I go into MUCH greater detail about each item in the podcast, but here’s a rough outline for you:

Guitar Teacher’s Job Description

1) Job Responsibilities

• Conducting private lessons
• Skill and knowledge assessment
• Setting, tracking and reaching musical goals
• Controlling information flow
• Maintaining student motivation
• Prepare students for public performances

2) Job Qualifications

• Good guitar playing skills
• Good communication skills
• Good listening skills
• Good time management skills
• Humility

3) Compensation

• In a free market system, we are compensated according to how much value (both real and perceived) we bring to the table

Items Mentioned In This Episode:

• Van Halen – New album “A Different Kind of Truth”
• Tip Jar Link – if you find it beneficial, click to leave a donation for the Start Teaching Guitar podcast
• Free eBook: Teaching Guitar the SMART Way

To call in with a question, a comment or to leave feedback for the show, call the Listener Feedback Hotline at (719) 428-5480 and leave a message! I just might include your recorded message in a future episode.

If you have a quick minute, please click here to leave me an honest rating and review on iTunes. It will help the show and its ranking in iTunes tremendously! I would really appreciate it!

Take The Next Step!

Enter your name and email address below to get your FREE copy of my eBook "Teaching Guitar the SMART Way", and join the Start Teaching Guitar community:

I go into MUCH greater detail about each item in the podcast, but here’s a rough outline for you:

2012 Winter NAMM Show Highlights For Guitar Teachers

1) Introduction to NAMM

• What is NAMM?
• The Winter NAMM Show
• The Summer NAMM Show

2) My trip to the NAMM Show

• I guess the biggest lesson I learned from my trip to the NAMM Show was that the music industry
  is just like any other industry…some people work behind the scenes and some people get to
  wear stretchy pants.

3) Benefits of attending the NAMM Show

• See the latest gear before anyone else does
• Meet celebrities, get autographs and photos
• Business contacts
• Training sessions
• Free stuff
• Amazing live performances
• Great vacation opportunity

4) How to get into NAMM

• Music Education Days
• Music-related business
• Know someone
• Open-to-Public Days

Photos from the 2012 Winter NAMM Show

Eric Johnson and me at the Fender booth

Alex Skolnick, Bruce Kulick, me, George Lynch and Cesar Rojas at the Seymour Duncan booth

Steve Morse, me and Dave LaRue at the Ernie Ball booth

Lita Ford, my wife, me, Seymour Duncan and Warren DiMartini at the Seymour Duncan booth

My guitar teacher, Leigh Williams, and me at the Dunlop booth

Items Mentioned In This Episode:

• The official NAMM website
• Article: NAMM 2012 – 6 Products Every Guitar Teacher Should Know About
• NAMM Music Education Days
• Tip Jar Link – if you find it beneficial, click to leave a donation for the Start Teaching Guitar podcast
• Free eBook: Teaching Guitar the SMART Way

To call in with a question, a comment or to leave feedback for the show, call the Listener Feedback Hotline at (719) 428-5480 and leave a message! I just might include your recorded message in a future episode.

If you have a quick minute, please click here to leave me an honest rating and review on iTunes. It will help the show and its ranking in iTunes tremendously! I would really appreciate it!

Take The Next Step!

Enter your name and email address below to get your FREE copy of my eBook "Teaching Guitar the SMART Way", and join the Start Teaching Guitar community:

I go into MUCH greater detail about each item in the podcast, but here’s a rough outline for you:

Time Management Tips for Busy Guitar Players

1) Managing Your Time

• Plan out your days in advance
• Prioritize
• Focus

2) Organizing Your To-Do List

• “Getting Things Done” by David Allen
• Using a GTD mind map

3) Getting Some Help

• Things you can delegate
• Secretarial tasks
• Website tasks
• Bookkeeping
• Administrative tasks
• Sources for help
• Online
• Virtual assistant
• Bartering with students

Items Mentioned In This Episode:

• Book: “Getting Things Done” by David Allen
• Mind Mapping Software:
• MindMeister.com (web-based…up to 3 mind maps for free)
• Freeemind
• Freeplane
• FREE Sample GTD Mind map (requires one of the above programs to open and use)
• eLance.com
• Virtual Staff Finder (Virtual Assistant placement service)
• Tip Jar Link – if you find it beneficial, click to leave a donation for the Start Teaching Guitar podcast
• Free eBook: Teaching Guitar the SMART Way

To call in with a question, a comment or to leave feedback for the show, call the Listener Feedback Hotline at (719) 428-5480 and leave a message! I just might include your recorded message in a future episode.

If you have a quick minute, please click here to leave me an honest rating and review on iTunes. It will help the show and its ranking in iTunes tremendously! I would really appreciate it!

Take The Next Step!

Enter your name and email address below to get your FREE copy of my eBook "Teaching Guitar the SMART Way", and join the Start Teaching Guitar community:

I go into MUCH greater detail about each item in the podcast, but here’s a rough outline for you:

How To Plan For the New Year In Your Teaching Business

1) Schedule an annual planning day

• Make it a yearly appointment with yourself

2) Out with the old

• Review the previous year
• High points
• Low points
• Acknowledge all your successes and the milestones you reached
• Write down the areas where you could have done better
• Write down the areas where you exceeded your expectations
• Write down the top 5 things you LEARNED in the previous year

3) In with the new

• Write down the top 3 or 4 things you want to improve in the various areas of your life next year
• As a guitar teacher
• As a guitar player
• As a business owner
• Make a list of EVERYTHING you want to accomplish in the new year
• Organize your goals into Quarters
• Schedule your goals on your calendar
• Set aside some time every week…every month…and every quarter to review this list and make sure you’re still on track

Items Mentioned In This Episode:

• Guitar Moose Contest
• Winter NAMM Show 2012
• STG 011 : The Secret To Getting Results and Staying Motivated (Part 1)
• ProactiveChange.com – statistics about New Year’s resolutions
• Google Calendar
• Google Docs
• Tip Jar Link – if you find it beneficial, click to leave a donation for the Start Teaching Guitar podcast
• Free eBook: Teaching Guitar the SMART Way

To call in with a question, a comment or to leave feedback for the show, call the Listener Feedback Hotline at (719) 428-5480 and leave a message! I just might include your recorded message in a future episode.

If you have a quick minute, please click here to leave me an honest rating and review on iTunes. It will help the show and its ranking in iTunes tremendously! I would really appreciate it!

Take The Next Step!

Enter your name and email address below to get your FREE copy of my eBook "Teaching Guitar the SMART Way", and join the Start Teaching Guitar community:

I go into MUCH greater detail about each item in the podcast, but here’s a rough outline for you:

Frequently Asked Questions About Teaching Guitar

If you have your own questions you’d like me to answer, send them in an email to info@startteachingguitar.com and I’ll include them in a future episode of the podcast!

Here are the questions I answer in this episode:

1) I’m about to start teaching group classes in a community center. What do I do about students having acoustic guitars playing along with students with electrics? I don’t have that many little practice amps, and don’t want students lugging in their own.

2) Thanks for the great site and resources. I really think it’s great! I am implementing your monthly tuition idea into my teaching and it’s helping a lot with the no shows. I was wondering how you handle students who want to come every two weeks. I find that once a student goes to every other week they eventually quit coming anyway, but it really messes up my schedule. Any Ideas? Like what happens if a full-time student wants that time slot, also if your bi-weekly student misses one lesson he has basically tied up most of your month for that time slot and had only one lesson.

3) I’ve been making my brain smoke recently trying to help one of my students with her songwriting skills.  She’s trying to write a song, but she doesn’t quite like the way that is sounds.  I want to help her with it…but I don’t know where to look for the right concepts to teach.

4) If you’re the sole provider for your family, how do you go about providing health insurance for your family as a self-employed guitar teacher?

5) I’m just looking at your barre chord handout – what program do you use to create your worksheets? I want to create a bunch of new worksheets, and need something that will produce similar results.

6) How do I decide how much should I charge for lessons?

7) How do I advertise to attract new students?

Items Mentioned In This Episode:

• Book: “Book Yourself Solid” by Michael Port (affiliate link)
• Winter NAMM Show 2012
• Guitar Moose Contest
• STG 004 : Designing Lesson Policies That Work
• National Association for the Self-Employed
• Microsoft Word – tool for making lesson plans
• Guitar Pro – tool for making tabs and charts (affiliate link)
• STG 002 : How To Attract New Guitar Students
• Video Tutorial: How To Build Your Own Guitar Teaching Website In 30 Minutes or Less
• Product: Email List Training Course
• BNI – Business Networking International
• Tip Jar Link – click to leave a donation for the Start Teaching Guitar podcast
• Free eBook: Teaching Guitar the SMART Way

To call in with a question, a comment or to leave feedback for the show, call the Listener Feedback Hotline at (719) 428-5480 and leave a message! I just might include your recorded message in a future episode.

If you have a quick minute, please click here to leave me an honest rating and review on iTunes. It will help the show and its ranking in iTunes tremendously! I would really appreciate it!

Take The Next Step!

Enter your name and email address below to get your FREE copy of my eBook "Teaching Guitar the SMART Way", and join the Start Teaching Guitar community:

This episode (part 2) is all about how to help apply these principles with your guitar students. In part 1, I talked about how to apply them in your teaching business…click here to go back and listen to episode 1.

I go into MUCH greater detail about each item in the podcast, but here’s a rough outline for you:

***”BOOK YOURSELF SOLID” CONTEST!!!***

I’m giving away a FREE COPY of Michael Port’s book “Book Yourself Solid”…here’s how to enter to win the free book:

1. Click here to go to my iTunes page for the podcast, click the “View In iTunes” button and then leave a POSITIVE REVIEW of the podcast (a 5-star RATING would also be nice!)
2. Copy that review and paste it into a COMMENT on THIS PAGE (scroll down to the bottom of this page where it says “Leave a Reply”)
3. Include your NAME and EMAIL ADDRESS in the comment so I can contact you if you win

I’ll choose a random winner on Thursday December 15, 2011 (one week after this episode goes live) and announce it on the blog, the newsletter and the next episode of the podcast. Please only 1 entry per person!

I know you’ll love “Book Yourself Solid“…it’s one of the best business books a guitar teacher can read and own. Good luck!

The Secret to Getting Results and Staying Motivated (Part 2)

Here’s the not-so-secret “secret formula”:

1) Setting Goals

• Questions to ask your students to help them identify their goals:
• “What do you want to get out of playing the guitar?”
• “If you could do anything you wanted on the guitar (and you had the skills to pull it off), what would you do?”
• “What kind of places do you want to be performing at in 6 months? 3 years? 5 years?”
• “Do you want to perform your own original songs or cover songs written by other people?”
• “Do you want to be paid as a musician, or just do it for the enjoyment of playing?”
• “If you want to get paid to play, do you want to do this full-time or only part-time while you pursue something else?”
• “How fast do you want to be able to play scales, licks and solos?”
• “What specific techniques do you want to be able to perform on the guitar?”
• “By what date do you want to be able to perform them?”
• “What songs do you want to be able to play note-for-note on the guitar?”

2) Establishing Milestones

• Examples of milestones for your students:
• When they can play their first song
• When they reaches some kind of anniversary in their guitar playing (3 months, 6 months, 1 year, etc)
• When they know all the notes on the fretboard (or even a single string)
• When they have mastered barre chords (or even a certain type)
• When your student goes from being a beginner-level player to being intermediate or advanced

3) Earning Rewards

• Ideas for rewarding your students:
• You can organize your curriculum into “levels” and make it a really big deal when a student graduates to the next level…give them a certificate or something to formally recognize the achievement
• Some teachers give out “Music Money” (like Monopoly money) and actually pay their students to practice…I’ll put a link in the show notes to some resources for that. Works good for younger kids, and you can let them spend their “bucks” on prizes you could keep on hand
• Doing a student concert or “recital” every 3 or 4 months is a good venue to reward everyone for their hard work…besides giving them a chance to play in front of people, you can actually give out certificates, prizes or whatever you think is appropriate to reward them
• If you teach group classes, one way you can reward your students is to get them to help you teach the groups…the more they advance in their playing, the more responsibility you could give them
• You could even do some kind of gifts, tuition discounts, etc.

Items Mentioned In This Episode:

• Linnea Sage – Voice-Over Artist
• Book: “Book Yourself Solid” by Michael Port
• Article: Helping Your Students Set Musical Goals
• PDF: Musical Goals Worksheet
• Article: Should You Pay Your Students To Practice?
• Music Money
• Tip Jar Link (click to leave a donation for the Start Teaching Guitar podcast)
• Free eBook: Teaching Guitar the SMART Way

To call in with a question, a comment or to leave feedback for the show, call the Listener Feedback Hotline at (719) 428-5480 and leave a message! I just might include your recorded message in a future episode.

If you have a quick minute, please click here to leave me an honest rating and review on iTunes. It will help the show and its ranking in iTunes tremendously! I would really appreciate it!

Take The Next Step!

Enter your name and email address below to get your FREE copy of my eBook "Teaching Guitar the SMART Way", and join the Start Teaching Guitar community:

This episode (part 1) is all about how to apply these principles to your teaching business. In part 2, I’ll talk about how to apply them to your students so they can get better results in their guitar playing.

I go into MUCH greater detail about each item in the podcast, but here’s a rough outline for you:

The Secret to Getting Results and Staying Motivated (Part 1)

Here’s the not-so-secret “secret formula”:

1) Setting Goals

• Dale Carnegie quote: “Knowledge isn’t power until it is APPLIED”
• S.M.A.R.T. Goals
• Specific
• Measurable
• Attainable
• Realistic
• Time-Based
• Write a list of your goals (with deadlines on them)

2) Establishing Milestones

• Make a timeline out of your list of goals
• Identify which goals are “milestones”

3) Earning Rewards

• Make a list of rewards
• Attach an appropriate reward to each of your milestones
• Celebrate!

Items Mentioned In This Episode:

• Chipotle Mexican Grill
• Build Your Own Clone
• Tip Jar Link (click to leave a donation for the Start Teaching Guitar podcast)
• Free eBook: Teaching Guitar the SMART Way

To call in with a question, a comment or to leave feedback for the show, call the Listener Feedback Hotline at (719) 428-5480 and leave a message! I just might include your recorded message in a future episode.

If you have a quick minute, please click here to leave me an honest rating and review on iTunes. It will help the show and its ranking in iTunes tremendously! I would really appreciate it!

Take The Next Step!

Enter your name and email address below to get your FREE copy of my eBook "Teaching Guitar the SMART Way", and join the Start Teaching Guitar community:

“If you’ve ever taken guitar lessons before, what do you wish you could have told your guitar teacher if you would have had the guts to say it?”

The answers were very revealing, and I hope they’ll give you some great insight into what your students are really looking for in their guitar lessons.

I go into MUCH greater detail about each item in the podcast, but here’s a rough outline for you:

What Your Students Want You To Know (But Are Afraid To Tell You)

“Briefly demonstrate the goal, then spend the time I’m paying for showing me the building blocks. Not the other way around…”

“Do you know the difference between fully teaching someone something on the guitar, and just ‘showing’ someone something on the guitar?”

“I have had great teachers and poor ones. The great have no judgement on music and show respect for all types versus jealousy or bitterness that some music is too simple or the original musician is not that talented. The great impart the passion for music in all forms.”

“I have had a couple of guitar teachers (as an adult). One was not really a good match for me and after lessons for a while (a couple of months) I decided to find a different teacher. I didn’t really have to say anything. Here in the Boston area there are tons of guitar teachers. You do have to spend the time finding the right one for you.”

“It would be nice to see more focus on one specific area of guitar playing rather than throwing a bunch of non-related exercises at the student. The most effective teaching I’ve had, in school or otherwise, has always started out basic and moved toward more advanced. This seems obvious. So guitar teachers, instead of asking me why I’m not practicing the multiple-octave-string-skipping-tapping-and-sweep lick you’re showing me, why not instead outline a clear set of routines I can use to test the waters on while working up the ability to play something that advanced?“

“My guitar teacher is an AWESOME player. He does flamenco jazz, but he doesn’t make a great teacher (he’s a performer before he’s a teacher).

I told him my long term goal was to solo. Every week he throws a different scale at me. It’s been a few months, and I can play tons of scales, but I still can’t solo much of anything. He’s not good at connecting the dots. He taught me speed exercises and scales for soloing, but I feel like that’s all we’ve done. He never connected the scales with soloing.

I’m teaching myself how to solo at home now. I throw on an Al Di Meola album and play solos on top of everything until it sounds right. I’ve learned more through the Al Di Meola songs than at a lesson.”

“Instead of writing down tabs for scale, exercises and modes during the lesson, do it once and make copies for all of your students instead of wasting costly lesson time. Make your one-on-one lesson time with students efficient and more cost effective for them. Give them a game plan and tell them what they will be learning during the course of a series of lessons and demonstrate by playing what they should be able to play at the end of a set course of lessons – if they practice and understand the teaching objectives. When they learn the notes on the fret board, tell them to vocalize the notes they play while they are playing all notes on each string, scales and modes. It would nice to have a series of video clips showing past students’ progress at monthly intervals to help set expectations for new students. Help them learn how to set up their guitar properly – the basics.”

Items Mentioned In This Episode:

• Tip Jar Link (click to leave a donation for the Start Teaching Guitar podcast)
• Free eBook: Teaching Guitar the SMART Way

To call in with a question, a comment or to leave feedback for the show, call the Listener Feedback Hotline at (719) 428-5480 and leave a message! I just might include your recorded message in a future episode.

If you have a quick minute, please click here to leave me an honest rating and review on iTunes. It will help the show and its ranking in iTunes tremendously! I would really appreciate it!

Take The Next Step!

Enter your name and email address below to get your FREE copy of my eBook "Teaching Guitar the SMART Way", and join the Start Teaching Guitar community:

The concept of a Mastermind group comes from the book “Think and Grow Rich” by Napoleon Hill. In the podcast I’ll explain exactly what a mastermind group is, share some of the benefits you’ll see in your guitar teaching business by starting or joining one, and then give you some tips on how to get the most from being a member of a mastermind group.

I go into MUCH greater detail about each item in the podcast, but here’s a rough outline for you:

Using a Mastermind Group To Transform Your Teaching Business

What is a mastermind group?

The concept applied to teaching guitar lessons

Benefits of being in a mastermind group

• You get different opinions, viewpoints, perspectives, input and feedback on your business ideas
• You get the benefit of every member’s network of connections and resources
• Your group will both INSPIRE you to set bigger goals for your business and hold you ACCOUNTABLE for reaching them
• You get encouragement to keep going when things get rough
• You can trade referrals
• You can use each other’s students to form ensemble groups, put on joint-performance events (recitals), teach group classes, etc.

How to start a mastermind group

• How to find potential members
• How often to meet
• What format you should use
• Other tips for succeeding with your mastermind group

Items Mentioned In This Episode:

• Tip Jar Link (click to leave a donation for the Start Teaching Guitar podcast)
• iTunes Link (click to leave a rating and/or review of the podcast)
• Book: “Think and Grow Rich” by Napoleon Hill
• Craigslist.org
• Meetup.com
• Skype.com
• Skype call recording software – for Mac
• Skype call recording software – for Windows
• Free eBook: Teaching Guitar the SMART Way

To call in with a question, a comment or to leave feedback for the show, call the Listener Feedback Hotline at (719) 428-5480 and leave a message! I just might include your recorded message in a future episode.

If you have a quick minute, please click here to leave me an honest rating and review on iTunes. It will help the show and its ranking in iTunes tremendously! I would really appreciate it!

Take The Next Step!

Enter your name and email address below to get your FREE copy of my eBook "Teaching Guitar the SMART Way", and join the Start Teaching Guitar community:

If you can UNDERSTAND some of the things that make other teachers successful and APPLY those same concepts and principles to your own teaching business, you can make some incremental improvements and see your business GROW. In this episode I’ll share some of the most common “success traits” I’ve seen in guitar teachers who are doing things the right way, and I’ll also include some advice about how to apply those traits to your own teaching business.

10 Traits of a Successful Guitar Teacher – Part 2

6) Knowing Your Stuff

7) Looking the Part

8 ) Making Integrity Your Highest Priority

9) Managing Your Money Well

10) Giving Something Back

Items Mentioned In This Episode:

• eLance.com
• 99designs.com
• Dave Ramsey’s website
• Financial Peace University
• Free eBook: Teaching Guitar the SMART Way

To call in with a question, a comment or to leave feedback for the show, call the Listener Feedback Hotline at (719) 428-5480 and leave a message! I just might include your recorded message in a future episode.

If you have a quick minute, please click here to leave me an honest rating and review on iTunes. It will help the show and its ranking in iTunes tremendously! I would really appreciate it!

Take The Next Step!

Enter your name and email address below to get your FREE copy of my eBook "Teaching Guitar the SMART Way", and join the Start Teaching Guitar community:

If you can UNDERSTAND some of the things that make other teachers successful and APPLY those same concepts and principles to your own teaching business, you can make some incremental improvements and see your business GROW. In this episode I’ll share some of the most common “success traits” I’ve seen in guitar teachers who are doing things the right way, and I’ll also include some advice about how to apply those traits to your own teaching business.

10 Traits of a Successful Guitar Teacher – Part 1

1) Loving What You Do

2) Being a Life-long Learner

3) Using Technology To Level the Playing Field

4) Having a Business Mindset

5) Taking Care of Yourself

Items Mentioned In This Episode:

• Movie: Ferris Bueller’s Day Off
• List of Recommended Books (scroll down to the bottom of the page)
• Article: Get More Students Using Local Search
• Video Tutorial: How To Build Your Teaching Website In 30 Minutes or Less
• Product: Email List Training Course
• Paypal (eCommerce service)
• Tungle (online appointment scheduling tool)
• CopyBlogger.com
• InformationHighwayman.com
• Free eBook: Teaching Guitar the SMART Way

To call in with a question, a comment or to leave feedback for the show, call the Listener Feedback Hotline at (719) 428-5480 and leave a message! I just might include your recorded message in a future episode.

If you have a quick minute, please click here to leave me an honest rating and review on iTunes. It will help the show and its ranking in iTunes tremendously! I would really appreciate it!

Take The Next Step!

Enter your name and email address below to get your FREE copy of my eBook "Teaching Guitar the SMART Way", and join the Start Teaching Guitar community:

I go into MUCH greater detail about each item in the podcast, but here’s a rough outline for you:

Multiply Your Income With Group Guitar Lessons

1) Benefits to YOU of doing group guitar lessons

• You get the benefit of “cloning” yourself
• You get to multiply your income for each lesson you teach
• You get more time off
• You get more specialized options to offer your students
• You get a serious edge over your competition

2) Benefits to YOUR STUDENTS of doing group guitar lessons

• Lower tuition cost
• Ability to learn musical concepts from more than one perspective
• Helps develop skills they’ll need to play in a band
• Opportunities to write and collaborate with other group members
• Encouragement, support and accountability from other group members
• Works like a “Mastermind” group for learning guitar
• Helps develop confidence when performing in front of other people
• Opportunities to build a network of relationships with other musicians

If you’re interested in a complete multimedia training course for starting group guitar classes, send an email to groups@startteachingguitar.com to get added to the information list! I’ll let you know as soon as the course is released and give you a special discount on the price.

If you have any additional suggestions that I didn’t mention, feedback about this episode or questions about anything I talked about, please call in and leave them on the Listener Feedback Hotline or leave a comment below.

Thanks for your support!

Items Mentioned In This Episode:

• Product: Email List Training Course
• Arnold Schwarzenegger movie – “The 6th Day”
• Jack Black movie – “School of Rock”
• Book: “Think and Grow Rich” by Napoleon Hill
• Free eBook: Teaching Guitar the SMART Way

To call in with a question, a comment or to leave feedback for the show, call the Listener Feedback Hotline at (719) 428-5480 and leave a message! I just might include your recorded message in a future episode.

If you have a quick minute, please click here to leave me an honest rating and review on iTunes. It will help the show and its ranking in iTunes tremendously! I would really appreciate it!

Take The Next Step!

Enter your name and email address below to get your FREE copy of my eBook "Teaching Guitar the SMART Way", and join the Start Teaching Guitar community:

Most of the guitar teaching websites I come across DO NOT use an email list…it’s the single biggest mistake I see on websites for newer guitar teachers. By implementing an email list, you can grow your teaching business quickly and have an advantage over all the other teachers in your area.

I go into MUCH greater detail about each item in the podcast, but here’s a rough outline for you:

Using an Email List To Grow Your Teaching Business While You Sleep

1) The Basics: What is an email list?

• Broadcast emails
• Followup emails

2) What Will It Do For Me?

• It will turn anonymous website visitors into subscribers that you can market to
• It will let you build a relationship with those subscribers over time
• It lets you set up a series of automated follow up email campaigns
• It lets you automatically market your services to interested people
• It gives you measurable results

3) Which Service Should I Use?

• Features to look for:
• Self-service
• Pre-designed cool looking email templates you can use to make your messages look professional
• Easy-to-use interface for managing the lists and composing emails
• A way to automatically send out a series of emails to each person over time
• Pre-checks your emails to make sure they won’t get caught in the spam filters
• I recommend Aweber!

4) How Do I Use It Effectively?

• Embed it on your website
• Offer something valuable to them as incentive for signing up
• Instantly deliver that item of value
• Keep reaching out to them every 3 or 4 days
• Send them an offer they can’t refuse

5) New Products That Can Help

• Pre-Written Email Autoresponder Series for Guitar Teachers – LIMITED TIME 25% DISCOUNT
• Multimedia Email List Training Course – LIMITED TIME PRE-ORDER DISCOUNT

If you have any additional suggestions that I didn’t mention, feedback about this episode or questions about anything I talked about, please call in and leave them on the Listener Feedback Hotline or leave a comment below.

Thanks for your support!

Items Mentioned In This Episode:

• Free eBook: Teaching Guitar the SMART Way
• Monty Python – Spam Sketch
• Recommended Email List Service: Aweber
• Product: Email Autoresponder Series
• Product: Email List Training Course

To call in with a question, a comment or to leave feedback for the show, call the Listener Feedback Hotline at (719) 428-5480 and leave a message! I just might include your recorded message in a future episode.

If you have a quick minute, please click here to leave me an honest rating and review on iTunes. It will help the show and its ranking in iTunes tremendously! I would really appreciate it!

Take The Next Step!

Enter your name and email address below to get your FREE copy of my eBook "Teaching Guitar the SMART Way", and join the Start Teaching Guitar community:

For this reason, the topic of lesson policies goes hand-in-hand with the topic of lifestyle design. In this episode, I’ll be taking about both and how they work together to help you have the kind of life you really want as a guitar teacher. One of the cool things about teaching guitar is that it gives you the freedom to design your life almost any way you choose!

I go into MUCH greater detail about each item in the podcast, but here’s a rough outline for you:

Designing Lesson Policies That Work

1) Lifestyle Design

• What do I really care about? What things are really important to me?
• Why do I want to teach guitar lessons in the first place?
• What makes me feel happy and fulfilled more than anything else?
• What are my top 5 values?
• Donnie’s top 5 values

2) Lesson Policies

• Payment
• How much am I charging for lessons?
• What methods of payment will I accept?
• How often will I require payment?
• Will I give refunds or not? Under what circumstances?
• Will I offer any discounts for buying lessons in bulk?
• Scheduling
• How will I schedule my lesson times?
• What will I do if a student doesn’t show up?
• What will I do if a student is late?
• Should I do “make up” lessons or not?
• What days do I want to take off?
• What’s the best way for students to communicate schedule changes with me?
• How will I communicate schedule changes with them?
• Expectations
• How much should my students practice every week?
• How long should my lessons be?
• What’s my general approach to teaching guitar?
• What sequence of concepts will I take my students through?
• How will I judge what level they’re currently on?
• How will I decide when they’ve reached the next level?
• How will I reward/recognize them for that accomplishment?
• How will I discover and then work toward my student’s goals?
• How will I discover their definition of “results” and make sure they experience that?

If you have any additional lesson policy suggestions that I didn’t mention, feedback about this episode or questions about anything I talked about, please call in and leave them on the Listener Feedback Hotline or leave a comment below.

Thanks for your support!

Items Mentioned In This Episode:

• Woo Themes
• GuitarNoize.com Guest Article
• Book: “The 4-Hour Work Week” by Timothy Ferriss
• Recommended Credit Card Service: PayPal Website Payments Standard
• Music Teacher’s Helper
• Tungle.me
• GenBook
• Book Fresh

To call in with a question, a comment or to leave feedback for the show, call the Listener Feedback Hotline at (719) 428-5480 and leave a message! I just might include your recorded message in a future episode.

If you have a quick minute, please click here to leave me an honest rating and review on iTunes. It will help the show and its ranking in iTunes tremendously! I would really appreciate it!

Take The Next Step!

Enter your name and email address below to get your FREE copy of my eBook "Teaching Guitar the SMART Way", and join the Start Teaching Guitar community:

It’s not something to be intimidated by at all. With the new technology available today, anyone can get a website up and running quickly, easily, inexpensively and without any technical skills. That means you can do it, too!

I go into MUCH greater detail about each item in the podcast, but here’s a rough outline for you:

7 Easy Steps For Setting Up Your Website

1) Open a hosting account

• What is a hosting account?
• Which hosting provider should I use?
• How to choose the right domain name for your website

2) Setup email addresses

• Which email addresses you need for your site
• How to use them without adding more trouble for yourself

3) Install WordPress

• What is WordPress?
• Why should I use WordPress instead of building my website from scratch?
• How to install it in less than a minute!

4) Change some basic settings

• How to set up “permalinks”
• How to update basic site information
• How to change your time zone

5) Install a WordPress theme

• How to install a WordPress theme
• A great source for free and premium WordPress themes
• A great source for stock photos if you want to customize the default theme
• A source for free stock photos

6) Install WordPress plugins

• How to install plugins
• Some recommended plugins for WordPress

7) Add your content

• How to add pages to WordPress
• Which pages you should add to your teaching website and why
• Tips on making them effective for getting more students
• Why an email subscriber list is so important

Remember, I also have a free video tutorial that shows you step-by-step how to do some of the things mentioned in this episode. You can access the tutorial here:

How To Build Your Own Guitar Teaching Website In 30 Minutes Or Less

If you have any additional website suggestions that I didn’t mention, feedback about this episode or questions about anything I talked about, please call in and leave them on the Listener Feedback Hotline or leave a comment below.

Thanks for your support!

Items Mentioned In This Episode:

• Recommended Website Hosting: Bluehost
• Video Tutorial: How To Build Your Own Guitar Teaching Website In 30 Minutes Or Less
• WordPress.org
• Elance.com
• Recommended WordPress Themes: Woo Themes
• Recommended Stock Photography: iStockPhoto
• Stock XCHNG
• Plugin: Contact Form 7
• Plugin: Aweber Integration
• Plugin: PressBackup
• Amazon S3
• Plugin: FaceBook Members
• InformationHighwayMan.com
• Recommended Email List Service: Aweber

To call in with a question, a comment or to leave feedback for the show, call the Listener Feedback Hotline at (719) 428-5480 and leave a message! I just might include your recorded message in a future episode.

If you have a quick minute, please click here to leave me an honest rating and review on iTunes. It will help the show and its ranking in iTunes tremendously! I really appreciate it!

Take The Next Step!

Enter your name and email address below to get your FREE copy of my eBook "Teaching Guitar the SMART Way", and join the Start Teaching Guitar community:

I go into MUCH greater detail about each item in the podcast, but here’s a rough outline for you:

3-Pronged Approach To Marketing

1) Traditional Marketing

• Newspaper classified ads
• Yellow Pages ad
• Radio ads
• TV ads
• “Slides” in your local movie theater
• Flyers in your local music stores

2) Internet Marketing

• Your own website
• Opt-in email list
• Craigslist
• Online teaching directories

3) Word-of-Mouth Marketing

• Business networking groups
• BBB
• Chamber of Commerce
• Student referral program
• Build your reputation, authority and expertise

Remember to start small, pick a few of these ideas and try them out. Keep what works for you and drop the rest.

If you have any additional marketing ideas that I didn’t mention in this episode, please call in and leave them on the Listener Feedback Hotline or leave a comment below.

Thanks for your support!

Items Mentioned In This Episode:

• 8-Year-Old Guitar Teacher!
• Bluehost website hosting
• Elance.com
• Rentacoder.com
• Aweber opt-in email list hosting
• Craigslist.org
• Findguitarteachers.com
• Getlessonsnow.com
• BNI (Business Networking International)
• Better Business Bureau
• Chamber of Commerce
• “Book Yourself Solid” by Michael Port

To call in with a question, a comment or to leave feedback for the show, call the Listener Feedback Hotline at (719) 428-5480 and leave a message! I just might include your recorded message in a future episode.

If you have a quick minute, please click here to leave me an honest rating and review on iTunes. It will help the show and its ranking in iTunes tremendously! I really appreciate it!

Take The Next Step!

Enter your name and email address below to get your FREE copy of my eBook "Teaching Guitar the SMART Way", and join the Start Teaching Guitar community:

I go into MUCH greater detail about each item in the podcast, but here’s a rough outline for you:

7 Benefits To Teaching Guitar For a Living

1. You Get To Set Your Own Hours
2. You Get To Be Your Own Boss
3. You Can Make a Good Living
4. You Get To Do Something You Love
5. You Get To Be Significant In the Lives of Other People
6. You Become a Better Guitar Player
7. You Help Make the World a Better Place

7 Common Objections About Teaching Guitar

1. I Don’t Know What To Teach My Students
2. I Don’t Know How To Find New Students
3. I Don’t Know How To Keep My Students From Quitting
4. I Don’t Want To Teach Lessons All Day Every Day
5. I Don’t Know Anything About Starting and Running My Own Business
6. I Don’t Have a Music Degree
7. I’m Not a Good Enough Guitar Player

I’m hoping that after you listen to this episode, you’ll understand why starting your own business teaching guitar could be one of the smartest decisions you ever make. You can totally do this!

Please let me know what you think by posting a comment below! I would love to hear your opinions.

Thanks for your support!

Items Mentioned In This Episode:

• Method Book Recommendation 1 – “The Guitar Handbook” by Ralph Deyner
• Method Book Recommendation 2 – “Guitar Secrets” by Joe Satriani
• Join the Start Teaching Guitar Community
• Helping Your Students Set Musical Goals
• The Benefits of Teaching Group Guitar Lessons

To call in with a question, a comment or to leave feedback for the show, call the Listener Feedback Hotline at (719) 428-5480 and leave a message! I just might include your recorded message in a future episode.

If you have a quick minute, please click here to leave me an honest rating and review on iTunes. It will help the show and its ranking in iTunes tremendously! I really appreciate it!

Take The Next Step!

Enter your name and email address below to get your FREE copy of my eBook "Teaching Guitar the SMART Way", and join the Start Teaching Guitar community: