We’re excited to introduce you to the always interesting and insightful Alejandra Febre. We hope you’ll enjoy our conversation with Alejandra below.
Alejandra, appreciate you joining us today. What’s the backstory behind how you came up with the idea for your business?
I actually started as a parent in a different School of Rock. In January 2013, I enrolled my three kids then aged 6, 9, and 10, at School of Rock The Woodlands. The program seemed so innovative, music lessons done a different way, where children would not only have a one on one private lesson but they would form part of a band with weekly rehearsals and a show director. My kids simply loved being there all the time. They were making friends, they were having fun, and they were learning how to play and perform. It was such a joy to see them thrive and see School of Rock become part of their identity, that me and my husband decided we wanted to bring that same experience to more children in the community.
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
I am a chemical engineer/ex-model/rocker mom. I come from a family of prominent and successful musicians. My dad used to play at stadiums for 10,000 people when he was part of a Mexican rock band called Banda Macho back in the 70’s and my uncle has an Emmy award for best score in a drama TV series for The Cape and is well known for his work in Smallville. Now, you might think that with that family I should be a proficient musician. Actually no, as amazing a dad my father was he terrified me when it came to teaching me music. When I found School of Rock for my children my first thought was, “I wish I had had this when I was growing up.” And that is exactly what every music loving parent tells me when they bring their kids and see the shows. We teach children not only how to play an instrument, we teach them history of rock, music theory, showmanship, team work, the different genres that overlap with rock. But most important, we provide a community and a safe space for them to explore their love for music.
We’d love to hear a story of resilience from your journey.
I think the most challenging part of our story as a business has been surviving Covid. We are an in person business. We have group rehearsals. Our shows are in front of a live audience. How were we supposed to make things work when the world shut down? I still remember the very traumatic moments lived during that Spring Break 2020. I left with my family for a skiing vacation and had to cut it short because the little town in Colorado where we were skiing reported 49 cases of Covid-19. We came back home and quarantined, when all of a sudden it was announced that the kids were not going back to school until the end of March. At that point me and my staff had only a few days to change all our in person lessons into Zoom lessons, all while being quarantined myself. The memories from that week are both clear and blurry, similar to a livid dream or a nightmare. We had 144 students at the time. We had to talk to all parents, train the staff, all while having to send home all the staff the moment stay at home orders were issued. Looking back, I have no idea how we did it, probably pure sheer conviction that it could be done.
Do you have any stories of times when you almost missed payroll or any other near death experiences for your business?
I guess our near death moment was May 2020. The first few weeks on Zoom actually helped many of our students to stay sane and have contact with something they considered normal. But when school adopted the same solution for their lessons, the kids got saturated. All of a sudden we lost half of our students. I truly believe that if the shut down had lasted one more month we would have not survived as a business. Once we were able to re-open in June, we built separations in every room and turned our students lounge into a giant rehearsal room to be able to have a 6 ft social distancing setting. It took some time for people to feel comfortable, but the measures worked. Though we had individual cases of Covid throughout the months, we never had a Covid outbreak. And once the vaccines became available people started coming back in bigger and bigger numbers. We are now at 160 students and growing stronger.
Contact Info:
- Website: https://www.schoolofrock.com/locations/cypress
- Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/schoolofrockcypress/
- Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/schoolofrockcypress
- Linkedin: https://www.linkedin.com/in/alejandra-febre-02343591/
- Twitter: https://twitter.com/SoR_Cypress
- Youtube: https://www.youtube.com/c/SchoolofRockUSA
Image Credits
School of Rock USA