Ten years without a paycheck from ROOTS

May 1, 2026

In 2012, I bought a performing arts school that was supposed to have 400 students. It had 165.

A sign reading Welcome to ROOTS outside the ROOTS Academy building.

I did the due diligence over the summer, when enrollment is always at its lowest. I bought a business that was closer to shutdown than I understood at the time. That's on me.

So I launched a marketing agency on the side... not because I wanted to run two companies, but because I needed ROOTS to not have to pay me. I didn't take a full paycheck from ROOTS until 2022. Ten years.

In 2017, our landlord wanted his building back. We found 11,500 square feet and bought it with an investor. Went from 10 music studios to 12, from 2 dance studios to 3. More importantly, we controlled our own rent in a market where lease rates were about to go vertical.

The current ROOTS Academy building, a gray brick facility with a truck parked out front.

In February 2022, we crossed 1,000 students. Today, we're at 1,769 with 106 staff... Middle Tennessee's largest performing arts program.

People ask how we scaled. The honest answer is, I refused to let revenue come before people. Every opportunity I didn't take cost me something at the time.

Ten years without a full paycheck from ROOTS.

I'd do it again.