How to Attract New Students Weekly with Pamela Jack
Carly
In today's episode, I am so excited to share with you an interview I did recently with Pamela Jack. You might have heard her name before because I've mentioned her a few times. Pam has the biggest heart and truly gives to all of her students, which you're going to hear today. She's also a teacher who you'll likely be able to relate to pre-pandemic. She was teaching only in-person and when the pandemic it, she didn't even have a computer for teaching online. She had no social media presence, Facebook page or website.
Her studio was dwindling and she was so discouraged last March, as I know many of you were. When she joined Teach Music Online last March, she committed to going through this program step by step. And in this interview, you'll hear how she not only successfully transitioned her studio online with the set up, the automation, all the business things, but now she gets up to ten new student inquiries every single week, without running any ads. I can't wait for you to learn from her story and hear how she made this happen for her studio. I think you are just going to have so many takeaways from her experience.
Welcome to our teacher Spotlight interview, Pamela. I'm so thrilled to get you on a call.
Pamela
I'm thrilled to be here, Carly. Thank you so much. I just feel so honored just to be here speaking with you.
Carly
Of course. Well, I'd love to start by having you share your musical background with our audience. For those who can't see Pam’s studio, she has three pianos in the shot, which just shows that she clearly loves her career as a music teacher. Tell us about how you got into piano and then eventually how you got into teaching.
Pamela
Oh, my gosh. I feel like it's a long story, so I'm going to make it kind of short. I feel like I have always played piano. I can't remember not playing the piano. My family tells me that I used to hang around the piano when my sisters would take lessons. So when I was two or three years old, the teacher that used to come to our house said, “Well, let's try her out for piano. You want to try playing this?” And I apparently said, “Well, I can't play.” So he said, “you want to sing it?” And I said, “Well, I can't sing it. But I can play it.” So I plunked out these little tunes on the piano and they realized I needed lessons. So I started lessons. And when I wanted to and the story kind of goes on from there. But then as I was into high school and my mentors were starting to tell me things like, you need to start choosing a career. My mentors would say things like, there's no money in music, you need to choose something else. Not only that, but back then, they used to say, Women need to be able to support themselves. And we all do. So I went into business, and I actually became a CPA. But on the side, I always had piano students. I’d have people asking, ‘can you teach my child?’ Oh, sure. And I’d squeeze a student in Thursday night. And Sunday afternoon and Saturdays were full of pianos students. And I just look forward to teaching. And I didn't really love my CPA job. So one day I just told my husband, ‘I think I want to quit my business career and just go music.’ And he was very supportive. I launched my full time music career, and I went on and finished school and got my Master's in piano performance. And so here I sit as a piano teacher now. And I love my job. I look forward to every aspect of my job. So there it is, in a nut shell.
Carly
It's so inspiring when you hear of teachers who originally wanted to do something else and then they had the courage to shift. How old were you when you decided to go back to school and get your Master's?
Pamela
That was not that long ago. I graduated in 2017 with my Master's. We moved from Virginia to Texas eight years ago, and it was while we were in Texas. I was certainly no spring chicken.
Carly
And how many kids do you have? I know you mentioned your son.
Pamela
I have two sons.
Carly
And they're into music as well. Right?
Pamela
They are. They are both piano players, singers, and guitar players. But they were the children who had to take piano lessons until they graduated high school. And sometimes it was pulling teeth to get them to practice. But I always told them, you'll take piano lessons until you graduate, then you can do whatever you want. And there were many days they didn't want to practice, but now they're the thankful ones who say, ‘Thanks, mom, for making me practice’ because it's a life skill for them. And they both work in the Church, and they write music, they perform. They're quite the musicians.
Carly
I loved hearing you at our Christmas recital for teachers online. I love hearing you play with your son. That's my dream when my children are older.
Pamela
It's hard sometimes because, you know, there's the battle of the will sometimes. And I said, ‘You're going to take science, history, English, and piano, and then you can do with it what you want when you're an adult, but it's well worth it. So hang in there.’
Carly
Okay. I love hearing about your new studio. Tell me about who you like to teach. What is your preference when it comes to teaching, as far as age and type of music you enjoy teaching most?
Pamela
Well, that's a question I hear lots of teachers talking about. They just want that ideal student that practices all the time. And, of course, that's wonderful to have somebody come well-prepared for lessons. I just like to teach somebody who wants to be at lessons. I do have lots of students that don't practice very much. But if they just want to be there, I just love teaching them. And I teach a wide variety. I have a three-year-old right now that practices all the time. And then I have adult students that want to kind of socialize a little bit. And I try to teach them something, of course. So they get something for their tuition that they're paying. But I love teaching all ages.
I do think I really specialize in teaching the younger students. I just seem to have a knack for engaging them and teaching them to really read, because obviously, they need to be able to read music. That just seems to be my niche. We just play lots of games and they learn how to read music. But I enjoy teaching a wide variety of students. It’s like I say, just teach to whoever's on the bench. They all have different personalities. They all have different desires and dreams and inspirations. And whoever's on the bench, at that moment, that's who I teach. And I try not to put my desires into them. But with that said, I know that as a teacher, sometimes I know their plateaus up here, and they may only be here. So I gently push them.
My son tells me that I push them in a pit. He says that I get them into the pit, and then they can't get out because they found their love for music that they didn't even know they had. He says, ‘Mom, you pushed another one in the pit’. And so I realize they found their love for music, and they’re going to love it for a lifetime. And that's my goal for all my students. Maybe a few will go on and study music in college, but most won't. But they're gonna just love music for a lifetime. That's my goal.
Carly
I love that so much. It's always rewarding to hear other teachers who are really on a mission to help somebody go from the stress of life and watch how music can really change their lives.
Pamela
Especially when we're in the pandemic. You never know what's going to happen. My students just yesterday logged on, and he had a little tear in his eye, and he says, We're all quarantine. My teacher has the virus, and it's just hard. We don't know who's going to log on and what their story is going to be right now. So we're just that connection that students need. That connection is such a valuable thing that we have right now, and we need to be ready for that. I just love the fact that we're able to be music teachers and have this online tool to be able to reach them in a way that only music can. So it's so special, especially during this time.
Carly
And you're able to do that all online, which is so remarkable. It's something that none of us would have predicted a year ago. So you and I connected last spring when you went from in-person and then no students to online. So just tell me, what was going through your mind? First of all, before you went online, tell me about that. The fears and the unknown of the pandemic.
Pamela
Oh, my gosh. So before the pandemic, I had a pretty large studio. I had eight keyboards in one room, and I would teach group classes, plus private lessons. My studio was very different. The students would come for the group classes, and it was just completely different. So the pandemic hits and obviously, I'm not going to have the students come in-person. And I'm like, now what? A couple of years ago, I had done a tiny bit of very crippled online lessons because in our area in Southeast Texas was where Hurricane Harvey hit. During Harvey, we were like a third-world country. We were an island. We had helicopters dropping off water. Nobody could get in or out for, like, three weeks. So it was kind of scary. And during that time, sometimes I would teach students on my telephone. They would try to log in to Skype just to keep them going, just to keep some sort of normalcy, but they were not good lessons. It was just to keep a connection with my students. Once the pandemic hit, I didn’t know what to do. I didn’t know what Zoom was, I didn't even know what Google was, really. I didn't know what screen-share was, what any of this was. But then, of course, I found your course. And so it's going to sound like a commercial for Carly's course, and I guess it is. Teach Music Online is amazing. It just saved everything. I coached my students on how to use Zoom. And sometimes it took two or three times being online to help them get their settings right. But going step by step through your course is what did it. My fears were my own, trying to overcome my own fears and let them see that I was confident when I really wasn't. I was terrified. But I just tried to let them know my fear. I didn't have the right camera. I didn't have the right microphone. I didn't have the right computer. I was scared to death of a MacBook. I was not an Apple person, but now I've transitioned to all of what I feel like is the best equipment. I have good cameras and a good microphone, step by step by step by step, I tried to upgrade each month just a little bit once my studio started coming back because my studio went down from, like, 60 students down to eleven. I was just feeling like, ‘What am I going to do now? Is this a sign that I'm not supposed to be teaching?’ and I was really worried about income. And I love my job, obviously. And I teach because I love it. But it is a job that pay bills.
I had just purchased a second grand piano around Valentine's Day, and I was like, now what? And I don't know if you can see it in the shot back here, but it's the second grand piano. I'm like, okay, so now we're not going to be using that. But tech, that was my biggest fear. And of course, everybody's a little bit fearful about getting sick and things like that. But you can avoid that by just not having people in your house.
Carly
You are such a good example. I mean, there are so many things you've said that I know teachers listening are going to relate to. You're such a good example of being optimistic, taking the action, actually doing the research, actually getting the things you need, and having faith in yourself that it's going to work because some people like you could have gone into the course and give up because they don’t think they’re tech-savvy, or because they don’t have the right equipment, or because they get caught up in negative self-talk. You are such a good example, though, of taking the action, getting the equipment, following the steps. What motivated you to figure it out? Was it the obvious answer, which is that financially you needed to keep teaching? What kept you going when you just hit roadblocks along with that?
Pamela
Ah, well, I don't know. I love to learn new things, and I think a lot of people love to learn new things. I love to teach, and I needed to figure it out. And I needed to connect with my students. I just felt compelled to connect with my students, because that's my mission in life. To connect with my students, to reach my students, and to teach them, and make it more than a piano lesson. That's actually my motto. If you read my stuff, it says, ‘Jack School of Music, where music is more than a piano lesson.’ Then I also actually use a Bible verse. Says Psalms 33:3, ‘Play skillfully and shout for joy.’ And so I just thrive on that, I live on that, and I try to inspire that and instill that in all of my students. There may be people listening to this that don't believe in the Bible. And it's okay, but it's still it's a nice reminder, play skillfully and shout for joy. Who can't think of that as a truth? I mean, that is just wonderful. Anyway, it's just inspiring to me. I had to reach my students. That's what I needed to do.
Carly
And you could probably have even more mottos even now that you're connecting all of the ways that you're able to. Before this call you had mentioned, you have students now all over the US, and you’re staying virtual, which is so exciting.
Pamela
I am. Probably when things are over, I'll have one or two or three students, maybe occasionally come in. But the thing is, I now have students from Washington State to Florida, and again, I just have to attribute it to TMO. The marketing that I do leads to all these people contacting me from everywhere. And that’s another thing that I'm just going to be a walking commercial for.
Carly
No, it's good to hear, because there are so many teachers listening on the podcast who are thinking about running ads, they're thinking about paying for leads. And I want them to hear your story of the marketing that you've done. What have you learned that you've been doing that you attribute those new inquiries that are coming from?
Pamela
Oh, my goodness. Well, go in step by step through your course. Different things. Five months ago on Google, I have quite a few reviews. So it must have been five months ago that I followed that step. And it said, Ask your students to do a review for you. I have, like, twelve reviews from five months ago that are all students. So that must have been one. I followed that step. So of course, that lifts my optimization on Google search. And so people, they find me on Google. And I get these emails on a regular basis about lessons. And then I followed your step by step to help weed out the casual inquiries. So I'm not just spinning my wheels with people that are just, you know, maybe looking for the least expensive teacher or aren’t sure if they’re interested. Because my studio sends out a response, and I spend just a few seconds sending out a form letter and they answer for the questions or they don't. If they answer the questions, then I know that they're more interested. And then I follow up on those people. So I'm not wasting my time. And I'm hoping and praying that a few people haven't slipped through the cracks that need lessons, but they'll find a teacher.
There are thousands of steps and videos, but you know what? Rome wasn't built in a day, and we're not going to learn everything in a day. We're not going to get all this equipment in a day. Just make the choice to start. And I committed myself to spending an hour every day. I'd sit down with a bowl of cereal and watch my course and do my homework. I just did what I was supposed to do. And sometimes I had to do the same thing ten times because I didn't understand it. And I'd be like, ‘I don't even know what that means’. So I would get a YouTube video that explained how to do it. And sometimes I would run into words that I didn’t understand, and I’d Google it, and sometimes watch a YouTube video, just to make sure that I understood how to make it work.
Carly
And you've been in school.
Pamela
I have! I feel like I learned so much more in TMO than any of my other courses. It's just so exciting. And I'm so excited about what's to come. And now I’m figuring out the monetizing area.
Carly
It's so fun for me because, you know, as music teachers, there are so many of us that are passionate about teaching, about performing, about playing, about learning. But we didn't go to business school. Well, you went to a type of business school. But so many of us did not take online marketing classes and all of these things that are so essential as a business owner. And then not to just know, but to know how to apply it to a music studio and then to know how to apply it to an online music studio. It's so specific. So comparing that to trying to figure it out by yourself, that’s impressive and hard.
Pamela
Yes, it's just so hard. But I mean, the tools are out there in the community in TMO. So not only do we have the classes, but then if you don't have on the videos and everything, but if you have a question, you just go into the chat and you ask it. And, boy, everybody just chimes in there and helps you out. And they're so encouraging. So any questions get answered, so that's the other way to figure it out. And then you can just be blunt and honest if you have no idea what you’re doing. They just help me out. And then they'll even chat and just become your friends. I feel like I have friends all over the world. They're virtual friends, and it’s different. But it just feels so wonderful and amazing. I feel so connected. I don't feel isolated at all. I have a whole new group of what feels like close friends. It's amazing.
Carly
I love that. I can't wait until we can do a workshop or a conference together. It will come. It's so exciting to be together.
Pamela
I mean, a TMO reunion. Yeah, that would be wonderful.
Carly
So just briefly, tell me, what are some things you're doing every week to market your studio? I've seen you posting some things. I know that those listening are wondering what it is that you do, what are the marketing tips that are actually working for you. So share just a couple of things that have worked for you.
Pamela
Well, I try to be on Facebook regularly, and maybe too regularly. I just post often. Then I've even recently done a couple of iMovie trailers. I don't know their names, but somebody in your TMO group was playing in one of the recitals, and they mentioned that they created it in iMovie. And I didn’t know what iMovie was at the time. So I Googled it, looked at it, and researched it. I thought it was pretty cool, and then I saw that it had the option to make a trailer. And I know what a movie trailer is. And it's so cool. I played around with it, and I created these cute little trailers. I don't know if everybody loves them, but I love them. So I put them up there and I've gotten some comments. And some of my students have shared them. And I've gotten some feedback and some people asking about my studio based on those trailers. And so I tried to create one that's just fun. Then I created one that was just a little bit more sophisticated.
And if you've studied music theory and music history, then there's just a couple of little references in there about music history. So people would go, oh, maybe there's some real teaching going on at that studio. There's some little hidden agenda in there. So, students who are looking for legit piano lessons, the parents might see it and they watch it. But anyway, I've learned is that posting regularly boosts your search engine optimization. The more you post, then the more that Google recognizes you and puts you higher on the list.
Carly
That's a great way to explain it. And it's so true. Something I love about following your studio and seeing everything you're posting, is that you have removed the barrier of being a perfectionist about what you share. That can really stop teachers. You know, they think that their content isn't good enough. And it shows that you love what you do, and it shows your personality. And that's why people are contacting you because they see that you're a real person and that you're passionate about what you do.
Pamela
Well, I really wanted to portray that in this virtual world. I talked to my family about this. What used to be people coming in face to face for an interview and seeing my studio. They'd see me face to face, and they could trust their children with me, one on one with them. But now in a virtual world, they don't know who they're going to be trusting their children to. They don't know how I speak or what we might say to their children, what we might teach their children.
So they need to see the real person. They need to feel comfortable having you educate their child. And so I decided, they just need to see me for me. It doesn't have to be pretty. It doesn't have to be wonderful. It doesn't have to be polished. So I'm going to let them see me play the piano. Wrong notes, right notes. Of course not just going to play something terrible, hopefully. But just let them see the real me. I want them to feel my heart.
I want them to see that I care about them as a person because I do. I care about them as a person and then care about their musical education second. It's not just the kind of person that I am. That's a close second. I mean, they're paying me, it’s my job. They're not paying me just to be their friend, but I do care. And they need to see that in the virtual world.
Carly
That's so good. It's so authentic. It's so important to be authentic when we are sharing things online. And I hope teachers listening or learning are realizing that, because you are a walking success story. You didn’t have anything online and now you’re online and how many inquiries are you getting every week?
Pamela
Probably at least eight to ten inquires a week. But then two or three end up being more accurate.
Carly
That's awesome.
Pamela
Some of them, when I send them the follow-up with the questions, I never hear back. And that's okay. Who knows how many they're sending out. Out of those two or three in the last couple of weeks, I've been adding two students a week, two students a week, two students a week. I want to project that into the future. I don't know if I'm going to actually hire a teacher because I'm not into that yet. I know it's in phase three. So I'm looking forward to diving into that or seeing if I’ll stay where I am. And, you know, build my waitlist and refer those to other teachers. I haven't decided yet.
Carly
And continue raising your rates, maybe every year. Have you raised your rates since the pandemic?
Pamela
Not since the Pandemic, because I raise them every September. I raised them in September, but I heard lots of teachers saying they were going to drop the rates. And I didn't drop my rates, even when I was losing students, I didn't drop my rates. I kept them. So this September I will raise them. I always raise them. Along with any other job inflation. I always raise them just a little bit.
Carly
And really, you are an in-demand teacher. Like you mentioned, with your growing waitlist and your growing skills and all of the things that you're incorporating, mean that you have a really high-value studio. I'm just so excited to see where it goes with all of the things you're incorporating.
Tell me really quick. We're almost done, but I feel like we could talk a lot about everything you've been up to. Tell me, what are some of your favorite apps or tools that you use during the lessons that you've tried to incorporate? Are there any digital things that you've been trying that you really enjoy?
Pamela
Oh, my gosh. I could go on forever about apps! My students love playing the games. Flash Note Derby, Staff Wars, Note Rush, Note Name Smash. Those are the things that I can do online. And then they play Piano Mastro at home, and when we were in person, Rhythm Cat was so great. I have to put a plug in for Carol Matz. Her online music is so helpful. If you guys haven't looked at Carol Matz, a lot of her music is digital, and she gives away freebies. She's just so good. Then through Carly's course, you get discounts on a lot of this stuff. So anyway, my students just love those games and it engages them online so they can participate. And we do group classes. So every week my students participate in a group class, and they're just so excited.
Carly
I didn't know that! Do you do it by level?
Pamela
Yes. So it naturally kind of falls by age, but the level was the requirement. And so I wouldn't put a high school boy, even if he started with lessons a month ago, in with my first graders.
Carly
Do they have a one on one? I'm just curious. They have a one-on-one private with you and then an additional group class every week?
Pamela
No.
Carly
Once a month?
Pamela
Yes. One on one every other week. And so every week they have a group class. Then every other week they get a private lesson. Then on their off week, they are supposed to use Tonara and send me a recording of what they've been working on. Then I either send them an audio memo or a video or just leave comments on what to keep working on. And just a new little assignment. Now, do they all do that? No, they don't. And I contact their parents and say, I need this and some of them still don't.
I'm like, well, that's all I can do. Some of them really take advantage of it, and they'll send me copies of their completed theory pages out of their theory time books. That's another great book to use theory time. So it just depends. But in the group classes, we have so much fun. That's when we do theory, music history, our note reading, our note learning. And that's why they read so well, because of all those games and seeing how fast they can do it. So they're just reading, reading, reading, reading. And we can even do things like we can use, like a player and I can screen share music. And then they'll even mute themselves because of the lag. And they'll play along. And so they're actually playing music, and I can't hear it. But we'll do that for five minutes during the group class. And so they're just reading an enormous amount of music. It's super cool. And they love it. And then the rest of the time, they won't be muted and we'll do stuff together.
Carly
It's so neat to hear that you're incorporating group classes because you mentioned before the Pandemic, you taught a lot of group lessons, and you still wanted to keep that going. And so you're doing it. And you're making it work online! I bet they love having that opportunity to get to know their peers. And every week, that's amazing.
Pamela
They do. They love it. They love logging in and seeing each other. Now sometimes I meet their cats and their dogs and all that kind of stuff, and we have to really work, especially with the little ones, to rein it in. But they learn their own self-control. I say, ‘it's time to use self-control!’ and then learn that and they focus and it's good. It's awesome.
Carly
Well, Pam, this was so fun. I am so excited to share your story, your enthusiasm with teachers because it really is so inspiring. I just have one more question. I just want to know what keeps you teaching. And you've mentioned this all along the way. But if you could sum it up, why do you teach?
Pamela
Okay. Carly, I’m going to just put it out there. Teaching is my mission. I am called to teach, and I teach because it is what I'm compelled to do. It's what I must do. I don't think I could survive if I wasn't teaching. I'm supposed to be there. I'm supposed to greet these children and pour my heart into these children and adults. Whoever is on my bench, whoever is in front of me, I'm going to love them. And I'm going to teach them more than a piano lesson. I am going to teach the music in any way that I can. If I could pull teeth, like with my children, I'm going to pull teeth to teach them the music, but I'm going to love on them and teach them about life skills and teach them about manners. They learn that we say please and thank you and things like that as well. And they learn life lessons. But I'm compelled to teach. It's my calling.
Carly
Thank you so much. And for those who are listening to this, you can get to know Pam inside our community. She is a vibrant part of our teacher community. And we just are so grateful that you're in there. It's so fun having you.
Pamela
It's so fun to be here. Carly, thank you again for inviting me to this, and I so look forward to getting further into everything you have to offer for the course. Thank you so much, because I know you worked so hard putting this course together, and it had saved my studio. And I know I speak for everybody else in TMO. Thank you so much because you just followed your calling and putting this together, and you offered it at just the right time for all of us. Thank you so much. Thanks.
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