How to work ON your business rather than IN it with Amanda from Dance Principles United | Ep 5

Welcome to the Business Breakthrough podcast with your host, Glenn Hayworth. Alright, welcome to the Business Breakthrough podcast. I'm your host, Glenn Hayworth and today I have a very special guest who is a great friend of mine. Her name is Amanda Barr and she is part of Dance Principles United and has a very interesting story with her dance schools and transitioning into the coaching space.

Absolutely. I'm so excited. Thanks so much for having me on the podcast.

Thanks for being here, Amanda.

Amazing.

Pumped that you're here, my friend.

Woohoo. Let's do it.

So starting with maybe a bit about your journey. For anyone who doesn't know who you are and how you got to do where you, what you're doing today, give us a bit of background on how you got into it.

Oh, a big long backstory. So I have always been an entrepreneur at heart, probably a little bit like you. My family were entrepreneurs. My family own a lot of local businesses and it was something that was always part of me. So I look, I was managing a dance studio at 14, which sounds wild now, right? Like something that wouldn't happen now, but I started managing a dance studio at 14 in Kiama and I knew that he was, he'd had enough. So at 16, I convinced my parents to make him an offer to purchase it. So signed the lease myself at 16, did all those things and had my first, you know, start in business. And look, I didn't know where it would go because I was 16, I was still at school. It was, you know, it was a bit crazy, right, to do that at 16, when I look at 16 year olds.

You were 16 when you did that?

Yeah, it was absolutely crazy. And you know, I had at the time, you know, we had, by the end of the first six months, I had 100 students, I had five staff, I had two properties I was leasing whilst in year 11. So, so it was a bit crazy. I was taking phone calls in the bathroom at Kaimahai toilets. All the things that you do for inquiries and doing all the things. But, you know, that dance studio was a fantastic growth lesson for me and I grew into that business. You know, I ended up having it for 22 years. I sold at the beginning of the year and we went through a lot of like, iterations of it at the, you know, throughout the thing we had, we moved locations multiple times. We grew, we ended up with two premises and operating, you know, three studios in one, six in another. We had at our peak about 900 students taking about 4,000 class placements a week. Absolutely huge. 25 staff, like nuts, crazy, crazy kind of stuff. And I loved it, I loved every single minute of it. But decided to sell at the beginning of the year to focus on our new company, which is Dance Principles United, which has been great.

Awesome. So tell us a bit about that because that's a really interesting transition and I kind of know a little bit what it's like to go from running a business to starting in the coaching space.

Absolutely.

One of the best things I think you guys have done really well is you've really focused on a niche and you are Dance Principles United. So you're coaching and you're mentoring dance schools.

Absolutely. And you know, can't get more niche than that. Right. And you know, obviously it was a natural progression for us. We were one of the biggest dance studios in Australia and throughout Covid. It naturally happened throughout Covid me. So I'm, I have a partner in Dance Principles United as well as my husband Nath. We were really on the forefront and we'd seen, we had friends in America, we knew what was about to happen. We were ready. And because of that we had, you know, a lot of dance studios, a lot of small businesses, a lot of service based businesses really struggled through that time and we didn't, we were really lucky. And it was because we were so ready to go and we had all these ABC systems in place just in case, right?

Yes.

So because of that and we were doing so well, I had a lot of people from other dance studios that I know reaching out to us, asking for help, asking questions, you know, asking the tech questions as well. With Zoom and Nath, my hubby is very techy and knows all those things. So it kind of naturally progressed. To start with, we just started a Facebook group. We were just helping other. It just was with some friends to start with. It grew and grew and grew, which has been fantastic. And so we really only went all in maybe about a year ago, a year and a half ago. We now work with about 300 dance studio owners every single week. We have 50 in our higher level group and about 250 in our lower level group, which is fantastic because it's what I love and I love helping new business owners develop their skills and also take their, you know, their passion.

Yes.

Probably what you see as well in the music world, you know, this passion, but actually make it into a business as well and something that's sustainable long term.

Are you working with mostly Australian music schools or all Australian music schools or dance schools?

No music schools for me.

I knew I Was gonna make that mistake because I've done that before with you guys or just music schools are.

Always on your mind. Absolutely, yeah.

Sorry, dance schools.

No. So mainly Australian, obviously, because we have people that we know and we're well known and respected in the industry in Australia. We have New Zealand, we have Singapore, but yeah, mainly Australian. Yeah.

There's a lot of dance schools, it.

Seems there's a lot of dance studios and they need a lot of support as well because so many people go into it, as I said, for a passion.

Yes.

And I guess I was a little bit different when I opened my dance school. Was. I saw it as a business straight away. It wasn't. Whilst I do love teaching dance, it was never about that for me. It wasn't so much about the creativity or the connections or the, you know, it was about how can I run a really great business that can, you know, give me a really great life and give me both the financial freedom, the time freedom, all of those things. That was what really drove me, I guess. So it's probably a little bit different to why a lot of other people get into business, I think.

Yeah.

You've got a really cool story. Amanda, I love the fact that you started so young and crazy.

Right.

Cut your teeth in high school. I mean, Kaimahai, when I was 16 at Kaima High, I was in the same year as Nathan, your husband. Right. And I was definitely not running a business at that age. I was probably running around being silly with my friends and I remember you running them up. Yeah, I was, you know, I wasn't definitely was not mature enough to run a business like that at that age. So kudos to you that you were mature enough to actually step up and do that at that age. It's pretty amazing what has been the biggest challenge that you have faced throughout your career so far and how. How did you overcome that challenge?

Yeah. Okay. So I think a big challenge any small business owner faces, especially local business area. You know, we've just both spoken about that. We went to the same high school. We're still in that same area and we know a lot of people in the area. Right. Is, you know, that. That fear of what people think of you. And I think that that's something that goes on and, you know, not having a thick enough skin sometimes, because as a small business owner, as a service business owner, as any of those things, sometimes people are going to talk shit about you.

Yeah.

And am I allowed to swear on your podcast? Because I'm all about it. Sorry. Go for it, but you know, people are going to talk about you and it doesn't matter, you know, how fantastic a business you are running. Sometimes people just like talking for the sake of talking. Right. People are allowed to have opinions.

Yes.

And it can be hard as a small business owner. It can be really hard. It can be hard as someone who wants to be liked, wants to be a people pleaser, wants to have everyone as their best friend.

Yeah.

But knowing that, yeah, sometimes people are not going to agree with your decisions. Some people are not going to like your business, you know, and that's a hard thing, I think in a local area.

I agree. And I feel like it's business owners. It's also, you know, I do a bit of work with some leaders in the businesses, like the managers, like the second in charge. And for them, when they receive a promotion to go from one of the guys to now a leader in the business, it's also a challenge for them because they need to reinvent themselves and they need to position themselves as the leader and they still need to obviously care about everyone, but now they also need to hold people accountable.

Absolutely. It's hard and not to take it personally. Right. And to know that business is business and it's just going to be one of those things. You know, I, I was chatting to a friend this morning and you know, we were talking about, I'm all about supporting local business, like love supporting, probably like you, you know, all about local businesses.

Yes.

But it's not like I've never been into my favorite cafe or coffee shop and gone, oh, they're a bit slow today.

Yeah.

Oh, they didn't do such a good job today.

Yeah.

Doesn't mean I don't love them. Doesn't mean I'm not going to go back there the next day. But people talk because it's something to talk about. Right. Like people just like to talk about things. And so I think as a small business owner, that can be hard sometimes.

Yes.

You know, and it can be hard to, you know, when it's something you've poured your heart and soul into.

Yes.

Hearing someone just make an offhand comment.

Yes.

Can be tough, for sure. So you mentioned. Yeah. You know, developing a thick skin.

Absolutely.

How, how did you reinvent yourself to position yourself as the, you know what, go putting yourself out there and saying, I am a business owner, I am an entrepreneur, I am doing this regardless of what other people think of me or say about me. How did you work through that? How did you overcome that challenge?

I think I'm still overcoming it every day. Right. Like, I don't think it's a. I don't think it's an end point. I think it's something that you continually work through.

Yes.

And obviously for me, because I started my business very young, I think I. I think it's been great because I've had an opportunity to grow up with my business. So I think, you know, that's made a big difference for me. And I think it's just something that you keep working through. Like, you know, some days I wake up and like, yes, I'm ready to do this. And other days not so much. Like, you know, you have the nerves, you scared to talk to that staff member. It happens to the best of us.

Yes.

But I think it's just reminding yourself of how far you've come.

Yes.

And doing the best you can and waking up every day with a fresh set of eyes. You know, it's that resilience. Right. You can't focus on what's happened yesterday. You can't focus on what happened a year ago. You just got to go in and start again and try to have a positive mindset around it, I think.

For sure. I think one thing that I think can help is that you got to remember who you're speaking to. And sometimes the people that try and bring you down or maybe might throw some comments out there, maybe they don't even mean to be absolutely intentionally negative or bring you down, but they just don't understand your vision and what you're working on and it's just not aligned with that.

Yeah.

And I think that.

Or they're having a bad day. Right.

Yeah.

I think the one thing that we need to remember too, is that we've got to remember who we're speaking to. Those people aren't in your target market. They're never going to be a customer of yours. So you actually don't need to worry about what they say, what they. What they think about you. If they're not a customer, if they're not a client, if they're not spending money with you.

Yeah.

It doesn't matter. You need to focus on who you're. Who you're actually talking to.

Absolutely.

Because there are going to be some people, particularly when you niche like you have, that aren't in your target market.

Yeah.

And you only really need to focus on what your target market think, the value they're getting, make sure they're getting value for the service. So.

Absolutely. And I think that's so important is remembering that. And People have opinions. People like to talk. It's part of, like, our culture. It's out, you know, and even, you know, you're talking about target market. But also, sometimes they are our customers.

Yes.

But they just don't, like. They don't have to like every single thing about what we do.

Yeah.

You know, they can absolutely love your brand. They can love your business, whatever it is, but they are allowed to have an opinion. And sometimes they're gonna vent. It doesn't mean they're not gonna come back. Doesn't mean they're not gonna be a loyal customer. Maybe it was just a bad day. Maybe it was just they weren't happy with how long the coffee took that day. Whatever. Right.

And just on this same topic, I'd love to find out your opinion on peer group. And, you know, maybe there are some people who you want to spend less time with who aren't having a great effect on an uplifting, you know, support where you want to go on your business journey. And there are some people who you want to spend more time with who can be the mentors, who can be the accountability partners, the coaches, the peer group who are going to support you with where you want to go. Was that something that you had to make a conscious decision of at a young age as well and decide to really associate with people who are going to support you more on that journey?

Absolutely. For me, everything changed when I joined a mentorship group.

Yeah.

And that was probably ten years ago. Maybe. Maybe a little bit more than that.

Yeah.

But having friends that get it.

Yes.

There's nothing better. And that's what I bring into my community. And I know so many other incredible coaching communities. I'm sure you do for your coaching clients as well.

Yeah.

It's about having people that get it and people that have your back.

Yes.

And sometimes it's people to celebrate your wins.

Yep.

And sometimes it's just people to vent to. Right. Because no one else gets it. Like a small business owner.

Yes.

I'm lucky that, you know, my parents are small business owners. I've always. So even though I didn't join a official mentorship group, kind of until that 10 years ago, my parents were my mentors from very early on, and they would be my first port of call to discuss, to talk through things. But, yeah, now having a group around me, I'm always investing in programs. Coaching groups.

Yes.

Go to conferences. It's putting yourself in the room.

Yes.

That with people that are going to lift you up and inspire you and challenge you and tell you it's a good idea. Tell you it's not a good idea sometimes.

Yes.

And have those things. And like, I invest huge amounts of money on, on those kind of programs. I'm always in programs. I am going to conferences, I'm flying around the world. I'm doing all those things because I see the benefit of them for my business. Like, yes, it's been life changing for me.

100% agree. I think that it's one of the best investments you can make is investing in yourself.

Absolutely.

Investing yourself. I think Warren Buffett. Warren Buffett said the best. The best investment you can make is when you invest in yourself.

Absolutely.

And I totally agree that having a mentor group or a coach mentor around you to help you level up, hold you accountable, be that person who you can vent to or who can support you or show you the strategy and hold you accountable to the actions that you're taking, it's massive. It was the sort of thing that I got into in around my mid-20s was, was getting coaches. And then that really ignited the fire for me to want to be a coach.

Yeah.

Because it's such a great thing to be coached and then to be able to mentor other people as well.

Absolutely. You know, I've got an incredible mentor. Her name's Jill Stanton. And she says something a bit controversial. She's, you know, a very outgoing, loud American. And she talks about paying for friends.

Yeah.

And she's like, I proudly pay for friends. And I'm like, that's an interesting way to put it. And she's like, no, I'm being serious. I pay to be in groups where I know I can make new friends that are going to level me up. And each time, you know, I might start, you know, we move up out, like our investment, our opportunity, all of those things. Because I know that making friends with people who are on my wavelength that are driving, you know, and wanting to grow and be driven to the same things that I do. I know that will level me up. I know that'll level me up in my business. So I proudly pay for friends. And I love that saying. It sounds crazy, right? Like, it sounds absolutely crazy. But I think, you know, the idea behind it is perfect. And I've made some of my best friends in coaching groups.

Yeah.

Yeah.

And, you know, it's interesting too, like, that, as you said, like, you spent a lot of money on this, you know, investing in yourself over the years, and so have I. Yeah. And I think that it can be expensive or seen as expensive, but I also find that it can be more expensive to try and figure out. Figure it out yourself.

Absolutely.

The time that you spend, the wasted hours that you spend trying to figure it out yourself versus you can compress time by getting a mentor or coach or some or mentor group.

They learn from your mistakes.

Yeah. Compress time, get there faster, you save time, which is the most valuable asset anyway. So it can be pricey, but it can also be more expensive not to invest and not to get the mentor as well.

Absolutely. I've got some incredible clients that have only been open for two or three years, but have learned what I learned over 20 years and are jumping the gun. And that's what they say it is. They're just buying time and getting there quicker.

Yes.

And it's incredible to see that. Right?

Absolutely.

So amazing.

So let's talk about the biggest mistake.

Yeah. Biggest mistake. Probably my biggest mistake would be not talking to the staff when I needed to.

Yeah.

Not having the guts leaving things, letting things go too long and then being really hard to pull back.

Yes.

I, I would always consider myself really great friends with all of my staff and I always have and I still do.

Yes.

And I would never change that about my leadership style. I love having a really close knit relationship with my staff. I love hearing about their weekends and their families and their partners and all of the stuff.

Yeah.

However, probably my biggest mistakes over time have been going, oh, I don't want to upset them. I'm not going to say anything. I'm just going to let it go. And letting things go so long that it's hard to pull it back.

Yeah.

Got to kill the monster while it's little, Right?

Absolutely.

When it's small and you can jump on it. And you know what I find that is such a massive thing for business owners or for leaders, as we spoke about before, who are leading in a business that. How do you. Yeah. How do you talk to someone about something they may not be performing? They may not have done a task the way you want them to do it. They may not be getting it done quick enough, whatever it is. How do we talk to someone about that? Let's jump into that. What's one of the best ways that you found to actually talk to someone about that?

I think it's exactly that. Not waiting till it's a big deal.

Yeah.

You know, let's say it's the task that's not done on time.

Yes.

Rather than, you know, you leaving that for months on end and then there's all these tasks built Up. You've had enough as a boss. You pull them in for a big meeting. You know, you're like, you haven't done this, this, and then you're bringing things up from three months ago.

Yes.

So they know that you've got resentment towards that.

Yes.

You know, I think that that's a big mistake. Right. However, speaking to them as they go, giving them daily feedback or weekly feedback, and it not being such a big deal, not being called into the boss's office to have a big sit down, it's like, oh, hey, did you not get that done? Hey, I really needed that today. Is there a problem? What can I do to support you around this?

Yeah, that's a great question.

Something along those lines. And, you know, was there an issue? Did something else happen?

Yes.

Why did that not get done? How can I help? Is it that you don't know how to do it? Is it that you've had too much on today?

Yes.

What is it? How can I support you? Because I really needed that done today and it wasn't done today. So how can we make this not a problem tomorrow?

Absolutely. I think that's really important. Jump on it while it's small.

Absolutely.

I also find that I literally had a conversation half an hour ago with a new staff member, Tony's second shift, and I'm showing him how to take photos because he's helping us out with some social media posts. And I'm a little bit. I'm a little bit fussy because it's kind of my baby Instagram, you know, And I've sort of built it up over the years. And I've got. We've got one fantastic staff member, Liv, who's doing some work for us there. And we've got a new staff member, Will, who's doing the work while Liv's not on. And I gave Will some feedback. He put his first post up yesterday. Didn't want to crush his spirit, but there was a few little things that I want him to tweak. And I started with, hey, you're 90% there.

Yeah.

Awesome post. I love how you did this. I love how you did this. That was really great. It was a little bit off center. So you're 90% there, though. It's only a few tweaks, but next time we need you to straighten it up.

Yes.

Double check that it's perfectly symmetrical before you post and then you're 100% there. Absolutely like that. Starting with what you did. Well, first, I know it's kind of been said A million times. And when I coach people on this, it kind of seems like sometimes the client might be like, oh, yeah, I've heard this. The shit sandwich or the. The love stuff. Love. Whatever you want to call it, but it works. And it's really important because we take criticism or constructive criticism so much better when we've heard the good things that we're doing.

Absolutely. I'm all about it as well. And there are so many good things. And I think it's also recognizing those good things.

Yes.

Not just being like, you didn't do this. You didn't do this. You didn't do this, because, yeah. Guarantee that staff member did do amazing things as well in that shift. And you need to recognize that and celebrate.

Yes.

Those staff members wins. I think that's a big thing. And sometimes as a stressed out small business owner, like, we all get. Sometimes we forget to celebrate our team. And I'm all about celebrating every single win that they have.

Absolutely. One cool thing that we started, which I actually got a friend of mine, his name's Brett Baker, and he's got some great businesses in the area. He started something called Awesomeness Friday, which I really love. It's a group chat with the. With the team. And then every Friday, everyone nominates someone in the group. Awesomeness to Jane for doing this. Great job on this during the week. Awesomeness to Brett for doing this. And it's something that we started a while back.

Amazing.

And it's just a way to really just give praise to the team, but also the team giving praise between themselves as well.

I love that. It's so, so good. We, you know, we use slack at work and a slack channel and do a similar thing and really, you know, lead by example. And then you see the other staff members doing that too, because it's so good. Right. Like, let's all just feel good about ourselves as much. It' much nicer workplace if we can all be happy and enjoy our job.

Definitely. Definitely. Hey, Amanda, I'd love to get your thoughts on overrated versus underrated. Right?

Yeah.

What other things that business owners today you're seeing are spending too much time on? What's overrated right now that business owners are spending too much time on? And what's underrated, what are they spending too little time on? What needs more focus from business owners? And just in general, what you're seeing.

Overrated, being in the weeds, you know, taking too long to make a decision, and being in the weeds of their business getting down and dirty. And rather than putting Systems into place, you know, moving forward with their business. You know, in there being the one taking out the bins, washing the dishes, you know, doing all the things which. Yes. We've got to do. Don't get me wrong, 100%. You've all got to get in the weeds at some point of your business journey.

Yes.

But there also needs to be dedicated time where you're talking about growing the business and how you can make the business run better and, you know, put those systems in place to help with that.

Yes.

You know, and so I see a lot of studio owners doing that and also having that analysis paralysis thing.

Right.

We're overthinking decisions. You know, a decision that should be 5 minutes, 2 minutes, 30 seconds. That's taking days and days and days and days and days.

Yes.

And just, you know, doing that thing that we're all guilty of. Right. Where we open the laptop and we stare at the screen. We've all done it. Like it's one of those things. But, you know, I think it's so important just to make quick decisions as a business owner. And the decisions aren't always going to be right.

Yes.

But if you analyze them for four days, are they going to be right anyway?

Yes.

Possibly not. Like, just make a decision and move forward.

Every decision is a step forward.

Absolutely.

You either win or you learn. Either way, you're moving forward.

Absolutely. And even wrong decisions, you know, even if you feel, you know, or learnt decisions, you know there's ways to fix them. Right. It's how you go back. You fix your mistakes, you own your mistakes.

Yes.

But just making decisions and moving forward, and I think that's something that's really important for business owners to be able to do is make quick decisions.

For sure. And I love the saying that good judgment comes from experience.

Absolutely.

Experience comes from bad judgment. It's okay to make some mistakes. That's what builds experience. That's what leads to good judgment.

Absolutely.

So don't be afraid to make decisions and not always get it right all of the time. And I think that that stepping back from the day to day and getting out of the weeds comes back to. A big part of it is, as you talked about, trusting the team to do a job and then talking to them if it isn't quite where you need it to be, and coaching them the rest of the way, it's like trusting the team to do a job 80%. Right. Just so you get your time back and coach them the 20%, coach them the rest of the way.

There yeah, that's amazing. And then I guess underrated. Marketing your business.

Yeah.

If you want to grow your business, most of your time should be spent on marketing your business. Like, you know, I know that if you're owning a coffee shop, you didn't get into it to be a marketer.

Yes.

I know that if you own a dance studio, you didn't get into it to be a marketer. However, the reality is, is that's what we're doing is marketing and sales. And as a business owner, we need to be leading that even if you're not great at doing it yourself, that you're getting coaching around it, that you're employing people, whatever it is. But there's no one can talk about your business like you can as the business owner. No one is ever going to be as passionate about it as you are.

Yes.

They're never going to see the same vision as you. So you need to be getting in and doing it, marketing your business. If you want to grow your business, that's where you should be spending your time. Not in the weeds. You need to be, you know, taking time out every single day to be growing your business.

I think, yes, it's one thing to do something great in your business, it's another thing to make sure people know about it.

Absolutely.

And you've got to tell people 100%. And that comes back to the thing that we started talking about at the start start, where you said the biggest challenge was getting yourself out there and not worrying so much about what other people think.

Yes.

Just speaking about it, putting yourself out there, selling yourself, selling your business. That is, it's. It's a really good point that you bring up. And I think that it is one that is definitely underrated and one that needs a lot of focus. And even, even when you're just talking to friends and family and they're asking, hey, what have you been up to, man? I've been really busy. I've been working on this group coaching thing. I've been working on this in the business. And, and just general conversation. Because everyone you talk to, not like you have to sell your friends and family, but if you're not passionate about what you're doing in your business, then why are you in the business? It should be something that you're keen to talk about and passionate to talk about. And every person knows, on average, 400 people. So I guarantee, even if that friend or family member isn't going to be a client of yours, I guarantee they probably know someone who is. So just Talking about it, word spreads, it's the ripple effect. And so it's a bit of an old school way to do it. Is that face to face selling. But obviously, you know, we do it on social media these days or online. Same thing. Right. But just speaking about it with people and making sure people know what you're up to, what you're doing, what you're working on.

Absolutely. And being brave. Yeah, being brave to put yourself out there. Because I think that's the biggest thing in owning a small business is the whole thing. Yes, it's a risk, it's being brave and it's, you know, taking a gamble on yourself. But you've got to believe in yourself because no one else will. Right?

100%.

Yeah.

Great one. Amanda. So what is the best thing for you about being a business owner? Why did you want to get into business and what have you found is one of the best things about being a business owner?

Oh, I love so much about owning businesses. I've never worked for anybody else, just to be super clear, except that like, little bit between when I was 14 and 15, like, but even then he pretty much just gave me the keys and let me go with it. So I love the power that I have to be able to build the life of my dreams, whatever that looks like for me. Right. You know, whether that's a financial goal, a time goal, a lifestyle goal. But having that power is so, so important. You know, Nath, my husband and I were chatting about it the other day. You know, if we want to, you know, for example, buy another investment property or something like that, which is something we're talking about at the moment. You know, other people who have a very set income or a limited income, you know, look at it and think, okay, well, what can I take away from my life so that I can afford this extra expense? What can I take away?

Yes.

I see it the opposite. I'm like, what can I add? What can I add to my business to make me more money, to be able to afford what I want? What can I do? And I love that I have the power to do that myself and that that makes me very self reliant. I don't need anybody else's permission to do those things.

Yes.

So I love that. I love having that power and obviously that's scary too, because there's both sides of that. But I love being able to have that power to live the life that I want and to, you know, grow the business of my dreams. And I'm very big. We talk about Growing the studio of our dreams in our dance coaching space. Because it's gonna look different for everybody.

Yes.

People have different financial goals. Some people, it's all about making the most amount of money possible. Other people, it's not. It's about making a decent amount of money but having that freedom that they can go to their kids, school, things, time, you know, whatever that is. Right. And each to their own. There's no right or wrong. But I love being able to design the life on my terms. That's what I'm super passionate about.

I love that. What, any, any final thoughts from today on, what's come up for you or final thoughts that we can leave with our audience here who are people who are running their own business. And actually, one more thing I'd love to actually ask you really quick is because I'm hoping to get Nathan on here for another episode too, but I'd love to find out for you. I know some people listening are going to be partners in life and in business. How do you manage being partners and running a business together?

I think that's an amazing question because a lot of people do it right and it can work really well or it cannot work well. Like there's both sides of it. So, Nathan, I have been working together full time for about 10 years now. And to be honest, it started that I was the boss and he worked for me because I had had the business beforehand. However, that dynamics changed over time and now we're equal partners in the business. I think that there's a lot that goes into it. I think, you know, just like any good relationship, regardless if it's with your life partner or a partner or a friend or whatever, it's about communication, telling people what you need from them and what the expectations are, setting, you know, clear boundaries and clear roles of responsibility. We have very different things we do in the business and I think that's important that it is very different. We both have our strengths and our weaknesses and we try to help each other through that. You know, a lot of people say to me, like, do you just end up talking business at breakfast, at the dinner? 100%, yes. But I love talking business. I love chatting business with you. I love being like, that's what I love. So that's fine. Because I really see that as a small business owner, it's a work life integration, not a work life balance. Because sometimes, you know, I am sitting on a Saturday night at 11pm on my laptop doing work.

Yes.

And sometimes I'm not. Sometimes at midday on A Friday, I'm at lunch with some friends. You know what I mean? Like, there's both sides of. Doesn't have to be a. This is my work hours, this is my home hours. It is very much, yes, I think, but I think the communication around that is the important key that, you know, sometimes one of us, you know, we get spurs of inspiration, right. And we're still up working at 1am or whatever that is. But that not meaning that the other person has to feel guilty about that if they don't feel like it, having that communication to say, hey, cool. If you feel like working, great. But I don't tonight. So I don't need to sit here and pretend that we're both working just for the sake of it. I think that's a big thing.

Yeah, that's a really good point.

Yeah.

So any final thoughts for our audience here who are either starting a business or have an established business or looking to start a business? Any final thoughts?

Look, I absolutely love everything about being a business owner and I think, you know, it served me so well. I love the challenge every single day. But, you know, it can be, it can be hard. There can be days where it's difficult. There's days where you don't, you know, I've been there, we've all been there, where you don't have enough money, you don't have enough time, you're stressed out, you know, you're worried about how you're going to pay the mortgage this week, do the things, all of the stuff. However, I think it's that self belief and that, you know, knowing and having that trust in yourself that you can do it and pull yourself out and being. And it's, you know, that's about resilience too, right? It's coming back to every day is a new day and you can create what you want. You know, you just got to get out every day and start again afresh. Even if the day before was crap, even if something happened the day before with, with staff, with clients, whatever, it's, hey, today's a new day. I'm gonna keep working on building this business of my dreams for sure.

And I think that everyone in business faces challenges. It doesn't matter who you are. Doesn't matter who you are. It's easy to look at someone, we might see someone on social media, on Instagram and be like, wow, that person is killing it. I want to be that person. Highlight reel, guarantee that person's facing their challenges as well. No one's getting out of here. Without challenges. Right. But it's how we grow. We need the challenges. It's how we grow. And it's probably part of the reason you love being a business owner is because of those challenges. Right. The growth that you get. And I think that maybe a key point to leave on is potentially that the challenges, when you go through those challenging times, that's when you lean on those people around you, that peer group, that support group around you, that partner in business, the mentor, the coach, the mentor group. That's when you lean on them when you had the hard day, when you are facing a challenge that you've never faced before and you're not sure how to get through it. That's why we invest in ourselves like that and in these mentors and peers and groups, because that's when you need them the most.

Absolutely. And I think it's not waiting till you get to that point.

Yeah.

You know, it's. You know, I feel like too many people wait until they're at that, like, very deep trough to, like, seek those kind of things out, which is fine. That happens too. And that's gonna be a natural thing. But if you can join when you're in a high, imagine being able to then, you know, lean on that support and have that network behind you that you've had from a good point and see the whole peaks and troughs and be there for you. I think that's a big point.

Awesome. Well, I think that we leave on that note, and I think that it'll be great if we just share how people can follow you at Dance Principles United.

Absolutely. I'm on Instagram. Dance Principles United or Amanda Barr. I am not nearly as great as you at posting on socials, but doing my best.

I have my days. Don't worry about that. Awesome. So that's where you can follow Amanda and Nathan and the team at Dance Principals United. Guys, thank you so much for being on the podcast today. It's been a ripper talking to you and hearing about your story.

Always great. Thanks so much for having me.

Thanks, Amanda. See ya. If you enjoyed today's episode, be sure to leave a review and follow Glenn Hayworth, business coach, for more business marketing and mindset tips.