In this episode, Neil tackles the issue of ‘getting the buggers to practice’. In an online poll, it is identified as the challenge that stands between students achieving what they want to achieve and is the biggest source of frustration for their teachers.

Listen in to hear about some practical tips and strategies that will work for all your students.

KEY TAKEAWAYS

• If someone is paying me money to come and spend time with me, to learn what I know, to get what they want, why are they not doing the thing that will bring them success?
• Students don’t like being given orders, they see the practice as grey and boring.

I restructure the language and with younger students insist they don’t practise at all. This will result in a push back as they will want to do the opposite.

• I will ask students to ‘explore this, muck about with this’

Identifying the motivator for students will enable you to get them to comply with what you want.

• There are two kinds of motivation;

Motivation towards something

Motivation away from something

• Away from gets you moving in the short term but try to work out what the student really wants, and then try to put in any small action that moves you in the right direction towards their goal.
• I look at the long-term picture for students. I am trying to grow a love affair between them and the instrument.
• One of the most compelling things you can do to gain compliance is to encourage a student to do what they want to do. Give them content that is interesting and exciting to play.
• Notice what is working for them and reframe it in a positive way, being flexible in your approach. Try to make it interesting and inviting for the student.

BEST MOMENTS

‘I want them to do what they want to do’

‘We have to work on building trust’

‘Do everything you can to lower the resistance’

‘Slice it up – the thinner the slice the easier it is to get compliance’

‘Ask them to do things in very short bursts’

‘The more often a human being returns to an activity the more impact it has on progress’

‘If you push too hard you will just get ‘turn and churn’ and that’s not good for business’

VALUABLE RESOURCES

https://www.amazon.co.uk/Weird-Things-Guitarists-Do-Misconceptions-ebook/dp/B01M2YRARG/ref=asap_bc?ie=UTF8

https://itunes.apple.com/gb/podcast/the-tutor-podcast/id1369191372?mt=2

www.Neilcowmeadow.com

ABOUT THE HOST

Neil Cowmeadow is a maverick peripatetic guitar teacher from Telford with over 19 years’ experience in the business of helping people. Learn how to start, grow and love your business with Neil’s invaluable advice and tips without the buzzwords and BS!

CONTACT METHOD

[email protected]

THINK LIKE A BUSINESS PERSON 

Neil takes us through the key points that all tutors need to follow to make sure your tutoring operates successfully as a business.

The points are an invaluable checklist for any tutor, listen in to find out more.

KEY TAKEAWAYS

Developing your business mindset is key but in tutoring, the business side is usually a poor second to the technical skills and knowledge of what we all teach and do.

Profit is not a dirty word - there is nothing wrong with making money from your passion and art. Spend time with others who are making money as these are people who you can aspire to.

Get serious about your business – give the same amount of precedence to your business as you give to your area of expertise.

It’s not serious – it’s a game, it’s not personal but know the rules of the game and a playful mindset will see you through and keep you positive.

Everything is a test – if everything is working for you, you’re getting it right if not test a different business model or different advertising

Keep learning – work harder on yourself than on your business it’s the hallmark of greatness. If you look through history, continuing to develop skills and knowledge is a feature of everyone who is successful.

Develop routines – lots of teachers have a chaotic approach but a routine is a more professional approach to your business.

Build systems - set the time aside to build some systems, a crib sheet for doing the banking, a system for cleaning up the teaching space. The more systems you have the less you have to carry around in your head.

Know your numbers - you must know the revenue, costs and profits for your business. If you are not monitoring them how will you know how to improve?

When you work, work hard - extract the most from your time because it can be very well-paid hard work or ok paid hard work.

Play as hard as you work - I work long hours but I love what I do.

Celebrate life – if you’re getting paid for doing what you love – you’re one of the luckiest people alive...

BEST MOMENTS

‘I don’t want to guess about my business’

‘The time not face to face with students is a drag on my time’

‘Find time to read, to keep your knowledge up to date’

‘Every guitarist has a bag of tricks’

‘I will work for 7 or 8 hours a day across the same time slots, that’s my routine a daily routine is key’

‘Keep testing it’s a neutral process’

‘Get your business head on you can do it’

VALUABLE RESOURCES

https://www.amazon.co.uk/Weird-Things-Guitarists-Do-Misconceptions-ebook/dp/B01M2YRARG/ref=asap_bc?ie=UTF8

https://itunes.apple.com/gb/podcast/the-tutor-podcast/id1369191372?mt=2

www.Neilcowmeadow.com

ABOUT THE HOST

Neil Cowmeadow is a maverick peripatetic guitar teacher from Telford with over 19 years’ experience in the business of helping people. Learn how to start, grow and love your business with Neil’s invaluable advice and tips without the buzzwords and BS!

CONTACT METHOD

Email: [email protected]

In today’s episodes, Neil dives into the joys of scheduling and why scheduling is essential in both your tutoring business and in life. If you’re looking to impose order on the chaos, plan your activities and make your business fun. This episode is for you.

KEY TAKEAWAYS

Why is schedule important? If what you do is chaotic, you're going to be out of order, up to the range and stressed. For you to succeed in life you need to have a schedule in your life and as a result, everything will go as planned. Use a schedule to impose order on the chaos.

We need enough order to keep things sort of predictable, so we have a sense of control and that’s why we need scheduling in our day to day activities.

Scheduling helps you to work in a good environment; this should allow you to control your interaction.

Scheduling helps you to be you because when you schedule correctly, you will be able to do the things you want to do in the right time and will have a lot of time to spend with yourself and even your friends and family. If it’s not fun you should not do it.

Scheduling will help you plan your money and invest it in the right manner hence helping you to build your own business where you will be able to work from home, hence no booking appointments, damaging things, not wearing the car out while travelling from home to your workplace, not burning gas and not spending time in traffic and this should lower your overheads. You’re not spending money repairing a car so much, you’re not putting as much gas in the tank, you do not have to buy food while at work and that should make you more profitable.

Scheduling helps you to do small jobs around the business. With scheduling, you are able to plan yourself and have things done very fast.

Make what you do fun because if you make it fun, it will entertain a lot of people and you will make a lot of money from people by just entertaining them. Make it fun for your customers, it'll be fun for you and you'll stop working, you'll just hang out with your friends and do what you do and get paid for it. Aim to keep it fun, keep it entertaining, it then becomes for your customers more of a leisure activity.

BEST MOMENTS

• “Everything you do is going to be a personal choice.”
• “If it’s not fun you should not do it.”
• “You can't put a price on your time”
• “Time is the most important and most limited resource we all have.”

VALUABLE RESOURCES

• https://www.amazon.co.uk/Weird-Things-Guitarists-Do-Misconceptions-ebook/dp/B01M2YRARG/ref=asap_bc?ie=UTF8
• http://www.neilcowmeadow.com/
• https://itunes.apple.com/gb/podcast/the-tutor-podcast/id1369191372?mt=2

ABOUT THE HOST

Neil Cowmeadow is a maverick peripatetic guitar teacher from Telford with over 19 years’ experience in the business of helping people. Learn how to start, grow and love your business with Neil’s invaluable advice and tips without the buzzwords and BS!

CONTACT METHOD

• [email protected]

In this episode, Neil explains how an enquiry call can finish with confirmed tuition and payment if you follow a set operating procedure. This step by step approach can help anyone who is a tutor successfully navigate the enquiry call and gain new clients.

Listen in now to make sure your next tuition enquiry is a new client for you.

 

KEY TAKEAWAYS

• Having a standard operating procedure is useful to ensure everything required is dealt with during the initial enquiry call.
• Every enquiry call has an aim – the aim for an enquiry call is that the caller books and confirms first lesson at the current rate for the tuition by the end of the call.
• Answer the phone with a smile, people can hear a smile on the phone and respond in a much more positive way.
• Taking notes during the call is key to ensuring you have all the information necessary. You are aiming to capture specific communication information.
• Use the caller’s name at every opportunity and echo their words back to them throughout the conversation.
• Ask questions that have the answer yes, these are referred to as ‘yes set questions’ and are refining questions which move the enquirer closer to saying yes.
• Once payment has been made the call is completed. An immediate follow up via text and email with specific details, confirm both the payment and lesson schedule.
• Sending a reminder 24 hours and 2 hours prior to the lesson will position you as an expert and professional.

 

BEST MOMENTS

‘People can hear a smile on the phone’

 

‘Echo it straight back to them – fabulously powerful technique’

 

‘Start to close small and often’

 

‘Try to remove the agony of choice’

 

‘Having a set procedure is so much better’

 

VALUABLE RESOURCES

Neil Cowmeadow - Weird Things Guitarists Do

www.Neilcowmeadow.com

The Tutor Podcast series

  

ABOUT THE HOST

Neil Cowmeadow is a maverick peripatetic guitar teacher from Telford with over 19 years’ experience in the business of helping people. Learn how to start, grow and love your business with Neil’s invaluable advice and tips without the buzzwords and BS!

 

CONTACT METHOD

Email

COURAGE - WHAT IT IS AND WHY IT’S IMPORTANT

This episode helps us all to acknowledge fear and then push past it to achieve our goals. Neil puts fear into perspective and explains how we all have the courage to move onwards and upwards when we take action.

 

 KEY TAKEAWAYS

• Everyone can face fear, especially when tackling something new or more complex.
• Overcoming the fear and moving forward will confirm the benefits of doing something new and show that the fear was unfounded.
• Fear is often experienced when you;

Break new ground

Launch a new product

Adopt a new approach

Step up and take action

Lay yourself open to the judgement of other people

Do anything that moves you from your current state to a higher state...

 

Fear and Courage

• Fear is what malevolently stands between you and I and what we want.
• Courage is not the absence of fear - Courage is the ability to act, even in the face of fear.
• A strong will or sufficient motivation can provoke you to take action despite your fear.
• Facing down your fear or – better still – harnessing it to your service is what courage is all about.
• Dealing with the dread and liberating yourself from fear requires courage. Taking the action that the fear is trying to divert you from is courage.

 

So, what are you waiting for?!

• Your greatest fear shouldn’t be writing that book, starting that business or asking for that date. No! Your greatest fear should be that the clock is ticking and that your life is shortening at an alarming rate.

 

• When your time approaches, you should be able to look back on your life and marvel at how much you got done, in spite of all the adversity and fear.

 

• The only person whose consent you need is yourself: give yourself permission.

 

• Accountability
• Tell someone what you are going to do – preferably someone who will consistently hold you to account if you don’t take action.

 

• Consider posting your intentions into your social media groups or timelines, publicly commit to delivering the book/product or opening the business on a certain date: then make sure you live up to it and deliver.

 

• Hire a coach – preferably a really expensive coach – to hold you accountable. Your coach’s fees should hurt a little – or a lot - enough that you’re going to take action or else have to resign yourself to just throwing that money away.

 

• Whatever it takes – commit yourself, preferably publicly, financially and irrevocably to action.

 

• Whether it’s the Pull of your mission or the Push away from a significant loss, find out what gets you moving.

 

• Sooner or later, someone will take that action: shouldn’t that someone be you?

 

• Fear can live with everything apart from consistent action in the direction of your goals and dreams. Fear is checking if you’re serious and eliminating your competition, handle the fear and you handle life.

 

 

BEST MOMENTS

 

‘Fear imprisons us and then waits for us to die’

 

‘So, what are you waiting for?’

 

‘The only thing stopping you is you’

 

 ‘Maybe we should put our own fears into some kind of perspective’

 

 ‘The secret is to acknowledge the fear, thank it for offering its opinion, then tell it to take a hike as you march towards your fate’

 

‘Don’t wait until your work is perfect – it’ll never be perfect. Perfection is sterile and produces nothing until it begins to decay’

 

VALUABLE RESOURCES

Neil Cowmeadow - Weird Things Guitarists Do

www.Neilcowmeadow.com

  

ABOUT THE HOST

Neil Cowmeadow is a maverick peripatetic guitar teacher from Telford with over 19 years’ experience in the business of helping people. Learn how to start, grow and love your business with Neil’s invaluable advice and tips without the buzzwords and BS!

 

 

CONTACT METHOD

Email: [email protected]

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

To ensure that your student gets the best learning experience, the educators – tutors, teachers, lecturers, etc. – should be able to communicate effectively and efficiently.

So, in today’s episode of The Tutor Podcast, I talk to a good friend of mine, John Cassidy-Rice, about the Neuro-Linguistic Programming (NLP) and how it can improve the way we communicate and teach our students.

NLP techniques can help enhance every student’s performance. Even John himself, who has dyslexia, shares that he benefitted from NLP. Aside from personal stories, John also shares the top 3 NLP-based key strategies that tutors can use. Don’t also forget to check out his NLP courses after you listen to this episode!

KEY TAKEAWAYS

• What is NLP? It stands for Neuro-Linguistic Programming. Neuro refers to all 5 senses, Linguistic refers to the languages and gestures, and Programming refers to putting them both together to produce positive results.
• John runs an NLP training company that offers a 2-day introductory course which can help you change your beliefs and learn how to communicate with yourself and others.
• John says NLP helped him with his dyslexia. Of course, there are still challenges with communicating, reading and writing but, he was able to do more. John has published 4 books as of lately.
• Top 3 NLP-based Key Strategies According to John
  • Salience x Repetition = Learning
  • Update your identity of who you see yourself as.
  • Reframe: ‘how we think’, not ‘what we think.’

BEST MOMENTS

“What is the difference that makes the difference?” – John

“NLP form has been a toolbox… a go-to toolbox where I can unpick not only how I think, how I play and how the other people play, but how my students limit themselves in the way that they think about music, about playing and about their own abilities.” – Neil

“Anything that can hold you back can actually be your strength at the same time.” – John

“Change your thinking; change your response.” – John

VALUABLE RESOURCES

• Neuro-Linguistic Programming (NLP)
• com

Unlock The Power Of Stories: Change Your Story Change Your Life by John Cassidy-Rice

David and Goliath: Underdogs, Misfits, and the Art of Battling Giants by Malcolm Gladwell

Neil Cowmeadow - Weird Things Guitarists Do

Neilcowmeadow.com

 ABOUT THE HOST

Neil Cowmeadow is a maverick peripatetic guitar teacher from Telford with over 19 years of experience in the business of helping people. Learn how to start, grow and love your business with Neil’s invaluable advice and tips without the buzzwords and BS!

ABOUT THE GUEST

John Cassidy-Rice is an NLP Master Trainer. He runs Training Excellence, a company that focuses on the human approach of training. He helps organisations and other companies improve leadership and communication among the people. John has also published 4 books. He recently released his latest book, Unlock The Power of Stories: Change Your Story, Change Your Life.

 CONTACT METHOD

Neil Cowmeadow

• [email protected]

John Cassidy- Rice

• Training Excellence - NLP Courses
• [email protected]
• NLP Podcast

DESCRIPTION

In this podcast Neil highlights the ways in which undertaking a Christmas strategic planning retreat can be invaluable for the coming year. He shares with us the ways we can take an opportunity to ‘just breathe’ and how doing this provides clarity and insight that could change your life forever.

 

 

KEY TAKE AWAYS

 

• Christmas is a funny time

In the tutoring game everything is disrupted, your students might be away, and other things might shut down.

You can embrace it in by responding in either a positive or negative way. A positive response recognises it’s an opportunity to step back, review and reflect.

 

• Make the most of the festive holiday

Catch up with friends that you might have neglected, it can be easy to lose contact with people if you don’t make the effort.

Take care of maintenance jobs such as decorating cleaning and re-organising. Complete those jobs that can be challenging to undertake with students about.

 

• Take the opportunity to get away from your desk and think

Plan some time to think about the direction you want your business to go in. stepping away provides invaluable perspective

 

• Look to the future

What do you want to achieve? How much do you want to earn?

Create a road map and time line, planning your journey to achieve what you want. Often, the best ideas come when you are not at work – you can create a safe space for them to land when away from your desk.

Go somewhere beautiful and special and get inspired

 

 

 

BEST MOMENTS

 

“I kind of treat every day above ground as a special day, so I have 364 more special days than the folks who save their special day status up for December 25th.”

 

“That’s how I got the idea to get outdoors and get away from my desk.”

 

“Go somewhere beautiful/elegant/special and get inspired”

 

“For years I’ve spent Christmas morning either mountain biking, hiking, or climbing.”

 

“Universe reminding me that time is passing”

 

VALUABLE RESOURCES

Neil Cowmeadow - Weird Things Guitarists Do

www.Neilcowmeadow.com

 

ABOUT THE HOST

Neil Cowmeadow is a maverick peripatetic guitar teacher from Telford with over 19 years experience in the business of helping people. Learn how to start, grow and love your business with Neil’s invaluable advice and tips without the buzzwords and BS!

 

CONTACT METHOD

[email protected]

In the latest episode of The Tutor Podcast, your Monday Morning shot of uncommon sense for people in the business of helping others through tutoring, teaching and coaching, Neil discusses organisation. What is being organised? Why it makes such a big difference to you and your business and how you too, can implement Neils ideas to starting getting more organised right away!

Organisation isn’t a bad thing, it frees you to get on with the teaching and making a difference. It shows up in how you teach and how you are perceived, so make the effort to become organised because it makes everything else run more smoothly, both day-to-day and week to week. This then adds up to easier months and years and the successful running of your Tutoring business.

Remember, learn how to start, grow and love your Tutor Business.

KEY TAKEAWAYS

• Organisation should be a given but there are a lot of tutors that sort of moved sideways into the business of teaching. Particularly music and arts-types of teachers, they are prone to chaos.
  
  

Know what needs done, If you don’t know, you can’t do it. So capture a list, post It on a wall calendar to shape the plan and create a default.

If you’re disorganised/chaotic, it undermines your credibility – you’re perceived as an amateur and It devalues you in the marketplace. This affects your ability to charge at a higher rate if you appear to be a chaotic amateur. Remember that the reverse is also true

If you get organised your days were more productive and you’ll have less embarrassing pile-ups and conflicts. You’ll see and experience fewer voids and as a result, earn more money! Plus, teaching will become even more fun.

Time organisation

Daily – the up and down, nuts and bolts of your day.

• Small tasks
• Teaching sessions
• Cash management
• Clean-ups
• Safety checks
• Anything you do daily

 

Weekly – the blocky shape of your week

• Planning next week
• Which days you work
• Holes in the schedule
• Checking the bank
• Cleaning up and putting petrol in the car
• Banking cash receipts
• All the things you do once a week
  
  

Monthly – the lumpy tasks that need to be taken care of

• Book-keeping – if you don’t outsource it
• Bank reconciliation
• Cash flow management
• Management accounts
• Expenses payments – mileage, use of your home office etc
• Maintenance
• Yearly – the big humps to get over
• Final accounts
• Tax filing – personal tax self-assessment
• Corporation tax
• VAT if relevant
• Dividends
• Strategic planning
• Vision for your business
  
  

BEST MOMENTS

“The idea that systems suppress creativity – nonsense! A routine or system gives you a framework in which you can be more creative because you’re not struggling to manage chaos.”

“Organisation isn’t a bad thing – it frees you to get on with the teaching and making a difference.”

“A well-organised space and approach makes for a better student experience”
“I could raise my prices because I was perceived as being more professional and thus as more valuable to my students.”

“Be aware that how you are perceived – chaotic amateur or organised professional – will make a difference.”

VALUABLE RESOURCES

Neil Cowmeadow - Weird Things Guitarists Do

www.Neilcowmeadow.com

#013 The Tutor Podcast - Episode on Pricing

ABOUT THE HOST

Neil Cowmeadow is a maverick peripatetic guitar teacher from Telford with over 19 years experience in the business of helping people. Learn how to start, grow and love your business with Neil’s invaluable advice and tips without the buzzwords and BS!

CONTACT METHOD

[email protected]

Welcome back to the Tutor Podcast. In today’s episode, Neil dives into your USP. Your Unique Selling Proposition. This is that special thing about you that makes you so attractive to your customers and gives you the advantage over your competitors. So what’s your USP? Tune in today, to find out more.

Remember, learn how to start, grow and love your Tutor Business.

KEY TAKEAWAYS

• Your USP is that special weird odd little thing about you that makes you different and gives you an advantage over your competitors. It’s what helps you stand out.
• Everything about you is your USP. This can be your culture, your background, your heritage. Anything.
• A unique selling proposition is a factor that differentiates a product from its competitors, such as the lowest cost, the highest quality or the first-ever product of its kind. A USP could be thought of as “what you have that competitors don't.
• Your own teaching system and learning system are all part of your unique learning experience and it is that you can use to create better products and services for your customers and clients and gain an advantage over the competition.

BEST MOMENTS

“It’s to our advantage if there is something quirky or different about us.”

“Your USP will help to make you the teacher and the tutor you are today.”

“Your experiences in life will help to mould your USP.”

VALUABLE RESOURCES

Neil Cowmeadow - Weird Things Guitarists Do

www.Neilcowmeadow.com

ABOUT THE HOST

Neil Cowmeadow is a maverick peripatetic guitar teacher from Telford with over 19 years experience in the business of helping people. Learn how to start, grow and love your business with Neil’s invaluable advice and tips without the buzzwords and BS!

CONTACT METHOD

[email protected]

In this episode, Neil dives into Retirement and Pensions for Tutors, and how you too can look at the alternative ways of creating your own personal pension scheme. Securing your financial future and figuring out where your cashflow will come from after retirement can be daunting, but if you invest in property, create evergreen products and venture into long-term asset growth potential, you can beat the pension trap and live a comfortable retirement.

Pension payouts are in decline but opportunities for cashflow are everywhere and today, Neil shares with you his own retirement plan and money pot he’ll be drawing from if he ever chooses to retire.

Remember, learn how to start, grow and love your Tutor Business.

KEY TAKEAWAYS

• Traditionally, you spent a lifetime contributing to a pension scheme either in the workplace or a state pension and at a certain age you retire from work and start receiving payments from the scheme. But here’s the thing:  that model is, if not dead, definitely mortally wounded. It’s Bankrupt system with liabilities that exceed assets and cashflows. This is why retirement ages are being ratcheted up.
• If you have been saving for life after work, and have amassed a big fat pot you can add to that state pension – it’s about £5400 for every 100k in your pot – think long and hard if that’s going to add up to enough income. How many of us have saved 4-500k and can look forward to a comfortable retirement?

What to do?

Either get busy with building a pension pot in a SIPP – self-invested personal pension or – if you are a limited company, a SSAS. Speak to your accountant or professional adviser about the pros and cons of these schemes.

1. Assess situation – get real – your indolence/neglect are coming to bite you in the arse
2. Make a plan – no plan is not an option – consider all options
3. Take action – pensions and retirement were so remote
4. The longer you wait, the harder it will be
5. Have an exit strategy

What Neil Does

“I buy properties – long term growth potential – rental income (reinvest this, it’s not for spending) – a legacy – and I’m helping people by providing homes that are safe and where my tenants have a secure home. I’ve been doing it for a couple of years and it’s been hard work, but I’m seeing decent returns and I’m looking forward to adding to my portfolio for the next 10-20 years.”

BEST MOMENTS

“There’s a world of difference between Getting Old and Growing Up – but only one is optional.”

“The future is coming – for us all. How it goes is a matter of choice.

“What would have given you a decent pension income a couple of decades ago produces only a pittance now.”

VALUABLE RESOURCES

Neil Cowmeadow - Weird Things Guitarists Do

www.Neilcowmeadow.com

ABOUT THE HOST

Neil Cowmeadow is a maverick peripatetic guitar teacher from Telford with over 19 years experience in the business of helping people. Learn how to start, grow and love your business with Neil’s invaluable advice and tips without the buzzwords and BS!

CONTACT METHOD

[email protected]