Meet Jessica Ginsberg

We were lucky to catch up with Jessica Ginsberg recently and have shared our conversation below.

Hi Jessica, thanks for sharing your insights with our community today. Part of your success, no doubt, is due to your work ethic and so we’d love if you could open up about where you got your work ethic from?

Music! I started taking piano lessons as a five-year-old. I had natural talent, so the first few years of lessons were pretty easy for me. After a couple of years, talent was not enough and things began to get difficult. I learned at a young age that I need to put time each day into the things I care about and that frustration is an inevitable part of growth. I was able to transfer my practice habits into study habits at school, and then later into my business.

When you are your own boss, self-discipline is essential. If you don’t do the work, the work doesn’t get done. I would never have been able to grow a successful business without a strong work ethic and I can largely credit that skill to my training as a musician.

Thanks for sharing that. So, before we get any further into our conversation, can you tell our readers a bit about yourself and what you’re working on?

I graduated from Berklee College of Music in May of 2008 with a degree in Songwriting. My goal was to move to NYC and become a singer-songwriter.

I always tell people that depending on how one defines success, I was both successful AND unsuccessful: I was successful in that I always had lots of gigs at parties, bars, and restaurants, I played at most of the popular venues for singer/songwriters in Manhattan, and I made a name for myself as a session vocalist. I was unsuccessful because I never earned enough money from that work to survive financially. This is where teaching music came in.

I chose to teach because most music lessons take place on weekdays after school. I hoped that this would free up my mornings (for composing, collaborating, and working in the studio) and my late nights and weekends (for performing and connecting with other musicians). Unfortunately, it didn’t turn out that way.

I discovered that being a music teacher wasn’t only about teaching music. There was lots of other work involved like marketing, scheduling, and bookkeeping. Once I had enough students to support myself, I lacked the time or energy for my artistic pursuits. Another challenge I encountered was that I had to learn completely on the job. There was no one to guide me when I first started teaching, and it took me several years to figure it all out.

At Voyager, I work hard to eliminate the obstacles that I faced as a music teacher for the next generation of young musicians trying to make it in NYC. My time goes into all the administrative tasks so that teachers can simply give the lessons, and then go spend the rest of their days focused on their craft.

I try to look at my relationship with each teacher not only as a working relationship but as a mentorship. I wrote a guidebook for them that condenses everything I’ve learned on the job after teaching for 13 years. Being a musician in New York is not easy, and we can all use as much support and community as possible.

Besides advocating for musicians, it’s very important to me that every student learns as much as possible while having as much FUN as possible! I want parents to know that they are spending their money with purpose and that their children are not only learning the tools to become great musicians but that they are developing a love for music and the arts that they can carry with them for the rest of their lives.

There is so much advice out there about all the different skills and qualities folks need to develop in order to succeed in today’s highly competitive environment and often it can feel overwhelming. So, if we had to break it down to just the three that matter most, which three skills or qualities would you focus on?

1. Creativity:
Before starting Voyager Music Lessons, I had no idea how much creativity is involved in running a small business. Standing out from competitors, particularly in saturated markets like NYC requires out-of-the-box thinking. I had very little capital to start, so spending thousands of dollars on Google ads and neighborhood publications was not an option. I came up with ways to get the word out and connect with potential clients without spending money. I offered small performances in community centers, hosted booths at local school fairs, and donated lessons to anyone in my targeted area who was having auctions. I figured out ways to spend time instead of money to connect with potential clients.

2. Problem Solving:
I look at running a business like playing a game of chess: you can have a plan of action, but if the other player moves in a way you don’t expect, you have to change your strategy.
Example: If a student isn’t picking up on musical concepts during their lesson using a particular method, I need to team up with their teacher to figure out a new approach.
Example: If a student isn’t enjoying their lessons but can’t articulate why, it’s my job to figure out the source of the issue and find a way to fix it while keeping everyone as happy as possible.

Finding solutions to problems is really fun…it’s like winning the chess game!

3. Empathy:
I have to be able to put myself in the shoes of my clients, their children, and the teachers working for me to run a prosperous music school. I can’t develop useful motivational techniques unless I imagine what it’s like to be a student who isn’t feeling excited about their lessons. I have to understand that it can be frustrating for a parent with no musical knowledge to help their child with assignments so that I can successfully explain to them in non-musical terms how best to support their child in between lessons. I prioritize scheduling students who live close to each other on the same day because I understand how taxing traveling from one student to the next can be on teachers.

Awesome, really appreciate you opening up with us today and before we close maybe you can share a book recommendation with us. Has there been a book that’s been impactful in your growth and development?

It was not a whole book, but rather just a quote that has had and continues to have an incredible impact on me as a small business owner:

“You either quit or you keep going. Both will Hurt.”

Voyager opened its doors on March 3rd, 2020: a week before NYC went into lockdown. Voyager is an at-home music lesson service, so we couldn’t conduct business the way I had intended.

There were online lessons here and there, but the first two years were a big struggle. I can’t tell you how many times I thought about quitting. One day I was scrolling on Instagram and stumbled across this quote.

I decided to use those Covid years to learn more about the business and business in general.

Every time I find myself getting discouraged by how difficult running my business can be, I remind myself of this quote, and I keep going.

Contact Info:

• Website: https://www.VoyagerMusicLessons.com
• Instagram: Instagram: @VoyagerMusicLessons
• Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/VoyagerMusicLessons/