[Kate St. John]

Thanks everyone for all your input and ideas. I’m sure this is a common concern among all of us so I was also glad to see an email that went out about this recently. Meredith, MOPS stands for Mothers of Pre-Schoolers. We definitely try to focus our attention on groups where parents would be looking for community activities with their kids. We have tried or planned to try most of your ideas. We will probably add a first class discount and a military discount but I don’t want to offer anything for free or to apply toward registration. We don’t have a registration fee and I don’t see the need for it at this point because our registration is all computerized so it doesn’t take us hardly any time to process.

We may start looking into doing SM at a library 1x/month like Meredith, but we only offer clinic-based services so I am concerned that offering this in the community may spread our staff too thin and also may give parents the impression that we can do community-based services. What do you think?

Good points about needing to keep at it. Erika I don’t know why I didn’t think about targeting military groups, especially since we have 5 military bases here! One of my staff had a good idea about setting up a table outside a baby store like girl scout cookies do, where we can have handouts and tell them to come back at a certain time for a demo (1-2 songs every 30min or 1hr). That would be if the baby stores don’t allow us to do something in their store.

Is there a way to have this forum alert us through email when there are posts because I have not been on this forum since we were assigned to do postings during the training. If we knew through email that there are posts, it would probably help to keep us all involved.

Thanks!

[Kate St. John]

Thanks Meredith and Erika for the feedback and ideas!
By the way, before I posted my first post, I listened to the last two SM Provider calls about marketing and demo classes.

I have never payed for any ads on social media. The only one I might do in the future is facebook.

We’ve only been able to do 1 presentation so far and it was to a MOPS group, but the one we have coming up is for a MOM’s club group where part of it will be a demo with their kids. All the other related programs are booked so we’ve just dropped off our postcards.

I have it in the plans to do a newsletter sign-up and resource fairs, but that’s a little further in the future than the other things we can do right now. Baby stores are on the list but one of them (Gymboree) already told us we cannot leave our materials there or in any way market/demo, etc. because it’s against their corporate policies. But Babies R Us is on the list and we haven’t contacted them yet.

We currently have an early bird discount and a 1 time drop-in higher rate, but we don’t currently offer free classes, demos, or coupons. I have a real hang-up about providing anything for free at this stage in my business because our time is valuable and you get people taking advantage or not seeing the value in something when it’s free. Also I still have to pay my staff and can’t justify free services with no guarantee on return investment. Essentially I would be paying the families for a free class because I would still pay my staff! I can’t get past that and don’t know if I will ever feel comfortable with that. But I could see maybe doing a coupon for their first class.

I guess I was under the impression that SM would grow so much faster than MT because of how successful it’s been for Meredith and Beth, and because we have a significantly larger target market as well as better access to finances for early childhood than we do for MT. So maybe I had unrealistic expectations? Any more ideas/feedback?

Thanks!

[Kate St. John]

I am very discouraged and need some help/direction/encouragement. I own NeuroRhythm Music Therapy Services in Colorado Springs and we launched SM in November 2014. We just started our 3rd round of 6 week classes, but still no new families have signed up. We only have 2 people who have been with us since we launched: one is a client who receives MT with us as well, and the other is the typically developing brother of a client who comes here for MT. In our first 6 week session, we had one drop-in (paid) who found our website and absolutely loved the class. They said they planned to sign up for more classes. I sent a follow up email but never heard from them again.

We have custom designed SM marketing postcards, a SM page on our website with subpages that have more info, we announced the launch as well as upcoming classes on facebook and twitter, and we have a pinterest board about early childhood music classes with links to our website and Raising Harmony. One of our staff is the social media coordinator who posts fairly regularly about SM. Another staff is the SM coordinator and has a specific time each week dedicated to SM marketing. We have done one presentation to a MOPS group and have tried to secure more, but the other MOPS and MOMs club groups are booked so instead we are dropping off SM postcards. Next we are targeting homeschooling groups, YMCA’s, libraries, daycares and preschools. We’ve also thought about dropping off materials to baby retail stores. Our MT clients are very supportive and have given out SM postcards but no new families have come in from that yet.

So we’ve put in a lot of time, resources and finances into all the marketing materials and legwork since September leading up to the November launch, but have not grown one bit. I don’t know what else to do. Any advice/thoughts? Please also give feedback on our marketing materials from our website and pinterest.

website: http://www.neurorhythm.com/sproutingmelodies
pinterest (see the early childhood music board): http://www.pinterest.com/neurorhythm

Thank you for your support!
Kate St. John

[Kate St. John]

Bravo Elyse!!

Katie, I also went to my local library’s website while listening to the conference call. I was surprised that there were no groups offered for children under age 2. There are three groups led by the same person, a music group, a developmental enrichment group that has music for part of it, and a felt board and story group that has music for part of it. This sounds like a great place to bring people in the door.

I have a clinic and I am planning to offer SM there. I have lots of questions related to marketing SM and how to get enough people to sign up, pricing, etc. I have already done my homework on similar types of classes in the area so I have a good idea of the pricing, but would like to have more support in that area too. Will all that be answered with the “support package” after paying for the license?

I have an employee and plan to open multiple NeuroRhythm locations across the country, possibly franchising. So I plan to pay for the Agency license to train multiple employees and offer it at multiple locations, but it is too expensive for me right now. Hopefully in the next couple months or so I can afford to pay for it and get started.

[Kate St. John]

There are three things that really stood out to me and that I have applied to my clinical work so far: One is the musical developmental stages. I started looking at all my clients with special needs with this in mind and have seen that although my clients range from age 5-18 with one age 61, they all fall within these musical developmental stages. This has changed some of the music and interventions I have chosen so that it more closely matches which stage they are in. The second thing I have been made more aware of is the importance of listening and giving more time and space for this. Thirdly, I have been more aware of how difficult it can be for new parents to get anywhere. One of my clients’ moms had a baby right after SM started and I thought about her a lot when the videos talked about welcoming the families in who come late and how we’re so glad they made it! I was able to encourage the mom in that way when they came 25 minutes late to therapy because first my client lost his backpack, and then someone parked so close to the car that the mom couldn’t get the baby’s car seat in. She looked like she was about to cry when they finally arrived. I told her I was just glad they made it and it must have been very stressful. We also had a good talk about how important music therapy is to my client so that he has that time focused only on him, now that the baby has taken away most of the attention.

[Kate St. John]

I don’t currently offer groups, but whether for my individual sessions or future group sessions and SM classes, I always set boundaries with families and children, I stay consistent and follow through. Staying organized is a big help too, such as arranging the room and instruments in a structured and organized way.

[Kate St. John]

I am most excited to get to work with early childhood again. Colorado stopped recognizing the MT-BC cert for early intervention a few years ago so I haven’t had anyone in that age range for a while. Our state is working toward state registration and later licensure, so that will hopefully open up a lot more funding opportunities for families. I’m excited to finally be able to work with the young ones again through SM!

[Kate St. John]

Awesome!

[Kate St. John]

Music for skill building sounds more performance-based to me, similar to the purpose of the music from a music educator’s perspective being musical goals such as matching pitch and keeping a steady beat. Music for development sounds like it is more about the child’s overall development in communication, social-emotional and motor skills. This matches much more closely with our backgrounds as music therapists, using the music to achieve functional non-musical goals.

[Kate St. John]

SM3 5 words: active, deliberate, intentional, emotions, push and pull

Family Sprouts 5 words: busy, helping, sharing, individuality, joyful

Session Plan:
Instrument Exploration: instruments are around the room to explore during check-in.
Greeting: “Hello Everybody” and greet each person.
Bonding: “Hold On Tight”. Parents can sit with legs open and position the older child closest to them, while the youngest is in front so that the older child feels like they are helping.
Songs About Me: “All of This is Me”. Parents can point to the youngest child’s body parts while the older child can do it independently.
Instrument Songs: “I Like This Song”. I love the rhythm of this song and it provides a great structure for any improv instrument play and dance. Two-handed instruments can be used in SM3 and Family Sprouts.
Movement Songs: “Will You Come”. Older children can hold instruments and play while they move.
Good-bye: “Good-bye” and transition out the door with “Thank You Very Much”.

[Kate St. John]

Family Sprouts is the group I am most intimidated by because of the challenges with multiple ages and developmental levels. I would love to hear and see more examples of how people are successfully keeping a good balance of engagement without overstimulation. I feel challenged by making sure the music won’t startle young ones but is engaging enough for older ones. I love the idea of giving the older ones responsibilities such as cleaning up and modeling. There are some great ideas people have posted and I’d love to hear more! I’d also love to see some video examples if there are some…?

[Kate St. John]

Yes, I am also feeling intimidated. It has been difficult just to try and keep up (not always successfully!) with this course material each week because of how busy I am (and I’m sure all of you are too). I haven’t had any time to try and learn any of the songs and it seems overwhelming to think about learning all of that and remembering all the developmental stages and SM format, etc.
But I really appreciate Erika talking about how SM has gone for her and the ongoing support we will have. That helps put my mind at ease…a little!

[Kate St. John]

My favorite brand overall is Remo so most of my drums are Remo brand. I also like Basic Beat for plastic maracas or chiquitas. Not a fan of egg shakers since they’re too hard to hold. West Music has great plastic animal bells that have a perfect spot for gripping and are easy to clean since they’re plastic. I’m a big fan of plastic everything for young ones.

I haven’t done groups in years as I much much much prefer 1:1’s for therapy, but if I had been doing groups, I probably would have done something similar to the idea Meredith and Beth have of a “wash me” bin to put instruments in at the end of class. Great idea!

[Kate St. John]

I think if the music can be used to redirect, then great. But there are times when stopping the music and verbally intervening is necessary, especially when there is danger of someone getting hurt. My expectation that I would communicate to parents is that they will manage their own child for everyone’s safety, but maybe that’s not how SM is set up? I’m not sure so I hope to hear more about this.
I really appreciate the ideas Kristina has such as a lap ride to provide an appropriate time to run around or a gathering song where everyone holds hands to join the group together again. I am also looking forward to learning the SM sayings that Elizabeth mentioned.

[Kate St. John]

Everyone has had great input on this. I agree that it is difficult to determine the appropriate level of stimulation when this is such a wide age range and every child is different. But generally speaking, if I am not getting good engagement/participation, then the stimulation and energy is probably too low. If children are bouncing around but not focused or engaged in the music, then I probably need to increase the stimulation and energy.

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