What It's About
When the pandemic hits, this duo switches keys and takes their classes online.
Business Model
Skills Required
Complexity
Profit Potential
Words of Wisdom
Mary suggests that if you go into business to start a side hustle, you need to pick a partner who has complementary skills and be comfortable letting them do their own thing. Their company has grown into what it is today because they’ve allowed each other to shine in their respective roles.
Also, Mary highlighted the importance of supporting their community. Their network of students, teachers, and business partners was critical to weathering the worst parts of the pandemic, and they continue to be a big family to this day. If your community can rely on you, they’ll be there for you as well.
Fun Fact
The Toronto Songwriting School loves a little bit of competition, so they’re running multiple songwriting competitions per year to test your skills! All you have to do is sing into your phone and submit a $5 app fee to win it all.
Notes from Chris
Episode 1772
Musician and songwriter Murray Foster performed in the Canadian folk-rock band Great Big Sea for over a decade before the group called it quits in 2013. But Murray wasn’t quite ready to retire from his love of songwriting just because the other guys decided to move on to different things in their lives. An idea dawned on him to monetize his passion by creating a songwriting course in the Toronto area. Even though he didn’t know much about marketing or building a business, this musician was pretty upbeat about keeping the dream alive. He reached out to his friend Mary Krause, and they went into the project together. What project? The Toronto Songwriting School. You know where this is going ... right? COVID-19 was just starting to gain momentum. Getaway guests were still innocently sharing meals, drinks, and microphones as if life was totally normal. Within just two weeks, they’d have to completely cancel in-person classes and fully pivot how the Toronto Songwriting School operated on a daily basis. So what would they do? They wanted to keep their tight-knit community of students together, so they started by hosting free Sunday night song circles while developing a longer-term strategy. Each week, their students would come together, share a song or two (online!), and they’d close with a check-in to make sure the small group was doing okay with everything happening around the world. Like the rest of us, they hoped the change would be short-lived. But as Canada continued to shut down, it became pretty clear that they’d need to adjust their courses to become online-only. We all know that feeling of hopping on a Zoom call where everyone talks over one another. Well, how about trying to sing in harmony with one another!? The difficulty level of getting multiple singers to harmonize with each other over video chat has been ... off the scale! Still, they persevered, and their side hustle is now bringing in around $2,500 in profits each month, part-time. Mary continues to work at her full-time healthcare social media job. Meanwhile, Murray stays busy with various artistic pursuits, such as teaching at a local college and writing musical theater.MENTIONED IN THIS EPISODE:
- Learn more about Murray and Mary’s amazing school at their website, TorontoSongWritingSchool.com.
- Parody Rapper Publishes Educational Music Videos: A digital learning consultant turns a lifelong love of music into a YouTube channel for students and teachers.
- Choir Teacher Turns Music Workbooks Into Noteworthy Hustle: A passionate choir teacher on a limited budget discovers an untapped market.
- Musicians Tune Up Classical Concerts For Families: Two professional musicians (who are also new moms) start a series of family-friendly classical music concerts.
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