#278: Mike Packer (Inspire EDU Founder) (pt. 1 of 2)

Today we released part one of our interview with entrepreneur Mike Packer. He’s the President and Founder of Inspire EDU—a company founded on transforming lives through arts, media and entertainment education.  Mike is also an accomplished drummer and author, and has been teaching for over 30 years. You'll enjoy hearing how Mike created a portfolio career as a working drummer, educator, administrator, author and company founder. 
https://www.inspireedu.us
https://www.mikepackerdrums.com

Transcript

Announcer: 1:08

Welcome to the Arts Entrepreneurship Podcast. Making art work. We highlight how entrepreneurs align their artistry, passion and vision to create and pursue opportunities to capture value in the arts. The views expressed by guests on the Arts Entrepreneurship Podcast are solely their own and do not necessarily represent the views of the podcast or its hosts. The appearance of a guest on the podcast, the venture they represent or reference to any product or service does not imply an endorsement or recommendation by the podcast or its hosts. The content provided is for entertainment and informational purposes only and does not constitute business advice. Here are your hosts Andy Heise and Nick Petrella.

Andy Heise: 1:50

Hi Arts Entrepreneurship Podcast listeners. My name is Andy Heise.

Nick Petrella: 1:54

And I'm Nick Petrella. Mike Packer is joining us today. He's the president and founder of InspireEDU, a company founded on transforming lives through arts, media and entertainment education. Mike is also an accomplished drummer author and has been teaching for over 30 years. We're looking forward to hearing how Mike applied what he learned as a musician to his new venture. We'll link to his websites in the show notes so you can read more about Mike and inspire EDU. Mike, thanks for coming on the podcast.

Mike Packer: 2:24

Thanks for having me. Really great to see you guys and be with you.

Nick Petrella: 2:29

Let's start by having you talk about your career and how you transitioned into this new venture.

Mike Packer: 2:33

Let's start by having you talk about your career and how you transitioned into this new venture. Sure, well, I'm kind of strange in that I knew that I wanted to be a musician really early on. I can remember in junior high school kind of knowing what my path was going to be. So I'm a product of really good public school music programs, fortunately. So I had a lot of access early on and I also had some very supportive parents so I was privileged to have some supplemental private lessons and things like that which made all the difference in the world. So then I ended up pursuing music in college. I went and did my undergraduate at University of Northern Colorado in Greeley, shout out to the Bears, and had a really good, really good time there. At the time we had a terrific jazz program and it is still a terrific jazz program. A lot of great players coming through there, educators, a lot of people who went and did their undergrad at Eastman or North Texas or Miami or other places and came to us for graduate school because it had such a great jazz pedagogy program. So in our bands I was playing with guys that were much older than me, much more experienced than me, and that was a huge help in getting my skills better.

Mike Packer: 4:01

I always knew that I was going to move to LA after school and give it a go. You know, try and be a live musician, a studio musician, and that was always the goal. I also knew that I would teach, especially privately. I was always passionate about that and actually through college I was already doing some private lessons. So I went and I did that. So after graduation, threw my junk in the car, drove out to LA this was the early 90s and made a go of it. When I got there I realized pretty quickly that I had a lot more studying I needed to do. There were guys out there my age who were playing a lot better than I did and I was. So I took a few lessons with some guys in town but then met a guy named Ralph Humphrey who is a legendary drummer and instructor, and he became my mentor. That you know. Our friendship mentorship lasted over 30 years, but he really kind of took me under his wing during that time. Our lessons were incredible. He took me to studio sessions with him. I subbed for him on a bunch of stuff, so it really was kind of my master's degree without actually getting a full master's degree. So that kind of showed me the ropes.

Mike Packer: 5:30

Through that time I was also teaching privately, and then as an adjunct at Citrus College, which is a really good community college here, azusa Pacific University, and then at a school called the Los Angeles Music Academy at the time, which was a small vocational school and actually Ralph and his partner, joe Peccaro, were the department heads at that time. So I was the first teacher that they brought in to help support them. So through that I taught there for about 10 years and then the president asked me if I wanted to join the administration, which that was never part of the plan. Administrative work was not part of the plan. But you know I had never had a salary before, I had never had two weeks vacation paid before. So I'm like, yeah, let's go for it.

Mike Packer: 6:23

And it was terrific, I really enjoyed the work. You know my kind of my personal purpose or mantra is to make a positive impact on people and you know, when you're teaching you make a positive impact on your students, but when you're in administrative work you can make a positive impact on a larger group of students or even the institution that you wouldn't just one to one Right or in a classroom. So I really enjoyed that. And, um, I've continued doing my uh administrative work, as well as doing some private teaching and some playing, and also written a lot of curriculum as well.

Nick Petrella: 7:05

Uh, which kind of leads me to now yeah, yeah, some of the transition makes sense really. I mean, and then we're going to get more into Inspired EDU and that here in the upcoming questions.

Andy Heise: 7:17

Cool, you said you kind of knew what your path, what you thought your path would look like going to LA being a session musician, a gigging musician, that sort of teaching musician Did you have a role model or an example or sort of a? You know someone that you knew or knew of that was kind of doing that?

Mike Packer: 7:38

Yes and no. So I knew of a lot of people who were doing it. You know, insert Vinnie Kalyuta, peter Erskine you know the guys right who were having that life, especially Peter with his teaching practice and obviously being at USC and all of that. And I knew Peter, I had taken some lessons with him and also a guy named Jeff Hamilton, who I studied with for a while, who is an unbelievable musician, is an unbelievable musician, incredible educator as well. He's one of those guys who can listen to you play for 10 seconds and then talk for the next hour of what you need to fix. So I did have some role models, as well as Ralph and Joe, but that happened more post-secondary and when I came out to town, gotcha.

Andy Heise: 8:37

Yeah, and so, along the way, you know, I knew that I always wanted to get more education and keep learning.

Mike Packer: 9:09

And when I was turning 50, it's not like I was freaking out or anything but I was like, hmm, maybe now is a really good time to do it. So I did it. I went to Boston University online. It was a year and a half program. Absolutely loved it. I was never the greatest student in the world. I did well at things that I liked, but things that I didn't like I was like, you know, yeah, solid middle of the road. But I really challenged myself to do well in this program and get as much out of it as I could, and I did.

Mike Packer: 9:43

It was at a time in my life where I was extremely busy, working full time and I also had. I was writing curriculum for a college in China. Actually, beijing Contemporary Music Academy wanted a full drum set curriculum 10 books. So I was. I was working. I full drum set curriculum, 10 books. So I was working, I was doing the curriculum and I was doing my master's at the same time and that was about a year and a half to two years for that and it's definitely the hardest I've ever worked in my life, but the grind was totally worth it. It was really great.

Nick Petrella: 10:22

Yeah, and you know the education leadership policy degree will last longer than a, than a Corvette.

Announcer: 10:31

Yeah, exactly.

Nick Petrella: 10:33

Alluding to a midlife crisis.

Mike Packer: 10:35

Yeah, I, uh, I also knew that I wanted to, um, kind of try and rise up the ranks in higher education as well, right, and obviously you know a master's and really a doctorate are required for that. So I definitely have a doctorate in my future, maybe at some point, okay, but yeah, for now it's master's.

Nick Petrella: 11:00

Yeah sure, but yeah, for now it's masters. Yeah sure, mike.

Mike Packer: 11:07

what skills have you honed as a performer and educator that you're bringing to this new venture, inspire EDU. I think creativity is one that definitely comes to mind first. You know when you're when you're working primarily on a venture like this, where it requires strategy, it requires vision, it requires all of those things. I think creativity and being able to think outside the box is really critical for that. You know, what we're trying to do is provide services to educators, administrators and students that you know they may exist in some small form, but they don't exist as the package that we're trying to put together for them. Meaning, you know we're doing curriculum development, we're doing curriculum distribution. We're also doing work-based learning and supplying teaching artists.

Mike Packer: 12:09

So if, let's say, a district wants to start a CTE program in audio production but they don't have the resources, they don't have a teacher, they don't have curriculum, they don't have the industry connections to be able to do it, potentially they could come to us and we would be able to handle all of that for them and get them up and running. So that's kind of the goal in some of my more recent higher education leadership roles higher education leadership roles we were doing some K-12 curriculum and it was very apparent that those were pain points for administrators. So it kind of became obvious to me that it's like, oh, if I was going to do my own thing, this would be a huge help and make a positive impact on on programs.

Andy Heise: 13:01

That's interesting. So, so, um, and maybe, maybe, this would be a good point for you to tell us a little bit about Inspire EDU. But, um, before we do that, let me ask you about you also. In the while you're doing all of these other things, you, you developed a new product, um, that drum, uh, where dw eventually picked up called a heelist kick pedal. Can you tell us what that process was like?

Mike Packer: 13:24

yeah, sure, so, yeah, I, um, you know, I I was always kind of bugged in my, in my bass drum playing um, about this little thing actually not so little on some pedals called a heel heel plate. And so basically, you have your footboard and then there's a heel plate at the end of it, and so when you come down, you come down on this heel plate and a lot of times your heel will actually hit the edge of the heel plate and it can be very uncomfortable. But what that heel plate does is it eliminates a large, well, a percentage of the stroke that you can play. So if you were thinking about hitting a drum right, but you put your arm up and you blocked yourself, so you could still hit the drum, but you weren't able to realize your full stroke, that's what was happening with the bass drum. So I always wanted to come up with something that would eliminate that.

Mike Packer: 14:22

And it's funny, in college I had some really good friends, one of which, well, they were all drummers, of course, but what kind of us drummers stick together? One guy was working in the biking industry, in the shoe industry, and he was doing production. So we were hanging at a party once and I was telling him about this idea that I had. He's like oh yeah, I could make that for you, I could do a CAD design of that and do that. And I mean, I'm not a mechanical mind, I have zero idea how to do any of that stuff. So my good friend Lonnie did that for me. And then it's also funny I was in Chicago doing a session for a couple songwriters and I'm telling them about my idea and one of them goes Well, I'm a patent attorney so I can help you get a patent. Oh, that's funny and I'm, like, you know, incredible. So with my little team we got a prototype done and we got a patent application in. So it was patent pending.

Mike Packer: 15:28

And I went to a bunch of manufacturers, as it was patent pending, and everybody passed saying that you need to have your patent before we'll even talk to you, except DW. They're like yeah, patent pending, sure, come on over. So I went and I pitched it to them. They were interested, they liked it, but they passed on it.

Mike Packer: 15:53

And I was very persistent and I said well, what about if I sell some units? Will that prove to you that this is something that actually has legs? No pun intended. And they're like yeah, sure. So I went to Pro Drum in Hollywood, which is a very well-known shop and Stan and Jerry I had always gone to Pro Drum and know Stan and Jerry and they let me put 10 pedals in the store and just basically sell them on consignment. And they all sold. They sold pretty quickly. So then I went back to DW. I'm like, hey, they're all gone. And so we did it and that started my relationship with Don Lombardi and DW and out of that I licensed the pedal, I got an endorsement and it's been a great relationship for now almost 20 years.

Nick Petrella: 16:45

What was the reason they didn't want to pursue until you had a patent?

Mike Packer: 16:52

I think it was more about IP. They just didn't want to be involved with anything until it was locked up. I think that's probably what it was.

Andy Heise: 17:03

So they didn't want to invest in the product development process until we knew for sure that it was going to be.

Mike Packer: 17:09

Yeah, that it was a slap. Yeah, yeah, and it's. It's crazy. I took the prototype out on a rock gig that I was doing regularly and they actually had to back the gain off of my bass drum by 50%. It was so much louder Just because I had that much more stroke and I could follow through. It just opened up everything. So, yeah, it was really cool and it's out there. It hasn't done amazingly well, but it's done pretty well and I have one. I love it.

Nick Petrella: 17:44

So I'm spoiled. And it's a business card, right, so there's that aspect of it as well. No, I like it.

Andy Heise: 17:51

Well, and now that we've talked about it on the podcast, it's going to, I mean, well, now it's going to blow up Millions, millions.

Nick Petrella: 17:59

So you told us about your customers, who your customers are.

Mike Packer: 18:04

I'm curious how do you get those customers? Yeah, great question. This business, like all businesses, are relationship-based, and so you need to have specific relationships, properly positioned to be able to secure contracts. The K-12 space is a new space for me personally, but when I was doing this venture, knowing that A you need resources and B you need relationships, I ended up partnering with someone who was a partner in another position that I had, who's been in the industry for 15 years, has a very successful company, has an LMS, has a sales force, has all the relationships that you would need, so us collaborating together has been hugely beneficial for me.

Mike Packer: 19:02

You know I don't know much about grants and all of those things which he does, so I'm able to access his knowledge and his team on those things. So I'm in a very fortunate position to, you know, not do this on my own. If I had to go on my own, I don't know that I would have done it, because you know not only the internal resources that you need to have to do any kind of ed tech into K through 12. You need to have single sign on, you need to have all of the privacy requirements and all of these other things that are really substantial when you're trying to build a business. Obviously, I walked into those resources already done, so that made a huge difference for me. Yeah, it's a big advantage, huge advantage.

Andy Heise: 19:51

Yeah, yeah, I know, a big advantage, huge advantage. Yeah, yeah, I know. Just, even in higher ed, the security audits that have to take place on software platforms are pretty intense, and so I can't imagine that there may be even more scrutiny at the K-12 space. I would imagine.

Mike Packer: 20:08

Yeah, there's a lot. And then, um, you know, one of one of our biggest relationships is LA USD here in town, and um, my partner, his LMS. They just got it's called UDIP, that's what it's. I don't know what the acronym stands for specifically, but that's that's the LMS requirements that you need to meet to to be um, be able to be used in the district, and they just got approved again for five years, but it was a very lengthy process.

Nick Petrella: 20:37

So just for some of the listeners, so that's Los Angeles Unified School District Correct and LMS learning management software. Yep, yeah, perfect, yeah, because not everybody's educator. Sure, oh yeah, absolutely yeah, because not everybody's educator.

Andy Heise: 20:55

Sure, oh yeah, absolutely yeah. And so Inspire EDU has a number of service offerings, from curriculum development that you've mentioned before, some consulting, but you can also connect people with teaching artists and some work-based learning opportunities. Can you give us just a brief overview of what those different services are? And I'm curious if you're seeing, you know, more demand in one area than another, or if, like, one kind of leads to another, or how they kind of work together.

Mike Packer: 21:22

Yeah, great question. Well, from the curriculum side we're doing curriculum development and curriculum distribution all in arts, media and entertainment space. So here in California as far as career technical education in high schools, it is by far the most popular and most populated pathway for students are the most popular and most populated pathway for students. I realize that it's not that popular or as popular in other areas in the country, but in California it is. There's over 250,000 students just in our state studying in the arts and CTE. So our curricular structure is based all around that. So it's everything from graphic design, film production, visual arts to music to dance, to you know, you name it anything else in the arts, and so that's kind of our blueprint.

Mike Packer: 22:33

And so in and around those pathways we're building curriculum, specifically CTE curriculum, and that is basically a three-course progressive pathway. So the first course is introduction and so it deals with fundamental skills but it's also career discovery and career awareness. The middle course is called a concentrator and that's more about developing the appropriate skills. And then the third course, the advanced course, is more of a capstone. So we're developing curriculum that goes all the way through that and is very project-based in all of those pathways.

Mike Packer: 23:13

Now, at the end of that, a student can go into an internship, an apprenticeship, post-secondary or even right into the industry, depending on what it is and what the job is. So so our goal is to create awareness and create access for people into the industry, specifically the entertainment industry, that might not have the resources or the desire to choose higher education, because we all know how expensive it is. We all know that time commitment, all of those other things that higher education demands. There are a lot of alternate pathways, so we're just trying to create one that's really relevant and appropriate for arts, media and entertainment.

Announcer: 24:08

Thanks for listening. If you like this podcast, please subscribe. Visit artsentrepreneurshippodcastcom to learn more about our guest and how you can help support artists, the arts and this podcast.

Nick Petrella: 24:19

Thanks, for listening, thank you.