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“Mighty Networks feels like an intuitive sandbox where you can build whatever the heck you want.”

Wally Wallace

Founder

Making a living as a musician is tough, but try being a saxophonist. Dr. Wally Wallace, founder of The Saxophone Academy, knows the challenges of that path more than most.

“The only thing I've ever been good at in life is playing and teaching the saxophone,” Wally jokes. “So I did what any moron would do. I got three degrees in saxophone, including my doctorate.”

But like many creatives who find teaching the most stable way to earn a living at their craft, Wally saw a future of chasing jobs from university to university. He loved living in Greensboro, North Carolina, and had no desire to move. At the same time, Wally had grown concerned about the plummeting ROI of higher education for music students. He knew there had to be another way to support his family without moving for a job that brought out his cynical side.

“I’ve been really stubborn in putting family first. We had young kids and my wife loved her job,” Wally says. “I decided if I'm not going to be a college professor, could I start my own thing and fix what I saw? In academia, we're putting kids $80,000 into debt for a career that doesn't really exist anymore. I started thinking about what I could build that would be ethical for people who didn't have the chance to major in music but still wanted a high-level education in doing something that they love.”

That’s when Wally decided to build an online saxophone academy.

Changing Keys from Kajabi to Mighty

Initially, Wally used Kajabi to orchestrate his vision, but not long after, he started to find more frustration than inspiration with the platform. He felt forced to focus on sales instead of his people.

“Kajabi was much more interested in telling us how much we can charge, how to sell more, and how to make more courses. There weren’t tools in place to answer, ‘Is it a better customer experience? Can I organize my content better? Can I bring the community together? That 70-year-old guy who finally wants to play saxophone with other people, can he navigate the website without pulling what little hair he has out?”

Then, Wally joined a business community that used Mighty Networks. The interface was intuitive, and he felt connected to the other members; the content wasn’t squirreled away in hard-to-find places. More importantly, he didn’t feel like another credit card number for the host. He knew Mighty could be the answer for The Saxophone Academy, but he also knew telling his members to make the move wouldn’t be easy. He decided to test it out with a month’s worth of instructional content. Once his members experienced how easy it was to navigate their new home, Wally made the move to Mighty permanent.

“Mighty Networks feels like an intuitive sandbox where you can build whatever the heck you want,” he says. “It allows you to grow organically and be creative without feeling like you're locking in or making a mistake. That was very attractive to me and my team.”

A New School Approach

When Wally moved his course material to Mighty Networks, he saw that he could riff on the platform’s solid foundation because of the customization capabilities.

“With Mighty, I can make it my style. I can make this alternate universe where Juilliard doesn’t exist but there’s a high-level online academy,” he says. “I can create a vibe where it feels special, not just another Internet product, because we have the tools for the branding within the different spaces.”

Because Wally wants to give his members personalized attention, he caps the number of students he welcomes throughout the year. Still, he’s able to make a living that exceeds what he made as a director of a traditional school of music, all while providing an ethically priced program at $49 a month.

“I wanted to charge a premium, but I didn’t want to price out people who play as a hobby,” he says. “I determined that membership cost as something that will make them feel like they have skin in the game, but welcome in enough people to create a community and sustain my teaching.”

People Magic in Concert

While Wally prioritizes providing excellent instruction, he also knows that the community is an equally important incentive for his members, too. Without a philharmonic position or a band to jam with, practicing can be a lonely pursuit. But in The Saxophone Academy, they can give constructive feedback and celebrate each other’s solos. Wally says that people magic is especially visible when members complete a monthly module of material and they submit their audio exam to the Academy’s main discussion feed.

“We’ve cultivated a really supportive community and created this really safe learning space where we can fall down, make mistakes, and realize that's all part of the growth in the process,” he says.

Watching how naturally his community comes together has even changed how Wally views his role as an instructor and a host.

“I've been part of communities before where it felt like they were artificially creating engagement,” he says. “But I don't have to think, ‘Alright, what's my big engagement post this week?’ The engagement happens because there's something we're all so excited to talk about for the month. Not everything has to be this laser goal of getting better at playing the saxophone. It can also be about enjoying the experience of talking about music together.”