Community Highlights: Meet Jacob Burton of Jacob Burton Studios

Today we’d like to introduce you to Jacob Burton.

Hi Jacob, we’d love for you to start by introducing yourself.
Hello Nashville Voyager! My name is Jacob, thanks for having me! My first passion in life has always been singing. Although my family was made up of sports fanatics, I managed to avoid athletics altogether and usher music into our household by belting non-stop melodies day and night.

I grew up singing in church and quickly began playing the guitar and writing music. After college, I was performing 3-4 nights a week, in addition to working multiple part-time jobs to support my musical aspirations. My days and nights were FULL of vocal usage, and my livelihood was completely dependent on my voice.

It was during this time that I incurred vocal damage. I thought my life was over! Up to that point, the only thing I had ever really been affirmed in was my ability to sing. What was I going to do with my life?!

The vocal damage was so severe that I had trouble speaking for extended periods of time, so I began looking for jobs that required as little speech as possible. This resulted in me deciding to go back to school to become a therapist.

I have always been a huge proponent of therapy and I love listening to people and their life stories, so it seemed like a good fit. It was during this period of searching that I met a new vocal coach who not only healed my voice but trained me to be a voice teacher myself.

To say that this changed my life is an understatement. I realized that vocal coaching was the marriage of my two passions: singing and therapy! I feel so grateful that today I am able to give other people a voice and empower singers and speakers all over the world.

Can you talk to us a bit about the challenges and lessons you’ve learned along the way? Looking back would you say it’s been easy or smooth in retrospect?
Easy or smooth?! I wish! There have been challenges professionally and personally, that made this journey feel like an all-out war at times. Let me take you through the timeline of events.

I moved to Nashville in 2015 not knowing a single person in the city. I started my vocal coaching business a few months later, not having a clue how difficult it would be to start a new business in a new town with no connections. Ah to be young, naive, and fearless! That was me! In less than a year, I had built a roster of 40 clients! My hard work was paying off, but there was certainly a cost.

Throughout this whole journey, I was traveling back and forth from Nashville to Atlanta (my hometown) to be with my father who was battling ALS, also known as Lou Gehrig’s disease. As his health declined his medical bills only rose higher. By 2018, I had taken on over 60 clients to help pay for my dad’s medical bills. To put this into context, most vocal coaches stop at 15 clients, 20 max. My father was rushed to the emergency room four different times that year, each time with the understanding that he probably would not survive. However, by God’s grace, he did.

After the most challenging and exhausting year of my life, at the beginning of 2019, I began a new venture: building a team. I hired my first vocal coach in January and by March I had hired my third. As tired as I was, things finally started to look up to me after what had been a grueling season of life. Nonetheless, the devastating nature of my father’s disease was fully realized when he passed away in May of 2019.

As a vocal coach, I believe in leaving my personal life at the door when I step into the room with a client. When I am coaching, my entire focus and energy is 100% on my singers. In spite of this professional commitment, I quickly realized that the grief I was walking through required me to step away from coaching for a period of time. I transferred nearly all of my clients to my team of coaches and took some time to heal.

As 2019 came to a close I was finally feeling like myself again and ready to take on a new challenge: opening my own studio! I had not anticipated this moment coming so soon in my career and it was such an exciting time of dreaming big and believing in new things. By February of 2020, I officially opened the doors to Jacob Burton Studios! It was an exciting time and such a big accomplishment for me as someone who started out as a one-man-show in the big city of Nashville.

But we all know the plot twist that was coming one month later! In March of 2020, only a month after working tirelessly to open my studio, the entire world was put on hold at the mercy of a one-hundred-year pandemic. The studio that I had poured my heart and soul into sat empty for months as we taught our clients from the safety of our homes via Skype and Zoom. To describe this turn of events as a “challenge” or a “disappointment” would be a massive understatement! I was SO disheartened that I could work as hard as I did and still feel like I was coming up short.

Fortunately, by 2021 the city and the world slowly began to reenter the new normal of navigating the outside world. Our clients returned to the studio and we were growing at a rapid pace. I began hiring, training, and mentoring more vocal coaches.

Today I am honored to have a team of 15 amazing associate vocal coaches on my team. My dream of making a career as a vocal coach and giving people a voice has been able to expand to giving other people a career and empowering even more singers than I had ever dreamed.

Through the ups and downs, the only thing that has never wavered is my love and passion for coaching vocalists. I love my job! I drive to work every day with the biggest smile on my face! Despite the personal and professional challenges that I have faced, it was this love and passion that sustained me. And Jesus!

Thanks – so what else should our readers know about Jacob Burton Studios?
Jacob Burton Studios provides professional vocal coaching for everyone from beginners to Grammy winners!

We specialize in strengthening the voice, expanding the range, and helping singers develop healthy vocal habits. We also work with public speakers, business people, and salespeople to strengthen their voices in their respective careers.

You are only given one voice on this earth, and that voice represents your power and agency in this world. At Jacob Burton Studios we make sure you are getting the most out of your voice.

Do you have recommendations for books, apps, blogs, etc?
Gotta give credit where credit is due and shout out to the notorious G.O.D.

The greatest book recommendation I could ever give would be the Bible. There is a reason that this is the best-selling book of all time! Through the highs and lows of life, the truth that is outlined in this book is what has sustained me through the troubles and disappointments of life.

Now, more than ever, we live in a world where so much seems uncertain. It comforts me to know that the principles of the Bible are eternal principles that supersede any heartbreak, loss, or global panic that we could ever experience. I wouldn’t say it if I didn’t mean it!

Read your Bible y’all!

Contact Info:

• Email: [email protected]
• Website: www.jacobburtonstudios.com
• Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/jacobburtonvox/
• Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/burtonvox/
• Twitter: https://twitter.com/burtonvox
• Youtube: https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCknXPiOe5OY-vp1NW4i9LGQ

Image Credits
Marissa Roberts Photography