Hey Guitar Teacher, Are You Sure You Want To Keep "Running in Place"? Like A Hamster On A Wheel?

Are You Entirely Happy With The GROWTH Of Your Teaching Business - Its Size, Its Speed? And What You Have To Do To Make It Happen? The Time, Effort, Energy Required? There's No Room For Improvement? Really?

Ultimately, you want a really GREAT business – your definition (and details) may vary a bit from another successful guitar teacher, but this is basically what the ultimate guitar school looks like:
 

• High income (and growing)
  
   
• Runs smoothly and autonomously, even when – especially when – you’re not there
  
   
• YOU chose who you work with – preferably only high commitment, high quality, low maintenance and absolutely no PITA students
  
   
• It’s a Place-To-Be(long) for your students that goes far beyond just “guitar lessons”
  
   
• Stress-free (no more anxiety over how many students you’re getting (especially over the summer), students quitting and how to replace them before the next one quits, preparing lessons, the state of the economy, promoting yourself, what’s going to happen to your business when you are travel, are sick, on tour, take time off, etc.)
  
   
• Every student attends multiple hours per week
  
   
• You get paid the full amount every month like clockwork whether they show up or not.
  
   
• A school where you’re not (still) stuck on things you shouldn’t be stuck on

A guitar school you are pleased with, proud of, and relaxed about.

You may feel that you’ve gotten some pieces well taken care of.

Maybe you still feel some anxiety, uncertainty and uneasiness about others…

But what about your guitar school AS A WHOLE?

Every aspect should be the way you want it to be.

Your income, who your students are, where they come from, how compliant and loyal they are, and how eager they are to refer others to you. 
 

You should have a detailed picture of the guitar school you want.

Not just your income and students, but your work schedule... everything.

After reminding yourself of that picture, re-visit your current situation.

What isn't there that should be? What is there, that shouldn't be?
 

Why You’re Not Yet Where You Want To Be

There are typically 4 main reasons why guitar teachers experience a lack of growth, get stuck and don’t yet have the business they want.

Here is number 1:

#1: Majoring In Minors

One of the most common (and avoidable) traps guitar teachers fall into that stifles their business growth is majoring in the minors.

Instead of focusing on what their business needs most right now, they get stuck tinkering on the “outsides” – obsessing about minor things or doing the right things at the wrong time, instead of doing what needs to be done “now” to get where they want to go.

Why does most everyone fall into this trap?

People tend to do whatever they feel like doing in the moment – following the whims of their emotions instead of focusing on what matters most right now.

This establishes unproductive & inefficient priorities – often leading to excluding what’s most important – keeping them stuck, confused and frustrated, then complaining about “not growing”.

I catch guitar teachers lying to themselves about this all the time.

Majoring in the minors causes a lot of needless stress, anxiety and angst – making everything you do harder – making growth harder - making LIFE harder.

Examples:

• Worrying about what to teach instead of getting more people to teach (excessive, never-ending lesson planning vs consistent, all-year-round marketing)
   
• Wanting tips, tricks or tactics to get quitters to reactivate instead of creating intrinsic desire and giving them compelling reasons to return.
   
• Doing almost everything (lesson plans, lead follow up, reactivation, marketing, referral requests, selling, retention, hiring, managing, training etc… EVERYTHING) randomly, inconsistently, manually, haphazardly, nervously, reluctantly instead of building real money-making, automatized and effective systems.
   
• Obsessing about giving students individual attention in a group class instead of making the group class relevant, fun and useful for everyone who attends.
   
• Losing sight of the real goal: making students happy and instead, making assumptions about what “skill level” YOU think they should be at by now.
   
• Focusing on trying to get EVERYTHING done instead of trying to get the RIGHT things done NOW (the FIRST right thing, the SECOND right thing, etc). Prioritize. Target the essentials. The rest may never get done, and that’s OK! But the right things MUST get done. Getting everything done is the epitome of majoring in the minors because it’s wasting time trying to make the impossible possible. 
   
• Spreading yourself thin, wasting precious time (and money) on shiny objects instead of focusing on the majors that drive growth and sustain it.
   
• Appeasing, explaining, justifying what the majors are (and why you ought to be doing them) to your non-supportive family members who aren’t fully involved in your business, a member of EGTIC, and sitting next to you at THMC events... instead of just building your business! This is the ultimate “majoring in the minors”!

Getting your majors right is crucial. Sticking to them is paramount.

If you are doing this (and most likely you do, since we are almost all guilty of it), this particular problem is not going to be solved by a 17-minute phone call in EGTIC, or even multiple 17-minute phone calls.

To solve that ☝️ problem, you need a laser-focused deep-dive into your business to learn and implement your majors.

At Build The Ultimate Guitar School, we’re going to do exactly that. 

#2: Giving In To Internal Resistance

"Most of us have two lives. The life we live, and the unlived life within us. Between the two stands Resistance."

Resistance is a powerful influence in our lives. In my 18 years of coaching guitar teachers - many who've developed great income gains working with me, I find them often resistant to change – especially change of something they’ve become comfortable with, relied on or become dependent on.

What are you resisting?

Maybe you resist change. Maybe you resist what you’ve been taught about money, maybe you resist because you think you don’t deserve it. Maybe you resist because you don’t believe in yourself. Maybe you resist because you think “things are not that bad yet”. Maybe you resist because you worry about what other people will think when they see you trying and succeeding. Maybe you’re resisting because your spouse is not behind you. Maybe you’re resisting because you’re distracted by shiny objects. Maybe you’re resisting because you’re afraid. Maybe you’re resisting because you just can’t get yourself to do what needs to be done, or you won’t finish what you start. Maybe you’re resisting because you’ve settled for how things are currently, or you’ve given up on yourself. Maybe you’re resisting because you don’t know what your majors are.

It takes a brave guitar teacher to make the changes that build the ultimate guitar school – and this event is for the brave.

Are you a brave guitar teacher?

We resist solutions, opportunities and breakthroughs because they challenge what we habitually believe or do, and that keeps us stuck.

The difference between 5-figure, 6-figure and multi-6-figure guitar teachers is not really about opportunity, knowhow, experience or time and resource limits.

Almost everything that keeps guitar teaching income below 7-figures is manufactured internally - not by external forces, influences or circumstances.

In fact, the external circumstances of your life - including income - are reflections of how you think, the people you surround yourself with, and resistance.

History repeats itself day by day, year by year, only because of… personal resistance.

Through this one-of-a-kind live event, we focus on removing this resistance.



 

#3: Being Locked Out From The Life You Should Have By Scotomas

A scotoma is another word for “blind spot”. Scotomas block you from seeing what is there, what could be there, and what should be there.

Opportunities are missed; problems, dangers and risks go unnoticed until it’s too late.

Ways to do things differently, leading to radically different and better results are untapped.

Just because something you're doing in your guitar school now produces positive cash flow does NOT mean it's the best thing you could be doing to produce the best possible results, yet without forceful prodding we tend not to look past anything "that's working okay".That’s the scotoma of functionality.

Fortunately, the Wright brothers looked past something that was working, or you’d have to take a months-long dangerous ride on an overcrowded ship to cross the ocean. (I bet the people who went down with the Titanic wished they could have flown on a jet airplane instead). Ford looked past what was working, or you'd be commuting in something requiring a very large pooper-scooper.

This is why real breakthroughs tend to be made by the ambitious, the brave, the action-takers or created with the help of a coach or an experience, a forceful prodding of some kind that compels us to confront and challenge our beliefs, habits, industry standards, teaching methods, marketing strategies and productivity - to finally see past our scotomas.
 

#4: Eating Today What You’ve Killed Today
 

Most guitar teachers receive way too much of their money through their work, not from leverage of 'assets and systems'.

This is not how a 7-figure guitar teacher operates. Not how rich people operate.

In fact, manual work vs. asset and system leverage is a defining difference between 5-figure, 6-figure, multi-6-figure and 7-figure guitar teachers.

Most guitar teachers fail to create, deploy and refine assets and systems that can be leveraged; their work creates mostly present-moment income.

Manual work is like hunting for food that is eaten today, so more hunting is required tomorrow. That’s the life of most guitar teachers: they eat today what they kill today.

You're probably well past the point of going hungry if a few days or even weeks pass without a kill, but still, if this is generally how your guitar teaching business functions, it means you've failed to invest work in creating and refining assets and systems that bring the food to your door for you. You have skill, you work, but you lack sufficient leverage. In truth, your teaching business is more of a job (even if well paid) than a business.

Basically, there are only two main categories of ways to increase your income without proportionate increases in work and expenses.

One, be more EFFECTIVE when in front of students (and prospective students) and two, to optimize your SYSTEMS for MAXIMUM EFFECTIVENESS & EFFICIENCY.

STOP & THINK ABOUT what such an improvement could mean to you:

Easily reach the next income level with the same or even less time investment, thus more time freedom for family or your music career… dramatically reduced frustration, disappointment, sense of futility from wasted, unproductive conversations (emails, phone calls, intro sessions)… and not just a better conversion rate, but more respectful, more compliant students who do what you tell them to do.

The very first step to becoming more effective with your existing students is to ask yourself this crucial question:

Are ALL your students really getting what they want, deserve and are paying for? – Are they really?

Any student who has ANY doubts at ANY time about this – and many do, more than you know! – it’s going to affect how much they pay, how long they stay and whether they refer.

So if you’ve been struggling to keep students for years, paying for multiple classes per week, and referring their friends and family, maybe it’s time to do something about it.

You need to level up the (perceived) value each and every one of your students is getting.

Your business, your family, and your students all need you to attend this:

June 15-17, 2026
In Crystal Lake, Illinois, USA

At this event, you will look at your business through a different prism, in different ways.

You not only learn plenty of nitty-gritty, actionable tactics and tools, but we implement some of them in your business right there, with you.

You won’t go home only with a notebook filled with great ideas, you’ll have powerful business-building strategies already implemented, running and working for you, so when you return home and walk in the door, you won’t be thinking “I learned lots of great stuff, but I have no time to get it done”.

Instead, you’ll be saying, “Attending the Build The Ultimate Guitar School was one of the best investments I’ve ever made because so much awesome new stuff is already done."
 

Who This Is For:

 

Experienced teachers and music school owners who are already earning $100,000 - $500,000 annually and want to both grow bigger and simplify their lives.

Teachers and music school owners who are struggling with their existing teaching business and want to break through to the next levels quickly.

People who haven’t started teaching yet but want to get on the right track from the beginning and cut through all the typical mistakes new teachers make.

Are you teaching guitar (or any instrument) and your business does not grow? You don't even know if you want your business to grow because you're already stuck in the daily grind of teaching a few students you have? Or maybe you are not happy about how your business is going, and want to do it full time and make it BIG but you don't know how? 

Well, I wish there was a simple answer to your question, but the reality is that success (and even more importantly, enjoying your success) is made by many small pieces. You have to get most of them right to move forward. 

That's the purpose of Tom Hess's event. You will go through every aspect of your teaching business, from the large-scale plan to the nitty-gritty details, and you will see what you are doing right, what you could do better and how to get there. 

Chances are that just in the first morning of the event, you'll get a breakthrough in your business. Yes, it sounds like an exaggeration. Yes, it's hard to believe. And yet, that is what happens every time. 

Thanks to Tom Hess''s Elite Guitar Teachers Inner Circle program or events, not only my music teaching business is successful, but I get to enjoy working in it more. I love teaching and with the systems I learned, everything is easier here. Life is good. 

- Dr. Tommaso Zillio, Canada

Here's Why You CAN’T Miss This Event...

This event is going to give you exactly what you need to grow your guitar teaching business successfully while most others (your competitors) are declining in the current state of inflation and recession.

Why are many of them failing? I’ll tell you why:

• Fact is, any monkey can make money teaching guitar when the economy is BOOMING. But most don’t know what to do to thrive (or even survive) in a challenging economy…
   
• A few do know, but get the order wrong. They focus on the wrong things, at the wrong time, or focus on the right things at the wrong time. If you look at what they do all day long, you would likely see them do the same things in a bad economy as they would in a good economy - this is an amateur mistake.
   
• Others always seem to be busy working in their business, but they’re tinkering - not being productive in the areas that matter most.
   
• … and the rest are simply lazy.
   

So, OF COURSE they are struggling – even though many of them brag LIE to everyone (and sometimes to themselves) on social media about how well they are doing. A truly successful business owner can smell their BS from a mile away.

But YOU are different! (You wouldn’t still be reading this if that wasn’t true).

What you need is the knowledge, insight, foresight, guidance and certainty that YOU are doing the exact right things in the right order and in the right way for the situation you currently find yourself in so that you catapult yourself to where you want to be, should be and deserve to be.

This event will give you precisely that. I share things with you that I’ve never shared before anywhere for any price.

These might be the single most important 3 days of your life.

When you have an understanding of all the building blocks of how to build the ultimate guitar school, you can absolutely earn deep multiple 6 figures teaching guitar - other people just like you already do – if they can do it, so can you.

Take what you learn and do at this event to spark a huge electrifying surge in your cashflow and even double or triple your income and profits.

Here is what you lose if you don’t attend this incredible event:

• Majoring in the minors is devastating to any business’s ability to grow or even maintain its current level of income. 
   
• Surrendering to internal resistance, standing in your own way and denying yourself, your business, your family and your students what you all deserve is a loss so high, it’s difficult to calculate. 
   
• Flying blind, surrounded by scotomas that prevent you from seeing (and doing) what you should be doing right now, is costing you countless thousands of dollars, unnecessary, avoidable stress and anxiety.
   
• Having huge, gaping holes in your business, from a lack of effective systems, their refinement and inconsistent, unreliable usage means you’re again losing out on countless thousands of dollars in income. 
   
• Not delivering on what ALL your students want, deserve and are paying you for is causing them to quit prematurely, not refer their friends and family to you – hurting your business, income and reputation. 
   

All of that ☝️  is what you stand to lose if you’re not brave enough to take the action you must to build the business, income and life you want.
 

So don’t miss out, get your ticket now 👇.

NOTE: Elite Guitar Teachers Inner Circle Platinum Membership Required: In order to attend the Build The Ultimate Guitar School event, you must be an active member of the Elite Guitar Teachers Inner Circle (not already a member? Get started here).
 

PS: WHAT'S REALLY AT STAKE HERE?

More (and better) students, income and peace of mind. A better, stronger music teaching business that lifts you miles above all others... liberates you from 'roller-coaster income' ... and immunizes you from negative forces in the economy. With that kind of CLARITY, CERTAINTY, CONFIDENCE and SUPERIORITY, imagine how much easier you'll sleep at night, how much more you'll enjoy your day doing whatever you enjoy doing most and would like the time and money freedom to do more of. 

I attend the events regularly because of the immense value I get here - knowledge from some of the best teachers in the world; a whole lot of concepts and principles to apply to my teaching. Most importantly, the motivation to build the life I want to live. Thank you THMC for changing my life for the better. See you next year! 

- Janez Janezic, Slovenia

Meeting and sharing ideas with like-minded people from all around the world can help you discover really huge things you can quickly use to achieve your most impossible goals.  This what I’ve experienced here and since then I have achieved things I would never thought were possible for me.

- Piotr Sierzputowski | Poland

Still Have Questions?

Do I really need to attend this event if I’m already a member of the Elite Guitar Teachers Inner Circle (EGTIC)?

ALL people attending this event are EGTIC members. In fact, ONLY EGTIC members (and their spouses) may attend the event. (If you’re not yet an EGTIC member, you need to join it to attend this event).

The Elite Guitar Teachers Inner Circle is AWESOME, but you do most of the actual work alone, at home. 

At this event we do it with you, live – some stuff is done for you, the rest is done with you, so you get stuff actually done in 3 days and you build REAL personal connections with your virtual friends in EGTIC who are also attending this event. 

You’ll learn as much from being in the room with them for 3 days as you will a year on the forum. 

Instantly, you’ll be like family to the most ambitious guitar teachers and music school owners on earth – even if nobody knows who you are yet... guaranteed!”
 

I’m already very busy working in my business, do I really have any time for this?

THIS IS EXACTLY WHY YOU NEED THIS EVENT! It’s going to save you YEARS of struggle, frustration and feeling stuck. This is the primary reason people attend, because they are busy too!

I’m concerned about leaving my wife at home for 3 days… What should I do? 

She’s an adult. 😊 Treat her like one. It’s only 3 days and the growth in income directly benefits her too (obviously)! Being away from home for a few days is an insignificantly tiny investment to make for a lifetime of greater income!

Plus, if your wife clings to you like a suction cup, just bring her with you!!! She’s welcome to join us as your guest for free to this event!

 
Is it really worth it for me to attend this event?

If you have to ask this question, you must not have read this page. I suggest you read it. 😊
 

What if I have other questions not answered anywhere else?

Ask me directly – send me an email to: hess@tomhess.net

NOTE: Elite Guitar Teachers Inner Circle Platinum Membership Required: In order to attend the Build The Ultimate Guitar School event, you must be an active member of the Elite Guitar Teachers Inner Circle (not already a member? Get started here).

I’m passionate about music & my teaching business.  Enjoying to be the best I can.  I can’t imagine a better place to learn and train than here at Tom Hess live events, receiving a massive package of knowledge and training and most of all, solutions for your recent challenges.  Can’t wait to get all of this into action!  Big Thank You to Tom Hess and his amazing team!

- Lutz Richter | Germany

Tom Hess continues to deliver year after year. This is my 4th year in attendance at the events. I’ve gotten immense value as a player and teacher. If you are on the fence about coming to the events, take a leap of faith and do it. You will have a ton of fun, make great friends, and your playing and teaching will be transformed for life.

- Ryan Popovic | USA