Peaceful Profits Podcast Ep. 58 - He’s Scaling an “In-Person” Biz Online
Synopsis:
What happens when a former Sony Music executive and professional drummer decides to scale his in-person drumming school online?
In this insightful Peaceful Profits client spotlight, Mark Feldman shares how he turned his passion for teaching beginner drummers into a profitable online course using the Peaceful Profits system.
Mark discusses the mindset shifts, offer refinement, and marketing clarity he gained through Mike Shreeve’s program—leading to profit in his very first month.
Whether you're in a creative industry or struggling to transition your business online, this episode is packed with relatable lessons and practical takeaways.
Transcript:
Peaceful Profits Review: He’s Scaling an “In-Person” Biz Online
[00:00:00] Chanelle: Hello, Peaceful Profits nation. Chanelle here with an exciting client spotlight for you today. Today, we're talking to our client, Mark Feldman. Mark, welcome to the show.
[00:00:10] Mark: Thanks for having me.
[00:00:12] Chanelle: Yeah. Mark is a drummer, drum agent, educator, entrepreneur, and former music executive from Manhattan, New York. He's currently the drummer and leader of the four piece band called Mark Feldman's level five.
[00:00:25] Chanelle: The band released its debut EP, which he just educated me, Stan's works. [00:00:30] the Sybil EP in February 2019 on Mutant Cat Records. Mark is also the founder of the Manhattan based Bang! The Drum School. He was formerly a marketing executive for the Sony Music Imprints, Columbia Records, and Legacy Recordings. He says that bottom line, his story Superpower is drumming and he's trying to do good in his business by focusing on beginner drummers because he believes they're overlooked and deserve attention, which I love that focus.
[00:00:59] Chanelle: I [00:01:00] think that's so fantastic. The focus on doing good by helping people who are underserved in the industry. Drumming has made Mark very happy in his life, and he's trying to spread that happiness to others who also want to drum. So welcome again, Mark. We're so glad that you are here.
[00:01:17] Mark: Thank you.
[00:01:18] Mark: Thank you so much.
[00:01:19] Chanelle: Yes. So to start, can you tell me a little bit about your greatest business win?
[00:01:27] Mark: Huh? What's going on now, I think is [00:01:30] pretty key to I'm not where I want to be yet with this new version of my business, but it feels pretty good right now. And this reinvention of moving from a in person based one to one teaching model to this online method was something that I was thinking about for a long time, because I knew that the in person thing, it would only scale with the an extraordinary amount [00:02:00] of work and capital and, physical spaces, it would be very complex.
[00:02:07] Mark: And I didn't want to be in that business. It seemed like much too much grinding it out kind of work. And it would be, it felt actually like A bad move to pursue that when the internet is so obviously a way that you can reach lots of people without any of those [00:02:30] issues and no geographic restrictions and so on.
[00:02:33] Mark: So my, I think that my biggest win is what's happening right now is that I'm actually in a place where my first offer is out there and I'm already in the first month. I'm making a profit and people are buying this first offer in numbers that are showing me that I've made something that people want And it's all [00:03:00] beginners and that my marketing is not bad But what could happen or what I believe is going to happen?
[00:03:07] Mark: As we move forward is I think it's going to become very big and because this is an underserved market and I think that people who are beginners are looking for something that they're not getting anywhere else.
[00:03:23] Chanelle: Yeah. Okay. That's amazing. And I really like what you said about. Knowing, you're not [00:03:30] where you want to be yet.
[00:03:30] Chanelle: And I think a lot of us can relate to that. You start to do something, but it's only the tip of the iceberg of what you see as far as potential, but you're already making a profit in the first month, which is amazing because of what you said, that the offer is speaking to people that, that you're doing something right.
[00:03:49] Chanelle: So getting that. Profit in the first month, figuring this piece out. How is that impacting both you on a personal level and your business?
[00:03:59] Mark: [00:04:00] It's not like the dollars are significant at this point, but the fact that even though it's this big right now, If the ratios can hold and you can scale, it can mean a lot.
[00:04:13] Mark: I think that what the way it impacts me business wise is just as a business person, I see it and I'm like, okay, there's no reason not to keep rocking this. And keep focusing on it and it alleviates maybe [00:04:30] some anxiety that you might have. Cause you know it's not without its risks, all of this entrepreneurial stuff.
[00:04:37] Mark: I was working for, a year and a half on creating something new that would fit this model that I've been learning in the Peaceful Profits program. So to do all of that stuff and not have know what's going to happen, it's a little nerve wracking. But [00:05:00] look, that's the choices we make if we want to have our own businesses and you just have to deal with it.
[00:05:07] Mark: And if we didn't believe in what we were doing, we wouldn't do all this stuff anyway. So happily the personal and business is that I have a real proof of concept now. And so that is motivating me and giving me a lot of energy and allowing me, helping me to keep putting passion and working really hard on this.
[00:05:29] Mark: So I wake up [00:05:30] every day and I'm like, okay, what can I do? I've got, there's this whiteboard over here, which you can see a little bit and it shows my insanity, but it also shows my motivation.
[00:05:41] Chanelle: Yeah. Okay. That's fantastic. I love two things that stood out to me that I think all of us as entrepreneurs want so much alleviate anxiety.
[00:05:51] Chanelle: Amazing. You spoke to that. So clearly there are, there's a lot of unknowns as entrepreneurs. And then you said you've now. proof of [00:06:00] concept. And so it's like you put it out, you can see that it's working. And so that really is motivating to be able to keep going. So tell me about what the process has been like for you to create this offer and funnel.
[00:06:17] Chanelle: As, since you've joined the program, what has that been like?
[00:06:20] Mark: It's been pretty step by step. It's been a very organized way of working. [00:06:30] And there is a lot of information and knowledge and understanding that I've gained by being in this program. I recognize I'm one of those people who, if there's something that I don't know, I'm happy to hire people to help me understand it better.
[00:06:53] Mark: And I'm happy to anything that's not my strength, Or anything that I don't think I should be spending my [00:07:00] time on. It's a classic business person. It's a classic entrepreneur's problem to hold onto too much stuff, to jump around from thing to thing, to not know what to do next, all this kind of stuff.
[00:07:15] Mark: When I found this program and I looked into, Mike and his experience and what he's done and his philosophy. I saw [00:07:30] someone who I felt I could trust to just do what he says. And that's pretty much what I've been doing, but it's just like the first. I've been in the program about a year now, so I had been in a, another program before with someone else whose name I won't mention, but, and I learned stuff in that program too, but the thing that was a problem for me [00:08:00] was that the model that was being touted was send all your traffic to a webinar and then be like a pitchman, like really, it was a very high pressure kind of a sale that was required, like that's what was being taught.
[00:08:23] Mark: And first of all, I spent a few thousand dollars running traffic to a [00:08:30] webinar and didn't get any sales out of it. And second of all, I didn't like the feeling of being that person. I took it down very quickly. Because I didn't feel comfortable with that being the window into my business and into me, right?
[00:08:50] Mark: If I'm gonna, I'm representing this business and feeling that I was hard selling people, it didn't feel good to [00:09:00] me at all. So the methods that Are taught in this program aligned with my philosoph philosophies on business more and focusing on the offer. It took me a lot of time to come up with the right offer and Mike.
[00:09:20] Mark: Tells you to spend that time because if you don't have a good offer and nothing else matters So that's paying off because the beginning of [00:09:30] my funnel is this is the offer that I worked on Through this program and none of my other parts of the funnel are working yet Like my order bumps, they're not selling, my upsell's not selling, but I'm still making a profit because my offer is good and the people want the front end.
[00:09:46] Mark: So that's why I'm so hopeful and encouraged and optimistic because if I'm making a profit, At the beginning and none of the other parts of the funnel are working. Imagine what's going to happen when I tweet the rest of it. It's going to be [00:10:00] killer.
[00:10:00] Chanelle: Yes, I love that. And you're exactly right. It's really speaks to this idea of the process of testing.
[00:10:07] Chanelle: And I love that is a hopeful thing for you and not Oh man, it's not working because the upsells aren't working yet. It's the opposite. Look, this is working. This piece is working and now I can tweak these other pieces and it's only going to get better.
[00:10:22] Mark: It's just that's how I feel.
[00:10:23] Mark: It's just a matter of now it's out there. The hardest work really has been done. The [00:10:30] rest of it's now being smart, organized, scientific testing. I know that I can create an offer now and that my that my market will buy. So I don't have to get all freaked out. Oh, I don't know. Can I make something?
[00:10:48] Mark: What am I going to do? It's no, I know. I know my audience. Okay. I know I can teach well to them and that they are trusting me. And so I just have to [00:11:00] keep delivering.
[00:11:01] Chanelle: Yeah, that's amazing. So I would love to hear a little bit about, you mentioned that you have spent a long time really working on your offer and getting that right.
[00:11:12] Chanelle: So what challenges have you faced as you've been developing and working on that offer while in the program?
[00:11:20] Mark: I guess the challenge, the hardest part is making a decision about what you're going to work on [00:11:30] because, and I did some research and, I have a group, I have a Facebook group of beginning drummers that I started like a few years ago and I bounced things off the group, so I use it as a.
[00:11:45] Mark: a testing ground. And I, so I said, Hey, I'm thinking about doing this or this. I'm working on making a new course. What do you think of these ideas? And so I got some feedback there that helped me. [00:12:00] But I think the hardest part is just deciding what to do because there's no way around it, unless I'm, for the kind of Products I'm making, there's a lot of detail to creating them.
[00:12:13] Mark: I first have to plan what's being taught. I have to write all this music exercises for people. I have to organize it into a sequence that is logical. And then I have to make videos of me teaching [00:12:30] that stuff. And it's not like a lot of course. Creators who are making information products that are based on helping people make money.
[00:12:43] Mark: A lot of the time you can just talk and you can put, supers on screen. And I can't do that. So I have to make a video of me and my drums have to sound great. And I have to be able to, all the [00:13:00] angles have to be right so that people can see the physicality of what I'm doing in the right places.
[00:13:04] Mark: Sometimes they have to see my feet. Sometimes they have to see some details of my hands. It's complex. Yeah. So I had to think all that through and then I had to shoot them and then I had to figure out how to streamline the workflow so I didn't kill myself because the editing, Of that is also difficult and I, it was taking me forever.
[00:13:27] Mark: So I had to find someone to help me do that. [00:13:30] I hope I'm not like babbling incessantly. And that's what happens.
[00:13:35] Chanelle: It's so unique. You're the, the industry that you're in, it does pose a lot of skepticism. specific challenges that you're right. A lot of people aren't up against, but I hope that for listeners who are in industries like this, they can see parallels to what they're doing.
[00:13:51] Chanelle: Because often I think it's easy to say online won't work for me. I'm in, in this industry, I'm in drumming and it's too tricky to show people. [00:14:00] And yet. The way that you're talking us through shows us there are ways to make it work online, even in these industries that aren't traditionally done online.
[00:14:09] Chanelle: And so I love that you've, gotten help for one thing with different camera angles, with helping with all the editing, whatever pieces that you need, but also that you've found workarounds and figured out ways to make it work.
[00:14:22] Mark: Yeah. I had to the pandemic kind of forced my hand, truly.
[00:14:28] Chanelle: Yeah, which I think a lot [00:14:30] of people, it's shifted a lot of things, right? So definitely true. So as you have worked through and come up with this, what's been the most rewarding part of this process for you?
[00:14:41] Mark: There's a couple of things. One thing is that I'm at a place now where It's starting to really become real after a long time.
[00:14:55] Mark: So even before I started this program, I was thinking about how to [00:15:00] make this change. Like even when I, before the pandemic, when I was, when the business in New York was rolling it, the in person teaching business, and, we were. Dominating the private drum lesson world in New York at least in terms of the, this niche.
[00:15:20] Mark: And running that business, it was hard to see the big picture of, hey, if you're going to do this, you're going to [00:15:30] have to step away from running this thing so that you can make this other thing. You can't get sucked into this thing that you know isn't going to take you where you want to go.
[00:15:41] Mark: So what I do is I got to a point where I delegated every possible thing. I stopped teaching myself. I had teachers doing all the teaching and then I just started writing. So I started writing the course that I wanted to sell. And so I've been at this [00:16:00] for, a good three years, probably, even with the writing.
[00:16:04] Mark: So the most gratifying thing, the most satisfying thing, that is that it's happening now. After, it's like my baby is being born. So that's exciting. And I'm getting really good reactions. So I got a reaction testimonials, not even real testimonials that are like, making a video with someone.
[00:16:23] Mark: Hey, will you talk about it? It was just people emailing me and this one guy emailed me and he's OMG, I [00:16:30] can't believe I know I can do this. Thank you so much. Yeah. You're a great teacher, like all this stuff, which is like, makes you feel great. And it's okay, so I am helping people now.
[00:16:41] Mark: I have proof. It's so that makes me feel really good.
[00:16:45] Chanelle: Yeah, that's amazing. And the more that we hear that, the more we want to go out and do that again and continue to help people. So I'm so glad that has been your reaction. So now we are at my favorite part of the client spotlight [00:17:00] interviews. And as a current client of ours, you've mentioned that you've worked on your front end offer your funnel and to transition clients from your book to purchasing your high ticket offer. So I'd love it if you could tell our audience the number one piece of advice you'd like to share with others who are working through that process too.
[00:17:19] Mark: I think that, you just have to, if you get into this course, there's a couple of things. You [00:17:30] have to trust the process. You have to trust that if you go through the course and do what Mike says. And you obviously there's no guarantees right you have to write a book that people want to read Actually, I don't even have the front end book funnel now.
[00:17:50] Mark: My front end is just a course and so later I want to i'm going to write a book and do that have that funnel going too, But you [00:18:00] just have to buckle down You have to work really hard and you have to You know You have to trust that it can work for you too. And because it's scary and it's a lot of work.
[00:18:18] Mark: And I think that most people who want to do things like this don't get to the end because they're scared [00:18:30] or it's taking too long or it's too hard, but you gotta just stick with it. So you have to stick with it. It might take longer than you think. It'll cost you more money than you think. It will cost you more time than you think.
[00:18:44] Mark: It'll be harder than you think. All of those things are true, but you just have to trust that you can do it and that if you're in a program, if you're in this program, you can trust that [00:19:00] The path has been set for you. So just do what Mike says. He knows what he's talking about.
[00:19:08] Chanelle: That is wonderful advice. I really heard to trust and to do the work.
[00:19:13] Chanelle: And I like that you called out, it might take longer than you think it might be harder than you think, but I would also say that the rewards are also. Can be greater than you think. And so much good stuff in there, Mark, where can people find you and learn more [00:19:30] about your work?
[00:19:31] Mark: If they want to find out about me as a drummer or hiring me to do sessions or anything like that, record songs, tracks for them.
[00:19:39] Mark: My studio drumming website is. Online session drummer. com. But for people who want to learn how to play drums they can go to the offer that we've been talking about, which is called pro sounding drum fills for beginners and [00:20:00] the website address for that offer is drum fills course. com slash enroll.
[00:20:10] Mark: And the business is called Bang the Drum School. That's the name of my school. And so there's a website for that too, but I don't want to give 50 websites. The main thing is if you want to learn how to play the drums and, or you want to see what I'm doing the place to see that really [00:20:30] is to go to that page drumfillscourse.com/enroll.
[00:20:34] Chanelle: Okay. Perfect. We will put that in the show notes and that'll be a great place for people who are interested in drumming as well as for people who want to go and check out and see your offer page and to see how that's all working on the business end. So thank you, Mark, again, for being here.
[00:20:51] Chanelle: We've learned a lot from your journey and I really appreciate you sharing.
[00:20:55] Mark: Thank you. And I've learned a lot from you.
[00:20:57] Chanelle: Wonderful. And yes, thank you [00:21:00] everyone for being here. We are so grateful that you are part of Peaceful Profits Nation.