An amazing family story...The Rios family owns and operates one of California's largest performing arts schools with over 1,000 students. On this podcast you'll hear about their journey as a family, continuing their father's piano teaching legacy. If you want to get an insight on how a family business can run at the very highest level, achieving financial and artistic success, be sure to check out this podcast!
MORE ABOUT THE RIOS FAMILY
Siblings Francis, Teresa, and Augustina Rios have spent their entire lives in the music school business. Students, recitals, and workshops were everyday surroundings growing up with their father’s piano studios. Being the children of a pianist -performer and educator Dr. Robert Rios, the siblings began contributing to the schools at a very young age. From folding programs and emceeing on stage to eventually making phone calls and teacher assisting, there was always something to do –all while still enjoying their childhood.
Upon the passing of their father -after a nine-year battle with cancer, the Rios siblings and their mother Thuy were left with a functioning but crippled business. It was up to them to revive what was once a prospering staple in the community. The school, however, was not the only thing the family had to attend to. Everyone had their own lives, and losing their father and husband was enough disruption on its own. The siblings would have to decide if they wanted to follow in their father’s footsteps. A few years later, the commitment was made. In 2016, the trio formed Multiriver Studios, LLC in pursuit of taking Dad’s legacy to whole new levels.
The now “Siblings in Business” learned to work together and build a strong team, but they were still in need of specific music school business guidance. They found Marty Fort and his Music Academy Success System. After implementing many key strategies, the Rios’s took the now named Westminster Arts Academy from an active enrollment of 300 to 1000 in just three years with the program. Quickly becoming one of the largest single location art schools in Southern California, in 2019, Westminster Arts Academy was awarded the National Music School of the Year, and as a result, appeared on the cover of the Los Angeles Times. Francis, Teresa, and Augustina don’t plan on slowing down. Plans to open up more locations are in the works.
An amazing family story...The Rios family owns and operates one of California's largest performing arts schools with over 1,000 students. On this podcast you'll hear about their journey as a family, continuing their father's piano teaching legacy. If you want to get an insight on how a family business can run at the very highest level, achieving financial and artistic success, be sure to check out this podcast!
MORE ABOUT THE RIOS FAMILY
Siblings Francis, Teresa, and Augustina Rios have spent their entire lives in the music school business. Students, recitals, and workshops were everyday surroundings growing up with their father’s piano studios. Being the children of a pianist -performer and educator Dr. Robert Rios, the siblings began contributing to the schools at a very young age. From folding programs and emceeing on stage to eventually making phone calls and teacher assisting, there was always something to do –all while still enjoying their childhood.
Upon the passing of their father -after a nine-year battle with cancer, the Rios siblings and their mother Thuy were left with a functioning but crippled business. It was up to them to revive what was once a prospering staple in the community. The school, however, was not the only thing the family had to attend to. Everyone had their own lives, and losing their father and husband was enough disruption on its own. The siblings would have to decide if they wanted to follow in their father’s footsteps. A few years later, the commitment was made. In 2016, the trio formed Multiriver Studios, LLC in pursuit of taking Dad’s legacy to whole new levels.
The now “Siblings in Business” learned to work together and build a strong team, but they were still in need of specific music school business guidance. They found Marty Fort and his Music Academy Success System. After implementing many key strategies, the Rios’s took the now named Westminster Arts Academy from an active enrollment of 300 to 1000 in just three years with the program. Quickly becoming one of the largest single location art schools in Southern California, in 2019, Westminster Arts Academy was awarded the National Music School of the Year, and as a result, appeared on the cover of the Los Angeles Times. Francis, Teresa, and Augustina don’t plan on slowing down. Plans to open up more locations are in the works.
Intro: Welcome to another edition of the Music Academy Success® podcast. Music Academy Success® is the largest, and number 1 program for music school owners. Since 2008 master business coach Marty Fort has worked with school owners and teachers in 44 states, and on 6 continents. On the Music Academy Success® podcast you'll hear interviews with music lesson industry leaders so you can learn how to better your business by getting more students, keeping students longer, and building the music school, and life style of your dreams. And now here's your host for the podcast, CEO of Music Academy Success®, Mister Marty Fort.
Marty Fort: Welcome to the Music Academy Success® System podcast, this is Marty Fort here, your host. I am the CEO of the Music Academy Success® program, which we call MASS®. MASS®, since 2008, is the world's largest, and leading program, we work with hundreds of music school owners all around the world on 6 continents. We work with Music School teachers that are teaching in their homes, we work with music school teachers that teach in their students’ homes, we work with small schools, 50 to 100 students, mid-sized schools with 500 students, we even work with large schools that have 4,000 students, and I myself have 1,500. I have 3 locations, they are the largest schools in South Carolina, and what I do is I help music school owners to grow their business, grow their enrollment, fix their student retention, and a variety of things with our coaching, and our live events. We enjoy doing this podcast where we bring you guest experts in the music education field, some that are MASS® members, and some that are just different authors, and we've got a lot of great episodes planned, so keep checking out the Music Academy Success® podcast on iTunes, and other outlets.
Today I'm very excited to welcome the Rios family from Westminster, California. Francis, Teresa, and Augustina. Why I brought them on today is they are our school of the year winner, but also their amazing family story, they've taken their school to 900 students, they've had some variance with Covid, they've also got a really fascinating story with their dad, who was the founder of the school, so 1 of our great success stories from the state of California that you can listen to, learn what they did. So they also do music, they do dance, they do art, they do all kinds of stuff, they're just really a dynamic, unique, and talented family. So be sure to check out the whole podcast, listen to their story, and you'll be able to get some good tips on how you can grow just like them to almost 1,000 students doing multiple disciplines. So guys, welcome Francis, Teresa, and Augustina, let's start with you Francis, how are you doing today?
Francis Rios: Pretty good Marty, how are you? Thanks for having us on.
Marty Fort: Thank you for being here. Teresa?
Teresa Rios: Hi Marty, good morning, thanks for having us.
Marty Fort: Thank you. Augustina?
Augustina Rios: Hi Marty, good morning, thanks for having us too.
Marty Fort: So like I said, this is going to be awesome today, and I've had the pleasure of going to see you guys in Westwinster, California, so lots to share, and lots to prepare for today's call, but I'm just going to start, we'll have Francis lead, but you guys jump in at time, how about that? Does that sound good? We'll just have Francis go, but Teresa and Augustina, since there are 4 of us on the podcast today, you guys just jump in whenever you're ready, okay? And I'll bounce questions around too that way. But Francis, let's start with you, tell us for those that don't know, about your music school, tell us about the Westminster Arts Academy.
Francis Rios: Sure, yeah, so I'm the coowner of Westminster Arts Academy along with my 2 sisters, Teresa and Augustina, and we are 3 of the 4 children who grew up in our father's piano schools. Our dad, Doctor Robert Rios, he sadly passed away in 2013 after a banger battle with cancer, but since then we worked very hard to take what our father left us, and turn it into what it is today, 1 of the largest art schools in southern California, and located in the city of Westminster, for those of you who don't know where that is, that's okay. To give you an idea, we're in the County of Orange, 1 of our neighboring cities is the City of Anaheim, that's the home of Disneyland, so yeah, primarily we're a music school, but we also have a dance and art program as well, something for the whole family we like to say, we're staffed with over 40 instructors, and administrators, and at our peak, pre Covid, we had surpassed an active enrollment of over 1,000 students per week coming through our doors.
Marty Fort: Yeah, and like I said I was there, and you've had some variance, but it's a huge business, and again, you do music, you do dance, you do art, and I'm going to go to Teresa. Teresa, welcome, kind of tell everybody about the different offerings, because you and Augustina, if I got that correct, you guys do a lot of things, but you also do some of the dance too, is that right? Tell us about all the stuff you guys do down there, Teresa.
Francis Rios: Correct, yeah, so we offer ballet, we offer jazz, and we offer hip hop, I still instruct, so I teach all the ballet classes, and I also teach the hip hop classes, and then we also offer drawing, painting, and mixed media, and we just love having those extra programs for something for the whole family, and it's a lot of fun.
Marty Fort: Absolutely, you guys have great energy, and Augustina, let's go to you, so what is your role in the business? What do you do with your brother and sister?
Augustina Rios: Yeah, so I handle a lot of the administration, I guess, with the front desk, I just make sure all the actions are flowing smoothly, but I also teach the group piano program 6 days a week, I'm the only teacher teaching the group program right now, so that's me, every day.
Marty Fort: And like I said, it is a really unique, we have a lot of family businesses in the Music Academy Success® program, mainly husband and wife teams, but you guys are a true, full-fledged, it's a family business, and a lot of that ties into the history of your dad's legacy, we're going to talk about that in a second, before we go to that, and talk about your father, Francis, you also have more family members that work with you, do you mind sharing that? Who else in the family is in the business, and what do they do?
Francis Rios: Sure, yeah. My wife Cristina, she is the general manager taking care of HR, payroll, invoicing, customer service of course, there's a lot of other stuff she does of course, I might get in trouble for leaving things out, but that's okay I'll make it up to her. My daughter Desiree, she's up and coming, she's been assisting in teaching dance for awhile now, and she also does a lot of behind the scenes work, tons of data entry, but she's also been training at the front desk, she's been giving tours, taking phone calls, so she's been working really hard, and she's only 17, just about to graduate high school, so she's starting out young, not as young as we did, but definitely a hard working girl. My 2 step kids, Fernando, Diana, they're also helping out, a big help, I don't want to leave them out, but mom, our wonderful mother, she has the most important job of all, she leads the prayer department, so she prays for us, and she blesses us, so we can't forget how powerful that is, so I've got to love mom of course.
Marty Fort: Yeah, and she's great, I got a chance to meet her when I came down, and anybody that wants to see it, the video of when I came to see you guys to present you with your award for national school of the year, which we'll talk about later in the podcast, they can go to musicacademysuccess.com and see it. But let's dive in to the legacy, and kind of the beginnings of the story, because it is quite a story, and Francis let's start with you. Your father was an accomplished musician and teacher, founded the school in its original conception, it was under a different name, and so just dive in. Tell us about Doctor Rios.
Francis Rios: Yeah, dad was an incredible pianist, and he started learning when he was just a little boy, so he found out, and this was probably around 7, 8 years old, he found out that the lady up the street was a piano teacher, and being in a family with 5 kids, there wasn't really a budget for that at that time, so he offered to mow her lawn in exchange for lessons, and he got right at it. By the time he was 16, he was already teaching, and he ended up studying with some of the most reputable pianists in the greater Los Angeles area, always refining that skill throughout his life. But his career was not really in performance, granted he was a concert caliber pianist for sure, but he chose to teach, and our earliest memories as kids are being surrounded by his piano students in our home town of Sierra Madre, out in the San Gabriel Valley, I'm pretty sure you know where that's at Marty, since you're from out here, but yeah, music students, they've been a part of our entire life. That's actually how he met our mother, she was actually 1 of his piano students, so it's quite a romantic story, I enjoy telling it, I've told it many times.
Marty Fort: Yeah, and it's a really cool story, and especially with the pictures, and you guys were featured in LA Times, there's a lot more to read about it there. Then we fast forward to today, you guys are continuing the legacy, doing amazing work, you specifically, Francis, before running the school, you had experience in other fields, what other fields did you work in, how did they help shape your ability to run the school?
Francis Rios: Yeah, so my previous career was in manufacturing, I worked for a government contractor for the Department of Defense, and occasionally aerospace contracts, and that company was also family owned, and I grew very close to the owners, and their family, and over the course of 15 years, they allowed me to have my hands in just about every department from sales, production, quality control, engineering, even HR and accounting. It was my business school, and I developed management and leadership skills there, and brought all of this over to our organization. Dealing with government contracts, you also have to have very sound systems in place, and you have regular quality audits, which at the time I didn't enjoy that much, not many do, however now I'm grateful to have been through all of that, as it's really helped in my ability to run a music school.
Marty Fort: 1 of the things I was impressed with, guys, when I came to your school to visit, and present you with that award, and alongside with me came 1 of our MASS® coaches, and a good friend of you all, Zeljko Pavlovic, director of Vivaldi Music Academy in Houston, Texas, he's got 4 locations, 4,000 students, and he and I were both impressed at the tight knit business community at Westminster. I've been doing this for a long time, guys, and I go to a lot of cities, I've been to Chicago, I've been to New York, I've been all over, and I've never quite seen the out pouring of support that I did, the people there are very into the community of Westminster. We also got to the Huntington Beach, which was the 1st time I had been there, which was amazing, because I'm more an east coast guy with the beaches, that kind of stuff, I used to live in California, but just a really cool area at large. But I would like to specifically learn more about, Francis, it's obvious from your interactions, and the more and more I see you grow as a business owner, and entrepreneur, that you're a leader in the business community of Westminster, California. You're in the chamber of commerce, tell us about the community there, and your role in it, because I think it's something people need to know more about.
Francis Rios: Yeah, so in Westminster there's tons of small businesses, it's 1 of the largest Vietnamese communities, if not the largest outside of Vietnam, and there's this 1 section of Westminster called Little Saigon, and it is just, every square inch there's another small business, tons of restaurants, nail salons, so there's a lot of entrepreneurs, a lot of small business owners in our city, and our chamber supports them very well. In 2019 the chamber of commerce invited me to join their board of directors, and I gladly accepted. Helping other business owners makes me happy, so I was definitely happy to join. We've got a great team led by Mister Phillip Nuain, and the city is really lucky to have such a great group of people watching its back. We've been quiet as of late due to Covid, of course, but we've actively been putting out valuable information on any programs businesses may qualify for assistance, so we've been helping out, and sending out emails, and things for the businesses to pay attention to, or to watch out for. But hopefully soon we can get back to our lunch time mixers, and all those fun chamber events that everyone enjoys.
Marty Fort: Yeah, things are moving fast here, our percent positive is low, things are opening up, it's been very interesting for me as a coach, because I coach people in 44 states and 1 state like Texas for example will be wide open, and you've got California where things are still going from purple to red, and then I've got Canadian clients who are still in the most intense lock down, the vaccine is going very slow, so it's been a lot of moving parts for me as a business coach, and we're going to talk about this in a bit, happy to see our members by and large doing very well, which is leading up to our conference in Nashville, we've got a clash of the titans competition for people that have done well during Covid, that are going to compete, and share what they learned.
Teresa, I want to go to you, 1 thing that's always interesting to me about the Rios family is you guys are extremely tight knit, and I've known you for years now, and I've never ever known you guys to have falling outs and drama, you always just seem very happy, and upbeat, and I can tell you, working with families, that's not the norm, there are a lot of moving parts to running any business, Teresa, but especially running a family one. So I'm curious for our listeners today, being that you lead a family run business, lots of moving parts, lots of staff, Teresa, what tips have you got? What tips do you have for the people that are not only running a business, but specifically one with family members, what are some of the magic tricks to making that work?
Teresa Rios: I think that learning how to communicate efficiently with your family members, and knowing that there's no hard feelings, and try not to be sensitive if someone has a talk with someone else. Learning to separate the family from the business owner I think is a really tough line to go on, but I think it's totally possible if you just learn how each other's work ethic is, how we work together as a team, how we communicate with each other, all those things are super important, especially with us, we really, really love each other, that's real, that's not fake, we really love each other. So I think that it's when we realized how to communicate with each other efficiently, and without feeling like they're just out to get me, or hurting my feelings, then we really started to take off, and thrive as a team, and as a family, and as business owners.
Marty Fort: Absolutely, and the love there is real, and the energy is real, and it's definitely part of what you guys do in the business. Augustina I want to go to you, you talked a little bit about at the beginning, when I went there to see you guys, you've got your music rooms, you've got your piano rooms, and of course that's more of your thing, doing the group piano, but again, Teresa is doing the dance and stuff, but you've also got art classes, so I'd like to hear more, Augustina, whether you want to talk about the art classes, you can talk about, you guys do a lot of different things, tell us more about your offerings that you guys do down there.
Augustina Rios: Yeah, so we have primarily private lessons, but my dad was always very big on group programs, I grew up watching him teach group piano since I was born, so it's like 2nd nature to me, and he kind of just threw me into teaching group piano from when I was maybe 12 years old, just don't tell anybody that I was only 12 years old, but yeah I was assisting him for the longest time, and then eventually he just walked out of the room and said okay, you take the class. He would come back in, he would tell me advice on how it should be done, or how it shouldn't be done, so after he passed, it was just, it was very important to us to keep the group piano program going, but surely before his passing, he also tried to add on group guitar, and group drums, just group everything, he was very, he loved groups. So we eventually just canceled the group programs for the other instruments besides piano, but we did bring on dance and art classes. Since then this really boomed, we found the right art teacher to just really take off the program, and so she's now doing multiple drawing classes, and painting classes, and now starting mixed media classes, so it's just been really popular, and the students love being able to take classes with each other, and we've built a community that way among our students, but of course also taking the private lessons as well, so it really took off the population of our academy to a really big number.
Marty Fort: Awesome, so it's been a challenging year to say the least. Francis I'm going to go to you with this one and loop back around. March 2020, that month and year, as I've mentioned on previous podcasts, guys, still makes the hair on my neck stand up, Francis, I don't think I'm ever going to get over it, and it's a really bitter sweet time for me, because early March, I got to play at the Columbia Museum of Art on stage with Kirk Hammett from Metallica, and it was his art exhibit, and we were blessed, and fortunate enough he sat in with the band, and we did a UFO song called Too Hot to Handle, so that was an incredible high that I'm still on, I think I always will be. It's 1 thing to do a meet and greet, or that kind of thing, but when you're playing live with a legend like that, just for me it was a big deal, but then a week later my world got shut down when my schools got shut down, and the country did as well. So I want to go back to you, March 2020, Covid hits, Westminster, California, start there, Francis, take us through that.
Francis Rios: Yeah, absolutely. I don't forget that moment, right? None of us will forget that, I was at a baseball game in Arizona with my daughter when everything started to shut down, it was actually the very last spring training game before Major League Baseball shut down the season. The Dodgers were playing The Brewers, and I remember the gentlemen sitting next to me, he told me hey, the NBA just suspended the season, and I told my daughter baseball is next, watch. The next morning sure enough, Disneyland shut down, and shortly after so did baseball, so we had to get back home, we started our 7 hour drive because everything was about to hit the fan. On the way back I had to pull over at 2 different occasions, once to have a Zoom meeting with all of our instructors about what was going to happen, and then the other time was to send out a mass email to our student body about what was going to happen. In between that we got caught up in a snow storm, and we almost slid off the road. So yeah, that was quite the time, but that was just only the beginning, as we all know. Then yeah, that's when we had to move everyone online, 100 percent. So it was quite an incredible moment when it all just started.
Marty Fort: Teresa, let's then go to you, and keep working around, so Francis is doing the Zoom, how about you, how did it effect you? What did you do in the school, and what was that time like for you?
Teresa Rios: It was, I mean obviously a very tough time, and just a new way to adapt our music school, and luckily Francis is really good with technology, so once we all got on Zoom, not a new platform, but new for music schools, it was a completely different experience. I had to learn how to teach on Zoom, and help other instructors teach on Zoom, and doing that with the group classes, and keeping our student retention up, and keeping them entertained I guess, and then all of a sudden you became this temporary celebrity on Zoom so that you could keep them entertained throughout this time, but it was definitely, I am thankful for it, because I think I became an even better instructor, and a better instructor for other teachers, to help them out, because obviously we still have some of our classes on Zoom, and sometimes they just don't understand the concept of adapting their classes to being on Zoom, and having still that same energy, but just online. So I am thankful for this time, because we did learn a lot, we learned to appreciate in person students, we learned to appreciate our customers, but also I am thankful that I got way better with technology, and overall just a better instructor.
Marty Fort: Absolutely. Augustina, how about you?
Augustina Rios: Yeah, I would have to agree with Teresa and Francis, I remember it was a Friday morning, which is the 1 day that I'm in the office, managing the front desk, and I was just, we were just getting swamped with calls, with people asking on what's happening since all the schools are closing, Disneyland is closing, and luckily Francis was on his drive home, but he was able to pull over, and do a Zoom call with all the teachers, so I sent out a message to all the teachers to go on an emergency meeting with Francis, and I think despite everyone freaking out, it actually went pretty smoothly, and we're lucky to have you too Marty, on helping us get through it, because I think it could have gone a lot worse, especially since we had 1,000 students at the time, but it was very smooth, everyone was ready to go, there were some bumps, but we were lucky to have a lot of help, so it wasn't too bad.
Marty Fort: I appreciate that, I'm glad you brought that up, Augustina, because people listening to this, I got a letter from the Small Business Administration, and it said they've classified our industry, I'm not sure about the dance and art, I'd assume they have the same, but at least for music they have literally classified our industry as hard hit, and they're actually providing mortgage assistance for our commercial buildings, but as you know there's kind of been 2 paths, right, Augustina? There's been people that just shut down, or they got really down about things, and they walked away, and if they're listening to this, I'm hoping they come back, they need to pick themselves up, and get their school going again, and it's as you said, what we did in MASS® is, and for me it was a Sunday, I just said damn it, we're going to do this 1 way or the other, and we just rallied around our members, we sort of had our calls every week for you guys, I worked 7 days a week for 6 months just because I was determined to fight out of it, and proud that, like I said, most of our members are doing awesome, or at least holding. I can tell you for sure, all of our current members are still in business, I'm very proud of that as well. Francis, that kind of loops back to you, it's feast or famine out there right now, some schools doing great, some closing, we talked a little bit about it, but let's dive in, what's the current state of things down there right now?
Francis Rios: Yeah, it's very sad to see so many businesses closing down, we're blessed to be back to nearly pre Covid numbers now, currently down only about 12 percent from before, our business suffered almost a 50 percent hit back in March and April of last year. I see other music schools, including your own that are at record numbers, and that's absolutely amazing, but that's not random. Yes, you're at the mercy of your individual state and local governments, and I know so many had no choice but to close down their business, and that's very sad, but the ones who did have a way to survive, not everyone was willing to adjust, not everyone was willing to adapt, and those that were, well now they're okay. So running the business when things are great is all fine and dandy, that's the easy part, but when things are really, really bad, that's when you see what you're made of. So, and MASS® has been there every step of the way, the constant support calls that you've had for all of us in the industry, it's just nonstop, almost daily updates on, so none of us felt alone during that time because we had our group to keep us going, and keep us confident every step of the way.
Marty Fort: Yeah, and that's what we talked about on the recent podcast with Doctor Talonda Thomas is, entrepreneurs, we are not really understood by most, and I think that's just kind of fascinating about your story, and the podcast today, is that any business owner, they're kind of alone, normally their spouses don't quite get them, their family doesn't get them, they're just kind of in their own space, and it's very, it's kind of stranger in a strange land kind of thing, but what's interesting about you 3 is that you're all the business owners, so you all get each other, and it gels, and that's really cool.
Francis, you were featured on NBC LA, and the LA Times for your amazing story with your dad's legacy, and the current work you guys are doing, and again as we said you won the MASS® national school of the year contest, which was a big deal, so what was that like? Let's go back to some more, brighter times, and that was about 6 months, or thereabouts before Covid went down, so take us back to that time.
Francis Rios: Yeah, that LA Times deal, that was great. So when we won the MASS® school of the year award, let me talk about that 1st. That to us is an accomplishment that we are very proud of. It is something that we set out to win. The 1st time we watched the school of the year contest on a MASS® conference DVD I remember, we were sitting in our living room, and I said to the girls, very soon we are going to go on stage and win that award, and sure enough, 2019 we brought home the trophy, and as a result, you flew out to our school for the award ceremony, and that was phenomenal, and Zeljko too, that was mindblowingly amazing. I knew that I had to get coverage for this event, so I did a press release. I reached out to all of our local TV newspapers, I was determined to get the news out to our school, and I wasn't able to get TV coverage that time for that event, but I did however, through lots of persistence, get the attention of the lovely Ada Sing, 1 of the editors for the Orange County Edition of the Los Angeles Times to join us for the ceremony. She ended up putting us up on the front page a couple of Sundays later, so that was amazing, and we also made the front page of the Nuy Viet, which is the largest Vietnamese newspaper in the world published outside of Vietnam, but that story wasn't released until a month into Covid shut down. That was around the same time when both NBC, and Univision both did features on our school.
Marty Fort: Do me a favor, that's cool, I didn't know that, and I would love to see it. Number 1 guys, congratulations, I'd love to see a copy, if you could shoot me one, I'd love to see one in the MASS® office, that's very, very cool, and it kind of is a big lesson for everybody listening. What everybody's hearing that I'm taking away from today's podcast is you guys were able to 1, as a family come together, and keep honoring your dad's legacy, you're able to find ways to get along, and care for each other, you're able to find creative programming, and make it fun, and there's a lot of energy, and you're all different personalities, but you come together and gel, and obviously you've got, 1 of the big lessons that I'm taking away from today is your ability to communicate, and the importance of communication, but also Francis, as you just laid out, and I've told this to people for years, people say well Marty I want to get on TV, or I want to get an article, and what so often they'll do is they'll send out a press release, and they won't hear anything back, and they give up, and that's not how life works. It works the way you did it, you didn't just try once to get on television, or once to get the coverage, you were persistent. You weren't persistent to where you were a pest, but you were persistent to where you saw it through, and in my career, with the various things I've done for press releases, and taught people how to do that kind of thing, it's been much the same.
Teresa, I want to go to you, what's the future look like? What are you looking forward to, what do you see on the horizon for Westminster Arts Academy as we get out of Covid?
Teresa Rios: Definitely getting our numbers up to pre Covid numbers, and then some, and expansion, and our company, which I'm sure Francis will get to soon, which is really exciting, and just continue to be the best music school that we can be, and every day is an exciting adventure towards that goal.
Marty Fort: Teresa and Augustina, specifically Augustina, I want to go to you on this one, you talked a little bit earlier about the support MASS® gave to you and the other schools. You are a music mentor, Augustina, you're a piano teacher, and so you are a musical mentor to your students. I am a business mentor, and I think most people, honestly guys, when they hear the word business mentor, you know what they think? They think yeah right. They don't really, business coaching, as it should, it gets kind of a bad rap because there's a lot of shady business quote unquote coaches doing just, whatever seminars, and trying to hit a hotel, take the money and run, that does unfortunately happen. Which you don't see that with piano, you don't go to piano camp, and they take the money and run. But with business seminars, there is unfortunately some not so great characters out there. However, MASS® having done what we've done for so long, there are also lots of great, and valid business mentors, so I would like to hear from you, Augustina, take us through the comparable between music mentorship, what that is, which obviously we all know, because we're all teachers on the podcast today, and people listening I would assume as well, and business mentorship. When you hear those words, and you think of MASS®, and working with me, what is business mentorship to you, and how is it similar, Augustina, to being a musical mentor?
Augustina Rios: So being a music mentor, I feel like you're focusing on the music education of your student, right? You're just trying to help develop their brain I guess, and their artistry, but a business mentor, it's different. Growing your business into the numbers that you want, expanding the revenue that you're getting, it's very different from just teaching, versus developing your business, and so the support of MASS® really helped because we always knew that you'd be there for us, Marty. We know if we have a burning question, we're able to ask you for help, and so it's very different, where one is just training on a certain art form, where as one you're training us on our business, which is our life. So I hope that answers your question.
Marty Fort: And it does, and that's the thing, it's something that I'm real passionate about, Augustina, is getting people to understand the comparables, because to me it's everything you said. There's so many similarities, and comparables to we all had music mentors, and I always say to people, it's so simple, if everybody in this podcast thinks about how many musical mentors they had as their teachers, and like Doctor Rios, Doctor Rios was a musical mentor to many, and a powerful one. Business mentorship done right is the same thing.
Francis, why do you think some musicians resist getting help with their schools? I do think musicians are different people, actually I know they are, because I've worked with them for over a decade, and we are wired different. It's kind of like a real duality, Francis, that entrepreneurs as a breed are wired differently already, and then you have a musical entrepreneur, and that's a super, more complex wiring, right? So it's an interesting thing for me to navigate, but 1 of the things that I've seen is that any entrepreneur was just getting help, I think for me, I think part of them think it's a part of weakness, but we've got to get out of that, our music students are not weak, they need musical help, and we give them musical help, that's a good thing. So there's nothing weak about needing business help, and getting business help, but I see the resistance, and you my friend have seen it as well. Why do you think musicians resist getting business help with their schools Francis?
Francis Rios: I don't think it's just musicians, I think it's, I mean a lot of business owners, right? I think it's sad that, I mean some people just don't understand, or they refuse to understand the concept of mentorship, or coaching, in a musician's case, even though they sought out mentorship when they learned their instrument, why would it be any different learning to run a business? I've always believed in mentors, I know lots of people that don't, and I'm definitely not 1 of them, if someone is willing to share their acquired knowledge with me, you better believe I'm going to listen. I mean why not avoid the mistakes that they've already made? If by listening to a mentor, I can get to where I need to be faster, I'm all for it, and I have no problem at all paying for it either. To me it doesn't make sense to run a business without mentorship, and frankly it baffles me on how many business owners refuse to get help, and just want to go about thinking they know it all, because you don't, nobody does, right? And I always go back to baseball, because I'm a big fan of the sport, right? The all-star pitchers, they have pitching coaches. The hall of fame hitter, they have a hitting coach, they're necessary. These guys are full of talent, making millions, but they still need coaching, someone to keep them accountable, to observe them, and guide them, they need it, we all need it, so get yourself a mentor.
Marty Fort: Absolutely, you took the words out of my mouth, I was going to say as of this taping today, Drew Breeze, quarterback for the New Orleans Saints has retired, I'm convinced 1 of the reasons he did is Tom Brady is sticking around, and the NFC South is going to go to The Bucks, I'm going to go ahead and call it now, and no team is going to take them down unfortunately. Tom is going to go out and do what Tom does. Even Drew Breeze, even Tom Brady, as you said, multimillion dollar athletes get coaching, I myself still get coaching. Again, it's a simple formula, if everybody right now takes down how many years they've had piano lessons, dance lessons, art lessons, whatever lessons it is that they've had, which has been, easily the median average would be 10 to 15, but they haven't had 1 year of business training. That's a formula that we've got to get flipped on the right math. And Teresa, I'm going to go to you. A lot of them are saying well Marty that sounds good, I mean obviously MASS® has been around for awhile, but they just don't quite believe it, there's skepticism, or they think it's too good to be true. If somebody was with you, Teresa, and they said this Music Academy Success®, this Marty guy, it's just too good to be true, what would you say to them?
Teresa Rios: I would say that yes, it is too good to be true, but it is true, and Marty will be there for you just as he says he is, and he will find out answers for questions that you have, and he will help your school grow, that's not a lie, and everything that you've ever, I guess claimed, or said that you would do, you have done, and you have helped our school tremendously, and I know that even back when my dad was alive, he believed in you too. So we are very thankful for what you have done, and even though it seems too good to be true, you should just go for it, because Marty will absolutely change your school.
Marty Fort: And I appreciate that, and I want to give the thanks back to you guys, that it's a pleasure. It's just like your dance students, right Teresa? We do the best we can with everybody, whether it's Augustina's group piano student, whichever, it's not always the right fit, but when it is the right fit, and with you guys coming to MASS®, it was definitely the right fit. It's just awesome to see you guys explode, but it's a tribute to the 3 of you, and Francis, your wife, and your daughter, and your mom, and everybody down there, the whole crew we'll call it, that it's a unified front down there, it's a family effort, and you guys work hard, but also you have fun, you know what I mean? And that's the biggest thing. Teresa, when I think of all 3 of you, you're always smiling, you've got incredible energy, fun is your middle name I would say, as far as I know you. You've just got that aura going, and that's an important part of your story to me, and your success.
Augustina, let's go back to you, you guys have been with me for years. As your sister alluded to, your father was aware of my work, and a fan of MASS®, so the thing that's interesting about MASS® to me is most coaching programs don't last a long time, or if they do, people kind of pop in, and they pop out. But I'm celebrating a lot of people this year, just like I know for a fact Doctor Rios had students, Francis, that took with him over a decade, long term students, and a lot of the teachers on the podcast today have long term students, taking with them 10 years, 15 years, and as a coach I've definitely got mine this year, of hitting the 10, 11, 12 year club with me. Augustina, I'm curious, why do you guys stick around MASS®, what do you get out of it?
Augustina Rios: We get a lot of support, and help. So especially with, we wouldn't be where we are today without your help, Marty. Our dad, he was a mastermind, right? And we idolized him, he had so many students, and he taught them pretty much all on his own, but just growing the business, where as we could have multiple staff, and multiple teachers, we wouldn't have been where we are without your help, so that's why we stick around, because there's always new things that we can learn, and there's always new things popping up that we need help with. So that constant support, and we know that you genuinely care about us too, is definitely why we stick around.
Marty Fort: Well thanks, and we've got a great year planned. I'm so excited I get to see you guys coming up, I'm going to see you in person, you're going to be at our Disney training, and for those that don't know, Augustina, as you said, we always work hard to stay ahead, be current, do new stuff, and we've got a great event planned at Advanced Academy. We go to Disney World every year as you know, with our top members. We've got a variety of special guests coming in, I'm going to be doing hot seat masterminds with everybody, doing different sessions on selling your school, succession plans, different marketing stuff.
Dan Kennedy is going to be our big special guest, he's doing a 2 and a half hour presentation on Disney and business secrets, we've also got attorney Kim Raber, she's going to be talking about corporate veil protection. And in Nashville, Francis I am so excited, and Teresa, I really want to know what you think of this guy, because you're very good at social media with Instagram, and a variety of things you do on the social media spectrum, you're very high level at that, and Dave Kerpen, Teresa, is the CEO of Likeable, so I'm excited to have him come in, New York Time's best-selling author talking about social media, and online marketing, and he's also going to be talking about mental health issues for musicians, something that I've wanted to address for a long time, that as you all know, what we do is stressful, it's not always fun times at the schools, there's hard times too, working hard with that.
But listen, anybody listening, we'd love to have you join MASS®, it's very easy to take the next step, you go to musicacademysuccess.com/apply, A P P L Y, musicacademysuccess.com/apply. And it's a very simple proposition, what that means is either you join, and you're happy, or we have a 100 percent 12 month money back guarantee. You get a full 12 months, and if you're not happy for whatever reason, you get every penny back, and no other program, over 10 years experience, is able to offer that full 12 months money back guarantee. So Francis, I'm going to close with you my friend, cannot wait to see you guys, travel safe, and I will see you soon, but any closing comments, Francis?
Francis Rios: Yeah, just thanks for having us on the show, Marty. You've been a blessing to our business, to our family, and my sisters and I are grateful for everything you've done for us, so happy to be here, yeah, thanks.
Marty Fort: God bless you guys as well. Let's go around the circle, Teresa, any last words?
Teresa Rios: I'm just excited to see you, Marty, and excited to reunite with everyone, and also thank you so much for everything that you've done, and for all the support that you've shown our family, it really means more than you know.
Marty Fort: Back at you, and Augustina, take us out, closing comments?
Augustina Rios: Yeah I just wanted to say thank you Marty, you're like 1 of our idols, and our celebrity, so we're really excited for the upcoming conferences to see you.
Marty Fort: Me too, and listen guys, tell your mom I said hi, and again, for those of you who don't know, check them out. Francis, give them the website, how can they get a hold of you guys?
Francis Rios: Yeah, you can check us out at westminsterartsacademy.com, and if you want to contact us, shoot us an email at info@westminsterartsacademy.com.
Marty Fort: And again guys, google them, they're in the LA Times, and take me through that Vietnamese paper, so what I heard you say is that it's the largest Vietnamese paper, but it's not published there, it's published here. What was the name of it again?
Francis Rios: It's the Nuy Viet, and you can translate it to the English version, because I don't think you speak or read Vietnamese.
Marty Fort: No.
Francis Rios: So yeah, you can translate it, but I have a translated version, I'll shoot it out to you, but yeah it is the largest publication for the Vietnamese community outside of Vietnam.
Marty Fort: Very cool. It's 1 of the reasons I wanted to have you guys on today, Francis, as you know, another thing people get stuck in is the whole my town is different, and MASS® is not going to work here, and as you guys know. Look, over 10 years, 6 continents, I've got a huge amount of people in California, southern, northern, small towns, you name it, people in Manhattan, people in Topeka, Kansas, people in Post Falls, Idaho; people in Canada, because at the end of the day I've got people in Serbia, people are people, and it doesn't matter where you are, search engine optimization is search engine optimization, marketing is marketing, and music, thank God is music, it's the same thing, and you guys are killing it in the music, dance, and art business. So guys, thank you so much for being on the podcast today, everybody we'll see you on the next one, keep checking us out, subscribe to us on iTunes, and here's to your Music Academy Success®.