An Interview With Steph Warden

Watch this video to learn more about Steph and how she worked to successfully incorporate group lessons into her multi-teacher studio.

VIDEO CONTENT

• Steph’s background and the evolution of her studio (skip to 1 min: 47 sec)  
• The big question that prompted this entire interview: “How do I communicate to kids the delayed gratification of learning an instrument and the importance of practicing in creating a foundation to help them reach their goals?” (skip to 3:50)
• The struggle with parents that just want piano lessons to be “fun” and let their kids quit when it’s not… and how to solve this struggle!!!! (6:45)
• Defining the ideal studio family and the ideal length of time students should take lessons (8:32)
• The thing left unsaid that will hurt your chances of having a studio full of motivated, dedicated, happy families (14:36)
• Do your studio families have poor expectations? Why parents need more education than the kids they’re bringing to our lessons (17:15)
• The key to keeping your studio numbers high and keeping your studio families interested and happy (22:31)  
• Avoiding exhaustion! Motivating beginners is a fool’s errand… here’s what to do instead (26:33) 
• What many teachers do in their teaching that could damage student’s progress from the very first concept taught (28:31)
• How to weed out families and students who don’t fit the vision for your studio without awkward confrontation (32:16)
• The #1 thing I recommend for causing parents to take lessons more seriously and filtering out families that will flake out on you after 6 months (33:55)
• Training your staff (or yourself!) on a strategy that gets you the kind of students you want (35:30)
• The things you need to consider before hiring teachers (38:11)