Looking Back Six Years

This is a Throwback Tuesday. 

Yeah… that really doesn’t have the same ring as Throwback Thursday, does it? Oh well. 

It’s Tuesday, and I want to throw it back 😉 

My Studio in Oct. 2010

Facebook reminded me this morning that on July 25th in 2011, Joy Morin published her first Teacher Feature post… and I happened to be that lucky teacher! I remember being absolutely over the moon excited to see it in “print” when it showed up in my inbox that morning. 

What is your favorite thing about teaching piano? I love witnessing those special moments when a student start making connections and learning new things on their own.

Reading back through the interview today was a real treat. It’s amazing to see how much can change in just 6 years.

• At the time of this interview I was fresh out of graduate school, had an adjunct position at YSU teaching Music Literature & Appreciation, and was in the first year of running my very own studio. 
• In the next 6 months, my studio went from having 18 to 30 students.
• 12 months later I quit my adjunct position in pursuit of teaching 100% full time with 40 students. 
• Two years after that I moved into a room that more than doubled my studio space. 
• … and a year after that I bought my Yamaha C5 grand. 

Nowadays I teach around 30 private students, and 90% of them take 45 minute lessons. My creative outlets outside of the studio include being a business coach for piano teachers, webinar creator, and resident piano pro at a company that helps musicians learn to improvise and play by ear. 

If you had told my 6 year ago self that this is where she’d be in 2017… she never would have believed you. 

What does your 6 year throwback look like? Have you grown bigger? Smaller? (That can be a good thing.) Do you love where you are now? Do you miss where you were then? What do you want your next 6 year throwback to look like? These are the questions we need to ask ourselves as business owners. 

I’ll wrap up this ramble now, but I’ll leave with one more little excerpt from that interview in 2011… 

Tell us about a rewarding or humorous moment in your piano teaching career.  When one of my young students told me that “Music is very important, because it’s everywhere! It’s in the leaves on the trees. It’s in the bees buzzing around. It’s even in someone knocking on the door!” 

Check out the rest of the interview here: Teacher Feature: Sara’s Music Studio on ColorinMyPiano.com