Stephen Ridley: Founder of Ridley Academy

Kara Goldin 0:00
I am unwilling to give up that I will start over from scratch as many times as it takes to get where I want to be. I want to be you. Just want to make sure you will get knocked down. But just make sure you don’t get knocked out, knocked out. So your only choice should be go focus on what you can control. Control. Hi everyone, and welcome to the Kara Goldin show. Join me each week for inspiring conversations with some of the world’s greatest leaders. We’ll talk with founders, entrepreneurs, CEOs and really, some of the most interesting people of our time. Can’t wait to get started. Let’s go. Let’s go. Hi everyone, and welcome back to the Kara Goldin show. I’m super, super excited to have our next guest who is a little bit of a celebrity so in his own right. But if you have not listened to this next guest and all of what he is doing and capable of you are going to be super, super excited to meet him and hear more about everything that he is doing. Well, not everything, but a lot of the really, really incredible things that he is doing. So Stephen is with us today, and he is a world renowned musician and pianist, but also the founder of Ridley Academy, one of the fastest growing online piano academies in the world. And his journey is nothing short of extraordinary, starting with his early years in a small village in South Yorkshire England, to leaving a successful career in investment banking in London to pursue his true passion for music. So so so incredible, and his decision to walk away from a conventional career following his heart has led him to play in over 60 countries, performing for heads of state and cool tech entrepreneurs and so much more. Plus his Ridley Academy is now over 25,000 students from across the globe. Has learned from Stephen, and I’m going to stop talking, but he’s just absolutely incredible. I’m very, very excited to hear from him and hear a lot more about what he’s up to and more about Ridley Academy. So welcome Stephen.

Stephen Ridley 2:22
Thank you, and thank you for having me. And a lofty introduction. I love it. Thank you absolutely.

Kara Goldin 2:27
So let’s start with kind of the early years. So you obviously were playing the piano, but how did this develop into what it is today? Yeah,

Stephen Ridley 2:38
well, I lived in a place in the north of England. There was 40 people in my village, no children. The youngest person after me was my father, but he traveled a lot, and my mum worked a couple of jobs, so it was just me and 3870 year olds, and nobody wanted to play with me. I wasn’t allowed to watch TV, and so I read books, and I fostered a wild imagination. And about the age of three, at a New Year’s Eve party, somebody had this cheap, tacky keyboard, and that was just, that was the ticket for me. I was like, that’s the escape. I closed my eyes. I’m anywhere in the world, and I I started getting obsessed with music. I didn’t know how to play. I didn’t have anybody around me who knew how to play, but just getting 1% of my fingers on the keys was some kind of feeling that I didn’t experience anywhere else in life, and that became incredibly addictive, and it stayed with me. I mean, I never imagined it would be my career or anything for another 20 years, but it stayed with me through all my life. And the good times and the bad times is like my little solace. Never imagined it would become anything what it is today. It was just the thing I love to do. When I got home at night, I didn’t even talk to people about it, and that was really the beginning of it. It was, it was just a genuine, quiet obsession, as I think it is for so many people. It’s just that thing you do. It’s your own therapeutic moment. And yeah,

Kara Goldin 4:03
so you had teachers, I would imagine, eventually, eventually, but not in the early days. You were

Stephen Ridley 4:12
no they told me my hands were too small. They told me that kids have too short of attention span. I remember being turned down by teacher after teacher, and then I went to this because I could play, I could, I could play a lot of songs. By the time I was looking for teachers, and I ended up going to this really fancy school, and which was recommended by a really, really, really fancy school. And the really fancy school said, Well, you’re too young for us, but there’s this like place for Super exceptional kids, called the Royal School of Music. And I went down there and I did this audition, and he interrupted me, like two seconds into playing, I had no preparation. I didn’t know what I was going to do. I showed up, I started playing this song. He interrupted me. He told me it was disgusting that I was moving all over the place. I don’t know how to sit, I don’t know what to do, my hands. I don’t know what to do my elbows. Who sent me here? Who got me the invite? Really aggressive. If, and it was hard like to get into, to get into really learning was was tough. And then eventually I found this, somebody a few villages over, and she was just the only person willing to take me, and that was the first few years. And then I finally got into this really good school on a scholarship, and they had an amazing music department. But as soon as I started really diving into this theoretical, complex kind of astrophysics, form of music. I was like, I don’t want to do that. I want to play. I want to connect. I want that spiritual thing that is music. I absolutely don’t want, you know, I already study maths. I don’t I don’t need another kind of over technical thing that had nothing to do with playing the piano. There was all of this stuff that had nothing to do with playing, nothing to do with playing, nothing to do with being on a stage, nothing to do with playing to an audience. And so then I ended up blowing from that study, gave up on piano for all of two weeks. Just couldn’t live without it. My father died. I desperately needed whatever that gap that music fills in my life. I needed that music therapy. I needed that that place that music took me to, and it again, became like and it has been throughout my life. It became that place I go to, and I was convinced for a very long time that I didn’t know how to play, that my technique was terrible, that because I’ve been told that my whole life, I’ve been rejected from so many different places, and told that, you know, I just wasn’t good enough. And I really believed it, but still quietly, by myself, without any confidence, I would, I would enjoy playing, and that’s

Kara Goldin 6:24
incredible. So you were at this point, so you went, I would imagine, so you went to school, in addition to continuing to play the piano and take the, you know, study, studying music as well as finance, I would imagine, or business. And tell us about that transition. Well, I

Stephen Ridley 6:46
came from a my family didn’t really, I mean, my mum and father came from as poor as you can be in the UK, and then my mum was a midwife in a hospital, and my dad constantly complained that we didn’t have money. And then he died, and and then I had a scholarship to this super fancy school. Everybody was very wealthy, and I’d gone there on a scholarship, and all of my parents money was used to send me there despite that. And I was just very aware my whole life that we weren’t as rich as the people around us. And I thought that was, you know, I have a problem that seemed like the source of it. I don’t feel good. That’s the source of it. I can’t get the cool phone. That’s the source of it. Oh, when everybody you know comes to get shoes, they all get the branded shoes. I can’t get the thing and the gum shield. They get the there’s all these moments throughout school. I was like, God, if I just had what they have, then I’d feel as happy as they look. And I don’t feel that happy, or I don’t really feel like I fit in. Well, maybe if I had all that stuff, I’d feel like I fit in. And I never really cared about the stuff. I just wanted. I wanted the confidence and feeling like I fit in and the peace of mind and whatever I associated with that stuff. So I didn’t care about music. I didn’t care about anything beyond been successful my whole school career. I just wanted to get out. I didn’t like where I was. I’d see pictures of places on movies, and I’m like, I don’t know where I want to go, but it’s got to be out of here. And the only advice I had from anybody around me was get a good job. And how do you get a good job? You study hard. So I studied really hard. I got great grades. I got into a top university. I got very great grades, and then I wind up in banking. And the only reason I went into banking is the same reason anybody goes into banking, because there’s only one thing a bank makes, and it’s money. And I was like, Well, that’s all I need. And I got there, and I was, I was pretty surprised to realize that first, money has a price, and I was paying a lot for it. And and secondly, as soon as I had it, I could assess its true value, and it was not what I expected. And then I started realizing that some of these gaps didn’t come from money. It came from some other stuff that I had not been looking at. And yeah, that that was and it’s a sobering moment. It’s a sobering moment to sit at a desk when you’ve worked your entire life to get to it and then realize it was the wrong decision. It takes a lot of confront and courage to go, you know what? I think this last 15 years was a bit of a mistake. I think I might be on the wrong track, yeah, definitely, especially when you have no safety net and there’s no, you know, parents in the Hamptons and all the other stuff to fall back on it. You know? It was I had nothing to fall back on. Yet still, I knew that wasn’t going to be a future for me. And I seen my dad die at an early age, and I knew that I was next. I know that I’m the next generation. And I was like, I’m not going to I can’t follow his example. I can’t follow his example of just putting everything off in my life for this. You know, I don’t want to live in fear. I don’t want to live in this defensive position towards life. I want to attack life. I want to eat at it, and I might lose and I might scrape my knees, and I might come out covered in bruises and wrinkles, but man, I’ll have lived. And all these people I studied about when I was reading books as a kid, and and all these artists that I kind of looked up to, they lived. They might have had a colorful life. Have, God, they lived. And I was like, fuck, I want an adventure. I want to live. I and I don’t know how I’m gonna come out of this, but that’s whole point. Like, let’s just have a go. Wow. And then I left the bank, and I had no idea what I was gonna do. I just, I just left the bank to find out

Kara Goldin 10:16
that is crazy. So you actually quit you you decided to leave, yeah, and you weren’t sure where you were going with this

Stephen Ridley 10:26
100% I was in the top team of the top investment bank on the planet, and there’s 32 people in that team. The bank has 70,000 employees. There’s 32 people in that team. They make nearly half the revenue of the bank, and nobody ever has quit that team. You either get promoted or fired, and I got analyst of the year, and the next day I quit, and the guy thought that I was quitting to go to a different bank because I got analyst of the year is like, Oh, you’ve been headhunted or poached or something. So they offered me a blank contract to stay. I filled in the details, but it was a golden handcuff contract, meaning if you leave, you’ve got to give the money back, but you get taxed on the money they give you, so I lose half the money, and I could immediately see I’m going to be in a position where I’ll never be able to give back this initial sum. And so therefore, this is why it’s called the Golden handcuff. And that was really tempting, because I was, you know, again, I didn’t, I come from very little, and I could have written a really big number there. And I thought, Man, that’s tempting, but I didn’t. I quit with no plan at 11am on a Thursday, randomly, did not even plan it. When I went to work that morning. I was miserable, but I didn’t plan on quitting. And I don’t know what came over me. There was just, it was just a high moment of clarity and and I stood up and walked out, and five minutes after quitting, I was out the front door, which is kind of amazing, because if you’ve ever met anyone who works in banking, you’re very in it. You have two phones. You kind of sleep on the phones. You do it seven days a week, 20 hours a day, to five minutes later be over with. You can’t even go back to your desk because they’re kind of worried you would send emails and stuff. It’s, it’s really a trip. And then I’m walking around like I’ve lost something, and I’m looking out and the whole world looked different. Immediately looked different. I remember seeing a dude painting a building. The first thing I saw when I walked out at the bank as a guy painting a building, I thought, wow, that looks so peaceful. Maybe I could do that for a while, and then I’d look, I looked down, and there’s a dude in a barbershop cutting hair. And I was like, Oh, I love getting my haircut, and I love chatting to guys. Maybe I could, maybe I could have my own barbershop or something. And then I’d look, there’s a dude driving one of those black London cabs. It’s like, man, well, I love driving, I love talking to people. Maybe I could. Maybe I could be a taxi. Suddenly, everything looked like an opportunity and and life looked different, and it’s and it’s evolved to look more and more different the more I’ve kind of walked down that path to the point where I don’t really, you know, we’re talking about a past life when we talk about this, I don’t really recognize the guy in the story or his perspective anymore as I talk to you. I’m just not the same individual that’s

Kara Goldin 12:57
That’s wild. So at that point, what did you do? I mean, what did you ultimately, you know, do to have an income? Well,

Stephen Ridley 13:07
I walked down the street and fascinated by everything. It was an extremely sunny day, 22nd of October in London, extremely Sunny, Sunny. And I, by the way, like numbers and dates and things, I can tell you the time. I can tell you everything. But I was, I was walking down the street, and I had a penthouse, and it was about 25 minutes walk from the bank, so I was going to go home. And as I’m walking home, I ordinarily there’d be cars taking me back and forth, because I worked such long hours at that 25 minutes, I needed it to sleep. So I was getting taxis all the time. In the whole time of working at the bank, I’d never walked home, and so I was walking home, and then you have to walk kind of through the hood. I was walking through the hood, and there was a little thrift shop, and it had the piano in there. I was like, oh, that’s just what I need. And the bank I worked at had a one of a kind piano in the lobby, and I would sneak down there and play at two, three o’clock in the morning. The only guy in the lobby is a security guard, and I’d play it for like an hour, even though I’ve only got four hours till I’ve got to be back. I would do that most nights. And one of the saddest things of leaving was losing that piano. And I lived in even though it was a penthouse, it was a penthouse. It was in an apartment building where you couldn’t make a lot of noise. And and I walk and I see this piano in a thrift shop, and I was like, oh, that’s just what I need. And I go in, and I start playing, and this big guy comes up to me, and he’s like, Hey, if you want to play that, you’ve got to buy it. And it was 100 pounds. And I was like, all right. And I gave him the 100 pounds, and he’s like, good, now go get rid of it. And I’m like, Well, what am I going to do with this? It’s a huge, old acoustic piano, and I know I’m leaving the penthouse. I’m like, I’m definitely downsizing. What am I going to do with this? And he kind of helped me drag it out to the front of the shop. And I was like, Well, I’m just going to play it here, and then I’ll crack on with my day. And as I started to play this piano. Know, it really was such a life. I mean, I’ve had a lot of life changing moments, but this was, this was probably the most life changing moment of my life. I sat down, I had a flat cap and a and a coat, and I pulled my cap down, and I put up the coat, and I started to play. And I after a couple of minutes, I was like, What is this feeling I’ve got? Like my chest is tight, my heart’s beating. I don’t feel comfortable. I can’t breathe, and I haven’t I don’t know if I’m having a panic attack or something, and I’ve never had a panic attack before, but something’s happening. And I realized that I was scared. And the second realization after that was, wow, I’ve not felt anything for years. I’ve been numb. Win or lose. I didn’t feel anything like in the bank. I didn’t feel anything so I didn’t care if I win, if I lose, I don’t care. Winning doesn’t matter and losing doesn’t matter, because I don’t even want to be in this game. And suddenly I don’t know why. Just playing piano in the street, I was petrified, and I was like, wow, I think I don’t know what. I can’t explain it, but this means something to me. Why am I scared of this? This? This matters to me. But in the moment, I’m just, I’m scared. So I close my eyes, and I hunch over, and I’m playing the piano in a way that’s now become a bit of a signature style. But at the time I was just scared. And after I’ve been playing a few minutes, I kind of disappear into the music. And I’m really, like, lost in music, man, and it’s amazing. And then, well, you’re probably more familiar with this than me as a lady, but I had a feeling that I think the women are very familiar with I’ve never had it before, which was, I think someone’s looking at me. I think there’s someone’s checking me out. And and I suddenly realized I was like, wait a minute, I’m like, on this really dodgy Street in London. I’m wearing a Rolex, a Hermes tie, Prada shoes. I look like a target. What am I doing right now? And my my spider senses kind of start tingling, but I’m in the middle of the song, and I thought if they were going to rob me, they would have done it already. So I’m sitting there playing this song, figuring out, like, Okay, what am I going to do? And I play really fast, and I whack the bottom of the piano, and I spin around really fast, ready to kind of face this, whoever it is. And there’s about 800 people stood there in total silence, mouths open, staring. And it was this quiet. It was that silence that we just had for a few seconds, and it felt, I mean, it was just, I mean, even now I get goosebumps talking about it. It was just a moment like I’ve never had. And

Kara Goldin 17:29
and how long was it for? Like, how long did you play for that day? This song that

Stephen Ridley 17:34
I’m talking about was probably about six minutes, seven minutes. It’s pretty busy street, although I lose time when I play piano, so who knows, but I think about six, seven minutes, and then everyone’s standing there, and I didn’t know what to do. After a minute, I got like awkward, and involuntarily, I start crying. And I’ve only cried once in my life, which was at my dad’s funeral. And to be totally honest, I didn’t even know why I was crying. I wasn’t upset. I just I was overcome, and then I felt really awkward, and the English awkwardness kicked in, so I just threw my hat on the floor as a joke, and everybody put loads of coins and and notes in his hat. And I was like, wait a minute, and I look at this hat, and I look at the piano, and I look at all the people, and everybody’s smiling at me. Nobody smiled at me in years, because what did I do to cause anybody to smile? Bankers don’t make people smile. You don’t do anything for the world. And I was like, wow, what is this? And people are coming up, and they’re telling me their stories, and telling me about the parents here, and this guy and a guy, and he’s got a bar in New York, and if I ever want to come and play, he’ll pay for my flights and and I was like, What is going on here? And I went and counted the money immediately in a coffee shop. It was 16 pounds, 34 which would be about $22 and it was the best money I’ve made in my life. I was like, this is this is nuts. And I went straight back out. I sat on the piano, and I played all day, that day until one o’clock in the morning, from about 1130 to 1am didn’t want to go home. I was petrified when I went home, they’d take the piano like the street cleaning team. So then I woke up. I sent my alarm. I woke up at quarter six, and I was there at 6am and I sat with the piano until you’re allowed to make noise in the UK, which is about 8am and I learned these noise laws that day, but you can’t make noise until about 8am then I played at 8am till 1am again, and played all day long. Didn’t even count the money, by the way. Got home, and I don’t care, like threw the money in a suitcase, went straight back out. And I did that in 70 countries over the next 13 months, non stop. Every single day didn’t stop. And I just go from street to street to country to country to country to country, and every single day, just to give you a number, just that street I was on, it’s called Brick Lane in London. On an average day, 120,000 people walk down that street. That’s five Madison Square Gardens. The Rolling Stones don’t play to five Madison Square Gardens in one day. And I was doing that every day. So imagine the number of people I would meet. And I met, I’m talking from the biggest CEOs, the personal assistant of the Queen. Uh, Putin’s bodyguard, like the most random people, which then all led to these getting invites to do shows in places you can’t imagine. And, and that’s how it started. And that entire time, I didn’t count the money. I never, ever, ever counted the money from a guy who had been obsessed with money and fixated on it, because, you know, never want to count the money. If I was hungry, I just put my hand in the coins, grab it, go eat. If I needed anything, put my hands in, grab the coins, go get it. If it wasn’t enough coins, I’d just play another song. It was total freedom and and that’s how it started. That was That’s the true story of it starting. And there was nothing. There was no plan, there was no record label, there’s no social media at the time, it was just a very, very guy living a life and, and I loved it and, and honestly, it’s only evolved, because, again, as I tell you this story, I’m still I’m not that guy like my perspective has changed again, kind of 180 as it as I’ve evolved. But I look back with great fondness that I had the courage to do that because, you know, it was really, really, probably this, one of the two or three most difficult decisions was just leaving that job, because I knew, I knew, if I stay in this, I know my future. It’s three years promotion, three years promotion, go to a hedge fund, two years, I’ll go to private equity, six years, and then I’m going to be MD, and then I can become partner. I know the whole road. And so it’s like, there’s a 15 year path to 50 to 70 million and then, and I don’t want it, and, wow, that’s a lot, though, because I don’t have any other plan. I don’t even have a plan to get, you know, 10 grand like, and I’m gone, and then I’m playing the piano in the street, and the police are coming in. They stop you, and they make you feel like a beggar or a nuisance. And just a few days ago they’d be offering you protection in the nightclub of some fancy place. And all of a sudden, you’ve gone from having this false prestige you do nothing to earn it, but somehow you’ve got this level of prestige which means nothing because it’s not tied to any contribution you make to society. And then I’m just sitting in the streets, and all I want to do is share the most beautiful thing that I know how to do, and I’d get nothing, but, you know, police and council people coming and the British version of the IRS and just relentless attacks. And I was like, wow, this is just, this is something. But I got so much, yeah, I got a lot more support and smiling faces and that. So that’s ultimately why it continues. But yeah, that was the journey. That’s how it started.

Kara Goldin 22:28
So you went on from performing in the streets of London to deciding to start the actually teach others, and not only teach others how to play the piano, but also, I think Teach people across cultures importance of doing what you love, right? And I feel like there’s more to the Ridley Academy than maybe even just learning right. Very much so coming from somebody who, you know was told that they can’t do something or so many times they weren’t good enough. You know, you’ve figured out that you were good enough to go into banking and made that brave decision to go and do what you knew that you could do finally, and something that you love, but then you decided you really wanted to teach us. So can you talk a little bit more about the Ridley Academy and kind of what your what your plans were for it, and how it has surpassed those plans, I would imagine Absolutely.

Stephen Ridley 23:35
And again, it’s a funny thing, because it started with absolutely no plan, and the things I was imagining doing when I was in banking and I would write on I used to keep a journal, it’s like, Oh, I was I love this is random, but I love dressing women. My mom never had any confidence. She never thought she looked beautiful. And I would love dressing her up. And then when I was at university, I had a lot of female friends, and none of them like their body like this is the one universal across all women, is they don’t like their body. But I used to look at all, you’re not dressing it right, like you’re copying this lady, she has a different body. And like, what if you did this? So I always imagined in banking that I go into fashion or something like that, because it made sense, and I know that you can make money in fashion. And thought, oh yeah, maybe I’ll do that. But music was just this thing that I did for myself and then for other people, and then I’m playing in the streets. And the most common question I would get is, or statement, if you like, is people coming up to me, and not one or two people, maybe two, 3000 a week, coming up to me, saying, Oh my God. And they tell me these really deep personal stories about how I’ve reminded them how important music is to them, and how they really want to play and how and they tell me the value of music being in a life. And then they tell me a different version of the same story. And this is in Brazil, in India, in Australia, in Scotland, everybody has the same story. Well, you know, I tried to learn, and I took a couple years of lessons, but I was. Really talented enough, or wasn’t smart enough, or it’s too complicated for me, or it’s too boring because it was over disciplinarian and over theorized and I gave up, and I really regret it. Universally, people had tried failed because the education sucked and regretted it. So that that initial desire is still there, but it’s been squashed by a tremendously negative experience, or a series of them, because a lot of people then, you know, you try an app, but then you get stuck at this kind of mediocre level. Or you try, you know, you flick around on YouTube, but it’s this disorganized thing, and there’s some false data, and you don’t know enough to sift out what’s good and bad and get it in the right order, and it’s just a bit of a mess. And so, for no, no business reason at all. I became interested in that because I was interested well, how do I know to do what I’m doing? Because I’m not really using any of that stuff that I learned when I did the music lessons. So how am I doing what I’m doing, and can this be communicated in a way that would be enjoyable and easy and simple, because to me, music was extremely enjoyable. The simplest thing that I do, I don’t think a thought when I’m playing piano, is direct from whatever is that is me, directly from that spiritual place out. It’s the most, most free. It couldn’t be simpler, very pure. So I was like, I wonder if I can make a path to that. And it took nine years. In truth, it was nine years of me fumbling around and playing with people on I used to bring audience members on the stage. I mean, I still do, and I’d get them to do a little trick, and they’re all nervous, and I get them playing something, and I play some of the keys, and they play other keys. I did it with kids all over the world. Kids love it, honestly. So do adults, because then the parents come up and like, Oh, can you do it with me? And it so it started out as these little gimmicky things that got people playing, but then I just see what happened to people, and they go from, like, normal human beings pretending to be adults, to fascinated kids, everybody, irrespective of status and age. And I’ve done this with like shakes and multi billionaires and always the same thing, like they just become themself. And I was like, this is addictive, and but I’d not got the whole way, and I’d not got it all planned out. So it was nine years of tinkering and trying this and trying this and failing and still trying and can it be done? And I guess it can’t be done. And traditional music education actually hasn’t changed in over 800 years. And probably this is why, and maybe there’s no other way. And then finally, I felt I got something workable. And there was a few factors that that led to that, a few discoveries that led to that, studying completely disrelated subjects. I’ve always enjoyed education, like I said, from a kid, I’ve been reading books, but I’ve continued to study and study even about things that, you know, I just took a flying lesson this morning. I’m not planning on being a pilot. I just, I like to learn. I’m fascinated by by the things I don’t know. And I’d learn things from that. And, and then I started implementing them. And, and so then, how did it become a school? Is it started by kind of showing people stuff, but there is at the same time. This is very random. I’d had three big number one hits in Russia. Totally random. That’s a holster. I mean, we don’t even have time for that, for that story. How random that is. But I it. This occurred and and I realized very quickly, Russia was a really great place to become famous, because nobody else outside of Russia really knows who I am. So I get to, like, taste it for a while, then I get to leave and go back to London and have a normal life. And what I realized that was really interesting from a business perspective, is that the music business is really, really it’s not that these bad guys and good guys, it’s that the incentives for the artist and the record label are completely opposed the record label, like any investor wants to bet on what’s worked before. Oh, so if I’m investing in real estate, well, this kind of property did well, so we’re going to do this kind of property. They’re like multifamily with modern fixtures, with Art Deco stylings, good. So we’re going to do that because that’s what the market wants. So market wants, and it works, and that’s what an investor should do. Now an artist’s job is to push the boundary and to do the unknown, and it’s very individualistic, and it’s very much a tool of self expression. And in expressing yourself, you find other people who feel like you, and that’s kind of the role of the artist. So that didn’t really work when the label wants you to do what the last guy did, who was a totally different guy to you, because that’s what worked. And you the artist, well, I’m not that guy, and that was his self expression. And it worked because he was so good at expressing himself, and that’s the reason that Adele, who’s nothing like Bruno Mars, can both be really popular, because they’re absolutely amazing at expressing whatever it is that Adele is, and Bruno Mars can express whatever it is that Bruno Mars is, and the actual notes and the genre doesn’t matter. What matters is it finds a place in all of us, where we are, that person too, and finally, it gives voice to that which used to not have a voice. It gives expression to something we weren’t able to see or. Express. And that’s why, when you go to an Adele show and she goes, we could have had it all, you’re not thinking about her ex boyfriend. You’re thinking about yourself. You’re in your own place. Yeah, that’s the that’s the amazing spiritual thing of music that unites a planet, irrespective of culture, and all the ways that people are getting divided right now, like people come together around great song and, but I realized this thing. And sorry for rambling, but the thing I realized is this, I would never be able to ascend in my career past the point I was at without taking a very corrupt turn. And it was very demotivating. It was like, Cool. The only way you get to be a huge artist is with an enormous, enormous amount of money backing and I know that you there’s this illusion on social media that you can blow up on social media and then you become a huge artist. But by and large, a lot of those people that do that already had record labels, and there’s a team that’s artificially creating that social media journey. It does happen from time to time, of course, but by and large, there’s a lot of money behind whoever they decide to put the money behind. And it’s kind of like politics, like, yeah, like an outcast, an outlier, can win. But by and large, 90% at the time, it’s going to be the dude who’s got 200 million behind him who gets the attention, because they can buy the attention. They can get on Jimmy Kimmel, they can get on this place. And in Russia, it was the same thing, smaller level, but same thing. And I could see it, because I was exterior to it. And I was like, wow, this is, this is messed up. The first single that I released, the budget to promote. It was $14 million for one song, and it lost money. I never, I’ve still never made any money on that song. It was using ADS. It was using movies. It was played. It was like that an anthem for football stadiums never got

apparently, on the statement, it lost 4 million. But how can I have lost 4 million? I look at all this. And then I was doing these huge shows, 20,000 30,000 people. Played one, 600,000 people, 600,000 people. And I lost 6000 euros playing that show because I had to repay the label for this thing that I it was their plan to announce that, wow, this is, this is really messed up. And I realized that I was limited, because I am the product. And there’s 365, days in a year when you do a really big show like I do, it tends to wipe out your voice or your hands. So I can probably play like 270, of those days. And so that’s it. That’s my maximum potential here. And I can’t earn enough in those 270 days to match what the big label is doing to hire 60 people and then put 14 million. I couldn’t, couldn’t figure that out, but I need to do that to get to the plate. So this is cash 22 right? And realize I need something else to promote, because I got a lot of people, and they really like me, and they come to the show and they want to exchange, but it’s not going to be a t shirt, a t shirt, it’s like an $8 thing. And who cares what? We don’t need more T shirts in the world. But I’ve got this thing, and I’ve been working on it for ages, and I was like, well, maybe this could be a thing. This could be my merch, my school could be my merch. And I was so excited by this idea, because I was like, wow, this is amazing. Like, imagine all these people that come up to me and they’re like, Oh, I really want to learn. Well, you can learn from me. The guy who you like, the guy who just inspired you to want to play again, is going to be the guy that shows you and good for you. By the way, I just spent last 25 years researching this. This is going to be perfect for you. And it was, I thought, so brilliant. And then roughly a week later, covid hit, and I was like, Oh, and there goes my entire little business plan in my own head. And shortly after that, you know, there’s this war Ukraine, Russia. And I went and did a show in Ukraine. Right at the start of it, I played in a park, 5000 people in a park, and then that ended up being a one way ticket out of Russia. And everything changed very quickly. And I was like, wow, that that didn’t quite work. And I was sitting online, oh, by the way, I skipped a state, but I built the school. And not just built the school. I spent all the money I had in the world before I had a business idea. And I think this is a really interesting takeaway, because I met a lot of founders that did the same thing for no rhyme or reason. There was no business model. There was nothing. I spent over a million dollars in my own money. Everything I earned, constantly I would pump into making a product that I had no market for, no idea if anybody ever wanted it, but just so it was made, just because I felt it was something that was needed and I didn’t have anything else figured out after that. I know you can do it the other way around. I know you can kind of survey the market and back, back, solve and make products, and probably in the future, I would do that. I’ve learned things through this. But my initial thing was just, this needs to be made, and I don’t know what to do with it after so that was made covid hits. And I was like, Okay, I was doing online shows. I did two free, three hour concerts per day on Instagram, only for the only purpose. It was the same thing as playing in the streets. I just want to put some light into the world. And this started out, I did what my first three hours. Nobody came. I opened Instagram Live, and it. Was no viewers, zero viewers, and I played a concert like I was doing Madison Square Garden. I literally, I was sweating, I’m dripping. I gave the whole thing, just in case, when my eyes were closed, someone came and left. And it was super demoralizing. And then this went on. And after a couple of weeks, there’d be like 400 people there. And I was like, wow, this is pretty good. And after a few more weeks, they’d be like 2000 people. And then Instagram started blowing up. And then I was like, Okay, I’m gonna try and sell my merch thing now. And I was like, okay, by the way, if anybody wants to who wants to learn, and they’d be like, you know, 10% of people me, good, well, I’ve got this product who wants to buy it, and maybe, like, 1% of that would go me, and I’d sell one. And I was like, Wow. It was, like, the 16 pounds that I made in the hat playing on the street. I was like, wow, this is so amazing, because I didn’t have that, and now have that, and this, this is magic. And I have my first student, and it’s so cool. I got about 60 people completely through it before selling it online. So I did have a few students before, but as soon as I made that, sales like, wow, this is so cool. And then it was just, it was optimize, optimize, optimize, because I realized the people I were playing to weren’t necessarily the best audience for learning, and that there was a whole lot of people out there that didn’t know who I was, but they did want to learn piano, and so I stopped coming up to the ways, and the same strategy that I’d used on the street to get attention and stop people and block the streets all over the world became the thing that was, which is, now, it’s what I use in my marketing. It’s what I use to promote the school. It’s the same set of skills that I learned playing in the street. And it’s and it’s still and I, I genuinely think the reason the school’s doing so well is twofold. First, I really do care and and it came from that. It’s it was that before there was ever a school. And I think you can feel that in every bit of communication as you go through the school and this and the second. And I don’t think that’s common in music, because I think most music teachers are so sick of music by the time they get to become a teacher, so over theorized, so bored of it, the students don’t win. They got into teaching because they want to teach people music, but they’ve got this methods, and it doesn’t got this methods, and it doesn’t really work. And by statistics, 97% of the students don’t make it to a moderate level. So you don’t, I can just imagine going through the failure of that, and it blunts your purpose, because you’re failing all the time, and then you’re worried about your bills, so you start taking students, and, you know, you can’t help them, and blah. I can just imagine what that is like. And this isn’t that and and so people come into this having experienced that, and having gone to the teacher who doesn’t really care, and he’s a bit stressed, and whatever. And and then they come to a place, and it’s a dude, and he just is very excited about this, and he’s got all these little ways. And there’s that, and then there’s the other thing, which is just what I think music is, and I think it’s more than just notes. I think it’s more than just tunes, because it’s been the thing that, for me, has allowed me to go around the world and meet people I never thought I’d meet. I’ve met the world, and I’ve played for the world, and it’s opened every door. I’ve made 10s of 1000s of friendships that, you know, I come from a village I didn’t have any friends. What I realized, incidentally, by the way, it wasn’t money, it was like a friends that was causing a lot of this stuff, and and, and now the the valuable thing I collect more than dollar bills, is friendships. I can go to any country on this planet right now, and I know I’ve got a bed to sleep. That’s real wealth, really. I can you drop me anywhere on this planet, and I know I’ll have a dude. He’ll take care of me, he’ll pick me up, he’ll give me food, he’ll look after me, he’ll get me on my feet. And I created those friendships through, through what I gave, not from what I took, and and that’s all in the school as well. It’s this. It’s really putting what music can do and for yourself in terms of your own self therapy, but also what this can be for the world. And that gives people a tremendous value. And a lot of people are looking for that. A lot of people want to have more value in the world, but they don’t know how it’s

Kara Goldin 38:42
amazing what you’ve built at Ridley Academy, for sure. And I love the fact that you know you’re doing something that came from your heart, that probably a lot of these people, by the time they get to you too, that, like you said, they’ve they’ve given up hope somebody’s been telling them that they can’t do it, and all of a sudden, you give them, you know, this hope that hopefully it even, you know, even if they don’t choose to become a professional pianist, you know, they can do something that is that they enjoy, and that’s going to wear off on the rest of their life too. I mean, it’s pretty incredible what you’ve been able to do, and you’re also continuing to perform and and, you know, and so you’ve got lots of of, you know, different businesses and following and doing what you’re doing every single day, which is so, so inspiring and so really, really incredible to have you on Stephen. You are just absolutely so motivating. And everyone needs to check out Ridley Academy for sure, and check out all of your performances and and hear more about what you’re doing too. So, but thank you. Again for coming on. Really appreciate it. And thank you everybody for listening.

Stephen Ridley 40:04
I have to say, by the way, just on the way out. So I got these on the way because I was like, I’ve got to I love it. I saw and this one absolutely amazing. And I already had one of these before I came on. This one’s my favorite. So I’m a watermelon I’m a watermelon hint fan. So if anybody the best flavor, that’s what I can recommend.

Kara Goldin 40:24
I love it super, super great. Thank you. Thank you. Thanks again for listening to the Kara Goldin show. If you would please give us a review and feel free to share this podcast with others who would benefit. And of course, feel free to subscribe so you don’t miss a single episode of our podcast, just a reminder that I can be found on all platforms. At Kara Goldin, I would love to hear from you too. So feel free to DM me, and if you want to hear more about my journey, I hope you will have a listen or pick up a copy of my Wall Street Journal, best selling book undaunted, where I share more about my journey, including founding and building hint, we are here every Monday, Wednesday and Friday. Thanks for listening, and goodbye for now. You.