Your website might be doing a great job explaining what you offer but is it helping parents feel confident about choosing you? On this episode of Rock School Proprietor Podcast, John Kozicki (Michigan Rock School and RockSchoolProprietor.com) and Mandy York (Music Time of Milford) are joined by Demitris Maddox (Provide Impact) to talk about the strategic use of video on your music school’s website. Most schools still aren’t using video on their sites in the right way, and it is such low-hanging fruit to boost conversions and grow your studio.
Demitris explains three easy to create videos to add visitor value to your website, and how strategic placement of those videos can go a long way to making better connections with prospective students and families.
- What Happens at The First/Intro Lesson?
- The 7 Top Questions Parents Ask Us
- What Happens When I Fill Out This Form?
Demetrius explains how well-placed videos answer parents’ questions, address their concerns, and build trust before they even reach out. The videos he recommends require very little effort and can be shot on your phone — this isn’t about fancy production, it’s about using video strategically to turn website visitors into enrolled students and build your music school.
To access the BONUS video mentioned in the episode, visit http://provideimpact.com/videofour
To hear Demitris Maddox on a previous episode of the show: 40: Demitris Maddox | Designing Music School Websites That Attract & Convert
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John Kozicki (00:00.963)
Welcome to Rock School Proprietor Podcast. My name’s John Kozicki.
Mandy York (00:05.292)
and I’m Mandi York.
John Kozicki (00:07.023)
And Mandy, we are joined today again by our friend Demetris Maddox of Provide Impact. Demetris is a website designer. He is the creator of the Impact Builder Framework for music schools and teachers. We talked about a little bit on the last episode he was on. He’s also a drummer, but he builds websites. He builds websites for
Demitris Maddox (00:30.145)
Yeah.
John Kozicki (00:33.741)
Folks like us, music school owners, Demetris, how you doing?
Demitris Maddox (00:37.603)
Hello, John and Manny. Thank you so much for having me on the podcast. Again, I’m super excited that you guys chose to have me on and I cannot wait to dive into this topic that we have for them today.
Mandy York (00:49.719)
to see you again.
John Kozicki (00:50.061)
Yeah, yeah, it’s great to have you back Demetris. we had been, I guess just casually chatting back and forth via email not too long ago. And you had mentioned the possibility of coming back on the podcast to talk about websites and using video on websites. And I thought that’s a pretty interesting topic. I’ve got, Mandy, do you have any?
Websites on your web or do you have any videos on your website?
Mandy York (01:23.15)
I do not. It’s something I think about a lot though. You know, one of those on the to-do list. Yeah.
John Kozicki (01:27.085)
Okay, I have. Yeah, I’ve got one or two videos on my website. One of them, like the main video on my website is is like a general promo video and had that made years back kind of shows a little bit about our studio. There’s some some clips cut in of
Demitris Maddox (01:42.87)
you
John Kozicki (01:55.467)
our live performances, we talk a little bit about our programs. But I made that a man over five years ago. So it’s probably due for an update. But Demetrius said he was talking about videos and using them the right way. And it’s kind of low hanging fruit. Demetrius, can you speak on on that the idea of
how to use videos the right way and then being low hanging fruit.
Demitris Maddox (02:24.813)
Sure, sure. So John, I’m really happy that you alluded to the videos that you made because I think that when a lot of people think video, they think I need this big budget, I need to hire this production team, I need to the camera set up just right, I need to have this special lighting that is kind of on yes, 100%, right? Because we think that, and then you put in all this budget, you spend all this time, it’s like a week project to even shoot this thing.
John Kozicki (02:44.098)
Which I did. Yep. Yeah.
Demitris Maddox (02:54.389)
It’s this big task and then you end up with this video that may or may not actually move the needle for you, right? So when people are watching those videos, they know that it is this super highly produced video. And especially in music, especially on the website, what people are looking for, and I believe I said it in the last episode, is I’m looking for a connection. People are looking to connect with the person on the other side of the screen. So when you have this sort of, I guess, you
John Kozicki (03:01.794)
Mm-hmm.
Demitris Maddox (03:24.301)
professionally produced video, it loses that sense of authenticity. They feel like they’re being sold to, you know, it probably had that pretty background music and a person doing the interview was like off to a quarter side like this and it’s shooting them and them like, sure. So that’s the kind of video that people are perceiving that they should have on their website. The videos that I’m talking about, which are low hanging fruits can be shot on a smartphone.
John Kozicki (03:29.1)
Mm-hmm.
John Kozicki (03:39.51)
Sure.
Demitris Maddox (03:52.138)
any smartphone in 2025 today can absolutely accomplish these things and shoot the video in a way that will be connecting. It will connect with the people who are viewing it and it can be shot simply by talking about just a few points in each video. So that’s why I say it’s low hanging fruit.
John Kozicki (04:10.402)
Gotcha, gotcha. Okay, so I was getting a little nervous there. Now, again, I want to say this was maybe 2019 when when we put this video together. So pre pandemic, a lot has changed with with iPhones, and the camera phones that you can use. Since then. You know, I did want to at the time my goal was
Demitris Maddox (04:21.655)
Mm-hmm.
John Kozicki (04:38.78)
I really need to provide this visual of what we do and how kids and parents, what their experience is going to be like. And so because I run the rock school, it was very important to have footage of those live performances as well as the stuff in studio. And yes, it was expensive. Just like you said, it took a long time to put it together.
but I’d like that. What you’re saying is here’s some really simple videos that, that studio owners can self produce and probably self edit and put them up on their website, and get a return because what the goal is, is to anticipate questions that people will have, make that connection. So that
Demitris Maddox (05:25.132)
Mm-hmm.
John Kozicki (05:38.279)
They can. I mean, I think it’s the same as if people were to walk into our studios and strike up a conversation with us and just see what’s going on and experience that in person without having to do it in person. Right. So they’re able to do that when they go on the website. OK.
Mandy York (05:42.894)
You
Demitris Maddox (05:47.789)
Mm-hmm.
Demitris Maddox (05:53.284)
Mm-hmm. 100%, yes. Yes.
Mandy York (05:59.694)
This episode is for me because I don’t have video on the website, right? But I am very, it is my high priority with my website to make it as like authentic. I like that you use that word authentic and that users can very easily navigate my website and that it’s filled with images. So I spend time and money on photographers so that what
John Kozicki (06:02.294)
Okay.
Demitris Maddox (06:10.495)
Mm-hmm. Mm-hmm.
Mandy York (06:26.434)
The images that my clients and prospective clients are seeing on the website are a snapshot of my classroom. But when it comes to videos, I guess I’m a little intimidated. so hearing that I don’t need to hire a production team, I can do this myself, OK, I want you to convince me and have you tell me what I need to do. Right?
Demitris Maddox (06:40.291)
Mmm.
Demitris Maddox (06:47.169)
Yes. Okay. Okay.
John Kozicki (06:51.052)
Well, yeah, and I’m ready for an update too, I think.
Mandy York (06:54.806)
It’s funny how five years, it doesn’t seem like that long ago, but like you said, so much has changed. Five years is time for an update.
Demitris Maddox (06:57.933)
Right?
John Kozicki (06:59.084)
Yeah, so much. And people’s expectations have changed too. I’ve noticed that as well from even tech that I put in place pre-pandemic thinking like, this is state of the art. This is fantastic. And then to see even just in five years how it’s changed. And now some of that stuff that we use thinking like, this is amazing. It’s just like, this is slow and clunky.
because things have changed. yeah, people’s perceptions change, people’s expectations change. So this is right in line with with keeping on the pulse of that and and taking that snapshot of what I did with the video on my website, then versus what people possibly want to be able to to see on a website now. Now,
Demitris Maddox (07:29.485)
Mm-hmm.
Demitris Maddox (07:52.429)
Mm-hmm.
John Kozicki (07:58.444)
Demetrius, sounds like these are, okay, I’ve seen, I’ve gone on websites and I’ve seen instead of an image in that, you know, above the fold, you know, that main picture, I’ve seen videos. You’re not talking about that though, right?
Demitris Maddox (08:11.021)
Mm-hmm. Mm-hmm. Mm-hmm.
I am not talking about that. And I do want to say I am against videos above the fold. What you’re talking about is like a video background, I’m assuming, right? Like a video background that kind of plays on a loop. Yeah, I am against those kinds of videos. And the reason being is this, is that it’s too distracting, right? When a person first lands on your website, you want to be able to communicate to them. And we all heard it within three seconds, what you do.
John Kozicki (08:19.179)
Okay.
John Kozicki (08:26.314)
Okay.
John Kozicki (08:30.335)
Yes.
Demitris Maddox (08:46.211)
who it’s for and what they can do here. And a video, they see this moving image and we love watching TV, we love watching these moving things. So their attention is first drawn to that because it’s moving. Because back in the day, if you saw something, well back in the stone ages, movement meant danger. If you’re just out there by the campfire in like, I keep saying back in the day, it’s in like the ice age or whatever, right? And you hear something rustling in,
John Kozicki (08:48.801)
Mm-hmm.
John Kozicki (09:11.273)
Right.
Demitris Maddox (09:15.863)
this brush, you look at it because that could be danger. That could be this line coming to eat you, right? So we kind of carry that same thing over here. When we see something moving, we automatically want to look at it. And so you have all these moving images in the background that don’t really sell as much as you think that they do because what you’re really trying to do is they really want to read the words that you have on it. Like, do they teach what I want to teach? Or do they teach what I want to learn? So by having this moving image in the background is actually distracting.
when you can have a like a static image or if you really want to do a video, you can have a video with a play button and they can choose to play the video.
John Kozicki (09:45.802)
Hmm.
John Kozicki (09:54.774)
Yeah, yeah, okay, okay. Yeah, I get what you’re saying. Personal preference, I don’t love those background videos myself, but again, that’s personal preference. You make an interesting point though that it can create a distraction and possibly distract from what you want to do to attract and keep those visitors on your website. Okay, now in your email to me,
Demitris Maddox (10:18.669)
Sure, sure.
John Kozicki (10:24.317)
You had mentioned three videos, three easy videos to create and add to your website in the right spot. Now, I think maybe we’ll get into the right spot with each one of these because they are each are a little bit different. I’m assuming that the right spot might be different for each one. Is that OK? Now, just curious, though, you had mentioned
Demitris Maddox (10:27.159)
Mm-hmm.
Demitris Maddox (10:35.043)
Mm-hmm.
Demitris Maddox (10:43.501)
Mm-hmm.
Mm-hmm. Yeah.
John Kozicki (10:53.535)
you don’t think those background videos are a good idea, what about a wrong spot, other wrong spots for videos on your website?
Demitris Maddox (11:01.293)
Hmm, so it’s honestly difficult to get a wrong spot for a video. It would depend more on the wrong kind of video, right? Because as a person is going through their journey when they are on your website, there are different questions that they might have in that user journey, in that flow, right? So if you had a, let me use,
John Kozicki (11:11.358)
Okay.
John Kozicki (11:16.011)
Mm-hmm.
Demitris Maddox (11:29.783)
the example that you were speaking about before you had a video that was kind of showing, you know, this is our studio. Welcome to it. This is kind of what happened and it was super produced. Now where you put that video was probably the right spot for that video wherever it was because just having the video in general is a great thing, but it may have been shot or styled in the wrong way that didn’t connect the way that
John Kozicki (11:58.475)
Mm-hmm.
Demitris Maddox (11:59.478)
it should or the way that it could have connected.
John Kozicki (12:02.475)
Gotcha. Okay. Let’s, I think let’s get into these three, these three videos and we’ll go one by one. I’m gonna, I’m just gonna pre-sell all three of them, but then we’ll, we’ll start on the first one. number one, first video you suggest people have, what happens at the intro lesson? Number two, the top seven questions parents ask. And number three,
Demitris Maddox (12:14.901)
Okay. Okay.
John Kozicki (12:30.943)
what happens when I fill out the form? I’m interested in that one, but let’s start from the beginning. What happens at the intro lesson? So tell me how long should these videos be? How long is too long? Obviously you wanna be informative enough to give the information without meandering too long because people have short attention spans these days. So if it’s going too much into detail, they’ll just
Demitris Maddox (12:33.859)
Mmm. Sure.
Demitris Maddox (12:40.354)
Okay.
Demitris Maddox (12:43.959)
Mm-hmm.
Demitris Maddox (12:48.685)
Mm-hmm.
Demitris Maddox (12:53.901)
Yeah.
Mm-hmm.
John Kozicki (13:01.28)
Skip through.
Demitris Maddox (13:02.093)
Yep, okay. So before I do talk about this video, I do wanna mention the kind of like the setup and the equipment options that people can choose to have for these videos, right? So you’re gonna need something to film it on. As I said before, a normal smartphone would usually help. A step up from that is if you wanna use a microphone, you can attach a microphone to this camera. You could do like a simple wired lapel mic or like a lavalier mic, that could work just fine.
If you don’t have a mic, don’t sweat it. A next step up would be you can actually hold the phone landscape and hold it yourself and film it selfie style. That is an option that you can do. A step up from that would be if you have like a selfie stick. A step up from that would be if you wanted a separate person holding the phone. Now people have varying degrees because some people don’t feel comfortable on camera talking in front of somebody else. So that’s why I gave people those kind of options that they can choose to step up.
John Kozicki (13:58.069)
Mm-hmm.
Demitris Maddox (14:02.146)
too, right? So now that we have the different kind of equipment and sort of the different options, let me get into this first video. And this first video was what happens at the intro lesson. Now I’m going to tell you how this video was kind of birthed and kind of born, right? I think it was like 2021 ish as we all were. It was like we were still in lockdown and we were kind of just coming out of it, right?
John Kozicki (14:03.114)
Gotcha.
Demitris Maddox (14:31.548)
And I was trying to lose weight. And I said, you know what, let me get a DEXA scan and a DEXA scan for those who don’t know, it’s where you go, you lie down. It takes like a scan of your body. tells you how much body fat you have, bone density, muscle mass, so on and so forth, right? And I was a little bit nervous when I went to this place because it was in an office building. I didn’t want to look stupid. I didn’t want to go to the wrong door. And it was kind of this like little nerve wracking thing. It’s kind of.
personal, know, like weight loss and things like that. So was like, okay, I wish they had had a video that told me, hey, I know that you’re kind of probably kind of nervous coming to get your Dexter scan. This is our parking lot. We’re across the street from this place. You’re to walk through this door. Susie at the front desk will greet you. You can fill out your paperwork. You’ll sit right here. We’re going to once you’re done with your paperwork, we’re going to take you into the back room. We’re going to have your Dexter scan there, right? So a video sort of like that. I wish that they had had that because
John Kozicki (15:24.704)
Yeah.
Demitris Maddox (15:28.714)
it would have put me more at ease because as you mentioned before, we want them to experience what it’s like to be in our studio before they’ve been in our studio, right? I call that the gift of going second. Nobody wants to be the first person to kind of do something, but if you show them through video, they’re the second person going through that experience. So how that applies to music teachers and sort of this video is you should have a video that says,
John Kozicki (15:37.951)
Yeah.
John Kozicki (15:44.064)
Mm-hmm.
John Kozicki (15:48.693)
Mm-hmm.
Demitris Maddox (15:56.995)
You know, this is what’s gonna happen at your intro lesson. You’re going to walk through this door. Now, if you have a public facing, you know, like a brick and mortar, you can start outside of your building. You can say we’re across the street from so-and-so, parking looks like this. You’re gonna walk through this door. Then you’re gonna meet this receptionist here. We’re gonna take you and your child to this room here. You’ll sit here, I’ll sit there. We’re going to talk about and go over these things. If you have any questions, you can ask me them here.
John Kozicki (16:08.256)
Mm-hmm.
Demitris Maddox (16:26.294)
So just literally walk them through step by step by step. What happens at your intro lesson, right? Now there might be people who are saying, well Demetrius, I don’t have a brick and mortar. I don’t really want people to see where I live a hundred percent fine. So what you would do in that instance is you would start out just outside the door of where your studio would be. If it’s in a bedroom or in like a spare room, you would say,
John Kozicki (16:33.013)
Right.
John Kozicki (16:46.016)
.
Demitris Maddox (16:53.79)
Okay, when you come in for your intro lesson, you’re going to walk through this door. I’m going to sit here. You’re going to sit here. We’re going to talk about this, this, this, and this. And whatever your process is for the intro lesson, I’m going to ask your child to play a scale. Whatever those things are that you do in your intro lesson, that is what you speak about in that video. And then you can end it by saying, if you have any other questions, we would be able to answer them here or.
John Kozicki (16:57.266)
Mm-hmm.
Demitris Maddox (17:20.512)
you can think about it, whatever your ending call to action can be, or you want it to be, that is how you can end that video. So that is the what happens at the intro lesson video.
John Kozicki (17:30.472)
Okay, two follow up questions. And I think these are pretty simple, but I want to clarify the all of the and the first one, I’m assuming this would go for all of these videos. This is the kind of video, correct me if I’m wrong. You shoot the video, you do whatever editing you need to do. You upload it to YouTube. And then when you either embed that video onto your website or wherever you put it, then you grab the code from YouTube. You’re not is that
Demitris Maddox (17:34.284)
Mm-hmm.
John Kozicki (18:00.305)
Is that kind of the best practice or do you think hosting it on your actual website is the right idea?
Demitris Maddox (18:06.914)
Mm hmm. Great question. I’m really glad that you asked that. OK, so like as with anything, there are varying degrees, right? I would not suggest that you upload it directly to your website. The reason being that videos are going to be large, they’re going to be big in terms of file size, and it can actually slow down your page load speed. I do suggest that you do embed these videos onto your website. But in varying degrees, right? If like a better than nothing option,
John Kozicki (18:16.499)
Mm-hmm.
John Kozicki (18:27.647)
Yeah, okay.
John Kozicki (18:31.881)
Okay.
Demitris Maddox (18:36.63)
would be sure you can take this YouTube video, you could upload it to your site. The issue that I have with YouTube is that they show you other videos, like other related videos. And when you put this video on your site, we know that the YouTube algorithm is trying to show us things to get us interested in going to YouTube. So you click that video, they now leave your website and they’re on YouTube watching this other video because it’s this cat video or it’s a fail video or some other kind of video, right? So.
John Kozicki (18:46.993)
Mmm. Sure.
Demitris Maddox (19:06.026)
A better than nothing option would be to do that. They have other services though that you can upload videos to and embed them onto your site. There are other things. So.
John Kozicki (19:09.309)
Okay.
John Kozicki (19:17.267)
Okay, know Vimeo is one of them that is that one that you would recommend?
Demitris Maddox (19:23.702)
Yeah, Vimeo is one of them. Wistia is another one of them. There is actually a company, I believe it’s called, it’s called Killerplayer.com, right? And what you can do, I think, don’t quote me, but I think it’s about $100 one time, I believe. And you can actually upload your video to YouTube as you would normally. So you’re not paying for a storage fee. And then you can take that video URL
John Kozicki (19:34.409)
Mm-hmm.
John Kozicki (19:50.399)
Mm-hmm.
Demitris Maddox (19:52.981)
and upload it to Killer Player. And then you can upload the code that Killer Player gives you to your website and it will remove all of those suggested video options. So yes, that’s a great question. So you had a follow up second question.
John Kozicki (20:03.401)
okay. Okay.
John Kozicki (20:08.711)
Yeah, quick pros and cons of putting this video, embedding it on your website versus maybe putting it into your email sequence for new students.
Demitris Maddox (20:25.876)
Excellent, excellent question. So I want you to think about the thought process of a person who is coming to your website as a parent, right? They’re thinking, is this studio for me? What happens at this intro lesson? That’s the question that they’re answering or asking themselves that you’re trying to answer. If you put it in your follow-up email, they have already answered that question for themselves and they have already made the decision
John Kozicki (20:38.974)
Mm-hmm.
Demitris Maddox (20:55.18)
to have an intro lesson with you, right? So you can use both. You can absolutely put it on your website and let’s say they don’t see it for whatever reason. Let’s say they don’t find it or they choose to sign up for lessons before seeing that video. You can put it in the follow-up email also. So these videos I’m talking about are sort of like Swiss Army night videos. You can use a bunch of different ways. You can put it on your website. You can put it in the follow-up email.
John Kozicki (21:04.925)
writes.
Demitris Maddox (21:21.878)
You can send it to a person who you’re just speaking to, hey, you know, actually have this video for you. Like let’s say they call you, hey, I actually have this video for you that shows you what happens at our intro lesson. What’s your email? And I’ll send it over to you or I’ll text it to you. So these are videos that you can use in a bunch of different ways.
John Kozicki (21:34.9)
Yeah.
John Kozicki (21:38.527)
Great. I like that.
Mandy York (21:39.342)
Cool. I like this. That’s actually not something I had really thought about, was like just kind of the nuts and bolts of what door to walk through, where you will sit. I really like, I have like a document I put out what to expect in a music together class, but not as much detail as that and more about the curriculum. So I like that. And it reminds me of my kids, John, you’ve got older kids.
Demitris Maddox (21:49.708)
Hmm.
Demitris Maddox (22:04.673)
Hmm
Mandy York (22:08.652)
When my girls start a new activity, they’re all like, well, should I wear my gym clothes there? Or should I change when I get there? What are the other people going to do? Adults are the same. The other kids are the same. So I really like that. This is inspiring. My question, though, is my instinct is to put up, and I’m only group classes. I don’t do private lessons. My instinct is to take a snapshot of the group class and put it up there, too.
John Kozicki (22:16.191)
Mm-hmm. Mm-hmm.
Mandy York (22:37.932)
Are you, mean, so music playing, people interacting, would that be part of this video or something different, different placement?
Demitris Maddox (22:47.5)
Sure, so that kind of video that you’re speaking to would not be this style of video. There is a potential place for the video that you’re speaking about. That’s more of a what are lessons like kind of video, right? This is speaking to what is the intro lesson like? Because in order for somebody to take lessons with you, they first need to probably take an intro lesson with you. So they are higher up in their decision making process. So we are capturing them exactly where they are when they land onto the website.
So there’s definitely a place for the video that you’re speaking about. It would just not be this video. So what I would not do is I would not say, this is what the intro lesson is like. You’re going to come into this room with these other kids. It’s going to be a group lesson because that’s probably not what your intro lesson is like, or is it? Do you do a group intro lesson? Is that what it’s like for you? Okay, okay, cool. So then I would absolutely do it that way then.
Mandy York (23:37.986)
Yeah, yep, always groups.
Demitris Maddox (23:42.947)
And whatever the intro lesson process is for your studio, some people do, some people don’t even do an intro lesson. Some people do like a tour. You know, I’m going to give you a tour of this space. Whatever that initial process is for you, that is what you are walking in through. So for you, Mandy, it might very well be you’re going to walk through this door. There are going to be other kids in this classroom. Your instrument is going to be here. We’ll sit here. The parent can sit here. We can answer questions, but there will be other kids in the class. I will give you a
child attention, whatever that process actually is, help them visually see step by step by step what happens throughout it. So they can visually see so that when they kind of get there, they know what to expect.
Mandy York (24:25.496)
Yeah, that’s great.
John Kozicki (24:25.648)
Mandy, you could take that document that you have and basically use that as your script to create your video.
Mandy York (24:33.218)
Yes, it would be so much more effective as a video, right? Than a PDF. Mm-hmm. All right.
Demitris Maddox (24:35.618)
100%. And also one of things that we haven’t mentioned it is that with these videos, they are seeing your face, knowing you more, liking you more, trusting you more, seeing the person’s face, hearing their voice, connecting with you more. So by the time they come to your studio, they’re like, hey, Mandy. And you’re like, how do you know? Because we’ve seen all your videos already. That’s what is huge about these videos. That’s kind of unspoken.
John Kozicki (24:48.914)
Mm-hmm.
John Kozicki (24:59.528)
Yeah.
Demitris Maddox (25:02.74)
It connects a lot more than a PDF document ever can.
Mandy York (25:06.134)
Mm-hmm. That makes me think too that I would want to include other teachers in this, right? If I’m, that’s something that I’m always trying to work towards is creating a following for certain teachers, right? And getting their faces in front of the clients more and more. So it would be really great to put other teachers in these videos too. I like that. All right.
John Kozicki (25:27.346)
Nice. All right, so let’s move on to number two, video number two that you suggested, Demetris. The seven top questions parents ask us. Why seven? Or can it be, mean, like, I’m assuming we can custom tailor this, but if you have seven, let’s hear what those seven are.
Demitris Maddox (25:32.127)
Mm-hmm.
Demitris Maddox (25:41.184)
Okay.
Demitris Maddox (25:47.758)
Sure, yeah. So here it is. I chose seven because it’s a sweet spot, right? It’s enough to cover key concerns that parents have without overwhelming them. There’s actual research showing that people tend to remember about seven items at a time. Think about this, the seven wonders of the world, seven days in a week. Even phone numbers are seven digits in the US. So seven feels, it feels complete, it feels manageable, and it feels memorable. That’s why I chose seven.
Don’t get me wrong, you can choose five, you can choose nine. I probably wouldn’t go above seven though, but if you only have five, if you only have three, whatever you have is better than zero, right? So that’s why I choose seven.
John Kozicki (26:28.04)
So, and so I’m understanding this, this is really just, it’s a different version of your FAQs, right? Like what are the most important things, going back to that idea that Mandy has a document that serves as right now, what could be a video, this seems like that updated version of your FAQs, so people don’t have to read it. And what are those answers, what are those questions that we want to answer for?
Demitris Maddox (26:36.568)
Hmm.
Demitris Maddox (26:41.74)
Mm-hmm.
Demitris Maddox (26:51.757)
Hmm.
John Kozicki (26:56.498)
potential customers, potential clients, right out of the gate.
Demitris Maddox (27:00.867)
So I would say it is a version of an FAQ. I can’t speak to everybody’s FAQ because the thing that makes these questions relatable and hard hitting is that these should actually be questions that people are asking you. And people, lot of times on FAQs have questions that they want to answer for their visitors, such as, well, what is billing like?
John Kozicki (27:19.603)
Mm-hmm.
Demitris Maddox (27:29.547)
Nobody’s really asking you that kind of question or how do I log into XYZ platform, you know? So I’m gonna tell you, this is a question that we get a lot of times in our studio. It is, can we keep the keyboard now until we’re serious, right? Or can we keep this instrument that we have now until we’re serious? And you would only know that because they’re asking this question time and time again. So Mandy, I would say, what is a question that you guys get time and time again? Or Johnny, what’s a question that you guys get over and over and over again?
Mandy York (27:30.926)
You
John Kozicki (27:44.136)
Mm-hmm.
Demitris Maddox (27:59.748)
Like if you can just think of one.
John Kozicki (28:00.73)
Yeah, well, so that the question about the keyboards, I never get that right. But for me, for my studio, how do bands work? Which is it’s just like I’d have to break that down into separate like questions, but that’s, you know, or separate answers or different parts of the answer. But yeah, that’s that’s a very popular one.
Demitris Maddox (28:04.419)
Mm-hmm.
Demitris Maddox (28:09.367)
Mm-hmm.
Demitris Maddox (28:20.609)
Mm-hmm. And Mandy, for you.
Mandy York (28:23.096)
Yeah, why are the ages in the classes mixed? Why do you not have separate classes for the different ages? And I have a great answer for that, right? Yeah.
Demitris Maddox (28:26.979)
Mmm.
Demitris Maddox (28:33.335)
Right. we all, we only teach. Yeah. Like we only teach group also. We don’t do private lessons also. So that is a question that comes up for us a hundred percent as well. And do you answer that question on your website currently? John and man, you guys answer that already.
John Kozicki (28:48.638)
So I have, yeah, so it’s not on the website. It’s in the email sequence after the form is filled out, yeah.
Demitris Maddox (28:55.531)
Sure. Sure. Okay.
Mandy York (28:59.03)
Yeah, you I don’t. I really don’t think I do. It’s something I address in class, you know, as I’m educating parents throughout the semesters, but no, I don’t specifically. Look at this. Look at you teaching me so many things.
Demitris Maddox (29:03.778)
Yeah.
Demitris Maddox (29:08.747)
Okay. So this is an opportunity. So, man, this isn’t an opportunity for you because when people are coming to the site, that’s a question that they have, right? And they may not know to ask yet, but if you proactively answer, then they’re like, wow. Right. So the way that you come up with these questions is, you know, what are the questions that people are answering or are asking you on a daily basis? Write those questions down. And then John, you said that you like, how do bands work?
John Kozicki (29:33.246)
Mm-hmm.
Demitris Maddox (29:38.188)
you can record that video and it can be as long as it needs to be and no longer. Long and concise. So whatever that looks like for you, it might be three minutes, five minutes, seven minutes, whatever the answer is without you feeling like you’re rambling on, right? So you take those questions, you answer them. And just like with the previous video, this is a Swiss army knife kind of video. So what I would do is once you’ve record these seven questions, you can take them.
and you have them separately in different files. Maybe you upload them to YouTube as mentioned before, maybe they’re on your website, doesn’t matter. Somebody asks you that question, you can send them this video in a response. You don’t have to answer it again. You’ve already answered it the first time and it’s completeness. You could send them that video. You can then take all of those videos that you’ve recorded, put them together into one single video, have that video on your website, have that video in your followup sequence, and that is how I would use that kind of video.
John Kozicki (30:36.283)
great. That’s great. Now, so this is the seven questions or however many you come up with. So this is really going to be a personal thing. So this is it sounds like whatever, whoever is creating this video for their personal studios, you have to really know, okay, what are the questions that we do get asked often. So there’s there’s no blanket, like these are the seven questions.
Demitris Maddox (31:02.647)
Right. There would be, I don’t think there is a blanket because like you said, the question that we get asked the most is, you know, can we keep the keyboard now until we’re serious or do we really need an instrument right now? right. That is something that is personal to us. And you’ve said that you never get that question. So it’s difficult to say a blanket. will tell you the seven questions that we have that we answer, and that may help a teacher kind of pull things from it and they can choose to use them or not use them. And they can kind of modify it how they see fit. Right.
John Kozicki (31:13.061)
Right, right.
Demitris Maddox (31:32.653)
So the question that we answer would be, can we keep this keyboard until we know that they’re serious? The second question we answer is, will my child get enough attention in your confident keys program? Because man, as you know with group, people are like, are you gonna get enough time with my child? it, however that’s gonna work? That’s a question that we answer. The next one, what if I need to miss a lesson? Like, what’s that policy like?
John Kozicki (31:32.679)
Okay.
John Kozicki (31:38.813)
Mm-hmm.
John Kozicki (31:45.201)
Mm-hmm.
John Kozicki (31:58.748)
Yeah.
Demitris Maddox (32:00.736)
My child’s in a bunch of activities with changing schedules. Can we change our lesson date if we need to? Number five, do you give sibling discounts? Number six, can we try one lesson to see if we like it first? And the last one, do you teach kids younger than nine? And that last question wasn’t necessarily a question people were asking.
John Kozicki (32:07.559)
Mm-hmm.
John Kozicki (32:11.005)
Mm-hmm.
John Kozicki (32:19.581)
Mm-hmm.
Demitris Maddox (32:26.082)
But what we found is we were getting a lot of students who were younger than nine who weren’t good fits. So we were getting like six year olds, seven year olds, four year olds, and we don’t teach that young. So we preemptively asked that question. Do you teach kids younger than nine to answer that question for them so that they will be able to select out of coming to our studio because it wouldn’t be a good fit anyway.
John Kozicki (32:47.579)
Yeah, so sorry, go ahead, Mandy.
Mandy York (32:48.172)
I think that’s a good, like, no, I’m sorry. It’s a good, like reflection exercise. I just gave an example of a question I get asked and the answer’s not on my website. So I’m, mean, I know I’ll sit down and think of these top seven questions and goal is to get to a video, but also just to update the website with answers to those. It’s good.
John Kozicki (33:11.101)
Yeah, Demetrius, you’d also mentioned a bonus video. And I think you just sort of alluded to that because he and I don’t know if we’ll get to it, but the bonus video that you mentioned was who are the who are the lessons not for? So I can totally see now in your situations like, well, they’re not for kids under nine. All right, so that’s a that’s a great one. I like that. Let’s do number three.
Demitris Maddox (33:24.812)
Mmm.
Mandy York (33:25.464)
Mm-hmm.
John Kozicki (33:38.782)
And this is the one I’m most interested in, honestly. What happens when I fill out this form? Now, I’m most interested because I do think there’s a lot of, whether, I don’t know, whether you label anxiety or like hesitation with filling out that website form. I know I’ve experienced it where I’m like, oh, do I want to put my email in here?
Demitris Maddox (34:07.212)
Ahem.
John Kozicki (34:08.221)
Do I really wanna give them my email address and then like, are they going to send me multiple emails every day? Is it gonna be annoying or am I gonna get stuff that’s like, yeah, I really wanna get this information on a reasonable frequency. So this is the one that I’m most interested in.
Demitris Maddox (34:30.978)
Okay, so John, what you just said is actually sounds just like the first part of the talking point script that I’m gonna lay out. Just exactly what because we’ve all had that anxiety, right? So think about it. As you said, right before you fill out a form, your hands are on this contact form, you have doubts. You’re wondering, should I fill out this form? Are they gonna contact me? Are they gonna send me a million emails? Are they gonna sell my personal information? And these videos that now,
These videos belong wherever you have a form where somebody will be filling out to contact you. Right. So for most of us, it’s going to be whatever that mechanism is for them to fill out an intro lesson or a first call or a meet and greet, whatever that whatever that mechanism is, whatever that form is, this video should live right next to it or right above it. So if that’s at the bottom of the page, if that’s on a separate page where you have your form, wherever your form goes, this video goes hand in hand with it. OK.
John Kozicki (35:08.144)
Mm-hmm.
Demitris Maddox (35:31.554)
So, go ahead.
John Kozicki (35:31.847)
So, and that speaks to that placement, like the right place for these videos. And before you were saying, well, there’s not really a wrong place for a lot of these videos, probably is a wrong place for this one. This is the one that, yeah.
Demitris Maddox (35:43.309)
This video, yes, this is peanut butter and jelly. This is right next to each other, right side by side, right? So people need to be reassured that you’re not some evil corporation that’s going to send them annoying emails or call them 14 times a day, okay? So there are, and you can stop me at any point, John, because I know that you’re interested in this one the most, So there are really three beats that you need to hit with these videos, right? The first one, I call it the empathy call out.
John Kozicki (35:48.539)
Yeah, yeah, okay.
John Kozicki (35:59.613)
Mm-hmm.
Demitris Maddox (36:12.736)
And it’s just what you said. You can start off the video, you can call them out right away and empathize it. You can start just like this, you know, the video cuts on and then in action, John goes, you know, we’ve all had that uncomfortable feeling when we’re about to reach out and about to submit our contact information online. And when we’re kind of wondering, are they going to call me a million times? Are they going to send me a hundred emails trying to sell me something? Are they going to spam me? The answer here is no.
Right. So that’s exactly what you just said pretty much word for word. So that’s the first part of the video script. Right. You’re empathizing with them. We could we’ve all been there and it’s true. I was just there before, you know, I’m going to fill this this online form. Right. And you’re calling out the thing with these videos is that you’re calling out the question that they have in their mind before they even before they even think that they have that question. So how much more would you trust a place that had a form?
John Kozicki (36:42.076)
Mm-hmm.
John Kozicki (37:07.985)
Mm-hmm.
Demitris Maddox (37:11.754)
And a video right next to it that said, what happens if I fill out this form? You’re like, wow, they’re going to show me exactly what happens. I get the gift of going second. Amazing. Right. So the next part, you say the answer is no. Let me tell you what will happen. And this is literally just walking them step by step. What happens? So when you’re done filling out the form, I’m going to get an email in my inbox that says you’re interested in lessons. I’m going to get that email. I’m going to find your phone number. I’m going to give you a call at the selected time.
We’re going to chat about your child. I’ll answer any questions. If we feel like it’s a fit, if you feel like we’re the studio for you, we’re going to schedule to come in for an intro lesson. That you’re going to literally just lay out step by step by step what happens in that process. If you have another person, let’s say that you’re not going to be the one who’s going to call them. We’re going to get a text message to our phone. Our coordinator will give you a call at this step time.
You whatever that process is, first you need to lay out and write out what that process is before you can speak it. But you’re just letting them know step by step by step in this second step, what happens. That’s the process portion of this video.
John Kozicki (38:24.016)
Mm-hmm. Yeah, I like this. And I can, even I’m thinking about it in my studio. It’s really just how I have that email sequence set up. know, it’s like, here’s what’s gonna happen. You’re gonna provide your information. You’re immediately gonna get an email that’s gonna have some information about our programs. And there’s gonna be a button that encourages you to schedule a time for a phone call. If you don’t schedule a time for a phone call,
that’s fine. In two days, you’re gonna get another email and it’s gonna say this and then about a week later, you’re gonna get one more email that says this and then that’s it. So yeah, I can easily just kind of go through that sequence and explain that. But it also makes me think about people’s expectations for when they do fill out that form. Some people might expect
Demitris Maddox (39:19.651)
Mmm.
John Kozicki (39:22.906)
that as soon as they fill out the form that someone’s gonna call them. You know, I mean, there sure are those people, right? My studio is not set up for that type of thing, like that immediate phone call, but that would be a good thing to explain in that video. maybe, again, for my studio, we’re not gonna call you right away. We’re happy to call you if you wanna talk. You can set up a time for phone call.
Demitris Maddox (39:27.853)
Sure.
John Kozicki (39:51.984)
but we’re not gonna call you like within the first hour that you fill out this form. I mean, there’s a chance, but you know, that’s not the norm.
Demitris Maddox (39:55.736)
Yeah.
Mandy York (39:56.942)
Yeah. And like you said, we have these processes in place, right? You’ve got the sequence set up. This is just a matter of sharing it. It makes a lot of sense. I love it. Yeah.
Demitris Maddox (40:12.383)
Exactly, 100%.
John Kozicki (40:12.803)
Yeah, this is great. Man, I love this Demetris. It’s really all of these videos, all of these suggestions are really in my mind about empathizing with those prospective customers and trying to give them information in a way that’s going to be, number one, useful for them.
Mandy York (40:20.574)
Mm-hmm. This was really good.
Demitris Maddox (40:33.154)
Mm-hmm.
John Kozicki (40:40.623)
but also easy for them to find. So instead of having to read through stuff, like, yeah, Mandy, you talked about the document that you sent. I talked about with the band program, how do the bands work? Well, yeah, in that email number one, if they click on the link for the bands, then they can get all the information for the band program, but gives them that information ahead of time in a way that is really casual. I love it.
Demitris Maddox (40:43.085)
For sure.
Mandy York (40:44.27)
Yeah.
Demitris Maddox (41:10.583)
There’s actually a, there’s one third piece to that video. I can’t let the listeners leave without knowing this last third piece. Okay. So we had the empathy open where we talked about empathy. We had the second part, which was the process, which we laid out step by step. And the last step would be the call to action, right? It could sound something like this. So after you tell them the process, you can say, hey, you’ve been thinking about your child taking piano lessons for a bit now. You you’ve done some research. You kind of decided that it’s time to move forward.
Mandy York (41:10.818)
Me too.
John Kozicki (41:10.863)
I think this is great.
Mandy York (41:15.054)
Aha!
John Kozicki (41:17.537)
okay, all right.
John Kozicki (41:25.584)
Mm-hmm.
Demitris Maddox (41:39.854)
So I invite you to fill out the form, hit the send button, it’s time to talk about lessons, right? Just something like that to kind of close it out, I think would be the great end to this video. And this video should be around maybe like a minute, 30 seconds, two minutes, somewhere like a minute to two minutes, somewhere around that. It’s not gonna be this long, lengthy video, but it’s very, very powerful because as you alluded to before,
John Kozicki (41:45.52)
Love it.
Mandy York (41:46.35)
Perfect, yeah.
John Kozicki (42:02.479)
Yeah.
Demitris Maddox (42:08.737)
you were a little bit nervous about the form. And if they had had, if you put yourself in that position, if they had this video, hey, here’s what happens, John. If you fill out this form, you’d like, wow, okay, I get it now. And something that you mentioned before, it sets boundaries. You said that you’re not a studio who will get back to somebody in an hour potentially, because you’re not set up like that. So you can say, hey, somebody will contact you within 24 hours. Now they kind of know, okay, 24 hours, I can wait for somebody to contact me.
John Kozicki (42:32.667)
Mm-hmm.
Demitris Maddox (42:36.981)
It sets boundaries and it helps set expectations at the same time.
John Kozicki (42:40.271)
Yeah, yeah. I like that.
Mandy York (42:42.36)
So Demetrius, with the other videos, do you have a sweet spot for length? I’m sure like a 10 minute video is probably too much, but any?
Demitris Maddox (42:51.587)
Sure. So with the previous video was seven questions parents ask, that video is gonna vary the most in length because you’re answering a question that you need to answer thoroughly but yet concisely. So for John who had the question, are band lessons like? Or what, not last, but what are bands like? He might have to give a lot more detail than somebody answering the question of.
what happens if I miss a lesson, right? So that one has the most variation in terms of length. It needs to be as thorough as possible, but still being as concise as possible, right? The first video, which was, I forgot here. Yeah, what happens at the intro lesson. That video should be right around maybe like the two minute mark or so, because you don’t wanna ramble on so much and give them
John Kozicki (43:37.615)
what happens at the intro lesson.
Demitris Maddox (43:49.891)
All of this, you’re gonna have this book. But I would say right around the two minute mark, I think would be a sweet spot for that.
Mandy York (43:57.422)
Okay, yeah, I would imagine a little any longer than that you’re gonna start to lose people. Yeah, okay.
John Kozicki (44:04.731)
Great, great stuff. As always Demetrius, as we wrap this one up, if anyone wants to get in touch with you, what’s the best way for them to reach you? Whether that’s for video stuff or your website building services, where can they reach you?
Demitris Maddox (44:07.362)
Thank you.
Demitris Maddox (44:25.922)
Sure. So John and Mayne, I do want to say thank you so much for having me on here. And I do want to lead with value to your listeners. So all I want them to do is this. I want them to build the best websites that they possibly can. I want them to be able to have the best videos that they possibly can. I know that we had a limited amount of time here, but there’s actually a fourth secret video that I want to give your people for free. I want to show them an example of what this video will look like along with the
John Kozicki (44:39.674)
Mm-hmm.
John Kozicki (44:49.529)
Okay.
Demitris Maddox (44:54.156)
tips on what to say and how it should be shot. So all they have to do to get that video is go to provideimpact.com forward slash video four and that is four F-O-U-R not the number four. Provideimpact.com video four.
John Kozicki (45:08.698)
Okay.
Okay, we will link to that in the show notes for sure. Provideimpact.com slash video four for that secret video from Demetrius. I’m gonna do that right after we get off this call. Well, that’s gonna wrap this one up. Demetrius, always a pleasure. Again, check out Demetrius’s website. These are great suggestions.
Mandy York (45:26.73)
Mm-hmm.
John Kozicki (45:41.595)
That’s going to do it for Rock School Proprietor podcast this week. We’ll see you next time.
Mandy York (45:46.936)
Thanks guys.
