If you're a piano mom, trying to balance work and family, you'll love these practical ideas. They're from my newest webinar, Upbeat Moms (Get $20 OFF now!)

Upbeat Moms is all about balancing work and family. Because let's face it. Parenting is hard enough. Add in a business and it can feel overwhelming. 

But it doesn't have to be that way!
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Here are a couple strategies that experts discussed in Upbeat Moms. I just couldn't wait to share them with you!

Most of the moms that I interviewed for my new webinar said this is the number one way they're able to balance work and family.

Instead of diving into lessons as soon as school lets out, they reserve the first lesson spot for their very own kids. 

That's right! The valuable afternoon time that every parent wants is put on hold for 30 minutes while these teachers enjoy their kids. They have a snack together and get all the scoop from school.

As one expert put it..."If you wait 3 hours to talk with your children, they'll have forgotten everything they wanted to tell you!" Isn't that a great quote? If you're a mom - you know it's true!

After your quality time together, you can launch into teaching - guilt free!
By the way - all the teachers had a different name for it:

• Buffer Time
• Transition Time
• Golden Time

It doesn't matter what you call it, but the Upbeat Moms experts say it's improved their family life - BIG TIME!
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If you're struggling to balance work and family, give it a try this fall. Maybe it'll help you too!

Most piano teachers agree that it's necessary to have studio policies. Not only do your families need to know what's expected, you also don't want anyone taking advantage of you. It's protection that goes both ways, right?

Your family deserves the same attention. Set those priorities first.

What's important to your husband? What matters to your kids? How can you set your schedule around those things? The answer will be different for all of us. I'm not saying it'll be easy, but I guarantee it'll be worth it.
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Best of all? By setting family priorities, you can let go of the guilt. You'll have peace knowing that your family's needs are being met. It'll be a weight off your shoulders.

Last year I blogged about entering my son's final year of high school. Because I wanted to treasure that time, I made some big changes. You can read all about it here.

Just yesterday I posted the update. What a year it's been! Matthew's headed off to college next month (Eek!) and I'm SO thankful I said YES to what really matters. You can do it too!

Upbeat Moms is all about helping you make smart choices with confidence. I go behind the scenes with your favorite piano teachers! (Click here to get $20 OFF!)

You'll hear from older moms who are now empty nesters. How did they make it all work? What do they regret?
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You'll also hear from younger moms who are right in the middle of it all. What's working for them?
You'll be able choose the ideas that'll work best for your family. If your decisions reflect your top priorities, you can let go of the overwhelm. And that's something we all want!

Going after goals isn't easy, but hey - you can definitely increase your odds of getting there faster. Yay! ✅ Start practicing these simple steps and you'll bust out your goals in no time! 

​Let's get right to it!

Gasp! But what about goal setting?! Can't I think about that?

Stay with me - I'm not saying to ignore results. In fact, I always START there during the planning stage. BUT... once the planning is done, it's time to shift gears and think about RESULTS.

Real success comes when you get laser-focused on the actual PROCESS of reaching your goals. 

Here's where it gets exciting! Let's take a real-life example that all of us are familiar with: Going to the dentist.

No one wants cavities. Or a root canal. Just the thought is painful! Yikes! 😩 No, we all want to leave the dentist office with good news at every checkup.

BUT...it's not something that we think about on a daily basis.

We don't think "You know, I really should brush my teeth tonight so I don't have a cavity in September." No way! We just do the daily habit of brushing our teeth, trusting that we'll get a good outcome at our next dentist appointment.

That's how it should be with ALL goals!

Stay committed to focusing on the PROCESS and eventually you'll get the results you want. 😃

Let's run through a few scenarios related to teaching piano:

Example 1 - You need more students.

The fastest way to see real results is to focus on the PROCESS daily. What does that look like? You could:

• Create a flyer
• Advertise on Facebook
• Contact school music teachers
• Give current students a referral credit
• Consider teaching online lessons in another area

You get the idea!

Now focus on one step every day and you'll be registering new students before you know it! 👊 Click here to get the planner pages to help with this!

Example 2 - You need more money, but don't you want to teach more hours.
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Instead of stressing out over a lack of money, focus on the PROCESS. You could:

• Raise your rates
• Add a lab time
• Transition to group lessons (adding just one class of group lessons would up your income)
• Add one group of preschoolers
• Create a product to sell

Now all you have to do is choose something to focus on every day, or every week. You might need to break your goals into even smaller steps, but keep plugging away and trust that the process will get you to your end goal. 

Okay! Let's keep going! But first, ​I've got a worksheet just for you​ to help you map out YOUR ideal steps to reach those goals.

What? You don't want me to dream anymore?!

Well...it's good to dream. Just don't stay there! 😃

Here's the truth: When it comes to goal-setting, one thing that people miss is writing down their goals and reviewing them daily.

Oh, we all know we're SUPPOSED to do that. But few people ever do.

Real success comes when you actually WRITE DOWN your goals. (Don't roll your eyes at me. 🙄This really works!) Put your goals down on paper.

Here's a great exercise I want you to try. You'll see in no time how it helps you push past "dreaming" and gets you seriously focused on what you REALLY want.

1. Grab a notebook and write the date at the top of the first page.
2. Write down several goals you'd like to achieve.
3. The next day, do the same thing - WITHOUT looking at the previous page.
4. Keep doing this for one month.
5. THEN at the end of the month, look back and take note of what goals keep showing up. THOSE are the things you need to go after. 

Truth bomb! The second day I tried this, I literally couldn't remember what goals I wrote on Day 1. 😳 Embarrassing yes, but I'm keeping it real.

That's when I realized there was POWER in writing down your goals. It gives you the opportunity to process what you REALLY want. And REMEMBER what you wrote down. ✅ Cause some of us need that! ​🙄

If you're after serious results, don't skip this step!

Oh I know this sounds crazy! But hear me out! Many times in life we WANT to do things, but we don't FEEL like doing them.

Serious results come when you focus on what you WANT, not what you FEEL like doing.

Feelings come and go. Often, they'll lead us AWAY from our goals. Let's go over a couple examples and you'll see what I mean!

Example - You want to get in better shape.

I'll be the first to admit that some days I complain - I don't want to work out!

But WAIT! That's not really true. I WANT to work out. I just don't FEEL like it. There's a big difference! Don't trust your feelings when it comes to going after goals!

Here's another example - You want to rewrite your studio policies.
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Most of us won't cheer "Yippee!" at the thought of working on this project. Nope. More than likely, you won't ever FEEL like working on it. But you know you WANT to get it done. 

This is when you have to be a grown-up, ignore your feelings, and do SOMETHING. It'll bring serious results in no time! 
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Here's a question that often comes up in Online Lesson Academy: Do you charge less for online lessons? (Not make-up lessons, but students who are 100% online students.)

It always makes me smile because my online students actually pay MORE than my in-person students. Gasp! MORE? Yes - they really do!

I'll give you the nitty gritty details on that in a minute....but first....

Many teachers feel a little.....guilty about online lessons and want to charge less. I'll be honest, I don't get it. 

Here are the facts:

• Your qualifications haven't changed.
• Lessons are the same length of time.
• You're teaching the same material.
• You're providing a convenience for the family, since there's no travel to your studio.
• You have to be more organized. (You can't simply flip through your student's book to look at past assignments.)

There's no reason to charge less, so don't sell yourself short. Keep the same rate.

Unless....

Online lessons allow you to teach students who live absolutely anywhere. You have a lot more freedom when it comes to pricing.

When we lived in the Dallas area, my rates were higher. After we moved to a smaller city, I needed to lower my price, but I kept my Dallas students at the same rate. Even though they transitioned to online lessons. 

If you want to build your studio (and your income!) you can do the same thing by adding online students who live outside of your area.

It's a great solution for teachers who live in small towns. You're able to teach students who live anywhere in the world - and yes, you can charge a higher rate.

​When my family decided to move, I was faced with a big decision: try online lessons or lose my entire studio.

Believe it or not, I let my fears get the best of me - and I told all my families to find a new teacher. Yep! I really did!

But then, as our move date got closer, reality hit. I didn't want to lose my students. We'd invested SO much time together. Fortunately, I decided to get brave and go for it!

Thank goodness I did!! YOU CAN DO THIS TOO!

​Do you want to add this option to your studio, but find yourself hesitating? You're not alone!

Lots of teachers are worried about technology. Or lack confidence with all the equipment. Or they're afraid  they won't know how to troubleshoot. That's the very reason Sara Campbell and I created Teaching Online Lessons. (Click here to access our Valentine's Day Sale!)

Once you register, you'll be invited to join our Facebook Mastermind group. We're there for you with any questions you might have.

You'll be up and going in no time!

It was an ordinary day at school, but not for my student. I'll call her Katie.

​I was walking Katie to her makeup lesson and she was over-the-moon excited! Literally skipping all the way to my room with a BIG smile on her face.

Truthfully, I thought it was a little odd. Katie liked piano, but her excitement was a bit...over the top. 

Fast forward 15 minutes and she looked at me with those big beautiful eyes and asked "When is my makeup class going to start?"

I was confused. "This IS your makeup class."

Then she reached up and patted her cheek "No, my MAKEUP class."

Oh my! Katie thought we were putting on makeup! Isn't that the cutest thing? And yes, her mother did give me permission to pull out the cosmetics the following week. To this day, thinking about it all still makes me smile!

Here's the point - preschoolers have a different mindset. They DON'T always think the way we expect them to. If we want to teach them successfully, we need to change the way we think.

There are plenty of teachers who are successfully teaching preschoolers. I wish I'd spent more time learning from them first.

Sure I researched different curriculum, but there was a lot more I could have done to prepare. I wish I had asked teachers about:

• Setting goals for preschoolers
• How to organize my activities better. (Preschoolers move FAST and you better be ready!)
• Partner lessons verses private lessons verses a full class 
• How to deal with bad behavior (BEFORE it happened in my studio)
• What marketing ideas work for this age group

To be honest, this is the very reason that Sara and I created Playing with Preschoolers. Hearing what worked for different teachers was a game-changer for me!

Don't judge me, but I went into preschool lessons thinking I'd teach piano at a slower pace. It honestly sounds dumb now, but I really didn't think that teaching preschoolers would be that different from my other elementary students.

Boy was I wrong. I needed a different mindset in many areas. Especially the idea of  "piano lessons" verses "music lessons." 

That alone would have helped my attitude AND my success.

First off, whether you teach preschoolers in private lessons, group lessons, or partner lessons - there is no WRONG answer. It's completely a personal preference. 

My problem was that I defaulted to private lessons without really considering my options. The rest of my studio is private lessons, why would I do anything different?

That thinking was a mistake.

Again, I should have researched more. In hindsight, I would have chosen partner lessons. But of course, if you're looking to UP your income, a larger class might be the right choice for you. 

Whatever you decide, the important thing is to give serious consideration to ALL the options.

This was by far my biggest mistake: I decided on ONE curriculum, expecting it to work for ALL my students.  When it didn't work for each student, I was left feeling frustrated and stressed out. 

I'm not sure why I didn't consider this earlier. With my older students, I use different methods, depending on the child. I TOTALLY should have done this with preschoolers. Epic fail on my part.

Of course, if you're teaching to a full class, your program will obviously be geared toward a larger group.

But if you're planning on private or partner lessons, go ahead and find a couple methods that you like. Then you'll be ready to go to Plan B at a moment's notice!

This FREE Rainy Toolbox will help you keep all your ideas organized. Being ready at a moment's notice is SO important when teaching preschoolers!

Click here to get it for free!

Yesterday's post was all about me going overboard with the size of my first summer camp. Today I'm sharing another mistake that a lot of rookies make.

I thought organizing a camp would be easy. Plan a few activities. Do some crafts. Simple, right? Wrong!

For that first camp, I really should have researched what was working for other teachers. Instead, I simply brainstormed what things "might" work.

My big activity mistakes: 

• I lacked a great theme.
• The crafts were WAY too complicated. (I got caught up in wanting to WOW parents with good souvenirs.)
• There were too many random things. I felt...unorganized.

Make sure you come back tomorrow! I'll share the big thing I forgot all about. I'll also share how it impacted my marketing afterward.

If you're worried you might forget something - this free checklist has you covered! 

And don't forget about the Free Group Coaching Bonus that comes with Group Lessons 101. (For those who register by 3/31/18.) Another great resource included with Group 101 is Sara Campbell's Music Blast Plan. You get daily schedules, a supply list, resources - it's all been done for you!

​Each keyboard on the Color a Key Practice Chart represents one week of potential practice.

Have your students color a white piano key every day they practice. It's a colorful way to track their hard work!

I've also included another chart with longer keyboards. 

​Enjoy!

Click here for instant access!