We were lucky to catch up with Jordan Brown recently and have shared our conversation below.
Hi Jordan, thanks for joining us today. Being a business owner can be really hard sometimes. It’s rewarding, but most business owners we’ve spoken sometimes think about what it would have been like to have had a regular job instead. Have you ever wondered that yourself? Maybe you can talk to us about a time when you felt this way?
The last time I thought about what it would be like to have a regular job was when I moved to a new city and had to start my business from scratch again. It is hard work starting over and finding new clients in a new city, especially when I don’t have any professional connections. I had even gone as far as applying for jobs in hopes to make some income while I get my business off the ground again. I didn’t have any success in landing a job even after I had moved which honestly was a huge frustration of mine. It was quite an emotional time feeling like I couldn’t land a job even in the service industry. I knew I needed to make an income for myself and my family, so I pushed forward and found myself adding students to my roster slowly but surely. After 3 months of living in our new location I have 36 students on the roster, and the business is doing very well! Looking back I can see that it is good that I didn’t get a job because it would have only taken time and energy away from me pouring into the business. It really challenged my idea of what it meant to be a hard worker and to believe in myself and why I ultimately love owning my own business. It means true freedom for myself and my family, and I can make decisions that work best for my life.
Great, appreciate you sharing that with us. Before we ask you to share more of your insights, can you take a moment to introduce yourself and how you got to where you are today to our readers.
My name is Jordan Brown, I am a voice teacher and singer in Chicago, Illinois. I got into the music performance industry through my undergraduate degree at The University of Northwestern- St. Paul in Minnesota. I have performed in both operas and musical theater performances which is where I spend most of my time in voice lessons with my students. I’m a voice teacher who focuses on what works for the individual singer. That means we find strategies and techniques that feel the most easy and comfortable for the singer. What works for one singer might not work for the next, and my job as their teacher is to guide them through the process of finding the most power out of their voice with as little effort as possible. That might mean we make weird sounds in lessons and that is, I think, the most fun part of singing lessons! I’m proud to consider myself a technician that finds a good balance between technique based in science and research and the true artistry that comes from singing and acting. Because after all, a singer is telling a story, and we can’t forget about the meaning of what we are singing about.
Any stories or insights that might help us understand how you’ve built such a strong reputation?
I think what helped me build my reputation in the music performance market is being a student-centered teacher. I think so many times teachers of all subjects, not just singing, focus too much on their pedagogy and their craft of teaching, and it can get too technical. I believe in establishing a positive relationship between myself and the student first before we get to work on singing, we may just talk for a bit in our first lesson together. That builds trust and establishes a positive connection that will help us learn more freely and explore challenging things in the studio. Singing can be vulnerable at times, so the positive student-centered environment helps each person feel free to explore those vulnerable areas without fear of judgement. After a while I think word-of-mouth spread about how fun it is in lessons, and that positive feedback tends to work better than any other form of advertisement.
We’d love to hear about how you keep in touch with clients.
Since a good amount of my work is working with students who are school-aged, part of my job is communicating with their parents as well as the students. I have a monthly newsletter that acts as a studio update to parents and students. I’ll include things like recital dates, important holiday dates that affect lesson times, and general updates if there are any. I also like to include announcements about students that won competitions, landed roles in performances, as well as challenges that we have faced in lessons, and how we can tackle those challenges as a group of singers.
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Image Credits
Headshot provided by: Twin Cities Headshots
Company logo provided by: ShanLea Designs