Leigh Spaun — School Of Rock

Once more it is what's involved and I thought we needed to talk about something fun and exciting and what more fun and exciting can it be than to talk about the School of Rock. Now I know the movie School of Rock loved that but this is something a little bit different and my special guest that we have with us today is Lee Spawn. Hello Lee. Hi David, thank you for having me on your program. It's an absolute pleasure. So before we get into what this School of Rock is all about, tell me a little bit about Lee. Give me some of your background. My background, well the strange thing is I have no musical knowledge at all. So I come from a media marketing background pretty much as yourself. I've worked in some of the the tops of media companies and publishing companies for the past 10-15 years and then I took some time off and did some freelancing and my brother who I'm actually in business with approached me with this concept and he comes he comes from also a corporate background but has a strong passion and love for music and we we sort of endeavor to explore the the concept School of Rock. The whole sort of the whole proposition sounded exciting. The brand was is exciting. The logo is strong and from from a marketing point of view which from where I came from it just ticked all the right boxes for me and it also had a real feel-good angle to it as well something that was inspiring and had some real purpose in life. Fantastic stuff. So let's dive now into what is the School of Rock because as I mentioned when we when we started this I mean I think everybody just about on the planet has watched the movie sometimes even several times but this is actually a real genuine school so talk to me about that. Where did it come from? Yes so the School of Rock music school actually sparked off the School of Rock movie and it was launched I think it was 22 years ago by a guy called Paul Green. He created the Paul Green School of Rock so he was the initial founder and owner of the the original School of Rock and it just just and it really sort of took on and became this this anomaly and what the movie portrayed was actually what the Paul Green School of Rock was. Paul Green was was like the Jack Black character. I think he later on tried to sue Hollywood for for actually stealing his persona. So it really is it is a movie but it's actually a whole lot more than that and it's now become this global franchise which has over 290 schools across the the world. It's opening up at a rate of knots so I mean currently they're operating in Taiwan, they've got schools in the Philippines, in Ireland they've just opened up Australia, South America, Canada and we are the first the first School of Rock in South Africa that opened just just under six years ago. Fantastic, so you opened up, you guys are based the first School of Rock, it's based in in the Cape, am I correct? Correct yeah so we actually in Claremont in Cape Town and I mean we were we were the first type of music school that did what we did. There was nothing that was actually currently in South Africa or in Cape Town so as we came in here blind sort of just realizing that there was a concept in the States that was just a phenomenal concept. I mean myself and Keith actually toured through to the States to go meet meet with the with the headquarters in Chicago and we actually toured got the privilege of touring with quite a few schools that were on a on a sort of US tour at the time going to go watch them gig and then they all culminated at this massive festival called Summer Fest in Milwaukee. So we actually got to experience what the brand was it was all about and and realize then in there that there was nothing quite like us in South Africa or Cape Town and also the impact that this brand had on so many people's lives and and I think myself and Keith you know coming from a corporate background and having sort of done that grind for for for 15 to 20 years we were just looking for something completely different that was going to actually change people's lives, give people value, make them experience something different and that is what really spurred us to to start this brand in South Africa and I mean if I can tell you David the the amount of times we get emails you know from from students and from parents from grandparents saying saying how we've changed their kids life or changed their grandkids life and if it wasn't for School of Rock you know they don't know what they would have done with their kid and I recall six years ago when we when we actually met with the Americans in Chicago the franchisees that we spoke to said wait for the day you get your first email and see the impact that this this brand which is perceived to be a small brand but it's actually a massive global phenomenon has on people so it really is it's something which is completely unique it stands out in the marketplace there's still nothing like it even after six years and that is why myself and Keith have actually now decided to to go on we've actually acquired the master franchise for South Africa and we're now looking for for franchisees in the main city centers to to to continue what we've obviously built up in in Claremont in Cape Town and to create to add to this this amazing global brand wonderful stuff we're going to get onto the franchising aspect of it in just a bit but fill me in here so so School of Rock who is it for and what do you guys do i mean is it a full-time school when do people join how does it all work no so we so we are we are an extracurricular music program i think most of our students would love it to be a full-time school um but so it's purely extracurricular it's um how we've kind of positioned ourselves is that we are accessible music education um a lot of a lot of music schools you know you have to you have to have some musical knowledge to join or there's a sort of the sort of stereotype about music schools we are accessible music education for all ages um our youngest group program starts at age three and it goes right through to adults so we've even got a got a thriving adult band or adult band program should i say um obviously our core offering is is is targeted at the teenage market because those are the ones who want to get onto stage you want to become musicians you want to to to go through that journey to possibly becoming a musician but we really do appeal to anyone from beginner to advanced um we'll we'll teach you the nuts and bolts of of what you want to learn sounds fantastic so it's not like your traditional i would guess school of the arts or drama school or whatever what sort of things if i am a teenager and i can i just go okay i dig music and i want to get involved what can i learn from you guys

you can learn whatever you want to learn so i mean we we obviously are the instruments that we target we don't we don't sort of go on to the the classical instruments um we are a rock school essentially um so that will always be our core focus of of school of rock but in saying that though where where the actual franchise does well wherever it's gone into each different um country around the world they have allowed the franchise to obviously dictate um just sense what kind of music they want to teach at the at their school um i mean as you know i mean there's a melting pot of different cultures in south africa there's so many different genres that we tap into so although rock is our core base of music we do tap into a little bit of jazz we do a lot of blues soul even pop um so you can really come to us and learn any type of music you want um we focus on the more mainstream instruments so your guitar bass keys vocals we have added violin to our repertoire saxophone have i left anything off i think that might be it even ukulele um and it's um and yeah we have what we specialize in is is performance music education so we have various band programs for the for the different age groups um and we prefer students to get into the band programs no matter your age we really do believe that the learning takes place in a group-based environment and not individually in the room where you one-on-one with the instructor so um our band programs have a individual lesson component and they have a group-based learning component so you actually you arrive at school of rock you you look you you come learning guitar you become the guitarist in your band and you learn what it's like to to be a musician and then we take your your skill to the stage um and every three months we put on these grand shows called season shows and our students from as young as eight right through to adults get to experience the life of a giggy musician um with all the bells and whistles and it really is quite a rewarding process you know it builds confidence along the way um it doesn't teach us teamwork leadership there's so many aspects to it which really are amazing it sounds fantastic and i think if i had a musical bone in my body uh which is why i'm a radio presenter and the only thing i can play are cds and these days not even those um i'll tell you what let's talk a little bit more about this this is what's involved uh my special guest is lee spawn uh from the school of rock in clement in the cape will be back in just a bit and we're back with my special guest lee spawn and uh she is from the school of rock currently in uh clement in the cape so if students should enroll in this how long is is a program lee so there's no length to a program i mean enrollment takes place you know throughout throughout the year i mean every single day people are enrolling at school of rock um we we do work we we do work sort of in three month cycles in terms of our shows um and we and we cut off that enrollment five to six weeks before each show um but it pretty much anyone can enroll at any time into the program um and if you if you are a complete beginner student um we would then put you on just doing individual lessons for a period of two months until we feel that you've acquired the skill and then you'd move into one of the band programs um and and get to experience that band culture now does this happen um at the school itself it's not or is there an online component there is an online component um so i mean what sadly what cover does as um has taught us i mean we have but we have been able to innovate our our business um and pretty much last year in march as soon as um you know we went into into that into lockdown we we actually went online straight away and that that's one of the great things of being part of an international franchise which is which has paved the way they they were incredible with their response i mean as soon as america lockdown the entire global um operation went online and we obviously worked through the zoom platform um everyone had their end of their their sort of zoom lesson rooms um and our whole our entire sort of program and method of teaching was adapted to to an online experience um and it really was not phenomenal and we've actually we've actually kept that that online um learning program in place um purely because obviously we're not out of covert yet um but also in case people are ever sick and they don't want to come in or they're stuck in traffic and need to head back home they can they can do their lesson from from their homes instead of coming in um we've also managed to tap into to quite a quite a nice international sector um we obviously we as soon as we went online we approached many of our students who had immigrated in the past over the years should i say and and told them that we were offering an online option if they wanted to have their lessons with their favorite instructor again they were welcome to do so um and we picked up quite a few of our old students from all around the world which was unbelievable um and then through that we we actually picked up quite a few other individuals who had never even met so we we've got people in ireland we've got people in in germany we've got um all over the place who are still doing lessons with us since march last year which is really um incredible um and one of the great things is i mean school of rock as i mentioned is an incredibly innovative brand um they have patented their their school of rock method their teaching method so which is a world first that they've actually managed to patent this they have got various um tools which are proprietary tools which are part of the the teaching method and one of them includes an actual method app which then became an integral part of the the online learning so it's just how fate works i mean they developed this app already the year before last and as soon as um as soon as lockdown kicked in we were able to really utilize that app and send our students assignments you know straight to their cell phones and have them record their songs and send it back to the instructor so they could obviously grade them and see how they were doing so they're really they really do have an incredible product which you know some people might go it's just an it's a music school but it really is so much more than that they they really have looked at every single angle to make this um an actual brand or musical that can be franchised because it's got the the necessary tools and the necessary assets basically wonderful now in terms of of instructors where where are the instructors sourced from do we have local instructors or are they international no all of our instructors are are from each of the the cities that you operate in or the areas that you operate in um and what we do what we do do globally is that we we tap into the music industries so we take um musicians who are gigging musicians or session musicians have their own band or they say or their session for other bands and we get them to teach music and we and we do we do we do believe it that is that is how how to inspire our students do you have actual musicians who are on the ground you are gigging who our students can then look up and inspire to and even go and watch them perform at various outlets fantastic so the burning question for me right now is uh do you have any of your students that have gone on uh and and been very successful are there any names we might recognize so we haven't i mean because we are quite a young school um there haven't really been anyone who's gone on to to do any things internationally but we have we have had um three of our students we're actually no more than three of our students who were selected for an all-stars program which is which is the which are the top students within the school of rock franchise globally and that's over 40 000 students students um and we've had four of our students who've um been awarded that privilege to go overseas and tour with with the others the top um school of rock students and they do do a three-week tour through the states um we've had one of us our students gabby web who we did an artist program two years ago um and she was one of 19 students nominated from around the the world um and she was sent to atlantic um to to l.a to record with atlantic records so those are those are five students within our within school of rock who've managed to obviously go on to other things um but then quite a few of our students have actually they've started their own bands they've left school of rock they've started their own bands locally they they're gigging obviously not at the moment unfortunately but they but they have got a band and they are gigging on the in the music scene um yeah and that's from from teenagers right through to adults i think that's fantastic i mean so so you guys cover everything i can come there and say to you lee i am an aspiring drummer and i'd like to learn to play the drums i then get instructed on how to play the drums and then you put me together um with with a perspective band and then we learn with the band and as you said i mean the the life skills that you learn doing that i think are absolutely brilliant um and it also sets you up to figure out i would guess whether you really want to be uh a rock star and in a band yeah it's absolutely i mean i mean not everyone who comes here wants to to be a rock star i mean i think i think we all kind of grow up wanting to be one yes for sure um but i mean even if you just want to come here and it's and it's a lot of people as an outlet to come to school of rock they i think half the time i think they actually come here to to chat to the instructors and not really learn you know because they they build up these relationships with the instructors they they're in a comfortable space they're doing what they love um so not everyone here wants to obviously be a musician and take it to that next level but they want to acquire the skill you know and that that skill of music and knowing how to play an instrument stays with you forever you know when you 78 years old you'll still be still be playing that instrument um and we've we've been had we've had um we've had students i think our oldest student was 83 years old who became to school of rock and was um was actually doing singing so it really is something that you can you can learn so much from you know it's a universal language and um and it really it does build confidence obviously for kids especially it it builds a lot of there's a lot of sort of learning skills that come through it and there's obviously the link to maths so um it's it just is an amazing community that we've created here and you know i think people have found their people have found their passion um they found their passion here they found their community and found their tribe at school of rock which is absolutely incredible wonderful stuff this is what's involved lee spawn is my special guest from the school of rock when we come back we'll be chatting a little bit more to lee and finding out about the franchise opportunities because that to me also sounds incredible because when i first heard about this i thought we need something like that in joberg and petoria and all over the place so uh more about that when we come back this is what's involved and we're back with my special guest lee spawn uh school of rock okay lee so you've mentioned earlier on and i really wanted to dive into this a little bit more that uh you guys have now got the master franchise rights for school of rock in south africa what what does that mean so that means that um we're not able to franchise the school in south africa um so myself and keith are there will be the the main franchise or in south africa and we'll be looking for individuals or investors who who want to invest in a franchise and open up within their their communities um we have an ultimate goal of opening up 40 locations in south africa um that really would be the the sort of the pie in the sky to actually be able to achieve that number um we did a we did actually a survey of south africa in march last year just before lockdown we with the americans and we have earmarked 40 locations that can possibly be be opened and that's obviously in cavetown johannesburg, petoria, durbin, even pe blomfentaine um anywhere where there's a community and there's a love for music and there's there's people who you want to to learn music um there's an opportunity to open up a school now let's say somebody's listening and they go yeah okay sounds interesting what are you looking for in a franchisee so that's going to be the interesting part of thing trying to i'm obviously vetting somebody who who can sort of take on this brand um there's obviously i mean i mean as i mentioned earlier i don't come from a musical background but i come from a business background um i've also got i think it's important that the person who who looks at opening up a franchise there it's important to have business business knowledge so whether they've worked in a in a corporate or they've owned their own business um a passion for music whether it be playing music or listening to music or just just a general love for music and culture is important um and certainly um a love for educating and mentoring um kids especially um the large the larger portion of your business is is kids um we've got a i think globally there's a small percentage of adults that they come to school of rock but it's still a growing a growing percentage um but you really do have to have a love for educating kids and mentoring them because you're surrounded by by kids all day long um so those would be the criteria that we that we look at um when we're looking to better a future franchisee fantastic and now would you then give somebody let's say i i came to you as as David Watson i said i want to do this um i currently live in Pretoria um i've got a bit of a business background but in terms of instructors and people like that i have no idea do you assist with that then yes absolutely so i mean we had the same thing when we launched six years ago the Americans they coach you through every aspect of the recruiting of staff obviously finding even even assisting with finding a location even though they're not even here but they still assist with that they assist with the buildup of the location um just in terms of what you what you need to do not financially but what you what you need to do in order to build up your location so there really is and that's that is the um that is the um the control that we will have so we'll manage that process with you we'll be every step of the way we will be working with um new franchisees in building up a business that is is similar to what we all the same as what we've done here in Claremont um and myself and Keith i mean we really put in when we launched the six years ago we we we we actually launched school of rock in Claremont with the idea that this would be the headquarters um for the country because we had this this vision of becoming the master franchise um so we we will we will be holding their hand we will be working with them um getting the entire business up and running uh finding finding various musicians to to work for them um and and obviously assist with the marketing of the business as well it sounds wonderful i mean this this sounds like a dream opportunity if you if you're at all into into music how would it work though do we then once we've now been selected um is there there's obviously a an investment that you have to make and then are there franchise fees how would that that structure work yeah so the initial investment is obviously the franchise fee um so you'd pay the franchise fee across and then there's obviously that with that comes the the whole build up and the investment in in in building up the business um further further than that there's there's a monthly royalty and there's various monthly sort of IT fees that you pay um and a contribution to to marketing um but those are the fees and and the actual the total investment in the business i mean it can be we have got an information pack which which outlines every single cost um that that you can expect when you are building up your your first franchise um but that can be as big as you want it i mean it just depends on the size of your your premises it depends on so many aspects um of the actual property that you are acquiring for the franchise okay and then i'm assuming like for example you guys have proven that the model works um roughly how many students uh would we be looking at uh getting would you would you say that do you set targets for that um every school is different i mean it's we at the moment have just under three under 300 students um and we we've kind of managed to maintain that i mean obviously in lockdown our numbers dropped drastically but throughout the the six years we've kind of been between 250 or 220 and 300 students it just depended on the fluctuations in the market um it all depends on the size of your school you know if you have a big school i mean our school at the moment is 400 square meters then you can obviously have more students come to your school if you have a smaller school then you're going to have less less students coming um so it just depends i mean our you know we we we envisage um having between 200 to 300 would be a good size school to have all right and then obviously that that uh as you mentioned you help with uh marketing etc etc so you get out there on on social media talking to people like me about doing stuff like this um i think it's brilliant and and and as i'm sitting here i'm going darn i wish i had some disposable income right now um lee when we come back we're going to wrap it up uh and then uh give out some contact details for you um this is what's involved nice to have you along with us uh back in just a bit and we're back with my special guest lee spawn uh from the school of rock they are the master franchise holder for school of rock and as we've been talking about uh looking for other people who'd like to open uh their own school of rock franchise around south africa lee if somebody if somebody's interested they've been listening to us and they're like okay this is a cool idea um how do they get in touch with you and find out more have you got an email address for example yes yeah you can contact us on south africa at school of rock dot com or you can call our capeton office on 0 2 1 6 7 1 9 5 8 0 all righty that email address again is south africa at school of rock dot com i just want to be able to say i run a school of rock man that is so cool um lee i've you just announced this or have you had interest already because i'm thinking people are going to want to snap this opportunity up we hope so so we we actually just announced this two weeks ago so it's quite fresh at the moment um we have had quite a quite a lot of interest i mean obviously you know interest is great you know it's nice to um you know putting pen to paper and signing up franchise franchisees um but we've probably had about 12 or so people who have contacted us um in the past two weeks that we have been um talking about this on radio and tv um so yeah we really do we really do um hope that people see the value in this in this business um as much as we do um i think i think now is the time for for franchising it is there is a global trend that um you know sadly in in economies like this and and when there's you know when when when the world is going through a chaotic time like this this this is when franchises do um you know blossom um people are looking to to invest in themselves they are looking to start their own businesses and um you know obviously starting a franchise is less risky than than starting your own business from scratch so there's great value in this there's great support i mean i can tell you now after working six years with with school of rock um in in the in the usa it's a phenomenal business to work with um they really have built up an incredible community um and yeah we'd love to obviously chat so if anyone is interested and wants to chat further and find out more and find out what the costs involved are um please reach out to us we'd love to chat to you on zoom or in person if you are able to um and and yeah just get this ball rolling i mean it's just it's such an incredible brand i mean i can't i can't tell you somehow fulfilling it really has been to to be part of this um this amazing concept once again that email is south africa at school of rock.com um and you can have a chat to either lee or to keith lee before i let you go it's clear that that uh you guys are incredibly passionate about this brand about the opportunities where next for you though what is what is next for you guys because i sense from just talking to you that uh you're not the kind of people that like to sit on your laurels no i mean i'd who knows that the world the world is out there let's see what else we can do but for now i mean i mean i think starting this um acquiring the master franchise and now becoming the franchise or for well let's hope 40 locations i think it's going to be a lot of work so i think let's let's first um build up the our footprint here in south africa which um will be incredible to watch i mean i remember when i was when i was young and first sort of entered the industry all i wanted to do was have my own brand and watch a brand flourish and grow and build it up you know like a coca-cola brand um and that's kind of my vision and what i see with with school of rock um here in south africa so i think um baby steps um i think we i think we've got a lot to cut out for us in the next coming years um as we grow this footprint um but who knows david i don't know let's let's see let's see where the world takes us and what opportunities lie ahead of us wonderful stuff lee and uh you know working for a radio station like mix fm where we we support local artists we support local talent i'm looking forward to to some people from the school of rock coming forward and us uh been able to listen to some great new music we would love that so i mean our our students love to perform and they and they look for any opportunity to to get out there and and show people what they can do so i hope that we too can can be on your show with some of our students in the in the coming months when when life hopefully returns back to normal wonderful stuff lee thank you so much for taking the time out and having a chat to us i do really really appreciate it and we wish you guys all the best going forward thank you very much thank you very much david there we go there was my special guest lee spawn from school of rock the master franchise holder for school of rock uh one last time that email address south africa at school of rock dot com it wraps it up for this edition of what's involved to each and every one of you take care look after yourselves and thank you for listening