanks for having me.

 

[00:01:07] Andrea: Yeah. Can you introduce yourself and tell us about your studio?

 

[00:01:10] Cheyenne Olson: Yeah. Um, my name is Cheyenne Olson. I have a piano studio currently in northern Utah, and I have about 13 piano students right now. It’s pretty small studio, but um, it works and I just enjoy kind of teaching with the Wonder Keys program and I just have kind of a wide variety of students, I guess. .

 

[00:01:35] Andrea: Yeah. And I’m excited to dig more into that today. You have not always been in northern Utah. Can you take us through the history of where all your studio has been?

 

[00:01:45] Cheyenne Olson: Oh man. I’ve been kind of all over the place. After I graduated high school, I was actually in Wisconsin for a little while, but I was still working another job, so it was kind of just on the side. And I was a travel teacher at that time, so I went to homes. Um, so I had a couple students there. And then I moved to Arizona for a couple years and my studio grew a little bit. I had about 10 or 12 students by the end of that time. And also traveling. I was working at a preschool though, and then I moved to California for a couple years, still working another job, so I kept it pretty small. Just a few students. And then finally when my family moved to Colorado just three years ago now, I believe, I decided to quit all my other jobs and solely grow my studio and just focus on that. That was what I wanted to do. From the very beginning, I just hadn’t been in a position where I could do it. So I kind of consider Colorado as like the start of where I was like, okay, this is more than just a side thing. This is all I’m doing. So that’s where I kind of really grew my studio and got up to 20 students there, and then we ended up moving again to Utah. Hopefully we won’t be moving for a long time. That’s the , that’s the plan, at least .

 

[00:03:04] Andrea: And how long have you been in Utah?

 

[00:03:06] Cheyenne Olson: We have been in Utah since March, so I we’re working on our six month, yeah.

 

[00:03:13] Andrea: And then how long were you in Colorado? Just to give the listeners some context on your, your story.

 

[00:03:18] Cheyenne Olson: Two and a half years.

 

[00:03:20] Andrea: So it might not surprise people that the topic we’re kind of going to get into today is how you started and restarted and restarted and the new studios in all these different cities and what you’ve learned along the way.

We do have options like Zoom and things like that now that make us a little more flexible for students to travel with us to our new locations. But also there’s like in person and I, I see you building those in-person communities too, in all the new places you live. Can you tell us about maybe the most recent transition from Colorado to Utah and what that transition looked like?

 

[00:03:51] Cheyenne Olson: Back in last December, that’s when my studio kind of filled up completely to that 20 students. I was slowly adding more timeframes. I still, I have two kids, so I still teach from my home and have my children around, so I have to be very specific with how many , how many students I can actually do while also parenting. So I finally got up to that number and things were going really well in Colorado. I still love Colorado. It’s definitely a place that I think will always be somewhere where I’d be happy to go back to and also have a special place in my heart. But, um, then my husband actually got a pastoral position offered to him in Utah. Located in Utah. So that’s kind of what initiated the move because we were planning on being there long term. But you know, things change life happens. So in December, I kind of knew that that was the direction we were headed, but nothing was official. He still had to go through the interview process and see if it was a good fit and get voted in. All of that stuff.

So I could not necessarily tell my students this was going to happen in case it fell through. But also I wanted to make sure they had plenty of time to be able to work through it. So it wasn’t until the end of January of 2022 that we knew for sure that the move was going to happen.

So I knew in December, no one else knew during that, that that was a big possibility. In January, late January, is when it was official. So I had to send out a group email to all my students, told them about, you know, what was going on, the reason behind it, and then our kind of deadline, I guess. Um, I had my spring recital coming up and that was really important to me.

It’s the one recital that I do each year, so I, I wanted to do that. The students were already working on some of their music. So that was like, I’m not going to leave before then. We are going to do that. And that was set for March 12th, I believe, is what it was. That was going to be the last hurrah. Which I thought was a good ending note for my studio there. It felt like it was a good way to conclude things, but they had about a month and a half, almost two months to kind of acknowledge the next steps for my family. So yeah, that’s kind of how. It ended up happening, I guess.

 

[00:06:06] Andrea: Okay. So you sort of used this spring recital to influence your actual move date. It sounds like you worked around that. So there’d be a nice, nice end to it. And what options did you give the students that you were leaving? You do anything there?

 

[00:06:18] Cheyenne Olson: Yes, I did. Um, so in the initial email that I sent out to everyone giving the background of what we were doing, where we were going, I told them that I would give them three to four different possible piano teachers, local piano teachers that they could connect with and see if it was a good fit.

A lot of my students, I in a unique situation because when Covid went down, I was actually going on maternity leave for my daughter and I never had to do online teaching. When everything was shut down was when I was on maternity leave and that was already planned ahead. It was like I delivered her a week after the shutdown.

So I’m in a unique situation because then by the time I took a couple months off, by the time I came back, everything was starting to open back up again. And we had the option of in person. And so I went ahead with that. I let my students choose if they wanted online, but all of them chose in-person option.

So I was in a little bit of a unique situation because then people were coming to me because I was in person and most of my students were in person. So I also knew most of my students did not have the Zoom or whatever you might use for online in their background. And they wanted the in-person, so I needed to come up with a few teachers that I thought could help with that if they wanted to, you know, continue with that.

I did give them the option of Zoom lessons. I had done a few here and there because it’s in my policies for, you know, if someone’s sick or a makeup lesson. So it’s not a foreign thing. It was just not necessarily a normal thing for me. And in the end, I had only three students who decided to do online because most of them wanted the in-person. So I really kind of gave them options. I, I called around to different studios and different teachers and stuff to see if I could find someone who was at least similar to how I taught so I could give them similar options. And those were the two kind of things that I did just to help them with their next steps.

 

[00:08:15] Andrea: All right. So yeah, some want both ways. And you know, when I, I moved a few years ago and did a similar thing. I had used Zoom here and there, this was pre pandemic and yeah, a, a small handful of students came with me and the rest placed with local teachers and yeah. That’s such an interesting that you missed the initial covid.

 

[00:08:33] Cheyenne Olson: Yes. Very unique.

 

[00:08:37] Andrea: Okay. So then take us to, you’re moving. You’re in the new city. How did you get started?

 

[00:08:42] Cheyenne Olson: Yeah. Well, initially when we moved in March, I told myself, I was like, okay, I’m not going to worry about getting any new students until the summertime. That’s when I’m going to really start advertising and whatnot.

I don’t really know why I said that. I think it was more like, I just don’t want to be exhausted trying to move everything and everything’s going to change for my kids here. My husband now is a new kind of job going on and I just, I don’t think I wanted the mental load, but at the same time, my personality, it’s just, that’s just not me.

I kind of, maybe I should , maybe I should take more breaks, but I just. It’s just what I enjoy doing. It’s something I love. So it’s refreshing for me to be teaching . So my attempt to not get a lot of students during that time didn’t really, didn’t really work, but I was not complaining about it. So I did get, there’s a couple students from the church that I moved to that were interested in taking lessons.

So it started with just them as well as my three online students from Colorado. And I was like, that’s fine. I won’t worry about anything else until summertime. And I always join Facebook groups, different mom groups and stuff, partially because I look out for if anyone’s asking about piano lessons and the other part, because you know, I’m a mom and I like to connect with my local community about mom life and have play dates and stuff like that.

So I joined a few different groups on Facebook and the occasional person would ask about lessons or music classes or stuff like that. And so I’m like, what’s the harm? I’ll throw my name out there, my website. So I usually did that and then it just kind of spreads. And so then I would get someone who is interested in lessons and I’m like, why do I have to wait till summer?

They’re interested. I might as well start now if I feel like it. So then I just was like, okay. Well, I’ll just start advertising. I guess I might as well. I don’t seem to mind too much . So I did take advantage of Facebook groups. I used the Nextdoor app. I have a student that was from that. I got a student in Colorado from the Nextdoor app.

So I usually don’t get a lot from there, but, I mean, one student in both states. It’s worth, it’s worth trying. And then I also use my music clubs. It’s just a way to get my name out into the community. My music clubs are group music classes, specifically designed for six month to four year olds. So it’s younger than what I teach piano lessons too.

But it’s a way to establish my name in the community, and I have gotten previous students from there when I hosted my music clubs in Colorado. So it’s kind of a long term okay, right now this is extra income without a lot of teaching hours and a way to get to know people around the area. But I don’t expect any students from it yet.

And then down the road, I’m usually the first one that comes to mind because of the music class when they’re actually interested. So I did do one of those this summer and that continues getting my website out in online as well. Those are kind of the main ways that I started getting students. And then of course, word of mouth comes from all of that. So even if someone sees something on Facebook, then they tell other people, or you know, if friends of my current students or stuff like that. So those were kind of the main ways.

 

[00:12:05] Andrea: And then with the music clubs, did you get students for that in the same way, or was it like you gathered a group of four friends and…

 

[00:12:12] Cheyenne Olson: That I basically the same way. Most of the time I kind of, that’s in the mom groups because most of the mom groups have the young children and a lot of them are looking that age group, especially the zero to two, I would say there’s not a lot for kids that age. You know, once you hit two and three, there’s like, A little soccer and you know, different tiny sports or whatever. There’s all those things, but for the really young ones, there’s not a lot available for moms, aside from play dates and stuff that you set up.

So with music clubs, I, that’s why I designed it for those ages. That way it gives the moms something to do because they bring their kid and their kid gets to interact with other children around the same age. It obviously varies because my age span is a couple years. But it just kind of makes it a fun environment for kids and something for them to do.

And I usually only do it for like a month at a time. So it was the month of June and I was like, we’re just going to meet weekly for 30 minutes, and I will do a lot of singing, music and movement, dancing and build confidence, meet other kids your age and all that stuff. And more often than not, that’s a very easy thing for moms to want to be a part of.

 

[00:13:26] Andrea: And do you directly market those? Like when you post something on those mom groups specifically about, Hey, I’m offering this class. Or would it be the I’m looking for a class for my kid. And then you chime in.

 

[00:13:37] Cheyenne Olson: It really depends on the group. Some, a lot of Facebook groups, you have specific days that you can advertise for your business. So you have to really be careful with the rules because they don’t just want everyone’s spamming everyone, which makes sense. So it depends on the group I’m in. Probably the best feedback I get is honestly from people who are looking for something. And when I comment on it, then other people see it and I actually direct them to, I have a private Facebook group that I started that I send the link to that they can join that way, futuristically, when I decide a new music club, I’m not trying to find the same people who might be interested or re-advertising. I just, I start getting a group of people in that private Facebook group and if it doesn’t work for them one month, then maybe a different month when I host it again on maybe a different day or something, it might interest them.

So that’s kind of, I use that my private Facebook group to kind of bridge it for future reference.

 

[00:14:37] Andrea: Okay. Interesting. So that kind of serves as like your email list?

 

[00:14:40] Cheyenne Olson: Yes. Basically .

 

[00:14:42] Andrea: Alright. Yeah. And are you maintaining that with content or is it just for announcements when a new one’s starting?

 

[00:14:48] Cheyenne Olson: It is mostly specific to music clubs when a new one’s starting. I usually try to do one in the summertime, one music club in the fall, one in the spring, and then sometimes I’ll throw in a fourth one in either the fall or wintertime, depending on my schedule. So the gym music club, it’s four weeks long, so usually the month before is when I really want to get it out there at least a month before. Sometimes six weeks before. And I so I put a little advertisement of what to expect, what’s going to be there, and that I can post in a public mom group, or public, it doesn’t even have to be a mom group, it can just be a community group on Facebook. And then I will do like little sneak peeks of what we’re going to do. So I, I will already have my lesson plans and I will do like, okay here’s a picture of this book, and it’s probably going to happen during one of the music clubs or some of the instruments that we use, or, you know, I try to do like a weekly sneak peek almost. So it’s something to get excited for and keep my name relevant or the Facebook group relevant so they’re not just leaving the group.

And then once the music club happens, I try to occasionally get a picture from the class and stuff with the kids. That way those who couldn’t make it to that one know that, oh, this seems like a fun place to be, look at all these people. So I try to post that and then usually I go through a period where I don’t say as much then until my next music club is starting to gear up. That’s kind of how that works.

 

[00:16:14] Andrea: So it sounds like, I mean, you talked about the first private students. You’ve got this music club thing that is a feeder program for future students. Also income stream right off of the bat. But then with the initial private students, those came from your church and just like getting plugged into your social circles. New City. Just doing life and being Cheyenne, the piano teacher.

 

[00:16:34] Cheyenne Olson: Yes. Basically.

 

[00:16:36] Andrea: Have you done any, experimented with any paid ads?

 

[00:16:39] Cheyenne Olson: You know, not in Utah. I did experiment with paid ads in Colorado. I did Facebook. I did the Facebook ads, and I tried two different times right before I moved to Colorado. I did it.

Then after being there for a few months. Colorado took a longer time for me to get students. I’m not completely sure why. I think it may have been the culture or maybe I didn’t know as much of what to do or how to do it. So I know I learned a lot as as a teacher and stuff. But all like to say, I did try some paid advertisements through Facebook in Colorado and I didn’t get anything from them. So I kind of was like, okay, well I don’t know. I don’t want to put money towards something that’s not going to profit. That’s when I was like, I got to figure out other ways to do this. I think the music club was probably one of the big things that shifted in Colorado. That’s when I first started my music clubs and I did that for my last year and a half I believe, of being there, and that’s when my studio really started growing. Obviously I’d been there longer, so my name was more out in the community. But also I did get some students from my music clubs and I had grown a pretty big audience in my private Facebook group that I started for that.

So now if any of their friends were asking, I’m still the first person they think of because of the music class. So I think that is probably what benefited the most in Colorado.

 

[00:18:01] Andrea: And how many students are generally in the music clubs?

 

[00:18:04] Cheyenne Olson: Usually I need a minimum of four, aside from my own. So I have two kids that fit in that age group, so that makes a total of six kids with two and the four. And the reason I need a minimum of four is often something comes up, an appointment or something and a parent has to miss it, and I need enough kids to still call it a group music class. So that’s why I need a minimum of four kids. And depending on the space I have, in Colorado, I did it out of my living room. So I really could only have up to eight kids. With including my two, because you also have to think of the parent being there with their child. So I maxed it at eight there. And then when we moved to Utah, I actually used our church lobby area and so I was able to max it at 10, I believe is what I did. And that did include my two kids. I was trying to figure out if I would go more than that or not. 10 kids is a lot, but the parents are there so it’s not babysitting, I guess .

 

[00:19:03] Andrea: And then how many people, if you don’t mind sharing this, how many people are in your private Facebook group that you can reliably fill that class?

 

[00:19:11] Cheyenne Olson: Yeah, I think right now, so when I, when I moved, obviously a lot of the people left the group because I told them and I changed the name to being in Utah. So I think right now I currently have like 115, I want to say people in there. Now, some of those are my friends who are so supportive and helping it look like there’s people in this group initially. And there’s still some moms from Colorado, which I find is so interesting that they decided to stay. But that’s great. So I still, there’s still some moms there. And then I probably, there was a couple weeks where I really advertised that Facebook group and I probably had like 20, at least 20 new moms specifically from Utah that joined. So, I don’t know what the ratios on that. I haven’t done a deep dive into that group, but I know probably at least 20 of them are Utah residents and actually interested.

 

[00:20:06] Andrea: And you’re able to fill a class with that?

 

[00:20:08] Cheyenne Olson: Correct.

 

[00:20:08] Andrea: That’s, that’s really helpful to have those like data points i n mind. And not that it’ll be the same everywhere, but that’s, yeah. Thank you for sharing that. Is there anything you’ve tried that’s worked well here, but maybe didn’t work in other cities as you were getting set up?

 

[00:20:20] Cheyenne Olson: I, you know, in Colorado, I, I had business cards. I tried putting around at different communities and stuff, you know, on the community boards. I never got anything from that. I have not even tried that here. I’ve got my first person from Instagram the other day who found my Instagram. That was new for me because a lot of what I post on Instagram is only directed towards teachers.

I don’t even have a lot of my parents in my studio follow me on Instagram. Which is, I don’t know, kind of interesting. So that was, I guess, different or unique. I don’t know the reason why that happened, but it did. But mostly I really have stuck with things that I know. The music clubs, the NextDoor app and Facebook groups, and then word of mouth, and that has mostly worked for me. So I haven’t tried a lot of different things since moving.

 

[00:21:06] Andrea: How about pricing for the new city? How much do you, did you have to reinvent? I don’t know a lot about your specific area in Colorado versus there.

 

[00:21:13] Cheyenne Olson: Yeah, that was interesting. I did do research. So Colorado is a pretty pricey state to live in. Housing is expensive and you know, all that stuff. So I was probably on the medium to low end in Colorado for my pricing. It worked. I did raise my prices once in Colorado because of that. I was definitely on the low end to begin with, and then I raised my prices a year into being there. And then when we moved, I started looking up different studios and seeing if I could find their pricing online to kind of give me an idea.

And I definitely noticed that it was lower than what I was charging in Colorado. Now. I still saw teachers who were charging the same as what I was already doing, but they were on the high end. So I knew that if I moved, I either would need to lower my prices if I wanted to kind of be where the average teacher was, or I could keep it and market myself as being on the high end.

And I decided to keep it and just be on the high end. So I was like, you know what? I’ll do at least a year, keep my pricing. If I’m just not getting any piano students, because it’s ridiculous, then I can change it. But it can’t hurt and it didn’t hurt. So it works. I think a lot of teachers in the area will need to raise their prices anyway very soon, and I, I actually had a teacher reach out to me who lived in the area asking about my pricing and how I worked, how I changed it over time and stuff, because she was like, this is just, I’m just, it’s too low and I need to charge more. Just the cost of living is more expensive than what it was even just a few years ago. So you kind of have to move with the times.

 

[00:22:49] Andrea: Were there any financial investments that you made when you moved to the new city?

 

[00:22:53] Cheyenne Olson: When we first moved, we moved into a, we were renting a town home, so I will say that it is nicer. We just moved into our house a month and a half ago, and I feel the shift of actually being like settled in a home versus even renting.

I don’t know if it makes a difference to piano students. I think there is a level of, okay, this feels more like long-term, not like they’re just going to pick up and leave. I mean, you heard how many times I’ve moved and stuff, so I don’t, I don’t want people to get this idea that every two years I’m just going to move.

And that’s not really appealing for a student. As a student, you kind of, it’s nice to have the same teacher long-term. So I don’t, I don’t know if that is helpful in their mind, but that that would be a pretty big investment that I made.

 

[00:23:36] Andrea: Different regions seem to have different norms or expectations for music lessons. The things I love about podcasting, because I get to hear like, this thing that’s a given in San Francisco is just not a thing in St. Louis. So what have you noticed in your different cities? What’s normal, what’s weird?

 

[00:23:50] Cheyenne Olson: It’s a good question. I, what I’ve decided as a teacher is I’m going to advertise my business how, the type of music that I want to teach. So I advertise my studio as I’m going to help you learn your favorite songs . That’s kind of my goal as a teacher. Obviously, we’re going to work through, you know, a method book or method series. I, like I said at the beginning, I used the WunderKeys Method because I like how interactive and game-based it is. It just feels very fun for kids.

But then the secondary thing alongside that, I just want them to choose the songs they want to learn, whatever that might be, whatever genre that might be. I don’t have a background of classical training. I don’t have a college degree. So I just wanted to emphasize my strengths, I guess. So I specifically advertise that way.

So when someone calls me interested in lessons, usually it’s because I’m letting them choose the songs they want to learn. That’s usually what I hear from a lot of the parents. They like that idea. I ask for their goals at the very beginning. I say, what’s your music goals? What do you want long-term? You may not know this yet, or what do you want even in the next year? What do you want to accomplish? More often than not, it’s, you know, have fun, get the foundations of music, and then often there’s like a specific music genre that someone’s really interested in learning. I’ve never had someone say like that they want to compete or something like that. And if someone said that they want to compete, I would have to look into that.

But more likely than not, I would say I’m probably not the teacher for you. It’s not where my strengths are. I don’t want you paying for something that you can get better somewhere else. You know? I want you to use your money wisely. So I think there’s a draw to me specifically for really using it as a hobby and getting the benefits from music training and the discipline of music training, but also just making it a hobby and having fun with it.

And if someone was like, I really want to be classically trained, then I could, I could get you to the point where, okay now you should probably move on because , I can get you the beginner, get through all the, the basics that every musician needs to know, but at some point there’s going to be a better teacher for you.

So because I advertise that way, I don’t think I, usually, the people I interact with are those who want what I’m offering, if that makes sense.

 

[00:26:15] Andrea: Is there a book or resource that has had a strong impact on you as a music teacher or as an entrepreneur?

 

[00:26:20] Cheyenne Olson: Actually, the one book that I really enjoyed reading, which is actually not about music, but it’s called The Power of Moments by Chip Heath and Dan Heath. That book is kind of, it works through, there’s a lot of examples, a lot of stories and stuff, but it, it talks about how, you know, different companies or different businesses use the power of Moments, basically a moment in someone’s life to make a difference long term. That book was really interesting for me because I just want to create my piano lessons as something that is memorable for people in a positive way, and that they look back on as being like, okay, that was something that was helpful in my childhood, or that was something that I could rely on, you know. I never had to worry during that timeframe. Or I want them to be able to see the benefit of it. So I really want to create my lessons to be something that’s like, okay. That was cool. You know, every recital that I do, I want it to be very specific to the group of students that I had. That’s like, okay, I liked that , that that’s going to, I’m going to remember that in the future. I look back on my piano lessons and I had great teachers. I had really good teachers, but, if I’m honest, there’s not anything that I look back on that was like, okay that made a huge impact in my mind. That was like a moment from my music training that I was like, okay, I’m going to remember this. This is going to, this is going to affect my future .

so the one thing that I remember is actually not from my piano lessons, but kind of just like I remember watching my aunt. She was an amazing pianist playing a songs. I was so young. I just started piano lessons. And then I remember being in awe of her playing and her ability, and I was like, I want to play like that someday. I remember saying that out loud. And my sisters, which we laugh about now, but my sisters at the time were like, you’re never going to be able to play like that.

That’s never going to happen. And I remember her turning towards me and she was, Yeah, you can. You just have to practice. And for some reason in my mind, like that moment is like something that I’m like, okay. that was like, so like inspiring and motivating for me. Why, I don’t know, but , it was kind of like, I’m going to prove my sister’s wrong,

But anyway, so that book I think was very interesting to read and just how I now looked at my piano lessons, how I set up my first lesson when I meet someone, you know, my recitals, the events that I might put on or not put on, or what I expect from my students. It just kind of shifted. It made me sit down and brainstorm what I wanted to do or not do, I guess.

 

[00:28:54] Andrea: Thanks for that book suggestion. I don’t think I’ve heard of that one before. And what is next for you? What are some goals you’re working towards?

 

[00:29:00] Cheyenne Olson: Well, obviously I’m wanting to continue to grow my studio. I would like to get up to 20 students, is kind of the goal until my kids go to school. Then I might do more.

The other thing I am interested in doing, I put together a couple years ago, the piano teacher’s package, which is basically a how to start your own piano studio. Kind of the basics of what you need or what to think about. I would like to do the same thing with my music clubs. It’s been kind of in my mind for the last couple months.

I just, life has been so busy. I haven’t sat down and started, but I’d love to put together some sort of little package or online PDF file or something that would be like, okay, if you’re interested in doing music clubs, you know this is what you need. This is how to do it. These are some like lesson plan idea. I’ve had so many teachers ask me about it that I’m like, I think it’s something that would be helpful for a lot of teachers in their business. So I’d love to do that at some point.

 

[00:29:58] Andrea: As soon as you get those boxes unpacked or, or repack. All right. Well thank you so much for being here. And where can listeners get in touch with you?

 

[00:30:04] Cheyenne Olson: Probably the main spot would be my Instagram, which is just Cheyenne’s Piano Studio. Most everything Facebook. My website, it’s all Cheyenne’s Piano Studio. So you could probably find it pretty easily. But yeah, Instagram would probably be the best way.

 

[00:30:17] Andrea: Okay. We’ll add those links to the show notes. Cheyenne, thank you so much.

 

[00:30:21] Cheyenne Olson: You’re welcome.

 

[00:30:28] Andrea: Cheyenne has had her fair share of studio restarts. One of the things that struck me in our conversation was that Cheyenne really knows her values and boundaries both personally and professionally, and that’s given her clarity on who her ideal student is. Her teaching environment is super family oriented, so she wants to attract students and parents who will value that.

These folks are already gathering in Facebook, mom and community groups, so Cheyenne’s time in them is really well spent and fruitful. With your music clubs, Cheyenne has designed a program that is relevant to a broader audience than private lessons, and I have to imagine this accelerates her word of mouth referrals, both for the music clubs and for private lessons because more people are engaging with her studio and having fun doing it.

I like Cheyenne’s comment on feeling more settled in her family’s newly purchased home, and the sense of long-term stability that conveys to students. I think she’s right that students do pick up on that sort of thing. Of course, if you’re not in a position to buy a home, you can still set up your studio and wait to communicate that you’re in it for the long haul.

This thought also made me reflect on the interview I did with Anna Fagan, who took the opposite approach with her studio when she started teaching exclusively online, sold her home, and moved permanently into an rv. That’s episode 094 if you want to hear the whole story. This is what I love so much about talking to teachers who are really building their own studio. Customized to the lives they want for themselves and their families next week. You’ll hear another example of this when I talk to a teacher who relocated to fulfill a lifelong dream of living in New York City. You can find the show notes and links from this episode at musicstudiostartup.com/episode107.

That’s all for today. Thanks for listening. I’ll be back next week.