Listen on: Apple – Spotify – Soundcloud
Susan Hanlon Ferrer has built a career around setting singers up for the spotlight and helping them gain freedom and consistency in their singing. She holds a Bachelor of Arts in Music and a Master’s of Arts in Music with an emphasis in voice (both from UNT). Susan has been honored to give guest presentations for classes at LSU, TWU, UMKC, A&M Commerce, The Speakeasy Cooperative & The North Texas Chapter of PAVA (Pan American Vocology Association). As a teacher, Susan has loved running her busy private studio for the past 17 years, enjoyed her years as Professor of Commercial Voice at Collin College and cherishes her early years of teaching in several school districts as a private voice teacher. As an artist, Susan has released two jazz albums. The most recent album, Louder Every Minute, was co-produced by Susan and features some of her original songs.
Part cheerleader, part Sherlock Holmes, Susan loves helping singers accomplish their goals and solve their vocal mysteries. She believes that every singer deserves to be appreciated for who they are and what they bring to the art form, and strives to create a space of belonging for all voices. When not teaching, you can find Susan binging podcasts, watching documentaries, walking her puppy Bruce, and slowly learning guitar.
What makes you uniquely qualified to discuss financial and artistic freedom for musicians?
I decided to leave the teaching jobs at schools and move to running my own private voice studio. It has been a gradual process over 19 years. I started out solely teaching lessons in public schools and gradually allowed interested students to shift to private lessons at home. Eventually this shifted my percentage of home based lessons vs school based lessons, then 2020 caused me to move all lessons online. It became quickly apparent that I was doing the same level of work for the online school lessons as I was for my private lessons and I realized it no longer made financial sense to teach in the schools. I left my adjunct position and my school lessons and solely focused on building and maintaining my private studio. This has led to an increase in income, less hours of teaching, and most importantly being able to serve the clients that I know I can serve best!
What is a crazy-but-true fact about you?
Growing up, we moved a ton! I transferred school districts 6 times between 2nd grade and 8th grade. I think it made me more outgoing overall, but as a kid it was not very fun.
Why is financial literacy among musicians important to you?
Being able to understand how to manage our fluctuating cash flow is essential for having financial stability. Learning how to manage our finances as contractors and entrepreneurs is mandatory in order to have artistic freedom, financial goals and an emergency fund (still working on that) in case illness or injury prevented me from being able to work.
What is one piece of advice you would impart on the audience?
Not everyone is for your business and your business is not for everyone. This is okay and can be the key to finding your ideal clients which can lead to more financial stability and a more rewarding career.
Connect with Susan:
Thanks for listening and keep thriving!
