The Tech Of Business Podcast

How do you measure the success of your online efforts? It is through facts and figures, feelings and emotions, income and impact or some combination of these? I believe that every single one of us is going to feel successful when there is a combination of what we can feel and what w can measure. Everything that we do in our businesses will fall into one of four quadrants in the Success Matrix for Online Studios... These quadrants are: Top Left: Not Measurable. Does not Evoke Feeling. Top Right: Measurable. Does not Evoke Feeling. Bottom Left: Not Measurable. Evokes Feelings. Bottom Right: Measurable. Evokes Feelings. For one studio, the act of receiving testimonials may be in the top right quadrant, it's a number but it doesn't make your heart sing whereas another studio may live for testimonials and doesn't actually measure how many come in! Your success matrix is YOURS. Nobody needs to define it for you, but your staff needs to understand what it means to be successful. Defining success is a s

There is one major difference between online and offline studios -- where students can and do come from. Offline, they come based on proximity and reputation whereas online, they come based on reputation and niche. With online studios, generalists don't win - specialists do. But how do we know what we're specializing in and who our perfect students are? Start by taking a closer look at the students you have most enjoyed working with and understand more about their drive and spirit. That's not enough though, the truth is, it's about introspection too -- we need to look at ourselves and make sure that we are creating a studio in line with our values, beliefs and passions. The awesome thing about online studios is that you can specialize in ways that are just not possible in the brick and mortar space... so who are your perfect students? What do they care about? What do they value? How do they learn? Why are they signing up for your programs? I would be happy to connect with you on this -- book a

Want an unbiased opinion of how your website feels to a visitor? For the first 5 people to send me a message on Instagram --> https://www.instagram.com/jaimeslutzky/ I'll do exactly that, take a video as I visit your website for the first time. In this episode, we discuss the four most foundational pages of your website, why they are there and how you can make sure that they are doing their job! They are: Contact About Services Home Your website needs to help your visitors go from *thinking about* to *taking action* and give them an easy way to become a client/student/customer :) Questions, message me on Facebook or Instagram and of course you can book a http://callwithjaime.com anytime!

Whether you teach kids or adults, gamification is a great tool to bring into your online programs. Gamification is the concept where we encourage students to learn and apply what they learn to earn rewards. The two most popular forms of gamification with online programs are "B-I-N-G-O" style and points. For "B-I-N-G-O" students work to complete 24 or 25 tasks that pertain to applying the knowledge they learn in the program, or tangential/fun tasks. And for the points system, it's all about the PRIZE BOX at the end... prizes can vary from digital stickers and social media shout outs to physical trinkets and gift cards and books. For kids, I often suggest a collective reward, so that they can develop community and all be working towards the same objective rather than it being a competition. Have fun with gamification -- it can turn first time students into lifelong students and friends. Want to talk gamification or your online program? Book a call at http://callwithjaime.com

Welcome to the Expand Online Podcast, I’m your host Jaime Slutzky; a lifelong techie taking bold action to help art and music educators create the online studios of their dreams. This is episode 154 and the focus is on creating a roadmap to get you from where you are right now to having your own online program launched and with students. When we’re expanding online it’s so important to keep moving forward towards our goals, getting stuck is just not worth the extra effort it takes to pick up after a pause and so I want to provide you with the necessary nudge to stay in your lane and make steady progress. To do this, we are going to build a visual roadmap that you can reference daily. When we’re creating this initial version of our roadmap, it doesn’t matter how detailed or how vague it is. It’s really all about seeing the next most logical step towards your goal. I like to do this on a big piece of butcher block paper with a ton of colorful markers and sticky notes. A good visual roadmap is going to have a nu

Happy New Year! This is the first episode of 2021 and I am delighted that you’re listening. In case we haven’t met, I’m Jaime Slutzky, a lifelong techie on a mission to make more art and music education programs available online with independent and private studio owners at the helm. I’d love to chat with you and learn about you, as a listener of this podcast, just click over to http://callwithjaime.com and book a short 10-minute call with me. This episode today is all about the immediate benefits you will realize when you make the leap from one-to-one into the realm of one-to-many program offers. There are so many different types of programs you can setup and offer online, we’ve talked about them on prior episodes of the podcast, so scroll back in the podcast feed and have a listen. You have absolute permission (not that I need to be the one to give it) to choose your own path – the key thing though is to choose an adventure. Don’t sit and wait for someday. Because someday doesn’t ever come. Your business is

Before we get all the way into the nitty gritty of the shownotes, here's the link to book a call with me: http://callwithjaime.com it's just a short 10 minute call that we do via zoom where we can talk about you, your business, your goals, your students and their goals. I just love getting to know you and hearing your passion! Are you an educator or an entrepreneur? And do you want to wear one hat, the other or both? As an educator/teacher/instructor your primary goal is to instill the skills in your students so that they can gain a deeper understanding into the art they are studying. We are taking them by their hand and guiding them on this specific part of the journey. Being an educator means taking the skills that you have acquired and use them to inspire, motivate and teach something new to your students. The modality and frequency of your work with your students doesn't matter -- it's simply that you're taking your knowledge and experience and helping them to learn something. For a lo

Let's chat: http://callwithjaime.com Creating a student focused culture online will look vastly different than the culture we create in brick & mortar studios on main street... In person, we can post up pictures of our students performing, presenting, practicing, learning and demonstrating. There are images of recitals or gallery shows. Walking through your door makes it fairly easy for the students to see that they belong. In the online space, we have to create that culture in a different way. There is no physical door and no physical walls to demonstrate our student focused culture. The three places we can most easily showcase our student focused culture online is Social Media Inside our group programs, membership sites and courses Your main website On social media, we are able to showcase our students -- we can show their successes, their artwork in virtual galleries or video clips performing the music they have been working on and we can use these platforms (Instagram most specifically) to creat

Take the time to imagine, and dream, and create for where our businesses is going to be once we have successfully implemented our online program. This is a long range view. Some people may be "there" in 2 or 3 months but more than likely it's going to be a 2 or 3 year vantage point. We are going on this journey together -- because it's not enough to say "I want to expand online" or "I want to offer online programs" or "I want to engage with my students in a new and exciting way" -- but rather "when I go online" and "when I do this work" I am going to create a new reality for myself and my students and my business. My recommendation for this particular episode is to plan on listening to it twice. The first time just listen, then the second time through have a notebook with you and pause when necessary to write thoughts that come up and inspire or motivate you. These are the thoughts that are going to help you to create that vision! What is your business g

December is a unique time of year. There is a lot of reflection, planning and thinking goes on this month. Which is why I believe now is the right time to look objectively at your Expand Online desires -- and ask the questions: Why you? Why me? Why now? Why you're the right person to bring your online program into reality. Why I'm perfectly poised to be on this journey with you. Why now is the absolute best time for you to put your stake in the ground and say "Yes, I am ready to do this!" Why you? You are amazing. You have students who learn from you and go on to bring their art/music/creativity/expression of emotion into their daily lives. You have the credentials and the expertise to create your online program. A core belief of mine: if we want to do something, nothing needs to stand in our way (not time, not tech, not resources, not naysayers.) If you want to impact your students and help them to tap into their creativity and their genius -- then you can do it! There are so many different w

Book a call with me --> http://callwithjaime.com Remember, not all software is created equal and that's okay. The important thing is to learn how to maximize the effectiveness of software tools we do select and to fully integrate them with one another. After you finish listening, give your software a litmus test: - check and see how many of the features you are actually using - how integrated it is with the other tools you are using If you left it for someday -- today is your lucky day, you can tackle getting those last elements flushed out and linked up today, right? There are some big named tools out there that tout that they can do everything and are truly an all in one solution. They may do one or two things really well but be mediocre for other things that you actually need in your business. Instead of putting all your tech into these massive tools, instead find and implement the best right tool for the task at hand. Do we really need one tool to host our videos and do video transcription and pull

Welcome to the shownotes for this episode. Inside these notes, I'm sharing a summary of the episode. When we set out to create online programs we have multiple goals that our program needs to meet -- an internal or personal goal, a financial or business growth goal and, a goal of creating the right program for helping our students reach their goals! This session specifically discusses the topic of lifetime access to online program materials. It sounds so good on sales pages, but really, what does that mean? Basically, I believe it means that your students will have legal rights to accessing that material now and forever into the future. You can have some language around non-transferrable and so on, but the individual or organization that purchases the program retains access to the material included in the program. Here's why I don't like lifetime access, we don't have crystal balls -- who knows what you're going to offer or do next in your business. You may not want to maintain that materi

Let's start these shownotes off with a bold statement: I would bet that you're teaching lesson to lesson and not with a larger curriculum in mind... Most people do that. And it works fairly well for interactive one-on-one or in-person programming, but doesn't quite cut it for online programs. When we work with a curriculum we are creating lessons that definitively take our students from point A to point B. In the online space, we really need to be specific, because most of the time our leads (future students) come to us and experience our content and our messaging before they have any direct communication with us. When we present a strong curriculum, we create an opportunity for our students to see us and connect with us in these early stages of them exploring what it might be like to work with us. And this goes for existing students who haven't worked in online group programs with us before... they need to see that we are prepared and ready. They already believe we can help them to get to Poi

On today's episode I discuss online group programs and why they are the best online format for art and music instruction online in 2021. I believe that your programs will be much more accessible for your students and much more profitable for you when done right. Online group programs are a little bit of a misnomer because there are so many things that can fall into general label of "programs." We are specifically talking about programs that are a hybrid of live interactive sessions and asynchronous pre-recorded material so that your students truly connect with you as their instructor and connect with your content to move their art form forward. It is no longer enough to just create online courses anymore. The internet is saturated with them. And in order for us to have the impact that we seek, we need to have that human connection through the screen (which is 100% absolutely possible!) While there are always two complimentary sides to a group program, the length of the program is completely up to

Blitz to Black Friday is happening on Instagram @jaimeslutzky  every day at 1pm Pacific (4pm Eastern) from November 5 - November 25th. During our time together we are going to create a valuable online course that you'll be able to launch over the Thanksgiving/Black Friday weekend. This course is going to set your students and clients up with everything they need to successfully learn online with you. Tune in each day at 1pm Pacific on Instagram for your daily assignment and instructions. Recording will also be posted inside the Expand Online Community on Facebook. Questions? Message me on Instagram or Facebook  

With the "big holiday sales season" right around the corner, the question always comes -- can I get it done in time? So that's what we're tackling! Questions, join us inside the Expand Online Community or send me a message on Instagram or Facebook!

I'm excited to share with you the basics and logistics of running a Membership Site. Be sure to join the Expand Online Community Connect with Jaime on Instagram and Facebook Oh, and here's the link to Episode 139, all about LMS software!

The goal of your online tech tools is to give your students the best journey possible... in this episode, we discuss the relationship between the customer journey and the tech you use. It's not good enough to have an amazing program, we want to treat our customers/students/clients/participants/members with an experience that surpasses expectations. Be sure to join the Expand Online Community and connect with me on Instagram or Facebook!

In this episode, I share with you three powerful Email Marketing Systems with which you can communicate effectively about your online art or music education programs and with your students! The SaaS (Software as a Service) are: ConvertKit ActiveCampaign GrooveFunnels Download the Expand Online Getting Started Guide Join the Expand Online Community on Facebook to surround yourself with other art and music instructors who are leveraging online programs to increase their impact and income! Connect with Jaime Facebook Instagram

In this episode, I share with you four powerful Learning Management Systems upon which you can build out your online art or music education programs. The SaaS (Software as a Service) are: Thinkific MemberVault GrooveFunnels LearnDash (for WordPress) MemberPress Paid Memberships Pro Download the Expand Online Getting Started Guide Join the Expand Online Community on Facebook to surround yourself with other art and music instructors who are leveraging online programs to increase their impact and income! Connect with Jaime Facebook Instagram