Written by Emilee-Mae Feely | Serial Entrepreneur, Transnational Company Founder, University Lecturer
“What if I could use my struggles, for the good of someone else.”
Some days it felt so hopeless, the only thing to look forward to was teaching piano and seeing my students joy…
Upon graduating, I formally founded Feely Piano School in 2015 in Waterloo, Toronto and Brantford locations. I began teaching music lessons in the homes of her students, as I felt that I was able to help others through providing them with comfortable, high quality, flexible to schedule piano lessons. I often had parents thanking me for bringing the service to them, the fact that we came to our students saved busy parents time- that was very rewarding.
The business kept growing and growing as my passion for music teaching expanded- the more I taught, the more I loved and knew how to teach better and it was a vicious cycle of happiness for me, seeing the joy I could bring others as growth in music learning continued.
However, out of exhaustion I knew that I needed to change something, fast. In 2016 I administered myself into an in patient treatment program for my disorder which lingered, and it was one of the most difficult times of my life.
8 months of treatment brought many new challenges my way, new life behaviours that were difficult to instill, accept and internally commit to changing. Thank goodness I had supporters!
I instilled habits which involved goal setting, thought replacement, cognitive behaviour changes, and physical changes in my lifestyle. I wrote a lot during my journey and made sure to track my feelings and moments of learning.
Seeing the change in myself brought a revelation to my business.
What if I could take what I have learned about self improvement and change, and apply it to my music lessons when I teach?
After seeing this interesting possibility, I started to work right away. Tracking progress of student goals, following up with students feelings regarding lessons, and asking important questions like “how do you feel you could improve this week, and could you commit to doing that?”. Having students self analyse, and write about their personal journey really has a lot to do with their development and interest in learning.
I wanted to explore this concept within my company, so I started hiring staff, breached out into new cities, and started a new position in my company of curriculum developer.
Out of this growth of learning over the past year of implementing these psychological, and educational strategies into our curriculum I have seen a large shift in student improvement. Research of my own and our teachers show higher amounts of joy, desire to practice, and communication between parents and students. It’s been lovely to observe the progression.
Our student agenda notebooks have pre-formulated areas for teachers to complete questions with the students, which I (and many research studies) have shown to be successful in motivation.
See our agendas below!
We are so excited to see how more curriculum continues to inspire others.
It is daily where I still cope with my thoughts on self, eating, and place in this world. I am constantly grateful for the opportunity for others to learn through my process of recovery. Owning a business is a difficult thing, your always in demand somewhere dealing with a complex issue. However, it’s my overcoming and impact which drives my hope and inspires me to keep learning about my business, to better my students and myself.