LIVE FROM LAS VEGAS! Takeaways from Dance Teacher Web

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. Well, hello, friends. Beck and Amanda coming to you from the very, very warm Las Vegas. Hi. Hi.

It's pretty insane. We're here together. We've been here for six days, I think.

I don't know.

It's like a whirlwind, right? I absolutely love Vegas. It's one of the most epic places on earth. I don't think I could live here.

No.

But I love so much about it. I love the casinos. I love how epic everything is. Like how it's all themed and so over the top.

Okay. Yep. I don't know about the casinos. I don't know if I love the.

Casinos, but, like the themes of the casinos and like how you walk into the, you know, like the shops have like a sky and they've got like statues and like just that whole epic part of it I love.

Absolutely. We've been here for, as Beck said, Six days. If you are watching us on YouTube, you can see the dome behind. No, what's it called? The sphere. Oh, no, actually, we haven't gone to that yet. We haven't gone to that yet. No. That cool sphere and the big. What is this big Ferris wheelie thing?

It's a technical term, guys. The big Ferris wheelie thing.

But we've had a great time. We've been here for Dance Stage Web, which was, you know, interesting to see, different conference. It was great. We had a great time. But we've also learned lots of other things. I think whilst we're in the States, obviously we've had learnings from the conference that we're at, which was awesome. But I think it's just always good to get away from your business and away from the day to day, don't you think?

Yeah, absolutely. And I think taking yourself to somewhere like this where you can educate yourself and learn from different types of people, is it just such a game changer. You. It's a great time to just self reflect and go, oh, yeah, that's so cool. Oh, why are we doing it that way? We could totally do it this way. Like, it's just a really good, I think time to self reflect and do that. I think everyone who's a business owner should do that at some point.

Yeah. And just taking Time away. Even if it's just with your. Your partner or yourself. Like, you know, we've talked about it before. We're big believers. My best ideas always come around the beach with cocktails. Let's be honest, laying around a pool somewhere, you know, or even just taking yourself out for a walk in the morning. Like, it doesn't always have to be huge, but I do feel like sometimes we get so in the day to day that if you could just have a moment to kind of like step away and have good conversations. Because good conversations lead to good ideas. And we've always found that like, people that follow us for. Has been following us for a while. Know that Beck and I go away together quite regularly. There's always champagne involved. But we had good. We have good conversations. And sometimes that leads to really great ideas. Not always. Sometimes it's just bullshit. But the good ideas flow, right?

Yeah, absolutely. Absolutely. And so we wanted to chat to you guys today because one of the things we've been completely blown away by here is the customer service just on a daily basis. I think the first time we experienced it was in a shop called Good American. And it's insane what good customer service can do. Do for you and what it can make you buy. Because I'm convinced that I bought. So I bought a dress in there and then the girl really talked me into these jeans, which I was very unsure about, but because she had such amazing customer service. And they were bringing things to us and they were telling us how great we looked in everything that we were putting on. And they were lovely.

We both spent a lot of money.

We did spend a lot of money. And I don't think I would have spent that much money if I hadn't have had that customer service.

Absolutely. And you've all been to a store like that before, right. Where really good shop assistant helps you out and you get incredible customer service. And then you've been to the opposite as well. We've all been to the store where you just get ignored. You feel like you're interrupting the shop assistant because they kind of like look at you with these evil side eyes. Or you think, oh shit, they need to tidy up, they want to leave, they're finished for the day. And you walk out of there feeling awkward and not buying anything. Right?

Yeah. And like, even in restaurants and stuff here, the service is crazy. Like we get tip. Well, they get tipped. So I think that's why. But they're so next level of helping you and, you know, doing all the things and making sure. That you feel so special and amazing. And I don't think we have that in Australia as much. I mean, there are places you can go to that has that. But it's just interesting that I especially will always buy more, be more into it if the service is amazing. And I think we need to think about that in our dance studios. I don't think we think about that enough.

Absolutely. 100 agree. And, you know, like you said, we. Obviously in America, there's the tipping culture, which we don't have in Australia, but what they do have is, like a genuine interest in chatting to people. Right. I feel like, you know, it's not just all an act. They actually, you know, whether it's the Uber driver or the bartender or the server at the white restaurant. Sorry. Or the waiter at the restaurant, I feel like they all actually take a genuine interest in the people that they're talking to. They ask good questions and let people talk about themselves. And I think that's key. People like to talk about themselves. People like to tell stories and talk about themselves. So how are you doing that with your customers at the studio? I guess is our big thing. And making sure that incredible customer service is coming through at your studio.

Yeah. And, like, I know some of the things we do at our studio, so we really try and make sure that we contact every single parent at least once a term, chat to them about how their child's going, which is literally sometimes just a text message. Hey, how are they going? Or a phone call if we have time for that. I think in our waiting area, we always have someone chat in and around chatting. I try and get my staff to come in and around and chat. It's just creating those conversations. And I hate it when I hear studio and say, and I don't know if you've heard this, Amanda. I'm sure you have. Oh, I hate parents in my waiting area. Yeah, I don't want any parents in my waiting area. I hate talking to parents. And it's just like. But you're in customer service. If you make. Make those parents feel special, you're going to make the whole school feel special. You wouldn't not talk to the kids in your class because, you know, you're teaching and I'm sure that you're beautiful to them. So you've got to look at the parents as an equal client. I think sometimes some studio owners look at students as their client, but actually, parents are their client.

Absolutely. 100 agree. And look, I can't remember what speaker it was that spoke over the weekend about giving the parents, like, something to belong to. And if the parents feel like they have a community, they feel a sense of belonging, they're going to stay longer. They're going to enjoy bringing their kids more. They're going to, you know, keep them in for longer. They're going to encourage them not to give up when they're having a tough day or whatever that is. So, you know, what can you do to be making sure that customer experience is absolutely incredible for your parents and like you said, like, some great ideas there. I think it's also, like making sure that it's personal attention and it's good questions that you know that you know or your front person, you know, at DS Beth is on the front desk and she's amazing and she knows that it was, you know, that mom's sister's birthday last weekend. It was her 40th in Sydney. And she remembers that the mom told her that and asked her how the 40th was. You know, she remembers that grandma was coming over to visit. She remembers that, you know, whatever that was, that little Susie wasn't feeling great last week. And how's she feeling this week? Is she better? Is she over that virus? You know, all of those things and making those personal relationship and those personal connections and actually, actually caring. Not just going, hi, nice to see you, because that's just a fake caring, but actually caring and taking the time to invest in those personal relationships.

I love that. I love that. And I think the problem with us as studio owners is we always. We do everything to the lowest common denominator. And what I mean by that is you do have two or three parents that are pains in the ass that you cannot stand to always complain about things and who. And probably, you know, cranky most of the time. And so then you avoid everyone because of those three. And I think we have to remember that it is usually just a few and that, you know, if you can service everyone else like they do in America here, and make everyone else feel special and amazing, as you said, they're going to become raving fans and they'll stay with you. It's the key, right?

Absolutely. I think it's just absolutely the way to be. So, you know, if you feel like sometimes you're not as welcoming to your parents as you should be, I think, you know, today is the day to reflect on that, to go, you know what? Me or an admin person or whoever it is, we're going to go out, we're going to make some really Great connections. We're going to ask people questions. We're going to make sure they feel like part of the family, part of the community, all of those things.

Yep. Totally agree. Did we want to touch on one more thing that we have learned in our time here?

Ofed so many things.

There's so many things. But I kind of think it relates as well. I think that, you know, one of the speakers said that you should constantly be hiring in your studio, and he also spoke about the fact that you shouldn't be keeping staff who aren't servicing you. Because I think sometimes we get scared if we lose the staff member. We're not going to find another staff member. I know. I've done that multiple times, Amanda. And I think I loved the idea of him just saying you should be constantly on the lookout for teachers. Not just on the lookout for teachers when you lose a teacher or when you feel like you have to lose a teacher, but be on the lookout for teachers all the time so that you have this big pool of teachers to choose from. I've never thought of it that way, but it's actually so smart.

Absolutely. You know, that whole higher, slow fire, fast I think is so, so important because if you. That's the reason that we take too long to fire. It's always the reason is we're like, oh, but then I've got to find someone and train them and, oh, what if they're no good? It's like the fear of the unknown. Right. So if you always have that pool of teachers behind you and you're always recruiting, you're always on the lookout, you make a way to make it work, whether it's only a small amount of hours to start with, whatever. And you always have those people coming through, you know, made me think about, like, McDonald's, for example. McDonald's always has signs up saying hiring now. Their website is always open to put in, you know, your recruitment application or whatever that is. I can't remember what they call it. Team member applications or something there. Right. I can't imagine they have a job going every week. But it's just that they're always keeping them there and on the lookout for great people. Right.

I think that's so important. And I love that he said things as well, like get testimonials from your teachers about how great it is to work for you and put them on your socials and website, because that's an attractive place then for other people to want to work. Put yourself out there all the time saying, always looking for Teachers. Yeah, it's just an interesting different concept that we have. And for CNC runners, I think it is, we literally hire only when we absolutely need to.

And that was the other thing he was really talking about is, you know, if you have rock star teachers at the moment, they're going to attract more rock star teachers. So really trying to cultivate that place like you're saying, you know, almost be on your social media, almost be advertising to potential other people who are rock stars who might want to work for you all the time. You know, whether that's like, hey, we love having Ms. Susie here and Ms. Susie loves working for us too. It's a great environment here, you know, all of that kind of stuff. It's so clever.

Yeah, it is clever. And I think, you know, have a little think as you're listening to us today. Is there someone in your studio that's not giving the service that you want? Is there someone that's not, you know, doing all of the things that you need? Should you be trying to, you know, should you be trying to think about other options and other people that could come into that place? Because we all do it, we all keep people on for too long and I think, yeah, we really need to self reflect on that.

Right, Absolutely. I thought that was so, so valuable. And it totally does come back to the customer service because if they're not delivering to the level you want for your customers, then the other teacher who maybe was a rock star starts falling to their level because they think that that's acceptable. Right. They see one bad apple doing the wrong thing, everybody else kind of drops their game a little bit. And the whole level of your customer service of, you know, the enthusiasm for your business, for the general vibe around your studio, that can all be lowered by that bad apple, I feel.

Yep, absolutely. Absolutely. Now we've been here at Dance Teacher Web, which is pretty similar to Expo, Dance Teacher Expo in Australia. And if you're listening to us in real time, you would know hopefully that we have just released our expo dates. We are so excited. So we are going to be having the 5th and 6th of April in 2025 on the gold Coast. We're so pumped about it, right?

Oh my God, the Gold coast is going to be so much fun. We're excited for a new place. I think, you know, a little bit like coming to Vegas, going to Gold coast for the weekend, it's super like, you know, coming to Vegas is hard work and expensive and the jet lag is a killer for a few days. But Going to the Gold coast is pretty easy to get to pretty quick, but gives you a couple of days to focus on your business. But also, you know, like we talked about, go out for dinner with that team member, you know, have a drink, have discussions about things that you learned during the day and what you can do and what you can bring back to your studio, like, and, you know, lay around the pool and have a bit of a nice time while you're at it on Gold Coast.

Yeah, we've been chatting to quite a few American vendors who are going to be coming to Expo, which is so, so exciting. And we've kind of been describing Gold coast as the Vegas of Australia. And I do feel like a little bit it is like that. Nowhere near to the extent of this, obviously. Everything in America is so extra. Right? But it is, it's such a fun place to go. It's warm, it's, you know, there's always stuff happening and I think it's going to be so awesome. And I'm so excited about some of the new vendors that are coming.

Yes, you cannot. Well, wait, wait, wait. To release those two, you're gonna have to keep an eye on our socials. You guys are going to be blown by some of the people that are coming over for Expo 2025. So make sure you put it in your dates now, if you're looking at, you know, when you're doing holidays for your family, when you are doing comps, all of those things put in planet now, right?

Yep, absolutely. Keep it free. We cannot wait to celebrate with you guys. And yeah, it's going to be super awesome.

Amazing. Hope you enjoyed our podcast Live from Vegas. We can't wait to see you next week on the Dance Principles United Podcast.

Bye, friends.

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.