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TEM95: Tim Topham on building a community of true fans in an already crowded space, launching a successful membership site and minimum viable products
Australian piano teacher and performer Tim Topham shares how, through the use of a membership site, newsletter, podcast, blog and webinars, he was able to build a wildly successful piano teaching community in an already crowded space.
Topics Covered:
7:14 - How Tim ended up getting burned out after college, leaving music altogether for 10 years and how his first piano teacher inspired him upon coming back to music
12:20 - The depressing statistics of how many musicians today make a full-time living performing and why it's important to look at a career in music diversely
14:42 - How he found a niche for himself within the piano teaching world which tends to be very traditional
17:56 - How he organizes his content by theme on a monthly basis based on things teachers are asking him to cover
20:08 - Details about The Inner Circle, the online community of piano teachers he has created on his website, and how it was a concerted effort to scale what he was already regularly doing on a one-on-one basis
25:09 - When he initially launched, how he got his first members to join a paid membership site before there was any kind of community already there
28:34 - The number of hours a week he spends per week on his website and all of his digital services
32:09 - The aspects of his business that he outsources since they aren't his strengths
35:33 - How he went about starting to build his website without a huge amount of technical knowledge
37:59 - The importance of shipping a Minimum Viable Product
40:32 - The "crippling perfection" that classical musicians in particular are used to and how it doesn't help anyone be a successful entrepreneur
44:21 - How he has built a team around him to help with various tasks for his business
49:04 - The advice he has for any musical entrepreneur who is trying to get started (or reach the next level) in the business
57:54 - Resources he recommends to musical entrepreneurs
Links:
Favorite Quotes:
"I've got to stop doing things that one, I'm not good at, and two, isn't bringing value to my members."
"It doesn't really matter where you start. Just start something."
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Produced by Joey Santillo
