Machine transcript of phone recordings of Spotify playback (the original audio files are no longer available). Lightly corrected; speaker labels and a few names are best-effort, and anything marked [unclear] or [unverified] needs a listen. Assembled from three phone recordings. This transcript begins partway into the conversation: the episode's opening (the introduction, the shout-out, the home tip, and the start of the interview) is not included. Timestamps are from the start of the recorded portion; Spotify lists the full episode at 1:01:50.
[0:00] JASON COUCHMAN: Which at the time were more businessy. It was like a light green top with olive drab slacks, not like the camouflage that became more the fashion during like a desert storm, desert shield, some of those more military operations.
[0:32] ALEXIS MICHAUD: Okay, so since people can't see you, I'm gonna do like a quick description of the kid that went to military school. So Jason's sitting here with all those shoulder length hair, facial hair, like you had this glowy skin, like you live on the beach or something. It's lovely. And some sort of like super hip necklace. So I take it you didn't spend any additional time with the military post.
[0:54] JASON COUCHMAN: Really, okay. So much after college I pretty much wanted to get about as far from that experience as possible, which is why I applied to Vassar right so yep, I'm a Vassar guy It's been for those for those thinking to themselves other hey, wait a second. That's a girl school co-ed since 1969, right? and
[1:16] ALEXIS MICHAUD: Did Jackie Kennedy go to Vassar?
[1:16] JASON COUCHMAN: I believe so. Yes. Meryl Streep [unverified]. Edna St. Vincent Millay, a famous poet.
[1:23] ALEXIS MICHAUD: Okay, I'm not familiar, but that's amazing. So you go to Vassar, and what do you study?
[1:29] JASON COUCHMAN: English. I was an English major, like pretty much everybody else.
[1:29] ALEXIS MICHAUD: Okay, okay. I am not seeing the path to your [unclear], to which you end up doing for work for a really long time.
[1:36] JASON COUCHMAN: Well, um, this is kind of a kind of a career 2.0 for me in a lot of ways. This one is, but before that, before that, I was actually pretty heavily steeped in career 1.0. The English major, I minored in computer science. And so for the first 20 or so years of my career, I worked as a IT professional, so a computer programmer, and then more of a systems administrator than in management. I took a break from that to go back to business school. And then went back in and just took a series of progressively higher and and higher leadership roles until eventually I was the de facto chief information security officer for a public company that operates here in town, a trade show company called GES, actually their parent company.
[2:31] ALEXIS MICHAUD: Right. So I want to say I'm sorry, and it's fascinating at the same time. Like cybersecurity public company, this is a big job. It's keeping the bad guys away from your credit card. Like all, every minute of every day.
[2:46] JASON COUCHMAN: For sure.
[2:47] ALEXIS MICHAUD: Did you enjoy it, that work?
[2:50] JASON COUCHMAN: I would say yes.
[2:52] ALEXIS MICHAUD: Okay.
[2:53] JASON COUCHMAN: It's, I mean, it's, it's a big job. It's a, it's a thinking person's job. It's a leadership job.
[2:59] ALEXIS MICHAUD: Yes.
[3:00] JASON COUCHMAN: And a lot of, a lot of folks I know have those kinds of jobs and they can be very rewarding when, when, when organizations change.
[3:09] ALEXIS MICHAUD: Yeah.
[3:10] JASON COUCHMAN: And, and the big change for my organization at the time was building up a presence, corporate presence in larger major metro areas. So of course, Las Vegas has always been a big trade show destination. As GES's parent company called Viad Corp grew, they wanted to establish more leadership presence in larger metro areas like Dallas, Chicago, a little bit more even in the LA metro area. And of course their corporate headquarters is in Phoenix. So as time went on, where Las Vegas kind of fit into that calculus was, it just kind of changed. And so what I found for myself was that as I saw the organization shift and as I also saw in my personal life, my commitment to Las Vegas just growing deeper and deeper and deeper. You mentioned my wife, my wife's family. My wife is born and raised here. Her family moved here in the 1950s and ran a food service company for many, many years before selling it in 96. So for us, and they're getting on in years. Like, I mean, I'm in my mid 40s and for a lot of folks my age, we're watching as our parents age and some do it gracefully, some not so much, but even the most graceful of parents as they age will need some care. And it's also a two-way street. I'm probably one of the few in the Las Vegas area that really think of this as, well, this is my hometown and I have my wife's parents here. So my kids are going over and hanging out with grandma every night. We're not transients. And we didn't relocate here yesterday. So for us-
[5:06] ALEXIS MICHAUD: Your roots are deep.
[5:07] JASON COUCHMAN: Yes, and just growing deeper. I mean, I used to think, I used to say that there's probably about five years left before we'd really have to be here for the whole parent care. Uh-huh. And I realized about a year and a half ago that that plane has really taken off. We're not leaving anytime soon.
[5:27] ALEXIS MICHAUD: This is everybody our age is saying.
[5:29] JASON COUCHMAN: Yes.
[5:29] ALEXIS MICHAUD: This is like a multi-series podcast about aging parents and what's going on. Totally. And it seems like it's happening so fast because I don't know about you, but most of my friends, we all have kids later. So we've got little kids.
[5:41] JASON COUCHMAN: That's right.
[5:42] ALEXIS MICHAUD: And we're obviously like in the trenches of that. And then we have the folks.
[5:46] JASON COUCHMAN: Well, and you think about it. I mean, what was all the parenting literature about when we were in our late twenties and early thirties? Put it off, get some career success under your belt. There are some and you can have kids later. And then I don't know on a, I mean, on a personal level for us by the time we were ready to start making that decision. I mean, you go into it with those nightmare memories of the videos you watched about pregnancy scares when you were in high school and you just think, hey, you know, if we look at each other cross-eyed, we're gonna, and that's not always the case. It isn't always as easy. Especially when you're north of 30 and certainly north of 35, which is about when we were getting into it.
[6:33] ALEXIS MICHAUD: Totally, I know it. I was, I think I was called, I had geriatric pregnancies is what they defined them as because I was, I think 32 and 36.
[6:44] JASON COUCHMAN: What a great term.
[6:45] ALEXIS MICHAUD: High risk and yeah. You're 32 and thinking, man, what are you talking about? Geriatric. I just, you know, I was just out at the, you know, I was just out at the champagne bar last night.
[6:56] JASON COUCHMAN: Right. Right.
[6:58] ALEXIS MICHAUD: I mean, I'm geriatric.
[6:59] JASON COUCHMAN: Yeah.
[7:00] ALEXIS MICHAUD: Who are you calling old?
[7:01] JASON COUCHMAN: Right.
[7:02] ALEXIS MICHAUD: Anyway, so we digress, but one thing I wanted to hit on: so you have this IT career for 20-something years and somewhere in there you consult and you start to write books. Is that right?
[7:07] JASON COUCHMAN: That's right. That was that was in my early early to mid 20s that I started doing that and it was a really it was a really good move in terms of the experience led to the knowledge which led to writing the books. I mentioned English major before. So this is your your your think look at the look at this through the lens of a liberal arts English majors take on what it means to explore a technology career and that's basically what I was doing.
[7:39] ALEXIS MICHAUD: Okay, so the books dovetailed into the consulting.
[7:39] JASON COUCHMAN: The consulting led to more books as well as training opportunities.
[7:48] ALEXIS MICHAUD: And the books were about what?
[7:48] JASON COUCHMAN: Okay, so the books were about Oracle database administration. And so if you've ever heard of the company Oracle, they have one of their flagship programs is this database software that virtually every major corporation in the world has at least one of these floating around in their organization somewhere. And so the specific area that I focused on was professional certification. So education was always a big component, especially in the early part of my career. I hadn't, I felt I was educated. I enjoyed talking about what I did. I taught as an adjunct at a few different colleges and universities. So again, the books, it all kind of created this little virtuous circle of knowledge peddling.
[8:43] ALEXIS MICHAUD: Right, and I ask you all of this because what you're doing now is so different, but I really like to look back to see how people got to where they are because usually you can see all the little dots connect. And so as I'm asking you this, I'm like, okay, this is starting to make sense with the one glaring, I guess, difference is that there is no music in your life yet.
[9:05] JASON COUCHMAN: No, and in fact, it's funny because one of my life's great regrets, Alexis, was always that I never learned how to play a musical instrument. So my sister, meanwhile, was piano virtuoso, crazy brilliant with computer technology, even more successful on the career side than I was. And so I, and was also 10 years older than I am. So there was a little bit of an age gap where I could really, you know, as the younger brother, I could really look back and just sort of be in awe of this, you know, amazing, brilliant, beautiful young woman going off to college and then a big career career and all the while playing the piano and guitar and singing, but also doing these very deep, meaningful, intelligent, very knowledge intensive types of things in her career. And incidentally helped me to get my first job out of college. Oh, okay. She was really instrumental both in launch helping me launch career 1.0 and in planting the seed in the back of your mind, my mind of, you know, Jason, there's, there's, there's bigger things out there. There's the arts, there's music. Don't just sell your soul to the corporate paymasters. Have something have something for yourself there. I think
[10:35] ALEXIS MICHAUD: Yes, I love that the influence that she had over you. I am I have a question. Is there a science or I think there is, but you know anything about it that connects that side of your their blank brain that plays instruments to like this deep thinking that you're talking about and technology. I know a lot of my friends are doctors and their kids are in violin and they're doing that to help build strong hands in case these little kids end up wanting to be surgeons. They're starting that young. And so I'm wondering though with the brain, what do you know about that?
[11:06] JASON COUCHMAN: Oh, there's a lot of science behind that Alexis. And it's a lot of study has been conducted on the power of learning to play a musical instrument, learning to read sheet music, and all of those, the math involved. There actually is a surprisingly large body of knowledge, math-oriented knowledge, both in counting, as well as just sophisticated mathematical equations behind the idea of why music, why good sounding music sounds good. And it has a lot to do with really esoteric math, sine, cosine waves and those kinds of things. So the other point you had made about doctors and violin, so music, especially performed music on played instruments, whether it's violin, guitar, even piano, drums, these are activities that do involve very fine motor skills. So there's, again, a lot of science around the idea of, hey, if I learn how to move my hand quickly up and down the fretboard or up and down the neck of a violin and learn those not identical motor activities in left and right hand, but symbiotic and complementary motor activities.
[12:36] ALEXIS MICHAUD: Yes.
[12:37] JASON COUCHMAN: As they work together, that type of mental hand-eye coordination really can lead to, as you had said, surgery later in life, other types of activities.
[12:51] ALEXIS MICHAUD: I love that.
[12:51] JASON COUCHMAN: Absolutely.
[12:52] ALEXIS MICHAUD: One of my daughters was in kindergarten last year and her teacher said to me, does she play outside a lot? And I said, yeah, she's outside all the time. She's, you know, I don't want to pigeonhole a kid, but she's super athletic. She's just, she's running, she's jumping, she's into every single sport. And so she said, so she's not inside a lot, like playing with Legos or anything like that. And I was like, no, not too much. I have to drag her inside. She goes, yeah, her hands, her motor skills are a little bit lacking because she is an outdoors kid. Now, if she was into video games, which I'm totally against, then she would have decent motor skills with her hands. And I thought, well, that's so interesting. Like I always wanted my kids to be outside. Anyway, so you better bet my kids are coming to you soon. We're all gonna start playing. So let's talk about that. So you decide it's time for a huge change and why the change, because it's enormous. And then how did you like settle on? I mean, you're gonna leave your career for some reason. And then how did you settle on this exact company, which is so cool.
[13:56] JASON COUCHMAN: I know. What a crazy idea it was, Alexis. Well, first of all, I spent a long time, we're talking years, before I left my job as an IT executive at GES before moving on to the next phase. But once I finally made that decision, I know for me it was very important to have a cheerleader behind it and my wife has been a great one. I wrote an article on LinkedIn not too long ago about what I thought were the four most important things to have in your orbit, I guess.
[14:38] ALEXIS MICHAUD: So what were they?
[14:40] JASON COUCHMAN: Well the first was cheerleaders are more important than money. And that's a big one because if you're like me or like a lot of people, there are going to be those times when you are plagued with self-doubt. Say what you want about all these Brian Tracy seminars and Dale Carnegie and the mega personality CEO that we all think of when we think of the founder of super successful company. The reality is that, at least from my experience thus far, is yes, there are a lot of days when I feel really good. Like today's a great one. We had a lot of great media coverage today that we were coming off of a really successful summer. But every day is not today. And some days you get bad news and it really takes some cheerleading to get back into it and focus on the task at hand. And I'm fortunate that at the same time I decided to break out of what I was doing and take on a new direction, Stacy, my wife, that you know, also decided to redefine her business relationship as an independent contractor for the law firm that she's at. So we really had this sense of solidarity. We're in this together, you and me against the world type of thing. And that has, that more than money. Because of course you can't start a business without seed capital, but seed capital is never enough. You need cheerleaders day in and day out.
[16:23] ALEXIS MICHAUD: To give you clarity.
[16:23] JASON COUCHMAN: Absolutely.
[16:24] ALEXIS MICHAUD: It is a roller coaster of entrepreneurship, owning your own business, being your own boss. It's new to me, it's new to a couple of my friends who we were all corporate people for 20 years. And we've all said the same thing. There is an up and down that was totally unexpected because what we came to the conclusion of earlier this week was even if we had a down day, we still got paid.
[16:48] JASON COUCHMAN: That's right.
[16:49] ALEXIS MICHAUD: You just learned as you got older to handle the bumps and the bruises because you just did. This is so different, but I wouldn't want to go back to that former life.
[16:59] JASON COUCHMAN: Me neither.
[17:00] ALEXIS MICHAUD: But having that cheerleader with some clarity because we can take it personally. Even if you don't think you're that kind of person, I don't know what it is. But anyways, I'm just saying yes, I totally get it. It's been eye opening to me as well.
[17:14] JASON COUCHMAN: Absolutely true. When I left, I hadn't even still completely formed the idea that opening a music school was going to be what I was going to do.
[17:26] ALEXIS MICHAUD: Right, because who does? Who does that?
[17:28] JASON COUCHMAN: I know. Well, I mean, officially, the reason was I'm going to go back to consulting.
[17:33] ALEXIS MICHAUD: Okay.
[17:34] JASON COUCHMAN: The thing that I had done most recently as I was exiting was IT compliance, regulatory, the intersection of technology and the law in a lot of cases. And there was a lot of demand for that, particularly at the firm that I was leaving. And so three days after I left, I had a consulting agreement to come back to finish up some project work that I was on. I had a few other clients that expressed an interest in that type of work. And so officially that's where I was going. But in the back of my mind, I was still thinking, I know, I really, I had started playing guitar in about 2015.
[18:18] ALEXIS MICHAUD: And what does that mean? Did you get a teacher? Were you online?
[18:20] JASON COUCHMAN: Well, both really, as well as just a lot of self-study. And so it was particularly in the tutoring and the guitar instruction work that I was doing, which my kids were also doing at a school that has since closed, was where I really came to find that hanging out at a music school is a lot of fun. Right. And two, is also a place where if you are driven and business savvy and can bring a lot of these skills that are non-musical to the musical context, I think you have a better chance of success than if you are someone just coming out of conservatory who is a really good...
[19:13] ALEXIS MICHAUD: Brilliant, yes.
[19:14] JASON COUCHMAN: Even if you're not a virtuoso musician, even if you're just good enough, and can also connect with students, which I think is more important than being a genius musician, at least for running a music school. But even that person is going to struggle because running a music school or any business is just like running life. I mean, you think all, like this is what I do to earn my money, but then in addition to that, there's all this, you need to understand personal finance and you need to have your banking relationship in order and all of this new digital technology out there, social media, web presence, search engine optimization. I mean, it's not to mention selling. I mean, just because you hang out your shingle doesn't mean anybody cares.
[20:02] ALEXIS MICHAUD: Oh my gosh.
[20:03] JASON COUCHMAN: So-
[20:04] ALEXIS MICHAUD: That is so true.
[20:05] JASON COUCHMAN: It's so true. Absolutely.
[20:07] ALEXIS MICHAUD: I had a conversation with somebody recently. She owns a business, but she used to do like, I'm not gonna say this properly, but she would dismantle explosives under water.
[20:19] JASON COUCHMAN: Okay.
[20:20] ALEXIS MICHAUD: Okay, so this was her job. And she's talking about what a headache a business is with the multiple emails, the toilet that's overflowing, this, that, and the other, it almost seems overwhelming. And I'm like, didn't you used to have to go diving in the dark and dismantle things underwater? I know sometimes I have to remind myself of that.
[20:37] JASON COUCHMAN: And so it is. I mean, there's just so much to it.
[20:40] ALEXIS MICHAUD: There is. You're so much to it, but you're sitting there with this analytical mind of your background, and you're watching your kid's school, music school, and going, I can do this.
[20:49] JASON COUCHMAN: Well, and playing music as well and learning. It's funny because as I learned how to play guitar a little better and a little better, I found that even that was somehow not enough. Like, it's sometimes been said that people that are really musical and kind of gravitate to that, are a little bit more emotional when they listen to music. Like they're just a little bit more prone to a song moving them to tears or to burst out laughing. And big spoiler alert slash confession time. I'm one of those people.
[21:29] ALEXIS MICHAUD: Oh really?
[21:30] JASON COUCHMAN: Always been one of those people that a song, that a lot of times music can stir an emotional reaction for me and I didn't always understand.
[21:42] ALEXIS MICHAUD: Okay.
[21:42] JASON COUCHMAN: I didn't always understand that or why that was happening. And it took some study and some just being in the industry to really understand that, you know, actually it's not that unusual. A lot of people that are involved in music are brought to that same degree of reaction. And so what was interesting is as I learned to play guitar more and more, that emotional reaction became, I won't say muted, but more controllable. But it was still there. For me, it wasn't until I started singing.
[22:15] ALEXIS MICHAUD: Oh, so you sing and play now?
[22:17] JASON COUCHMAN: I do.
[22:18] ALEXIS MICHAUD: Were you a singer before?
[22:20] JASON COUCHMAN: I suppose I sang in the shower in the car.
[22:22] ALEXIS MICHAUD: Did people tell you you had a good voice?
[22:24] JASON COUCHMAN: Yes, Stacy mentioned it a couple of times.
[22:26] ALEXIS MICHAUD: Stacy, your wife.
[22:27] JASON COUCHMAN: But again, not terribly.
[22:29] ALEXIS MICHAUD: I don't feel like she would exaggerate. She seems like a real straight shooter.
[22:33] JASON COUCHMAN: She is very much the Vulcan, the scientific mind. So yeah, so going back to this idea of, I always regretted as a kid that I never learned how to play a musical instrument. And then so fast forward to my mid 40s when I discovered I was one.
[22:50] ALEXIS MICHAUD: Whoa! When you picked up the guitar, was it natural? Whatever that might mean.
[22:56] JASON COUCHMAN: No.
[22:58] Break: home tip
[23:47] Back to the interview
[23:47] JASON COUCHMAN: [...] is I'm actually left-handed, but I play guitar right-handed.
[23:52] ALEXIS MICHAUD: Is it called goofy? Like when you snowboard with the opposite?
[23:56] JASON COUCHMAN: No, so it's just okay. Well, it's the kind of thing that, especially with guitar, your hand up on the neck is gonna be doing some weird things and what you're supposed to be doing down with the pick on the strings, it's gonna feel awkward no matter what. And it's the same thing with piano. It's the same thing with any instrument. It's just, you just practice through it. And you get to a point, at some point, you just, you hit that, you hit that inflection curve where suddenly the things that even maybe five, six weeks before felt awkward and you didn't, you couldn't kind of get your hands around it. Suddenly it starts to feel a little bit more, a little bit more comfortable. And so, and so then that's a positive reward.
[24:43] ALEXIS MICHAUD: What about the reading of the music? Was that, I mean, these just seem to me like two very different things. It's like a language and two different languages.
[24:50] JASON COUCHMAN: It is, it is until again, you start, what's easier is, what makes it easier is when your mind, when the pathways in your brain start to draw associations between dots and sticks and staffs, that, you know, those multiple line drawings with all of the notation on them. When you start to draw those associations between what you're seeing and what it sounds like and what it feels like. So your mind creates those mental pathways between the visual and the audio. And at that point, once you start to build those associations, and plus it's also tactile, so it's really, it's kind of a three-way match. It's what you're seeing, it's what you're hearing, it's how it feels. So once you build those associations, it becomes easier.
[25:42] ALEXIS MICHAUD: Oh, I can't wait. I cannot wait. So, okay, so talk about your school. So, first of all, you're starting to play music in your 40s, which I like, every year I write down a variety of goals. That's one of my goals. It's the only one I don't accomplish. I want to like, have long skinny fingers. I want to learn to play piano. My father who passed away when I was young played piano. I have all these memories about piano and music. And I am one of those people. Like I can only listen to happy music because any other pulls me down.
[26:13] JASON COUCHMAN: Interesting.
[26:14] ALEXIS MICHAUD: So on the way down here, to Ready Set Gig [unverified], I don't know why I felt the need, I was listening to some Def Leppard.
[26:19] JASON COUCHMAN: Nice.
[26:20] ALEXIS MICHAUD: Yeah, it was nice. Animal, oh, such a good song.
[26:22] JASON COUCHMAN: Absolutely, well in fact, because we're having a show, this coming set, we break up our program into 10 week sessions.
[26:29] ALEXIS MICHAUD: Okay.
[26:30] JASON COUCHMAN: And as part of each session, we give it a theme.
[26:34] ALEXIS MICHAUD: Yeah.
[26:35] JASON COUCHMAN: So we have three different shows that we're working on right now. Country legends, pretty self explanatory, British invasion, also self explanatory. And this third, what's behind door number three, which is called Electronica.
[26:46] ALEXIS MICHAUD: Well, so what is that?
[26:47] JASON COUCHMAN: That's all those great 80s rock music, but keys driven. So, so.
[26:56] ALEXIS MICHAUD: Okay, what does that mean?
[26:57] JASON COUCHMAN: Think about Van Halen, Jump 1984.
[27:00] ALEXIS MICHAUD: Yes, totally.
[27:01] JASON COUCHMAN: So that's [like] Def Leppard. I mean, there's definitely some keys, keys driven music in that library as well as others. I mean, it's the music we grew up with in the 80s, that rock music with those synthesizer keyboard overtones.
[27:18] ALEXIS MICHAUD: Okay, so talk about Ready Set Gig.
[27:20] JASON COUCHMAN: Yes.
[27:21] ALEXIS MICHAUD: Why is it different? Who gets to go to your school?
[27:24] JASON COUCHMAN: Well, it's a music school for kids and adults. It's a theory based program, but it's also very performance based. So we really tried to take the two and put them together. It's one-on-one music instruction every week combined with a group rehearsal each week for the kids. So this way, and studies have proven this out, Alexis. The fastest way to learn how to play music in time is to do it with other people. And this is where it's a little tricky because especially for piano players, because so much of what is drilled into young piano players in order to learn how to play the music in time is the metronome. So you're in there with your instructor, you're learning to play your piece, the metronome is tick tock, tick tock, back and forth. And it's a break point, I won't lie, it's a break point for a lot of students because they just get frustrated because one, it's isolating and it's maddening. You just have tick tock and you're supposed to, and oh my goodness, I'm a measure behind, or I'm a measure ahead, or I'm just, I'm not quite in time. Whereas if you're just learning how to play music and you're doing it in a group setting, in a rehearsal, well that eliminates the whole problem with feeling isolated. Because one, you're in there with kids around your age, around your skill level. There's this sense of camaraderie that comes from having to live through it together.
[29:07] ALEXIS MICHAUD: And you're all playing the same song because you're forming a band.
[29:10] JASON COUCHMAN: That's right. And so then the other challenge that playing together in rehearsal eliminates is if you're – the metronome will always beat in time. If you set it to 135 beats per minute, it is going to tick-tock, tick-tock at 135 beats per minute. And you're either going to be out in front of it or you're going to be falling behind. It's very difficult to be pitch perfect and in time the way a lot of very metronome driven instruction goes. So the beauty of learning how to play in time with other people is you'll all sort of gravitate toward that one, two, three, four measured approach. Maybe it's not at 135 BPM. Maybe it's a little slow. Maybe it's a little fast. Really the goal is not to be all running at a certain speed as long as you're all running at whatever speed you're running at together in time, where everyone is hitting that four four or two four or whatever the cadence is at the same time. And it's fun. And it's a lot more fun. I mean, right?
[30:19] ALEXIS MICHAUD: It's a lot more fun for sure. So what happens at the end of the 10 weeks? Did you say 10 week programs?
[30:24] JASON COUCHMAN: That's right, call it 10 weeks. Sometimes it's eight, sometimes it's 12. It really depends on what's going on in the calendar. But for the sake of argument, we'll call it 10 weeks. We do a show.
[30:33] ALEXIS MICHAUD: I mean, you have to do a recital.
[30:36] JASON COUCHMAN: Yeah, yeah. That's what everybody, otherwise what's the point? You're working on these songs you wanna perform. And so we take the group of them and we hire out a Las Vegas club venue. 172 Live Music at the Rio [venue unverified] is a popular one for us, but we've done some others around town. And we put them up on stage under the real lights. And with a, you know, with a, with a [unclear] tech. So with the proper sound and stage and just see what happens. See what happens.
[31:11] ALEXIS MICHAUD: So is the mix kids and adults or do the adults have a band and the kids have a band?
[31:15] JASON COUCHMAN: It's more the latter. The kids play with other kids again around that same skill, age and skill level. From our entry level, we call it our opening act. That's kids seven to 13 for all practical purposes, maybe seven to 10. And then our headline program is more like middle school through high school. And then we do have an adult program that is more for adults. There's limited amount of crossover, mostly because as our program grows, we do still have some gaps and maybe this song has a guitar player, a vocalist, and a bass player, but not a drummer, or some other, there's some other instrument that's missing. So we will supplement with an instructor, who obviously is an adult. And that helps to just round out the sound and keep everything positive and moving forward. And the kids like it because of course, over the many weeks that we do the rehearsal, their instructor is in there right next to them playing the song, giving them direction. It's, I mean, they form a bond.
[32:25] ALEXIS MICHAUD: Yes. What's been, so when I was talking to Stacy, your wife about this, and Stacy and I, we used to work in the same law firm together, but talking to her about it, and she was just from the business perspective, I was like not knowing you and cheering you on. Like you guys have done wildly well quickly. Like you said, you know, things can change, but knock on wood, like you've done incredibly well. The people are coming, the kids are coming, to all these summer camps. So in this short amount of time, less than a year, is that right?
[32:55] JASON COUCHMAN: That's right. Less than a year.
[32:57] ALEXIS MICHAUD: What's been like one memory that just completely stands out to you of like, I'm never going to forget this in a good way.
[33:04] JASON COUCHMAN: Oh man. So many. I mean, I could talk about our great show last weekend. We got Pat. So one of the themes for the shows that we did in the session that we just wrapped up was Pat Benatar tribute. And so, and this is maybe just as a quick aside. I'll mention the fact that when you're starting out a new business in an industry that you don't really understand which describes me, I feel. It oftentimes is good to have a strong business partner who's been there and done that, but maybe is lacking some of those skills like the business skills or those kinds of things that you have and helps to fill in some of the skills that I know I personally lack, like I'm probably the world's okayest guitar player.
[33:56] ALEXIS MICHAUD: So you guys complement each other. You make a good whole.
[33:59] JASON COUCHMAN: Exactly. Yes. So his claim to fame is that he's run some other music programs, some franchise concepts, including one that is called Rock and Roll Fantasy Camp. So it's kind of like it's meant for adults, brings adult musicians together with professional musicians that are of some note and gets them together for a week's worth of intensive music study and learning how to play certain songs, war stories and those kinds of experiences as well. So as part of that work, my business partner came to meet and become acquaintance friends with Roger Capps, who was Pat Benatar's original bassist, co-wrote the song, Hell Is for Children. Folks of a certain age like us will remember some of that hit music in that sort of mid-70s to mid to late 80s time frame. And so when we decided to do the Pat Benatar tribute, my business partner approached Roger about, Hey, do you think maybe you'd like to take a break from your life and fly up to Vegas on that particular show weekend and jam on stage with a bunch of 11 year olds? And surprise, surprise, he said yes. And, you know, offered to do it free of charge. So I mean, what a nice guy.
[35:27] ALEXIS MICHAUD: Totally.
[35:27] JASON COUCHMAN: You know, and he's a survivor too. He's got his own story. He's a really, really interesting guy, cancer survivor. Roger, if you're listening to this, thank you once again for agreeing to make the long trip. Played with a cracked rib too.
[35:38] ALEXIS MICHAUD: Oh no.
[35:38] JASON COUCHMAN: Well, because again, you know, he was our age in the 70s and 80s, so I mean now he's pushing, now he's pushing mid 70s.
[35:52] ALEXIS MICHAUD: Okay.
[35:52] JASON COUCHMAN: So he was kind of [willing to] make the trip and then suffered through some health issues.
[35:59] ALEXIS MICHAUD: Goodness.
[35:59] JASON COUCHMAN: To do it.
[35:59] ALEXIS MICHAUD: So you have this show, Pat Benatar tribute, and it's over 10 weeks. This was the goal.
[36:03] JASON COUCHMAN: Exactly.
[36:07] ALEXIS MICHAUD: And this is like the finale.
[36:07] JASON COUCHMAN: That's right. So last Saturday, just really standing there and listening to our kids play all of these great songs. I've got a great clip of [them] singing Hell Is for Children, singing a lot of Pat's other hits, and just that it's a very special feeling to be able to have that kind of an impact on a young person's life, seeing these kids week in, week out, knowing what they sounded like when they started in the program or started that session, however many weeks ago, and just seeing how they grow, seeing how a young singer might have really great pitch but maybe he's too quiet or maybe she's flubbing a certain line over and over, so then watching that young person overcome and develop musically, it's a very special feeling for sure.
[37:09] ALEXIS MICHAUD: So you mentioned your kids briefly. Are they a part of the program? Do they play instruments?
[37:17] JASON COUCHMAN: They are.
[37:18] ALEXIS MICHAUD: OK.
[37:18] JASON COUCHMAN: Yep. My son plays the drums, has started to sing vocals. He did our summer camps and has started to sing. I'm blown away by how great his pitch is. And it's really fun to see him grow. My daughter started out with strings, started out with playing guitar, bass guitar, and ukulele. Switched into drums. That evolved into vocals. And now she's back to playing bass guitar again.
[37:48] ALEXIS MICHAUD: Okay.
[37:50] JASON COUCHMAN: Just kind of blowing me away.
[37:51] ALEXIS MICHAUD: That's her wheelhouse. So I'm just kind of trying to visualize this for your wife. Are there like multiple sets of drums and guitar and singers like at all times in the house?
[38:01] JASON COUCHMAN: We do have a full setup at home.
[38:04] ALEXIS MICHAUD: Okay.
[38:04] JASON COUCHMAN: As well as at the school. Most of the, what's most of the real practice is happening at the school these days.
[38:09] ALEXIS MICHAUD: Okay.
[38:09] JASON COUCHMAN: Because again, I don't know. I don't know if I really envisioned the idea of raising my kids in a music school, but they're down there probably a good solid four or five days a week, whether it's rehearsing in their show or taking their lessons or maybe even just doing their homework while dear old dad's giving lessons or working on the website.
[38:29] ALEXIS MICHAUD: I love this. I love what their memories are gonna be. You from the Catholic military all-boys high school to Vassar to IT executive and the kids are growing up in the music school. Like that's not something that you can really predict.
[38:44] JASON COUCHMAN: No, well life's a journey. Life's a river with lots of twists and turns. Right?
[38:51] ALEXIS MICHAUD: So I wanna go back if I can, if you wanna talk about it. So you wrote an article on LinkedIn, I'm sad I didn't read it yet, and you had four points to it. And one was that you need a cheerleader.
[39:03] JASON COUCHMAN: Well, it depends too. I mean, if someone were looking to jump into starting a music school as an example, I mentioned earlier when you think about instructors, because you can't teach everyone. Music instruction is uniquely personal. An individual that's looking to learn music forms a bond with their instructor. Some people connect very well, others don't. So really, probably the first biggest lesson that I learned was, the best musicians do not necessarily make the best music instructors.
[39:43] ALEXIS MICHAUD: That's life, right? Athletes and those who teach [unclear].
[39:43] JASON COUCHMAN: Exactly. Yeah. Exactly. And again, because the last person, and this is especially true for an adult learner, if you do take us up on that offer to come down for some lessons at the school, which is the door is always open.
[40:02] ALEXIS MICHAUD: Okay.
[40:02] JASON COUCHMAN: But the key thing to remember is that, especially as an adult learner, you're not going, you're gonna quickly come to a point where you don't appreciate sitting there with virtuoso pianist who is excited to show you all the great chops and moves and things that they can do. When meantime, you're just thinking, hey, I just want to be able to play these four chords because I want to be able to jam on my favorite 80s [song]. I want to play Jump with my child and have them sing along. So yeah, best musician, not the best instructor. Another key thing really is line up your seed capital early. That was a big mistake that we made when we were first getting going.
[40:46] ALEXIS MICHAUD: Okay.
[40:46] JASON COUCHMAN: We waited, I waited until, and again, after a 15 year career at the last place, I mean, they set me up very well. I'm very grateful for the time that I spent at Viad Corp and GES. They did very well by me financially. And so, but the downside of that was maybe I was a little too comfortable thinking, hey, you know, I got this money and I'm gonna borrow a little bit of money, but I'll deal with that next week. So it was always this sort of, I'll deal with it next week and lining up the rest of the seed capital that I needed for getting things going. So come to find myself about halfway through negotiating for the commercial lease.
[41:30] ALEXIS MICHAUD: Yes.
[41:30] JASON COUCHMAN: And I still didn't have the other half of the money that I needed.
[41:35] ALEXIS MICHAUD: Right.
[41:35] JASON COUCHMAN: So I figured, well, maybe I should go to the bank.
[41:40] ALEXIS MICHAUD: Get to the bank.
[41:45] JASON COUCHMAN: And they it was a really awkward feeling when they sit down and they kind of look at you like you have nine heads and are like, well, we don't just lend out money unsecured. We need to do this and this and this and this. And we might be able to give you, I was looking for about 100 to borrow at that point. And they're like, well, we might be able to give you 10 or 15. I'm like, what am I gonna do? So, you know, start looking at, we started looking at that. And there was a happy ending to the story, but that said, when you're trying to plan and you have your calendar and you're thinking, well, I'm gonna sign the lease and it's the second week of September and I wanna have my doors open before Halloween and because I wanna be going at a time when people are still thinking about, hey, it's back to school, this was the last year. You wanna move at a certain pace. So when these other factors start dialing in like, yes, we will lend you the money, but it's probably not going, you're not gonna have a check in hand until maybe Thanksgiving if you're lucky, maybe first of the year if you're not lucky. And so suddenly it's like, okay, how do I make this work? And so again, bottom line, line up the seed capital early. And then really the third was, if you plan on leasing or buying a commercial space, get an expert, whether it's a realtor who focuses on commercial or maybe it's a commercial real estate lawyer, someone, because it's very tricky. Landlords are, especially in this valley, are notoriously tough to deal with.
[43:42] ALEXIS MICHAUD: Well, and a lot of them are here. These are huge companies that own these big places and they don't like to bend on anything.
[43:48] JASON COUCHMAN: No, and they're very they're very onerous leases. They're very they're very long leases with lots and lots of terms and they're surprisingly little they will budge, you know, they're gonna budge on, and unless you've done this maybe three or four or more times, right? You're just not gonna know what you don't know.
[44:05] ALEXIS MICHAUD: Yep. So, yeah, I had a friend starting a business and she gave me the lease and I said, no ma'am.
[44:15] JASON COUCHMAN: No, ma'am. You've got to have an expert.
[44:17] ALEXIS MICHAUD: Yeah. Well, I'm going to send you to the lawyer that actually does this all the time.
[44:20] JASON COUCHMAN: Yes. Absolutely.
[44:22] ALEXIS MICHAUD: Okay. Okay. Okay. That's what I definitely want to know that just for people that want to go out and start a business. And so, so you're a year or barely a year in and going gangbusters right now you're in, are you in Green Valley Henderson?
[44:34] JASON COUCHMAN: Yes. We're right off the Valle Verde exit in, in the, there's a shopping center there with a Kohl's department store right across the street from Congregation Ner Tamid.
[44:48] ALEXIS MICHAUD: Okay. And you've got after school, I'm assuming it's after school programs.
[44:48] JASON COUCHMAN: It's an after school program primarily. We did camps. That was more of a summer activity for obvious reasons.
[44:58] ALEXIS MICHAUD: So fun!
[44:58] JASON COUCHMAN: It was. It was great.
[44:58] ALEXIS MICHAUD: And then what I was asking you, because I live like 25 miles west, are you guys gonna come up to the Summerlin side of town? You said you have an event coming up. So tell us about that.
[45:09] JASON COUCHMAN: So in October, early October, we're doing the American Cancer Society partner event called Bark for Life at Tivoli Village. And what that, that's for us, that's a very typical what I think of as our outgigging type of type of opportunities. It's really, we try to accomplish two things in those types events. One is we want to support the community with good music, with good turnout from from our school, participating in the event, checking out the vendors and that kind of thing. It gives our kids an opportunity, another opportunity to perform on stage. So just another one of those chances to build up those skills, give it make it aspirational. This is something for a kid to focus on, oh hey, it's another chance to jump up on stage, I better practice a little bit more because maybe my solo doesn't sound quite up to par. So it gives them that extra incentive to keep practicing, to keep working toward it. And also, obviously, cancer is something that's affected my family, I know it's affected a lot of people's families. And who doesn't love pets?
[46:32] ALEXIS MICHAUD: That's right, it's quite a combination. We love our pets. This is like phenomenal advertising, but also fun.
[46:37] JASON COUCHMAN: Big chance to kind of get out there and really just gauge interest level and start getting our name out there on that side of town.
[46:45] ALEXIS MICHAUD: Okay, so there's three Michauds that are interested. That's my family.
[46:49] JASON COUCHMAN: Super.
[46:50] ALEXIS MICHAUD: And then, so you're so new, but you're doing so well. I feel like next summer in particular, you're just gonna explode, right? You're gonna have this momentum behind you.
[47:00] JASON COUCHMAN: Sure, hope so. I mean, it's funny that you had mentioned it's been on your to-do list. We see a lot of demand around the first of the year. It turns out going down to the gym is not the only thing that people put on their New Year's resolution list. Learning instruments is kind of right below it. So I figure we'll see probably, there's back to school, there's a back to school wave, there'll be a first of January wave. Yeah, by probably about next summer. I'm hoping, yeah, folks turn out enough to kind of get this, to get the Green Valley location just in really good shape and I mean and I'm always looking at the websites out there for commercial property just to try. And I've got an idea in mind, some ideas about where it would go, probably somewhere around Summerlin Parkway, one of those exits just because that's where everyone lives. You can pull from Northwest and the Southwest and you've got the right demographics there.
[48:03] ALEXIS MICHAUD: Absolutely. So if you could dream up anything, what does Ready Set Gig look like in five years?
[48:12] JASON COUCHMAN: Certainly multi-location. I've got, I keep my eye on, there's a really great California business that's out there called Rock Stars of Tomorrow that I think has a really great kind of regional model. Their kids seem really excited. They're in five different locations in Southern California and they're starting to branch out into Northern California. They're probably the ones I look to the most for that successful model of small regional multi-location inspired kids playing fun music, that whole eight to 12 week session model.
[48:59] ALEXIS MICHAUD: That is so key. And I didn't know if I should bring it up, but when you were saying it, I kept thinking as an adult, everything you learn when it comes to productivity is 90 day increments, 90 day increments. You can manage anything over those 12 weeks and you've got eight to 12 week program. They're bite size attainable goals that the kids will stay focused on.
[49:19] JASON COUCHMAN: Oh yeah, because otherwise it gets stale. I mean, that's around the time where by that point, the student musician is either going to, they're going to have drawn what they are capable of drawing.
[49:33] ALEXIS MICHAUD: Right.
[49:34] JASON COUCHMAN: [From] that song. And if you keep trying to push it for that extra little bit, it's not worth it. It's better to start with a brand new song and they can bring all those skills that they gained from that previous song.
[49:47] ALEXIS MICHAUD: Yeah.
[49:48] JASON COUCHMAN: Apply it to the new one and for one thing they'll be more confident going into that first couple of sessions on the new song because they'll, oh wow, this is coming to me a lot faster than it did on that first [unclear] of the previous song. And you can structure the series of songs in such a way that they're progressively more difficult and that way each one builds on the experiences and skills gained through the previous one.
[50:27] ALEXIS MICHAUD: I'm so excited to see where this goes. I'm excited to see where these kids go. We've got some great bands from Las Vegas and it'd be really fun to see some professionals come out of your school.
[50:39] JASON COUCHMAN: Oh, I would love that. I mean, that's the unofficial motto when I did the pitch book to show to family and friends was I would love to see the next Imagine Dragons or Panic! at the Disco type act. Exactly, come out of our program, ideally our program.
[50:53] ALEXIS MICHAUD: I think it's inevitable. I think it's inevitable you say it and you work towards it and that's what happens. So Jason, so the last question I usually ask people is, or I always ask people is, what do you love about living in Las Vegas and Nevada? Like you're clearly passionate and committed to the kids and adults in the city, but why did you guys stay minus the older folks through here?
[51:21] JASON COUCHMAN: That's a great question, Alexis. I think, for me, I wouldn't say that I've passed through Nevada. I think Nevada, Southern Nevada has kind of passed through me. I think I'm a different person now than I was when I moved here, in 2003. The Jason that moved here in 03 was still that career 1.0 techno corporate. And maybe you know, maybe maybe this resonates with some people, have liked, you know, gee, where do I, where do I fit in this valley that seems so centered around entertainment and creative and the arts and leisure, leisure industry.
[52:04] ALEXIS MICHAUD: Right.
[52:05] JASON COUCHMAN: And the Jason sitting before you now has really had that pass through them. I'm all in on entertainment and music and creative and helping kids grow up and be part of that experience here. So what I love about Nevada is just that this is an entertainment mecca. There are so many people that I've met that, oh yeah, my dad plays, a great example. So one of our students, his parents, or his dad especially, plays I believe the drums in the Donny and Marie show that just closed up. And so he similarly wants to raise his kids in a career in the arts and he has trusted us. He's bringing his kid who's a great keys player, piano player, by the way, and has trusted us to help bring his son to the next level, both in terms of capacity to play ever growing complex pieces, as well as to get that opportunity to build stage presence through our end of session events. So it's, yeah, I mean, and to think, I mean, could we do it somewhere else? I mean, sure, I suppose. I mean, there's performance venues everywhere, but I feel like Vegas is special. It's really special. I mean, 40 million tourists can't be wrong every year coming to this valley.
[53:38] ALEXIS MICHAUD: Right, they just keep coming.
[53:39] JASON COUCHMAN: Absolutely.
[53:40] ALEXIS MICHAUD: I appreciate that. And I just, I love that you said that. Your answer was very different than everybody else's. Really like it. So I like everybody's answers, don't get me wrong, but that was just, it was a very different perspective in a good way. So Jason, we are lucky to have you in this community. You are making a great impact on a lot of people and I love your story. So thank you for sharing it.
[54:03] JASON COUCHMAN: Thanks Alexis.
[54:04] ALEXIS MICHAUD: Thanks. Jason's story is fascinating for many reasons. From the all-boys military Catholic school to an IT executive for decades to the managing director of a music school. His story highlights the fact that we can be and do anything we want. If you have a dream, want to make a change, are ready to learn something new, you have that in you. Jason Couchman is yet another example of an amazing human making Las Vegas a wonderful place to call home.
