Meet Josiah Jackson

We’re excited to introduce you to the always interesting and insightful Josiah Jackson. We hope you’ll enjoy our conversation with Josiah below.

Josiah, so good to have you with us today. We’ve got so much planned, so let’s jump right into it. We live in such a diverse world, and in many ways the world is getting better and more understanding but it’s far from perfect. There are so many times where folks find themselves in rooms or situations where they are the only ones that look like them – that might mean being the only woman of color in the room or the only person who grew up in a certain environment etc. Can you talk to us about how you’ve managed to thrive even in situations where you were the only one in the room?

Client: “How old are you?”

I hear this question at some point during 50-60% of my piano tuning appointments. Why? Well, I’m a 20 year old piano tuner and since most people in the industry are at least 60 years old, clients are shocked when they open their front door and let in a “professional” who looks like he’s still in high school.

I began training when I was only 16 years old, and you can imagine the looks (and imposter syndrome) that came along with starting at such a young age. Going into a customer’s home for the first time, and tuning their piano was terrifying. I was so afraid of messing up, saying the wrong thing, or calling their dog “fluffy” instead of “buddy.”

I finally met another piano tuner who told me: “No one actually cares about your age if you’re doing good work… so get out there and do good work!”

At this point, I was 18 years old. I just kept repeating that phrase in my head over and over, and soon I realized… it’s true! These customers weren’t asking because they thought I wasn’t good enough. Most of the time they’re just curious, trying to make conversation, or want to know how you got into such a rare thing at a young age.

Thanks, so before we move on maybe you can share a bit more about yourself?

My name is Josiah Jackson. I’m a 20 year old piano tuner in West Michigan. In 2022 I started making short videos on social media telling stories about my piano tuning and repair service calls. The videos blew up, and now I have around 900,000 followers across platforms!

My goal is to keep growing my local piano tuning business and YouTube Channel called The Piano Doctor. No one knows this yet, but I’ve been spending the past few months creating a product that will help piano owners care for their piano… You’ll just have to see it for yourself, but there will definitely be a few videos that include it.

Looking back, what do you think were the three qualities, skills, or areas of knowledge that were most impactful in your journey? What advice do you have for folks who are early in their journey in terms of how they can best develop or improve on these?

1) Persistence. Most people have great ideas and just don’t execute because they are a lot of work. You have to commit to working on something for at least 5 years without seeing any results. THEN you will see results.

2) Read business books. Authors spend 100’s of hours condensing their life’s greatest work into a few hundred pages (10 hours if you are an audio book person like me). And they sell their life’s work for $15. That’s the best deal in human history! Just buy the book and read it.

3) I don’t know if this count’s but… surrendering my life to Christ was definitely an impactful part of my journey. I wouldn’t be anywhere if it weren’t for him saving me from my sin.

Thanks so much for sharing all these insights with us today. Before we go, is there a book that’s played in important role in your development?

I absolutely LOVE the book called: building a story brand – Donald Miller

The main point of the book is “branding doesn’t matter, the story your customer tells themselves is what gets people to buy… oh, and here’s a framework for writing a fantastic story used by every Hollywood movie you’ve ever seen.”

Contact Info:

• Website: http://thepianodoctor.pro
• Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/the_pianodoctor/
• Youtube: https://youtube.com/@pianodoctor?si=VfI2bJ7UCGViDGbP