Grit & Continuous Learning: Marla Morrison on Building Two Schools

In this episode of the Performing Arts School Entrepreneur Podcast, host David Martin sits down with Marla Morrison, founder of Forte Academy of the Arts in San Diego and Missouri Music Academy. Marla's shares her candid story: when she and her husband Keith moved their family from Missouri to San Diego to launch Forte Academy, they moved into the studio with their three boys and stayed for nearly a year to make it work.

What followed is a masterclass in resilience, resourcefulness, and relentless vision. Marla grew Forte from that handful of students to 427 before COVID hit, eventually scaling into a 10,800-square-foot location with a performing arts auditorium and 20 teachers. Then, she decided to open a new studio in a new state, applying every hard-won lesson from the first school to build something even bigger. In this conversation, she and David cover the scrappy marketing strategies, hiring philosophy, leadership frameworks, and daily mindset that made it all possible.