If one of your students finds a video on YouTube telling them that standing on their head is the only TRUE way to learn how to sing - don't try to dissuade them, or debunk the video, just let them go on their way. It's okay to say "No" or say "That's not my thing" - I've learned to say "no" confidently when I feel something isn't in line with my vocal method. My trick to maintaining my own practice schedule is to lock out an hour per day in my booking calendar for my own practice and down time, one full day a week for vocal rest, and half a day per week for "vocal day" where I sing my own songs, focus on writing my own material and dedicate time to songs that I truly want to sing myself - no lesson plans, no replying to YouTube comments, no emails - just vocal practice and dedication to my voice. This means Sticking to your own practice schedule One of the most important thing I've learned in almost a decade of professional coaching experience is that the best way to teach is to lead by example. You might be wondering why I've repeated that line so many times in this tutorial, but it's really the true reason my coaching has excelled and my studio now reaches singers and coaches just like you all around the world. I even found that my videos on YouTube were suffering in the same way - in every video I tried to display something cool and 'impressive' so that people realised how great my voice was, when in fact the whole reason I started the YouTube channel in the first place was to give an alternative to that exact style of sensationalist "American Idol" style singing videos that many of the bigger vocal channels were employing at the time - instead of helping people sing, I was trying to prove how great I was and I didn't personally just start out singing Chris Cornell songs, I started with the basics and built a vocal foundation that then allowed me to sing these songs with ease - there are no shortcuts in singing, and you shouldn't try and make them for your students either. This meant that they really skipped over many of the important steps along the way and lacked some understanding where certain concepts were being explained in a one-dimensional way to simply help them achieve the sound they wanted, instead of giving them the tools to make these discoveries for themselves. This led to frustration on my part, and really wasn't helping my students to improve in any way - in essence, I was doing ALL the work myself that the students should have been doing in between our sessions in their practice schedule - I was 'handing them' the voice they wanted, instead of helping them build it themselves. I was making the exact same mistake that I see many of my students who are also budding vocal coaches make. I was trying to be all things to all people. I'm just not a 'pop' guy, yet I was spending at least a couple of hours a week listening to pop songs and pop singers just to help my students learn their songs, and this is because When I found myself at a similar point to where you might be right now as a singing teacher, I realised I was spending tens of hours each week learning songs that I just didn't enjoy, and putting together lesson plans to help singers do things that I just wasn't invested in myself. Of course not - they excel at what they're truly great at, and you should too. Think about your favourite singer - are they able to sing in five different styles, as five different voice types, with five different methods while also keeping a bizarre schedule in hundreds of different timezones all around the world? Sure, you need to really know your stuff as a voice coach, and you need to maintain an excellent singing voice yourself - but being all things to all people really isn't possible. I coach almost as many singing teachers as I do general singing students - and I often find one glaring thing in common in the issues that they're experiencing Your students are seeing incredible progress, and your method and technique are solid - but you might be feeling like they've left you in the dust a little as your own dedicated practice time has been eaten away while learning songs you don't know or even don't like for your students, researching the other methods they've been using or asking about and setting up lesson plans and exercises to help them sing better - it's time to let me help you with your own voice.
It's more common than you'd think for singing teachers to experience issues with their own voices as they start to dedicate more time to other people's voices than their own.