We caught up with the brilliant and insightful Dru Davis a few weeks ago and have shared our conversation below.

Dru, appreciate you joining us today. Risk taking is something we’re really interested in and we’d love to hear the story of a risk you’ve taken.

Starting a business and quitting your 9-5 job is always a risk. It’s terrifying. And I had a great job, too. I was a full-time worship pastor at a great place with a great boss. Healthcare was provided! But I left. It’s still scary. At the old job, my day-to-day life wasn’t effected by attendance, you know? If people didn’t show up, I would still get paid. Whereas now, I need clients to have income. It’s an entirely different way of life. Ultimately, I want to make music and help other people make music. So if I have to take a risk to live that life, then I’m okay with that.

Awesome – so before we get into the rest of our questions, can you briefly introduce yourself to our readers.

I’m a musician and music coach, so I play guitar, sing, write songs and record music. But mostly I teach others how to play guitar, sing, write songs and record their own music. And it’s all done over Zoom, for a couple reasons. First, so it doesn’t matter where the student is. I can teach someone from KC, log off and then be with a student in Boston.

The more fun reason is that lessons become a sort of augmented reality. My music studio is set up more like a broadcast studio. There’s lots of lights and cameras that I use to show unique angles of the guitar. Plus, I can use screen overlays to illustrate all kinds of things. Most of the recording process nowadays is done on a computer so it makes a lot of sense to do that on a screen, too.

I taught in-person traditional guitar lessons for over 15 years. And this is an exciting new way of helping people reach their music goals. Students sign up on my website (drudavis.com), and meet with me once a week.
And they’re doing all kinds of stuff. I’ve got a few people doing beginner guitar lessons. I have some students who are learning how to sing and play at the same time. One of my clients in Austin is working on songwriting because he’s currently in the studio recording. Another on the east coast is only learning to play southern rock, because that’s all he wants to do.

There’s more, but you get the idea. They all have different music goals and I’m helping them to reach those goals.

Can you talk to us about how your funded your business?

This business could have been started with $0. Sort of. The business itself is just me coaching others. But of course, I wanted to do it in a specific fancy way. The gear required is instruments, cameras, studio lighting, two computers, a video switcher, professional music making software/hardware and a few odds and ends. I would guess that it’s about $10,000-15,000 worth of gear. But I’m a musician who likes to play shows and make YouTube videos, so I had all this to begin with.

That said, I did renovate my unfinished basement into a music studio. That cost about $4,000. I think it’s safe to say this is one of the cheapest businesses to get the ball rolling.

Any stories or insights that might help us understand how you’ve built such a strong reputation?

I’ve been fortunate enough to have some pretty awesome students over the years, going back to being a “traditional” guitar teacher. I have had some young students who played really well, especially for their age. I once had a ten year old play Eruption by Eddie Van Halen. Many of my clients perform professionally. I have multiple students who are currently on Spotify, and others that have had album releases. A few of my students have gone on to become guitar teachers themselves.

All that to say, it’s the students themselves that build my reputation. Some of my clients come to me from Facebook or Google ads. But the majority come to me because they saw or met one of my former students. And since the former student plays well, it helps me gain a reputation for getting results.

For that reason I’m very thankful for all the talented people I’ve been lucky to work with.

Contact Info:

• Website: drudavis.com
• Instagram: instagram.com/drudavismusic
• Facebook: facebook.com/drudavismusicpage
• Youtube: youtube.com/user/drudavismusic