What is the secret of a successful life? Why do some people seem to always succeed no matter the challenges life throws at them and others seem to be trapped in a never-ending cycle of pain and suffering?

“The human spirit, like a campfire, must be lit again each day.” – Steve Chandler

I recently spoke with a music teacher in a small town in the middle of the USA. She was in a desperate state as she originally had a very strong roster of 31 to 40 students for 13 years but now has only a handful and is struggling to make ends meet. She’s an excellent teacher who plays and teaches seven instruments! But after over twenty years of professional experience, she can’t even make her rent payment.

It’s heartbreaking.

So many creative, talented, amazing people suffer from this. I struggled for years with it too!

What is it?

It’s the problem of victimhood. She, and others like herself, have settled into the role of victim. She’s waiting for an external force to change her life. The problem is, no one is coming. She needs to make the shift from victim to owner. She needs to take complete responsibility for her current state of results;Good, bad or otherwise. Only by stepping into that role of an owner can she start to turn her life around.

“Owners focus on what they want. Victims focus on what they fear. And both positions are pure internal invention.” – Steve Chandler

We human beings have created emotional and mental patterns, routines and behaviors to “define” our personas. We believe we are how we think, look and feel right now. And most of us think this is permanent. It’s not. Your personality and ways of being, are really a collection of habitual states.

When I was in my twenties, I dived deeply yet briefly into an acting career in theater, independent film and television. I was so intrigued by the portrayal of completely different people by the same actor. Nowadays, this seems harder to find, as most celebrities act as themselves in every film.

Have you ever seen a film with Daniel Day Lewis? He is completely different every time. I also love how Ralph Fiennes portrays such completely different beings in Schindler’s List to The English Patient to Harry Potter. But my favorite has always been Robert DeNiro. His transformation from the gaunt, haunting Travis Bickle in Taxi Driver to the goofy, psychotic Rupert Pupkin in The King of Comedy to the beefy boxer Jake LaMotta in Raging Bull is just incredible.

How do actors completely shift their beings for a 6 month film shoot? For many, it starts from the inside by shifting beliefs. For others, it’s starts outside in through behavior and actions. It’s incredibly disciplined as it needs to happen within a short period of time.

This actor’s way can also be applied to real life. You get to be the casting director. You choose who you want to become. So why not choose your perfect future?

“Self concept is destiny” – Nathaniel Branden

Here’s my steps to reinventing yourself.

1- Be the Owner – be fully responsible for all results in your life.

From today onward, you fully accept everything happening in your life to be a direct consequence of your choices, feelings, beliefs both conscious and unconscious. There are no accidents. It’s exactly how you created your life to be.

2 Feed your mind

Start thinking differently. There’s a plethora of great books by the likes of Wayne Dyer, Jen Sincero, Bob Proctor, Joe Dispenza, Louise Hays, Shakti Gawain, Marie Forleo, Tony Robbins, Deepak Chopra, Steve Chandler, the list goes on and on.

3- Choose a new destination

Those who fail to plan, plan to fail. Write down your goals. Visualize them. Commit to your new vision.

4 – Take Action

“A journey of a thousand miles must begin with a single step.” – Lao Tzu

One of the best actions you can take is to find a mentor to help you choose which actions to take now and which to hold off until later. A mentor has already achieved what you want and can save you so much time, energy and money.

5- Measure your results

Knowing where you are now and where you want to go is essential. All airplanes are off course 99% of the time. Which leads to the next step…

6 – Correct your course

Take the wheel and steer. You need to constantly adjust to what life throws at you. It’s in these moments of reaction that true greatness is revealed.

7- Celebrate every small win along the way!

It’s important for your mental health and rejuvenation to celebrate your wins. Don’t wait for big milestones. Celebrate every single day. This trains your mind to constantly be seeking the positive in all of the noise.

Success is not going to happen in a weekend or from a single Facebook post. But taking positive action every single day moves you forward. I really like this book Reinventing Yourself by Steve Chandler. It just may start you on your path to recovery from victimhood to owner.

And if you feel qualified to own a massively successful music school, let’s chat.

So you know you can teach music…congratulations!

It’s only the first step.

Offering your services and successfully running a profitable business is a whole other problem. This is the problem most music teachers who want to grow a successful business face.

It feels like a massive tangle of problems:

How do I get clients? How do I maintain the ones I have? How do I manage running the business while teaching. How to make sure you have enough cash left at the end of the month so you can actually pay yourself something.And it costs energy, time and what little money you have. Not to mention sanity!

Does this sound familiar?

There’s actually a deeper reason behind it all. It’s the belief that you know what you’re doing.

That’s it.

Most teachers have never been trained to think like a business person. So they follow what the crowd is doing or saying. Unfortunately, they don’t know either. Sometimes, they get lucky and something works. But because there’s no understanding of the big picture, it runs its course and doesn’t work anymore.

It’s like dentists. There’s a bunch in my family and friends. Graduating with honors from a top dental school only enables you to work for someone else. It’s the same with music teachers.

Therefore , it requires a shift in belief. You have to stop thinking in small tactics and address core problems. It’s like putting tiny band-aids on gigantic wounds. You’re not going to stop the bleeding.

I suffered this mentality for years. I kept diving from one program to another thinking, this one trick should do it. From now on, I’ll be successful, mwah ha ha ha!

But it’s NOT about what your “click-through-rate on an ad” is. “Postcard marketing” is not the answer. It’s not about “Yelp vs Facebook vs Google.” It’s not even about your makeup and billing policy.

The real answer is that you need a framework for thinking about business and delivering results for your students.

I’ve been the President of a local business support group for the last two years. One thing I’ve seen over and over again is that every business has the same challenges. It doesn’t matter if you’re a dentist, a real estate agent, a life coach, a graphic designer or a yoga instructor.

Everyone who is in business, either solo-preneur or bigger, has the same challenges.

I wish I knew this years ago. And now you will have it.

Here’s the four areas every business needs to master to become a success:

A steady flow of new prospective clients (leads)
Cashflow and pricing
Time management
Your process – curriculum – secret sauce

It’s actually simple.

But it’s also interesting how many music teachers are stuck on the 4th point. Curriculum is important but it’s much more than that if you want to make a real livable wage from your teaching.

Now that you know this, you can take stock of where you are and start to dive deeper into each area that needs improvement.

I’ve made it my life’s mission to help people learn life skills through music. But I can’t do it alone. I need energized, passionate and purpose-driven educators who are reaching as many students as possible to join me.

If you would like help growing your business, and are an awesome educator who believes in the power of music to change the world, then I invite you to book a Breakthrough Call with me.

NOTE: Please DO NOT book a call if you are just looking to get 3 more students on your roster. I’m looking for educators with vision who want to make a bigger impact and are coachable, open-minded and in integrity.

And note, It’s not just about my curriculum. I can help you with all of the 4 challenges.