7-Figure Music School
Episodes
Retention Isn’t Tactics | 7FMS182
17 Dec 2025
Contributed by Lukas
Most owners think retention is a reward for doing other things well.But it’s not.Retention is a strategy—and it might be the most important one yo...
Your School’s Hidden Operating | 7FMS181
10 Dec 2025
Contributed by Lukas
Most school owners think of culture as a vibe… a feeling… a thing you “kinda have.” But culture is actually the operating system of your busin...
The Marketing Myth: Why “More Leads” Isn’t the Answer | 7FMS180
03 Dec 2025
Contributed by Lukas
It’s tempting to believe that more inquiries = less stress. This belief is a trap. It’s too simple by half.The truth is far more nuanced and we gi...
Do Less, But Better | 7FMS179
08 Oct 2025
Contributed by Lukas
If you’ve ever thought:“I just need to add more programs”“There aren’t enough students for my current offer”“We’re saying yes to every...
Are You Delegating Correctly? | 7FMS178
01 Oct 2025
Contributed by Lukas
In this episode, Daniel and Nate break down the first myth in their new series on growing a 7-figure music school:“If I delegate, I’m leading.”S...
Keys to Keeping Students After Their 1st Lesson | 7FMS177
10 Sep 2025
Contributed by Lukas
This week, Daniel and Nate reveal how a strong onboarding system can dramatically improve your retention, parent buy-in, student satisfaction, and tea...
Why Do Students Ghost You After Trial Lessons? | 7FMS176
03 Sep 2025
Contributed by Lukas
Why do so many leads disappear after showing interest in your school? It’s easy to blame their busy schedules… but in this episode, Daniel an...
How to Solve the “Practice Problem” In Your Music School | 7FMS175
13 Aug 2025
Contributed by Lukas
In this episode, Daniel and Nate explore how to reframe practice—not as a personal failing of students or parents, but as a marketing, retention, an...
How to Grow a Special Music Program in Your School (w. Kate and Rebecca) | 7FMS174
06 Aug 2025
Contributed by Lukas
This week, we go behind the scenes and in-depth with the founders of Monkey Bar Music to unpack how they’ve grown a 170-student program—without a ...
Books That Shaped Our Business | 7FMS173
30 Jul 2025
Contributed by Lukas
If you’re going to take the time to read a business book, you want to make sure that it’s worth the time you spend to read it.That’s why we made...
How Two Sisters Grew an Outdoors Babies & Toddlers Music Program | 7FMS172
02 Jul 2025
Contributed by Lukas
This is a special interview.These two young women found a way to grow a massive music program in Los Angeles… with no expensive commercial rent.Chec...
Celebration, Culture, and Your Music School | 7FMS171
25 Jun 2025
Contributed by Lukas
If your team is aligned but you’re not seeing them step up… celebration might be the missing piece.In the final episode of our culture series, Dan...
How To Build Culture in Your Music School | 7FMS170
11 Jun 2025
Contributed by Lukas
Over the past few weeks, we have released episodes on the importance of culture in your school.Why?Because culture impacts EVERYTHING that makes your ...
Build a Music School Team That You Can Trust | 7FMS169
04 Jun 2025
Contributed by Lukas
This week, Daniel and Nate tackle one of the most misunderstood culture concepts in multi-teacher studios: employee ownership.If you’re tired of rem...
Symbols, Rituals, Stories: The Real Culture Builders | 7FMS168
28 May 2025
Contributed by Lukas
If your culture “lives” on a poster, it’s probably dead.In this week’s podcast, we show you:Why most “culture-building” flops in a music s...
Why Does Your Music School Even Exist? | 7FMS167
21 May 2025
Contributed by Lukas
Why does your music school even exist?Until you answer that question… every aspect of running your school is going to feel like an uphill battle:Hir...
Lead Your School Without Micromanaging | 7FMS166
14 May 2025
Contributed by Lukas
In this episode, Daniel and Nate break down the secret weapon of great school culture: Clear core values and decision-making guidelines. Whether ...
Six Keys to Creating a Magnetic Music School Culture | 7FMS165
07 May 2025
Contributed by Lukas
In this episode, Nate and Daniel define what culture actually is (and isn’t), explain why it’s the most important thing most owners ignore, and sh...
Getting Dozens of Leads with In-School Marketing (w. Kevin J.) | 7FMS164
30 Apr 2025
Contributed by Lukas
What if your next 20 leads didn’t come from ads… but a live concert at a local elementary school?Kevin from @jamtothebeatmusic figured out how to ...
Workaholism vs. Burnout: The Emotional Cost of Building a School | 7FMS163
23 Apr 2025
Contributed by Lukas
This week, Daniel and Nate open up about a topic that affects nearly every school owner at some point…What’s the difference between workaholism an...
Music School Money Habits (So You Don’t Run Out of Ca$h) | 7FMS162
16 Apr 2025
Contributed by Lukas
This week, we’re breaking down the financial habits that help a school owner stay profitable and sane.It’s not about becoming an accountant.It’s...
Music School Money Problems - Solved! | 7FMS161
09 Apr 2025
Contributed by Lukas
Most school owners avoid budgeting because they think it’s complicated. It’s not. It’s just unfamiliar.But once you get this right, your busines...
Building a Massive Preschool Program in Your School (w. Jessica Hanson) | 7FMS160
02 Apr 2025
Contributed by Lukas
In this episode, Jessica Hanson reveals how she built a 250-student preschool program inside her 450-student music school— plus how to hire great pr...
How to Choose Camps, Programs, and Curriculums for Your Music School | 7FMS159
26 Mar 2025
Contributed by Lukas
Every year, music school owners wrestle with the same big question: What curriculum should I use?There are more options than ever—traditional books,...
Should You Build Your Own Curriculum or Programs? | 7FMS158
19 Mar 2025
Contributed by Lukas
Ever thought about creating your own curriculum? Do you have a program that you’ve created for your school that you’ve thought about selling ...
Focus, New Products, and Your Music School | 7FMS157
12 Mar 2025
Contributed by Lukas
Chasing every idea can wreck your business. The wrong idea at the wrong time? It steals your energy, derails your focus, and leaves your core bus...
How Jessica Grew to 450 Students in a Tiny Town (w/ J. Hanson) | 7FMS156
05 Mar 2025
Contributed by Lukas
In this episode, we sit down with Jessica Hanson, owner of Take Note Studio, to unpack how she built a 450-student school in a small, blue-collar Midw...
How to Onboard and Train Your Music Teachers | 7FMS155
26 Feb 2025
Contributed by Lukas
Hiring teachers is easy. Keeping great teachers? That’s where most music school owners struggle.If you’ve ever had a teacher leave after a year (o...
Advanced A.I. Strategies for Your Music School (Part 2) | 7FMS154
19 Feb 2025
Contributed by Lukas
In this episode, we share how we’re doing it, and we specifically chose strategies and insights that will help music school owners…including:✅ R...
A.I. and Your Music School (Part 1) | 7FMS153
12 Feb 2025
Contributed by Lukas
In this series on A.I…. we’re going to talk about what we have learned over the past two years and how we’re helping our clients build a more ef...
Specialized Teachers = Stronger School | 7FMS152
05 Feb 2025
Contributed by Lukas
“How do I manage teachers with totally different specialties?”In this episode, we went deep into how to build a team with teachers that specialize...
Keeping Your Summer Music Camp Staff Happy (w. Peira from BMF) | 7FMS151
29 Jan 2025
Contributed by Lukas
In this week’s podcast episode, Daniel and Nate are joined by Piera, co-owner of Brooklyn Music Factory, who shares the real X-factor behind their t...
How to Get Your Families to Leave Reviews for Your Music School | 7FMS150
22 Jan 2025
Contributed by Lukas
In today’s episode, Daniel and Nate discuss the year-long campaign that helped Brooklyn Music Factory soar past their competitors with 101 Google re...
Search Marketing for Music Schools (What’s New?) | 7FMS149
15 Jan 2025
Contributed by Lukas
Is your music school showing up where it matters most? In this first episode of the year, Daniel and Nate unpack what’s changed in search marketing,...
Best Practices for Music School Recitals | 7FMS148
18 Dec 2024
Contributed by Lukas
In our final episode of 2024, we invited a long-time friend and frequent guest of the show back on the pod.We sat down with Greg from Piano Express to...
Powerful Communication Strategies for Your School | 7FMS147
11 Dec 2024
Contributed by Lukas
In this episode, we give a practical and emotional framework for communicating with parents.How to be bold, confident, and clear…And to lead with po...
Team Vacation Days and Studio Quality | 7FMS146
04 Dec 2024
Contributed by Lukas
“How do you handle time off requests from your team?”This was a question that one of our listeners sent in to us.Nate and I took some time to real...
Year-Round Enrollment Strategy and Calendar | 7FMS145
27 Nov 2024
Contributed by Lukas
If you’ve ever wondered how to keep your studio humming year-round - without scrambling to rebuild every fall - this episode is for you.- - - - -Che...
Micromanaging, Delegation, and the Dark Side of Scaling Your Music School | 7FMS144
30 Oct 2024
Contributed by Lukas
One of the cliches of business ownership is that “owners don’t like to delegate.”Yet - in every cliche there is truth… and that’s what we wa...
Keeping Your Music School’s Teachers | 7FMS143
23 Oct 2024
Contributed by Lukas
In this episode, Daniel and Nate tackle a tough question: how do you keep great teachers from leaving for your competitors—without pricing yourself ...
Delegating Sales in Your Music School | 7FMS142
16 Oct 2024
Contributed by Lukas
Nate shares his personal journey from handling every single sales call at Brooklyn Music Factory to building a successful sales team.If you’ve been ...
How to Improve Your Music School’s Sales Conversion Rate | 7FMS141
09 Oct 2024
Contributed by Lukas
In today’s episode, Daniel and Nate tackle a critical (but often overlooked) part of the sales process: the follow-up. Nate walks us through th...
Taming the Chaos in Your Music School Business… And the Rest of Your Life, Too! | 7FMS140
02 Oct 2024
Contributed by Lukas
In today’s episode, Nate and Daniel pull back the curtain on the most important software tool we use.It’s how we organize EVERYTHING in our lives…...
A Crisis Almost Killed Our Music School! (w. Alyssa O'Toole) | 7FMS139
25 Sep 2024
Contributed by Lukas
What happens when something unpredictable happens in your business?Not just a small challenge you have to overcome…But a legitimate threat to the co...
Results of a 1.5 Year Teacher Training Experiment | 7FMS138
18 Sep 2024
Contributed by Lukas
A year and a half ago, Nate and I made an unusual podcast episode.It wasn’t about something that we learned “on the job”…It was about an exper...
Book Blasts and How to Promote Special Programs in Your School | 7FMS137
11 Sep 2024
Contributed by Lukas
In today’s episode, we unpack a special program called a BOOK BLAST that Daniel promoted and sold out throughout the year.The program was designed t...
Outgrowing Your Location and Moving to a New School (w. Kaitlyn Davidson) | 7FMS136
04 Sep 2024
Contributed by Lukas
We invited Kaitlyn Davidson back on the podcast to share about her outgrowing her school’s space… and what it felt like to move to a new one!In th...
Laying Down the Law With Your Team! | 7FMS135
28 Aug 2024
Contributed by Lukas
In my work with school owners, not a week goes by that I’m not doing “owner therapy” with at least one of my clients… and it’s almost always...
Who to Hire (In Order) When Scaling Up Your School | 7FMS134
21 Aug 2024
Contributed by Lukas
Over the past few years, we have received this question over and over:“What is the right order to hire people for my school? Who should I hire first...
21-Day Hiring Method to Build Better Teams | 7FMS133
14 Aug 2024
Contributed by Lukas
Is it possible to build a process into your hiring and onboarding system to prevent getting stuck with a bad hire?The answer is YES.In today’s episo...
Pricing Lessons and Influencing Your Clients (Live Q&A) | 7FMS132
07 Aug 2024
Contributed by Lukas
Throughout the year this year, we have been answering the questions that you have submitted!This is from one of the last live Q&A episodes that we...
The Power of Branding in Your Music School | 7FMS131
31 Jul 2024
Contributed by Lukas
In this episode, we talk about branding, logos, working with designers, creating programs in your school, the power of naming your products…. And mu...
Creating an Efficient Hiring System for Your School (w. Peira M.) | 7FMS130
24 Jul 2024
Contributed by Lukas
Last week, we aired the first part of a 2-part interview with Peira Moinester, the co-founder of Brooklyn Music Factory.She shared quite a bit about B...
Relationships as a Teacher Recruiting Tool (w. Peira M.) | 7FMS129
17 Jul 2024
Contributed by Lukas
In March of this year, I took part of the Grow team to Brooklyn New York to do some in person planning for the podcast.I spent a considerable amount o...
Training Teachers, Negative Thinking, and Group Lesson Challenges (Live Q&A Episode) | 7FMS128
10 Jul 2024
Contributed by Lukas
We did another live Q&A episode!Here are the topics that we cover in this episode:Should you use a call to action / hard pitch in your socia...
Success Patterns of Big Music Academies (w. Sam L.) | 7FMS127
03 Jul 2024
Contributed by Lukas
What’s the best way to run your music school?What decisions should you make when it comes to programming, staffing, and marketing?Our guest today ha...
Tools and Tactics for Improving Teacher Performance (Part 2) | 7FMS126
26 Jun 2024
Contributed by Lukas
Are your teachers underperforming? How can you judge their effectiveness?Nate and Daniel unpack these ideas (and more) in today’s podcast episo...
Improving Your Music School’s Teacher Performance (Part 1) | 7FMS125
19 Jun 2024
Contributed by Lukas
In this episode, Nate and Daniel discuss everything you need to know about measuring teacher performance, including…The tools to useThe metrics to t...
When You Lose a Key Employee (w. Alyssa O’ Toole) | 7FMS124
12 Jun 2024
Contributed by Lukas
In this episode, Nate, Daniel, and Alyssa share their stories of a time when one of their key team members left…What happened…What they learned…...
How Do I Get Students to Practice More? (Live Q&A Ep.) | 7FMS123
05 Jun 2024
Contributed by Lukas
We did another live Q&A episode!Here’s today’s questions:How do I handle a key teacher's summer absence?How do I hire committed and reliable t...
Should You Scale Your School?: Assessing Risk and Opportunities | 7FMS122
29 May 2024
Contributed by Lukas
A listener sent in a question and a REAL LIFE dilemma she faced.She was presented an opportunity to take her studio out of her home… but it would re...
How to Market Programs in Your School | 7FMS121
22 May 2024
Contributed by Lukas
Every once in a while, we highlight a specific element of Brooklyn Music Factory’s strategy… and today we’re going to do that again.In this epis...
How to Build a Premium Lesson Program (w. David C.) | 7FMS120
15 May 2024
Contributed by Lukas
In this episode, we invited David Chang back on the podcastHe goes beyond the basics, and shares the “how to” of building a premium lessons progra...
Outsourcing Social, Parenting, and Long-Term Retention of Students (Q&A Episode) | 7FMS119
08 May 2024
Contributed by Lukas
We did another viewer mailbag episode… and answered questions from school owners all over the world!In this episode, we cover the following topics:M...
Advice We’d Give to Our Younger Selves (w. Alyssa O’Toole) | 7FMS118
01 May 2024
Contributed by Lukas
Recently, three of the coaches at Grow (Alyssa, Nate, and Daniel) got together at Brooklyn Music Factory and recorded an episode about the “one thin...
Premium Pricing Model with NO Private Lessons? (w. David C.) | 7FMS117
24 Apr 2024
Contributed by Lukas
We interviewed a studio owner who:Does not use a private lesson modelCharges ultra-premium ratesOffers “luxury” quality lessonsCaters only to seri...
Are You Afraid of Teaching Group Lessons? (w. Greg Genter) | 7FMS116
17 Apr 2024
Contributed by Lukas
In the last year, I’ve really noticed that mid-size and larger academies have a tendency to resist or reject group lesson programs.Now, they might h...
Do Nate and Daniel Disagree On Marketing Strategy?!?!? | 7FMS115
10 Apr 2024
Contributed by Lukas
In this episode, we recorded a private conversation between Nate and Daniel about music school marketing strategy…… And Daniel reveals marketing s...
Tools for Financial Freedom in Your Music School (w. Alyssa O’ Toole) | 7FMS114
03 Apr 2024
Contributed by Lukas
In this week’s episode, we invited Alyssa back to talk about one of her favorite topics…Money, debt, financial tools, and why business owners tend...
Growing Your School’s Social Media (w. Lauren Kelly) | 7FMS113
27 Mar 2024
Contributed by Lukas
How do you use Facebook and Instagram effectively for your music school?Do you have to “like” social media to use it as a tool for your business?I...
How to Equip Your Team to Run Your Music School | 7FMS112
20 Mar 2024
Contributed by Lukas
We did an episode that goes beyond platitudes and cliche’s about delegation, “working on your business, not in your business”, and other trite a...
Smash Your 90 Day Goals! | 7FMS111
13 Mar 2024
Contributed by Lukas
How do you stay on track with your annual goals during the year?That’s the subject of today’s podcast episode… where Nate and I talk about how t...
Investing and Retirement (Music Industry Edition) | 7FMS110
06 Mar 2024
Contributed by Lukas
In his many years of coaching school owners… Daniel has discovered that financial planning, investment, and retirement preparedness is a topic that ...
Finding Your Studio’s Unique Message (w. Tim Topham) | 7FMS109
28 Feb 2024
Contributed by Lukas
Our guest today doesn’t really need an introduction… Tim Topham is an enormous figure in our industry. He emerged as an important voice in pedagog...
Gamifying Your Summer Camps (w. Greg Genter) | 7FMS108
21 Feb 2024
Contributed by Lukas
Greg and Daniel built a beginner music summer camp in northern Virginia.The camp eventually enrolled hundreds of new campers each summer… growth tha...
Date Night at Your Music School! | 7FMS107
14 Feb 2024
Contributed by Lukas
In honor of the “holiday of love”... I convinced Nate to do an episode on a special program they have at Brooklyn Music Factory:Date night!Parents...
Live Coaching with 6 Studio Owners | 7FMS106
07 Feb 2024
Contributed by Lukas
In today’s episode, we are releasing more audio of a live special event that we held at Brooklyn Music Factory back in December.This is an excerpt f...
Invisible Music School Owners (w. Erika and Adam) | 7FMS105
31 Jan 2024
Contributed by Lukas
Most music school owners are overworked because they are putting an enormous amount of energy into their school.They are the school.This is not sustai...
Commercial Leases, Building Your Team, and Long-Term Business Relationships | 7FMS104
24 Jan 2024
Contributed by Lukas
New episode is out… we recorded a podcast episode in the lobby of Brooklyn Music Factory. This is a good one!Be sure to check out the video version ...
How to Improve Your Team’s Efficiency | 7FMS103
17 Jan 2024
Contributed by Lukas
Do you have a team? Do you want them to run your music studio for you?If so, you need to hear this practical episode on team communication.- - - - -Ch...
SEO, Emotional Energy, and Google Reviews (w. Erika and Adam) | 7FMS102
10 Jan 2024
Contributed by Lukas
In this episode of the 7-Figure Music School podcast, Daniel interviews Adam and Erika, the owners of Philadelphia Piano Institute…We talk about how...
Performance Reviews in Your Music School | 7FMS101
03 Jan 2024
Contributed by Lukas
Nate and Daniel kick off 2024 with an important topic… Performance reviews for your team (whether office staff or teachers).However, they go beyond ...
Lessons Learned From 100 Episodes!! | 7FMS100
29 Nov 2023
Contributed by Lukas
For our 100th episode, we reflected on what WE have learned over the past 100 episodes.What did we get wrong? What surprised us about music education,...
How to Increase Your School’s Profit Margin | 7FMS99
22 Nov 2023
Contributed by Lukas
Some schools have a spending problem and don’t even know it!In this “fun-sized” episode, we explore every music school’s 8 largest expenses…...
Employee Benefits at Your Music School | 7FMS98
15 Nov 2023
Contributed by Lukas
We made an episode about teacher pay, employee benefits, and how to save money on your taxes (even if you are a single-teacher studio)!- - - - -Check ...
What It Takes to Build a “World Class” School (with Vera H.) | 7FMS97
08 Nov 2023
Contributed by Lukas
A few weeks ago, we had Vera on the show… and she gave a high-level overview of how she built her school to 1,000 students.In today’s episode, we ...
Child Safety at Your School (with Greg G.) | 7FMS96
01 Nov 2023
Contributed by Lukas
As school owners, we MUST take child safety seriously… You do not want to say: “That could never happen at OUR studio.”In this episode, we ...
How to Rapidly Complete Projects in Your Music Academy (w. Kyrsten R.) | 7FMS95
25 Oct 2023
Contributed by Lukas
Do you struggle to manage large projects in your studio?Do you struggle to delegate?Do you sometimes feel that you AVOID large projects… simply beca...
Marketing Hacks, Flaky Students, and Studio Taxes | 7FMS94
18 Oct 2023
Contributed by Lukas
We answered your questions in this episode of the podcast… and covered a ton of topics in doing so!Market research, effective delegation, designing ...
Building a Music School to 1000+ Students (w. Vera H.) | 7FMS93
11 Oct 2023
Contributed by Lukas
Our podcast guest today built a school to over 1000+ students and wrote her own method…She shares lessons learned in today’s episode… don’t mi...
Building an Online Lessons Brand (w. Kaitlyn D.) | 7FMS92
04 Oct 2023
Contributed by Lukas
In today’s episode, we brought back Kaitlyn Davidson who has spent the last few years building an online lessons brand alongside her really successf...
How to Run Ads on Facebook to Get More Students for Your Music Lessons | 7FMS91
27 Sep 2023
Contributed by Lukas
We invited Elizabeth Gillette (a digital marketing specialist) to come on the show.For 50 minutes, I put her through an intense interrogation about ge...
Coaching Your Students to Success (w. Mike Grande) | 7FMS90
20 Sep 2023
Contributed by Lukas
Whenever I meet a school owner that is getting unusual results in their school…I almost always find that they are doing something unusual to get tho...
What’s Most Urgent in Your Music School? (w. Kyrsten R.) | 7FMS89
13 Sep 2023
Contributed by Lukas
“How do I know what to work on next in my music school?!?!?”There is so much competing for your attention and so many tasks to complete.It can be ...
Health and Wellness as a Music School Owner | 7FMS88
06 Sep 2023
Contributed by Lukas
We took a break from talking about business, retention, marketing, and hiring…To talk about living a balanced, healthy life as a school owner.- - - ...
Growing Before You Feel Ready (w. Kaitlyn D.) | 7FMS87
30 Aug 2023
Contributed by Lukas
How do you know when to make a decision? When is the right time to grow or to act?When should you rely on information… and when should you trust you...
Studio Owners: Are You Discouraged in Your Career? | 7FMS86
23 Aug 2023
Contributed by Lukas
Do parents even care about music lessons anymore?Why don’t they enforce practice at home?And… more importantly…. Are you discouraged by these th...
How Much Should Your School Spend on Marketing? | 7FMS85
16 Aug 2023
Contributed by Lukas
In this episode, I give a marketing plan for studios at various marketing budget levels.So, if you ever wondered how much you should spend on marketin...
Stop Wasting Your Time in Meetings! | 7FMS84
09 Aug 2023
Contributed by Lukas
In today’s episode, we give a plan for efficient meetings and effective delegation…So you can manage your team as efficiently as possible.If you l...
Sloppy Leadership, Music School Growth, and Smart KPIs | 7FMS83
02 Aug 2023
Contributed by Lukas
Over the years, I’ve heard a phrase over and over again…“I wish there was just a step-by-step guide to building my music studio.”“I just wan...