TEM95: Tim Topham on building a community of true fans in an already crowded space, launching a successful membership site and minimum viable products

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TEM95: Tim Topham on building a community of true fans in an already crowded space, launching a successful membership site and minimum viable products

Australian piano teacher and performer Tim Topham shares how, through the use of a membership site, newsletter, podcast, blog and webinars, he was able to build a wildly successful piano teaching community in an already crowded space.

Topics Covered:

  • 7:14 - How Tim ended up getting burned out after college, leaving music altogether for 10 years and how his first piano teacher inspired him upon coming back to music

  • 12:20 - The depressing statistics of how many musicians today make a full-time living performing and why it's important to look at a career in music diversely

  • 14:42 - How he found a niche for himself within the piano teaching world which tends to be very traditional

  • 17:56 - How he organizes his content by theme on a monthly basis based on things teachers are asking him to cover

  • 20:08 - Details about The Inner Circle, the online community of piano teachers he has created on his website, and how it was a concerted effort to scale what he was already regularly doing on a one-on-one basis

  • 25:09 - When he initially launched, how he got his first members to join a paid membership site before there was any kind of community already there

  • 28:34 - The number of hours a week he spends per week on his website and all of his digital services

  • 32:09 - The aspects of his business that he outsources since they aren't his strengths

  • 35:33 - How he went about starting to build his website without a huge amount of technical knowledge

  • 37:59 - The importance of shipping a Minimum Viable Product

  • 40:32 - The "crippling perfection" that classical musicians in particular are used to and how it doesn't help anyone be a successful entrepreneur

  • 44:21 - How he has built a team around him to help with various tasks for his business

  • 49:04 - The advice he has for any musical entrepreneur who is trying to get started (or reach the next level) in the business

  • 57:54 - Resources he recommends to musical entrepreneurs

Links:

Favorite Quotes:

"I've got to stop doing things that one, I'm not good at, and two, isn't bringing value to my members."

"It doesn't really matter where you start. Just start something."

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Thanks for all the help spreading and supporting TEM. It means the world to me.

Produced by Joey Santillo