On this episode of Rock School Proprietor Podcast, John Kozicki (Michigan Rock School and RockSchoolProprietor.com) and Mandy York (Music Time of Milford) talk with Greg Hipskind of QC Rock Academy. With a roster of to 400 students, Greg’s lesson studio has become a beacon of music education excellence in the Quad Cities area of Iowa. With an emphasis on performance opportunities and fostering real-life music experiences, Greg has cultivated a thriving culture at QC Rock Academy.
In this episode:
- How Greg has created a culture centered around live performance, and connected with venues in the community to be front-of-mind for student performers
- How participation in QC Rock Academy’s band program increases student retention significantly, and how that culture helps him retain employees
- His unique tactic of hosting talks and clinics with touring musicians, and the positive impact that has on the student experience
- Greg also shares how a typical student could progress through his school from beginner to playing in one QC Rock Academy’s performance bands.
The episode also explores how Greg cultivates a community network, making QC Rock Academy the go-to resource for performances at local events, and his approach to teaching students the ins and outs of being professional musicians. Don’t miss this insightful conversation that sheds light on creating a vibrant, engaging, and sustainable music school environment.
Join our private Facebook group, “Performance-Based Music Programs and Rock Schools,” a community for like-minded professionals to connect and share insights.
Episode Transcript:
Speaker 1 (00:01)
On this episode of Rock School Proprietor Podcast, we’re talking with fellow Rock School Proprietor, Greg Hipskind of QC Rock Academy. He’s created an amazing culture through his band program at his 400 student studio in Iowa. He’s providing some of the most real life experiences for his students that I’ve ever seen, including having them play paid gigs. Stay tuned.
Speaker 2 (00:26)
you
Speaker 1 (00:30)
Welcome to Rock School Proprietor podcast. My name is John Kozicki. And I’m Mandy York. And Mandy, I am pretty excited for for this episode, because I’m going to introduce you to my friend Greg, Greg Hipskin from QC Rock Academy. And it’s going to be another one of those episodes where we talk about rock schools, because that’s kind of the background of his studio. And I can’t wait for you.
to impart your perspective on the whole deal. So Greg Hipskind, welcome to the podcast. How are you? It’s so great to meet you. Yeah, we love having guests. QC Rock Academy, When did you start, Greg?
Speaker 2 (01:08)
Good, thanks for having me, man.
Yes.
I started this, we actually just celebrated our 13th anniversary. So December of 2011 is when we opened the doors.
Speaker 1 (01:31)
Awesome. how are you, what is your setup there? How does it compare to like what John does? Do you mostly have private students, group classes?
Speaker 2 (01:41)
Yeah, majority of it is private one on ones. And then we have our band program. And then we also do like a little kids class. That’s like pretty much our only groups that we do dealing with the rock instruments, drums, bass, piano, vocals. We started ukulele a handful of years ago.
Speaker 1 (02:02)
Greg, I have a question related to to your program. I’m guessing you majority of your students are preteens in teens.
Speaker 2 (02:12)
Yeah, yeah, for private lessons we don’t start until seven.
And, yep, we got, we got everything up to adults. And then 95 % of our students are school aged.
Speaker 1 (02:23)
Okay
Gotcha. And then do you have like kind of a ratio or could you put a ratio of how many of your total students are just doing private lessons and maybe how many are doing your band program and your groups also?
Speaker 2 (02:43)
It’s not as high as I necessarily would like, but I would say 10%, 10 to 15 % is in the band program.
Speaker 1 (02:55)
What kind of student numbers are we talking about here?
Speaker 2 (02:57)
We have just under 400.
Speaker 1 (03:01)
wow. Okay. That would be, I would say that’s considered a pretty big, pretty big school.
Speaker 2 (03:06)
Yeah, I would have never imagined that it would grow to that. know, I remember my every once in a while, like probably yearly, I like to look back on my original business plan. From 2011 and I was like, if we could have 150 kids like we would be set. That that’s my goal and we blew past that in the first year.
Speaker 1 (03:29)
Mandy, now we have talked about a lot about culture of in music schools and culture in the rock schools. And I really wanted to get into I guess, Greg, ask you what, how would you say people describe the culture at at QC Rock Academy, because I’m a firm believer that
while we can sort of try and implement what culture we want to promote within our studios, that really is gonna come mostly from the students and from the families and from those who are immersed in the studio, right? Because we’re only single people, right? We can only do so much. We can try and steer the ship, but culture is something that I think develops amongst a group of people. So what would you say the culture is at QC Rock Academy?
Speaker 2 (04:26)
Really, really, it’s probably, you know, there’s two different ways to look at the parents have one view of how it feels around here. Like what the culture is and the kids have their own view of what the culture is. yeah. But the, us, right now we have 16 teachers that teach for us. And of those 16, at least 12 of them have been with me for a long time, like over six, six or seven years.
So we’ve had the same core group of teachers for a long, long time, and they’re great. the parents love the stability of coming here and knowing that their teachers aren’t moving on.
Speaker 1 (05:09)
Yeah.
Speaker 2 (05:10)
So and it gives like so we don’t focus just on lessons. We’re a big performance school. Like like the analogy I always like to use is so say your kid loves basketball and you can shoot hoops in your backyard by yourself all day long. But playing in a game against other players is totally different. Right. And that’s what lessons are to me. Like if you’re just sitting in your bedroom,
strumming your guitar, cool, great. You’re going to get really good at playing some songs. But if you’re not playing with other musicians and getting out and actually being on stage, that’s a completely different ballgame. So the parents love that we give so many performance opportunities.
Speaker 1 (06:02)
How many do you how many do you how many performances do you have per year?
Speaker 2 (06:07)
We
just the ones that we just had this past weekend, we had for the justice past weekend. Okay, we had, we closed out the year with 93 performances.
Speaker 1 (06:19)
Whoa. You are very strongly performance-based. That’s cool. Okay. So what does that look like? I mean, I know what a piano recital, a quarterly piano recital looks like. And I know John does, you know, groups, maybe four or five times a year. What is, what is yours?
Speaker 2 (06:21)
yeah.
Yeah
shows with all of his group.
Like, so for private students, we do a spring and fall concerts. Okay. And we do normally 2 in the spring 2 in the fall.
Speaker 1 (06:52)
And those are individual students.
Speaker 2 (06:54)
That’s
like solo performances. But then we have the band program, our bands. Right now we only have nine bands, but each of them are performing most every weekend.
Like at some venue in the area. Like, and during this during the summers, especially busy because we’re doing every festival in town. You can think of every every venue. Every like this. I say that we have some minor league sports teams here in town. We account every national anthem that our kids have sung at everywhere we can get a show. We take it.
Speaker 1 (07:36)
So that’s great questions, couple of questions, because if it sounds like your students are doing the national anthem at sporting events, they’re everywhere. It sounds like the community knows that you are the go to. Absolutely. For that kind of thing. Yeah. What have you done to become that person so that the community does know, we have
We’re opening the farmers market, we need a musician or we’ve got the we’ve got to plan the schedule for the minor league ball team all summer. Who are we going to get to, to sing the national anthem? let’s call Greg. What have you done to to become that guy?
Speaker 2 (08:22)
I busted it. Honestly, I grew up in this area. So the area we live in, QC from the QC Rock Academy is the Quad Cities. So you have Davenport, Bettendorf, Iowa, Moline, Illinois, Rock Island, Illinois. So we’re right on the Mississippi. And in this area, there’s approximately 250,000 people, if you combine all the towns.
Speaker 1 (08:35)
Yeah.
Speaker 2 (08:51)
OK, so I’ve put my name out so much. That and I’ve and I try to go to like community arts events and make sure I know the people at the Quad City Arts and at the other communities that always have events. And they’re like. I they know that we put out quality stuff. Like I’m not putting kids out to do stuff that they’re not very good. So they’re like, great, going to be great, going to be easy to work with. He’s going to bring in quality stuff.
Speaker 1 (08:55)
Yeah.
Yeah.
You’ve made a name for yourself in the community that I think that’s fantastic. You mentioned something else when you were talking about your instructors and we were talking a little bit about culture. And I want to circle back to that because you said, said that you have some instructors who’ve been with you 12, 12 years.
Speaker 2 (09:40)
I have two guys that have been with me since pretty much day one
Speaker 1 (09:44)
Okay, so many, many studio owners struggle with staffing.
And not to say that you don’t, but having instructors have been there for 10 plus years, it suggests that you’re doing something also amongst your staff that is promoting that culture and keeping people engaged. Any insight on that regarding your staff?
Speaker 2 (10:15)
There’s I don’t have there’s no secret to it. You know, don’t have a business degree. I, you know, I’ve I know and I tell my students, I’m like, I never spent a day in college. huh. All right. I graduated high school. I wanted to be a rock star. Sure. That’s all there was to it. And then like as I started teaching years down the road and like that place I was teaching that closed, then I went to another place and then it closed and I’m like, gosh, I know I can do this better.
than what these people are doing. So, but I read some business books and opened the place. like my main guy, Billy, he’s our head guitar instructor. He taught at one of my former places that I taught him. he’s my wingman. He’s not like an owner in the place, but me and him will sit down, spit ideas at each other all day long. And I want everybody that…
Speaker 1 (10:48)
Mm.
Speaker 2 (11:12)
If you ever have an idea of a show or something you want to do with the kids, let me know. And if it’s possible, we’re going to do it. So I try to, let them have a say in what goes on as much as I can. As long as I think it’s a good idea.
Speaker 1 (11:25)
And it sounds like you having that background as an instructor yourself. Yeah. And looking at it from from the instructor’s perspective. As you said, I think I can do this better. That’s, that’s kind of kept you grounded in what’s going on with your instructors and how to create that that it sounds like a family atmosphere. Yeah.
Speaker 2 (11:50)
Yeah, we have some families. It’s crazy thing. We’ve been open for 13 years now. There’s a family that was here from the very beginning. And the younger brother just graduated college, so there’s not a member of that family here for the first time in 13 years.
Speaker 1 (12:08)
Wow. So as long as you’ve been open.
Speaker 2 (12:12)
The siblings
and everybody were here every week part of the band program went through everything and now for the first time ever we don’t have them at the school. It’s kind of a crazy deal.
Speaker 1 (12:24)
What would you say you had mentioned the parents and what they view QC Rock Academy as and the culture there? What would parents say about the culture at QC Rock Academy?
Speaker 2 (12:37)
I hope they love us.
Speaker 1 (12:41)
Well,
it sounds like they do. You’re doing something right.
Speaker 2 (12:45)
Yeah, but we try to make it just very welcoming when they come in and my big deal is communication. Yeah, like with with the parents. I try not to interrupt in what the teachers are doing because I want them to like make the kids feel comfortable. I’m like number one’s communication and we talk with each teacher. Make sure you walk your kid out and give them a full rundown. So of what how the lesson went like.
Speaker 1 (13:10)
Yeah.
Speaker 2 (13:13)
and make sure the parents know if you have to miss, or if you’re going to be late. Communication is so, important. But the parents know that when they come here, they’re getting the quality lesson. And I don’t do just lessons. You come to your lesson, you leave. The performances are huge. But then you’ve seen the things that we bring all these artists to come here and hang out.
Speaker 1 (13:41)
all the time. Yes. that’s something. And I just want to share that with Mandy, because I’m I’m aware of what you do with with touring artists, Greg, but I don’t think Mandy knows. So Greg’s school hosts many touring musicians. When they’re in town, they’ll have these musicians come and do clinics at at the school. So I think that’s that’s a pretty big draw, I’m sure. Yeah. Yeah. It’s
Speaker 2 (13:42)
We’ll talk more about that later.
It’s the one thing that I thought of when I opened this place. I’m like, what’s going to set me apart? Because especially nowadays, and we’re all guilty of it, that when you’re listening to music through your phone or on your in-ears, you don’t know exactly who you’re listening to all the time. Growing up, we had the albums, the CDs, and you would pull the liner notes out, and you would know the name of every band member and every band that you listen to. Kids don’t know that anymore.
Speaker 1 (14:27)
Mm-hmm.
Yeah.
Speaker 2 (14:41)
So
I’m like, how do I make this humanize this music industry that this guy, if they’re touring with Alice Cooper, like you could do that too someday. Right? And you need to know who that person is. It’s a person behind the music that’s actually doing this and making a very good living at it.
Speaker 1 (14:55)
Right.
That’s, that’s really insightful. And I think that’s super important. And I want to stop on that. Because you, Greg, you recognized there’s this, this disconnect between how people relate to music or how people used to relate to music like us when we were growing up and how kids are relating to music. Now you recognize that there’s a difference and figured out, how do I make that connection?
how do I unpackage these larger than life bands or seemingly larger than life bands and make that direct connection for the students and show them like, are the people who are making this music. And by the way, they’re just like, they used to be just like you are right now. Right. Yeah. And I think that’s really insightful.
Speaker 2 (16:03)
And a lot of kids think like, if you’re a professional musician, you’re the star, right? Taylor Swift can’t go to the grocery store, right? If you are the star star, you can’t do that kind of stuff. But there’s all the session musicians that are touring. when these kids get to meet these guys and the guys are totally open books, know, they’ll give these kids any information they want. So they network with them.
You know, start following them on Instagram. you got a question? You know, just send me a message. So these kids that are like, man, I think I want to do this for a living. what if I what if I send, you know, so and so a message and no reason like, I was from the Rock Academy, blah, blah, blah, blah, blah. You know, what what’s the next steps I should do to, you know, release my album?
And these guys.
Speaker 1 (16:58)
It’s awesome. this idea is not unfamiliar in the classical world. Master classes, very typical in my training and what I’ve done before, but I don’t think I’ve ever really heard of the idea being used in.
Speaker 2 (17:05)
Linux, you know.
Like the rock school. Yeah. That’s awesome. Part of it like with us here, we’re a medium sized market. Right. So, you know, yes, we have a big arena in town. So say, I know last year, the country band Old Dominion came through town and we’ve actually done stuff with them like three times. Nicest guys in the world. If they were playing Nashville, that’s not going to happen.
Because they know everybody in Nashville. But when you’re coming to Moline, Illinois, these guys don’t really know anybody in town. They have nothing planned. They’re not going out to lunch with somebody that they know. They’re like, we’re going to sit at the arena all day long. All right. And if I if I’m able to reach out to them and talk to the right person, sometimes they say yes.
Speaker 1 (18:01)
Mm-hmm.
And that’s super valuable, I think, from the parent’s perspective as well, because regardless of whether or not the students at the school are going to pursue music, what you’re showing them is you’re showing them how to get access to people in an industry that they potentially would be interested in gaining access to. You’re teaching them how to network. And from the parent’s perspective,
that’s hugely valuable, whether that is related to music or sports or business or medicine or whatever else it is. As you said, you’re not just teaching music. Those are the things that parents recognize and you’re using music as the vehicle to do that.
Speaker 2 (18:58)
Yeah. And then they’re like, we just met cheap trick. How great is that? And then they blast it all over social media and. know, everybody’s like, the rocket getting me, they get to meet everybody. No, we don’t. I probably do. I’m usually able to do about five or so a year.
Speaker 1 (19:02)
and then
Bye.
Well, and that’s, again, going back to the culture, now I’m seeing how you’re, promoting that culture, why people would want to be associated with, with your studio because of all these extra things that you do. Now I’ve spoken with Mandy before about what I think is kind of like this little, this little rock school secret about student retention and
which is the students who are involved in, at least at Michigan rock school, at my studio, the students who are involved in our band program, they stick around way longer. Absolutely. who are taking private lessons. So since you’re doing a similar format, I want to know from you, you do, you do both. You have some students who come there just for private lessons. You’ve got students who are coming to do your band program. What do you notice?
Is there a difference in retention between those students?
Speaker 2 (20:21)
Absolutely. And we don’t do, what do you say, like an ensemble band? We don’t do those, where they do them in sessions, and think School of Rock does it that way.
Speaker 1 (20:34)
Right. And you’re talking about, you’re talking about lots of kids in a specific program, all learning the same songs and yeah. So you might have like 20 kids.
Speaker 2 (20:47)
So we don’t do it that way. We do it like you’re in a band. So now like this is our club, this is our gang now. And we’re gonna take over the world. And the kids that do that almost always stick with us through graduation. And there’s one band in particular that we’ve had. They’re called Been There, Done That. And they were an all-girl band. And they started as they were 11 and 12 years old.
And now they are 2021 and they’re still together. Three of the four members are down at Belmont in Nashville.
Speaker 1 (21:21)
Mm.
So no longer at your school anymore, but they’re still playing as a band.
Speaker 2 (21:30)
But yeah, but like one of them is in the songwriting program at Belmont and two of them are in audio engineering. So they’re like, all right, music’s that’s what we’re going to do the rest of our lives. Yeah, we’re going on to do this. like. You’ll see things like, they go on their Instagram live and they’re playing a songwriters round in Nashville. And I’m like, dude, that’s amazing that they started when they were eight years old. You know, not knowing anything here.
And now they’re playing on Broadway.
Speaker 1 (22:03)
That’s amazing.
Speaker 2 (22:04)
That’s that’s it’s an amazing feeling. But so, you know, and otherwise, you know, like the bands like we we just did our battle of the bands last weekend. And it was two sold out shows, just crazy packed, you know, wall to wall people and the coolest energy you could ever imagine. And if you can give that feeling to a kid. They’re never going to quit.
Speaker 1 (22:31)
Right. That’s more of that culture that you’re promoting. Circling back on the retention, you said you definitely notice a difference in, in retention from the students who are doing your band program. The students are just coming for private lessons. Any rough, any rough estimates or even if you have a hard numbers on what, what would you expect of students who come to QC Rock Academy for private lessons and decide
or just don’t get involved in the band. How long would you expect that type of student to stay at the studio?
Speaker 2 (23:09)
So a non-band student now though? Correct. I would say two years.
Speaker 1 (23:17)
Okay. Which isn’t bad. Two years is pretty good. But
Speaker 2 (23:21)
There’s some kids that’ll last for two months maybe.
Speaker 1 (23:25)
Right, but you compare that with the band that you had mentioned where the girls had been there for 10 years. Yeah. Right. So that’s a significant, still a significant difference. And would you say that’s pretty consistent with the private lesson students and the band students?
Speaker 2 (23:43)
Yeah, of course, you know, I could just say there’s some kids will try it for five months and quit or, you know, they’ll do it for a couple of years and they’re like, you know, soccer is more important. And then and quit. you know, what can you do? Sure. But the kids that get in the band program. Like we’ve made sure that they’ve built themselves up to a certain point to where they can play in a band.
You know, we have a for each instrument we have here’s 10 things you need to know before you can be in a band.
Speaker 1 (24:20)
Do your band students also take private lessons? Yes. And this is all culture. Again, this goes back to kind of that first question, which is what do people say about QC Rock Academy and how do you promote that culture? Everything you’re saying to me right now is supporting the idea of a strong culture in your school. I think that’s amazing.
Speaker 2 (24:44)
I would say like, you you asked me the question. I don’t know how to really put it into words exactly how culture is here. I know what I try to display on like how I work with things and what our other teachers do and the cool experiences.
Speaker 1 (24:50)
Right, yeah.
Speaker 2 (25:03)
I if I know we’re doing something right and I know most parents really enjoy it.
Speaker 1 (25:09)
Right. Well, think you see Rock Academy is exciting because you are not secluded or isolated. Like you said, you don’t go in and take your lesson and leave. You are very much out in the community, giving kids lots of opportunities and bringing the wider world to your kids. I mean, that’s why your culture is amazing. That’s why you guys are exciting.
Speaker 2 (25:37)
Yeah. And you know, like, and even with the band program, we try to you’re not just here’s how you get up and you play a song together. Like, like we work on every aspect from the load in the load out of the show, which is that’s what you’re getting paid for to be in a band is to load in and load out. But it’s like, OK, make sure you have your social media pages set up.
So every of our bands has a social media page.
Me or one of the coaches is an overseer on their page and that but like one of the kids will take care of it I’m like because I want them it’s their thing That’s what that’s right. And I don’t allow teachers and I don’t allow parents into the band room when we’re practicing like this is their thing yeah, but let them be themselves and We try to like okay, who’s gonna be like the captain of this band?
Speaker 1 (26:20)
That’s so cool.
Yeah.
Speaker 2 (26:43)
You know, you know, just like a hockey team, you know, somebody is going to be the captain. And then you’re this guy over here, he’s the social media guy, and this guy over here takes care of this and that guy takes care of that, just like you would in a regular band. And then they’re like, OK, you know, now we got some gigs. How do we start making money being in a band?
Speaker 1 (27:02)
you even go with that to there.
Speaker 2 (27:04)
Yeah,
and like booking and you know, hi. So one of my good friends actually, I he came to your place with Roxy. yeah.
Speaker 1 (27:14)
Any Bay.
Okay, yeah, yeah.
Speaker 2 (27:16)
Kenny owns a club here in town that we play at quite often. And so he’s come in and taught the kids. Here’s what venue owners look for. And it gives them the whole rundown of if you want to come play a club, here’s what venues owners expect. And then we also give, you know, get the kids recording songs like we’ll take them to real studios. And get their songs released. So we have like a. Rock Academy record label.
Mm-hmm and all their songs are on Spotify and Apple music and all that and for a kid That’s 13 years old and be like hey my songs on Spotify That’s the coolest thing in the world man and like we get them we’ve all of all of our bands that have recorded Have got their songs played on the local rock radio station Mm-hmm and most of even got to go in and get interviewed by the DJs We hit on everything that takes to an
Speaker 1 (28:11)
this mic again.
Amazing
stuff. Yeah, this is amazing stuff, Greg. And, and again, it all speaks to the culture that you’ve created. And it sounds like it’s all happened organically. You know, you’ve got this plan for it, but I can tell from how you’re talking about it. It’s just with every step.
you’ve taken, it’s just been like, okay, well, now we’re gonna have the bands do this. Well, now we’re gonna have the bands do this. Well, now we’re gonna have them sing the national anthem at the local, you know, baseball game. And there’s something very authentic about it. Because you’re giving these students the real experience of being in a band without
And you’re not really shielding them from much, which like from my perspective is kind of surprising because at my studio, we don’t make the kids load in, we don’t make them book the venues, and maybe I should be making them do that stuff.
Speaker 2 (29:22)
It’s funny because kids will be like, hey, when do we start getting paid for these gigs? I’m like, you get paid when it’s your equipment and you’re loading it.
Speaker 1 (29:32)
Yeah.
Speaker 2 (29:33)
Well, how do I do that? I’m like, well, let me show you.
Speaker 1 (29:38)
That’s great. I love the ownership and responsibility you give them. That’s amazing.
Speaker 2 (29:43)
Yeah, that’s-
You gotta put some- have some skin in the game, right?
Speaker 1 (29:47)
Totally. So, Greg, what would you say, what does a typical student’s progress through the different programs at QC Rock Academy look like? Whether they come in from your, you know, little kid four to seven year old program, or maybe they’re starting in private lessons. What would
What would a typical trajectory look like for a student who does pursue the band?
Speaker 2 (30:22)
So the band program kids don’t usually start until at least 10. But you probably need to be in a decent be able to decently do it in a band at least maybe a year, year and a half of lessons. Just so you can at least play through a few songs and it all depends on the instrument and then we’ll have you play.
in our spring or fall performances. Just doing it solo. Get up on stage by yourself, whether you’re a drummer, guitar player, singer, and do it just so you can get those and your initial first stage nerves out of you. then, all right, they killed it. All right. Are you interested in being in the band now? You’re like, OK, yeah, I want to do it. Well, you know, and like I said, have the like here’s the 10 steps that you need to make sure you know.
before you get into a band. we’ll do a little try out in the back. Make sure they can go over everything. And if they’re good, and then you got the jigsaw puzzle. I’m like, all right, the kid’s 12 and he likes metal and he’s intermediate. All right, so now I need a guitar player that’s around that age, likes the same style of music, also is available on Monday nights at six.
Speaker 1 (31:47)
Yeah.
Speaker 2 (31:50)
So putting a band together usually takes a few months.
Speaker 1 (31:54)
I’ve got a huge smile on my face right now, as you guys can see, because we are in the middle of planning our next band sessions and coordinating the group. So I know exactly what you’re talking about when you say working on the puzzle. And you’re doing very similar to what I do and we do at Michigan Rock School, which is you’re trying to curate the band so that
You’ve got a good fit with the students in terms of age, skill level, preferably musical style and interests. Those are wild, wild variables to try and deal with. I give you props on that because that’s.
Speaker 2 (32:35)
Yeah.
And then to make it work.
Like once you get everybody together, then you gotta make it work.
Speaker 1 (32:49)
Greg, are you still teaching much in your studio? Whether that’s private lessons or with the bands?
Speaker 2 (32:58)
Yes, I’m trying to back myself out a little bit, but I still really enjoy it.
Like I’m pickier now about the students that I have and who I take on. I said, we at the school, we started age seven for private lessons. Me personally, I won’t take anybody under like eleven. I just don’t have that in me anymore to teach a squirrel of an eight year old kid. I give that to one of our other drum guys.
But the band program, right now I work with four bands and then I think I have 18 private students.
It keeps me busy on top of running the whole business.
Speaker 1 (33:51)
So that’s, and as I hear about everything you’re doing, there’s a lot of managing going on here. I know you give a lot of autonomy to the kids, but you’re managing, you know, booking these bands, right? Other stuff.
Speaker 2 (34:05)
I’m not good at delegating. If we’re going to be honest, get it. You know, I try to give like smaller things. Like I have one of our vocal teacher’s helps with some admin stuff and like cleaning around here and all that stuff. But when it comes to planning shows and making the other things happen, I can’t hand it off.
I need to learn how to delegate better man is what the problem is. I’d probably a lot less stress. You know, I don’t feel that I get stressed, but I noticed it in my sleep patterns. Like if it’s a week, the week of a big performance, I don’t sleep well because I’m, I’m laying there in bed. I’m like, it’s three 30 in the morning. I need to be sleeping, but I can’t, I can’t shut my mind off enough to do it.
Speaker 1 (34:46)
me this week.
Would you, you said you’re still teaching, you said about a dozen students, four bands, my rough numbers, that correct? Did I get that right?
Speaker 2 (35:11)
I think personal students on 18.
Speaker 1 (35:14)
Okay, all right. So you’re, I’m guessing you’re still teaching about 15 hours a week, roughly, you know, an over, you know, five day week, that’s about three hours a day. That’s, that’s a good chunk of a day.
Speaker 2 (35:27)
Yeah, I’m about 330 to 730. Actually in studio teaching.
Speaker 1 (35:34)
Yeah. Yeah. So if you had to, if you had to cut students or, or delegate, if I forced you right now, Greg, what choice would you make? I know it’s a hard choice. Cause like I love teaching too, you know, but, we’ve talked on prior episodes, how I knew that I can’t be as effective if I continue to teach with the other things that I want to do with the studio. So,
That’s the question for you or if you want to get a good night’s sleep
Speaker 2 (36:07)
Yeah, that would be great. I don’t think I’m wired that way to turn my brain off. I would like and I’ve talked about this for a while that if I can just give up one night of teaching is my goal in the next. Hopefully year to two years, I would like to have one day off a week. But I I can’t pull myself away from it yet.
Speaker 1 (36:33)
Do you think that you can’t pull yourself away from it because you are so passionate about what you’re doing?
Speaker 2 (36:44)
think it is. the kids that I have, say like the students I have on Mondays, I can hand them off to another teacher and everything would be just fine. But I have a pretty strong connection with those kids myself. And will they like Eric as well as me? I don’t know. Maybe they’d be like, he’s not Greg, I’m quitting.
Speaker 1 (36:52)
Yeah.
Yeah.
Speaker 2 (37:10)
And that’s the one thing you never want to see is a kid be like, I don’t like my teacher. I’m quitting music.
Speaker 1 (37:15)
Right. Yeah, that’s tough. I teach on Saturdays and I’ve, but I’ve never wanted to, to other teachers because it’s my favorite day to teach. Yeah, it’s crazy. I would love to have Saturdays off, but I have like the best families. The whole family comes to these classes. They’re like the most dedicated and they’ve been coming for the longest time. These are the families that like,
Speaker 2 (37:24)
Pass that off.
Speaker 1 (37:44)
both parents work full time and they’ve made this commitment to like come in on Saturday. So these are cool people. Right. so I get it. It’s hard to pry yourself away from some of those like favorite clients. It’s clear in talking with you how you’re so authentic and that authenticity is, is not hidden in any way. It’s like full on
Speaker 2 (37:57)
Yeah.
Speaker 1 (38:12)
displayed and I I would guess that anyone who comes to your studio sees that as well. And again, that speaks to how you’ve built an incredible culture at QC Rock Academy in giving the kids access to live performances and the musicians that roll through town and these incredible opportunities. I think that all speaks to the amazing environment that you’ve created at QC Rock Academy and it’s not lost on me.
And I, it’s always a pleasure, man. It’s always a pleasure speaking with you. It has been a long time. Yeah, it’s been a while. So it was really good to see you and talk again. but I appreciate you coming on, on the podcast. And, if anyone wants to take a look at your, either your social media or your website or to see what you’re doing, because I think there’s a lot to
Speaker 2 (38:45)
too long man.
Speaker 1 (39:10)
to learn from someone like you, what are the handles that people can find you?
Speaker 2 (39:15)
Pretty much everything is QC Rock Academy. So search it up on your Facebook at QC Rock Academy, Instagram, qcrockacademy.com. a website.
Speaker 1 (39:26)
All right, well thanks again Greg and we’re gonna wrap this episode of Rock School Proprietor podcast. We’ll see you next time.
big thank you to Greg from QC Rock Academy. If you have questions about this episode or maybe you’ve got questions for Greg, please send them our way. We’d be happy to make those connections. Info at RockSchoolProprietor.com is where you can send inquiries. I’m at Rock School Proprietor on Instagram. If you’d like to connect with me there, you can also find me on LinkedIn as John Kozicki. If you enjoyed the show and gained insight from our conversation, then we count that as a win.
All we ask in return is that you pay it forward and please share the show with someone you think needs to hear it.
Speaker 2 (40:14)
you
