In this episode of Rock School Proprietor Podcast, hosts John Kozicki (Michigan Rock School and RockSchoolProprietor.com) and Mandy York (Music Time of Milford) speak with Jenny Alday-Townsend, the mastermind behind Music Compound in Sarasota, Florida. In addition to Jenny’s work with her studio she is also a best-selling author and a podcast host herself. Jenny shares her journey from real estate to spearheading a booming music school — a unique and inspiring story, as Jenny is NOT a musician.
In this episode:
- Jenny’s unique perspective on music education and business strategy, and how she built a 10,000 square foot facility that serving musicians of all ages
- How hiring and matching students with instructors is a key to longevity and retention with both staff and students
- Finding balance between consistent and flexibility in curriculum
- Jenny opens up about personal challenges she’s faced and overcame while growing her business, alongside insights on balancing work-life dynamics.
- Jenny talks about her passion for masterminding with other music school owners and how these collaborations fuel growth and success in the industry.
Whether you’re a budding entrepreneur or a seasoned studio owner, this episode offers invaluable advice on turning dreams into reality. Don’t miss Jenny’s story and her profound impact on the music education industry.
Jenny’s links:
- FREE Music School Mastermind Group (online) Registration LInk
- Book: Stroke It: A Guide to Strengthening Marital Relationships
- Podcast: Stroke It Guide
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:
John Kozicki (00:01.377)
Welcome to Rock School Proprietor Podcast. I’m John Kozicki.
Mandy York (00:05.74)
and I’m Mandi York.
John Kozicki (00:07.767)
And Mandy, I’m excited to introduce you to Jenny Alde Townsend. She I recently kind of become friends with Jenny. She’s fantastic. She’s a CEO, podcast host herself. She’s a bestselling author and amongst the I guess the music school community. People might also know her as the founder of Music Compound in Sarasota.
Sarasota, Florida. Jenny, how are you?
Jenny Alday Townsend (00:42.143)
I’m doing great, ready to rock and roll with the two of you today. Thanks for hosting me.
John Kozicki (00:46.398)
Great. Mandy, a couple more things I want to tell you about Jenny. She’s got an amazing 10,000 square foot facility in Music Compound. Private lessons, group music classes. She’s also like she’s got got a few awards under her belt. She was the recipient of the 2025 Music School of the Year for Music Compound.
Mandy York (00:46.488)
Thanks for coming on.
John Kozicki (01:15.493)
Jen, I’m just going to keep pumping you up here with these things. Yeah, best, she’s also received a best women-owned business award, which Mandy, I’m sure you can appreciate. And you know the challenges of having a woman-owned business. Best business of the year, entrepreneur of the year. She’s a best-selling author. I mentioned she’s a podcast host herself. She’s a community leader and…
Jenny Alday Townsend (01:18.785)
You’re stroking me, I like it.
Mandy York (01:21.036)
You
Mandy York (01:29.067)
Amazing, yeah.
John Kozicki (01:44.136)
she facilitates a monthly mastermind group for other music school owners, is how I kind of became friends with Jenny. Jenny, did I miss anything?
Jenny Alday Townsend (01:56.991)
No, think that’s all. I mean, there’s more to come, I’m sure, through our conversation. But thank you for the introduction and highlighting all of the success. The journey has included some success, but there’s also been a lot of failures as well along the way. for anybody that’s thinking that it’s all roses and highlights and stars and awards, it’s much more than that.
John Kozicki (02:12.238)
as you are.
John Kozicki (02:18.575)
Right, it’s doing the hard work, which is why I want to talk to you about all this stuff. And in the spirit of what we do on the podcast, we’re all about helping other music school owners. And again, I mentioned that we got to know each other from this mastermind group that you host. But one thing I wanted to know is
Mandy York (02:19.117)
yeah, I’m sure.
John Kozicki (02:47.065)
My understanding is that Jenny, you’re not a musician, but there’s got to be some sort of connection here to music. And I’m curious how you did come to the decision to open a music compound and in such a big way, you know, not being a musician.
Jenny Alday Townsend (03:08.309)
Yeah, so it’s an interesting story and it can be very long, but I will make it very short for all of your listeners. Long story short, back in 2008, I was selling real estate and the market tanked. And even though I could outsell, outwork, outdo most people on most teams, unfortunately I didn’t have a bachelor’s degree, so I was not able to apply for most jobs and I was in the process of short selling my home, renting the rooms on rentaroom.com to pay my mortgage, and…
My parents told me that I would need a bachelor’s degree, but I did not listen in my early 20s. So at that point I had to get a job and the only place that I could get a job was Waiting Tables and I happened to be Waiting Tables at two restaurants where I was surrounded by musicians and creators and I also enrolled at USF Sarasota Tampa or Sarasota Mata T to complete my bachelor’s degree. I had an associate’s degree. And so it was in my final semester where the
John Kozicki (03:41.884)
Ha ha
Jenny Alday Townsend (04:08.099)
that I was in required us to create a business plan utilizing all of the classes that we were taking. And so they said, come up with an idea. And I was like, well, I’m surrounded by musicians that want a place to jam, connect, rehearse, and just meet and chill. And I was like, okay, let me take this concept of musicians and have them rent out warehouse space. So I was like, okay, 25 bucks an hour, having all these conversations. So I will say, I’m creating this business plan. Never have taken a music lesson in
John Kozicki (04:31.271)
Mm-hmm.
Jenny Alday Townsend (04:38.019)
my and I quickly realized musicians didn’t have any money. So they weren’t going to be able to pay the bills, they weren’t going to be able to pay the rent. So I reflected back several years earlier and my parents were entrepreneurs and my dad owned a window cleaning company. And at my early 20s, I was cleaning windows for this young lady and she lived on a canal, had a Mercedes, boat in the back and she had a tanning bed in the garage. And I was like, oh my God, what do you do? And she’s like,
John Kozicki (05:03.985)
Mm-hmm.
Jenny Alday Townsend (05:07.939)
I own a cheerleading school and so my early 20s I said to myself I’m gonna have a child-based business one day. I’m gonna be like her Not knowing like, you know seven or eight years later that I would be faced with this challenge of wanting to create a place for musicians that couldn’t afford to pay it and I had a wonderful childhood so I decided to flip the switch and sit and offer a music school for kids all ages any level any interest that was membership based and that’s really where the idea of music compound came to
John Kozicki (05:14.523)
Mm-hmm.
John Kozicki (05:30.449)
Mm-hmm.
Jenny Alday Townsend (05:37.811)
So the business plan was developed in 2009, graduated college, had the bachelor’s degree, applied for the nine to five job, and for six years I worked in the for-profit, non-profit sector. And my jobs included business development, sales, marketing, and travel. And so while I was traveling, would always Google music school, know, retail sales, and I traveled and I toured all these facilities, I spoke to all these business owners, and basically what I did is I took all
John Kozicki (05:51.047)
Mm-hmm.
Jenny Alday Townsend (06:07.715)
of their knowledge, all their wins and all of their failures, all of the structures, all the layouts, and I put it all into Blender and out came Music Compound, and I launched it in January of 2016.
John Kozicki (06:20.965)
That is incredibly interesting. So you’re coming up on 10 years. Yeah, wow. That’s that’s like so there’s a couple things that are interesting to me. One is that you created like I mean, essentially it was an assignment in college. You’re like, all right, create a business plan. Like we I mean, I went to school for business. Also, I remember doing that stuff. Most of us.
Mandy York (06:31.927)
Yeah.
John Kozicki (06:49.115)
We’re just like, okay, whatever. you do the assignment, but you sort of took it and ran with it. That’s really cool.
Jenny Alday Townsend (06:58.921)
I would say though it was a super unique concept. When I was creating it and I was doing the research, obviously I’m not a musician and I don’t even have an education background, and I was a C student, so I was just not into schooling at all, but I did do 4-H and I did do team sports, so I brought all of those aspects and all of those skills to it and nobody was doing what I was presenting. And so I felt like I found a really great void in the market and I was able to find
John Kozicki (07:17.371)
Mm-hmm.
Jenny Alday Townsend (07:28.955)
tune it and you know I didn’t have to launch it I took a lot of time defining the right business plan and setting myself up for success and having conversations with the right people and little by little when I was talking about it I was like this actually could work and then I had people validating I had a lot of people that said it’s never gonna work because I wasn’t a musician I’m not an educator and there was no curriculum but at the same time it was just the conversations fueled me and it led to me believing that this was possible and that it could be a huge success
And I’m really proud of where we are. And to think that so many years later I was basically almost homeless. I had to short sell my house. Basically I was poor. mean, my life was just a complete crap shoot and I had no idea of what it was gonna be in the future. So to be here 10 years later with financial freedom and having a great life and having a great team and a great company, sometimes it’s those obstacles that provide really great opportunities for us.
John Kozicki (08:14.417)
Yeah.
Mandy York (08:27.885)
Wow. Yeah, that is incredible. And what I heard too is I love that you, you did your research as you were traveling. That’s so smart. You know, you actually went on location. You, you did all of your, your homework before you did this. It sounds like that’s awesome. Yeah. Yeah.
John Kozicki (08:43.596)
Right. And most of us don’t, right? Most of us don’t.
Jenny Alday Townsend (08:49.173)
Well, I had to know how to run the business because obviously I couldn’t teach it in the musical instrument. So I had to bring some value to the play if I was going to open the door.
John Kozicki (08:58.159)
Yeah, so I also have a background in business and marketing and worked in marketing for a number of years. But as someone who is also a musician. When I started my first music school, I remember my mindset being much more that of the musician. And I had kind of this inner struggle. Like even though I had a business background and had worked in business,
Some of the business mistakes I made in my first music school, I think were a direct result of my musician mind sort of taking over, right? Even though, again, like my business mind knew the better decisions. So I think that because so many music instructors and studio owners are musicians, learning to make those business decisions
can be an incredible challenge. how have you, I mean, like I kind of understand now how you created Music Compound and you’ve leveraged your business knowledge, but how do you leverage that musical knowledge of your staff and combine that with your business experience and to make those decisions at Music Compound?
Jenny Alday Townsend (10:25.793)
Yeah, so we have a wonderful structure and a wonderful team at Music Compound. And we have trialed and aired and I’ve hired individuals that have always wanted to have a location. They’re like, oh, I want to have a franchise one day. And they’ve wanted to work the front desk. And we’ve told with that, we’ve experimented with that. But what I have found is hire individuals to run your front office operations that know sales and know marketing, that know the admin side, and hire really, really great teachers.
and have those two teams work in tandem together. They need us and we need them. There’s a great mutual respect. There’s a I’m gonna take care of you, you’re gonna take care of me. And there’s this attitude that I can’t do your job. So I really gotta be kind and nice to you as well. And so I personally feel that having no musical background allows us to be super successful. I also don’t want to be in those studios playing those instruments.
or I’m not constantly distracted when things get really hard and challenging on the business growth side. I don’t have a default just to go play some instruments. I have no choice but to work through that and grow and continue being focused on growing the business and the administrative side.
The teachers that I hire, not all of them have bachelor’s or master’s in music education. A lot of them are self-taught musicians, worship leaders that come from all works of life. And some of them are just self-taught musicians that want to get paid to do what they love. And I think investing in those individuals and really bringing them up and making them feel confident in their role and providing the training and providing a really great environment really makes them phenomenal teachers where they will stay long-term.
John Kozicki (11:56.06)
Yeah.
Jenny Alday Townsend (12:10.755)
with us. And once again, I didn’t hire for personality and character first and foremost, then I hire for the teaching actually, because one of our goals and the missions of our company is to transform you. And yes, I want to transform you musically, but I also want to transform you as a person and as a human. And I really want you to develop life skills, social skills, stage presence, confidence, and skills that are going to carry out into the community that you live in as well.
I think just based on those approaches and that type of leadership, it makes our team super dynamic and me not having a music degree doesn’t really mean much to our staff. There have been some challenging times where I question them and see it from a parent’s perspective and that has led to some interesting conversations. But I think having the two teams where we depend on each other, we need each other, we value each other and have a level of respect, it really helps with the growth and the culture of
company. I hope I answered your question.
John Kozicki (13:14.439)
Yeah, yeah. What I’m hearing is that you’re really looking for when you hire, you’re really looking for each individual’s strengths, right? And like, what are those that person’s strengths? And how do we how do we play to those strengths? How do we highlight those strengths? Because not everyone’s good at everything. You know, and I like Mandy and I’ve had conversations about a lot of different things in our studios about how
Jenny Alday Townsend (13:37.268)
Yeah.
John Kozicki (13:43.9)
both of us, like Mandy’s got a degree in music. I don’t have a degree in music, right? like the, like I came up taking music lessons and playing in bands. And so I took that route. Mandy’s got the music degree and she’s been learning the business side of things and she’s also worked in offices. So she’s got that going. But because we wear so many different hats, I think our inclination is, well, I can figure this out.
You know, I’ve been figuring this out, like since the beginning. And that can be it can be a little bit of a drag sometimes it can be a detriment. But yeah, I like that you’re, you’re basically saying like, I’m going to hire the person who has the skills for this specific job.
Mandy York (14:14.157)
Yeah. Yeah. Yeah.
Jenny Alday Townsend (14:32.385)
And we don’t mandate a curriculum, which…
At first, know, when I hosted my own Shark Tank event where I brought in a bunch of stakeholders and a lot of them were from the opera and from classical music facilities and they were teachers that were teaching for like 20, 30 years out of their home. you know, I brought in everyone that would be the naysayer because I really wanted them to question me. And the one thing that they all got hung up on is that there was no curriculum. And my response to that is, is every student learns completely different. How they receive the messages, what excites them, their interest in music is all completely
different. with us not having a curriculum and really selling the instructors for who they are and their type of music and their approach and their personality has been really really successful. So we call ourselves Music Matchmakers and that really sets a really great expectation with the parent too of what they can expect from that teacher.
John Kozicki (15:25.255)
How do you match? Sorry, go ahead, Mandy.
Mandy York (15:25.621)
I love this. Yeah, no, I’m just so fascinated with your background, you know, that’s that you’re just going into this without the musical background. And it stuck out to me that, you know, you said you hired on personality, right? Their character. John, you and I have talked about this a little bit in the past, where as a musician, you can kind of kind of get hung up on.
John Kozicki (15:45.284)
Mm-hmm. Yes.
Mandy York (15:51.276)
Look at what they’ve accomplished. Look at who they’ve studied with. Look at their, you know, their resume. That’s not what makes a great teacher though. And like you said, you are, say it again, you’re transforming. What are you doing?
Jenny Alday Townsend (16:03.681)
We’re transforming them musically and personally.
Mandy York (16:07.233)
Yes.
Jenny Alday Townsend (16:07.913)
So, and to the point of hiring the teachers based on the education as well too, like we bring everybody in at the same hourly rate. It doesn’t matter their education or their, obviously some experience matters, but for the most part, everybody starts within two, maybe three dollars of every single person and that’s the way that we bring them in no matter bachelor’s, master’s or doctorate degree. And that’s just one of the ways that we manage the egos and we all, and we say, we’re all here doing the same job. We’re all gonna be doing it differently.
have different experience, we all have different backgrounds, but every single one of us is completely valued and valuable. So we don’t have this entitlement of people coming in like way overpaid because they have this degree. I do have some that are paid a little bit higher because of their experience or the time of year that we hire them and things like that. But that has been really key to managing the culture and the egos within our company when we’re in the hiring process.
Mandy York (17:02.689)
Yeah, culture, that’s key. Okay.
John Kozicki (17:05.031)
Jenny, you mentioned musical matchmaker, I think is the term that you used and related to not having a curriculum. I can relate to that in many respects. At my studio, we’ve got, there are some curriculum that we use, but we also have the, like you’re doing, non-curriculum program where we’re matching students
with the right instructor. And I’ve got kind of a, we’ve got a full process for trying to figure out who’s going to be the best fit with each student. Do you, what do you do on your end or your admin side? What do you do to make sure, or what are the little hints that you get from parents to match students with instructors?
Jenny Alday Townsend (17:55.925)
So first and foremost, when we’re on a conversation, which I love talking to people, our team loves talking to parents. Like this whole booking online, booking trials with teachers just based on bio, I really dislike. But that’s the world that we’re in, because I can’t really put my teacher’s personalities in there. So I’ll take a couple of the teachers, then I’ll just take into consideration and we’ll have a conversation with a parent. First and foremost is, what kind of instrument do you want to learn?
John Kozicki (18:02.555)
Mm-hmm.
John Kozicki (18:08.028)
Yeah.
Jenny Alday Townsend (18:25.93)
edge.
male, female, what are their music goals, what are their learning styles, what’s their personality? So I’ve got some teachers that have really great high energy, and then I have some teachers that really low, very strict, some of them are on the spectrum as well, and so when I’m talking to a parent, I ask them, do you want someone that’s gonna match the energy of your child, or do you want the opposite? What kind of learning environment is your child going to thrive in? And at the end of the day, that allows the student
John Kozicki (18:54.983)
Mm-hmm.
Jenny Alday Townsend (18:56.899)
to be set up for success, the teacher to be set up for the success, and then the parent to feel really happy. At that point, we’re getting to know that child a little bit before we make a suggestion. And we tell our parents, hey, based on your availability, I’m gonna recommend this teacher, but this teacher may be a better fit for you. So if this teacher doesn’t work out within 30 days, let us know if that’s not a good fit, we’ll make a switch. And we make sure all of our teachers know that at any point in time, our students
can request a different teacher. Does it mean that you’re not a great teacher? Does it mean that you did a bad job? Not that you offended them. At the end of the day, it’s about connection. And if we are connected with our teacher, our mentor, our coach, we are going to continue our journey. We’re going to want to play. We’re going to want to make them proud. So then what’s going to happen is our time away from the studio isn’t going to be about did we practice. It’s going to be how much did we play. And between those questions and pairing them with the right teacher and that approach, that helps us
John Kozicki (19:51.207)
Mm-hmm.
Jenny Alday Townsend (19:56.852)
with the success of our students, the progress, and obviously the retention.
John Kozicki (20:02.575)
I love all of that. That’s like all those things that you’re saying. Like I believe all those things as well. When you’re finding that match, when you’re matching student with instructor, is that done? I know like it sounds like you’ve got a form that parents are filling out first. And then is there email communication? Is there like a phone call? How does that process work?
Jenny Alday Townsend (20:29.549)
So our lead generation, the way that it happens is people go to our website, we’ve got an active campaign, like forum in there, and they’ll pick whatever instrument that they’re interested in. And then what ends up happening is that kicks off in automation. So you’re gonna get an email, here’s what to know before we call you. What days of the week work best for you? What are your kids musical? Please don’t call us and not know what kind of music they like or what kind of instrument they want to play. Know those things, have a conversation.
John Kozicki (20:37.735)
Mm-hmm.
Jenny Alday Townsend (20:59.453)
with your kid because in the end when we get them on the phone we really don’t want them hanging up saying let me go ask my eight-year-old what he thinks or what she thinks you know we really want our parents to actually have some kind of investment and know and ask their child questions because we want the buy-in from the kids we really want our
John Kozicki (21:07.739)
Yeah.
Jenny Alday Townsend (21:19.015)
Students to really want to come to music compound not because their parents are making them because that’s the season of life that they’re in Anyways, they’ll get a series of different emails as well. And then our administrative team we have a membership director and she’ll reach out to them as soon as she gets the lead form and Sometimes we end up playing phone tag and then we’ll do texting and then emails and all that stuff But our goal is to get them on the phone because when we get someone on the phone We can really identify their needs their personality and really assist them fully
And that’s like the really the best way to have the success. then anyway, so we get them in, do either we set them up for a trial or a membership. And typically our close rate for trials is 100%. Once they walk into our facility, people are sold. I mean, we just have an amazing facility. We have a great welcoming staff. Everyone has a smile on their face. We offer a music lounge, which is about thousand square feet of dedicated space where kids get to hang out, play games, make new
John Kozicki (22:17.639)
Mm-hmm. Yeah.
Jenny Alday Townsend (22:18.815)
friends, it’s supervised, and then we have our parent lounge, we have a teen lounge, and so there’s just so much flexibility and there’s so much space for them to enjoy and they get to see the value in their membership along with having two concert venues on site. That’s where they get to see how their student or their child can come in and their dreams can be transformed. And a lot of parents are like, my kid’s never getting on stage, and I was like…
don’t say that because we will get them on stage. So they very quickly see the transformation and so they just they trust us. I mean like I said we’re not selling music lessons we’re selling transformation. We’re turning dreams into reality and that’s the language we all speak. Like we all believe that, we all know that and that’s the messaging.
John Kozicki (23:05.957)
It’s the phone call. I believe so strongly in that phone call. Just like you said, because what you’re doing is you’re investing in that relationship in the front end. You’re figuring out, I want to know about your kid because I think I can place them with one of our instructors, but there are some factors that we need to talk about first. I have to understand what your goals are so that
I can match your child with one of our instructors. It makes such a huge difference. And I think because I do the same thing. And what I’ve found is when you when you make that investment in the front end. And I’ve told parents this too. When you have these conversations in the front end, it’s going to result in better, a better match, better results, better retention, more longevity. All these things that like we know.
Jenny Alday Townsend (23:39.019)
Yeah.
John Kozicki (24:05.349)
are gonna be better for the relationship on both sides and that we can control, but if it’s just like, sure, come in with a trial lesson based on whatever time works for you, it’s a complete crap shoot.
Jenny Alday Townsend (24:18.069)
Yeah, and our teachers don’t appreciate it. Our teachers want to know that we’re setting them up for success and we’re giving them students that they want to teach as well. So we have some teachers that are super strict and very classically trained or they will only take students that are serious and that are going to practice in between those lessons. So I know I just can’t put an eight-year-old that’s wanting to explore with that type of teacher. I’ve got to put him or her with a teacher that has a little bit different curriculum. Were they playing games?
John Kozicki (24:24.87)
Right.
Jenny Alday Townsend (24:48.003)
theory, they’re having fun, they’re exploring all the different instruments and all that stuff. you know, we don’t want our teachers requesting for us to switch over students because that’s a really challenging conversation to have with parents. So we really have to do our due diligence on the front end and really make sure that we’re aligning the teacher and the students up properly. And because we want our teachers to be happy, we want our teachers to love what they’re doing and come to work. And it’s like the worst thing they want is like,
got that little kid on my schedule today, right? So, anyways, it’s just a positive environment for all people.
John Kozicki (25:18.556)
Yeah.
John Kozicki (25:24.167)
And that’s, think what you said is often overlooked, which is it’s not just a benefit for the child and the student, but it is going to be a benefit for the instructors. And that’s going to make them happier about their jobs. That means you’re going to have more longevity with those instructors. Again, similarly, I tell my instructors, because we do our, like our rock band program is like our
our key feature, right? but we do have some students who come and they’re just doing private lessons. And I talked to my instructors about how the students who are in our band program are more engaged, they’re more prepared, they’re like, they miss fewer lessons. So when we can, when we can convince those students to put their fears aside, or whatever their hangups are about getting involved in our band program,
What we find is that the student becomes a better student, the instructor is happier about that relationship, and everyone wins. It’s like, it’s a win-win for everyone.
Jenny Alday Townsend (26:36.257)
I just have to be willing to have the right conversations and get on the phone with them as well. And I think if you don’t have a team in place or you don’t have the time because you’re also trying to teach, it may be really hard for you to have that time to have those conversations. And so I think that’s where a major shift comes when, you know, if you are teaching and trying to the studio at the same time. if there’s anyone out there that is doing both, would say hire someone quickly. And if you make that,
pay based on membership sold as well. They’re gonna be more motivated to get on the phone, make more phone calls, make more sales, and build that schedule up. And very quickly they’ll be paying for themselves plus providing a profit.
John Kozicki (27:19.301)
Mandy, were you about to put your hand up? Mandy loves teaching though. She loves, yeah.
Mandy York (27:20.333)
Yeah. No, I do love teaching. Yeah. I teach a lot. I do have an admin. I have an admin. Yeah. But I keep a busy teaching schedule and you know, I’m not private lessons. I’m early childhood group classes, but it’s the same thing. You know, we have, we’ve been in the community 10 years and we have a good reputation. And so we get a lot of word of mouth, new families, but
Jenny Alday Townsend (27:23.233)
Well then hire an admin person, Perfect. That’s awesome.
Mandy York (27:50.382)
I have to do the same thing. Sometimes people say, wait, what do you do? What? would you teach the kids how to play instruments? No, no, no. So I do more of a come in and try it thing because you kind of have to experience it to understand it. But there is a lot of discussion in that first. Like, this is what we do and this is why we do it.
When I’m dealing with young parents, there’s a lot of anxiety there too. Like my child is not going to be doing the right thing, you know? So there’s a lot of education upfront about they can move freely through the space. This is what your responsibility is. This is what our expectations are. This is what you can expect of yourself. So different demographic, but same as you guys. I have to have those conversations upfront. And when I do, they get it and they relax and they experience and they enjoy what we’re doing.
Jenny Alday Townsend (28:34.943)
You.
Jenny Alday Townsend (28:45.567)
I think setting the expectations with the parents is so key because then in the day, parents are so quick to judge or like critique or like, you know, make sure that they’re doing everything right. And it’s like, this is a place for creativity. The way that you’re going to do something, the way the other person is going to do it or how the students are going to react to each instrument is going to be completely different. So I think that’s great that you’re having those conversations. And what we do, all the work that we do is so therapeutic and it’s so great for the mind, body and soul.
And I think that we get to, you I just love that we are doing music versus other things. I don’t really didn’t want to be doing math staff or things. So I think that’s great that you’re educating the teachers. We do some early childhood programs as well. We do music art and is our curriculum that we do.
Mandy York (29:29.581)
Yep, I’m familiar. Very good. And those are great theater programs for studios to have.
Jenny Alday Townsend (29:36.275)
Yeah, because we do that and we do the kids rock program and then we we go up from there So it is a great feeder program. We had a young well, she’s not retired She was doing the program for 30 years and she basically came to work with our organization She just retired so we are re in the process of rebuilding that whole program because it’s you know, once they love their teacher You know, it’s really hard for them and they’ve had like multiple kids go through that program with her and parents are like but I miss miss Bobby. I was like, but I have Tatiana you’re going to love her
Mandy York (29:38.839)
Yeah.
Jenny Alday Townsend (30:06.179)
So…
Mandy York (30:06.881)
That I hear that I hear that that is that is a big deal because you have the caregivers in the space with you. That is a little bit different than having just the kid with you. think I don’t know that it’s not just the child that becomes attached. Those parents do. And sometimes I think the parent attachments are are stronger than the kids because the kid is going to love Miss Amy just as much as she loves Miss Mandy. But sometimes it’s harder for the parent to make the change.
Jenny Alday Townsend (30:17.825)
100%.
Jenny Alday Townsend (30:21.919)
very much so.
Right.
Jenny Alday Townsend (30:31.837)
Yeah, we had to terminate, we started implementing a program called Entrepreneurial Operating System, AKA it’s EOS, it’s from the book Traction. And so we started implementing this late last year and then early this year. And they always say, you’re gonna have people that quit and you’re gonna have to terminate people very quickly within the first 30 days. And we had to terminate two teachers in January. And we had a lot of parents that were like, what? Because they had been with us for six years and they were heartbroken and some of them were really mad at me. Some of them are still mad at me for making
this decision. And unfortunately I had to make a decision for the business and it was the right decision and we are really grateful that we did it. You know I still think the world of those two and I wish them the best and have sent them work since then. They are not very happy with me but at the end of the day we have to make changes and sometimes the parents just don’t understand because of that personal connection that they had with that person and we had lots of kids in tears as well. It was really heartbreaking experience for all.
Mandy York (31:27.543)
Well, we’ve talked about this before, John, music is so personal, right? Yeah.
John Kozicki (31:27.737)
That speaks.
Right. And it speaks to that connection and putting that time in in the front end to to figure out I want to make sure this is a successful relationship on both sides. So, yeah, when you sever those ties, it can be rough because it means that like, well, yeah, it worked. I want to switch gears. And Jenny, I want to talk about the mastermind group that that you host, because I think it’s great.
and I would love to see more of our listeners get involved with your mastermind group. So I guess first, just give me a general overview of the mastermind group and what inspired you to start the group.
Jenny Alday Townsend (32:16.447)
Yeah, so I actually did my first mastermind group probably like three or four years ago when I was in the process of launching my podcast. I did a podcast guesting mastermind and I was surrounded by…
15 maybe 18 people and I was in a mastermind for three months with these individuals and those individuals became very close to me I was guest on their podcast I was you know vice versa and I learned so much from those individuals and I was able to build my network across the globe not just here in my little area or just in you know the podcast world it was it was way beyond that and then I had been on with other coaches and they had masterminds and I just felt like there was so much value in
walking shop with other individuals that had the same struggles, had the same questions, that could understand what you were going through. And there were people that were more seasoned and experienced that could mentor you and then you could mentor other people. So it was a beautiful give and take relationship and it was so inspiring, so educational. I loved it. And this past year, I actually started a women who mastermind group with two other women or building this mastermind platform for women owned businesses.
that are CEOs and basically six and seven figures. And then we have some starter ones as well. And then I started one locally with our referral partners. So we have a referral program with music compounds. So it’s like minding businesses, we all meet, we share marketing costs, we promote each other and we host at each other’s places so that we can really advocate for each other. And I was getting so much value from this and Alyssa and I were talking and we’re like, why don’t we do this for music schools? And I’ve had a lot of music school owners reach out to me throughout the years and
wanting to connect and I’m in all the Facebook groups and I’d always put comments and I’m like, I knew one day I was gonna just create this community and so essentially in January, I launched the music school mastermind for business owners and I’m really excited to have the conversations. It’s, you know, once a month we talk shop and we can share, like I said, wins, we can share struggles, ideas and we can mastermind to basically build our music schools, build our profitability and basically build the life that we want to.
Jenny Alday Townsend (34:28.469)
by utilizing each other. And it’s just an amazing community and I just love the teamwork aspect. And then, hey, we’re not competing in each other’s backyards. We’re helping each other all across the country. And so that was kind of the inspiration and where we’re at right now.
John Kozicki (34:43.621)
So yeah, it sounds like the big goals are one, the networking, which I’m a huge fan of. I think that’s invaluable. And that group share, bouncing ideas off of one another, that’s honestly, that’s how Mandy and I kind of started this podcast, right? We would have conversations about our studios and what we’re doing.
Mandy York (35:05.293)
Yeah, for sure.
John Kozicki (35:13.959)
Yeah, that was really the inspiration for this. So any other goals in particular for the group? What do you hope to see happen with it?
Jenny Alday Townsend (35:22.827)
Yeah, mean, I’m hoping to see people show up and join the conversation, because I think the more people you have on there, the more value you have to add to everybody that’s attending the phone calls. So I really just have an expectation of just bringing people together. Essentially, my goal is to move me out of my business by the end of the year, basically have all positions filled where I’m working on the business, kind of like an absentee owner, like board chair, advisory board, where I can just kind of lead and just
John Kozicki (35:49.703)
Mm-hmm.
Jenny Alday Townsend (35:52.803)
in whenever they need me to where I can maybe take this in the future and maybe work with different music school owners. It’s really just fluid as far as like what my expectations are of the group. It really just depends on who shows up and what people want. I’m definitely a leader. I see myself as you know a coach. I see myself as helping other people and you know I look like I feel like I’m going to be traveling a lot next year as well so because I have my book and my podcasts that are also growing on the back end. So really my goal is just to
John Kozicki (36:20.423)
Yeah.
Jenny Alday Townsend (36:22.637)
bring people together and let’s have conversation, let’s help each other grow and mentor each other and really just share all the goodness that we’re doing. And I know that just since being on those calls, I’ve had so much takeaway from you, John. So thank you for all your advice. And literally, I am automating, I am checking boxes. We are becoming so efficient. And then it’s almost like we have someone to hold us accountable because we don’t wanna get back on the call and be like, yeah, no, I didn’t do any of that either. So, we’re doing it. So I think it’s just great.
John Kozicki (36:48.039)
Right.
Jenny Alday Townsend (36:52.587)
I really do.
John Kozicki (36:54.595)
Yeah, well, I’ve, mean, personally, I’ve found that when, when I get stuck, when I’m, when I’m having some challenges in my business, or I’m just like, I feel like I’m hitting a wall. A lot of times I just have to step away. And one of my strategies to sort of get reinvigorated is sometimes I’ll just ask, Hey, who needs some help? You know, like other music school owners, other instructors,
who needs some help, who’s having a problem right now, let me know. I’m I’m here to help. And what I’ve found is that when I am faced with someone else’s problem, I’m not so enmeshed in it. I can see a clear path or I can give some advice. And then all of sudden it clears my own mind. So I’m better equipped to go back to the challenges that I’m having.
and try and solve those problems. it’s literally just like, that’s why I love doing your mastermind group. That’s why I love being involved in these groups. That’s why I love doing this podcast because it just sparks ideas in my mind.
Jenny Alday Townsend (38:05.921)
Yeah, and it’s nice to have a group that can kind of serve as a sound board as well because I think sometimes we feel alone. I know it for me. So I’ve been doing this for 10 years. I’ve never attended a music school conference. I just attended my first one last week. I’ve never, you know, I did all the market research back in 2010, nine or 10 when I went and talked to all those studio owners, but I since then haven’t talked to anybody. So I’ve just been living in this own little bubble and doing what I think is right. I’ve made a lot of mistakes.
John Kozicki (38:10.396)
Mm-hmm.
John Kozicki (38:21.287)
Mm-hmm.
Jenny Alday Townsend (38:35.875)
and we’ve made a lot of smart decisions and stuff like that. But I think having people that are in the same industry that can be sound boards and kind of just give you some guidance can really fuel the growth or spark your inspiration or make you feel good or validate your feelings. And sometimes just having that validation doesn’t make you feel so alone and it also fuels you too. So yeah, I’m with you. I love them.
Mandy York (39:02.189)
Yeah.
John Kozicki (39:03.291)
How can people join and who can participate?
Jenny Alday Townsend (39:07.263)
Yeah, so I really would love for it to mainly be music school owners. Maybe their manager as well. Because I think there’s a lot of value. know that having Alyssa on those calls makes her like completely bought in and it like she’s like, I’m to go do this where she’s kind of taking ownership of all the suggestions. My membership director, right?
John Kozicki (39:25.765)
Alyssa is your membership manager, correct? Yeah.
Jenny Alday Townsend (39:30.881)
And her title this year is membership director. Alyssa started in the music lounge, you know, watching the kids. Then she was our events person. Then she was an ambassador. And then she came back and she was a fill in for my other studio manager. And she went on vacation and then Alyssa like blossomed during that week. And I was like, ooh, we can give you a 40 hour work week. And then she was our studio manager for several years. And now we just moved her into this membership director role. So, but having her part of the calls, there’s a lot of buy in from her versus me saying,
John Kozicki (39:51.377)
Mm-hmm.
Jenny Alday Townsend (40:00.955)
hey I was on this call, they said this, you want to try this or you should do this.
I guess if you wanted to have your main manager on there, that would be cool. the of the day, it’s whatever you want. But I would like for those conversations in the future to lead to strategic planning, talking about exit strategies, getting it to where the company is fully operational without the CEO, where you are making six figures, you are taking distributions, where you’re able to work on the business and travel and basically have a team is my goal for anyone that attends that, because that’s where I’m headed and I’m almost there.
I would love for other business owners to be in that capacity. I would say business owners would be a great fit for the group. And then also you can just RSVP through it, the Zoom link, and they’re all available on Zoom. We don’t record anything as of right now, just because we are sharing a lot of confidential information in there.
So yeah, you just can RSUP and they’re the third Tuesday of every single month at 11 a.m. Eastern time. And Alyssa will be leading the May one since I will be on vacation the whole month and then we’ll have them continuing through summer.
John Kozicki (41:11.353)
Okay, well, I will. I’ll share the zoom link in the show notes for this episode. So anyone listening who would like to join and jump in is welcome to now one clarification that we do have, I would say we’ve got a decent amount of listeners who are maybe solo instructors now and, you know, kind of trying to take that next.
that next leap, you know, growing their businesses a little bit more. What do you think someone like that might get out of the mastermind or maybe shouldn’t get there yet?
Jenny Alday Townsend (41:52.161)
I think if you’re running a studio and it’s your investment, you should join the call because you’re going to learn about systems, easier ways of doing business, maybe hiring so that you can teach full time if that’s really what your passion is and hire someone to really run the business to where you can start growing that business. I started my business 10 years ago with one teacher and 1800 square feet with four studios. I now have a team of 32, of 10,000 square feet and 24 studios.
John Kozicki (42:09.137)
Mm-hmm.
Jenny Alday Townsend (42:22.615)
That’s the success that I want to share with other people as well. So I think that everyone can learn something. At the end of the day, your business is going to be dependent on your growth and your investment in yourself. So I would say show up to the call. There’s going to be something that you can take away. If anything, you’ll be inspired to change the business a little bit, get a website, maybe hire another teacher, maybe hire some admin as well. So I think if you run a business, get on the call.
John Kozicki (42:50.225)
Love it. All right. Jenny, this has been great. Conversations with you are always a pleasure. I appreciate you coming on the podcast. We will share the Zoom link in the show notes for the mastermind group. said third Tuesday of every month. Jenny usually run those. I’ve been involved in those as well. I think they’re fantastic. So highly encourage people to jump in the call.
Mandy York (42:51.277)
cool.
John Kozicki (43:21.007)
Do you want to? Should we plug your book? Should we plug your your podcast? If like everything.
Jenny Alday Townsend (43:23.647)
We should totally plug my book for sure. So anyone that’s listening today, if you have connected with anything that I’ve said, I highly recommend you get my book, Stroket. It is the Stroket guide available on Amazon. My podcast is available on all streaming platforms. The origination story is during the startup phase of my business, somebody else was stroking my husband.
John Kozicki (43:45.635)
Ooh.
Jenny Alday Townsend (43:46.087)
Yes, that’s right. So anyway, so it talks about balancing business and relationships. It talks about taking care of yourself as a business owner. A lot of times we lean so much in and we become so obsessed with our work that we forget that we have family that love us and want to spend time with us. And then we lose ourselves. So it’s all about, you know, creating that time for yourself so you could be an amazing person, not only for yourself, but the people in your life, the teams that you’re leading. It talks about transformation. My husband and I through a lot of therapy and
Mandy York (43:46.324)
Mmm.
John Kozicki (44:02.748)
Mm-hmm.
Jenny Alday Townsend (44:15.981)
a lot of self work and taking ownership, we were able to find forgiveness not only for ourselves, but for each other. And we are going to be celebrating 12 years of marriage next month. So it does end in a beautiful story. Once again, another obstacle that turned into an amazing opportunity. In that moment that that happened, I was on the hamster wheel running my business, working 60 hours a week. The next day I was pulled out of my business. And that’s really where the work life balance became a priority. And that is, you know,
John Kozicki (44:26.183)
Congrats.
Mandy York (44:26.839)
Yay.
Jenny Alday Townsend (44:46.031)
shift in the business as well. My company went from red to black. It went from old school to new school because I trusted other people to run the company and make decisions on my behalf by just serving the mission. And so I want to encourage you all to get the book. You can get that on Amazon. If you’re interested in connecting with me, please contact me. If you’re ever in Sarasota, Florida, come take a tour of Music Compound. I love sharing the space with other musicians, educators, and just anyone that wants to come and be with us.
John Kozicki (45:15.495)
Love it. All right. Well, thank you, Jenny, Mandy. Thanks to you as well. We’re going to wrap this episode of Rock School Proprietor podcast and we’ll see you next time.
Mandy York (45:15.551)
Awesome.
Mandy York (45:26.84)
Thanks guys. Take care.
Jenny Alday Townsend (45:28.107)
Thank you for having me.
