In this episode of the Rock School Proprietor Podcast, hosts John Kozicki (Michigan Rock School and RockSchoolProprietor.com) and Mandy York (Music Time of Milford) discuss hosting memorable events that do more than just showcase musical talent. Explore how well-run events can bolster community bonds, enhance your studio’s reputation, and create lasting memories for students and families alike. All leading to greater retention and longevity in your studio!
John and Mandy share their experiences and insights on what’s made their events a success, including a deep dive into Mandy’s ten-year studio anniversary celebrations. Learn about innovative event ideas like outdoor concerts, parent-only gatherings, and live collaborations that go beyond traditional music recitals.
The duo also reveals how to simplify the process, offering strategies for efficient event management—think minimal effort for maximum effect. Whether you’re seeking ways to engage your local community, expand your brand reach, or just want to run smoother events, this episode is packed with actionable tips and creative ideas tailored for music studios.
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Episode Transcript:
John Kozicki (00:01.363)
Welcome to Rock School Proprietor Podcast. My name is John Kozicki.
Mandy York (00:06.43)
and I’m Mandy York.
John Kozicki (00:08.73)
And we’re going to talk about events today, Mandy. I know that you’ve got, you’re celebrating your 10 year anniversary this year. Congrats. That’s a, by the way, that’s like, I, when I think about like, I’m at 11 years with my studio and 10 years just sort of flew by and I was like, should I do something? It’s just kind of more work. That’s a huge accomplishment.
Mandy York (00:16.458)
This year,
Mandy York (00:32.832)
It’s true.
John Kozicki (00:36.94)
By the way, 10 years in business, that’s huge. So good for you. Yeah.
Mandy York (00:39.722)
Yeah, I know. Thanks. I know you too. It’s worth celebrating. You’re right. It totally is more work to, you know, create events and celebrate, but totally worth it. Celebrate yourself.
John Kozicki (00:54.932)
Right, but you have a lot, like I know you’ve already done one, at least one, maybe two, but you, yeah, so you’ve got like a, what, a series of events that you’re hosting to celebrate your 10 year this year? Is that what’s going on?
Mandy York (00:55.968)
Mm-hmm.
Mandy York (00:59.69)
Yeah. One so far.
Mandy York (01:10.374)
Yeah, that’s how we decided to do it after some brainstorming. we hold, I’m a big fan of events. So I do events, you know, throughout the year. Every year we do a outdoor concert at the amphitheater in our local park. That’s like our big thing every year. And it’s a free concert to the whole community. You know, I do early childhood music, so this is…
John Kozicki (01:29.326)
Mm-hmm.
Mandy York (01:39.838)
parents and kids and we just we sing and play every week our concert.
John Kozicki (01:41.358)
Right. And kind of is it do you let me ask you a question. Is that sort of in lieu of performances with students you do events because you know I can see where you know you’re with the toddlers. You don’t really put them on stage. Yeah. Yeah.
Mandy York (01:56.224)
Right, we’re…
Yes, we’re not a performance based studio. We’re just playing with music. We’re just learning music. So there is no performance for the kids. What I do is I give a concert, right? So our teachers get up on stage, we get live music in a class. We’re not accompanied. You sometimes I’ll play ukulele, but we’re singing a cappella and playing percussion instruments for the big summer concert.
We get live music, I’ve got a guitar player and we’ve got all our teachers singing the songs. And then out in the amphitheater, the kids are bouncing and playing in the grass and dancing and singing with us. That’s our big thing we do every year. So we tried to think how we could make 10 years a little bit bigger and decided to do a series of four events. And I think, you know, there’s a lot of reasons to do, you know, to do events for your studio.
John Kozicki (02:39.8)
Okay.
Mandy York (02:54.784)
brand recognition, you know, just getting your name out in the community, right? For people to see you, community engagement, fundraising, you know, for the greater good. We’ve done stuff like that before. And then what you and I talk about is community building, right? So this is just another way to strengthen your studio community. So something different I did this year.
John Kozicki (02:59.98)
Yes, yep.
John Kozicki (03:08.974)
Mm-hmm.
John Kozicki (03:13.517)
Yeah, yeah.
Mandy York (03:22.706)
our first event, we’re doing a series of four, one every month this summer, June, July, August, September. I did a grownups only event. So a parent event. Yeah, you were there. So and we had not done this before, but in in my case, you know, we’ve got toddlers, we’ve got the little ones in class with us. And we’re we’re in our community every week. Right. Each each class is its own tiny little community.
John Kozicki (03:27.224)
OK.
Mandy York (03:52.32)
similar to what you might have in your rock bands, right? Those are little communities. And sometimes caregivers, you know, they want a little more time to actually talk to each other instead of chasing the toddlers around before and after class, right? The art built, yeah, yes. You know, and it’s just, that’s something we’ve just heard. We’re listening, right? So that, so.
John Kozicki (03:55.712)
Yeah.
John Kozicki (04:10.006)
Yeah, that is super insightful. Yeah.
Mandy York (04:21.396)
We did that this time. Leave the kids at home and come hang out with your favorite music-making parents. That was cool. We did that in June. In July, I’m collaborating. This is also a cool way to host events in your community. We have a really great, go ahead.
John Kozicki (04:27.48)
Mm-hmm.
John Kozicki (04:39.832)
Before you go into that one, can we talk just briefly about your parents’ only event? So it was at the local brewery, right? So gave parents the opportunity. Again, you were listening. You’re listening to the parents saying, how can we just want to get together? And you had told me this out of this conversation.
Mandy York (04:42.192)
yeah.
You
Mandy York (04:50.442)
Sure, sure.
Yep.
John Kozicki (05:10.028)
You’ve had parents come to you and say, can we just come hang out in your studio without our kids? Yeah. Yeah. Right. Because they just want to get together. Right. Because, and I think this is probably universal across the board, not just in your studio, but with most of, most music lesson studios, most kids activities, parents are putting their kids, their attention on their kids.
Mandy York (05:16.562)
Yeah! Right? That’s happened.
John Kozicki (05:40.07)
we got to cart the kids to music lessons. I mean, in my house, we got to cart my daughter to her cheer gym and whatever else. And yes, parents get to talk a little bit here and there. But building that more meaningful relationship, and talking a little bit more, and having a deeper connection. If you can facilitate that, I think that’s incredibly helpful.
to your studio and to the community that you’re building. So yeah, yeah. And so you did it at our local brewery. And can we tell the story about one of the dads? Yeah. Because, okay, so the way that I understood it, because I was told this story, I wasn’t present for it, but the dad, I understand, does not come to your classes.
Mandy York (06:12.608)
Yeah, it adds a lot of value to what you’re doing.
Mandy York (06:25.952)
gosh, yes! I almost forgot.
John Kozicki (06:39.062)
Right? he does.
Mandy York (06:39.166)
No, he does. yeah, mom and dad both come to my class. Yep, they’re a Saturday morning family. Mm-hmm. Yeah.
John Kozicki (06:43.68)
Okay. okay. And the story that I heard was the dad, casually right outside of your studio in the in the local brewery after a couple beers says to you, so like, what’s your story? Are you like, in a punk band or something?
Mandy York (07:01.764)
Yes, yes. It was so, so funny. Because you know, you are, you’re kind of this persona, right? You’re the music teacher and you’re sing-songing. Yeah. Well, no, no, no. My persona is like the music teacher singing little kitty songs, right? And he was just kind of like, hmm, but what does she really do outside of this class?
John Kozicki (07:11.264)
Yeah. Well, I’m that persona. know I don’t know you’re that that surprised me that you’re that persona. That’s cool.
John Kozicki (07:23.361)
Yeah.
John Kozicki (07:28.238)
Right.
Mandy York (07:31.232)
and imagined maybe I was in a punk band. It was great. It was so great. Yeah, you know, these are like, we’re like-minded people. Like they’re placing importance on music for their kids, right? They’re in similar stages of life. I mean, I always say these are cool people. These are the kind of people I like to hang out with, right? So giving them the opportunity, they click. It’s really, really positive experience there.
John Kozicki (07:33.932)
Yeah. Cool.
John Kozicki (07:43.726)
Mm-hmm.
John Kozicki (07:52.236)
Yeah, yes.
John Kozicki (08:00.438)
Yeah, and I think it’s great that, again, they’re also making that deeper connection with you on a personal level. People like that, you know, people like that, that builds trust, it builds like the community that we’re always talking about. Okay, so that was first event. Now what’s what’s coming up?
Mandy York (08:09.44)
Yeah.
Mandy York (08:16.714)
Yep. Next month is my collaboration, which I highly recommend if you’ve got a business that caters to the same demographic that you do find a way to collaborate. We have a really great nonprofit cinema in town. Little one, one room, nonprofit cinema. So they rely on sponsorships from individuals and businesses to to play to play their movies. Right. I do.
John Kozicki (08:31.427)
Mm-hmm.
John Kozicki (08:43.82)
Yes.
Mandy York (08:45.418)
There are kids movies every summer, right? We’re doing like a series of Disney movies. Fits my demographic and I’m, you know, supporting this really cool local organization. And what I’m doing is I’m holding like a sing-along, kind of like Miss Mandy will be there prior to the Frozen showing.
John Kozicki (09:09.262)
okay.
Mandy York (09:13.322)
So they’re doing like four different movies over the course of the summer, but I’m going to be at the Frozen show and I’ll have something for everybody at the show. A plastic tiara or a shaker or something, you know, I’ve always got plenty of plenty of those kinds of things to hand out and have fun with before the movie starts. You know, we’ll show on the screen like a like a sing-along for Let It Go and then
John Kozicki (09:13.345)
Okay.
John Kozicki (09:29.218)
Yeah, yeah.
John Kozicki (09:41.56)
Mm-hmm.
Mandy York (09:42.666)
they’ll enjoy the show. You know, maybe we’ll have extra balloons in the space, making it feel more like an event. We’ll probably do a, like a photo booth. Photo booths are always so easy, right? You throw up a backdrop and it makes it more fun. And then, you know, marketing here, people post those and tag you and social media. So, makes it fun.
John Kozicki (09:53.356)
Yeah.
John Kozicki (10:01.207)
Right.
Yeah, that’s cool. Because I’ve sponsored films at the cinema also. And when you mentioned that you were going to sponsor Frozen at the cinema this summer, I immediately thought like, okay, well, Mandy, where are you going with this? Because I’ve sponsored shows there too. How is that an event that seems more like a sponsorship? That’s what I’ve done, right? I haven’t really made it.
Mandy York (10:12.32)
Yeah.
Mandy York (10:30.816)
Mm-hmm.
John Kozicki (10:32.544)
a thing, but I love that you’re making it interactive and something bigger than just your sponsoring Frozen because it’s a good fit.
Mandy York (10:41.982)
Yes. And it’s easy, right? Yeah. The other, I’m not going to any of the other movies. I’m just sponsoring those. But I’ve said, okay, this one, I’m going to be there. I’ll make an appearance. We’ll make it a little special. I’ll see a lot of my families there. And then, but there’s going to be plenty of kids there too, that aren’t part of our studio, but maybe they’ve heard of us. this is music time. This is Miss Mandy, right?
John Kozicki (10:45.421)
Mm-hmm.
John Kozicki (10:58.626)
Mm-hmm.
John Kozicki (11:04.108)
Right.
John Kozicki (11:09.538)
Yeah. Yeah.
Mandy York (11:10.112)
Maybe they’ll be tagging along with their friends. So easy. This is a very, this is a low cost. Don’t tell anybody, but I probably won’t stay for the movie. I’ll just do the thing. You know what I mean? I’ll do my thing and then I’ll get out of there. It’s fun. Yep.
John Kozicki (11:23.677)
Yeah. Cool. Cool. Okay, so that’s two. You have four you said? Okay.
Mandy York (11:30.858)
Yeah, four. The next one is our concert. So this is what we do every year and we get a really good crowd out for this. To make it bigger this year, we’re just adding, because I do keep it pretty simple. have the concert. I always raffle something off too. It’s another thing about events. This is where you can really build your email marketing list. Right? So.
Like at the concert specifically, we’ll, under one of our little tents, I’ll probably do multiple giveaways this year. Maybe a bongo, a gift certificate, just related giveaways. Everyone has to fill out a, you know, the little paper form, drop it in the basket. And between sets, we’ll pull a name and give out the prize. But then you’ve got all those emails to add to your marketing list.
John Kozicki (12:11.266)
Mm-hmm.
John Kozicki (12:25.88)
Okay.
Mandy York (12:31.4)
that’s what we usually do to make it bigger. I, we’re going to get a, like a face painter and balloon artist, and we’re going to set up a couple tables with crafts. I always have like make your own shaker or rhythms, you know, color your own rhythm sticks kind of a thing. So just, yep.
John Kozicki (12:49.794)
Yeah, that’s a great idea. So with the raffle, have you considered or are you still doing the paper slip or have you considered like a kind of a higher tech way to do that that would integrate those emails directly into your list?
Mandy York (12:54.784)
Mm-hmm.
Mandy York (13:10.184)
I don’t have a higher tech way. I do, have like multiple mini clipboards and pens. Yeah. That’s how I do it. Yeah. I think at a smaller event, depends on the event that we could do it with the iPad. Is that what you’re thinking? That’s having people put their name on the iPad.
John Kozicki (13:12.631)
Okay.
John Kozicki (13:18.754)
Yeah. All right. You’re still getting them.
John Kozicki (13:29.196)
Yeah. Yeah, because I’ve done similar and getting those handwritten emails. I know sometimes on the back end, there are some issues like, no, what is that letter? You know, and the potential there for just human error. But yeah, that’s an aside.
Mandy York (13:45.66)
yeah, yeah, for sure.
Mandy York (13:53.504)
Yes. It always surprises me actually. Like, wow, some people, cannot read their handwriting. If that happens, we’ll put it in and I’ll save it. I’ll save the slip. When the first emails go out, whatever bounces back, I’ll go back to the slip. Okay, it wasn’t that. Let’s try L. Maybe it was an L, not an E. Yeah. You know, it happens.
John Kozicki (14:01.934)
I’m
John Kozicki (14:17.326)
Yeah, right, right.
Okay, so you’ve got the adults only, you’ve got the movie sing-along, you’ve got your concert in the park. All right, number four. What’s number four this summer?
Mandy York (14:35.124)
Lastly, and we’re doing this at the beginning of September, post-Labor Day, we’re having a reunion. So yeah, I’m excited about this. It was the year before COVID, I did my first potluck and I haven’t done one since. And it was pretty chill. at the local park, the smaller park, I threw out a sign up genius.
John Kozicki (14:43.628)
fun. What a cool idea.
John Kozicki (14:54.443)
huh.
Mandy York (15:05.45)
Family said, you know, I’ll bring fruit, I’ll bring veggies, whatever. I grilled hot dogs. So I had hot dogs for everybody. And then everyone else brought the rest of the food. I did paper supplies. So pretty simple on my end. And we just, played at the park. Everybody got together. COVID happened. I haven’t brought it back since. But I thought this would be a good opportunity. And we’re doing it at the larger park.
John Kozicki (15:11.544)
Mm-hmm.
John Kozicki (15:33.965)
Mm-hmm.
Mandy York (15:34.026)
We’re going to Kensington this year, the big park. So we’re getting, I rented a larger pavilion. It’s right next to their small play structure. And we’ll do the same thing, but I’m trying to throw this out to my entire list, you know, and say, Hey, alumni, everybody come out. This is just, this is a cool hang, right? And I’ll bring outdoor games and
John Kozicki (15:56.802)
Very cool.
Mandy York (16:05.28)
I bubbles. I always bring bubbles. That’s a good one. know, stuff like that. Really, you know, it’s not, I don’t know. I think of myself as like kind of pretty simple when I’m planning these events. don’t, I don’t spend, yeah, I don’t spend a ton of money. I say, I like to say like minimum effort, maximum effect, like, you know, and we’ve, and people have a good time. Like I said, these are.
John Kozicki (16:07.719)
Hahaha!
John Kozicki (16:17.878)
Yeah, they all do seem pretty simple.
John Kozicki (16:27.64)
Mm-hmm. Yeah.
Mandy York (16:34.068)
We’ve got good families at the studio. They just want to come hang out, have a free hot dog and play. Like the kids just want to play and see their friends.
John Kozicki (16:41.646)
So with this reunion event, have the potential. mean, being that you’re celebrating 10 years, there’s potential for you to have like, what, maybe like some 14 year olds show up? Maybe? Yeah. Or they might be too cool to show up.
Mandy York (16:44.0)
Mm-hmm.
Mandy York (16:55.528)
Yes, I know. Wouldn’t that be cool? Yeah. Yeah. We’ll see.
Mandy York (17:05.13)
Or they’ll just like, I’m just going to stop by. I’ll just stop by and say hi. And then pass on. But yeah, that’s the idea.
John Kozicki (17:09.312)
Yeah. Yeah.
John Kozicki (17:14.318)
Cool. Okay, so those are all fantastic. that actually gives me lot of ideas for things that I can do in my studio. Because when I think of events, I’m almost exclusively thinking about our concerts that we do. And we have those on fairly regular intervals. We do about three big concerts per year. And
I do them at a local venue. In my mind, what makes for an excellent event for our concerts is I’m always trying to think as far away from the traditional piano recital as possible. And being that, being that I run a rock school, my goal has always been to provide that experience that
you know, that concert experience for the students and for the families. And I’ll never forget this was this goes back about Jesus goes back pretty far. But I had overheard like a week after one of our big concerts, I’d overheard one of the newer parents talking on her cell phone with someone else about the concert.
And obviously, I’m only hearing one side of the conversation, right? But the gist of the conversation I was getting was the mom in the studio was saying like, well, no, it’s not really a recital. And you know, then a pause awkward kind of like, well, no, it’s not like that. And then at one point, she’s like, No, it was a gig. He did a gig. And she’s talking about her eight year old. And because
What we do is we take them to the local venue. And in my mind, if we can provide an amazing stage with lights and sound, well, number one, that blows away the kids, right? They’re like, if it’s their first time, they’re like, whoa, this isn’t like the rehearsal room. This isn’t like the stage in the auditorium at school or whatever else. This is a legit concert stage.
Mandy York (19:27.936)
Hello, yeah.
John Kozicki (19:42.304)
So number one provides that experience for the kids. On the flip side, for the audience, the parents, they’re thinking the same thing. Like, my gosh, there’s stage and lights and fog machines and like amazing sound. This is just like a concert, not like the talent show I went to at the kids’ school or the piano recital we did in the, like in the church.
for my other kid or whatever. So number one, lean into that stuff. I also am a big fan and you kind of alluded to this with your events. Food and drink, right? Having food and drink available is huge because then people are able to bond naturally over, like we always do that regularly, right? We always bond over
Mandy York (20:39.22)
Yes.
John Kozicki (20:42.54)
meal, we always like bond over shared drinks. It’s, it’s just community building, right. So I think that’s a huge thing that I always look forward to. I mean, honestly, those are the two big ones, right. But then as as these have evolved over the years, I’ve learned that we also have to kind of streamline what we do.
on our end when we’re running the program. Try and have a smooth way for students to get on and off stage. Try and make sure staff understands the flow of the program. Try and understand that, try and get the parents to understand how we have the program planned out. I also, I like that the venue takes care of things like sound.
They handle the seating chart. We just give them our RSVP list. Obviously they’re handling food and drink. So they’re really heavy lifting. The venue is taken care of. We’re just sort of directing traffic with getting the kids on and off stage and keeping things flowing. So to me, that’s, that’s what’s kind of made great events. And, you know, we also do posters and buttons for, for each show. So it’s.
unique experience the kids then collect the different posters and buttons. So those are the big ones that we do.
Mandy York (22:15.84)
Yeah. And I mean, I’ve been to a lot of, I’ve been to a lot of your concerts and I, they’re so fantastic. Just like you said, it’s, but I want to point out that they do feel very social. We’re sitting at tables. We’re sitting at tables. We’re not in rows, right? It’s loud. So there’s some talking, but when your kid is on stage, you’re in the front row and you’re videoing, you know, and then you back up for the next band in the next.
John Kozicki (22:17.484)
When we Yeah, sorry, go ahead.
John Kozicki (22:28.813)
Okay.
Yes.
John Kozicki (22:42.157)
Yes.
Mandy York (22:44.628)
family can come up and get a front row seat for their kids. it’s, I, and it’s very consistent, like you said, talking about, when you were talking about getting everyone on board and all those logistics of on and off, you’re so consistent after one concert, two concerts, we know what to expect and how it, how it goes. So you’ve done a really good job of combining the recital quote unquote with an event. It’s great.
John Kozicki (23:05.447)
Mm Well, yeah, and you mentioned.
John Kozicki (23:11.436)
Yeah. Yeah, the and you mentioned the the front row, the parents get to sit in the front row. Yeah, that was an addition we added when the concert started getting too big and parents tried to congregate in front of the stage when their child wasn’t on the stage performing. And then they’d go back to their tables. But we thought like, well, let’s do let’s just put a table right in front. That’s, you know, like the VIP table.
So we’re able to rotate that. So when parents have kids on stage, they do have that front row seat. And that’s just, it’s just sort of expected, right? Because one of the things that I wanted to shy away from with these concerts and with these events was
When I remember piano recitals that I did as a kid, I remember going to piano recitals and it felt more like an obligation rather than something to get excited about. But I do know that there’s still that little bit of like, well, I want to make sure I see my kid. It’s cool seeing the other kids having fun, but I
Definitely want to make sure I’m seeing my kid. I’m getting good photos and getting good pictures. So that’s why we created the VIP table. And that allows us to also have that rotation of parents not feeling obligated to necessarily, I hate to say it, like not feeling obligated to stay, usually the parents stay. But.
if they do need to leave, if they’ve got to get the other kid to a baseball tournament, right? They can sort of sneak out and it’s not going to be a distraction whatsoever or make the room feel empty, you know, because the front row is always full, always. So, so those are our big concerts. Now in the summer, we will regularly do community performances.
Mandy York (25:14.588)
Mm-hmm. Yeah, it’s a smart thing.
John Kozicki (25:27.616)
as well. The big one and the most consistent is we’re always invited to our our towns big summer festival. So we do that we try and do other performances when we can. Honestly, I’ve had to turn quite a few of those down as of late because we’ve just been getting more and more requests for them. So you were talking earlier about brand recognition and getting out there and commit in the community.
And in my situation, I think what has happened is that, yeah, the community knows that we’ll bring kids to perform a rock show, you know, at a festival or some type of event. But we can’t do all of them, you know? They are still kids, you It’s not like they’re a regular working cover band and at the drop of the hat.
Mandy York (26:19.683)
Yeah.
John Kozicki (26:25.538)
They can say like, sure, I can do this gig. So we have had to turn some of them down. And I also don’t want to burn out my staff with like, all right, we’ve got, we’ve got concert performances every weekend this summer. So, and those, the outdoor ones are, you know, with weather, you kind of don’t know it could be hit or miss. But with all of them, it’s
Mandy York (26:34.698)
Yeah.
John Kozicki (26:54.56)
Like you said, it’s an opportunity to get your brand out there. you leverage the social media aspects, like you were saying, make sure parents are able to get photos and share those photos on social media. You can bring a photographer. You can take your own videos. Lots of opportunities for extra content there.
Mandy York (27:20.67)
Yes.
John Kozicki (27:21.979)
so what else are we missing anything? Any other points to, like highlight when it comes to great events?
Mandy York (27:32.224)
Yeah, I mean, that was really good coverage. Like I said, I do some other small things too. I guess I don’t, you know, the, the booth right at the festival where it’s not, we kind of call those events where you’ll set up a table. Do you ever do stuff like that?
John Kozicki (27:38.478)
Mm-hmm.
John Kozicki (27:51.79)
I used to, not so much anymore.
Mandy York (27:53.918)
Yeah, not so much. Yeah. And I don’t do as much as I used to either. Like, again, we’ve talked about this before. You said yes every time early on and now sometimes, and when you think it’s going to be worthwhile. I like to do, I guess it’s similar to your, to your kids like doing festival, like small concerts in the community. I’ll get schools or libraries or something to ask me out and do something.
John Kozicki (28:24.152)
Yeah. Yeah, I’ll highlight one more thing. Like the collaboration. The collaboration is huge. think because of what we do, there’s tons of opportunities for other local businesses that want to collaborate with us and want us to do something that’s going to elevate both brands, both ours and theirs.
Mandy York (28:24.232)
Same idea. Yep.
Mandy York (28:31.069)
end.
John Kozicki (28:54.562)
we’ve collaborated with the local brewery also on performances. So that’s always been a home run. But I will say, as I’ve done more and more events like this, and for me, again, their performances with the kids, the things that I’ve had to think about to determine whether like yes or no, I should be doing this or should not be doing this, is really related to how much work and how much time.
is it is going to take, right? Because as much as I love to do these events, oftentimes it’s either like, you know, it could be a full day of my time, full day of my staff time, and that stuff always adds up. We get a lot of requests from local schools to bring kids to perform at, you know, end of the year school fairs. Those more recently, I’ve had to turn them all down.
because I don’t think it’s a good fit. I do think it would be a good fit, but oftentimes the school fairs just aren’t set up for what we need, right? Like we need a PA system. We need a full drum set and like amps, and I need to make sure I have staff there who knows how to run all that stuff and set that stuff up and then tear it down and make sure the kids are taken care of and
put in the right place and the parents are clear on what’s going on. And I think oftentimes when people like the school events, for instance, those are PTA families that are putting those together. They don’t understand what’s involved in this kind of performance. And I don’t wanna do, I don’t wanna go halfway with it. It’s like they see,
Mandy York (30:39.165)
yeah.
John Kozicki (30:49.28)
what we do with the performances, I want to make sure that I’m consistent with that. And if I can’t make it consistent, then it’s probably better to just not do it. So.
Mandy York (30:58.272)
Yeah, agree. And yeah, I like what you said about deciding is, it worth it? And what am I able to do? Think about how much time this is going to take you, right? What you’re going to get out of it. Like I’ve got a 30 to 45 minute program in my back pocket that I can use anytime, right? So if that’s what they’re asking, cool. I think it’s worth.
John Kozicki (31:13.55)
Mm-hmm.
Mandy York (31:27.636)
getting creative and thinking critically about the business that you’re teaming up with or collaborating with, right? What’s around? Do you have a bookstore in town? would, I mean, and or story time and music. Some coffee shops have like kid things where they invite the kids in.
John Kozicki (31:54.84)
Mm-hmm. Mm-hmm.
Mandy York (31:56.274)
Arts organizations, mean, you know, go in, maybe you do more like a instrument petting zoo that’s only going to take one person, you know, and you can show them things like that. So again, you want it to represent you, you know, you don’t want just one person going with it in with a guitar. And I don’t know, you got to make sure like it’s representing you and that it’s a, it’s, it’s a cool program, but maybe get creative on what you’re presenting.
John Kozicki (32:15.564)
Right.
John Kozicki (32:19.348)
Exactly. Yeah.
Mandy York (32:24.84)
If you can make it a little bit easier and use less staff, there you go.
John Kozicki (32:27.554)
Yep, other ideas, just kind of spitballing here as we bring it home, but other ideas to like start to offset costs when these events get big. Sponsorships, right? Local businesses, maybe you want to sponsor, maybe you want to donate something that you could raffle off as like a prize or something like that. there’s, again, get creative. There’s all sorts of ways that you can, again, contribute to that.
like interactive experience, that fun environment, and potentially generate a little income. Like while I haven’t done this for our concerts, I know of some other schools that will do like concert t-shirts, right, for each show. And that could be a nice little bump. So lots of ways to get creative, but.
I think events are huge, people love them. They definitely set you apart from, you know, the other music schools that will do the traditional recital and that’s about it. So I’m all for it. Props to you, Mandy. You’ve got great ideas for that stuff.
Mandy York (33:38.42)
Me too, love it. Thanks. Cool.
John Kozicki (33:43.178)
All we’ll wrap this one up and we’ll see you next time. See you.
Mandy York (33:46.784)
Sounds good. Bye, John.
