Christmas Events That Will Fill Your Dance Studio (Even Mid-Crazy Season)

Foreign. Hey, friends, it's Beck here, and just before we start the podcast, I wanted to let you all know that we are currently taking applications for Studio Growth Club. You probably already know this because a lot of you are applying right now. We are sifting through them as quick as we can. We're so humbled that so many of you want to be a part of Studio Growth Club next year. We know that applying now means that you are going to smash next year because we get you set up ready for your intake in February, which is going to be incredible. So if you're interested in being a part of it, please reach out to us through a DM and we can send you through an application form. For those of you who have applied, please understand that we have so many of you applying at the moment, which is great, but it just takes us a little while to sift through everything. All right.

We hope you really enjoy this podcast. Hello, friends. I'm Amanda Barr. And I'm Rebecca Lou Brennan. And welcome to Dance Principles United, the podcast.

Together, we are passionate about helping studio owners with the business of running their studio.

Join us as we talk everything from marketing systems, studio culture, motherhood, life, and everything in between.

This is the Dance Principles United podcast. Hey, friends, and welcome to another episode of the Dance Principles United podcast.

How are you, Bec? I'm super awesome. Amanda, we're talking about your favorite thing today. Christmas. Absolutely.

Do you like my drink bottle that's sitting here?

I can't get enough of it. Amanda.

Oh, my gosh. I am obsessed. I'm a little bit Christmas obsessed. I have always loved it. No, shocking. I have a very nice, like, Christmas Stanley cup fake one. Obviously. I've got a new Christmas phone case.

You are obsessed is probably an understatement of Amanda and Christmas. And I was laughing on our SGC call yesterday. Amanda, when Nathan thanked everyone, thanked the Lord. There was no Christmas crafts this year.

I haven't pulled out Christmas crafts.

What exactly was that Christmas craft entailing is what I'd like to know.

Well, I couldn't find a wreath that was big enough for my front wall.

Right.

The external wall to my house. I wanted, like a huge, huge, huge one. I couldn't find a big enough one in the right colors, so I tried to craft it.

And how. How did that go?

It was good. I just couldn't store it afterwards.

So you just. It was one and done a bit.

I. I think we took it to the tip around February. Like, it was beautiful, but you couldn't take it apart. And it didn't collapse. And, you know, it. It did its purpose, though.

Look, I like Christmas, but I don't think I love it as much as you do. Like, you go all out with the decorations and you have the big box on the door and like, I do a little bit, but not. I'm not cray cray.

I love it.

Yeah.

My house feel beautiful and lovely and I love doing those things. But, you know, look, whether you love Christmas or not, it's a big commercial event in our industry.

Not.

Well, not in our industry, in our world, for God's sake. Like, it's huge. And, you know, we're recording this podcast in November, but everyone is like, on the Christmas train earlier these years. Do you feel like that? Like, I'm seeing people put up pictures of their house decorated and stuff already.

Yes. Well, you know what I found funny? So we just had Halloween, and the day of Halloween, I was looking for things for Phoenix because we were doing the whole dress up thing, of course, that night. And most of the stores had swapped already. Already had swapped on the day of Halloween. Yes.

That's their day that they swap it over hard.

That is. Would you not do it on the 1st of November? Apparently not. Apparently we do it on the Halloween day. And then for unorganized mothers like myself, that is not convenient, let me tell you. But anyway, so it's insane. And Bibi, I'd feel it more so this year because Bibi is being booked for all of these Christmas events.

Ah, that's fun.

So she's doing well. The first one she did was this massive parade. She was the emcee of the whole event. And I found this really interesting. This was. That would have been the first week of November.

Yeah, it was a while ago.

And she had eight. They had 18 dance studios there. They had massive. Every dance studio was in the parade.

Yes.

Then they had a stage where every dance studio performed. This parade wasn't some small little parade, let me tell you. There was trucks with Frosty the Snowman Land, and then there was a truck with Sancho. I know, I didn't. That was so good. I didn't realize how big it was.

Yeah.

So that in itself I find interesting that there's shopping centers and places like that. And now she's doing a Christmas show where she's the Ice Queen. And that was it. I know.

That was my nickname. Ice Queen.

Yes. For other reasons.

Not the same reason as Bibi. Not quite, baby. Singing and dancing and dancing. Oh, beautiful. Is she being a bit of a Nicer ice queen than me. She's a pretty ice queen.

There's one part in the thing where she's a bit evil. I don't quite understand the story, I have to be honest with you. But the rest of it, she's a friendly, happy ice queen.

Okay.

But same thing that was at a Westfield. They did this big parade. There was dance studios in the parade. Then they did this show like it is. There's a lot of events that you can get involved in.

Absolutely. That's so, so good. So what we wanted to chat today through on the podcast is, you know, at this time of the year for studio owners, it's busy. We're thinking concert time, we're thinking re enrollments, we're thinking timetable, we're thinking teachers for next year. We're thinking about how are we going to handle that comp, you know, season for next year and what comps am I going to enter and how am I going to change and get that, you know, kid into this routine? Whatever. Right? We're thinking all of those things at this time of the year. I could understand why some studio owners are like, fuck this Christmas stuff. I do not have time to do an extra thing to help out the Westfield or whatever.

Amanda, you say all that stuff and I get immediate anxiety and feel like.

Your shoulders are going up.

I feel like I want to throw up because that is how overwhelmed I am feeling right now. Because everything you're saying is exactly what I am going through.

Absolutely.

And it is so cray cray. But we're still doing the Christmas stuff.

Okay. Yeah, yeah. So tell me. You have just said you're crazy. You've got how many shows, how many concerts?

Okay, I have five. Preschool, a solo concert, my troop concert, and two musicals. Circus. That was earlier in the year.

You've already had that. Okay, so you've got nine. Nine shows in the next month.

That's a lot. Nine shows in a month is a lot.

Absolutely. Nine shows in a month. You've got re enrolment day, re enrollment day. You've been booking teachers. I know you're doing trials with new staff, like all of those things, but you're finding time. Tell me what you're doing this Friday.

We're doing tree lighting this Friday, which is the most epic event, if you can imagine. The biggest carols ever. So the street closes down. There's stalls all along the street. They have a stage. Different dance studios perform at the stage. They have characters walking around. They have all the things.

Okay, I love it. I Want to come, obviously, and be part of it. But you've just told me how overwhelmed you are, how much you got going on at your studio at the moment, that it's crazy season. All of that on top of, you know, doing Christmas shopping for your kids and taking your daughter to gigs and doing like, you know, all of those things. Why is it important that you find the time to do this show? Why do you think it's important?

Well, I have to say, first of all, I don't just do the show.

Okay. So.

So I provide all of the entertainment, which means all of the characters are mine that are walking around. I do the pantomime of the show. I also run the stage so that I get the times that I want for my kids to perform, which is a lot of work.

But it's your organizing the other studios in the area as well, Is that correct?

Correct.

Yeah. Okay.

I don't book the stalls or anything like that. Like the CBD Corp. Does all of that, obviously. But. But it is such an amazing event for us. We get so many trials from it. We've had so many of our really big clients find us from tree lighting.

Okay.

And I'm talking like, clients that have stayed with us and become professional dancers and done all the things. And so it's a really big event for us in that sense. But obviously to do that, we go all out. I feel like tree lighting is bigger than my concert.

Okay. Yeah, that's huge. So you use it as a marketing event. The money that you spend in it, all of those things, it's. Instead of putting it into, you know, it's using that as an advertising budget, as part of your advertising budget on top of the other stuff that you're doing. Of course, y. And you get lots of new kids through. So tell me, do you trial them? How do you get them to trial? Are they trialing now? Are they trialing next year? Tell me all the things.

Yep.

So.

So we have a stall. And if you guys do do a Christmas event, I highly recommend having a stall and having light up wands at the stall. If it's like a crack carols or something. Now you can either sell them or give them away. It's up to you. Or sell them for very little, which.

Is what we do.

But every kid wants that light up wand and it's a great way then to talk to parents. So if you're doing a daytime stroll, I would suggest balloons or something like that. But have something that's going to get.

Those kids, something that attracts the kids?

Yep. For us, we have flyers with a QR code that goes to a lead page for them to then talk so we can talk to them about next year.

Okay.

But I have to say, if it's preschool and even any classes and they want to trial now, we'll trial them now. I don't care. I will trial someone week 10 of term 4. It doesn't bother me when they trial. Yeah, but yeah, there's only five weeks left. I mean, if they want to join for the next five weeks, no problem with me.

Absolutely. And it would probably depend for different studio sub. Studios might have already had their shows, for example, and they could put them in.

And the cool part about us at the moment is our kids have done their routines all year. Obviously now our preschool kids, but does that really matter? So therefore we're kind of doing more open class, tech class, that stuff now anyway, because they already know their routines for the concert, so. So it's easy for us to opt them into free trials at the moment.

Awesome. Okay, so you're using it to generate leads to, you know, either get them in for a trial now or to start booking them now for January. Do you like, how far do you go in terms of booking them for January or late January? Obviously that's when you're starting back. Like, are you really like, oh, your trial is going to be Wednesday, 4pm or do you leave it and contact the. A bit closer and just really make sure you go back through that list in January.

We be. Because we want to upsell them. And I think upselling them at an event like that is hard. So we just get all of their contact details, write a few notes on it, and then our team will contact them later on.

Because then. And you go hard then.

Correct. Because I think in that moment when it's that busy and crazy and kids just want to go and meet all often, they don't want to stand at the store forever going through timetables and etc. It's just easier at that event for them to just give us their details and then we call them the week after and start chatting to them. Then another interesting thing that we sell at that event is gift cards. Because you have a lot of grandparents there.

Yes.

And so they might come up in choir and we'll be like, oh, why don't you just buy them the first term of fees? Why don't you buy them this gift card? And then they can. And like also we'll do like little boxes up for them. So if they want to Drop into the studio and get a box with their uniform. Okay, they can get that as well.

Yes. So you do a really super cute little box that has a uniform, a terms worth of fees and what, like a lolly bag or something like that or.

Correct.

Yeah. Cute. What a great idea for a present to put under the tree. I think that's really, really cute. Clever, because. Yeah. And I presume what your staff are saying to them, hey, buy the voucher and we'll sort out what class they're in next year.

Correct.

Yeah, correct. Love it.

Or they can come and trial or whatever. But the point is they've already bought.

The class and you'll work it out later.

$200 voucher or whatever it is. $300 voucher and then that's their present to them.

I love it.

What a great present, too.

Oh, absolutely. Like, you know, both of us have a lot of children. We've got so many children. We've got eight children between us for those that are listening. And with that, like, there's a lot of crap that they get bought for Christmas. Right. So much crap. And you know, Nathan was telling the story yesterday that we get the phone calls. I don't know if you get this from, you know, Nath's dad, for example. You know, the week before Christmas, I'm at the shops, what do I buy? Child number one, what do I buy? Child number and where do I go to get that? And you're like, for God's sake, I don't know what I'm buying them. I don't have time to direct you around the shop. Like, literally all of this kind of stuff. If I could say, hey, could you buy them a term's worth of dance? I'd so much prefer that I so value experiences over, you know, shitty plastic toys. Right.

Yes. And experiences, I think now are where it's at because kids just aren't the same as what they used to be with toys. And I don't know if you find that, but my kids aren't that into it anymore.

They're not into toys. Like, all of our kids are kind of that age where they're sort of. Our youngest are seven and eight. Yeah, they're kind of a bit over all of that.

Yes.

They've got so many hand me down toys and there's just crap everywhere. Except the Labubus, which Sassa's not letting go of. Have I not told you this? She has a whole thing of. Is it 8 labubus that are attached to each other and all Of a sudden, they're like a security blanket.

Oh, wow.

She does not go. She walks into school with them. She goes like. And she's never been that kid. But these labo boos, they're absolutely filthy. I'm so embarrassed to say that they're filthy because they go everywhere with us. She's not letting them, like, out of her sight. Anyway, off, dog.

Love that. I love that.

Sass is a funny kid. But I love the idea of buying vouchers.

I think you've got to make it look cool, though. And that's where I think the uniform comes in. Because no, if Phoenix got a voucher, he doesn't know to do swimming for a term. He would probably go, who cares? Right. But if he got a voucher to do swimming for a term with a pool floaty in there and some goggles and some new swimmers or something.

Something.

Yeah. And a cool new.

I don't know, whatever.

Yeah, that's really cool. So I think that's the key when you're putting your boxes together, if you are going to do a Christmas tree lighting or event and you can have a stall there, is to make sure that there's stuff in that box that the kids would want to open so that when they open it, they're like, wow. See, I think little kids would love the tutu and the, you know, we do little groovies. So the unicorn on the leotard and.

Little girls would love that.

Absolutely.

And even things that you could get at, you know, she in, for example.

Yep.

You know, like a ribbon wand or, I don't know, anything like that.

Mermaid hair.

A mermaid hair.

Mermaid hair is so nice.

Absolutely. Like, whatever. And I think that's a great thing for new potential clients, but also for your current parents to have on display to really kind of push that narrative. Hey, you don't know what to get your kids. Why don't you buy them a voucher? So cute.

So cute.

I love it. So back to tree lighting. You know, I really wanted to kind of dive in because, you know, you mentioned that your staff follow up with them later.

Yep.

And I think we've heard from studio owners before that go. Oh, I got some leads at, you know, XYZ event and I emailed them all and I didn't hear anything. Right. So what is your team doing with it? How. How much value are they placing on that list and to contact them?

A lot of value. Like, we would have a group of emails that would get sent out to them, obviously. But the main thing we would do is pick up the phone and talk to them. And the way that we do this, and I've said this before on the podcast, I'm sure if you is that we text them and say, hey, we met you at tree lighting last night, we can talk to you tomorrow at 10am, 2pm or 6pm, which is the best time that suits you. And then they'll usually, nine times out of 10, message back 2pm Works. And then we make sure we call.

Them at 2pm Yeah, I love that. I think that's really smart and a really easy thing to do because people don't answer their phone. Right. To unknown numbers. No one answers their phone to unknown numbers. So even businesses, as we find, absolutely even businesses don't answer their phone. So if you can be like, I'm calling it too and kind of make it as an appointment and they're like, oh, I know what.

Correct. And I got that from a tutoring company and I thought it was so smart because they called me at 2, but they texted me at 1:45 and said, don't forget we're calling you in 15 minutes. So I knew that that phone call was coming through at 2 and so I was straight on it. Yep.

And answered it and answered it. Otherwise you'd be like, oh wait, I can't remember what time. Oh. And then the number flashes up and it's unknown. You're like, oh, don't want to answer it. Yeah, I love that so much. That's so clever. And you know you said you're setting them a set of emails, you're not just sending them one email, right? No, you're like going hard on it and basically keeping contacting them until they book or they say no. Is that 100?

And let me tell you something, I am someone who is would miss the calls and not answer the emails. And so are you.

Yeah.

Because we're just overwhelmed with life right now and Christmas and we're like, eh, I'll get to that in January or whatever it might be. But I don't mind them emailing me a billion times. In fact, I'm happy because I'm like, oh yeah, that's right, I've got to do that. Oh yeah, I'll do that.

Yeah.

Remember, I've got to do that.

So don't ever feel like you're hassling people when you consistently email them or text them. It might just be that it's just not the highest priority. And dance classes aren't the highest priority.

Yes.

There are some people that It's a super high priority for. But some new preschool parent, you know, they're also organizing daycare, you know, soccer for their son. They've got Christmas. Like there's other shit going on. They've got work and life themselves on top of organizing their daughter's dance class, right?

Yes. And I think if they don't want to hear from you, they'll tell you.

Yes.

And then when they tell you, then stop.

Yes.

But until then, keep going.

Absolutely. So I love that. I think. Putting a lot of value on that list. Keep contacting them. They've come up to you for a reason, right?

Yep.

All right, what's your top three things that you love to see that studio owners do at something like a Christmas parade, a tree lighting, a Santa arrival, whatever that is.

Yep. So I think the first thing would be the stall that I was telling you about, because a lot of people just go and dance at the event. But you, nine times out of 10, if there's any food stalls there, you could have your dance studio there as a stall. Now, sometimes you have to pay for it.

That's fine.

I don't have to pay for this one because I'm providing entertainment. And sometimes you can say that to them. I'll bring. You know, all of us have a tutu and a ballet dancer. Even that is enough to bring entertainment or whatever it might be.

So.

So you could offer that, or you pay. It's normally about $400, which is not that much money. And you can sit up at my event. There's 25 to 30,000 people there that night.

Right. And if you get one, like, even if you were to get one, I know you get a lot more than one client, but one client is more than $400 worth of fees for a year, right?

Yes. I always tell the organization how many people I'm going to bring, and I know that because I bring a lot of people. Which dance studios do.

Yes.

So, for example, Amanda, this year, and this wasn't always me, I just want to remind everyone of that, that I started with 12 preschoolers. And that wasn't that long ago. Yes. So anyway, this year we've had a hundred preschoolers opt into this event.

Also, 100 of your current students are coming to tree lighting. They're like. They get to choose whether they perform or not.

The only preschool, we let them choose.

Yeah. Yeah. But. Yeah. So 100 of them have optimized form. Holy crap. That's a lot of kids.

That is crazy. Right? So I just think when my second Tip is when it's an outdoor event, it's very easy to lose children. When you're inside and it. And it's contained, it's much easier to keep those preschoolers contained. But when it's outside, it is cray cray kids.

Yep.

So we have one teacher for every 10 preschoolers. So I have 10 teachers there. Some of them are junior teachers. That teacher will have a pink bow in their hair, and then every preschooler who are with them will be given a pink band as they arrive. And they're just. The first 10 that arrive get pink, the second 10 get purple. We're not trying to sort them into groups. Right. And then those 10 kids go on stage, and then when they go off stage, they stay with that person until their parents come and get them.

Yep.

Because we have had some very hairy preschool things happen, let me tell you, at an outside event, because you can't physically contain them.

Yes. And there's too many people. So what do you like? I know this is off topic to what we're talking about. So you've got 100 preschoolers. Are they going on stage in lots of 10. Are they doing 100 of them on stage at once?

No, 10. 10 at a time.

Yeah. Cool. And then.

Well, to be fair, I think we've got. I think the biggest group is actually 14, to be fair.

Yeah. And they're doing, like, their concert routine. They're all doing different ones. They've learned a Christmas routine.

They haven't learned it. We're putting two people out in front who they'll follow doing. I mean, they might have run it once or twice in class, but their most important thing right now is concert and expecting them to then learn another reason Rudolph the Red Nosed Reindeer is not going to work. So we just have two people at the bottom of the stage that do Rudolph and they follow along. And if they don't follow along, who. Who cares? Cute. Anyway.

Cute.

And then they all stay and watch our pantomime.

Cute. Love it. And does every group of kids do the same routine or different routines, different song? Different song. Yeah, I love it. Okay, so your tip is that before I got off track on that was tell the organizer how many people you're bringing. So you're like, I've got 100 preschoolers coming, which means that I'll all bring usually four adults. Therefore I'm bringing a minimum of 400 people.

Correct.

Or 500, because the kids as well, plus you pay to mine kids, plus their parents, all of that kind of stuff.

Correct. And so for me, I have three time slots within that and I'm the only dance studio that does that. But I said to them, you know, I'm going to bring the people and they know that.

Yes.

And Amanda, I have every single single age group and I've on purpose put my biggest genre in every age group into it.

Okay.

So I've got sixes jazz coming because I know that's the most of those little people. Yes. And then I've got eights jazz, you know, I could. So it's just working out how you can get the most amount of people there possible, essentially.

Love it. So best tips, Having a stall, getting lots of people not being worried about the routine being perfect. Obviously with preschoolers not being too fussed about that, following up the list and actually selling it afterwards and really like going hard on that.

Can I say one thing about the performance? Because I've seen this, because I've done. I think I've run tree lighting for 10 years now. You've got to pick stuff that's family focused and you can't have kids up.

On stage in normal costume. Yeah. Costumes that we think are appropriate in the dance worlds that are not appropriate in other people's worlds.

Yeah, correct. And I was saying this, I've said this to you this week and I've said it to my team this week. We think it's fine for a child to be in a leotard and fishnet and it is fine in our world.

Absolutely. At a dance comp, it's okay.

At a dance comp, at a concert even, it's okay. But normal human. Humans do not see that as being okay because in their world it's pretty much strippers and that's it. That would wear. It's true though.

Yeah.

And like we think it's okay and we think it's fine, but it's so not.

And it's because it's our feed that's full of that.

Correct.

It's our life at comps.

Yeah.

You know, it's all of those things. But for the 50 year old dad who has never had anything to do with the dance, that's not part of his world.

I think Tim has been a big person that has taught me that.

Yes.

Because he is still to this day and we've been together for five years now, he's still sometimes shocked by things that we do in the dance world that I'm like, that's the normal thing. But to him, he's so completely thinks it's not normal.

So hey, if you want to know more about that, last week's podcast where we talked about. About that on comps is a beggar. So definitely jump and have a listen to that.

But I'm just saying, like, when you do a family event, one pick really family type of songs. And look, we keep it so simple. And this is probably my third tip is when you're performing, let's say that you're doing Rocking around the Christmas tree Banger.

Absolute banger. Classic.

And you know what, guys, if you don't know this, the best soundtrack for you to fit your jazz dances to is NRG Christmas. Nrg. Three separate letters Christmas.

So I like. It's a high Five Christmas. I've got to, I've got to put that out there.

But 10 year olds don't want to dance to high Five Christmas. So NRG is like banging fast, you know, not rocking around. But it's like, can I put it.

On on the way home?

Rocking around.

It's really good.

Anyway, so all we do is we get our jazz dance that we already know and we just do the exact same dance to Rocking around the Christmas tree.

Perfect.

And that's as well. Where I think people are like, how could I possibly do a Christmas event when the kids need to know their concert work? And I'm like, just do the exact same dance to a Christmas song.

Yeah, it takes two seconds.

It's really not that hard.

Yeah.

So, yeah, I think that's the other hot tip I love it is to make sure that you keep it simple for your kids. And, you know, most of the time you hopefully would have a costume that would suit it. If not, just tell your people to dress in their Santa outfit. Yeah, we're doing that with sixes this year.

Yeah. I mean, I have a billion T shirts everywhere.

Everywhere. Just remember to tell them to wear shorts underneath.

Yes.

That's the only hard part. Long tights even is better than shorts.

Yes.

Because parents forget that when they do a back walkover.

Yeah, absolutely.

They've got undies on. I've made that mistake before too. But I think as well you just, yeah. Need to be careful about that stuff and making sure that you're thinking about the audience you're performing to if you want to then sell your product.

Yes, most definitely. And thinking about. Yeah. The parents that are thinking of dance for the first time and how it looks to an outsider, I guess.

Correct.

Yeah. I love that so much. Okay, so if you're a studio owner that has been thinking, oh, I really should go do that Christmas tree, lighting that Santa parade, that thing. I just don't have time. Hopefully this is your sign to find time to think about it as a marketing exercise and, you know, really like focus on it because we do have. It is a busy time. It is crazy. There is a lot going on. But if you want your new year to be successful because you've got all of these new students coming into trial that you know you're going to convert on the day, like, how beneficial is that?

So beneficial. And when you do go and do that event and the first time you do it, the first time I did it, I was just a dance studio who went and performed like everybody else does. Go and find the organizer and say to them, hey, I'm back from pause. Just wanted to introduce myself. I'd love to help support, support this event more. This is such an incredible event. Well, could we sit down and have a coffee and I can talk to you about how I could possibly support you more? That's how I started my journey of running the entire event.

Yeah, I love it. I love it. And I just love Christmas. So, you know, I'm all about it. I just want to get the feel good vibes. I need the pink tree. It's all happening. And so I think that's a good enough reason to get involved in Christmas stuff.

Absolutely.

Thanks so much for joining us on the podcast, friends.

Bye, guys.

We hope you enjoyed this episode of the Dance Principles United podcast. If you'd love to learn more from us, we have a special offer just for our podcast listeners. Go to the link in the show notes right now to get two weeks free in Dance Principles United Tribe. We would love to see you there.