Moving My Flute Lesson Studio to San Diego
I get this question a lot: “what was it like to move your flute studio from Indiana to California?” And the short answer is: hard. Emotionally, mentally, physically, it was hard. So, I want to share a little about that journey, how I made it happen, what I would do differently, and what the next steps are for me.
The Build-Up
As you may already know, the reason we moved to California was for my husband to take the next step in his career. So, back in July of 2023, when my studio was really starting to hit a stride in gaining new students, I was solidifying relationships with local band directors, and things were really starting to take off for me after roughly a year of building, my husband got a call. He’d been given an offer for a position he had been chasing for a few years and time-wise, it was now or never. I’ve never seen someone so torn about a decision because he knew what it meant for me: leaving my business in Indiana behind and rebuilding it in whatever new city he was assigned.
The upside to all of this is that he was given several choices for locale. California, Texas, Arizona - small towns and large cities alike. After lots of thought, we decided on San Diego not just for the weather, but because we have family here and quite frankly always wanted to move to SoCal. We knew it would be difficult, but the rationale was that we had always wanted to experience something like this and this was the world smiling on us. So, job accepted and off my husband went to New Mexico for job training for the next 6 months.
From August to February, I would be back home in Indiana preparing our home to rent, finding us a place to live, coordinating the move, and wrapping up my business for a new start in San Diego.
The Logistics
To say that I was nervous is the understatement of the year. San Diego is expensive and saturated with talented musicians who teach as well. My brain was on fire - would I need to get a job? Would I even be able to make it as a teacher out there? Where do I even begin? So, I made a list. What needed to happen first, second, third?
First, I needed to work on getting things decluttered, deciding what we were taking, come up with a budget for moving expenses, rent, etc.
If you can believe it, in my mind, the business would go on as usual for the moment. No changes. At this point, I had 6 months until the move, so I didn’t need to advertise or wrap up in any way for at least a few months. That said, there were a few things that I went ahead and did early that I would highly recommend for anyone moving states: start updating your website/social media SEO right away. I still left “Fort Wayne” as a target, but I started updating the tags on my website and social media to include “San Diego.” Why did I do this 6 months in advance? Because it takes time for the algorithm to begin showing your stuff to the right people. Even though I updated my SEO on my website, it took roughly a year for my website to show up with a high ranking when you google “San Diego flute teacher.” So, I’m glad I started early, otherwise I may still have months ahead of me with my website simply not showing up on Google. So, do this early, my friends. And if you don’t plan on teaching in person in your new locale, start swapping your SEO to include ir primarily showcase “online lessons” early on. Again, it takes time for the algorithm to pick things up. Make sure your site has been crawled/indexed recently and regularly (hint: you can do this through Google Search Console) to reflect the changes.
Other than that, I kept the move quiet because there was no need to panic anyone or stop taking on new students until I was close to the move.
The Announcement
After about 4 months of building my online presence to push online lessons and update my SEO, I had secured a place to live, was in touch with local music organizations (such as Villa Musica, local music stores, and even a few band directors and private lesson teachers in the area), and it was time to break the news to my in-person students about the move. This was the hardest thing I did, to be perfectly honest. It broke my heart.
So, I spoke with parents first, giving them the news over the phone and in person where I could. I asked them if they would like for me to discuss it with their children or if they would prefer that they break the news. It ended up being about 50/50. Some thought that the relationship I had with their students warranted me telling them, which I absolutely appreciated. Some felt like the news would be better received coming from them which is also completely appreciated and understood. In the end, I gave students the option to either take a few suggestions on other private lesson teachers in the area (many of whom I spoke with ahead of time to see about transitioning students) or to continue working with me online. To my surprise, about 80% of my students decided to stick with me online. With that said, the plan was absolutely to continue in person for as long as I possibly could and that ended up being until about a week before the move.
The Move
Moving, of course, was a logistical “the floor is lava” game. Trying to be sure my students still got the best education possible while I, of course, had a billion things on my to-do list was a real balancing act. I did as much self-care as I could, however, no amount of bubble baths and face masks could make this part any easier. In the last week leading up, I can’t tell you how many times I cried. I was so emotionally broken by the fact that some of my students whom I had grown to very much love, I would likely never see again. To those reading this who aren’t teachers, it may be hard to imagine that without thinking I’m a bit on the dramatic side (and maybe I am), but when you spend an hour of 1:1 time a week with kids, you grow a bond that’s just different. You learn about their lives, they confide in you, and you see them through challenges and triumphs. I was blessed that my students trusted me enough to talk about their friend-drama and tell me how they felt when they went to stay with their other parents for a week. They would call and text me when their color guard team took home gold or they made the honor roll. It’s hard not to be sad when you step away from those students.
Finally, the house was packed up, my dogs were in the car, and my mom and I loaded up our clothes and toothbrushes to make the long drive to California. I’d said my final goodbyes to those students who wouldn’t be continuing on with me and I’d said my “see you laters” to the ones that I would see in a couple of weeks for their first online sessions. Since I taught many students online already, swapping those students over wouldn’t be terribly difficult, but I still needed to make sure I had all the equipment needed in the car with me (not in the shipping boxes) to be sure the first lesson was seamless.
Finally, I turned my phone to GPS mode, stopped checking my Instagram and email, and set out for the first stop in our journey: Texarkana.
The Arrival
Texarkana to Halletsville to visit my brother and his family, Halletsville to Artesia for my husband’s graduation, Artesia to Tuscon because of altitude sickness, Tuscon to San Diego. More than 2,500 miles, so much to see, and very little effort put into worrying about what was to come. Finally, we made it.
San Diego in February was rainy (surprisingly) and had just been flooded. It was a crazy time to arrive, but I was so happy to have my feet on the ground and not in the car. I decided to take the few days before my mom flew back to Indiana to spend doing touristy things. We went to see the sea caves and Children’s Beach in La Jolla. We walked around my new little town, going up and down the pier and watching the sunset. We ate good food and took my dogs to the beach, spending some quality time and choosing not to worry about what was to come, because to be perfectly honest, the hardest part of building my business was just beginning.
The Rebuild
You see, one thing that I failed to mention is that while I was in the process of moving, several of my adult students had chaos break out in their lives, too, so while I lost 20% of my in-person students, I also lost some of my online students. They had/have every intention of coming back, but that still made the transition more difficult than I originally had hoped. So, the minute my mom boarded her plane to head back to Indiana, I knew what I needed to do.
I got on the train of emailing all the band directors that I could find on the internet. I reached out to schools, to other private lesson teachers, to other musicians to try and play music with, get gigs, and get students.
Then, I set out to update my website, google listing, and social media to reflect that I was no longer in Indiana. I also posted an official announcement on my social media to reflect the change.
Once all that was done, I just kept emailing. Kept reaching out. Kept updating my website here and there and re-indexing it so that it would show up in search results. I also realized I needed to take stock of the cultural differences in the areas I was now working with. One thing that helped was making friends with a local band director who was kind enough to guide me (shoutout to Maren Glover - a fabulous band director here in South Bay San Diego). I continued volunteering to teach free sectionals and continued asking lots of questions while I had the opportunity to be in the same room as these other teachers. Many of them were generous with their time and kind enough to offer me guidance, take my card, and begin recommending me to their students. I began playing with a local community band, pasting flyers around my community and other communities that I visited, and posted regularly in local Facebook groups. It takes time and a lot of work, but eventually, the traction will start, I promise.
What I Would Have Done Differently
Of course, we all have those things we would go back and do differently. Personally, I would have updated my SEO and Google listings months before the big move. I would have been reaching out to band directors months before I arrived, giving them a heads-up that I would be there soon and ready to volunteer my time. I wish I had understood that half the battle is just people knowing your name and that takes time. If I could go back and do it differently, I would have begun plastering my flyers around early, even sending flyers to my local family to post and spread the word. I would have built excitement in the community surrounding my arrival because I’m something new and different rather than trying to blend in as though I’ve been here all along. I would have begun teaching group classes right away to build a community rather than just searching for individuals interested in private lessons. I would have worked to differentiate myself as the teacher looking to serve said community and promote positive mental health in my students to build a stronger, more resilient musical community because ultimately my goal isn’t just to be a run-of-the-mill flute teacher. My goal is to give students a lifelong love and outlet in their instrument, even if they don’t plan to be professional musicians. My goal is to encourage those students to fight for the arts programs in schools, encouraging their kids to join band or orchestra one day. My goal is for the arts community to thrive and for students to make lifelong friendships and have the skills to be resilient, kind, and empathetic through and with their music.
And honestly, your goals might be different - you may want to push out the best classical professional musicians out there and that’s AWESOME! I hope you can do that. Maybe you’re a jazz player and you work with students on improv and performance skills. Incredible! Regardless, you need to set yourself apart in that way. Because there’s a teacher out there for everyone - the students that work well with you may not work well with my style and that’s okay. So, show them who you are and what you are all about in your studio and do it right away, rather than just being a standard, run-of-the-mill flute teacher.
The Lesson
The lesson in my move to San Diego is that I can do hard things. You can do hard things. Moving a business across the country is truly one of the hardest things I’ve ever done for many reasons, but I did it and I refuse to give up. When things get ugly, make a list, do your research, and put one foot in front of the other because you can do it.
Be who you are and own who you are as a teacher, because you aren’t just a flute teacher. You have a goal. You have a type of community you want surrounding you. You have an incredible way about you that can create that community. If you created it before, you can create it again, because as my very wise former flute teacher told me, the community you have around you tells us more about you than it does about the area you’re in. You’ll rebuild. Just give it time.
I’m so proud of you for showing up. Keep moving forward. You’ve got this. 🫶
If you want to study flute with me, click the button below to schedule a free consultation call. I teach online flute lessons and San Diego flute lessons and if you’re looking for a supportive outlet, you’re in the right place.
