Key Takeaways from Dance Teacher Expo

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, welcome to the Dance Principles United Podcast. Nathan are here with you today. We are just back from Dance Teacher Expo. It's been a huge weekend. How you doing, Nath?

I am fantastic. Obviously look a little bit tight, if we're honest.

Absolutely. A little bit tired, but straight back.

Into the swing of things. Straight back into parenting life. Because our three beautiful daughters don't really care that we had a huge weekend.

Absolutely not.

But also great to be back and seeing them, obviously, but was so, so amazing, inspiring. Everything that we were hoping that it would be right over the weekend.

It was an awesome event. It was such an incredible weekend. And thank you so much to those of you who came and supported. The support means so much to us. You know, one of the sessions I was in, they were really talking about how our industry all grows together and without support, we can't run events like that. So it's so fantastic to have so much support. And it was such an awesome weekend, right?

Yes. And look, to be totally honest with everybody, for us, taking into a new market was a big, scary thing.

It was a big risk. Yeah.

Big scary thing for us to do. We'd had two really successful years with Expo down in Sydney. Bringing it up to the Queensland market was something we'd really wanted to do, but it was something that we're a little bit, like I said, just. Just worried about it. It's a change. Whenever you change something, it's a little bit scary. But we are so glad that we did it. So thankful to be able to connect with an amazing new audience up there in Queensland.

It's so great to see so many local Queenslanders up there supporting the event, coming for the first time, which was awesome. Plus, so many people. You know, I was just reading a message from someone who said they've been to all three events of our Dance Teacher Expo and how each time they keep getting better and how they get so much out of each one. Isn't that so nice to hear?

Yeah. Yeah. So. And, like, what we love, especially for you people listening to the podcast, was how much lovely feedback we get from you about the podcast. Because even though, you know, we have our analytics, obviously, and we look at it, we sit here and record these things Sometimes. And we're like, is anybody listening out there?

Really?

Hello?

That's why you've got to make sure you subscribe. So if you listen to this podcast and you're not currently subscribed, please subscribe because it helps boost our ratings. It helps show more people what you're listening to. It really helps us. So please do that. Take two seconds to do that. Now click that little subscribe button. That would mean the world to us. But yeah, it was an incredible weekend. Right. We had 1100 people attend the event. For those of you who weren't there, it was, you know, huge. We had four rooms going with different sessions, some incredible sessions. We had an incredible vendor arena with so many incredible brands from Australia, us, uk, Canada, which was so, so amazing. The fashion show was incredible.

The fashion show was a huge, huge highlight, as it always is. Being able to see the incredible. Like, we know that costuming is such a big part of every dance studio owner's life. And like Mandarin Beck always talk about it's one thing to see them in the catalog, it's one thing to see them in the online stalls and all those sorts of things, but being able to see them on an actual, I guess, moving performer.

Yes.

And then being able to go over and connect with the costume companies in person afterwards is so, so valuable. And I know so many studio owners would have shaved hours and hours of time off their end of year or troop costume selections.

I was chatting to. Oh, now I can't remember who it was. Oh, it was Brandy from Fierce Performing Arts in Dubbo. And she's like, I'm just checking things off my to do list. She's like ordered new comp jackets or I designed them, got them ordered. You know, Tick, she was just going through things, finding costumes. She's like, I found a costume for my six and under group. Tick got that all ordered. You know, it's so good to get like all of those things done right in the weekend. And then we had a closing keynote and I love that it was the first time we've done that. And if you missed it, it was awesome. Right? We had so many incredible people speak about things that they would tell their younger self. You know, we had the amazing Victoria from Studio 7 speak. We had Jason Coleman speak. We had Nathan Bar speak. You too. So many incredible people. And it was awesome to kind of hear this lessons they'd tell their younger self. I found that so, so interesting to hear from so many different people about that.

Yes. That have achieved, obviously most of them within our industry, but that it achieved so many different things and found different ways of achieving that success as well.

Yeah, it's interesting, right? Like people all find their own ways to. And their own pathway to success and I think that was kind of a common theme that a lot of people kind of spoke about. Like, you know, that they all found their own pathway and it was unique and individual to them. And that's always really interesting that there's no, you know, one set of steps to get you to, you know, this version of success in inverted commas.

Yeah, without a doubt. And look, obviously I know what, what I said and don't mean to beat my own drum, but it's our podcast so I can say what I said, but that was, that was the theme of my something you'd tell your younger self that whilst plans are important and having planning is super important to, to some people more than others as well, but not being too tunnel visioned on that focus at times can leave you open to amazing opportunities that you never thought would. Would come your way. You know, I talked about when I graduated with my bachelor of mathematics and and finance back in a long time ago.

Yeah. With no background in dance.

Yeah. Except for being around the amazing dance dance sensations because we've been together for so long. But I never thought that I would be owning a dance studio, coaching dance studio owners, running Australia's biggest dance studio event for dance teachers and dance studio owners, like just was so far from where I thought my life would be going. But absolutely, leaving yourself open to those things gives you those incredible opportunities.

So good. I love that. Hey. We thought we would jump on the podcast today and share some of our biggest takeaways. We've asked a whole heap of people what they loved most about Expo and what we loved most when we were kind of connecting after the event with our, our team that joined us and we thought we'd share couple of takeaways. But hey, I would love to know your takeaway. So we're gonna drop this on our Instagram and we'd love to hear what your biggest takeaway was too. I think that would be so, so valuable.

Yes, without a doubt.

So we're gonna do that. But let's start with takeaway number one. Is that for you? You want to go for it?

Absolutely. Well, the first takeaway that we just saw time and time again all over the weekend was that connecting in person, being in the room with so many like minded people is where it's at full stop. We've got so many amazing and I Know, we run amazing virtual connections as well because that's so important because we can't get together every week and we need to be able to make those connections consistently. So online is so perfect for that. But getting in the room with people that are on the same wavelength as you, that are experiencing the same high highs, having the same challenges is just so inspiring and amazing.

Yeah, it is. Right. Like, we had our Studio Growth Club Connect day on the Thursday prior to Expo, and this day was all about connections between our members. And it was so incredible. And what, you know, we really talked about is that sometimes the hallway conversations are where it's at, right?

Yeah.

The hallway conversations, meaning the hallway outside of the seminar, outside of the teaching that's going on. Sometimes it's just making a connection with somebody else in that room and, you know, a passing comment from them about how they do this or how they do that in their business sometimes, that is so, so great. And it's also just really nice because this job can be lonely. People sometimes, you know, don't always get what it's like, right?

Yeah, without a doubt. And then the fact that one thing that I loved as I was sort of, I was sitting at our booth talking to, Talking to somebody that we don't currently work with and I was talking to them about, I think I was talking to them about Tribe and I was just saying, like, one of the biggest benefits of Tribe and Studio Growth Club is the incredible friendships and connections you build.

Was this.

Maya, I think. No, I don't think that's a different story. I'll let you tell the story about Mia, but this was just. I was talking to them about how incredible the connections you are. You, when you join, when you join these groups, you not only get knowledge and skills, but you get friendships. And then almost on cue, and I promise I didn't, like, I didn't pay them anything to walk over, but on cue, a group of about five of our Studio Growth Club members who were all now fantastic friends that didn't know each other two years ago.

Yes.

Walked over just looking like they were having the best time having photos in our little photo booth set up there. And I'm like, oh, this is exactly what I'm talking about. Not only do these people get, get support, get skills and knowledge in how to build and grow their business, but they've developed friendships and, and connections that are going to last a lifetime. And that's just as valuable as all the skills and knowledge that they're learning.

Absolutely. And just that person who Gets you who has your back and all of those things. I started telling the story about me. We met this gorgeous young girl from.

From Victor Harbor, I think, in down in South Australia. Yeah.

Her name was Mayor and she was a new studio owner doing incredible things and we saw that she made friends with a couple of our members, Chloe and Kiralee from Kiko and Brit from Adrenaline. And it was so nice. They're all young studio owners together. I think they went out and had drinks and stuff, I think. But like, so nice to be able to meet people who just get it because, you know, we all have friends that we tell about our studio ownership life, but they don't always get it right. Because it is a really unique industry and it's really nice just to talk to people who totally understand this world that we live in, this crazy life that we lead. That is studio ownership.

Exactly. Because we talk to our in inverted commas, normie friends and that they, they, I know, supportive and supportive and fantastic. But they. We know that they just don't get it and they just sometimes can't give us the insights that we need around that. But like you said as well, you know, Mia was somebody that stepped outside her comfort zone, was brave enough to come by herself.

Yeah.

And made connections and built friendships with some incredible other studio owners.

Yeah. That she can be inspired by and lifted by. I love that big shout out to her. All right, takeaway number two is how much live events reinvigorate your energy and your passion. Right.

Yeah.

Sometimes it's just about getting out of your day to day. You know, I spoke to so many studio owners that were like, oh, I was feeling the end of term one, you know, blues. It was a bit of exhaustion setting in. It was that, oh, I'm just, you know. Yeah, yeah, absolutely. All of those things. And it's so easy to get stuck in that, like, day to day grind of studio life. And sometimes just by, you know, and I know what it's like. I know what it's like going to those events. Sometimes you go, oh, I don't know if I can be bothered. Oh, I've got to get my classes covered and I've got to organize so and so to look after my kids and who's going to look after my dog and feed my dog and I've got to get myself to the airport and you know, all of those things. Right. And that can be really hard sometimes. And sometimes it all just seems too hard.

Exactly. And look, I'm going to be a little bit controversial and Sort of put. Put out there that it. It is super easy to find the excuses not.

Oh, absolutely. And there's 101 excuses not to go to those things and to stay in your day to day.

Absolutely. But if you just bite the bullet and do it, you end up getting there and within 10 minutes you're like, oh, my gosh, I'm so glad that I've done this.

Yes, absolutely. Because it just reinvigorates, I think there's nothing like being surrounded by people. Chang environment, just that change of environment as well sometimes can do it. And it is so great to kind of like reinvigorate that, to keep you going and keep you motivated and pushing. And I think that's same for our students too. Right. Sometimes they get stuck in the everyday day to day and, you know, that's something I would encourage you to do with your students, like, if they're feeling, you know, a little bit like, yep, cool. Just that same hamster wheel all the time is reinvigorate their passion, take them to something like ADF or Light the Way and that helps inspire them. They come back to the studio, back to the classroom, hungry for more. Just like, hopefully you guys that attended Dance Teacher Expo and if you didn't, hopefully another time, you know, you come back to your studio hungry for more and ready to like move your business forward because you've had that break, you've had that reset, you've got that passion reignited and you're ready to go.

Yes. And I was talking to one studio owner and I forget who it was.

So the story's not a lot of people, Right.

That we were talking to, but they were saying how this was the first time that they'd stepped away for a day of classes from their studio.

Yeah. And that's a big first step.

Yeah. And I get that. But I think sometimes we do see too many studio owners. It is a bit of an ego decision around that and thinking that, oh my gosh, the place will completely fall apart if I step away from one day. And I understand if that's you or no.

Yeah, absolutely. But for me, I'm a control freak, so that's just a control freak thing for me.

Absolutely. But we also know that sometimes at times that's not sustainable for you to have to be on 24 7, 365.

Never allowed to have a day off, never allowed to have a personal development day.

Yeah, yeah, absolutely. So, like, I would challenge yourself just maybe on something that's not as important to like, if that's Something that you struggle with. Just try it. One random weekend. Yeah, try to. Random weekend when you're not actually going away, when you're not maybe having to fly interstate, because I get that that can be scary as well. But just like, commit to having a Saturday at home with your family. Midterm.

Yeah.

Or something. Next term. Practice it. Switch the phone off, See what happens. See what happens. I'm going to give you a tip. The place isn't going to burn to the ground, but you're going to know that then maybe next time that you've got something bigger, more important to go to, that that's going to be possible for you as a business owner, as a leader within your studio.

I love that. It's a really great tip. You know, I was talking to Matt and Elle. They actually closed their studio on the Saturday. They had classes, last day of classes, and they closed it and advertised it as a personal development day. And I thought that was a really. I was like, oh, that's a really interesting choice, to be honest. Something that I'd probably never considered. But they were like, you know what? Schools close for personal development days all the time.

Yes, they do. When you get to the end of those school holidays, you're like, yes, the kids are back. Then you read staff development day Monday.

You'Re like, oh, and yeah, if schools can do it, why can't we? And they were like, no, we want to take every single one of our team members. So they had their entire team. I think they had like 16 teachers at Expo because they're like, we don't want to take, you know, 10 of them and leave six to run the studio on the Saturday. That's not fair. We're going to take them all. We're going to close completely for a personal development day. And I was really inspired by that. I was like, you know what that is? Showing your students, showing your families and your clients that you are putting your priorities in learning so that you can better your studio, better your services, better your teaching ability for them. Just like we ask of our school teachers and I think that's, like, so powerful.

Yep, 100%.

All right, next tip. Is this yours, Nathan?

Yeah, I think so. So one thing that I really noticed was, you know, that thing of. And we sort of touched on it, I guess, a little bit. But stepping outside your comfort zone and how important that is. I'm not going to dub any of them in here, but all of our listeners would be amazed at some of the incredible teachers and presenters that we had there on the weekend that were so nervous and full of nerves.

Yeah.

And were telling me how they felt really outside their comfort zone. But you know what?

Teaching teachers is hard.

Yeah, Teaching teachers is hard. But I think the reason that these people are leaders in our industry.

Yes.

And towards the top of their fields or at the top of their fields is because they constantly do those things. They constantly step outside their comfort zone and challenge themselves.

Yeah.

Yeah. And I think it's something that we saw lots of attendees doing as well.

Absolutely. Like, it's hard to put yourself out there, and it's scary to say hi to a new person. I know. I get it. I'm always scared to do those things, too. But challenging yourself, putting yourself outside your comfort zone, it pays off. Right. And we ask our students to do it all the time.

Yes.

We are constantly asking our students to do it. And I am a big believer that you can't ask your students to do something that you are not showing and demonstrating yourself and doing yourself because, you know, it's the monkey see, monkey do thing. Right. It is so important for us to show that to our students and demonstrate that all the time. So putting ourselves outside of our comfort zone, you know, it's hard. But congratulations to those of you who did it. And, you know, I think you can always take it up a step. So, you know, whatever you did this time, you know, do a little bit more, Introduce yourself to someone more, you know, new. And I know there were so many takeaways, but a few people said to me I was brave. And I went and spoke to, you know, Jason Coleman after someone told me they went and spoke to Jason Coleman after he presented and asked him to come and do a workshop. And they thought, no way he'll say yes. And he was like, sure, no problems. Or. I think that was their story. I'm not 100% sure on exactly the things, but, you know, there was so much that. And they were like, oh, I was too scared to ask so and so for a photo, but they said yes. And they started following me on Instagram and sent me this lovely message. And, you know, there was all of them of these moments that were so, so good. But sometimes you just have to ask for what you want in life.

Yeah, absolutely. Absolutely. Another great takeaway that I had from the weekend and something that I know brings us all joy is seeing so many of our. I'm going to put more experienced teachers here jumping in and doing movement classes. I spoke to so many people, especially towards the end of day one, in day Two saying I literally haven't done a class, taken a class myself for 10 years.

Absolutely.

And gosh, it felt good. I'm pretty short this morning, but gosh, it felt good to get in there and actually dance again.

Absolutely. I spoke to so many people who took Cara Dixon from Relative Motions class and we're talking about how sore their hips were because they, you know, opened up their hip flexors with moves they hadn't done for a really long time. But how great is that once again for our students to see that we're doing that? And I love that we're creating a space where teachers can feel comfortable dancing in front of each other, no matter the level that they're at.

Yes.

And that's something that's so, so powerful, I think because, you know, we all have our own joy. And yes, you know, you're not gonna still your leg's not gonna go as high as it used to or whatever when you're 50 or 60 or whatever it is. But doesn't mean you can't still love that passion for dance and want to have an opportunity to do it. But also doesn't mean you can't take something out of it and take it back to your students as well.

Absolutely. I think that self consciousness of like you said, like it's okay if you're a 40 plus year old teacher that, you know, you would have been amazing dancer yourself. I'm sure you're not expected to be as good as the 20 year old teacher that just come out of full time.

Absolutely.

That's okay. But like, okay, that's okay. That's completely expected. But you are going to take just as much out of the class because.

If not more sometimes. Yeah. Because you have the experience and the know how of understanding how to take that back and apply that to your students. Right. It's so, so good. I love see Shannon from. Is it Griff Griffith?

Yes.

I always struggle with that. She posted a video of her dancing saying, you know, still got it in my 50s doing Marco's class. And I love seeing that. So, so good because Absolutely. We should all still be able to experience that joy of dance.

Without a doubt. What is our next massive takeaway we had from the weekend?

Okay. I love seeing that. I guess one of the learnings I had was seeing that sometimes the most successful people in the room are the ones who feel like they've got the most to learn and they're the keenest and the best students. Right.

Yeah.

And we probably see this in our dance classes too. Right. You know, watching some of the very large, very successful studio owners there, taking more notes than anybody else. Yeah. Taking so many things away. Watching Kieran Kulik, who is very well known in our industry, sit in other sessions scribbling notes, asking questions, because knowing that he still has so much more to learn. And we do see that from our students. Right. Usually it's the top one in the class who asks the most insightful questions.

Who go homes and goes home and stretches the most, does the most work.

At home, stretches the most, does the most study. And they're the ones that become the most successful dancers. Right. So it's great to see that from business owners as well. And I think that's so important that always knowing that, you know, there's more to learn no matter what, and we can always take different insights from different people. I just love sort of seeing that. And I think that's just such a good reminder that it doesn't matter how successful you are, there's always so much more to learn.

Yes. And like you said, the. The self awareness that, yeah, everybody's got something to learn and you're talking about it from a dance perspective. I saw it pop up in a meme the other day about, you know, Michael Jordan, that he was always the first one in the gym the next morning.

Yeah.

No matter what, he was the best on the team. He was the one affecting the games the most, but he was the first one back in the gym because he felt he had the most to improve.

Yeah, I love that so much. All right, last big takeaway that we want to do is, you know, a common theme that I saw through so many people's sessions. I didn't get a chance to watch everyone's session, but, you know, I saw bits and pieces and heard bits and pieces from different people's sessions. And I saw Jade Barnes, the producer of Dance Life, talk about this. Kieran Kulik, Jason Coleman, Marco Panzik spoke about this as well. But really being true to your values, staying in your own lane, doing what you believe in and not getting sidetracked by other people and what they want for you. And I think that's a really important lesson to kind of finish on, right?

Yes.

Like knowing what you want and going for it and, you know, just going for it, not getting distracted because somebody else wants this, this parent asked for this, you know, whatever it was, I think so easily we get distracted from our vision. But being true to yourself and staying true to your vision, I think that's such a great lesson.

Absolutely. And it's something that we can take back to our studios every single day. I think we like, do we even sort of touch on it a little bit at Connect as well and then flow through.

Yeah.

Into Expo. That those values, you know, if you're really true to them, making sure that that, like, exudes through your socials.

Absolutely.

And that that's what's, you know, most prominent on your website because that's what's going to help you get enrollments.

Absolutely.

If you're sitting there thinking, oh, I'm just gonna chuck this up, like, I'm just gonna do this on my socials because it's what the studio down the road's doing or it's what I think somebody want.

Yeah.

I don't really agree with it, but you're not going to be successful.

Yeah. Because people can read that people and people want to buy from people that they like and know and trust and being super clear on your visions, your want, your why, you know, it invites people in that are just like you, that also, you know, align with those visions. And I think that's so, so important.

And it makes everything easy to do.

Absolutely. It makes that costume decision really easy.

Yep. It makes posting on socials really, really easy. Instead of like laboring over a single post for half an hour, you end up doing it in 45 seconds because it's just so true to you and your values. You're like, oh, that was easy bank. And it's up.

Absolutely, Absolutely. So, so good. Well, I hope you enjoyed our biggest takeaways. As we mentioned, we'd love to hear your biggest from Dance Teacher Expo. We will do a little Instagram box so that you can share yours with us as well, because we'd love to hear them.

Absolutely. Absolutely. It's what, like I said, it was just so, so inspiring for us hearing how many of you listen to the podcast. So please make sure that you reach out. Drop us a dm, like, and subscribe to the to the podcast in Apple Podcasts or Spotify as well.

Absolutely. It was so great meeting so many of you. We loved welcoming some new studio Growth club members and some new tribe members. We're, you know, kicking off with some big things this weekend, which we're super excited about. So if you are listening to this and you are interested in working with us, it is the perfect week to get in touch with us. Drop us a dm. We'd love to chat with you about how we can help support you as well.

Fantastic. Thanks so much as always for listening, guys.

Thanks. Bye. Bye. We hope you enjoyed this episode of the Dance Principals 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.