In this enlightening episode of the Rock School Proprietor Podcast, hosts John Kozicki (Michigan Rock School and RockSchoolProprietor.com) and Mandy York (Music Time of Milford) are joined by Nicole Kovar, founder of Piano and More. They discuss the ins and outs of operating a mobile music lessons school that only offers in-home private lessons. Discover how Nicole breaks geographic barriers by sending instructors to students’ homes throughout Northern Virginia, making music accessible to everyone.
In this episode:
- The unique challenges of promoting community and culture in the in-home private lesson environment
- Considerations for safety of both students and instructors in the absence of a brick and mortar studio location
- Nicole’s inspiring initiative, “Play It Forward,” dedicated to providing free instruments and lessons to families in need
- The pros and cons of establishing your studio as a non-profit organization, which Nicole has done with Piano and More.
If you’ve contemplated how to navigate in-home lessons and set up a mobile studio, this episode dives deep into the challenges and rewards.
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Episode Transcript:
John Kozicki (00:01.223)
Welcome to Rock School Proprietor Podcast. My name is Jon Kozicki.
Mandy York (00:06.017)
and I’m Mandi York.
John Kozicki (00:07.991)
And our guest today is the founder and executive director of Piano & More in Arlington and Northern Virginia areas. And through Piano & More, she’s established Play It Forward, which is a program that provides free instruments and lessons to kids from low-income families, also delivered through her studio. Nicole Kovar, how are you, Nicole?
Nicole Kovar (00:33.884)
I’m doing great. I’m so glad to be here. Thanks for having me on.
John Kozicki (00:37.907)
Yeah. So Nicole, you reached out to me a few weeks back and talked a little bit about your studio. But for our listeners, why don’t you give kind of a quick, you know, like 30 second info and intro about what you do at Piano & More.
Mandy York (00:38.136)
Thanks for coming.
Nicole Kovar (01:01.727)
Yes, I’d be happy to. So Piano & More is an in-home lesson studio and that’s all we do. So we don’t have a physical location and we have been doing this for almost 10 years. Like we just passed our nine-year mark earlier this year in April. So I can’t believe how quickly it’s flown by but since 2016 we’ve been servicing in-home lessons in the Northern Virginia area for piano, guitar, and voice lessons.
And we have about, we have over 100 students, but we’ve definitely worked with hundreds of students throughout those years and it’s been quite a remarkable journey.
John Kozicki (01:42.601)
Yeah, great. Now, there’s a couple of things that are interesting to me about your studio. And I think we’ll probably get into those. But one being that it is a mobile studio. So you are sending instructors to students homes for in-home lessons. No brick and mortar location, right? So it’s all this mobile model. That’s interesting to me.
Nicole Kovar (02:00.853)
Mm-hmm.
Nicole Kovar (02:05.867)
That’s right.
John Kozicki (02:12.487)
the you’ve set your business up as a nonprofit. That is interesting to me because these are all things that I don’t have any experience with. Aside from the private lesson stuff. Now, when you initially reached out, I got a lot of good info from you about you, things like your philosophies and emphasis on real experiential learning and like
play through learning and having fun in the lessons, which are all awesome things. Because in in my mind, and what we’ve talked about in on the podcast before, is that I believe that all translates into greater focus on longevity in music and being able to play music throughout your life as opposed to it being more of like this almost a
Nicole Kovar (03:02.315)
Great.
John Kozicki (03:08.787)
studious pursuit where you you focused on like education and technique. Maybe Mandy disagrees with me a little on this. This is where we get a little back and forth which is nice. Yeah and the importance of connection with with like student and instructor and building community. I think I even read on your website or in one of the articles that you’d
Mandy York (03:20.686)
It’s a different thing.
John Kozicki (03:38.389)
sent to me that some your students even expressed an interest in performing like pretty quickly, like four or five weeks into lessons, all awesome stuff. But it does beg the question in my mind, with the mobile setup, and you have an instructor going to work with a student in their homes, how do you build that community?
Nicole Kovar (03:47.531)
Mm-hmm.
John Kozicki (04:05.866)
Right? So it seems like a very kind of isolated scenario, at least compared to what I’m used to. And I know what Mandy’s used to where on a daily basis, we have students and families interacting together in our brick and mortar studios. you know, how do you promote community with the in-home lessons?
Nicole Kovar (04:31.787)
Yeah, it’s definitely something that we had to address really quickly because obviously with no core location where I can just easily say hi, how you’re doing and develop a relationship with a teacher or between their parents, that could be lacking and could be detrimental too. So we definitely had to acknowledge that. And then on top of everything, a majority of our students are piano students and
John Kozicki (04:59.168)
Mm-hmm.
Nicole Kovar (04:59.915)
piano is naturally kind of like a solo instrument. So it was kind of a double whammy. Like how do we create community when there is this distance and sometimes we don’t know what’s happening. Like what do the relationships look like? Sometimes I have to wait till the recital to see like what kind of dynamics the teacher has with their students. And so that is something I definitely had to think about. And
Yeah, go ahead. Did you have a question already?
John Kozicki (05:31.86)
Well, yeah, I guess what are the things that you’re looking for? You mentioned sometimes we have to wait till the recital. What are the things that you’re looking for to figure out? How are we going to promote community? know, are there like because I’m still not sure.
Nicole Kovar (05:41.867)
Mm-hmm.
Nicole Kovar (05:50.219)
Yeah. Yeah. So whenever we do come together, we really take advantage of that. So we start there with the recitals. We make sure that it’s a teacher hosted recital. So recitals by the teacher. Some studios, I know they’ll like mix it up and like the owner will kind of host it, but we make sure it’s hosted by the teacher. That way they can do these
John Kozicki (06:08.31)
Mm-hmm.
Nicole Kovar (06:17.983)
really detailed student introductions during the recitals. And that helps make it more personalized. So I think that’s really important. And then the second thing is we would add some kind of social component to all of our recitals. So we don’t want them to just come and go. We want them to linger a little bit. And so in the past, we’ve done like an assortment of things. We’ve tried different things.
John Kozicki (06:42.41)
Mm-hmm.
Nicole Kovar (06:47.539)
So we’ll do like potluck lunches. We’ll do like last year or really just last month, we had our recitals in June and it’s July now. We did, we set up like a photo booth where there were like these blow up instruments and the families could hang out and take some pictures afterwards. So, and we’ve done like games and trivia and, so we just try to have them linger, help develop those relationships and that way,
they can like see their progress like the next recital and the next recital so what we do have
John Kozicki (07:23.68)
So you’re really, sorry, you’re really looking to use the recital as that core means of building community.
Nicole Kovar (07:34.047)
That’s one way, but I mean, we have recitals twice a year, so that doesn’t provide a lot of opportunity. Another thing that we do is we’ll do these musical experiences or musical field trips for our students. So one pretty popular one are open mics where we just set up at a restaurant and our kids can come by and play. And that’s like a low
John Kozicki (07:50.39)
Okay.
John Kozicki (07:57.558)
Okay.
Nicole Kovar (08:03.827)
stress environment so if yeah if they’re a little shy to perform or maybe it’s their first time we like to really encourage them to play at a local restaurant. We also do these fun ones where we’ll take them to a recording studio and they can actually play their song and be recorded. They get to take home an mp3 file so that’s fun and we’ll take them to like the theater.
John Kozicki (08:05.887)
Love that.
Mandy York (08:07.704)
Mm-hmm.
John Kozicki (08:20.885)
Mm-hmm.
Nicole Kovar (08:33.243)
Kennedy Center nearby. We’re close to Washington DC and the Kennedy Center is really well known for its production. So we’ll do things like that all throughout the year to kind of help build that community.
John Kozicki (08:47.221)
Gotcha. That starts to make more sense in my mind, right? And then, so you mentioned throughout the year, do you have kind of like a regular schedule that you’re planning for these events or are you just kind of doing them whenever you think about doing them or when things come up? Like you mentioned the Kennedy Center, obviously it’s gonna be specific performances that might be right. How does that work?
Nicole Kovar (09:15.049)
We typically do one or two a semester and these are non-recital events. So we try not to do too much because that overwhelms them because they’re pretty busy. I’m sure it’s the same with most families now, very busy with activities, but that’s usually enough to get them to recognize like who else is in my teacher’s studio? What is their level? Like, are they my age?
John Kozicki (09:28.872)
Mm-hmm.
Nicole Kovar (09:45.311)
So it does help, it does a lot already, just doing one or two a semester.
John Kozicki (09:50.838)
Okay, when you say semester, you talking, I guess how frequently are you talking about for a semester?
Nicole Kovar (10:00.139)
We are open all year round. Yeah, we are open all year round, but I like to look at spring and fall. So fall is September to early January, kind of, and then you have January to June. Yeah.
John Kozicki (10:01.685)
or maybe how long a semester is.
John Kozicki (10:14.836)
Gotcha.
Okay, so if you’ve got, you’re doing like one to two every semester, plus you’re doing a couple of recitals. So you’re looking at like anywhere from what, four to six kind of social events every year. All right. Okay, which translates to, you know, every two to three months.
Nicole Kovar (10:22.239)
Mm-hmm.
Nicole Kovar (10:29.023)
Mm-hmm. Yeah. Mm-hmm. Yes.
Nicole Kovar (10:38.769)
Mm-hmm. Yeah, and not everybody shows up, but what we do, it just levels up the experience and it does heighten their interest in performing and playing with other people too. And I think that’s important. Yeah.
John Kozicki (10:56.917)
Oh, that brings up a great question to the playing with other people. So Mandy and I did an episode, I think it was 44, where we talked about building community. And that was very much a result. That conversation was very much the result of a panel discussion that I was part of for the Utah Music Teachers Association. And
Nicole Kovar (11:23.755)
Hmm.
John Kozicki (11:25.493)
you know, I’m the rock school guy and I’m like, big on community and playing together. And I think that’s why they invited me. But it was talking about building community. And but I definitely felt kind of like the odd man out talking to, as you mentioned, like the all those piano students where it’s kind of a solo instrument. I felt like, well, why don’t people just kind of jump in there and play together? So I, I sort of had to understand that perspective.
Nicole Kovar (11:42.781)
I hear it. I hear it.
John Kozicki (11:54.486)
But yeah, episode 44, I think that’s very similar to what you’re talking about. Now, you mentioned possibly performing together. Do you have your students interact and perform together? How do you do that when, again, when you’re a mobile studio and you kind of don’t know, I mean, you as the director, you might not know who these students are, what they’re working on, what…
their ability level is, what their musical interests are, how can you, I guess, how do you promote playing together? And like, when does that happen?
Nicole Kovar (12:34.963)
Yeah, I will be honest with you, it doesn’t happen with us much. We’ve had a couple of jam sessions here and there, but we’re a studio that kind of follows the demand. So if we don’t see a lot of signups, and we’ve tried it a couple of times and we kind of phase it out. And jam sessions was one of those where it just didn’t work out. And I think it’s because we are so piano based, maybe, and it is hard.
John Kozicki (12:39.327)
Okay.
John Kozicki (12:43.326)
Mm-hmm.
John Kozicki (12:58.004)
Mm-hmm.
John Kozicki (13:01.417)
Okay.
Nicole Kovar (13:03.645)
also to teach like playing with other people when you are in home. So if that’s something you’re looking to do, then I’ll be honest, our services were so limited with that. And like we have had it happen before where a parent would pay to have two teachers show up, like a guitar teacher and a piano teacher. And they would like, they were preparing for the recital.
John Kozicki (13:26.685)
Mm-hmm.
Nicole Kovar (13:33.287)
And so there’s unique cases like that that we can do, but it just doesn’t happen often.
John Kozicki (13:40.391)
Yeah, I appreciate that you, you recognize like, okay, this is what we know we’re good at. And this is kind of the lane that we’re going to stay in. In all that said, Nicole, I think if that was something you’d want to do, I can totally teach you how to do that. Lots of ideas. Okay. So shifting gears here. We talked a little bit about performances already.
Nicole Kovar (13:55.787)
Okay, yeah, yeah, I’m sure.
John Kozicki (14:09.116)
When you do performances, where do you do them? How do you coordinate them? Like what kind of participation do you generally see?
Nicole Kovar (14:20.017)
Yeah, it’s a good question. So we have like our go-to local spots, some churches and some like piano stores that have recital halls. So we’ve built some relationships with local business owners in the area and that helps a lot. And we do like all the scheduling and the logistics for a teacher. So that helps a lot as well, make it easier. And then the other question, what was the second one?
John Kozicki (14:29.716)
Mm-hmm.
John Kozicki (14:50.228)
I guess it was venue and what kind of turnout do you usually get? In terms of student participation, is it optional? Is it required?
Nicole Kovar (14:58.552)
yeah.
Nicole Kovar (15:03.345)
Mm-hmm. Yeah, we we don’t really say required but we do tell our teachers you’re preparing them for a performance at the end of every semester. So we do track everything. We do track how many percentage of a turnout per teacher and we like put it up on a leaderboard so we can see which teacher is doing a great job encouraging their students to show up and who’s who’s kind of lagging behind and needs to work on it. So
John Kozicki (15:14.27)
Mm-hmm.
Nicole Kovar (15:32.563)
It is important. We want them to get away from that mindset that this is only my skill for me in my room or in my home. Because unfortunately, that’s part of the image that we’re reinforcing is like, this is only for you. And we do want to push them out of that space. So that is something we track and we talk to our teachers often about.
John Kozicki (15:41.83)
Yes.
Nicole Kovar (15:58.045)
Some years we have really great participation rates and some years we don’t. Some years it was 50 % like this last one and I don’t know you’ll have to tell me what your participation rates look like but I’ve had like we’ve had higher before and it just depends on the teacher. Just depends on what the teacher’s beliefs are on recitals and concerts and yeah.
John Kozicki (16:23.762)
But yeah, think with my studio being a rock school, I think we’re going to have vastly different numbers when it comes to performance because we are performance based. You know, like that’s what we do. That’s part of our program. And that’s part of why we have the students that we do. All right, Nicole, I had told you before our conversation, I’m going to like gently push you a little bit on some of this stuff.
Nicole Kovar (16:36.053)
Mm-hmm.
Nicole Kovar (16:40.501)
Mm-hmm.
Nicole Kovar (16:53.163)
Yeah.
John Kozicki (16:53.544)
And, you know, I don’t mean to back you into a corner, but I also am about like kind of figuring out like how we all elevate what we do. And it does make me wonder, because you said some fantastic things. You said you want to impress upon the students that this skill that they’re building is not just for them. And I wholeheartedly agree.
But…
How can, maybe this is me asking you, if we’re being candid, how can you present to the students the sheer joy and I know you’re a performer, I know you’re creative. How can you present what your appreciation of music is and has become over the years related to performance and sharing that gift with others?
Nicole Kovar (17:31.253)
Mm-hmm.
John Kozicki (17:54.97)
in a situation where
there’s not as many avenues for them to interact and perform. that make sense? And I don’t know if you have an answer right now, but that’s like one of the burning questions in my mind is I love where your head is, but it does make me wonder like, man, are these two things like just not quite connecting in a way that I think could be amazing. Does that make sense?
Nicole Kovar (18:08.075)
Ew.
Nicole Kovar (18:27.819)
Yeah, so well I do have a question. How often do your students perform?
John Kozicki (18:33.876)
So we do regular performances at least three times a year. We’re right in the summer right now. So generally in the summer we do a lot more community based performances. So, I mean, it’s not uncommon for us to do five or six performances in a year. But the students are also interacting every week in band rehearsals. So
Nicole Kovar (19:02.463)
Mm-hmm.
John Kozicki (19:03.836)
as far as like performances go. Yeah, there’s lots of performances. But the performance is almost like the icing on the cake. That’s when that’s when like the bigger community comes together. The parents, the grandparents, the friends, they get to come together and celebrate what the kids have been working on for for literal months. So I think there’s
Nicole Kovar (19:13.141)
See you.
Nicole Kovar (19:18.123)
Mm-hmm.
Thank
Mm-hmm.
John Kozicki (19:30.856)
There’s performance as a means of building community, but then there’s also the once per week or more frequently when students and parents are interacting on a regular basis and communing around music. So, yeah, just my two cents there.
Nicole Kovar (19:47.465)
Yeah. Yeah. Like we definitely encourage performances, right? We have multiple performances every semester. What we don’t have and what we lack is that group performance. That’s something that we can’t attain at this moment. But I…
John Kozicki (20:03.825)
Yeah. And I’m not saying you should, right? I like I just I wouldn’t be doing I wouldn’t be being myself if I didn’t mention like, man, Nicole, you’ve got like this great perspective on on how important music is. And just trying to, you know, I’m just dropping little seeds, planting little seeds here and there.
Nicole Kovar (20:33.193)
Yeah, yeah, and I, yeah, and I totally get it. And that’s why, like I say it all the time. When you keep your skills for yourself, that’s half a gift and you’re not getting all of it. It’s when you share it with others, that’s when it becomes the whole gift. And that’s where the magic happens. So,
John Kozicki (20:33.283)
to get you to think about it, you know, not asking you to change your business model.
John Kozicki (20:54.632)
Yeah.
Nicole Kovar (20:57.675)
This is something that we do tell them and we talk to them about you know performing and putting themselves out there Like for example when my students would go on vacation there is they there’s usually they’re usually staying at a hotel and some of these hotels have pianos in them and The first thing I would ask them is You’re going to hotel. Do you know if it has a piano and they would?
John Kozicki (21:22.856)
Yeah.
Nicole Kovar (21:23.699)
And of course, I’m not expecting them to know if the hotel has a piano in it, but I’m putting that seed in like, I’m gonna, when I go to the hotel, I’m gonna look for a piano. And then I would tell them, if there’s a piano, make sure you play your song because they’re gonna be so impressed seeing this young kid play such a beautiful piece. And then they would go on vacation.
John Kozicki (21:47.741)
Mm-hmm.
Nicole Kovar (21:50.639)
and I would see them in a week or two and they would come back and tell me like, guess what? My hotel had a piano and they played, they would play on it. So it is something that we talk about because I know it’s important and I don’t want them to just get stuck of, in my home, this is when I play piano and it’s only for me. So it’s something we know, but we’re just not the best place to.
John Kozicki (22:12.871)
Right. Yeah.
Nicole Kovar (22:18.611)
encourage group performance, obviously.
Mandy York (22:21.878)
And that’s the instrument, right? Like you said, it’s the piano. I really, I love chamber music and I’ve loved working with, a singer, working with pianists, flute, trumpet, guitar, violinists. Like I love those chamber music experiences, right? When you get to work with another instrumentalist. And correct me if I’m wrong, but I do think your young students are learning.
Nicole Kovar (22:26.581)
Yeah.
Nicole Kovar (22:33.813)
Mm-hmm.
Mandy York (22:51.682)
their instrument, they’re honing their skills, accompaniment and collaboration is kind of a next step. That’s a different skill set, right? So they’re learning their instrument and then hopefully as they become stronger musicians, players, they can collaborate more with others.
Nicole Kovar (23:00.469)
Yeah, actually. Mm-hmm. Yeah.
Nicole Kovar (23:11.999)
Mm-hmm.
Yeah, yeah it is a beautiful thing when you can get to that level.
Mandy York (23:19.32)
Mm-hmm.
John Kozicki (23:20.093)
This is Mandy playing the good cop to my bad cop. So thanks, Mandy. So all right, we’ll kind of shift away from that. Now, did want to know what made you, Nicole, what made you decide on the in-home model? Because that’s something that I’ve never done. I think in my mind, it feels like it comes with
Nicole Kovar (23:22.609)
Hahaha.
Nicole Kovar (23:39.627)
Yeah.
John Kozicki (23:48.219)
all sorts of its own challenges, not including what we’ve just been talking about, about performances and like playing with other students. But what made you decide on the mobile model?
Nicole Kovar (24:01.843)
Yeah, well, it was not planned. It just happened. And I think this happens with a lot of in-home teachers. Number one, it’s easy to start, right? There’s not this huge hurdle that I have to go find a lease. I have to make this commitment. I have to purchase all these instruments. So yeah, the barrier to entry is quite easy, right? And then secondly, when you get started, most also
John Kozicki (24:04.763)
Okay.
Mandy York (24:05.294)
Mmm.
Nicole Kovar (24:31.455)
what I’ve heard from other in-home teachers, the demand is just overwhelming. There is a huge demand. And so it’s easy to start to wonder, like, can I monetize this? Can this be my full-time job instead of just a side hustle? And that’s basically what happened to me. And before I knew it, I had a whole operating business and I didn’t even know how to operate a business.
John Kozicki (24:48.498)
Mm-hmm.
Nicole Kovar (25:00.425)
So that was also a learning journey that went on for many years and still is. There’s still so much to learn. But yeah, that’s how it started.
Mandy York (25:01.198)
Mm-hmm.
Mandy York (25:10.798)
Yeah, I mean, we’ve talked before how there’s not a one size fits all for these things. know, I have other, I have colleagues that don’t have a brick and mortar space for their music together businesses, their group spaces. They’ll rent a yoga studio and then they’ll rent a library room or church room, right? And they travel. That was never anything I wanted to do. I just wanted one space, right? To be in.
John Kozicki (25:10.929)
Okay.
Nicole Kovar (25:15.775)
Mm-hmm.
Nicole Kovar (25:24.927)
Mm-hmm.
Nicole Kovar (25:37.888)
Mm-hmm.
Mandy York (25:39.744)
And some kids like going to the rock school or, you know, Ms. Suzy’s piano studio every week. But there’s a market for what you’re doing, right? There’s the busy family that doesn’t want to have to travel or maybe has three other kids. So one less trip to an activity is great. So again, it’s
Nicole Kovar (26:01.085)
Mm-hmm. Mm-hmm. Yeah.
John Kozicki (26:04.818)
And yeah, and Nicole and I spoke last week briefly. And this is, I think your head’s in the right place, Nicole, because you’d mentioned this is a premium service and you’re priced accordingly for this premium service where someone is coming to your house, customizing everything, right? So, and I did kind of some…
quick numbers on comparing my community with Arlington, Virginia community, then cost of living. And Arlington’s about 10 % more expensive than where Mandy and I live. But your rates are significantly more than what I’m charging for the equivalent service. And I think that’s important when you consider not just that
Nicole Kovar (26:51.627)
Okay.
John Kozicki (27:04.406)
This is very customized. People are coming to, they’ve got a private instructor coming to their homes. You’re accounting presumably for in what you’re paying your instructors for travel time.
Nicole Kovar (27:20.325)
yeah, definitely. man, there’s just so much that goes into in home that you don’t really realize, especially when you’re starting to hire other teachers. But yeah, you have to think if you’re, if it’s just you, then you’re taking on the risks and it’s no big deal. But when you start hiring others, now it can be a big deal. You have to think about things like, where am I sending?
John Kozicki (27:31.964)
Mm-hmm.
John Kozicki (27:41.318)
Yes.
Nicole Kovar (27:49.489)
Where am I sending them? Is it going to be a safe space? Because I don’t have the luxury to go there first and, you know, suss it out and make sure it’s a good clean space. I don’t know, right? And so, yeah, that was one of the first things I learned that if I’m going to hire other people and send them to homes that I’ve never been to, I need to make sure that I’m structuring the pricing correctly.
to where I can lower the chances of them being in a situation that they don’t want to be in. And actually had this happen, thankfully nothing terrible ever happened, where one teacher went to a hoarding situation, that’s what he described it. He was like, it was almost a hoarding situation. The piano was in the basement and it was musty and just dark.
John Kozicki (28:17.618)
Mm-hmm.
John Kozicki (28:38.874)
Yikes
Mm-hmm.
Nicole Kovar (28:45.859)
and I do not want to go back there. So I quickly learned like the way you price in home lessons, it’s more than just the price. It also filters out what kind of clientele you’re going to be working with. And that is important when you don’t have control over the environment.
John Kozicki (29:06.608)
Yeah, and I’m assuming there’s, there’s, I like that you’re thinking about protecting your instructors that you’re sending into homes. I’m assuming you’re also thinking about, okay, I’m also sending this adult into a home with a child. And I, know, while I employ this adult, I don’t necessarily know how this adult handles themselves outside of my vision. So there’s, you know, liability involved on
in both situations, making sure that the kids and the families are safe, making sure that your instructors are safe. And I mean, we all deal with that. But in your situation, that’s a little bit more dicey when you’re not seeing the families and your instructors in your physical location. that’s… Are there any specifics that, like, what are some things that you do?
Nicole Kovar (29:58.645)
Yeah.
John Kozicki (30:06.169)
to, I mean, you mentioned the pricing kind of weeds out certain families. Is there anything else you’re doing to think about safety, both from the side of the student and the parent, sorry, the student and the instructor?
Nicole Kovar (30:18.859)
Yeah, we take it really seriously. Like even in our hiring, it’s really important that we check all of our boxes. And if we can’t check a box, then we will delay the hire, even if we really need them. So one example is, obviously we do the background checks, but we’ll do a deeper background check, more probably more deeper than what a traditional
John Kozicki (30:30.182)
Mm-hmm.
Nicole Kovar (30:47.291)
on-site location will do. So we’ll even look at their driving record because they are driving to throughout your neighborhoods. They’re representing you. So we want to make sure that they’re not speeding or getting a lot of tickets and if it does come up we talk to them about it and we had that happen recently. So those are little examples of course references who refers them.
John Kozicki (30:49.489)
Mm-hmm.
John Kozicki (30:53.627)
Sure.
Mm-hmm.
John Kozicki (31:06.491)
Mm-hmm.
Nicole Kovar (31:16.431)
and their resume, we actually double check it. Like, are they who they say they are? So we will spend probably a lot more time on an applicant before hiring them than a traditional studio.
John Kozicki (31:23.75)
Mm-hmm.
John Kozicki (31:33.234)
Okay. Are you ever at all worried about, again, going back to that dynamic where instructors are going to the student, they’re personally building that relationship with the student and with the families. The families are seeing that instructor from week to week. Are you ever worried about either from both sides, from the instructor or from the family,
Nicole Kovar (31:51.317)
Mm-hmm.
John Kozicki (32:02.117)
just at some point thinking like, Nicole’s just kind of the middle person. I’m going to just do this on my own.
Nicole Kovar (32:06.293)
Yeah.
Nicole Kovar (32:11.239)
Yeah, that’s such a good question. And it’s actually one of the first questions I had. and it’s when I was telling people like, Hey, I have this idea, like, there’s a lot of demand, I think I’ll start hiring other people. That was the first thing people would tell me is like, you’re crazy, you’re gonna do all this work. And then the teachers will take the students and leave. And so it was a big fear. And so I had to, as I was designing the business model,
I realized I have to offer more than just lessons because this will happen. And so we’ve made it more of a lesson experience and we have like our clients, our students, they enroll into memberships and you can kind of, we’ve already kind of talked about what that also offers, like with the field trips and things like that. But I think starting with teachers, I,
John Kozicki (32:45.786)
Mm-hmm.
Nicole Kovar (33:09.379)
learned that I need to build a brand and culture where we make their lives so easy and so good that well, if they considered it will change their minds or it will just feel too daunting to, you know, leave because they have it so good. And we really do take care of them really like we spoil our teachers, we pay them the best, like we have the best rates in the area.
John Kozicki (33:16.986)
You
Nicole Kovar (33:39.391)
And they know that they tell us all the time. They’re like, you guys pay the best. love it here. and, we also have policies that really are designed towards the teacher to have a sustainable income for the longterm. So, yeah. So for, for example, we don’t allow any kind of makeups. Like if the student cancels, then okay. But the teacher’s still going to get paid. And I think.
John Kozicki (33:40.763)
Mm-hmm.
John Kozicki (33:55.633)
That’s great.
John Kozicki (34:01.903)
Okay.
Mandy York (34:07.31)
Mm-hmm.
Nicole Kovar (34:09.619)
we have these policies to protect the teacher and their time because they are out there in the streets like driving to you, right? But I also think if like it would be harder to enforce those policies on your own because they’re the ones that have like these deeper relationships with their clients and yeah it’s hard to tell them well especially as a teacher we always want to say yes and we always want to you know help them get to
John Kozicki (34:16.55)
Right?
Mandy York (34:30.36)
Yes.
Nicole Kovar (34:39.519)
We always see their perspective first before ours. So I think they really like us being a buffer and protecting them. And they do see the benefits. Like they do see that we really take care of everything for them. And the longer they’re with us, it’s harder to even think about going out there on your own.
John Kozicki (34:47.921)
Mm-hmm.
John Kozicki (35:03.857)
Sure.
Mandy York (35:04.408)
Yeah, I can see how it would be really easy for a teacher. That’s great.
Nicole Kovar (35:07.765)
Mm-hmm.
John Kozicki (35:08.249)
Yeah, again, I think that’s really great that you’re, you you mentioned.
Taking care of the teacher when you’re sending them to these homes of folks you don’t know, it definitely shows that you’re thinking about your employees. Do you ever do like, I mean, team building, relationship building stuff, culture building amongst your staff?
Nicole Kovar (35:28.223)
Yeah.
Yeah, that’s actually, it’s so important. And I didn’t realize how important it is. And I still think I’m still like understanding the impact, but teachers love community. And we also do teacher socials. So we will do, sometimes it involves the arts, sometimes it doesn’t. Like we’ve done recital dinners, where it’s just us teachers and piano more pays for it.
John Kozicki (35:57.733)
Mm-hmm.
Nicole Kovar (35:59.915)
We’ll do like an art night, we’ll do rock climbing, we’ve done brunches, game nights, and so they don’t have to feel alone because I do know with private lessons after some time it’s usually just you and the parents or the students and the parents, you know, that’s who you’re talking to all day. So yeah, we do also emphasize having a teacher community.
John Kozicki (36:05.957)
Yeah.
John Kozicki (36:19.972)
Yeah.
John Kozicki (36:25.36)
That’s great. That is fantastic. Now, we’re almost out of time here, but I did want to touch a little bit on the, a little bit about like nonprofit status and then also your program where you’re providing free lessons to low income families. So nonprofit status, why did you decide to go with the nonprofit model?
Nicole Kovar (36:54.473)
Yeah, it all stems from a story, you know, and we had we had built a studio after a couple of years, multi teachers and I was helping some teachers host the recitals and I noticed like all day and this was recital after recital after recital and I’m just like, you know, this is such a diverse area. But when I’m looking at our recitals, it’s not diverse.
John Kozicki (36:58.117)
Mm-hmm.
Nicole Kovar (37:21.475)
And it made me really start to think like, why is that? Where is everybody? And I looked into the public schools and I realized they don’t teach any kind of public or any kind of keyboard or piano classes. And I didn’t grow up in this area, but I do remember having them. Like I didn’t take them, but I do remember like a keyboard class. Like that was an elective that I could have taken if I didn’t have piano lessons. So
John Kozicki (37:26.586)
Mm-hmm.
John Kozicki (37:45.178)
You
Nicole Kovar (37:50.333)
It just made me realize like, you know, this used to be a very common instrument and it’s slowly becoming an instrument that is only maybe for people that have the income to invest into it because it’s also an expensive instrument to buy upfront. Yeah. And it takes up a lot of space. So yeah, it just made me realize that if I wanted diversity, we had to make a change. so.
John Kozicki (38:03.022)
Yeah.
John Kozicki (38:07.746)
Yes. Yes.
Nicole Kovar (38:19.253)
That’s when I started calling some schools in the area and seeing if they would be open to a partnership, which they were, and Play It Forward was born.
John Kozicki (38:25.604)
Mm-hmm.
John Kozicki (38:29.668)
That’s great. And what additional hurdles do you generally have to jump through? Because you’re set up as a nonprofit, I’m assuming that you have to have a board and board has to approve big decisions, right? Does that slow things down?
Nicole Kovar (38:42.88)
Mm-hmm.
Nicole Kovar (38:47.763)
It does slow things down. Before I could just be like, okay, let’s try this. I’ll do it because I feel like it. And now I have to present myself like this is why here are the pros and cons. What do we think?
Mandy York (38:50.926)
You
John Kozicki (38:51.76)
I could never do it.
John Kozicki (38:58.596)
Mm-hmm.
All
John Kozicki (39:07.556)
Mm-hmm. Yeah.
Nicole Kovar (39:09.833)
So yeah, it definitely does slow things down. And it is a huge process. It is not easy. Like I had to put down a lot of time and money to open it up as a nonprofit. There’s a lot of legalities, there’s a lot of documents, and you are having to be watched by the state, right? Every single year. there’s a lot of paperwork that happens with nonprofits, but with all things, like you build a system.
you delegate it and it ends up you know rolling on its own so yeah it does slow things down a little bit but there’s also a lot of good perks.
John Kozicki (39:45.157)
Yeah.
John Kozicki (39:51.322)
great. Well, I commend you, Nicole. I could never do the nonprofit thing because of what you just said, because of how slow it is, because you have to get people to approve things. And I just wanted like, I don’t want do it. Well, so Nicole, I appreciate you coming on the podcast. I’ll apologize for pushing a little too hard on the the the culture stuff and the performances.
Nicole Kovar (39:56.363)
you
Nicole Kovar (40:01.003)
Yeah.
Mandy York (40:04.023)
You
Nicole Kovar (40:11.499)
No, that’s why we need you, John. We need your rock band school. Come to Northern Virginia.
Mandy York (40:19.904)
Absolutely.
John Kozicki (40:21.545)
Yeah, but again, just really planting those seeds. See, think about it. So that’s going to do it for this episode of Rock School Proprietor podcast. Nicole, we will link to your website and anything else you want us to share in the show notes. Thanks again for coming on the show.
Nicole Kovar (40:26.271)
Yeah.
Nicole Kovar (40:38.869)
Thank you so much. It’s been a pleasure. Have a good week.
Mandy York (40:40.462)
Thanks.
John Kozicki (40:41.423)
All right, we’ll see you next time.
Nicole Kovar (40:46.857)
Okay.
John Kozicki (40:48.058)
Sorry guys, I spilled water halfway through our conversation.
Mandy York (40:49.646)
That’s alright.
