Across a range of different careers and businesses, I have kept coming back to these two facts: I have a knack for explaining complex topics in an understandable manner, and that teaching people is a sweet spot for me. My brain is wired in a way that requires that I satisfy it both technically and creatively. Most people in music approach it either technically or creatively – I cover both sides.

While I have been involved in music since I was a child, the idea to use this as my business was born from the observation that the vast majority of the teachings I encountered were presented as a regurgitation of past experiences and had not been actually tested. In music studios, audio engineers might turn some knobs and have a lightbulb moment that sounded better than before, so they stick with that setting and say, “Don’t touch the knobs!” But if there was testing and refinement from that moment of serendipity, better results are almost always hiding around the corner.

I asked this question: “What if there was a way to not only test these music methods but also to break them down into their undeniable truths so a new student could leapfrog ahead with their skills?” This tickled my internal scientist – what if I could figure out ways to merge the technical results of this testing with creative ways to help people have a lightbulb moment? This was not something I had encountered in the music education industry.

Pursuing these answers is what created the core of Embervane. I started with a course I had built out to help people understand how to use MIDI virtual instruments more powerfully, more efficiently, and with less mental overhead. I kept running into people who were frustrated that the music coming out of their computer did not sound like the music in their head and I wanted to help with that, because I grew up with that frustration.

From there, additional offerings have been in development with some releasing in the months ahead. All are designed to help provide accessible music skill education to help producers and audio engineers up their game with less effort. Instead of teaching my way, I am teaching ways for people to find their way, or their sound. And 25+ years of studying behavioral psychology for the purpose of turning ideas into behaviors and then into productive habits helps me further make the Embervane experience one that is effective for those that wish to better their skills.

At the very start, I leveraged my natural market. There were a handful or two of people in the music space that knew what I was doing. I had posted some of my results in a music forum and would share my discoveries with these personal contacts, who became early adopters of the Embervane materials.

From there, I utilized targeted advertising to find other people that shared the interests and/or traits of the people that were most enthusiastic about what I was doing. This gave me an appreciation for the reality of “small numbers” that is targeted advertising when you are starting out, as the idea of a silver bullet here is normally impractical. In parallel, I have used an expanding YouTube channel to build up a market warming system that I can direct to the Embervane site as well.

Currently, most business is coming from this directive, however the plan for the upcoming year is to leverage these past efforts to build partnerships with non-competing businesses that service the same market. Early discussions along this line have been very optimistic, and this should help Embervane work with a related business to help create joint marketing efforts to drive interest to both sides.

Instead of focusing on a ‘give me for free’ attitude that is so prevalent today, I am very much interested in mutual benefits from any joint activities like this. I am looking to build solid partnerships, as that strength normally can last for a very long time.

In the beginning, I was very focused on the singular MIDI course that I had been developing. Even though I had worked to keep proper perspective, working on something with dedication normally pulls our nose closer to the subject matter. Taking a step back one day, I started realizing that the pains of my target audience were broader than this one area, and the recurring themes I discovered here put a decision in front of me: Either focus entirely on one specific niche or use my blend of technical and creative understanding to widen the scope to empower more people.

Any decision like this needs to be tested against the real risks of both scope creep and impact dilution. I wrestled with this across several months as I was figuring out which direction Embervane would head. In the end, I came up with a way to create overlap potential that could cater to people of different and yet adjacent music interests that dovetailed quite nicely.

I had been very conflicted about the time spent on this decision – it felt like it took longer than it should have, but I realized after the fact that this was the tipping point: it was me understanding the true value of what I could bring to the table through Embervane. Defining what you should not do is almost more important than defining what you will do.

One very valuable mistake came from earlier in this process. In my first renditions of the course material, even after spending many, many hours on the development of a solid curriculum, I found some parts of the course doing exactly what I had sought to avoid: focusing on what I thought was needed instead of what would benefit the customer the best.

This was a great lesson in setting aside ego; in asking the right questions; in challenging my direction to hone the product that I was developing into something that hit the right spot for people.

I have no intention of making products that do not help people move forward effectively, and realizing that I was slipping into the same trap that the vast majority of educational products in the space were already well entrenched was an eye-opener. Knowing what that path looked like helped me to actively steer away from it.

Perhaps since the pandemic in 2020, I have noticed amongst a growing number of people of all ages a firm shift away from a focus about making money into one that balances personal economics with life-fulfillment. While there will always be people that have the ‘quick fix’ attitude thinking that they are buying a lottery ticket, in the years past I have begun to see the motive behind life pursuits shifting in a way that is very beneficial for the music community.

However, this shift also means that the old way of training people does not necessarily line up with this new customer direction. Let’s say that the goal was to win a major music award in the past – now I have music producers that are looking to find their sound and their people without any concern for an award or making it big. And that means that my products need to satisfy that burgeoning need.

However, we have also seen a shift over the last decade to an absolute proliferation of information that is available to the general public. But just like we hear of “AI slop,” I believe that there is this “content slop” creep that has been piling up dramatically. And that means information with a lack of actionable, meaningful instruction. I view this as an opportunity for effective and authentic channels for transferring skill-based knowledge. And that is exactly what Embervane means to provide.

First and foremost – know your stuff. You can’t teach what you don’t already know. Run your own tests and make the sample base large enough to matter. Trust your own results; challenge assumptions; make hypotheses and go search for discoveries. My science background helps me here immensely, but a simple understanding of the scientific process is easy to learn and implement.

Taking what you have known and turning it on its head with the question, “What if this is not the right way?” will open up plenty of options to dive into your own validation or discovery paths. And, while you are diving in there, you are getting under the hood and finding out how the wiring and plumbing works. In my opinion, there is no downside to these kinds of pursuits. After all, the gold is under the dirt and rock, so why not keep digging until you find it, right?

From a guy with some gray hair, my opinion of what to ignore when you are starting out is this: Resist the temptation to rush forward and fix it later. Get it solid from the start. It makes no sense to profess ideas like getting it right from the start to your customers if you are not going to make that a core tenet in your business.

Sure, you have to know when to go in and make a refinement, but a little bit of planning and stress testing saves a mountain of wasted time down the road. Reap the rewards of some planning by taking an hour or so each week and just thinking about how things might break the problems you could run into down the road. Do this in advance and your course will automatically adjust to avoid those hindrances. And, you can make sure that what your business is providing is not only in demand, but also in a format that can be readily digested by your potential customers.