I Used to Refund Every Missed Lesson. Here's Why I Stopped.

Last week, I shared the start of a story about an adult student who told me in his trial lesson which of my policies he wouldn't follow. This is how it ended, and why so many of us keep teaching a student long after we know it isn't working. Letting go isn't failing them, and it can be done kindly. In this episode, you'll hear: How the story of the adult student from Episode 15 endedWhy we hold on, and what it costs you, the family, the student and the student waiting for a spaceWhy not pract...

Earlier this year, a keen new adult student told me in his trial lesson which of my policies he wouldn't be following, and I heard myself say, "That's fine." After 19 years of teaching, and with a waiting list of over 50, I still said yes. This is about why we do that, and how to spot the red flags sooner. In this episode, you'll hear: Why saying yes to every enquiry is a normal stage, and what it cost meThe reasons for saying yes that sit in us, not in the studentThe red flags I look for now...

When I started teaching in 2007, I called myself a piano teacher in training, charged £10 a lesson and let every cancellation go without a second thought. Nobody told me piano teaching wasn't a real job. I just ran my studio as if it wasn't, and it took me years to see it. In this episode, you'll hear: The expectations I grew up with, and why teaching never felt like a proper jobHow music gets treated as an extra, from school budgets to the GCSE yearsMy rates and policies then and now, and th...

A teacher friend messaged me recently. He'd lost eight students this year, and not one of the reasons had anything to do with his teaching. And yet his question was still: isn't that quite a lot? That gap between what we know and what we feel when a student leaves is what this podcast episode is all about. In this episode, you'll hear: Why a student leaving feels so personal, even when it isn'tThe most common reasons students stop lessons, and when a pattern is worth a closer lookHow my one-m...

I share how I set my very first teaching rate using a national average survey, and the moment, two and a half years later, that I realised I wasn't an average teacher, and shouldn't be charging an average rate. I talk honestly about the fear of raising a rate on an existing family for the first time, the framework I now use to work out what to charge, and the objections that hold so many teachers back from pricing properly. In this episode: Why benchmark surveys like the ISM teacher fees surv...