COVID-19 inspired music teacher Mike Grande to build his own proprietary teaching platform | 526

In March of this year (2020), music schools all over the world closed. Some forever. Some moved across to Zoom. Then there was the one music school owner out of New York who made what turned out to be the greatest business decision of his life. It’s an eardrum-bursting episode 526 of The (11 year-old, award-winning) Small Business Big Marketing podcast.

Big Episode Today

• New York-based music teacher and longtime listener of this podcast Mike Grande shares how he killed Zoom!
  
• This week’s Monster Prize Draw winner got himself on TV thanks to an idea picked up from this show.
• Plus Timbo lets you in on next week’s guest who’s COVID-19 inspired pivot has been the best business decision he and his wife have ever made.

A Little More About Budgy Smugglers owner Adam Linforth

Music teacher Mike Grande has built two successful music schools – one in New York, and more recently he spent $650,000 building one in New Jersey. 

Then, like so many businesses around the world, he was forced to close his doors in March of this year thanks to COVID-19.

Here’s where it gets interesting. Whilst most music teachers jumped across to Zoom, Mike accelerated the production of his own virtual music lesson portal called Rock Out Loud.

Following eight weeks of testing amongst music teachers and music schools worldwide, Rock Out Loud finally launched as a fully-functional music teaching platform just 4-months ago.

The interface is not dissimilar to Zoom, where you can see, hear and chat to  whoever’s on the call. But what sets it apart is that it’s tailored made for music teachers,  giving them access to 15 terabytes of sheet music as well as the ability to visually show every chord formation possible. Plus the audio quality compared to Zoom is profoundly noticeable … so much so that Mike’s created a dedicated website proving it – Check out iKilledZoom.com!

And how’s this … it’s already being used in 95 countries, by over 2,500 music schools and teachers paying to teach over 30,000 lessons a week!

Here’s Mike describing what it’s like to be running a business in New York in the middle of this pandemic …

Timbo’s Top 3 Attention Grabbers

1. I love the fact that he decided to not use Zoom, but instead double-down on his creating own virtual teaching platform.
   
2. I thought Mike’s live, one-on-one onboarding with new users was admirable … but not realistic going forward.
   
3. And I love how he built instant credibility and awareness by getting an interview on a popular podcast for music teachers.

Last Week’s Episode of The Small Business Big Marketing Podcast

Episode 526 –  Budgy Smugglers owner Adam Linforth on building an iconic Australian brand

Monster Prize Draw Winner

Boutique builder Michael Pinter of Linear Constructions

Thanks for tuning in. May your marketing be the best marketing.