In this episode of the Rock School Proprietor Podcast, host John Kozicki (Michigan Rock School and RockSchoolProprietor.com) is joined by Tyler Maroff, the founder of Los Rios Rock School and co-founder of TeacherZone Studio Management Software. Together, they delve into the topic of cultivating a powerful culture within music lesson studios and how it significantly enhances student retention.
John and Tyler share personal stories, exploring the journey from professional jealousy to building a meaningful friendship and mutual support system.
Also in this episode:
The challenges and triumphs in shaping an environment where students flourish
Approaching music programs like team sports and building valuable life skills amidst a supportive community
Fostering peer relationships and guiding staff to embrace and promote studio culture
Retention secrets that natural occur as a byproduct of the rock schools format
The emotional component of when students graduate and the lasting impact these programs have on students’ lives.
This episode is a treasure trove of ideas for anyone interested in developing or enhancing a rock band program, or simply building a strong studio culture. Tyler’s Los Rios Rock School and John’s Michigan Rock School serving as rich resources and source of inspiration.
For related listening:
Rock Bands for Dummies: How to Start and Grow a Band Program
26: Greg Hipskind | Building a Rock Solid Culture
Your ratings and reviews on Apple Podcast and Spotify are always appreciated!
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 (00:01.1)
Welcome to Rock School Proprietor Podcast. My name’s John Kozicki and my guest today is founder of Los Rios Rock School, co-founder of TeacherZone Studio Management Software with his partner Chris Bates, who we’ve spoken with on podcast. He’s a guitarist, a vocalist, a father. Tyler Maroff, how are you doing today?
Tyler Marolf (00:27.362)
nice intro, John. You’re solid, man. I’m great. How are you, sir?
John Kozicki (00:28.996)
Thank you. Thank you, sir. Thank you. I’m doing well. It’s great to see you and to catch up. It’s been a while since we’ve talked. So I want to really dig into Rock School stuff today. I want to dig into culture. But I wanted to also share with you some of my first impressions of first meeting you online in the groups online.
years and years ago, when I first saw what you were doing with Los Rios, I kind of had this real, this mix of emotions, right? Kind of part, like, man, he’s doing exactly what I’ve always wanted to do. until that point, I hadn’t seen a lot of people doing rock schools in the way that Los Rios does them.
and in the way that I envisioned what I wanted to do and was pursuing with Michigan Rock School. So it was like, you know, a little bit of jealousy there, but also…
Tyler Marolf (01:39.386)
That’s healthy. I’ve had the same feelings before with other businesses and it’s a good thing.
John Kozicki (01:45.841)
Yeah, so a little bit of like a jealousy, a little bit of like envy, a little bit like, man, I gotta meet this guy. I gotta become friends with this guy. Because what it also did was to see what you had been doing with Los Rios, sort of validated these things that I’d been thinking in my head. Like I could do this project, I could do that with the students. that was really what I wanted to push for with Michigan Rock School. So it was a bit of a motivator.
So for that, I owe you a debt of gratitude, whether you know it or not.
Tyler Marolf (02:20.792)
Well, that’s flattering, but you’re quite the guy yourself, man. You were just waiting to explode.
John Kozicki (02:25.456)
Well, thank you, thank you. But to bring it around to the topic, so much of that, regardless of what you’re doing with the bands and the students and the performances, I strongly believe that a lot of it has to do with the culture that you create within your studio.
Tyler Marolf (02:51.854)
I 100 % agree. I 100 % agree.
John Kozicki (02:52.048)
What do you think? Okay.
In the early days of Los Rios Rock School, was that, was creating that culture a plan or was that something that was a byproduct that you saw sort of materialize from working with students?
Tyler Marolf (03:13.464)
So now that I’ve had 15 years to think about it, which, you when we first met, I knew a lot of things because I built them and they worked and I had proof of concept. So I knew a certain matrix of things that worked. What I didn’t know, and I even knew why it was working, but I thought it was based off of kind of reaction to teaching kids.
and getting results and then I thought it was growing from 2009 on when we started, right? The culture started…
Tyler Marolf (04:08.142)
started a long time before that.
Tyler Marolf (04:15.404)
all the way up prior to my adolescence.
John Kozicki (04:20.016)
Mm-hmm.
Tyler Marolf (04:22.19)
And I knew that and I’ve talked about it in podcasts. But what I didn’t realize is that, yeah, it happened organically because it was me. Los Rios Rock School and the founder’s standards are me.
put into a way to impact people and it happens to be using music. So I don’t know how to teach that because my life circumstances molded me into who I was to become.
John Kozicki (04:43.308)
Mm-hmm. Yeah.
John Kozicki (05:02.138)
So.
Tyler Marolf (05:02.208)
So a lot of that growth that happened when I started to meet those kids. was I this selfless guy completely when I started it? No, I was trying to write a second album. I had a first album. It was a lot of fun. Got some placements on television shows and I hadn’t started the rock school yet. Unemployment was gonna run out and I wanted to start teaching kids with my studio and teach them only what I knew.
John Kozicki (05:28.304)
Mm-hmm.
Tyler Marolf (05:30.622)
and try to write a second album. Well, from my mortgage history, and I was pretty high up in the mortgage industry for 11 years, and I learned a lot. I knew how to make a business plan. I knew how to make proposals. I knew how to forecast numbers, at least in a basic format, and come up with a plan. So I made a website and whatever, and did those basic things you need to have that storefront ready to go. You know what I mean?
John Kozicki (05:58.757)
Yes.
Tyler Marolf (05:58.882)
But what I didn’t know is when I started, when I got Mary LeBlanc as my first student.
I didn’t know it was gonna channel all of what I had been through.
John Kozicki (06:18.309)
Yeah.
Tyler Marolf (06:19.796)
in a pure and raw way to know how important those kids were.
John Kozicki (06:32.57)
Mm-hmm.
Tyler Marolf (06:33.912)
from the first student, student number one, the culture started. And that was me listening to them. I wanted to know them. I wanted to know what songs make them tick. And if they didn’t know one at the time, Mary had a million. She’s just a genius. I lucked out with my first student. Let’s just put it that way. And she is now the president’s own percussionist in the Marine Corps band. She’s a captain after she got her master’s at Juilliard.
John Kozicki (06:40.122)
Mm-hmm.
John Kozicki (06:54.99)
Yeah.
Tyler Marolf (07:03.918)
That is just a total, that’s a lottery ticket to have that be your first student. I mean, come on, like whatever. Could I have still done it with my other kids? Yes, I could have, but back then YouTube wasn’t like throttled on Facebook and all the videos that I put up on YouTube were seen by everybody. And then we got to our first 50 students overnight. That part, whatever, but each kid, I…
John Kozicki (07:04.08)
Mm-hmm.
John Kozicki (07:07.545)
Yeah.
John Kozicki (07:18.424)
Right.
John Kozicki (07:26.416)
Mm-hmm.
Tyler Marolf (07:31.274)
started to build the culture upon because every kid had different needs. Some of them, they got their tuition. Back then it was only $220, right? And one kid had four people paying for theirs. Someone from church, someone, they came from nothing. And then Mary had a lot. And then some kids had a lot and some kids, but what I noticed is there was no difference in the fact that they needed a third.
John Kozicki (07:40.485)
Mm-hmm.
John Kozicki (07:47.716)
Mm-hmm.
Tyler Marolf (07:58.958)
hearty person that they could trust. That’s, that’s all. And I knew I couldn’t mess that up. And then in the very beginning, I knew that no matter how hard my day was going or whatever, that that was not, they would know. They wouldn’t know they’re smart. I knew not to patronize them. I don’t care if they were seven or eight years old. I knew if I talked down or talked in a little kid style kindergarten teacher voice or something like that.
John Kozicki (08:02.17)
Mm-hmm.
John Kozicki (08:27.481)
Right.
Tyler Marolf (08:27.608)
That that is not, was, that was, they, that would be disrespectful to those kids. So all of a sudden, if a kid could play a drum beat that I taught him in 20 minutes, and then I could start playing and playing a riff, and then I record it and I’m like, Hey, can I record this? I just accidentally wrote a riff while you were drumming. I’m going to record something I might record later. Then they became my peers. So this rock school, I don’t even call it a rock school anymore.
John Kozicki (08:35.503)
Yeah.
John Kozicki (08:48.014)
Hahaha
John Kozicki (08:53.23)
rights.
Tyler Marolf (08:56.654)
We’re like Berkeley and Thornton, just six to 17 years old. That’s what we are. It says Rock School in our name. I didn’t know what else to call it. Los Rios Rock School. Who knows how many students we didn’t get because it said Rock School. It’s always been that idea. I wonder, right? But whatever, we’re branded now and that’s what it is. It is an academy of places that the kids are helping us steer the ship. They are involved.
John Kozicki (08:59.664)
Mm-hmm.
John Kozicki (09:10.234)
Sure.
John Kozicki (09:24.56)
Mm-hmm.
Tyler Marolf (09:26.786)
Their story is, and I didn’t know this at the time until I learned story brand marketing like seven years later, but I was letting their story, they were the heroes. They were the heroes, not me. Never once did I say, hey kids, stick with me for a while and you might get somewhere. We were the antithesis of that. And then I started looking at the places around that taught music.
And I was, and remember when I said I wasn’t completely selfless, I was, I never wrote the album by the way, it never happened. The freakest fool blew up. But what I did do is I started to get a fire under my butt that every time I raised the bar with the kid, they would start to meet it. They would just, so it was like a mad scientist. So I was like, how high can we go? And then, and then at that point we started to build the culture. Then we had to start putting standards in place cause that’s still sort of shooting from the hip.
John Kozicki (10:11.438)
Yes. Right.
Tyler Marolf (10:23.31)
experimenting, you know, whatever. And then what ended up happening was we were able to refine the process of what I’ve just described and sort of put it into a system because it wasn’t a lot of things that we were repeating. I just had to identify what things were we repeating that was working. And then those standards from me, kindness, work ethic, know, willingness. Like if you’re not
John Kozicki (10:31.952)
Mm-hmm.
John Kozicki (10:42.99)
Yeah.
Tyler Marolf (10:51.21)
If you are, we do those tours so the parents can see the kids. And if the kids ears aren’t perking up on the tours, I tell the parents on the phone, try again a year from now. Don’t come in and make my rosters unhealthy. They need to be all in and it needs to be their decision, not yours. So that’s that, that, that also helped grow it. That helped grow it bigger when they were going to different teachers later.
John Kozicki (11:00.976)
Mm-hmm.
John Kozicki (11:04.976)
Mm-hmm.
John Kozicki (11:11.172)
Yes.
Tyler Marolf (11:17.91)
and stuff, that standard is it. had to go through the standard filter. The founders standards were there.
John Kozicki (11:25.22)
I want to go back to something that I think is incredibly important to highlight and something that you said you did early on with these kids. And this is something that I recognized when I started teaching also. And you phrased it a little bit differently. I’ll use the terminology that I always talk about, which is when a kid comes in for music lessons.
I looked at that, all the kids, I realized like, and this is me as, know, like, I think, I think I started teaching in my like, mid to late 20s or something like that, right? So I noticed that, and I didn’t have kids myself, right? I like, have an older brother, I have a younger sister, but you know, I’m in my 20s, I’m pretty self centered. And, but I recognize that like when kids come into music lessons,
They are so conditioned to being told what to do in every aspect of their lives, whether it’s at home by their parents or whether it’s at school by their teachers. They’re just conditioned that when they come into a music lesson, they assume that this older adult that they’re sitting with is gonna tell them what to do and they’re gonna talk to them like they’re a kid. And I didn’t want that.
Because I don’t think that’s what music is about. And I don’t think that’s what creativity is about. So I did the same thing that you said you did. I just talked to them. I said, hey, what’d you do today? And if they said, oh, I don’t know, I went to school. I’m like, well, that’s the answer you give to your parents. That’s the answer you give to your uncle or whatever. What do you like to do?
Tyler Marolf (13:19.395)
Right.
John Kozicki (13:22.576)
You know, do you play video games? Do you like, do you play sports? Just like you said, you become a peer, not just another authority figure in their lives, but you become someone that they feel like they can talk to because then you build that trust with them. And when they trust you and they don’t think that you’re just another adult telling them what to do,
Well, then you have this organic relationship that’s going to build over time. And, you know, I’m kind of putting two and two together now myself about like, well, yeah, exactly. That is where that culture comes from. It’s that tiny little seed that you plant with every one of those students.
Tyler Marolf (14:07.97)
Yep, I agree. I want to let you know that I, my wife and I decided during my band days, of course, while you’re playing and all completely self absorbed trying to get 40 new people to your every single show and, you know, and 100 shows in 18 months and the whole thing. Of course, it takes a certain drive and that entrepreneur, entrepreneur insanity to like get there. So it’s a lot of selfishness.
John Kozicki (14:08.9)
Nope.
John Kozicki (14:21.168)
Right?
John Kozicki (14:34.649)
Yeah.
Tyler Marolf (14:37.166)
I’m just gonna call it. And then we were not gonna have kids and Mary and a few of the other first kids, we looked at each other. I’m like, we need some of those. And that literally motivated us to have our first son. And so when the Rock School was maybe two years, a little less than two years old, Raelyn was born. So.
John Kozicki (14:37.54)
Mm-hmm.
John Kozicki (14:52.164)
Hahaha
John Kozicki (15:02.796)
Mm-hmm. Okay.
Tyler Marolf (15:05.792)
I was like you, didn’t, and people were like, you’re so good with the kids. And I was giving parents advice and stuff. It was crazy. And then I had my kid and I’m like, I need, why am I not taking my own advice? Because being a parent’s crazy, that’s a whole nother dynamic that you have to deal with. The behavior patterns of parents, because of what you just mentioned, they’re conditioned by them. And the parents, you’ve got the ones that are super helicopter style at first.
John Kozicki (15:21.104)
Mm-hmm.
John Kozicki (15:25.038)
Yeah. Right.
Tyler Marolf (15:35.116)
and you’ve got to let them know that trust us, it’s going to work. Just give it a few months. And then you’ve got the ones that are like totally like us already. They’re like, we just want them to decide. But then on that side, they don’t want to over push them. So then you’ve got to push them and let them know that parents, if they’re not practicing at home, I can’t do my job the best that I can. I need your help. I can teach them and coach them how to practice. But if they’re not,
John Kozicki (15:40.848)
Mm-hmm.
Tyler Marolf (16:03.734)
Eventually they’re gonna have to work their way out of the program and that’s okay. It’s not a negative thing. It’s not a threat. But our program requires them to get better and they need to hear it themselves that they’re getting better. And then it sticks. And so the having kids, they inspired me to have kids. I don’t know about you.
John Kozicki (16:15.106)
Mm-hmm. Yeah.
John Kozicki (16:25.452)
So I was, it’s hard to say, like I haven’t really unpackaged that, but yeah, it is a wild dynamic having kids and then also being surrounded by kids in your work environment. It’s very strange. Now I know you’re raising your kids in a different state from Los Rios. I’m raising my kid, yeah, right.
Tyler Marolf (16:30.625)
Uh-huh.
Tyler Marolf (16:48.224)
in a different, in a different everything. That was the only drawback of moving. Everything else is like off the hook. What we needed to do. We’re by family. on, we have a little horse ranch. We train horses now. Like it’s a whole thing. They go to the, my kids go to the same school their grandparents met at and my parents met at. And so we’re, have both. So, but then Los Rios leaving it behind.
John Kozicki (16:59.674)
Hehe.
John Kozicki (17:10.608)
Amazing.
Tyler Marolf (17:17.998)
And your listeners might not know this, my son two weeks ago flew out with me and he played in the mid-level band with them. He learned all the sax parts for the horn section and he got to go back for the first time in seven years and see the school and not only see it, he got to play out there. So now they’re old enough, they can fly out with me and do shows. But otherwise it was kind of just…
John Kozicki (17:41.146)
Yeah.
Tyler Marolf (17:47.01)
That was the worst part about leaving was being two blocks from the school and my kids weren’t going to experience this. You know what I mean? but we’re working it out.
John Kozicki (17:53.361)
Well, let me tell you. Well, let me tell you, my kids are, you know, I’m raising my kids in the same town as my music school. And there are weird aspects of it when my daughter is connected on social media with all these kids that I see in the school. And I hear stuff that I probably shouldn’t hear. But so I want to talk about,
I want to talk about, you just had the show at Los Rios and you were there and
We just had our big end of session concert this past weekend. And before the show, was kind of hanging out just watching, just observing, just observing how the kids interact before the show, how the parents interact before the show. And it’s just like any other concert, right? If you go to a concert, you see people casually chatting and
and bonding over the music and generally just having a good time. And I thought about the piano recital that I did when I was a little kid.
and how it was nothing like that. And I don’t, what do you think that is? There’s like this weird dichotomy, right? We’re still talking about music and we’re still talking about performing music in both situations. Why is one situation just sort of naturally have this social aspect to it and like this byproduct of which
John Kozicki (19:44.685)
is people want to just hang out and enjoy this, whereas other ones, the other aspect is more like almost a responsibility. I have to go watch my kid in this piano recital and I’ll be polite and watch the other kids. What do you think that is?
Tyler Marolf (20:02.446)
Well, I think a lot of it has there’s a couple things Technology has come a long way since you and I were in piano lessons All I took I did the same thing recitals and I was good at it and four years later Six or seventh grade or something All that teaching and she could tell I was just like I told her I was like, I don’t want to keep doing this She’s like, okay go to the sheet music store and pick something out you want to do
John Kozicki (20:10.351)
Okay.
Tyler Marolf (20:31.744)
And I wasn’t super into music yet. I grew up listening to my dad’s tapes and stuff, know, Michael Jackson and all sorts of stuff. So I loved music. All that teacher would have had to do is turn me on to Ray Charles and Stevie Wonder. I probably would have not quit. So access is different. So now kids are seen like little Asian kids playing cello with a symphony.
John Kozicki (20:37.796)
Mm-hmm.
John Kozicki (20:48.442)
Mm-hmm.
Tyler Marolf (21:01.26)
at four years old on a YouTube video. And they’re like, what is that? You know what I mean? How is that a thing? And so they’re realizing they kind of have some permission to do bigger things now. So rock schools did not exist when you and I were in piano lessons. And for the listeners out there, we’re not gonna say the year, but John and I are about the same age and…
John Kozicki (21:17.722)
Right? Yeah.
John Kozicki (21:23.268)
Hahaha.
Tyler Marolf (21:24.622)
I’m gonna just go out on a limb and say John probably owned a pair of parachute pants in third or fourth grade also like I did. So that’ll give you your clue. There was no phones, there was no nothing and there’s a ebb and flow, there’s a good and a bad of the technology. That’s a whole different podcast. Because that is culture. That is part of our society. so now these parents just like
John Kozicki (21:29.988)
Ha ha ha ha ha.
John Kozicki (21:47.535)
Yeah.
Tyler Marolf (21:54.584)
club sports. Honestly, I know how high end they are and I know how expensive they are. But these parents think that a lot of them think that their kids going to be the next whatever in the NBA or whatever. And I firmly believe that club sports have ruined a lot of sports for a lot of kids in a lot of towns. I don’t like club sports. However, my academy is sort of a club sports level of cost.
John Kozicki (21:59.889)
Mm-hmm.
John Kozicki (22:15.28)
Mm-hmm.
Tyler Marolf (22:24.174)
and hours and a commitment. So there’s a lot, there’s some similarities there. So the common denominator is these parents want their kids to, at least the ones that come to our school, want to see their kids do something.
Some, they want them to be with someone they can trust. That’s number one. They’re not gonna take their kids somewhere that’s dangerous or very, you know, not a lot of standards in place or whatever. So that’s normal. I think all parents want the best for their kids. But the kids having access to things that are possible, the parents having the same access, the parents are seeing those things go by and they’re reals.
John Kozicki (22:56.953)
Of course.
Tyler Marolf (23:09.902)
And there’s all of a sudden there’s a kid he has his own. has 180,000 followers and he’s 11 and he’s killing it on guitar. Well, what is that? And then they get on Google and then Michigan Rock School pops up in the area. And that, I believe, is what’s drawing people to this opportunity that bigger things can happen with music than the piano recital parents our age used to also do. And then, you know, you know how it is. There’s there’s like.
John Kozicki (23:10.117)
Mm-hmm.
John Kozicki (23:35.418)
Yeah.
Tyler Marolf (23:37.762)
I think 60 % of our families, they’re like, I don’t know where he gets it from, but the other two play sports, but he is singing in the shower all the time and blah, blah, blah. And they didn’t get it from me. So it’s not just musical families that are bringing their kids to our schools, but they’re seeing that there’s more out there. And then when they get to the shows and the kid starts to get traction in a performance academy of some sort,
John Kozicki (23:43.568)
Mm-hmm.
John Kozicki (23:50.661)
Right.
John Kozicki (23:55.311)
Mm-hmm.
Tyler Marolf (24:08.556)
Now it’s starting to get exciting, especially if the parents could peek in before the show and see a rehearsal or something and just see and like, man. So they’re sipping the Kool-Aid at that point, the parents are. The kids by lesson three or four, they’re like all the way in, usually, unless they’re not, you know, and that’s to be decided. The kids, you know, some kids aren’t gonna be there. Then we get to the show. And at that point you have, at our shows,
400 to 500 people are friends and family or whatever and they’re all there going, okay, some of them may have never seen it before. Some parents are on their fourth concert and so you have these layers. You have this village and a village helps people. They help each other. And so when they’re chatting or standing around, they might know each other. They might be at your school because the older brother of a sibling or something
John Kozicki (24:39.973)
Mm-hmm.
John Kozicki (24:48.687)
Yeah.
John Kozicki (24:55.824)
Mm-hmm.
Tyler Marolf (25:05.506)
goes to your school for the last four years and now little Johnny’s nine and he’s there now. And so at the show, now they’re talking. They’re like, is this his first show? And all of a sudden the layers of history between all of the village people are now bonding over what you’re talking about, which is that music. And then when they get up there and they see that it’s not about, it’s not wrestling. Wrestling is a single sport.
John Kozicki (25:22.16)
Mm-hmm.
Tyler Marolf (25:34.882)
My daughter is a barrel racer. wins. She wins buckles. She’s extremely talented. But I told her you cannot. I’m not you’re not keeping your horse unless you do one team sport. Because they that team aspect of being at a performance academy is what is bringing the parents together first of all and even meeting each other instead of sitting in an audience watching each kid do a piano piece. And frankly, they just want to hear their kids and that’s pretty much it probably the majority.
John Kozicki (25:45.103)
Mm-hmm.
John Kozicki (25:49.689)
Right.
John Kozicki (26:03.439)
Right.
Tyler Marolf (26:04.842)
And even in rock school, we have to tell parents that leave. We announce like, hey, by the way, if your 101 band is done playing, we don’t leave. tell the whole crowd, we don’t leave. They need to see at least a few songs from the next level up that’s coming on stage after them. So I hope you guys do that. So the ones that thought they were going to bail, they don’t. And then they’re like, well, that was pretty cool.
John Kozicki (26:25.69)
Mm-hmm.
Tyler Marolf (26:31.81)
But most importantly, their kid was like, my gosh, I can level up. Now you’ve got this level system because we have three levels at our school. I’m not sure what you’re doing these days at yours, but the kids can see the progression, the layers. And now they just want to get better. They see goals. And the parents are there. One advanced kid’s parents is talking to the 101 kids’ parents.
John Kozicki (26:36.399)
Yeah.
John Kozicki (26:44.495)
Mm-hmm.
Yeah.
John Kozicki (26:56.918)
Exactly.
Tyler Marolf (26:57.614)
And now they have this common thread that they’re all enjoying together. And I think that is what starts. Now you’re cooking with gas. If you can get to that, even if you don’t need a school with 200 people to do it, all you need is play at a pub from noon to four and have 22 kids play. And the parents are there and you have created something for the community.
John Kozicki (27:04.484)
Yeah.
John Kozicki (27:08.112)
Mm-hmm.
John Kozicki (27:13.776)
Mm-hmm.
Tyler Marolf (27:26.188)
That wasn’t there before. That is so positive.
John Kozicki (27:29.016)
Right. Yeah. Music lessons as team sports. That’s one of the phrases I use a lot, right? It’s like team sports for kids who don’t like sports, right? Team sports for kids who like music. That’s one of the phrases I use a lot. And…
Tyler Marolf (27:39.822)
Right?
Tyler Marolf (27:45.402)
My off-colored version of that is the island of misfit toys. And that’s not the case. We have a lot of sports kids too, but a lot of our kids, they didn’t fit anywhere in their lives until they got Lursrios.
John Kozicki (27:56.44)
Right? Yeah.
John Kozicki (28:00.6)
Mm-hmm. Exactly. Exactly, right? And then, and I’m not harping on the traditional private lessons, you know, that’s something that we do, even though when the kids are in those private lessons, when I recognize it’s one of those kids that you just mentioned who struggles to find his people, right, maybe not into sports, but really loves music.
Tyler Marolf (28:24.664)
Mm-hmm.
John Kozicki (28:30.16)
And maybe as a result, kind of shy, doesn’t want to get involved in our performance program, but is willing to do the private lessons. Like the challenge that I face is like, have to get this kid in that room with those other kids. We have to, because as much as he’s nervous about it, as much as he maybe doesn’t feel comfortable with that idea,
As soon as he gets in there and he starts talking with those other kids about music, and that’s the bond, right? They immediately have that bond. They’re talking about music. They’re speaking the same language. His whole world opens up, right? That’s life-changing. And again, not harping on the private lessons, but that can’t happen in that static environment. It just can’t.
Tyler Marolf (29:22.796)
Right, right. I don’t care what your facility looks like. We have one of the best and I don’t care how charismatic your teacher is. That’ll buy you at the most a year tops of retention. But if they meet someone else that has anything in common with them, whether it’s brawl stars on the phone playing, know, I don’t care what it is.
John Kozicki (29:33.008)
Mm-hmm.
Right. Mm-hmm. Yeah.
John Kozicki (29:47.856)
Yeah. Right.
Tyler Marolf (29:50.838)
And Phones in the School, Phones Out in the School is a whole different podcast, by the way. But when they find I remember this vividly, his name is Spencer. And we had a kid over there that just was unbelievable on piano. Did some of our biggest and best shows. I’m talking like Burn, Deep Purple at House of Blues. All the keys like this kid, he wouldn’t he just wouldn’t talk. So Spencer sits down and Spencer’s this lanky bass player.
John Kozicki (30:11.856)
Mm-hmm.
Tyler Marolf (30:18.924)
Just lanky, great bass player, lanky, he got better and better. He just sorta awkward, know, great kid, but definitely awkward, sat down and I said, hey man, I go, go say hi to him really quick and just see what happens. And he goes up and he goes, hey, so do you smash bro? To the kid, smash brothers, Nintendo. And he goes, he looks up.
John Kozicki (30:44.965)
Ha ha ha!
Tyler Marolf (30:48.128)
I mean, he had to, he was on the couch and he had to, his eyes fluttered. was standing right there. Yeah, I play. And then, and then they’re like, and then just went into this whole lingo on which characters they use. Cause there’s like 70 characters. I’m a gamer. There’s a million characters. That was the end. That was it. And that kid, we didn’t even know how good he played yet. He was his first season, but guess what? He was willing to come into the group, show up to rehearsal.
John Kozicki (31:03.064)
Right? Yeah, yeah.
huh.
John Kozicki (31:12.421)
Yeah.
Tyler Marolf (31:18.336)
against all of his being, you could tell, and sit there, and then the miracle happened.
John Kozicki (31:21.626)
Yeah.
John Kozicki (31:25.826)
Mm hmm. So we’re planting seeds. You know, it comes from, again, you said comes from the founder, right? We’re planting those seeds early. We’re putting those kids on, or we’re putting us on the same level. Let’s say that. We’re saying like, okay, yeah, we’re adults, but whatever. We’re going to come down to that kid’s level, wherever he is, and we’re just going to talk to that kid as a peer. And then we’re facilitating these relationships.
amongst other kids in the studio, right? So they’re building friendships with other kids and that’s creating that bond. The parents are talking with the other parents. It’s like that club sports thing. So we’re building community there as well. Now, one of the biggest challenges.
John Kozicki (32:16.248)
when you and I were planting those seeds as kind of the guys doing everything, right, as the instructor and as the band coach and everything else, that’s coming from us. We sort of inherently get how to do that. When we start hiring instructors, right, now we’ve got to make sure that they are embracing that culture and they understand how to do that.
So tips on that one, that’s a hard one, I think. But what are some things that you do to make sure that that’s happening?
Tyler Marolf (32:52.504)
So we have, well first of all, when at our price point, the parents, they know we have other things that are included in the tuition. So you get your one hour private lesson, which is the foundation of our program. Our Performance Academy isn’t the foundation. The foundation’s built in that lesson. They’re not even allowed to go to those things. And we have clubs that don’t need auditions that have nothing to do with the concerts.
that they can go to that is included in their tuition, but they cannot go to those until they establish a relationship with their teacher. So our teachers have certain, almost a checklist of things to remember. And one of the big things we do, we do an exercise called the SPARK exercise in our staff meetings, especially when there’s a new staff member that comes in and we’re all on, it’s usually it’s a Zoom meeting. There’ll be like four people with Phil at the school.
John Kozicki (33:20.538)
Mm-hmm.
John Kozicki (33:28.025)
Okay.
Tyler Marolf (33:47.734)
and they’ll be pumped in on Google Meet. And then all the, they’ll be like, you know, 14 squares of teachers. And we’ll talk about the spark that caused us, John Kozicki, Tyler Maroff, what made us know we were never gonna stop playing music. Something happened somewhere. Someone.
John Kozicki (34:09.04)
You
Tyler Marolf (34:13.906)
Whatever. I have a whole story on that, that, that made a difference, which caused the two guys that sparked my whole thing built every single wall inside of all 8,000 square feet of our school. Years later, same dudes, they were construction contractors that let me into jam with them. And they were like, Neil shown was like in the room with me. And I was like 12 at the base going, what is going on? And I knocked on that door.
said, I got a beast for Christmas. Like it was the funniest story across the street from my parents’ house that you have ever heard. And they opened the door. They’re like, what? They let me in.
John Kozicki (34:43.61)
Hahaha
John Kozicki (34:47.791)
Yeah.
Tyler Marolf (34:49.304)
They let me in. So when the parents are paying this big tuition and they know the kiddo’s shy, right? Because that’s who we’re talking about right now. We have kids coming in, can I start tonight? I wanna go on whatever tour, you know, or like, and they’re like nine and they wanna go on tour. You see it all, but the shy kids, we have…
The teachers are the ambassadors. They know what to look for and when to bring things up. If there is a kid that doesn’t even know what a quarter note is yet, we’ve got a little bit of work to do. How many quarters in a dollar? Guess how many quarter notes in a minute? And then get them clapping. And then all of a sudden, 30 minutes later, they’re playing a drum beat with their feet, both hands.
John Kozicki (35:17.936)
Exactly.
John Kozicki (35:31.556)
Mm-hmm.
Tyler Marolf (35:44.93)
And they’re just like, holy crap. You know, with some hieroglyphics on a whiteboard, keep doing that. And then we pick up a guitar and we’re like, you keep doing that, count me in and I’m gonna play now with you. We do that in our private lessons. We have rooms specifically made for that. Those kids, even the shyest ones, they’re getting these little victories, right? But they still don’t wanna go play in front of anyone else. But guess what we did? We got them to speak music with another human being.
John Kozicki (35:56.825)
Mm-hmm.
John Kozicki (36:09.348)
Hmm.
Tyler Marolf (36:14.622)
in the private lesson. So now they can speak the language. It’s like taking Spanish for four years and you’re like, dude, I got A’s in Spanish and like, okay, cool, go to Spain now and let’s go to Spain for three months and see how your Spanish is. I barely speak Spanish. I almost don’t speak Spanish. Guess what? Four weeks later, you’re speaking Spanish because you’re with them. So that is the foundation core of where we go now. Meanwhile,
John Kozicki (36:16.57)
Mm-hmm.
John Kozicki (36:36.516)
Mm-hmm.
Tyler Marolf (36:44.546)
The teachers are now like, hey, Jessica, we have this really cool thing Saturday mornings at 10, and my friends, my friend Gustavo and my friend BJ, they get together with kids your age and they play together and just learn fun songs, easy to learn songs. Do you want me to introduce you to them?
John Kozicki (37:03.173)
Mm-hmm.
Tyler Marolf (37:06.571)
That’s their ambassadorship in action. So there’s all the fundamentals of learning. You know, we’re also really big on rhythm and tone. If we don’t get rhythm and tone down first before just random puzzle solving, I’m sorry, solving puzzles is great and all, but that’s not gonna keep a kid around. If they can hear that they’re making notes correctly, they know. we don’t patronize the kids, right?
John Kozicki (37:10.81)
Mm-hmm.
John Kozicki (37:33.04)
Mm-hmm.
Tyler Marolf (37:35.47)
Well, hey, great job when they know it wasn’t great. Good effort. You’re getting there. You’re going to get there. I did the same thing. That’s how you say it. You know what I mean? And so that eventually they pop over to what’s called Jam 99 at our school and they’re in a room together. They see that there’s other kids. that kids. He’s he’s already playing the drums and using crash cymbals like, I’ve only had two lessons.
John Kozicki (37:38.789)
Yeah.
John Kozicki (37:45.53)
Mm-hmm.
Tyler Marolf (38:05.516)
Doesn’t matter. The directors let them know they belong and they get a chance to do what they do know. So they’ll swap out and then they’ll play. And there’s always usually a director’s playing with them, keeping that rhythm going on a guitar. Best thing about guitar, you can have three of them, you know, at once, you know? And so now the kid looks around, sees four different levels of kids near them. One’s pretty much like him. One’s like really good. Why is he even…
John Kozicki (38:06.906)
Mm-hmm.
John Kozicki (38:22.208)
Yeah, yeah.
John Kozicki (38:29.904)
Mm-hmm.
Tyler Marolf (38:35.261)
And most importantly, the level up thing, they can see that there’s a little bit more to go get. So Jam 99, and this was the first semester, they used to not be able to play in shows, because there’s no auditions for Jam 99. We have Jam 99 for older kids on Monday, Jam 99 for younger kids on Saturday for an hour, and we told them all, and the parents, and it’s funny, parents will motivate you sometimes.
John Kozicki (38:38.436)
Mm-hmm.
Tyler Marolf (39:00.75)
Listen, we just don’t see the value if he’s not going to play in front of people. And I don’t let parents change my model unless I search and realize is this some I need to be open minded and process what they said. And sometimes I think out loud while they’re on the phone. It’s hilarious. I don’t know if that’s the most professional way to do it, because, know, you can one out of 10 times you shoot yourself in the foot. And but that’s learning. We fail. And then we learn.
John Kozicki (39:09.102)
Mm-hmm.
John Kozicki (39:21.136)
Hahaha.
Tyler Marolf (39:30.51)
So what ends up happening is this semester, years later, Jam 99 got to play a few songs while the doors were opening. So it’s kind of like our summer camps. Our summer camps are really hit or miss, man. We do seven of them. They go 9.30 to noon, Monday through Friday, play a show on our stage at 11 at the very end. And sometimes it’s amazing. And sometimes it’s like, oh my gosh, that was borderline daycare.
John Kozicki (39:39.44)
OK. Nice.
Tyler Marolf (40:00.302)
But you know what I mean? That’s how we compensate. But we get kids from that. So we kind of took that. knew there’s going to be two teachers on stage at least while they’re playing their songs. But people are just funneling in. The house music goes down. They get to play. It is part of the show. The lights are going and they play that version. And check it out. Some of them, what they ended up doing on stage was almost the audition basically to get into 101, which is the true
John Kozicki (40:20.592)
Mm-hmm.
Tyler Marolf (40:30.286)
start of the program. And so that’s a way we decided to pivot and grow as a company recently and two weeks ago it worked. And so that’s to answer, I don’t know if that answers your question on that teacher experience.
John Kozicki (40:32.174)
Right, because you do an audition for the performance.
John Kozicki (40:48.218)
Well, yeah, it does because it again comes, it centers around how you’ve structured the importance of that interaction, right? And it’s the interaction and how students are seeing a progression amongst the community, right? Whether they’re starting from the very beginning and seeing the kid who’s kind of in that next step up or they’re right in the middle and they’re measuring backwards and seeing the younger kids.
as well as the older kids. So they’ve got their place. And again, all centered around that idea of community and performance. Now, I firmly believe that that’s really key to why the Rock School model is successful. And there’s…
this recurring retention secret that I call it, So that I’ve seen with the rock schools where retention with the students is like way longer in these rock school programs than I’ve seen in just your traditional private lesson programs. Do you think that’s the case at Los Rios also?
Tyler Marolf (42:08.48)
Yes, it’s night and day. Lessons by themselves. We’re getting students all the time that have started somewhere else. And then they find us somehow through Instagram ads or whatever, and there’s kids playing that they relate to. And like, that kid looks about my kid’s age. What the heck? Why isn’t my kiddo doing that? Remember, that goes back to what I said about technology and access. You know, so now they come in and they see that’s possible.
John Kozicki (42:17.156)
Mm-hmm.
John Kozicki (42:29.775)
Mm-hmm.
Tyler Marolf (42:37.646)
But one thing, the adversity, the adverse part of all of this, if you have the wrong kids in those groups, you can lose three to four families at once. That’s what you have, so the teachers have to understand the standards.
John Kozicki (42:55.46)
Mm-hmm.
Tyler Marolf (43:01.782)
and be able to enforce the standards. And I’m not even on site anymore. And I’m like the enforcer of all standards, because I can’t, I don’t know another way to be. I do not know how to be other than who I am and how to do those standards. They just make sense to me. And I know that not everybody’s gonna have them. So we have to teach them and say, hey, if you wanna be here, is this cool? Are you cool with being like this?
John Kozicki (43:23.056)
See, I’m push back on this one a little bit. Now, I agree 100 % that the wrong kid in a group, know, one bad apple spoils the bunch is the analogy. But what I do in those situations is we look at it and we say, did we make a mistake in how we coordinated this?
this particular group of kids, right? This kid’s not working well with the rest of these kids. How do we find the right group of kids for this kid, right? So that’s, and I get where you’re coming from with the standards.
Tyler Marolf (44:09.358)
Well, I’m talking about the young kids that the behavior strategies are, maybe they’re not as developed enough. We’re talking like six years, we start at six years old. Sometimes you get a six year old boy and all of a sudden he shows up to Jam 99 and he’s not six years old. He’s like a young five. Well, we don’t have another place for them to go yet. These are the young, young ones, right? Now.
John Kozicki (44:19.023)
Okay.
John Kozicki (44:35.288)
Okay, yes, yeah, I was thinking more like the older teenager kids.
Tyler Marolf (44:37.794)
The older ones, no, they’re totally coachable. That’s a total different story. I believe that I’m the ultimate underdog story anyways. So I, and remember I said, I learned a misfit toys. I’m a misfit toy. That’s why, and I’m a kid at heart. And that’s why I was able to do this and create these relationships with these kids. It’s, it’s the, it’s the young ones and the older ones are a lot easier entry point. And, and yes, we do,
John Kozicki (44:41.06)
Mm-hmm.
John Kozicki (44:46.352)
Mm-hmm.
John Kozicki (44:50.67)
Right, same.
Tyler Marolf (45:07.534)
after a season, if it was like, maybe they didn’t, maybe the mom’s like, yeah, he says he doesn’t really have a friend yet. And he played a full concert. Immediately that goes into base camp with my operations team. And we, it’s in the notes for when we, when we get the next season ready and staffed, all the personnel for the players, we’ll move them. Based on music genre taste.
John Kozicki (45:30.084)
Yeah.
Tyler Marolf (45:37.496)
personality, because guess what? Now we know them. And we’re like, and, and, and, but you can’t switch a mid season. You have three months to play show. So then at that point, we’ll even, it’s bad enough in mid season, we’ll just say, just so you know, you make it through this show and just have fun. And we’ll make sure we, we think we have an idea for you in it, in that other one on one group or whatever. And they’re just, then they’re being heard again.
John Kozicki (45:37.508)
Mm-hmm.
John Kozicki (45:43.536)
Exactly.
Tyler Marolf (46:04.8)
So, and that’s why we have checklists every show. Hey, each teacher has to go through a Google Doc and say, hey, so what’s your biggest win so far this season? And then we’ll go, but the last question’s the most important. Is there anything we’ve left undone? Is there something you think is missing?
John Kozicki (46:25.52)
Mm-hmm.
Tyler Marolf (46:29.24)
that you wish you would be working on now, or we would have already been working on. And we just haven’t talked about it. That thing, that question has an asterisk. When the teacher adds an asterisk to it, we can sort through the Google sheet. It will literally sort the asterisks to the top. And we can look at those four kids and immediately then we can do what you’re talking about. A hundred percent, John. And we, and we place those needs to where they want to be. Cause there’s needs.
John Kozicki (46:48.208)
Mm-hmm.
John Kozicki (46:52.858)
Okay. Yeah.
John Kozicki (46:58.264)
Right. Yeah. Yeah.
Tyler Marolf (46:58.936)
They need something. It’s not a want. They need it. And then we place them somewhere and then all of a sudden they’ve got traction.
John Kozicki (47:08.4)
All right, I’m gonna shift gears here and start to bring this home. Now, I know you had mentioned at Los Rios a couple of weeks ago, you had your end of season concert. We had ours this past weekend. these shows that we have, that we haven’t for us since the beginning of May, those are for me emotionally difficult at times.
because that’s when we have graduating seniors who are leaving our program and the past, just this weekend, two days ago.
Tyler Marolf (47:43.536)
yeah.
Tyler Marolf (47:49.762)
John, you know how many programs don’t have graduating seniors, first of all?
John Kozicki (47:55.788)
I exactly, right?
Tyler Marolf (47:57.3)
It’s brilliant that you’re even saying that right now. That is a testament. But go on.
John Kozicki (48:02.668)
So, so I was almost brought to tears because we had, and I made parents cry two days ago at our concert because we had a couple kids, two of them in particular. One of them, he is my last, he’s, he’s still my only guitar student that I have, that I’ve had since, so he’s a graduating senior since fourth grade. I have one guitar, one guitar student left and it’s him.
Tyler Marolf (48:29.337)
my gosh.
John Kozicki (48:32.974)
Right? And he’s about to graduate. So I’ve seen these, him and his buddy in the same group together for all these years. Right? I’ve seen him every week for private lessons. It’s the last one. How many times have you been brought to tears at your concerts at the Los Rio shows? Seeing the, just the progression of these kids.
Tyler Marolf (48:43.768)
Right.
Tyler Marolf (48:58.604)
Well, it doesn’t help when the, it doesn’t help when the senior girls start to cry too. And then, so when those girls that I taught voice to or whatever are coming up and they can’t even like look at the crowd because we’re talking about them. You know what I mean? Like this is Sophie. Sophie was one of my best students ever. And it didn’t help that she cried at the drop of a dime for happy things too. But
John Kozicki (49:05.648)
Hahaha
John Kozicki (49:17.306)
Right.
Tyler Marolf (49:27.51)
Like when that stuff happened, yes, it was, it was, but for the most part.
It was, it became, cause over the years I started to do that a lot. That was starting to happen a lot cause we grew pretty quick. And so we were getting kids at 14, right? And then all of a sudden, wait, what? You’re going, you’re going to UCLA? That’s already happening? Like, what? And so yes, it was emotional, but it was like, then we started helping our school director, Phil, is unbelievable with college prep. So we have that.
John Kozicki (49:39.12)
Mm-hmm.
John Kozicki (49:49.912)
Right. Mm-hmm. Mm-hmm.
Tyler Marolf (50:02.478)
part of our school where they do college prep and things like that. So we know it’s coming now and things, but when there’s 12 seniors on stage, we’ve had 12 graduates.
John Kozicki (50:13.548)
Mm-hmm. Our biggest was a couple years ago at seven. We had seven all at once.
Tyler Marolf (50:17.452)
Yep. That, and so I noticed when it was more, it was emotional, but it was less. It was almost like I couldn’t compartmentalize that many at one time. So I started to get the first show, John, if you go to our YouTube channel and just hit videos and go to the bottom and it’s the hay bale stage in my backyard. I was crying the whole time. We played 19 songs and I was like, I couldn’t believe it was happening. I couldn’t believe it was happening.
John Kozicki (50:37.998)
Right, right, yep.
Ha
Tyler Marolf (50:48.802)
They trusted me. And then they’re getting the benefit, not me. So that part was probably the most emotional part. The most tears I’ve ever had was not them leaving. Because I knew we created unbelievable people. And we were at least part of creating it, not just us. Their parents had a lot to do with who those special people were.
John Kozicki (51:01.232)
Mm-hmm.
Tyler Marolf (51:18.102)
You know what I mean? But we, they became, we were their second home. So when that happens and then I know they’re leaving, there’s a part, there’s the business part that’s going, my gosh, the group’s not gonna be the same next semester. you’re already going through personnel like, boy, but we got this new guy, you know? So you’re trying to make sure that the school stays highly productive and excellent, right? So there’s that little part.
John Kozicki (51:18.768)
Yeah.
John Kozicki (51:24.218)
Mm-hmm.
John Kozicki (51:34.54)
Hahaha
Yeah.
Tyler Marolf (51:47.884)
And then there’s the part of loss where they’re not going to be a part of this anymore. But see, that’s not true.
John Kozicki (51:50.426)
Mm-hmm.
Tyler Marolf (51:56.512)
It’s not. They left. They’re at Belmont. I’ve got kids coming back. We have them now teaching for us. They, if it’s a true culture and a true group village, they don’t leave. If it’s not, if it’s on paper, a culture or something, I don’t know the best way to describe that. If it’s skin deep, if it’s two dimensional or whatever.
I can speak of a franchise right now that I do appreciate because they help so many kids all over the world. They don’t get that. They can’t even keep kids in certain areas in 80 % of their facilities past eighth grade.
John Kozicki (52:38.768)
Mm-hmm.
Tyler Marolf (52:40.694)
When we can, it’s because of their friends and not us anymore. It’s because of their production and because of their hard work. They I know that even though only gosh, we rocko Beals on tour with Jelly Roll right now. Like, you know what I mean? There’s things that we’ve seen that are like very low percentage, almost low percentage. Like I got Mary as my first student. I might as well have won the lottery. Those that that’s not common.
John Kozicki (52:57.402)
Mm-hmm.
John Kozicki (53:08.304)
Yeah. Yeah.
Tyler Marolf (53:10.1)
We say about six to 7 % of our students go into music professionally. When I know that they’re going to college to be engineers at slow San Luis Obispo or whatever, first of all, it’s hilarious because some of them are playing in like the most popular band at the college. You know what I mean? Like they’re, they’re, they’re still going, but I know for a fact that their team lead at that engineering firm or wherever they go is going to have a person that they can trust.
John Kozicki (53:25.925)
Mm-hmm.
Tyler Marolf (53:37.964)
and that will do what they’re supposed to do for others. So when they leave, it’s emotional, but I feel like I did something right.
John Kozicki (53:42.512)
Mm-hmm.
John Kozicki (53:50.117)
Yeah, yeah. Well, Tyler, you’re an inspiration, man. I tell ya, again, from the early days, hearing you talk about how you created the culture at Los Rios, it made me think about what I was doing and how to put the pieces together. Something that was more instinctual rather than figuring out how to make that a plan.
like you were saying in the beginning, right? You say, what did I do that was right? Rather than just saying like, okay, here’s what I’m doing. If I’m going to build this thing that’s bigger than me, how am I gonna allow that to spread? Tyler Maroff, always a pleasure, my friend. I appreciate it. And we’re gonna wrap this one up. Thank you.
Tyler Marolf (54:42.466)
Perfect. Here, don’t hit stop yet. I’ll show you something.
John Kozicki (54:46.084)
Okay.
Tyler Marolf (54:54.766)
You have to have the originals.
There’s the first advanced group from the hay bale stage.
John Kozicki (55:04.58)
Yeah. Yeah.
Tyler Marolf (55:08.162)
There’s the younger kids that also played. That’s year one. And then there’s the marketing.
John Kozicki (55:10.863)
Mm-hmm.
John Kozicki (55:16.933)
Okay. Alright. So now I’m gonna have you hold on for a second.
Tyler Marolf (55:21.93)
Okay, cut.
John Kozicki (55:31.504)
Student number one, there’s Olivia. Student number one, not even at Michigan Rock School. That was my first music school when I lived in North Carolina. Student number one, Olivia. She’s married now, right? She’s off being an adult, right? Yeah, yeah.
Tyler Marolf (55:33.59)
I love it.
Tyler Marolf (55:48.342)
Right? Right? Crazy, right?
Yep. So right here, there’s student number one. That’s Mary LeBlanc after USC Thornton, after masters at Juilliard last year, she became the presidential’s own Marine Corps percussionist for the president. So she’s a captain in the Marine Corps now, which Mary was the quietest little, I would have never guessed that she would have, when they offered it to her, that she would have taken it. You just can’t know.
John Kozicki (55:58.736)
Yeah.
Tyler Marolf (56:21.898)
what’s exactly going to happen. All you can do is want every day, do the best you can with those standards and just give them love and amazing things happen. Another thing too is I have a pretty rough past. So my thing, it’s not on the website, like, hey, I built a school so your kids don’t have a rough past like I did. But they’re so busy and they had the friends I didn’t have.
John Kozicki (56:30.309)
Yeah.
Tyler Marolf (56:50.828)
and the people listening to me that I didn’t have, that 99 % of our kids don’t even try substances before they’re gone. And that is this underlying success meter that I have, that these kids have a chance to grow up, their glands develop, their hormones develop, and everything before they start doing weird decisions that could affect their lives negatively forever. So that’s a little side note that I’m also very proud of.
John Kozicki (57:01.104)
Mm-hmm.
Tyler Marolf (57:18.994)
And these were the first ones. So John, thanks for sharing that first student with me, man. That’s awesome.
John Kozicki (57:22.362)
Well, congrats. And this is the first time on our podcast where we’ve had the post credit scenes. Yeah, yeah. Cool, cool.
Tyler Marolf (57:31.027)
cool. Awesome. B roll. got to have some B roll. Well, too bad they didn’t hear the whole first 30 minute conversation we had before we started. man. It’s probably a good thing.
John Kozicki (57:39.152)
Right on, right on. Well again, Tyler, I appreciate it. Keep doing what you’re doing, my friend.
Tyler Marolf (57:48.012)
You too, John, and thanks for having me on. You’re the best you always have been, It’s been awesome to watch what you’ve been doing.
John Kozicki (57:52.112)
Thank you.
Thank you, sir. Likewise.
