A Secret Reason Why Some Guitar Teachers Become Successful
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Let me tell you a story that illustrates the #1 reason some guitar teachers become wildly successful while others do not:
Meet Blake.
Today, Blake teaches guitar 16 hours a week and earns more than he ever did fixing A/C units in Texas.
But when he first reached out to me (when he was just looking to get into guitar teaching), things were very different.
He was 29, crawling through attics in 115-degree Dallas summers, wondering if he'd ever escape. He had no teaching experience, no business plan, and no idea where to start.
He told me: "I don't even know if I'm good enough to teach. I just know I can't do this A/C thing for 30 more years."
I'll show you exactly what changed for Blake - and how it happened - later in this guitar teaching article.
EMAIL TO GET ACCESS
By submitting your info, you agree to send it to Tom Hess Music Corporation who will process and use it according to their privacy policy.
First, let me tell you about the one thing the most successful guitar teachers I've trained all have in common.
It has everything to do with something few people ever think about ... much less learn to harness when they’re teaching guitar.
Think of your guitar teaching like a cherry tree. A seed has to stop being a seed before it can grow into a tree.
Same with you. To build a 6-figure teaching business, you have to stop identifying as "just a guitar player who teaches on the side" and start seeing yourself as a successful guitar teacher.
That shift - your self-image - is the one thing the most successful guitar teachers I've trained all have in common.
Here's what I mean:
1. Your Self-Image Affects Your Guitar Teaching
When you see yourself as a successful guitar teacher, you expect greater results from your students. You give them the coaching and training they need to improve fast.
This doesn't mean you act like a drill sergeant and yell at your students if they don't practice.
It means you challenge the goals your guitar students set. You help them think bigger.
You get them to see their real potential as players - which is likely far greater than they imagine.
It means you use a guitar teaching format that installs proper guitar practice habits, so your students improve faster without practicing more.
Blake, by the way, struggled with this at first. When he started, he second-guessed himself and felt eager to accept every goal his students told him at face value ... greatly underserving his students in the process.
That changed - but I'll get to that.
And beyond affecting your guitar teaching, your self-image directly impacts how much money you make in another way:
2. Your Self-Image Affects How Effectively You Sell Prospective Guitar Students On Studying With You
With the right self-image, you become far more persuasive when talking to potential guitar students - even if you don't know much about selling.
That's because you firmly believe that:
- Playing guitar only becomes fun when you're good at it.
- You know how much faster you can help your guitar students improve ... compared to what they can do on their own (or with an inferior guitar teacher).
- You sincerely want to help them become better players.
This mindset makes you far more persuasive than you could be if you simply memorized a bunch of sales "lines" and tried to use them to get guitar students to start lessons.
Think about it: Blake had zero sales training when he started. But once his self-image shifted, conversations with potential students stopped feeling like "selling" and started feeling like helping. That shift alone changed everything for him.
Of course, combining this mindset with proven strategies for converting prospective students makes the process even more powerful. But without the self-image foundation, no guitar teaching strategy works the way it should.
Which brings me to something important:
3. Your Self-Image Affects How (And How Much) You Advertise
With the right self-image, you advertise all year round. Not because someone told you to - but because you have an almost evangelical desire to help struggling guitar players in your area.
This comes in particularly handy during summertime and economic downturns.
Most guitar teachers stop advertising during these periods. They tell themselves: "Few guitar students are looking for lessons anyway, so what's the use?"
While guitar teachers who see themselves as successful know there are always guitar students looking for lessons in any economy. And it's their mission to reach as many of them as possible.
This is true whether you’re teaching guitar in a tiny town or a huge city with a lot of competition.
Here is even better news: advertising effectively as a guitar teacher is very learnable. There are specific approaches, proven by hundreds of guitar teachers, that work in virtually any market.
But those approaches only produce results if you actually use them - consistently, week after week, month after month.
And that consistency? It comes from self-image.
This is something Blake grasped fairly quickly early on ... he was just missing the skills and the know-how of effective advertising, which I showed him. When he put them to use, he grew his business much faster than he believed was possible for him when he started.
4. Your Self-Image Affects How (And How Much) You Invest In Yourself
With the right self-image, you invest in yourself by getting guitar teacher training - because you know that doing so always pays the best dividends.
Success-minded guitar teachers don't let their egos crush their ambitions. This means they don't try to build their business on their own ... for all the same reasons you'd (hopefully) not advise guitar students to learn guitar on their own.
On top of all the time and money you can save (and earn) by working with a guitar teaching mentor, you can use the credential of guitar teacher training to set yourself apart. This makes you look more professional - even if you're new to teaching guitar.
Blake understood this early on when he began teaching guitar. Even when the investment felt like a stretch, he saw it as a down payment on the business he was building - not an expense. That mindset made all the difference.
And finally - perhaps most importantly:
5. Your Self-Image Affects How, What (And How Much) Work You Do On Your Business
The right self-image drives you to do what success requires - even when you don't feel like doing it.
This means taking care of your business so your business can take care of you. It means doing the tasks you don't enjoy (temporarily) until you can afford to hire someone to handle them.
Guitar teachers who understand and embrace this reality tend to become successful very fast.
Here's why: most guitar teachers treat their teaching like a hobby that happens to pay them. They work ON it when they feel inspired and coast when they don't.
Guitar teachers with a 6-figure self-image treat it like what it is: a business. They show up for it every day - not because they're always motivated, but because they see themselves as business owners. And business owners do the work.
So here's the question: Do you have the self-image of a 6-figure guitar teacher? Or are you still seeing yourself as "someone who plays guitar and teaches a few students on the side"?
The answer might surprise you.
I put together a free guide that shows you how to keep your guitar students taking lessons with you for years - which is one of the fastest ways to grow your income without getting a single new student.
Now - there's something important I want to be upfront about.
This article showed you how your self-image drives everything: your teaching, your selling, your advertising, your willingness to invest, and your work ethic.
But there's a gap between understanding this concept and actually developing the right self-image in your specific situation.
I know this might sound self-serving. But it's the truth: a single article can't look at your business, your students, your local market, and tell you exactly what to do next.
It can't give you feedback on what's working, what isn't, and what to change. It can't hold you accountable when your old self-image tries to pull you back.
That's what I do in the Elite Guitar Teachers Inner Circle. I work with guitar teachers directly - looking at their specific situations and coaching them through exactly what it takes to build a 6-figure (or higher) teaching business.
Not theory. Not generic advice. Specific guidance for where you are and where you want to go.
If you're curious, you can learn more about it below.
But whether you join EGTIC or not, there's one thing I want you to take away from this article:
Remember Blake?
He was 29, crawling through attics in Dallas, wondering if he'd ever escape the A/C business.
He didn't have experience. He didn't have connections. He didn't have a plan.
What he had was a decision.
He decided to stop seeing himself as "a guy who plays guitar on the side" - and start seeing himself as a successful guitar teacher. Then he got the training and guidance to make it real.
Today he teaches guitar 16 hours a week and earns more than he ever made fixing air conditioners.
A year from now, you could be in a very different place.
Or you could be exactly where you are today.
The only difference is what you decide to do next.
Start by getting the free guide that shows you how to keep your students taking lessons for years - it's the fastest way to grow your income without finding a single new student.
