Bandherence Part 3

the last category in the situation of snapshot is available

substitutes now like it or not As a music educator,

you have competition.

No, I'm not saying the local high school or the

five a school that's in another town that you're competing

against infield competitions.

I'm not talking about that competition.

I'm talking about the competition that you run into at

your own school that takes up the time and commitment

that your students have to participate in your music program.

Now, these things come down to five main elements and

knowing the difference between these right can really help you

plan for unseen events where students may not be able

to participate for whatever reasons.

Now, some of this comes in the, uh, way of

cost. Some families may not be able to afford both

band and let's say tennis or something like that and,

or scouting or what have you.

And so they may not see the value that your

program brings to them as much as another sporting event

or something like that.

Or scouting or activity that they think, well, I would

much rather spend my money over here than here.

I don't have enough money for both.

So taking a look at that can be very important.

Having the fundraisers available of course, in the state of

California, we have what's called the Williams act.

So there should be no barriers to entry for somebody

to come in and they don't have to rent an

instrument or even by reads.

In the state of California, your program should be able

to provide that for your students and then also looking

at time time's commitment and sometimes that's the currency that

parents also have.

They may not have time for.

That student may not have time or conflicting time schedules.

So taking a look at that, the level of skill

that it takes, some people may not be as committed

as you would like them to be because of the

level of skill it may take.

Or like I said, level of commitment.

Now, the level of commitment comes down to almost a

value proposition.

Are they getting out of your program more than what

they put into it?

Now? That may seem right.

You should probably get what you pay for.

But if you think about it, okay, if you are

to make a purchase, like I just recently made a

purchase of a computer, do I get out of that

computer? The amount of money that I paid for it?

What would that be in fair exchange?

And so if a student thinks I do all this

work, but I'm not getting anything out of it.

We're not.

Maybe they want to win awards or maybe they want

to have more social activities or what have you.

If they're not getting out of it, what they think

they have put into it, then they're not going to

be as committed.

Okay. And then lastly, popularity, now, this can come in

several ways.

Now. Generally speaking, when we're talking popularity a lot of

times, you know, band is the least popular thing to

do. I don't like to think that way.

I think it's pretty popular, but uh, on the flip

side is also, is who's being involved in the band?

Are these students able to reach out to other students

and be able to draw them in because they're participating

as well and making it fun?

Okay. So knowing these available substitutes can draw students away

if let's say someone doesn't participate anymore in band, while

others won't because that person is not there anymore.

So knowing these type of things can really help you

to understand the buy ins that both the students and

the parents will have toward your program.

And lastly, I want to mention this, this is outside

the situation snapshot, but it's part of the situation is

adaptation and I here so many times that teachers kind

of wanna stop or quit before, given human nature it's

full cycle given it time now, any time there's a

new product that hits the market, it's not an instantaneous

big seller.

Sometimes it takes what's called some adaptation.

The starts with the innovators a lot of times uh,

within this innovator community, which is very small.

There are what's called influencers.

Now, influencers has a very popular terms these days because

of social media and the money that a lot of

companies spend on influencers just to have their product.

Advertiser used by a certain person, an endorsement sort of

say, but when we're looking at influencers, I call them

sneeze ear's.

These are students that it probably won't take much for

them to buy into your program.

But these people have that popularity that we said earlier,

right, that will be able to reach out to other

students and draw them in like a social media influencer.

These people are key.

And to tell you the truth, I have been doing

sales in this uh market for 20 years and that

has been the secret to my success.

I have found that one person or a group of

people that likes to share with others.

So a great new products, something new that they discovered

and want to keep them in on and they hand

out my phone number and my name and I get,

cause I don't go that much out to find new

customers, they find me and that's what you want for

your music program.

You want them to find you because you have such

a strong program that is indispensable to the lives of

these students that they're going to draw in other students.

Okay. And then one other thing I want to mention

this, don't give up before its time.

Give it time many times.

Just starting out with a new band.

It takes years before you see the full momentum.

Just like you see here in the adaptation model, you

see this huge hump in the middle where the early

majority comes joining in right much later than the first

rung of influencers and early adapters.

So be patient.

Make sure you keep with developing your competencies and developing

a strong identity for your program.

And sure enough, the early majority will arrive.

So moving forward from this, let's go and let's take

some action into this.

So this four actions framework actually comes from a book

called Blue Ocean Strategy and I'm going to recommend that

you get that book and read it of course is

mainly for businesses and developing a uh new product and

uh services for target market.

But in that gives you a lot of understanding of

what it takes to build a music program as well.

So let's go over a few things here with the

four actions frame work taking from what you've gathered from

your situation snapshot.

You have an idea of your environment.

You can now take a look at the things you

may need to eliminate now when you start eliminating things,

you need to know what are the things that cause

the biggest tension, what you need to eliminate doubt.

That's a little bit more than the little insecurity you

get. I don't know if this is gonna work.

We're talking about a sense of doubt that will destroy

you, Make sure you have confidence in your competencies.

And then also negative experiences.

Nipping things in the bud is very important to make

sure that you don't develop dirty habits.

So when eliminating that you look for those dirty habits

you look for for anything that is uh where you

don't have confidence in things and you also take a

look at those things that caused the largest tension.

You then also take a look at uh raising something,

the level of importance.

Make sure your program has increased importance, so you can

have a deeper commitment, make sure you are inclusive.

There is no doubt in my mind and I have

seen recently uh coming out of certain state Semillas this

thing of not being inclusive um the lines of income

and stuff like that, I want to caution folks not

to do that for me personally, I came from a

lower income family and it changed my life to be

involved in band.

And so being inclusive grows the market, grows your program,

make sure you are inclusive.

And then lastly, uh, in raising, you need to raise

character, anything that you do can be challenging for folks

even to the point where they want to quit.

But making sure students are encouraged to go beyond what

they think they can do is a huge character building

quality. You need to make sure that you reduce things

along this lines, variances being make sure that you stay

along uh certain schedules and leaving out certain variances can

be very distraction, very distracting interruptions.

Make sure that you uh, respect your students to eliminate

interruptions into your uh, time together and waste of time.

That's very important.

Making sure you are prepared.

There's nothing more that says that you care about a

student than being prepared each day for them.

That's so important.

And then lastly, you need to create this is perfectly

along the lines of brand equity and creating an identity

for your program.

This looks familiar because we talked about this because it

is also the branding touchpoints need to make sure that

what you create has uniqueness, that it is well differentiated

and unique, that is making an impact on your students,

that it is valuable to them.

And then lastly, is that it is indispensable for them.

This creates for them some serious loyalty and character development.

Bandherence Part 3

Chapters

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