Today we’d like to introduce you to Sarah Davies.
Sarah, we appreciate you taking the time to share your story with us today. Where does your story begin?
Thank you so much for this opportunity to share our story! So, I grew up in a family that prioritized music lessons. Like many others, I took lessons for a time starting at the age of eight but then I begged my mom to quit around 6th grade. I continued to play on my own, choosing all the songs I liked to play. By early high school, I realized how much I truly loved it and decided to get serious and enroll in lessons with a more serious teacher. My lessons were at 6 am on Saturday mornings, that was the only time I knew wouldn’t have a conflict. I drove 25 minutes to my lessons. During this time I grew a lot.
At age 16, I went to the Roof Restaurant in downtown Salt Lake with a group from my church. If you aren’t familiar, this restaurant is on the 10th floor of the Joseph Smith Memorial Building and has beautiful views of the whole downtown area. In the middle of the restaurant is a clear plexiglass grand piano. When I saw it my soul lit on fire and I knew I wanted to play there one day. Well, that day came sooner than I would have ever thought when through some connections I landed an interview. They took a chance on me and to this day I am so grateful. I was hired at age 16 as one of the youngest pianists they’d ever worked with. I played in the restaurant for nearly 5 years every Tuesday and every other weekend. This was a life-changing opportunity for me. I challenged myself and learned so much. I also got to meet some really amazing people.
Around the same time, I started having people around the neighborhood asking me if I would teach their kids piano. I made this my little job during high school and worked really hard. Through college, I kept my same clientele driving up from Provo where I attended college at Brigham Young University each week to continue working with them. In 2013 I got married and moved back to Draper where I kept growing my small at-home studio. By 2015, I had grown my studio to 70 students. I was teaching every waking minute I could schedule. Starting at 5:30 and not ending till after 10:00 at night. We found out that year that I was expecting my first child, and I knew I couldn’t keep that demanding schedule up with a baby.
So not wanting to give the clientele I’d worked so hard to build away, I set out to find another teacher that could help share in the load. I hired a friend I had met through my time at The Roof Restaurant and the two of us split my students in half. I bought another piano and put it in a spare room in my house and the two of us taught. Before long my phone was ringing off the hook with people trying to get in with one of us. We were quickly full and I knew there was an untapped potential and we could continue to grow if we could figure out how to make it happen.
So we did. We rented my parent’s basement. Hired three more teachers, bought more pianos, and continued to grow our studio. During that time, I was driving through our town’s historic district when an old building caught my eye. It was for lease and something in my heart knew that was where we were meant to move our studio. I called my husband and being the realist he is, questioned how we would ever have enough demand to fill those rooms and make the rent payment. Somehow I knew we would.
Within three months of moving into that building, we had outgrown it. And from there we haven’t stopped growing we have one by one, opened five additional studios. Diversified our services by providing voice, guitar, violin, drums, and much more. We’ve written a juniors curriculum for our youngest little musicians and continue to look for ways to grow and expand. With more than 100+ teachers and administrators on staff now.
We recently started a podcast called @morethanmusicianspodcast where we tell the stories of some of these amazing musicians we get to rub shoulders with. We feel blessed every day for the platform we’ve been blessed with and for the people that have seen something in us and taken a chance on us along the way.
Can you talk to us a bit about the challenges and lessons you’ve learned along the way? Looking back would you say it’s been easy or smooth in retrospect?
The road has been far from easy. In the beginning, my husband had a full-time job so I was juggling being a new mom while doing the enrollment, managing, coordinating, event planning, billing, hiring, and teaching. It was a very stressful time for me as a one man show. I hit my breaking point about 18 months in when I finally hired my first administrative employee.
Along the way, we have faced many challenges as we’ve felt we’ve been trailblazing a new industry. There hasn’t been software or standard policies for us. There hasn’t been a company we could replicate or try to follow. We’ve felt we have been blazing our own path in every sense of the word. Many of the challenges we face each and every day have to do with procedures and logistics. We have made mistakes but have learned from them and tried to better ourselves every time.
Personally, I have also struggled a lot in finding balance as a working mom. At times I have felt my heart being completely torn and pulled in two different directions. I feel such a calling and purpose in doing this studio. I am so passionate about helping our students discover the amazing world of music but at the end of the day MY kids will always be my greatest joy and priority. It is hard to stomach having to miss even one second of watching them grow up and the Mom guilt has been more than I’ve been able to handle at times. Luckily I have a very supportive husband and while it isn’t always easy to work with your spouse, we’ve ultimately learned and grown so much. We’ve worked hard to set aside other people’s opinions and really figure out what dynamics work best for our family.
Great, so let’s talk business. Can you tell our readers more about what you do and what you think sets you apart from others?
There are a lot of options when it comes to choosing a private music instructor. So what’s the difference between taking lessons at a studio vs. private neighborhood teachers?
After teaching privately in my home for almost 10 years, I felt my student’s overall experience lacked with the limited bandwidth of being a one-man show. So I set out to provide a more robust experience for my students and that’s where The Piano Place was born.
Music lessons in a studio setting allow professionalism for both teachers and students. Here are some of the things that make The Piano Place special.
- Six Convenient Locations Along Wasatch Front:
Farmington, Morgan, Salt Lake City, South Jordan, Draper, Lehi - We Might Be The Piano Place But Don’t Just Teach Piano:
We offer Piano, Voice, Guitar, Drums, Violin, and much much more - Fun Incentive Programs
When students practice they earn points to our fun Piano Place store - We’ve Got A Teacher For EVERYONE.
With over 100 teachers on staff, we know we can find a compatible fit for EVERYONE. - Frequent Performance Opportunities:
From recitals to jam nights, parades to concerts. We provide dozens of professional opportunities for our students to perform. - Inspiring Studio Environment:
Each of our studios features themed rooms after beloved music icons as well as and state of the art equipment. - Emphasis on Confidence Building:
With the company motto of #MakingMoreThanMusicians, we are committed to pointing out the life lessons that only music can teach.
It has been our mission to breathe new life into traditional music lessons and to break the one-size-fits-all mold mentality. Our number one goal is to help students stick with it and gain all the important life lessons music can teach along the way.
Alright so before we go can you talk to us a bit about how people can work with you, collaborate with you or support you?
We love to collaborate with local music companies like movers, tuners, sheet music distributors, etc. We love to collaborate with local influencers on our social media platforms @thepianoplace.
Sharing the word and telling people about our services is one of the greatest ways people can support since we are such a word-of-mouth business.
Listen, like, subscribe and share our podcast @morethanmusicianspodcast.
Contact Info:
- Email: sarah@thepianoplaceutah.com
- Website: https://thepianoplaceutah.com/
- Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/thepianoplace/
- Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/thepianoplaceutah
- Other: https://anchor.fm/sarah-davies09
Image Credits
Rori Glover Photography
