Alright – so today we’ve got the honor of introducing you to Jim Fain. We think you’ll enjoy our conversation, we’ve shared it below.
Jim, appreciate you joining us today. Let’s start with the story of your mission. What should we know?
As an entrepreneur it’s not only my mission to gain a client or provide the best quality service for my clients; but to also encourage my clients to pursue their dreams to do the same.
One of my businesses is personally providing an educational service by teaching my clients the skills I use to run my businesses. This can be anything from teaching violin, lead guitar, piano, cello, photography, graphic design, motion picture editing, marketing, social media, motion graphics, etc.
On the more passive side of A Premium Blend Studios, I allow aspiring entrepreneurs to rent studios to open their own businesses in my studio. On the school side I have personal students of mine that I am teaching or imparting life-long skills to. While teaching has its rewards observing my students grow and give back to the community; My renters also have families who are primarily of minority groups and are also giving back to the community. A lot are new to business and may need help as a young entrepreneur with marketing ideas, ad design or a mentor and this is where I come in.
Awesome – so before we get into the rest of our questions, can you briefly introduce yourself to our readers.
Observing my dad’s routine of having his morning coffee and heading to work at his leisure likely cultivated a pursuit in owning my own business. I also had a dear friend tell me, “I think you could do it, in fact I know you could”. I couldn’t ever see myself in a 9 to 5 situation since I was often tardy to school. I can’t say school was something I looked forward to although, I definitely enjoyed walking to the beat of my own drum. After high school I had quite a few different types of jobs in construction operating heavy equipment and in refineries overcoming the fear of heights and eventually had my own floor contracting business at the age of 19. After running it a few years, I learned I didn’t want to work that physically hard the rest of my life.
I had learned to play guitar in my late teens and in my early 20’s put a band together and shortly after I was approached by a music producer who asked if I would be interested in touring and promoting another artist’s music.
A band member mentioned this producer served as a tour manager for Jose Feliciano. I hadn’t had any prior experience but was confident I could learn anything and perform it live, so I was thrilled to take it on.
Around the same time I had just wrapped up working on that project, a young film producer who had just graduated from film school in L.A. was back in Texas. I answered my cell and he said, “Hey Jim, this is Gilbert remember me? We went to school together”. It turned out that the producer who I had just finished working with was looking for a director/producer for the artist he was representing to shoot a music video. He had told Gilbert Aguirre about working with me and my band and that’s how he got my number. Long story short Gilbert wanted to see any camera footage I may have had from our brief tour to get a feel before giving an answer. Gilbert came over and we watched some of performances of the tour and others. Later that evening he ended up inviting me to a film shoot where he was already working with two artists signed with Q-Productions which was Selena Quintanilla’s studio owned by her father Abraham.
I had fun working with Gilbert on those film sets doing everything from building props to working with lighting, camera assisting, etc. nearly wrecking a stunt car but wasn’t on the insurance. That’s a whole other story.
Basically, that set the tone for my creative art direction moving forward. I always enjoyed all forms of art whether it was performing or visual, a pencil and a napkin whatever. I’d like to think I participate in the culinary arts every time I enjoy a great dish too!
One day during a band practice one of the band members had invited a couple of friends over and someone asked I offered guitar lessons. I replied, “No, but I suppose I could” and that is how I started teaching privately. I had operated my own contracting business at 19 so I had some experience doing business.
A few years later I moved to Georgetown, Texas where I decided to open my own full fledge performing arts school. The first year we were offering music lessons for all orchestral instruments, as well as dance instruction ballet, jazz & tap, musical theatre, a free youth orchestra. In addition I was starting to make some film connections and began to offer a free film actors workshop every Sunday with special quest instructors and a brunch. It was interesting to meet people from different surrounding cities like Dallas and Houston while living in this small town in the crossroads. I think Georgetown wasn’t ready for the artforms I was trying to bring to it despite it seemingly being immersed in the arts.
We even held martial arts stunt fighting and movie special effects workshops taught by professionals in the industry.
Looking back at a couple of great moments; A Premium Blend School launched with a Kiss themed Rock n Roll Band camp with a photoshoot on the Gene Simmons AXE bus and a give away of a Gene Simmons AXE bass! The video reel of the Gene Simmons bus driving up to the historic square is awesome, nothing but country music until that day!
The full rock band curriculum was very unique at the time, no one else was doing anything like it back in Feb of 2012 in the Austin, Texas area. I had every kid who signed up, some with zero experience performing live music like rock stars by the end of the week and paparazzi to boot! To see kids eyes light up when they realize they can do anything they want when they give it their sincere effort and put their heart into it. Call it practice, call it grit but just don’t quit and you’ll accomplish it. I also learned that Gene Simmons is a much nicer gentleman than the scary demon he portrays on stage with KISS spitting blood and fire! Thank you Gene and Carm.
Another great moment was meeting virtuoso guitarist Jennifer Batten, who was Michael Jackson’s lead guitarist for a decade and later went on to play with Jeff Beck for a few years after. I’m always a kid in a candy store when I meet these musicians and I was like that when I met Jennifer. I immediately asked her if she would ever consider coming to my performing arts school to perform and perhaps teach a workshop. She casually said, “Sure” of course if she was ever back in Texas since she was living out of state. Turns out there was another famous musician she was coming to visit in Austin at the time. Jennifer messaged me on facebook if I remember correctly saying, “Hey Jim, i’m going to be flying through Austin and thought maybe I could stop by your school”. Well of course you know what happened, I immediately contacted the paper to start promoting it, creating ads announcing this last minute concert featuring Jennifer Batten. I litterally contacted various musicians and put a back up band together overnight which who wasn’t gonna want to rock out with Jennifer Batten? Jennifer performed a concert with a film of hers that was projected on a film screen behind her in A Premium Blend Studios photography studio at the time. After the performance we had a jam session and then a Q&A with Jennifer and APB guitar students. Afterwards, Jennifer and I went out to eat and she told me the coolest story about how she met Eddie Van Halen and how He put his guitar on her and asked her to play and I about died.
I have been very fortunate through God given talents to connect with the community and those in the art world all around me working in various art forms on various platforms. Meeting a variety of artists, professionals in every field, entrepreneurs and hearing their stories and learning from them and sharing with them; This has also inspired me to continue to help encourage not only the youth through education to follow their dreams; but the adults and my peers and everyone that walks through my door. even a renter that has a dream of someday owning their own business. I don’t believe anything is impossible within reason and I believe everyone can achieve their dreams and make them a reality, if in their heart they really want to and are willing to fight for it. I could blow my horn and say, “I can play over a dozen instruments” but of what benefit is it to have knowledge if we don’t impart it to others.
Have you ever had to pivot?
I had spent nearly a decade building my business when Covid came and I was obligated under contract to continue to pay my building lease rent. At the same time the state had shut me down from operating my business or providing services to my clients; therefore, I couldn’t make the income required to cover thousands in monthly expenses. I had multiple things working against me. On one hand I had to put the safety of my clients first so I wanted to respect the laws in place but my landlord was a greedy real estate attorney and didn’t care if people were dying or how I got his money. He only cared about me paying my rent on the beginning of every month. Covid absolutely crushed the arts and inaccurate media reports didn’t make it any easier. I was already dealing with multiple challenges at this point with my students and my heartless landlord. It gets worse. I had just constructed private studios that could be rented by hair & make-up artists, etc to my school and TDLR had just notified everyone with a license that if they were caught operating their business they would be fined and could be shut down and stripped of their license for up to 2 yrs. Now even my other means of passive income were cut off and in addition those clients were unable to provide for their families. I felt defeated and I ended up getting a small loan at 29 percent interest just to try and cover one months rent and expenses. Everyone seemed to be getting government assistance but me and I ran dry. I ended up maxing a couple of credit cards just to by groceries and cleaning supplies.
It was grim, I manage to get some local assistance one time just enough to help me get through the next month so I could crawl and scratch my way into the light. I eventually crawled out of this hole of darkness with some significant, but I survived and was able to salvage some clientele and slowly build back again. My performing arts school was no longer. I had to relocate because my landlord literally doubled my rent. His greed went through my leaky roof when he caught news of the influx from big city transplants with lots of money relocating to small town Georgetown. Many followed his line of thinking.
My landlord had officially given me notice that if I couldn’t pay the newly adjusted $4,500.00 I would have to move out. I prayed for a solution, in fact one day a TDLR inspector came by for an inspection and she wanted to pray with me and I just broke down right inside my business. I was hanging on by a thread but I didn’t give up hope.
Ironically, it was a blessing that I was unable to afford to repair my car as I was having to walk home from my studio, and I noticed a for lease sign in a window. I immediately called the number and was able to get a hold of the owner. I asked him what the rent was and he told me a few thousand. I was able to negotiate with him and arrive at a much better price that I could afford and that he was still happy with, I think! This was the answer to my prayer and the property was unlisted that’s why I never seen it in the MLS. It turned it was only several blocks from my house so I could walk even if my car was broken down and the best part was the building had a working AC and the roof wasn’t full of leaks!
Unfortunately, I had to cut some programs like community theatre, film screenings, acting, dance classes, etc. since I no longer have the additional space, but I still offer private music lessons for over a dozen instruments.
More importantly I also provide small affordable studio space for others to pursue their dreams of having a small business as well. A lot of those clients have families to provide for even though they are aspiring entrepreneurs. Some of my clients are single mothers from humble minority families and it makes me feel good to be able to provide an affordable opportunity for anyone wanting to pursue their dream of owning a small business. I don’t know how long it will last but I suppose we’ll all enjoy the ride while we can.
How did you put together the initial capital you needed to start your business?
I never got a business loan. I saved my guitar lesson money. I looked for a property that wasn’t listed, that I could clean up myself at a discount as a bargaining chip and negotiate for myself. I’m proud to say I did it without investors or big money or loans. There’s a certain sense of reward in doing it with pocket change.
Contact Info:
- Website: https://www.facebook.com/APremiumBlendSchool/
- Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/jimfainfilmproducercomposer/
- Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/apremiumblend
- Linkedin: https://www.linkedin.com/in/jim-fain-47001a49/
- Other: https://vimeo.com/apremiumblendstudios
Image Credits
Jim Fain
A Premium Blend School students
A Premium Blend Studios