Concert Series: Creating a Fans First Experience

Hello, friends. I'm Amanda Barr.

And I'm Rebecca Lou Brennan. And welcome to Dance Principals 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 the Dance Principles United Podcast. I am joined, as always, by my lovely friend, Beck. How are you, my love?

I am super awesome excited to be here, as always. I can't believe another week's just happened. It has been such a crazy week. But just go so quickly. I think I was telling you before, Amanda, BB my daughter, said to me, it's eight Fridays till Christmas, and I had a little heart attack.

Christmas. I'm not ready for that. I am not ready for that. We're recording a little bit late this week because it's just been nuts. So tell me, Beck, how has your week been, my love?

Good. Very good. I had my breast cancer fundraiser on Thursday night, which was super awesome. So we had seven studios at our local theater, raised about 15,000, which was good.

Wow. So is it like a performance night? Is that what you do?

Yeah, we do a performance night. Everyone just does four routines each. And we just raise money on the night through, like, GoFundMe. And then every school does a pink week. And, yeah, it goes towards breast cancer nurses, to the McGrath Foundation. So Penrith does this massive thing called Pink Up Penrith, where, I'm not joking, the entire city is pink for the whole month of October. Yeah. And it's all to raise money for the McGrath Foundation. So every restaurant, every business that you see in the local area is pink.

So, yeah, they get into it. And he had comps, too, didn't you, this weekend?

Sydney stars on show this weekend, which is. I love the comp so much because they have the solo elimination dance off. So, so much fun. You know that when they have the number on and they all get.

Go down there together, we do moon dance, which is.

Yeah, like that.

Yeah. Amazing. It's so much fun.

So much fun. So that was fun. But big, big week.

Absolutely. Absolutely. Well, in my world, I tell you what happened. We started well, both of our worlds, but expo tickets went on sale, which was. It was a big. We had a lot of work. We changed our system over, so, like, it was a lot of work to get them up for sale, but, oh, my God, our VIP tickets went off. We are. This is Wednesday. We're very close to selling out of them. We've only got maybe about 10 VIP tickets left in that pre sale, which is super exciting. But our general admission tickets go on sale next Monday, which is so exciting. I'm so excited to go to the Gold Coast. Right.

It's going to be so beautiful up there and it's going to be so epic. We are so pumped for it. I know so many people have already booked their accommodation and are getting all ready for it. But yes, I think make sure you guys jump on on Monday because tickets are going to sell out very, very fast this year if the VIP is anything to go by.

Oh, my gosh, that's so exciting.

It's crazy. It's crazy. But yeah, we don't want to turn people away, so make sure that you guys are jumping on and grabbing those tickets early and yeah, we can't wait to see everyone there. It's so fun to see everyone in person.

Oh, I love Expo. It is like my absolute funnest weekend. If you have never attended a dance teacher expo, make sure you do it. It's such a great event for you and your team to come together to get excited, to really kind of give you that, like, boost, you know, in the year, which I feel like sometimes we really need that boost. Right. And it's exciting, it's a great time. I know a lot of people also do, you know, extra things like take their team out for dinner, make it a real, like, team bonding weekend, which I think is such a lovely thing to do.

Right? Yeah. It's a game changer too, though, because we don't do enough of that in our business. And I think doing that team stuff is so great. But also just like some of the classes, how much you learn in that weekend is incredible and how much your staff learn. And I think that's like such a game changer as well. So. But we absolutely, we love seeing all our listeners there and getting to hang with you guys too. Like, it's really cool for us to get to meet you guys in person. And that's really fun too, right?

Absolutely. Yeah. So many amazing people. Yeah, I can't wait. So make sure you jump on the Instagram website, all the things and get dance.

Tch.

But actually know what we should tell our listeners is we now have a TikTok account, so we need some followers because we have hardly any followers on TikTok. So please give us some love on TikTok. I am like learning TikTok as you have to do, you know. So we have both the dance principals united and a dance teacher expo. TikTok so can you come on and give us some love? Because we'd really love some love on there. That would be amazing. You've got great tiktoks at your studio too. I mean the pause tiktoks are awesome.

Yeah. Look, I can't take any credit for it, but the my twins who had honored are rock stars. They're very clever with coming up with all the things. So. Yeah, yeah.

So excited. All right, enough tick tock talk. Let's talk concerts because we are in part three of our concert series and really talking today about giving what we like to call a fans first experience. Do you want to give a bit of an explanation about fans first Beck?

Well, there's a book called Fans first and you're the one that introduced me to it, Amanda, and it's about a baseball team. You're going to tell this so much better than me because you know it so much better about. But it's pretty much a baseball team in the U.S. right. And they completely changed the way that they did baseball and because no one was turning up to the games and then they changed it to be a fan's first experience and now they sell out all over the US like it's crazy, the hype around it. Right.

It is absolutely incredible. The book that we are talking about is called Fans first by Jesse Cole and the baseball team is called the Savannah Bananas. Do you like that accent? Did you like that? And talking about good tiktoks. Their tiktoks are out of control. So good. Like you've probably seen it. You might not have realized that's what you've seen, but people dancing on the field in baseball uniforms in the middle of a baseball game, like all of this kind of stuff, it's so great. But what the book really talks about is really making sure that everything you do in your business is customer centric. And it's really thinking about how it, how it appears, how it like how your customers feel feel. And I think concert is one of the biggest things that we can really think about this fans first experience because that's something that often gets lost. We think about the concert in terms of the creativity and what we want. And it's more sometimes about what we want, not about what our customers want. And changing that mentality is so, so important.

Yes. And I think self reflecting on their journey, not just the kids, but the parents journey.

Absolutely.

On that day because that's kind of what Jesse did. Right. So he self reflected on every little part of that baseball game and why people weren't enticed to stay and why they weren't enticed to be there. And it's going from each little thing. Like even the parking, you know, I, I always try and think of the customer journey. So the parking at the baseball was horrendous. So he had people dressed up as penguins to park their cars for something like. But like, yeah, we don't think about that at our concert and the parking and how bad it is. And even at the comp the other day, everyone was running late to get into comp. And one of the parent, one of my parents said to me, none of us could get a park out there. We're all double parking. There's no park. So that's why we're all running late. And there's nothing near that venue at all. There's nothing. So that was interesting. Like, you just don't think of that stuff. And then the kid gets yelled at because they're late to come into rehearsal or, you know, whatever it might be. But it's actually because the parents desperately trying to find a park.

Absolutely. Thinking about every single moment of that experience, I think is so, so important for both the parents and the students. So should we talk about the kids first and the kids experience and the fans first experience for them? Now? I am very big about putting ourselves in, in the student's shoes, I think for us as studio owners. And I'm sure you were this kid, Beck, tell me if this was you. You were the kid that at the concert was in 15 routines, loved the, the excitement, the fluster, the stress, the, you know, that. I don't know what's the better word for that, but you know, you know that like high pressure situation. Oh, quick, I've got to get changed. I've got to change my hair. I've got to do this quick, quick, quick. More pins. Let's, you know, all of that. You're in every second routine. You had quick changes backstage, you were living your best life. Is that right? Correct me?

I was, I was a side stage changer.

Oh yeah.

My studio. I was backstage.

And you loved that, right?

Loved it.

Loved every minute of it. Absolutely. And most studio owners were probably all the same, right? We, we were also the kid that was probably the front middle or close to the front middle. We were the soloists, we were the, you know, we were the star of the show. Let's be honest, most of us were all pretty close to. But let's think about the other students at our studio because we obviously have those Kids in our studio that are the same, but what about the other kids? What about the, what about the 13 year old who does one hip hop class a week? What's their experience like backstage? What about the preschooler? What about the 8 year old who's chucked in the back room and told to go, shh, shh, shh, we can hear you from the audience. Shh, shh, get out of the way, that kid's changing first. What's their experience like? And I think it's such an important discussion to have.

Yep, I totally agree. And it's a great self reflection when this was first posed to me because I'd never thought of it before and you know, you. And then you wonder why those kids leave after the concert and it's obviously because they had such a terrible, terrible time at the concert. So I know you have some great ideas around backstage and how to help those kids. But the biggest game changer, thanks to you that I did last year, I've talked about it before, was we hired a party person and hide an extra room and put a big party in there. And it was, it was crazy in there. Like kids were going mental. But it was a game changer that everyone had the best time ever. It was awesome.

Absolutely. I love that. So what kind of things was the party planner doing with the kids?

I don't know, Amanda. I believe I wasn't there, but I believe there was a big dance party happening and I know there was balloons and that's all I know. And I know that my staff, even yesterday when we were talking about this and I said just, can we triple check that party plan is coming? Because I don't want to miss out on that. My staff were like, that room was crazy last year. Like kids were just going, yeah, just having the best time ever. So yeah, I think that was the same teacher.

So, so great. And I think it's just a matter of thinking about what can I do to make this experience better for these kids. You know, if it's a party planner, awesome. Is it running? Like we just, you know, I didn't hire an external person, but I just had some student teachers like run like a disco and play party games in another room. Is it doing some coloring in for them or a movie or something like that or what else is it? Is it giving them time to shine on stage? Because that's a big thing for me is that one class a week kid, you know, like, can you give them another experience on stage? Whether that's the finale or an Opening number or, you know, what is it? So that they could have a little bit more of a moment.

Yep. Totally agree. Loom Bands is a really.

You told me that one. Like, I did that.

Yeah, it's. So that's what we just did with our Acro Circus. Because we don't have a room with Acro Circus. So we just had Loom Bands. And the kids loved that. And with my preschool concerts, we have princesses reading books. And for preschool, this has been a game changer for me because I don't think you want the preschoolers hyped up as much as you want them calm. And so the princess is just reading them books as they go to each station. That's been a total game changer for us as well.

Yeah, absolutely. So I think it's really like thinking about what can you do for that child backstage? And also that that then comes into, how long are they backstage? How long before the show do they have to arrive? You know, all of the. Have they got enough room backstage? Are they going to be hungry? Because how long are they there for? And it's like thinking about that whole experience, that whole day for them and how that kind of looks and how can you make that, you know, just a little bit better, 10% better. And if you make it 10% better this concert and then 10% better again next year, you know, I think that's a really big thing just to keep kind of making it a little bit better and a more enjoyable experience for those kids.

Absolutely. And it's self reflecting during the show and after the show. And you know, I always say to my staff, anything that goes wrong during the show where you're like, that didn't work, we need to fix it, or at the end of the show or whatever, just write it in your notes so that we can go back through it in staff training in January. Because I think it's that constant just trying to tweak little things. Like you said, even if you're tweaking 10%, it can make such a difference to everyone's experience.

Absolutely. You know what I started doing? Dictating on the way home from events to my phone, just in the notes section, like while I'm driving. Because you know what it's like, you're driving home from the concert or the comp or for us, Expo or one of our events or whatever it is, and you're thinking it through in your head and what happened and all that. And we all have short memories, like the next day, life goes on and enrollments start and you know, this and that. So dictating it to yourself on the way home just with like, hey, this worked really well. Probably need to fix this for next year. So, so important. So I think that's a really good tip in my opinion.

Totally agree, totally agree. Anything else you can think of for the kids that we need to do? Amanda, I know you did a lot of special stuff at the end of your concert for all of your kids, but just something that popped into my mind was, I know Chantelle from Little Groovers has an after party at the end of her concert for her kids, which is so epic. Like, how smart is that? Have you seen it on her socials? She's so clever.

She's so, so clever. Chantel and Samson from Little Groovers do some incredible things at their studio, obviously with their program as well, and they teach a lot of it inside their Little Groovers program. But they really make the after party just as big an event as the concert. They would even almost say bigger than their concert. And more important, some of the things they have at their after party, they have like, you know, they have a dj, they have, you know, like those dance games, you know, those ones where you move your feet around. They have 360 cameras. They have party bags for the kids. And it's like this whole big after party thing afterwards that they sort of like move the kids from one, like from the theater into like a room with the after party set up.

So cool, so smart. And like, I know that everyone's thinking, but my concert finishes at 9:30pm So I couldn't do that. But then, like, especially if you have a Saturday or something, bring your concert forward to a matinee and then do the party after that. Like, it's just such a great way to finish. Instead of everyone finishing tired and bored, they then go into this big party room and have this amazing experience. Like, it's incredible.

So good. And that was one of the things like, that we have spoken about. You know that book that we were talking about, the fans first book. One of the big things they talk about is like, what are you leaving them with? What's the last moment? And for a lot of us, for both our students and our parents at the end of concert, and it's the stressful checkout, the tired child who's being like, have you been marked off? Oh, quick, go find your mum. Like, where's your mum? Like, it's not a nice end experience, right? Or maybe it's just a very like, average, you know, Maybe even if it's not bad, it's just like this average. Cool, see ya.

Bye.

You know, how can you leave with a bang and leave them on a high? Which obviously an after party does that. But there are other ways too. And like thinking out of the box. Like, I know we had some of our members talking about that they were going to have, you know, Santa standing in the car park giving out lollies and waving to all the kids and giving high fives at the end. You know, like little things like that that can really change the experience, right?

Yeah, absolutely. And not quite the ending, but just with our little Groovers concert this year we're doing out of this World, which is their theme, which we're decking all the dressing rooms out as space. So we're just getting like. Yeah, so because our. We have kind of like a hallway and then all these little dressing rooms down along. So we're like putting all space themed stuff up and we're getting, you know, the silver shimmer stuff. And so the kids are going to feel like it's more immersive kind of thing. Like not just on the stage, but actually as they're walking through and in their little waiting areas. So we're going all out with that, which I'm super excited about.

That's super cute idea, right? Are you doing that? Let's move to talking about the audience. Are you doing like for the audience as well, like in the foyer and stuff or. You haven't quite gotten that far yet.

We are doing it in the foyer. We actually just did that with our Circus Acro. We just got. We had extra Halloween stuff and we put like, you know, the spider webs down the side of the chairs and we put like, we found out which seats were empty and then we put kind of like a skeleton sitting in that seat. Like really? That's.

That's so clever.

So we did do that. So. Yeah, I think we should. I think we really should put some more decorations in and around the audience and help them to feel a bit more in tune and special about it. Why not?

Absolutely. And I think, you know, thinking about like, how can we look after our audience? Obviously, like immersive things are great. You know, I really think about like that Disneyland vibe now. I can't remember. So I'm going to. Oh, tell this story wrong. No, it's. It's Nikki from the Edge. I'm sure it's Nikki from the Edge is doing like a murder mystery for her concert. Have you not heard this? You should see Your face. Yeah. Her concert is like, based on. And I think it's a, like, it's a better name that's more kid friendly than that. And I can't think of it off the top of my head, but some sort of like, yeah, like, who did it? Kind of like theme. So one of the things, you know, that we were like brainstorming and I don't know whether she's gone with this or not, is like having like a chalk outline in the foyer and then to sort of, you know how like you say, okay, it's time for the audience to go into the theater. She was going to have like, you know, people come out and be like the detective and go, did you do it?

Did you do it?

It's time to go in and find out who did it kind of thing, like coming over the loudspeaker, like that kind of idea. Like, because that's like the Disneyland vibe, right? Like, the whole thing's an experience and you're inside the production. It's not just like once you sit in your seat that the production starts. So I think there's some really clever things to do around that.

Oh, totally. I think that is so awesome and so fun. Like, I just love it. It's amazing.

Absolutely. So I think if you're thinking fans first for your audience, obviously that immersive stuff, you know, the decorations, the feeling, the vibe is really important. But what else should we be thinking about? Like, to me, the length of the concert, right there is nothing. Fans first about a three hour concert.

No.

Absolutely not. No one wants to sit there for three hours.

No, no, definitely not. And I think especially with little people, like Preschoolers, I think 45 minutes to an hour is plenty. They don't need it to be any longer than that. And that's what we try and keep ours to. But yeah, I've sat through some five, six hour concerts in my time. Amanda, I have to tell you, so.

If you have a really long concert, like, obviously probably now it's too late to think about it, but to change it. But, you know, for next year, what can you do to make it a little bit more fans first? Because that is going to affect your ticket numbers. Because people are like, I'm not going to go to that again. It was too long. My little one didn't want to sit through it. The little sibling didn't want to sit through it. So therefore dad stays at home and doesn't come. Like, it really affects your ticket numbers. So I think the length of the show is really important. Hey, it's like, you know, we went. We went together to see dream new era. Marco's show at. Was it Roundhouse?

No, nida.

Nida, sorry. Across the road. It was at Nida. And you and I obviously are dance fanatics. It was obviously an incredible, incredible show. And I think it went for just about exactly an hour.

Yep. Just under, I think.

Yep. And we walked out and we went. That was the perfect length show. I like. It was good. I was ready. I left me wanting a little bit more, but not too much more because I was, you know, I loved it. I loved every minute. But that was enough.

Absolutely. And I think we a lot of studio and I think that a long show is needed for people to feel value from it. But that's not the case. It's actually. I think it's the opposite. I think the longer it goes for, the less value they feel because they're over it.

Yes, absolutely. So don't feel like if you've got a short show, you've got to charge less. I hear that all the time. This show shorter. So I should charge less. You know, if a movie is an hour, 20 or three hours, you don't get charged any different. Your movies ticket, it's the exact same amount of money. And I tell you what, I am not going to three hour movies. There is no way these days I could sit through a three hour movie. I do not have the attention span for that.

Nope.

I got too much stuff. I get.

I literally would. I literally would avoid that movie because of that reason.

Yeah, absolutely. I get so fidgety. I just can't sit still for that long. I don't know what it is.

I don't think.

Obviously there's that going on too, but you know what I mean. But I think most people get fidgety, especially if you're sitting there. Like, especially if you're not passionate about it. Like. And let's be honest, half of your audience are not passionate about your dance concert. It's the reality. I know we would love to say, oh, they all love it. There's always a dad, an uncle, a little brother who does not want to really be there. And they're just doing the right thing. So don't make them get fidgety. Make the concept short.

Yep. I totally agree. Totally agree. And then there's just that lasting. I know we talked about a little bit with Chantelle, but what is the end of your concert? Like really self reflect on that. Is it people standing in a line, having to sign out Is it cranky parents? You know, we thought about this last year, Amanda, because we self reflected and still didn't feel the end of our concert was amazing. And not that we had unhappy people, but it wasn't the after party. And so we have a big room that all the kids get changed in. And so this year we're just gonna get that DJ who's in the room next to it into that room, put some music on, and just let the kids after finale come up and have a little bit of a dance party with each other, even if it only goes for 10 minutes. So parents are walking into a dance party instead of parents walking into tired kids sitting on the ground sitting out.

There waiting to be picked up going, hurry up, mom, why did you take so long? Yeah, having a bit of fun and seeing that, like seeing your child having, like walking in to see your kid having a great time really is a very different feeling to a parent. You're happy to have waited in line to see your kid, like dancing around having fun, rather than you waiting in line to get there to see your kid going, why did you take so long, Mom? I've been sitting here for ages.

Like, exactly. And we always did, we've always done a dance party on stage. Like that's always been the outro to the concert is all of us having a boogie together. But I think doing it upstairs will be a lot better. So we'll see. We'll see if that works.

I love that. Even like little things. I know a couple of other studios do things like, you know, all the teachers do, like a tunnel for the kids to go out from, you know, like with their hands or high fiving every teacher as they go, you know, like just little things like that. It doesn't always have to cost huge amounts of money, but how much does that change the vibe? You know, just, you know, something little like that can make or everyone giving that child a round of applause. Like if you only have a small cast and like it's like announcing them and like they all get their moment to have a round of applause. I think that's really important. Hey, can we go back? Because we talked about like the pickup situation, but what about the end of the show? You know what I absolutely hate? You're looking at the program. You're like, oh, cool, this is the last dance, I'm about to go home. And then awards go for 25 minutes.

Let'S talk about this.

Do you know what I mean? Or something like that. The parents like, oh, it's done. And then they're like, wow, I'm really let down because I thought we were finished.

I know, it's so hard, isn't it? It's hard to. I really like, I do that at the end of my concert. We do some awards and I've really tried to self reflect on it and ask people whether they think we should keep doing it or not. And yeah, it's hard to know whether that's the right thing to finish with or not. I think we've made the choice to just do it faster and to really just like not muck around with it so much because it did take about 25 minutes last year and that was way too long. So we're just like making it simpler this year, I think was the discussion that happened.

Yeah. And look, I don't think there's anything wrong with doing awards at the end. I think lulling parents into a false sense of security that the concerts finished. So maybe it's even putting it in the program. Do you know what I mean? Like just something simple like that, like awards present so they know that there's that coming and they're not like, oh, it's time to go home. Like I know you talked about that, you know, you were saying a different kind of a show and your mother in law was like, oh, we're finished. Because that's how she read it in the program. And it wasn't finished. Right. So I think that was, that was.

Actually, that she thought it was finished, but it was actually interval.

Amanda, that show, Turn the Page.

I went for about four and a half hours, five hours. That was crazy. But yes, exactly. It's, it's the whole just. Yeah, I think I, I'm not a fan of our awards. I'm not saying I am, but I don't know how else to do it. So it's tricky.

And I think it's just a matter of preparing parents for that maybe or something like that. Just, you know, making it that it's part of it and obviously as quick as possible. But I think it's really important that you really think about the fans first experience. Can I tell you one of my favorite things from that book? And if you like reading business books, then you should do it. It's just such a simple little thing. They sent a message or an email or whatever it was, right. You know, they knew that most people left home two hours before the game started, right? So they sent a message or an email or whatever it was saying hey, I know you're about to leave for the game. You could do this for the concert. I know you're about to leave. Here's our Pump up playlist to get you in the mood. And it was literally a Spotify playlist. Like if you were doing a theme, how good would that be? And it's like, hey, these are the songs that our teacher said we should listen to in the car to get us like just such a little thing like that with a Spotify playlist that you'd put together.

So cute, so cute. And people would love it. And it's like, it's a little thing, but it's a big thing. Like people will remember that.

Yeah, like have a dance party in the car on the way because we know you're so excited. You know, talking back about Chantelle from Little Groovers. You know, one thing that she did was she sent home before the show a like an at home pack. And it has instructions for the parents to open it the morning of the concert. Isn't this clever? And inside it was courage dust. She spoke about this on a podcast last year, I believe. And so it's a little note to the parents, go on your child's concert day, open this. And it had a little note saying, good luck and here's some courage dust. It was just glitter that you then, you know, sprinkled over your child's head to give them courage. Like something like that. That's so clever the effect that has on your parents because it's not just their experience in the theater. It's moving that immersive experience, that Disneyland experience to the who whole day and making the whole day about that. And it's such a wonderful, a wonderful, amazing day that they remember. And that's what we want for our concert, right? We want to build those memories and those days that you remember for your life.

Yep. Totally agree. I love it. I love it. Well, hopefully that inspires all of you to think of some different ways self reflect on your concert because it's coming up and it's not too late to, to change it. You know, you can change things up now and just make it a more enjoyable experience. Not just for the kids, but for the parents as well. Because they're the ones that are paying the bills and they're the ones that you want to re enroll in your studio. So making their experience amazing as well I think is super important.

Absolutely. Thank you so much everyone for joining us. We have loved having, you know, you here and being part of our journey. We always love. It's nice to have people listening to our podcast. We get so many lovely messages, and it just means the world to me when we get a message going, hey, I love your podcast. Like, oh, this is amazing. Isn't that so nice? So if you love it, let us know. We'd love that. And if you've got any ideas or anything you want us to jam on, we would love to chat it through.

Absolutely. Thanks, guys, and we'll see you next week. Bye.

Bye. 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.