On this Q&A episode of Rock School Proprietor Podcast, hosts John Kozicki (Michigan Rock School and RockSchoolProprietor.com) and Mandy York (Music Time of Milford) tackle a messy situation: a talented instructor with persistent communication and scheduling problems who has started teaching elsewhere and even picked up former students privately. They walk through how to decide whether to keep or cut ties, how to open a calm, curiosity-driven conversation, and practical steps to tighten communication and set clear expectations.
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Episode Transcript:
John Kozicki (00:01.869)
Welcome to Rock School Proprietor Podcast. My name’s John Kozicki.
Mandy York (00:07.35)
and I’m Mandi York.
John Kozicki (00:09.17)
Manny, are in the middle of back to school and I’m feeling it.
Mandy York (00:15.88)
It’s a crazy time, right?
John Kozicki (00:22.928)
Yeah, I like I just had we just had like a full weekend two full days of concerts at the rock school this past weekend and that rolls right into like back to school for some kids and like other districts are like next week and then we’ve got our new band sessions as starting and like I just want a day off.
Mandy York (00:32.024)
yeah.
Mandy York (00:47.534)
They’ll all be back in school soon, John. Right? You get like a little breather and then off and running. That’s how I feel.
John Kozicki (00:50.458)
Yeah, yeah.
John Kozicki (00:54.876)
Yeah, you know it’s funny, I don’t remember what episode it was, but I remember last year we had almost the exact same interaction at this time, right? Where we’re just like, my gosh, what’s going on? Yeah. But how are…
Mandy York (01:00.971)
Mandy York (01:12.27)
We need to get back to school. We need to get back to our routines. Yeah. I’m good because my kids are those kids that started a week early. So they started this week. It’s Wednesday. So this is my time to, yeah, get caught up on some things, get into my new schedule, and then I’ll start my teaching semester next week. Yeah.
John Kozicki (01:15.376)
Yeah, how are you?
John Kozicki (01:39.944)
Yeah, my own kids go back to school next week. And I got one starting middle school and the other ones in high school. It’s just, yeah, it’s a lot. But all that said, we are gonna do a Q &A episode today. And it’s been a while since we’ve done a Q &A.
Mandy York (01:52.536)
Yeah. Yep.
Mandy York (02:02.604)
I love these though. I love when listeners phone in, write in. Yes.
John Kozicki (02:07.429)
Right, yeah, right in. Yeah, yeah. Well, yeah, and I think the last couple of times we did this, we just kind of had a basic topic, right? It was like, hey, this is what’s going on. What advice can you give us? And I want to say one was transitioning from mostly private lessons to groups. The other one was about, I think it was like behavior management and bands. So like kind of more general topics. This one,
is I feel like way more specific and right and there’s a lot of like interconnected parts so we thought well let’s just read the the email that we got and we’ll just go from there.
Mandy York (02:40.77)
Yes, very specific and detailed.
Mandy York (02:56.75)
Yes. Okay. I’m going to read the email. Yeah, definitely. so hold on and listen to it. Like, John said, there’s lots of detail here. All right. Dear Mandy and John, I’d love your advice on how to handle a difficult situation with one of my instructors. This teacher has been with me for three years. He’s a strong instructor and his students have generally stayed with him, which is why I’ve overlooked some ongoing issues. His biggest flaw has been poor communication.
John Kozicki (02:58.471)
Do you want it? Okay.
John Kozicki (03:04.741)
Yeah, because it’s kind of lengthy.
Mandy York (03:26.946)
For example, if I text him about something important, I might not hear back for four days or not at all. Sometimes these messages are as simple as asking whether he wanted to take on a new student. Because of this, I eventually stopped offering him additional students and he never asked for more hours. Last month, he asked me to be a reference for another school he was applying to. When I asked if this new job would interfere with his schedule with me, he assured me it would not.
However, when I spoke with that school, they told me he hadn’t mentioned which days he already worked for me. That raised a red flag, but I tried to give him the benefit of the doubt. More recently, we sat down to confirm his fall schedule. He guaranteed he was set for the whole school year, and I even checked with parents so that they could schedule other activities around piano lessons. Then out of the blue, he texted that he could no longer teach on one of his scheduled days. I worked tirelessly.
tirelessly to move students to a different day he said he was available, only for him to tell me the next day that he couldn’t do that day either. I tried calling him, but he didn’t answer. When I texted to express how unprofessional this was making me look to parents, he replied that he was too busy to talk. After that, he went silent again. Meanwhile, I’ve learned
I’ve since learned that one of my former students who is officially discontinuing lessons with my school is now taking private lessons with him outside of my studio. At this point, he still has two other teaching days with me, but he is ignoring my attempts to resolve the scheduling issue. Parents are calling, frustrated, asking when their kids lessons will happen. I feel stuck. What’s the smart way to approach this? Should I cut ties with him altogether? Try one more time to salvage the relationship?
I’ve never had this problem with other teachers who all communicate well, so I met a loss. Signed ghosted and roasted by a no show joker. Man. Yeah, that’s a lot, right? I feel for this studio owner.
John Kozicki (05:22.343)
boy. Right. I know. And there’s just like there’s so many things in this one that just, yep. Had that come up. yep. Had that come up. Yeah, that one. That one. And I guess like I’m trying to figure out where to start. Right. Because
like, I mean, that one of the triggers and I know this is big with with studio owners is like, okay, here’s this instructor who works for our friend here’s studio and then they’re going to get another teaching job at another studio, right? And then that’s like, okay, well, is this is it a direct competitor? And I know like some studios have clauses where like you can’t teach someplace else if you’re teaching for our studio.
And then there’s like the communication stuff. But then at the same time, our friend here says that this, he’s a good instructor otherwise, but the communication. so, don’t know, what do you think? Where do we start with this one, Mandy?
Mandy York (06:43.032)
Yeah, well, he’s, there are a lot of things here. Some of which I’ve dealt with, others that I have not. To me, and correct me if I’m wrong, but to me kind of the big thing here is that balance between like him teaching for you, but now working at another studio, right? I don’t, in my line, my area and with the early childhood, I don’t have a lot of competition around.
John Kozicki (07:02.737)
Okay.
Mandy York (07:12.918)
so I don’t have other early childhood programs, you know, taking teachers away from me. I know that you have a pretty, what I think, healthy approach to this, where you’re okay with your teachers working other places, I assume as long as there’s good communication.
John Kozicki (07:16.259)
Mm hmm. Yeah.
John Kozicki (07:27.567)
Yeah.
Yeah, so my take on that is I honestly, I try and look at it from the perspective of my instructors and you know, like my my take on it is like, if I can provide them with full time work, then I would expect like full time commitment, right? But if I
Mandy York (07:57.474)
Yes.
John Kozicki (07:59.065)
am only able to provide them or they only want to work part time. Well, then I feel like I really need to respect their ability to make a living. You know, and because because that’s I mean, that’s why they’re working for me in the first place is so you know, they can they can teach and make money. And and that’s that balance when you’re working with with musicians, because some of them are like
Mandy York (08:13.369)
yeah.
John Kozicki (08:27.194)
gigging and doing session work and whatever. And so like the teaching they they work in into their schedule. But yeah, my thing is like, if I can’t provide someone with full time work, then I shouldn’t expect them to be exclusive to my studio. Now, that said, do I necessarily want them working for a direct competitor that’s like maybe two miles down the street? You know, I think
No, we’ve got to have a conversation about that. Do I want them to come to work for me and I put in a bunch of work to build up their schedule and then they decide like, okay, thanks, I’m going to go take these students and teach them privately at my house. Now, certainly not. Right. It’s not much I could do to control that necessarily. But
I think that does circle back to the communication thing, right? And expectations. So.
Mandy York (09:33.582)
Yeah. Right. Because to me reading this, that is the biggest red flag that I see that it seems this studio owner has tried to build up their schedule and, but hasn’t gotten anywhere because of communication issues. And then they’re now they’re working at another studio. I don’t know. I might be kind of harsh.
John Kozicki (09:41.54)
Okay.
John Kozicki (09:56.346)
Mm-hmm.
Mandy York (10:02.656)
and say, you know what, this relationship is not salvageable. Like,
John Kozicki (10:09.306)
Well, yeah, think that’s in my notes. That’s in my notes here too. think our friend has to decide, is at this point, is this relationship worth saving? Is it worth retaining this instructor? Or is it time to cut ties? I don’t know. And it wasn’t clear.
with this instructor going to work at a different studio, where that studio was, right? We don’t know if that’s like two towns over or what the deal is. That’s kind of unclear. So in that respect, we kind of can’t really say, but yeah, this is the kind of thing where that’s in my mind, the first question, is it worth retaining this instructor?
Mandy York (10:44.494)
True.
Mandy York (11:09.122)
That’s a hard question to ask yourself because I don’t know. I think the easy answer is to kind of put up with all of this back and forth, you know, and uncertainty because they are still teaching a couple of days a week, but, but it seems like the risk has just been elevated, right? This person is teaching, you know, you’ve lost a student from your school that they’re now teaching privately.
John Kozicki (11:31.204)
Yeah.
Mandy York (11:38.806)
outside of your school. I think it’s a really hard conversation to have with yourself and you need to make the pros and cons list to decide if it’s worth keeping them on.
John Kozicki (11:39.014)
Yeah.
John Kozicki (11:50.734)
Yeah, yeah.
And that’s, guess, right. That’s the first question. And if it’s time to cut ties, then it’s time to cut ties. But in examining if it’s worth retaining this instructor, well, then you do have to kind of start like a real dialogue because from that instructor’s perspective, what we don’t, you know, we don’t know anything. We don’t have any of that information, but he was looking for work at another studio. We don’t know why, right?
Is he looking for work because he had some time open up and he wants to fill up his schedule elsewhere? Is he looking for a different environment to teach in, like a different style of studio? Is he looking for an exit strategy from our friend here’s studio?
We don’t know why, you know, it could be like if that’s the case, well, I mean, maybe his focus has changed, maybe the direction that the studio is going is not the way he wants to go. We have no idea, right? But if our friend here does decide to open up that dialogue, I think it has to be done in sort of a friendly way.
Mandy York (13:18.606)
in a curious way, like you’re describing, right? You’re like, tell me more. Why are you seeking, you know, employment at an additional studio and trying to find out what this instructor needs? Totally. We need, they need more information before making decision. What else would you be curious about too?
John Kozicki (13:21.55)
Yeah, like in… Yeah, like…
John Kozicki (13:29.892)
Yeah.
Yes. Yeah.
John Kozicki (13:37.273)
Right, right.
John Kozicki (13:41.399)
well, honestly, I would, I would just want to know in that exploratory process of figuring out is it worth retaining this, this instructor? mean, unless it’s to the point where like, Nope, this is not worth it. This is just not worth my time. This is not just not my worth, hassle or done fine. So be it. But if it’s like, okay, I got to figure this out whether I do want to cut ties or I want to keep this instructor. I would start with something like
You know, hey, this process of scheduling the students recently felt really clumsy. Why don’t we get together for coffee soon and we can talk about like streamlining the process and you’re a great instructor and I want to make sure that I’m giving you as much work as I possibly can. So what do think? You want to have coffee next week? And then the intention is use that as a starting point.
Mandy York (14:40.768)
Yes.
John Kozicki (14:42.412)
use that to open up the discussion about everything else, right? This is where it’s tough because I think our friend here feels a little bit raw. In her letter, she mentioned she put all this work in and then nothing and she feels like she’s made a fool of with the students and the parents and like, you know, that’s some.
Mandy York (15:07.66)
the parents.
John Kozicki (15:10.692)
blow to the ego there too. then like, depending on how we spiral into that, you know, then there’s the questions about like, are these parents going to think I don’t know what I’m doing running my studio, you know, and is there truth in that? Maybe a touch. I think we probably exaggerate that kind of thing in our own head, right? Because we’re so hyper critical of how we run our businesses. But
Yeah, going back to kind of how to open up that discussion. I think we have to sideline all those our own inner thoughts and like bad feelings and approach this from a perspective of. I need to find out what’s going on. And in order to do that, I can’t be on the attack. With my with my instructor, you know, and I honestly need to figure out.
Mandy York (16:02.656)
Yes, totally. Yep. Yeah.
John Kozicki (16:08.014)
what’s going on with this instructor and if there is a future for us together or not.
Mandy York (16:15.34)
Yeah. So be curious and the mission is to find their motivation for why they’re making these changes. Yeah. Okay. Step one in figuring and trying to dig into the pros and cons list and whether or not it’s worth it. I mean, would you also zoom out a little bit and take a look at how long that they have been with you and the quality of their work and
John Kozicki (16:21.828)
Yeah. Mm hmm. Mm For sure. For sure.
John Kozicki (16:34.36)
Yeah.
Mandy York (16:44.462)
their retention. We don’t have that information either from this letter.
John Kozicki (16:48.964)
Yeah, don’t think we have specifics to it, wasn’t it three years? I believe three years with the studio.
Mandy York (16:54.448)
did they say that? that’s significant. you’re right, three years.
John Kozicki (16:58.094)
Yeah, three, I think it’s, I think it’s three years. Otherwise great instructor. Now, yeah, we don’t know what that means for retention, but it sounds like otherwise great instructor three years. So there’s some longevity there. But the communication, right? So now that’s the that’s the next big thing.
Mandy York (17:04.334)
Hmm. Yep.
Mandy York (17:19.212)
Yeah, so these other small red flags that have led up to this. Yeah.
John Kozicki (17:24.514)
Yeah, and our friend here mentioned that communication with this instructor has always been a challenge. And I think she also mentioned that she doesn’t have those problems with her other instructors. That’s a tough one. We don’t have a whole lot of information on that. We don’t know, you know,
Is this communication problem purely one sided and purely from that instructor side? Or are there things that that our friend here could do to streamline communication on her side? Man, but let me tell you, I mean, I’m even going through that myself right now. Where I feel like just some communication processes that we have in place.
Mandy York (18:13.197)
Yeah.
John Kozicki (18:21.015)
and have had in place in my studio for a while, just aren’t working as well as they have in the past. I’m seeing like, and this is where it’s tough because I think these things that worked in the past worked in the past and it was great. But as things have evolved, now I’m in the process of sort of reevaluating how we communicate.
And you know, the studio has grown and it’s changed and it’s evolved. We have to always look at those systems and figure out do we need to adjust? And in my situation, honestly, I feel like I haven’t done that enough in the recent past. And now I’m like, I got a lot to fix here, you know, because it’s just not running as the communication is just not as smooth as I’d like it.
Mandy York (19:11.256)
Yeah.
Mandy York (19:18.303)
Is that your mode of communication or frequency or what is the hang up for you?
John Kozicki (19:27.703)
All of the above. Yeah. So, well, OK, our friend here mentioned mentioned texting. And. I, you know, I think with with communication. And this is again, it’s ever evolving, right? Like there are so many channels for communication. And. Everyone seems to have their favorites. Right?
Mandy York (19:29.176)
Yeah, okay, all right, yeah.
John Kozicki (19:57.368)
I like to communicate like this. I like to communicate like this. Like some people, like I still like to use the phone for certain things, you know, and some people would look at me like, ew, the phone. You know, like you mean you talk to people, right? Some people like WhatsApp. Do you use WhatsApp?
Mandy York (20:09.55)
Yeah.
Mandy York (20:18.687)
Not unless I’m out of the country. Right? Yeah.
John Kozicki (20:20.549)
Right? Yeah, I don’t use WhatsApp. Everyone uses texting. But like, here’s the thing with texting, right? Like
I wake up at 6 a.m. every day and I don’t always start my work day at 6 a.m. but there are times I’m like, 6 a.m. time to get to work, right?
Mandy York (20:44.428)
Yeah, knock out some emails. That’s me, right? Yeah.
John Kozicki (20:46.659)
My instructors, right? Yeah, my instructors, some of them don’t get out of bed until like, know, noon. They don’t want me to text them at 6 a.m. and I don’t want them to text me at 10 p.m., right? So there’s a mismatch there. And that’s just like one instance of
Mandy York (20:56.846)
Sure.
John Kozicki (21:16.045)
of like a mismatching communication because there are so many channels. You know, well, you could also talk about like, text is convenient, it’s quick, and that’s great. But it’s also I think, that stuff can be easily easily lost. If I get a text from my one of my instructors at like, I don’t know. Five o’clock. Yeah, there you go. School pickup time.
Mandy York (21:41.646)
school pickup. That was that for me it was like if I get stuff at school pickup time, it’s lost.
John Kozicki (21:47.779)
Yeah, if I get something from my instructor at 5 o’clock on a Saturday, right, because they thought like, I got to remind John of this or I got to tell John this, right? Am I going to remember that if I don’t answer it right away by Monday? You know, probably not. Do I want to answer that 5 o’clock on Saturday when I’m at like a kid’s birthday party or what? No, I don’t. You know, so.
as convenient as that is, that that stuff is easily lost, right? Now I’m just on like a diatribe about communication.
Mandy York (22:25.55)
But yeah, I know I could go on with this too. Yes. Because this is something we’re facing as we have younger instructors. And like you said, even, even if they’re all the same age, they have different preferences on how they like to communicate. I, I prefer email. I prefer to communicate through email because it doesn’t matter when I send or receive them. I don’t like getting texts during the weekend or in the evening.
John Kozicki (22:39.609)
Yeah. Right. Right.
Mandy York (22:55.414)
And it just gives me, it’s how I do business and I have like a very clear paper trail, I guess, right? That I can go back to. Text messages get lost and they’re mixed in with my daughter’s messages and family and everything else. I don’t like that. And like you said, you get one at five o’clock on a Saturday. I have screenshotted that word. I’ve taken a screenshot of a text message and
John Kozicki (23:04.931)
Yeah.
John Kozicki (23:12.855)
Mm-hmm. Right.
John Kozicki (23:21.667)
Yeah, yeah.
Mandy York (23:24.424)
emailed it to myself so that on Monday I could address it, right? I don’t like doing that either. I have ended up asking my teachers, like, how do you like to communicate? Now, because I don’t have many, I mean, I don’t know that that would be something that works for you or someone with a larger studio. But if they like text messaging, I try to
John Kozicki (23:25.752)
Mm-hmm.
Yeah. Yeah. Right.
John Kozicki (23:40.197)
Mm-hmm.
Mandy York (23:52.152)
communicate that way. Sometimes I’ll do both. Hey, I just sent you an email with all of these details. Here they are in a text message. Right? That’s one way to kind of get around this is being redundant. I feel like I’m that way with my clients, right? You post it on Facebook, you email it to them and you send it in a text or a voicemail.
John Kozicki (23:55.0)
Mm-hmm.
John Kozicki (24:00.568)
Yeah. Yeah.
John Kozicki (24:17.41)
Yeah. Right.
Mandy York (24:19.522)
The redundancy of communication is annoying, but sometimes that’s what we have to do.
John Kozicki (24:24.964)
Yeah, and you hit on this, I think, perfectly. You said you will ask your instructors how they like to communicate, but you don’t have many instructors to juggle. Speaking as someone who has a staff of about a dozen people, I’ve found that it’s not sustainable. As things grow, it’s just not sustainable.
So and again, this is going back to like me examining my own like communication processes currently, right? As we speak, I was doing it earlier today. Now, the other problem with communication, and we’ll bring it back around to our friend here and her question. When it comes to because all these communications were through texts, with the exception of, you know, when she requested a phone call.
with this instructor and he kind of ghosted her and said, I’m too busy right now. Might be a red flag, you we don’t know. The other big problem I have with text and really any communication in which it is typed out, text, email, WhatsApp, whatever, there’s no emotion.
Mandy York (25:52.226)
tone.
John Kozicki (25:53.517)
Right? There’s no tone. There’s no nuance in speech. There’s no nonverbal cues or body language. And so much of our relationships and that’s part of what we’re talking about here. That relationship between our friend here and her instructor. So much of that comes from in-person interaction from like verbal communication and being able to read what’s going on here. You know,
So I think our friend here should be commended for trying to initiate that phone call and recognizing, yeah, recognizing like, texting is not working. But I think there’s a couple ways to approach this too. And
Mandy York (26:35.01)
Or like you said, coffee is a good way to do it too.
John Kozicki (26:52.64)
establishing early on and then reinforcing how we are going to communicate with our staff is pretty important in the front end, right? And there’s a couple ways to approach it. I mean, you can take the hard line and you can say like, this is how we do it. If it’s going to be text, I will text you. If you know, if it’s related to schedule, I have to have a response from you within
12 hours or whatever that deadline is, it’s incredibly important because this is related to me filling your schedule. If you do not reply to me in this time, then we’re gonna have a problem. You you can take that hard line and say, is the rule. You can take your approach and say like, hey, what works for you if you’ve got, you know, enough people where you can manage and be flexible. There’s a lot of different ways you can do it.
I don’t know, what are your thoughts there?
Mandy York (27:57.366)
Yeah, I like I kind of like the hardline approach. I and I do that. I don’t have like I do have an employee. Handbook light, you know, just kind of it’s kind of like a contract with policies and procedures. Communication is in there and I don’t not in the handbook do I say like you have to respond within two days, but it’s kind of a case by case basis. I make sure I’m really clear in my communications where I say this is what coming
John Kozicki (28:00.131)
Yeah?
John Kozicki (28:13.4)
Mm-hmm.
Mandy York (28:26.914)
This is what’s coming up. This is what I need. Here are the options. Please let me know by Friday. Like getting in the habit of doing that is really great. It’s really helpful. Cause I’ll even get, whereas before, because I have had issues with this. I have had teachers where I was just sending them a email or a message and not hearing back and thinking, you know, are they ignoring me? Are they not getting my message? What is it? But when I put in like a deadline,
John Kozicki (28:32.6)
You
Mandy York (28:56.876)
I’ve noticed I’ll get a reply right away sometimes that’ll say, sounds great. I have to, I have to check this and this and I’ll get back to you. Do you know what I mean? So like, it’s like, yes, but I know that they just want to let me know that like, I got this and I’m going to work on it I will get back to you. I think that’s important. Like putting, being in the habit of putting those deadlines into your communication.
John Kozicki (29:07.468)
Right? Like, yeah, the the reply is like a non reply. Yeah.
Mandy York (29:26.682)
and you know, you can go even like zoom out a little bit more. I’m semester based. So we always have like the, schedules have to be set by the, seventh week of each proceeding semester or kind of thing, you know, so that employees know, like I’ll have my fall schedule by this day. And this is when I have to have things figured out instead of, you know, two weeks before fall, like, when are we going to figure out that?
John Kozicki (29:43.395)
Yeah.
Mandy York (29:56.43)
schedule. It’s in the calendar and there are deadlines for that. Yeah, I think that’s helpful. I don’t think I mentioned this because I do it with parents a lot. Because with my parents, if a parent gets my email or my phone number for some reason, oh, I hate when that happens and they start texting me. Usually what I do if I get an email
text message from a parent, like I email them back. Is that all? Do I just email them back?
John Kozicki (30:28.259)
Brilliant.
John Kozicki (30:31.831)
I mean, I would even go like one further and I would have a standard text reply that I copy and paste that said, hey, thanks, can you email this to me so I can look at everything on the computer?
Mandy York (30:41.582)
I know, I know. It’s, think it’s one of those fuzzy places we’re in because we’re so familiar and so like loving and we have a great community. It’s like, I don’t, I don’t want anyone to feel slighted, but don’t, don’t text me. But anyway, with the, always email parents, but occasionally if it’s something more time sensitive,
John Kozicki (31:00.343)
Yeah, of course. Right, right.
Mandy York (31:10.454)
I have a text messaging service that I can blast out a text to the parents also that simply says, check your email, like, you know, kind of a thing. So maybe that’s something that could, if you have a larger staff, like get it out through email, all the details and whatever needs to be sent and then have that blast. Hey team, emails went out this morning. Make sure you
John Kozicki (31:19.137)
Yeah, right. Yes.
Mandy York (31:38.862)
check it and get back to so-and-so. It’s an option.
John Kozicki (31:40.984)
Yeah. Yeah, yeah. Well, I think for our friend here to, right? and well, but I think all of this is important because clearly communication and is, I mean, it’s important for all of our businesses and everything that we do. Yes. Yeah, that is at the root. But to kind of give our friend here,
Mandy York (31:47.318)
Yes, back to our friend. We really went off on that.
Mandy York (32:02.461)
And that’s like what’s at the root of this issue here.
John Kozicki (32:10.721)
you know, bullet points of at least what I think you and I think and believe in solving this problem is number one, she has to make that decision. Is this instructor worth keeping or is this instructor not worth keeping? If this instructor is not worth keeping, we’re done, right? Almost, I’m going to come back to that. If the instructor is worth keeping, well, then I say exploratory mode.
You know, what’s going on? Why is this instructor looking for other work at another studio? You know, what’s going on with the communication? Why, you know, is there something our friend here can do to repair this clear rift, right? Which now, I think, again, comes back to that communication. But in doing that in person, for sure. Coffee.
Mandy York (33:06.446)
us.
John Kozicki (33:07.477)
She has to be genuine. She has to want to understand what’s going on so that the two of them can decide is this not just one-sided worth our friend here keeping this instructor on, but is this relationship going to be sustainable for that instructor as well?
Mandy York (33:28.514)
Yeah. think it’s important what you said earlier too, is to put aside the emotions at this step too. Yeah.
John Kozicki (33:35.405)
Yeah, yeah. Either way, whether this instructor stays with our friend’s studio or moves on, it does sound like examining communication and setting clear guidelines is gonna be needed. And again, case in point, I I’m going through this myself too, right? Like I’m trying to improve my…
my internal communication in my studio, just because things change. What’s worked up to this point just isn’t working as smoothly now. we’ve got to course correct, set clear expectations and decide how is this all gonna work. So there you go.
Mandy York (34:24.002)
Yep. Yes. Best of luck. It’s not easy.
John Kozicki (34:28.791)
Yeah, yeah, so given a big hug to our friend here, because it’s a tough one. I’ve been there and wishing her the best.
Any more words, Mandy, or we we we taking this one out?
Mandy York (34:47.192)
No, yeah, that’s a wrap. Yep, thanks for writing in. We appreciate it.
John Kozicki (34:49.345)
Right, well, yeah, we love hearing these things and hopefully we can help with any problems that studio owners are going through. I mean, it kind of helps me to work through my own stuff too, so.
Mandy York (35:04.684)
Yes, it’s always good to talk through these things.
John Kozicki (35:06.956)
All right, well, with that, we’ll wrap it and we’ll see you next time on Rock School Proprietor Podcast. Thanks, Mandy. Bye.
Mandy York (35:13.614)
See you later, John. Bye.
