Warren McPherson spends his mornings at the gym and with his kids, not at his desk. His piano teaching business – now 14,000 students strong – runs without him having to be there for most of it. Here's how he built it that way.
Warren McPherson doesn't start working until noon most days. Mornings go to the gym and his kids. PianoLessonsWithWarren.com teaches gospel piano by ear to thousands of students, entirely online, and it runs well enough that Warren doesn't have to be at his desk to keep it going.
That kind of freedom wasn't the plan. It's the result of one decision: building the business as a membership instead of a store.
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It Started as a Hobby, Not a Plan
For the first few years, Warren just posted piano videos because people asked him to. He didn't think much of it.
“Even for the first few years, I treated it as a hobby because I didn't think it could become a main source of income. But I still, even then, never really thought about how I could make this into a long-term career.”
There was no five-year plan. He was just answering requests, one at a time, long before it occurred to him this could be the whole job – let alone one that gave him his time back.
Why He Chose Membership Over Ecommerce
At some point, Warren had to decide how he wanted to sell what he'd built.
Ecommerce – selling individual downloads one at a time – didn't fit what teaching piano actually requires, and it meant Warren staying involved in every transaction.
Learning an instrument isn't something you can pick up in random pieces. You need to be guided through it, building up different areas of knowledge in the right order, and you benefit from being part of a community of other people doing the same thing.
“A lot of people think of music as, ‘Oh, I just want to learn piano, I need to sit at the piano and figure out what keys to play.' But there's a lot more that goes into learning music – you need theory, ear training, understanding of chords, technique building.
There are different categories, and the membership model allows me to tie all of those together in a step-by-step method.”
He compares it to how school works: “It's kind of like when you go to school, you do a little math, a little science, a little this, a little that. Music is the same way.”
A membership let him build all of that into the structure itself, instead of personally walking every student through it.
Structure Is What Lets Warren Step Back
The core of Warren's membership is structure. Members know what to practice, when to practice it, and how to tell when they're ready for the next stage – all built into the path itself.
“My program allows students to know what to practice, when to practice, and hit milestones, so they know when to move on to the next thing, automated, without me telling them.”
That word – automated – is the whole point. It's the difference between a business that needs Warren in the room and one that doesn't.
He's Not Adding Courses Constantly, and That's the Point
Warren only adds a new course every couple of months now. The foundation is already built, so he doesn't need a constant stream of new material to keep things running.
The rest of the time goes toward keeping the community alive: hosting live Q&As, running a Transcription Club, and posting more content across his four channels to keep bringing new students in.
“There's different types of content I add outside of just regular courses. I have monthly student video reviews… I do weekly live calls, group sessions… I do a Transcription Club, which is all about teaching people the skill to hear a song and figure out everything about it.”
And on where the growth keeps coming from: “My four main platforms are YouTube – the biggest – followed by Facebook, then TikTok, then Instagram.”
A Well-Oiled System, and a Workday That Starts at Noon
Warren built a system once, and now it runs – which is why his day doesn't have to start early.
“I don't spend a lot of hours on this in a day. I have a pretty well-oiled system now. In fact, I don't even start working until noon most days. I spend the morning going to the gym, hanging out with my kids.”
Part of what makes that possible is how much he enjoys building the site itself. Warren loves the flexibility WordPress gives him to customize things exactly how he wants them – and he uses MemberPress's developer tools to connect the site to an app he built himself, so it runs as one system instead of two separate things bolted together.
“I love the ability to customize how everything works, and I do that via plugins… I definitely use the developer tools add-on, because that's how I'm able to talk to the app – MemberPress runs the subscription, so I don't go through Apple's system for that.”
Full-Time Since 2019
Warren went 100% online in 2019, right around when his son was born. He couldn't keep teaching in person, playing roughly 200 gigs a year with a band, and running the website all at once.
“I don't think I can raise a kid and do all of this – something's got to go.”
The website stayed. Everything else went.
“Glad I did, because once I was able to focus full-time, I also saw the growth.”
It's kept growing ever since, because the membership model gave him a business that could grow without demanding more of his time in return.
A hobby he never thought would go anywhere turned into a business that gave him his mornings back – because he built it as a membership instead of a store, structured in a way that runs without him having to be there for most of it.
Where to Find Warren
Warren teaches at PianoLessonsWithWarren.com, and you'll find him under the same name – Piano Lessons With Warren – on YouTube, Facebook, TikTok, and Instagram.
Thinking about building a membership instead of selling one-off content? MemberPress's Developer Tools let your site talk to whatever you build on top of it – the same way Warren connects his own app. See what MemberPress can do for your site.
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