Transcript Snapshot 038 – Amy Elmore

Transcript: Snapshot 038 – Amy Elmore

Transcript for Snapshot 038 – Amy Elmore

[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 creative 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.

Welcome back. We are doing a special series on the podcast this summer called Studio Snapshots. Rather than the in-depth process oriented interviews, you’re used to hearing these rapid fire interviews, give us a glimpse into a guest’s studio at a moment in time. They’re part reflection, part anticipation of the future, and fully a celebration of where these teachers are today.

Today I’m talking to Amy Elmore. Here’s Amy’s snapshot. Hi, Amy. Welcome to the podcast. Can you introduce yourself and tell us briefly about your studio?

[00:01:04] Amy Elmore: Hi Andrea. Thanks for having me. Yes. I’m Amy Elmore, and our studio is called Keys to Praise, and it’s located in Anaheim, California. We teach students ages three and a half to 18.

The younger ones are part of our preschool piano prep classes, and then we also teach piano and voice to the older ones, ages five and up.

[00:01:30] Andrea: Alright, and longtime listeners might recognize you from the New Harmony podcast series that we did a couple summers back. We’ll link up to that in the show notes.

Today’s interview is a very brief look into what is happening at this moment in your studio this summer. So we’ll jump right in. What are you celebrating from the last school year?

 

[00:01:48] Amy Elmore: I would say probably just always learning something new. We are anticipating, hoping, praying to move to our own commercial location space. Currently we rent rooms at a church and it’s been a great setup for many, many years, but it’s limiting because we have kind of a hard stop at a certain time in the day and there’s certain days we can’t be there and kind of thing. So my desire is to move to a new location, so I guess what I’m celebrating is just learning all the things that go into that next step for our business.

[00:02:24] Andrea: How were you challenged in the last year?

[00:02:26] Amy Elmore: Probably the same thing. Realizing that being a teacher is a lot different than running a studio, is a lot different than managing other teachers, is a lot different than being a place that is wanting to scale and grow. So some of the hard lessons kind of through those challenges.

I’ve realized that there are some days where I wake up thinking, okay, this is it. I’m done. Like, like it’s hard. It’s really hard, but that feeling can be fleeting. So trying to not get too caught up in feelings, but the goal ahead and action that’s needed to take to get to that goal and not giving up. And then I realized too that what I put into something is a better indication of what I get out of it.

So sometimes I might think. Oh, this would be great. And then I just think and dream and hope and wish, but I have to actually like take the steps, contact the commercial real estate office, figure out how to post ads for new features on LinkedIn. My administrative assistant and I were been working on standard operating procedures all year so that we can simplify and streamline all the processes.

So yeah. The challenge is that there’s always a challenge, I suppose.

[00:03:46] Andrea: Did you take any risks or go outside your comfort zone last year?

[00:03:49] Amy Elmore: Uh, yes. I used to not take risks, but now I feel like the risks are kind of exciting. And again, back to the taking action with things. If I am not trying something new, then I’m stagnant and I, I don’t wanna be that way with my business or with myself.

So some of the risks were hiring new people, just, you know, you never quite can be a hundred percent sure if it’s gonna be a good fit. We had some new teachers that I was interviewing and had them do a sample lesson with the student to get the students’ feedback and I was able to observe them and get some other feedback from other teachers as well.

And you know, it’s a little risky ’cause you don’t know what the outcome’s gonna be, but I’m glad that we did it for sure. So hiring, I would say, and then investing in programs and coaching and resources and things that, you know, I think as teachers we think, oh, I can’t afford that, but I found that taking the risk of paying the money and.

You got skin in the game, right? So you’re gonna actually put the work into it. And sometimes the reward is really tangible and other times it’s something that I’ve learned or a way that I’ve grown, but maybe not necessarily in a financial way or in a a way that scaled the business. But I think they will take root and they will be fruitful if I don’t give up.

This is like really deep stuff. Okay. Thinking through all these things, but yeah, there’s a lot to running a business.

[00:05:30] Andrea: Are there any takeaways from those risks that you took this year that you’re gonna take forward into future experiences?

[00:05:36] Amy Elmore: Yeah, I think just realizing that we don’t always know the outcome.

We can’t predict. We may have an idea of what we hope it’s gonna be, but we never are a hundred percent certain. So just going into it, knowing that, knowing that there’s gonna be a lesson learned most likely, and that everything’s a test, that that has like been a mantra of mine recently, whether it’s social media content or email content, or even just trying new ways of getting new leads into the studio. Do we wanna offer free trial lessons? Do we wanna offer a meet and read? All those kinds of things, like it almost doesn’t matter. That’s my takeaway, I guess. But you just keep at it, keep testing it, and then it will become more clear as you like do the action.

[00:06:27] Andrea: I’ve been seeing that on repeat. I feel like especially these couple weeks we’re getting new participants in our Business Building 101 course, and like it almost doesn’t matter what your goal is, just as long as you state something and you might decide in two months that you had the wrong goal, but you were working towards something intentionally. And yeah, I think at the beginning it just doesn’t matter. Something is better than no stated outcome.

[00:06:50] Amy Elmore: Yep. Yep. And it just helps the, the momentum, like the more you do it, the more you get clear, even on your own message and your own purpose for what you’re putting out there, who you’re trying to reach. And then the more you get clear, the more you wanna try it again. And it’s kind of a snowball in a good way.

[00:07:08] Andrea: What do summers look like in your studio for you and also for your students?

[00:07:12] Amy Elmore: For us for the summer, we do a six week summer session for our students, and it’s six weeks of private lessons. And we also do six weeks of our preschool piano prep program. And then at the end we do like a mini recital.

And every year we’ve used a theme. It’s not really a music theme necessarily, it’s more of a, this is the snack theme. It’s called a, an ice cream recital. So every year I don’t have to reinvent the wheel with that particular recital. We just have like an ice cream sundae bar at the end, and that’s what summer session looks like for our students.

For me, this year, I’m teaching fewer lessons than I ever have before. This summer I’m doing two preschool group and four student. And I’m really excited about it because we have other teachers in our program and we have a couple new teachers that are joining us this summer. So it will allow me more opportunity to train them, observe them, so that when fall comes around, then I can like really promote them and be excited because I will have that firsthand experience with them and know like who they’re gonna be a good fit for and all that kind of thing.

So that’s my summer. Prepping for the next season, I guess.

[00:08:32] Andrea: Alright. What are you doing this summer to prep for the next school year?

[00:08:35] Amy Elmore: Well, we did some interviewing again for the next school year. The teachers that work with us, they are younger in school. Um, finishing bachelor’s, finishing masters. Some of them have finished doctorates.

And not all of them are music. Well, in the past, not all of them had a music degree. So we have one teacher right now. She’s anticipating going to law school this summer, so I have a feeling we may have to replace her. She was my first teacher actually, when I started hiring, and she was one of my previous students, so we’re interviewing to see who’s out there.

We don’t necessarily have spots for everybody i’m interviewing and I haven’t offered positions to everyone, but I just wanna get a feel of who is available in our area and if it’s a good fit, and then we can follow up from there. Also, it gives me the reps, like the practice to practice my interviewing skills, which I had never done until the last couple of years, and even then kind of sporadically.

So I feel like there’s been a lot of interviewing this summer. And then we’re also calendaring and planning our recitals for next year so that we can let parents know ahead of time. I just sent out a re-registration letter yesterday that also included a rate increase. So those things happen during the summer. We’re developing standard operating procedures for things that we do on repeat, my administrative assistant and I, and then I’m just really trying to delegate a lot of things and somewhat work myself out of a job I think.

At least the teaching job for, for right now. I still wanna have my hand in it a little, but not as much as I have been. And my eventual goal is to move from teaching to administering and then eventually just being an owner and hiring someone else to kind of run the studio. One of the other things that I have been working on during the summer when it’s not quite as busy at the studio is a side arm of my business that is for piano teachers who are interested in adding a preschool group piano class to their studio offerings.

So I have a course, it’s called Preschool Group Piano Blueprint, and I’m going to be launching that again this summer. It’ll be the fourth time that it’s been launched. And it’s really fun to see other teachers who have gone through the program really now thriving with this extra offering and extra source of revenue in their studio.

So that is something else that I’m really enjoying working on this summer.

[00:11:17] Andrea: And what app or tool has made the biggest impact in your studio or life management this year?

[00:11:21] Amy Elmore: Hmm. Um, well, I always love MyMusicStaff. We’ve been really happy with them for many years and I’m looking forward to using their new tool that they have where parents can schedule themselves.

We’ve done a format of that before, but now they have like a booking format or like new, system where current families and new families can go in and just book automatically. So there’s not a lot of back and forth and middleman, and I don’t know exactly how it works yet, but I’m looking forward to using that.

And I appreciate my bookkeeper. I would say. And I appreciate PayPal. I don’t know if that’s a tool, but I just love the automation of our invoices. When we invoice monthly, it automatically just comes out on the first of the month. I don’t have to do hours and hours of invoicing and emailing and depositing and all that.

It like happens within a matter of minutes and, and then our bookkeeper, Brittany, she makes all the numbers look nice and pretty and it’s taken a lot of time off of my plate. So, those are two big tools that I appreciate.

[00:12:34] Andrea: Okay. What is one area of your business where you tend to get carried away or go overboard? Just because it’s something that you really enjoy doing or nerding out about?

[00:12:43] Amy Elmore: I would probably say I tend to go overboard with recitals.

[00:12:48] Andrea: If you didn’t say that, I was gonna say it for you, Amy.

[00:12:52] Amy Elmore: Oh, man. Every year I’m like, oh, I’ll simplify it, or we’ll just do this and then, I don’t know, I guess it kind of snowballs as well, but, well, I love a recital theme that’s been really helpful for planning.

And I just wanna do something that’s kind of a unexpected thing for recitals, depending on what the theme is like. Uh, last winter we had, uh, it was a winter wonderland theme and we’re in southern California still. We don’t have a winter wonderland weather, so I got a couple of snow machines and we had like fake snow blowing.

It’s tough, and I think it might’ve been 90 degrees that day. It was one of those really hot Decembers, but you know, was that necessary? No, but I think we have just over the years been sort of dialing into that recital piece because a) I wanna make a experience for our students and families that they remember that they look forward to, and not a recital that’s like stressful or too serious.

And then b) I just love hosting parties. So I feel like it feels kind of like that when we plan recital. But then the week of the recital, or you know, a few weeks leading up to it, we feel crazy. We’re like running around and my poor husband is always on the docket for lots of things. And so, yeah, I would say recitals.

[00:14:19] Andrea: And I say that as a compliment, but everyone should check out your Instagram feed, especially around recital time because they’re inspiring recitals for sure. And memorable.

[00:14:29] Amy Elmore: Thank you. Yeah, we actually did a, um, student survey at the end of spring semester and we asked what they thought about recitals and, well, actually, I don’t think we specifically asked, but in the question, what do you think we do well and what could we do better? That kind of thing. Almost everybody mentioned their recital.

So I think it’s met its goal, I suppose, but I still need to make sure I’m not going over budget. ’cause Brittany’s like you’re doing what? Britney the bookkeeper. But it’s, it’s fun. It’s good stuff.

[00:15:04] Andrea: Alright. And where can listeners get in touch with you?

[00:15:07] Amy Elmore: I am mostly on Instagram. Our studio is Keys to Praise Studio on Instagram, and then I have a separate page, Amy Elmore Piano.

And there I talk about what it’s like to run a business, how to grow and scale, and then specifically right now I’m talking and sharing more ideas about how to start, run, and teach a preschool group piano program so that you can grow your studio with preschoolers. And that is Amy Elmore Piano on Instagram.

[00:15:43] Andrea: Alright, Amy, thank you so much for being here today.

[00:15:45] Amy Elmore: Thank you for having me, Andrea. It’s always a pleasure to talk with you.

[00:15:51] Andrea: Thank you for taking the time to be with us, Amy. We’ll include a transcript and all the links mentioned in this episode at musicstudiostartup.com/snapshot038. The Music Studio Startup website is also filled with lots of other resources for music teachers just like you who wanna set up their studios for success this summer, including our very popular self-paced Business Building 101 course, and our hub and mastermind for studio owners who wanna be supported and challenged to grow as entrepreneurs.

If you are ready to dive in the live summer cohort of Business Building 101 is underway. Teachers are actively working on setting up and revamping their studios and it’s not too late to join in, visit musicstudiostartup.com/buisinessbuilding101 to enroll. That’s all for today. Thanks for listening.

I’ll be back next week.