Transcript: Snapshot 042 – Jennifer Walschap
Transcript for Snapshot 042 – Jennifer Walschap
[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 Jennifer Walschap. Here’s Jennifer’s Snapshot. Hi Jennifer. Welcome to the podcast. Can you introduce yourself and tell us briefly about your studio?
[00:01:04] Jennifer Walschap: Sure. I am Jennifer Walschap, and I run Imagine Music and Arts in Norman, Oklahoma, and I founded, Imagine back in May of 2016, so we’re actually coming up this spring on our 10th anniversary.
Which is crazy, but really exciting. So I don’t know. I’m planning with some sort of big party or birthday bash or something for that. We offer private lessons in pretty much all instruments. We also do group piano, early childhood music classes, and also art classes. And we currently have around 170 students and we have around 20 to 25 teachers I say around because it can fluctuate at different times, so.
[00:01:58] Andrea: Awesome. Okay, well, happy to have you here today. And this interview is kinda a rapid fire, like what’s going on in your studio right now, so we will jump right in. What are you celebrating from the last school year?
[00:02:08] Jennifer Walschap: So I am really excited about how our piano program has progressed. Specifically our group piano program.
So we’ve been offering for several years an introduction to piano class for five to seven year olds in the group class format to make it fun and engaging and you know, just get them off to a positive start with piano. But we made some changes this year. We shortened the session to just six weeks at a time instead of a full semester, and that seemed really effective.
I think that parents like that better because it wasn’t as big of a commitment. And they kind of see if their kid enjoys it. But then we created a next step after that, which is partner lessons. So it’s, you know, a little more attention in the lessons, but still not as much commitment or as serious.
And then if they really wanted to continue after that. They could do private lessons. So I feel like that helped us get more students in the door and it also helped us retain more students. So I was really excited and just, yeah, celebrating some wins.
[00:03:30] Andrea: How were you challenged last year?
[00:03:32] Jennifer Walschap: Oh, okay. So during our winter recitals, I got really sick because I have a toddler who was in daycare, and so during the fall and winter we caught everything and I never miss recitals, but I felt so bad that I just had to stay home and miss two out of the five.
However, thanks to having a whole process in place for recitals and having an awesome assistant who knew what she was doing, everything turned out just fine. So I guess it was a good test of having put a system in place. It was hard to miss, but in the end it turned out okay. And another challenging thing that we did was switch studio management systems in January.
[00:04:26] Andrea: Not a busy time of year.
[00:04:28] Jennifer Walschap: Yeah. Looking back, um, that was not the best time to do it. It was way more extensive than I realized it would be. And so I probably, you know, if I could go back, I would’ve waited till the summer to do that. But you know, I learned that I have to rely on my assistant and just problem solve as things come and appreciate people’s patience and grace. So I think we’re finally more smooth sailing with that, but that was a huge challenge.
[00:04:59] Andrea: Sounds like it. Yeah. Setting yourself up for the next 10 years though, right?
[00:05:03] Jennifer Walschap: Yes. I’m not changing my system for a long time.
[00:05:08] Andrea: Did you take any risks or go outside your comfort zone last year?
[00:05:11] Jennifer Walschap: Well, I would say I did this summer. I decided not to teach any private lessons and I only taught group classes, and that felt risky because I didn’t know how my students’ families would react when I told them I wasn’t teaching private lessons. But it has been so much fun to teach the group classes. And I think the students are having fun too, and no one’s complained.
And I just feel more energized because it’s a change of pace for all of us. So that was a risk I took that actually had some positive results.
[00:05:51] Andrea: Mm-hmm. So teaching all your same students but in a group format rather than private lessons?
[00:05:55] Jennifer Walschap: Yes. Yep.
[00:05:57] Andrea: That does sound fun. What do summers look like in your studio for you and also your students?
[00:06:01] Jennifer Walschap: So, summers are actually really busy for our studio and for me. In a different way because like I said, I wasn’t teaching private lessons. There are private lessons going on. Uh, students can take the lessons that were included with their tuition and also they can add on extra a la carte lessons. But we also do a lot of camps.
We did the most camps this summer that we’ve ever done. Almost every week we had a camp. It was tricky because while we were running one camp, we had to be thinking ahead and planning out the next one, so it just kept us all really busy. But it was fun. We created a new camp called Art and Music Camp, and I had so much fun at that one.
So we’re definitely gonna do that one again. Yeah. So summers, I would say, are still just as busy as the semester and the school year, but in a different way.
[00:07:07] Andrea: Okay. What are you doing this summer to prep for the next school year?
[00:07:11] Jennifer Walschap: So I try to prep as much as possible in the summer for the school year because once the school year gets going, it’s just go, go, go.
And then I don’t get things done. So I’m working on calendars, updating studio policies, and our tuition. I am hiring new teachers if needed, so lots of interviews and meeting with new teachers, preparing a new contract for all the existing teachers for the next year. I schedule out all our group classes and our recitals, our performances, and we just opened our fall registration.
So I’m kind of also like monitoring that to see how that will go ’cause we’re actually doing that a little bit different way than we’ve ever done before. So that’s always a little nerve wracking. So yeah, just everything I can to get ready.
[00:08:08] Andrea: Okay. What app or tool has made the biggest impact in your studio or life management this year?
[00:08:13] Jennifer Walschap: Ooh. Um, definitely Todoist. As we’ve talked about a lot of times in our mastermind group, learning how to use it effectively has really helped me manage my time and just all my to-do lists. And also doing that in conjunction with a weekly review. I just feel super productive and organized.
[00:08:40] Andrea: Love it. And for listeners, Jennifer’s in a, a mastermind group and as a group we kinda work through implementing the Getting Things Done methodology with Todoist and the weekly reviews and all of that. Just kind of coach through it. So it’s been, yeah, super fun to see you embrace that and use it and kinda expand your effectiveness.
[00:09:00] Jennifer Walschap: Yeah. I even got my assistants on board now. I have two assistants for the studio, and I was like, Hey, will you try out this program? So now I can assign them tasks too and check them off.
[00:09:17] Andrea: Amazing. What’s one area of your business that you tend to get carried away or go overboard because it’s something you really like or nerd out about?
[00:09:25] Jennifer Walschap: Honestly, probably, like working on like future planning and like hypothetical situations, like, whoa, what if I did this class and like I’ll make a spreadsheet and I have way too many spreadsheets or documents in my Google Drive that are just hypothetical situations or looking at potential like studio spaces on real estate websites. Because, you know, it’s my dream one day. We rent our space right now, but, uh, it’s my dream to own a space. So every now and then I get on the realty website for commercial real estate and just look and kind of flip through the pictures and be like, oh, that would be a good room for our group class. And even though that’s way far down the road, it’s not gonna happen anytime soon.
[00:10:24] Andrea: I can relate to that one. And where can listeners get in touch with you?
[00:10:27] Jennifer Walschap: I am on Facebook and Instagram under Imagine Music and Arts. And we have a website, imaginemusicandarts.com. You can contact me that way, but probably socials are great. I’m on there a lot.
[00:10:46] Andrea: Alright, we’ll put those in the show notes. Thank you so much.
[00:10:49] Jennifer Walschap: Absolutely. Thank you for having me.
[00:10:53] Andrea: Thank you for taking the time to be with us, Jennifer. We’ll include a transcript and all the links mentioned in this episode at musicstudiostartup.com/snapshot042. 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/businessbuilding101 to enroll. That’s all for today. Thanks for listening.
I’ll be back next week.