The Messy Middle: Building a Music School

The Messy Middle: Building a Music School

There's a lot of highlight reel stuff when we share about building a music school. Like these are the big exciting things and that's awesome and you can do those things. But there's this area that we call the messy middle. It's kind of you're in the middle of your journey and there's just some mess. It's just rough. It's like, "Oh, this is tough." It's like a real slog and that is real. That's the behind-the-scenes footage. That stuff is just as real as the highlights. It's probably you get more of the messy middle than you do of all the best days, right?

I wanted to film a video showing you some stuff, just reminding you that there are some real amazing highlights. And when you're in that messy middle, sometimes it's great to go look at some of those and see what is possible on the other side. So if you right now are feeling like, "I am so overwhelmed. I'm overworked. I'm not earning as much as I should," all those things can be solved. That's great, right? But I do want you to know and to believe that it is possible to get out of the messy middle and be able to run a studio and a music school that you love.

So I want to show you some people who are music school owners here, and I'll put them up on screen. And this is what they have said, like, as some of the best things for keeping them motivated, why they've built a music school, what they love about it, and showing some of their highlight reel stuff, which they remind themselves about when they're in that messy middle.

A really cool one here from Melissa is she rides horses. How cool is that? A horse must be? I've got dogs and they're expensive. Can't imagine what the cost of a horse is. But she has the freedom, and running a school now, to go ride her horses when she needs a break. How cool is that? You might have a different hobby. So obviously, building a music school proper business can give you the money to have some kind of cool and expensive hobbies.

And Nick Tucker said, "My sweet wife said never in a million years that I think I get this life being married to a musician. We have a beautiful home. We own two commercial properties totaling $800,000. We have great vehicles. We get to travel four times a year. But honestly, the biggest win I have is the time I get to spend with my family. I remember teaching until 9 p.m. most nights. Now I get to go home to soccer, pick my kids up from school. I'm not missing those moments anymore. How cool is that?"

So if you are doing that 9 p.m. slog and you're in that messy middle, just remember this is what it could look like on the other side if you actually just take that time, do that focus. I mean, honestly, join the BAM SQUAD because this is where you're gonna get the biggest growth. This is what's on the other side waiting for you. You can actually have a life like that. It's pretty cool.

Let's do a couple more. I love this one, Elizabeth. Elizabeth is so cool. She's actually one of our BAM SQUAD members who teaches remotely and teaches the harp, which is really interesting. I think the only harp teacher, or maybe one of two in the BAM SQUAD. And she says, "That's allowed me and my family to move to the mountains in Colorado and start a homestead while teaching online using Starlink, so, you know, Elon Musk's internet in the sky. And so she uses that living in this awesome flash RV. And she gets to travel from city to city if they just want to go drive, they can just do that and go do a gig and get to just explore the beautiful country. So that's what building her studio with a slightly different model has done for her. It's pretty cool."

And as I've shared in another video, there's so many different models. If you want to know which model is best for you, go to buildamusicschool.com. There's a really cool resource that we've made with 30 different models that you can choose which one is going to be the best to serve you for your life and the income you want to have. And the freedom and, you know, even the schedule. So if you don't want to work nights, well, maybe this model is best for you. That's really cool. So check that out.

A couple of other things. I'll include a shot from me here. In the best year of running my music school, we made over $200,000. That was pretty amazing. And that's obviously with your salary as well. And then the worst year, we lost $50,000. That was a tough year. But we also bought over half a million dollars in assets for the school, instruments, music buses, technology, and gear sound gear, all that sort of stuff. And at that point, we'd given away over $700,000 in lesson scholarships to kids who couldn't afford it. So some of that money came from us, a lot of it came from fundraising. Pretty cool.

And I said, "But some of the best moments were the holidays where the school ran without us. For example, the sweet 10-day cruise in New Caledonia. And so while I'm on that cruise with my wife having the time of my life, swimming in tropical islands, the music school's running without me. See, if I was just going back to when I first started teaching on my own, if I wanted to take a holiday, there was no teacher to carry on the lessons for me. No income kept coming in. I had to cut all my income. Whereas when I got to running a music school, I was able to just take holidays, still be paid my salary, still earn profit. Everyone ran the business, kept growing without me while I wasn't there. It was amazing."

So there are some cool highlights for you. There are so many more if you want to come check out buildamusicschool.com and the library. There's a whole section called the messy middle here where you can see crazy stories, amazing photos of people on yachting trips, and lots of other cool moments and highlights. So just know that this stuff is able to be attained. There are messy middle moments that you've got to go through, but it's worth it for that highlight reel that you will get and all those amazing moments.

If you're stuck in this area, do what you can to strategize, get the right people around you like the BAM SQUAD, and get through so you can get to those moments where you are a Level 5 music school leader and you get to enjoy the benefits of it. If we can help you in any way, buildamusicschool.com, that's where it's going off. It's the place to be. See you over there!

Join the BAM SQUAD and start building your dream music school today at buildamusicschool.com!