Mid-Year Concert = More Enrolments + More Profit In Your Dance Studio

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. Hi friends, and welcome to another episode of the Dance principals united podcast. Bec, it's so good to be back in the podcast studio with you.

Always fun, love a good podcast. Um, how are you going? Tell me all the things.

Ah, I'm doing really well. I went to see a musical last week, just like a community theater. It's been a while since I've been to— you know, we go to all the big shows and everything, but I haven't been to as much community theater recently. It was so good to see. It was one of my ex-students playing, um, Elle in Legally Blonde.

I love that.

So cute. Like, I was so impressed. She's, uh, you know, probably about 30. She has an 18-month-old and she's like driving— she lives down South Coast still, but driving up and doing community theater and obviously loving it that much, which I— isn't that so inspiring? Like, that's a lot to do when you've got an 18-month-old.

It is a lot to do.

And obviously support of the family and all of those things, which I think is so, so important, but You know what I absolutely loved and absolutely love to see there was I got there and I haven't— like, I've seen her a few times because her mom does my hair, you know, small world and, you know, all of those things.

Of course.

But there were a whole heap of other students from her troupe, ex-students, kids that were dancing with her, like, and they all probably stopped when they were, you know, 16 or something like that, all there supporting her. So there was like my whole old Sparklers troupe, like, they were the Sparklers troupe. They were like my Sparklers girls were. They're supporting. And I was like, oh my gosh, I didn't realize you guys were all still super close. And they're like, oh, we're not— like, we do see each other, like, some of them obviously more than others and stuff, but we still have our group chat. And when someone's in something, we all show up. And I'm like, how magic is that? What you create?

Insane.

Absolutely. Like, I didn't even know— they're all like, you know, close to 30. A few of them were married, a few had kids, like, bits and pieces, but It's so nice. And that's like, you know, I've done podcasts before on like how I do my troops and they stay together. And I love seeing that bond that was created because they started dancing together at like 5 or 6, you know, and they've grown up like that. So beautiful.

That is incredible. And I think we forget sometimes— this is not what the podcast is about, but I do think that we forget sometimes the power of that and making sure that we create moments for people to become friends. Because I know some of my parents end up having Christmases together. Absolutely. Like, absolutely. Friendships can be so, so special if you allow them to connect with each other.

So important. What's going on with you now? We're back in the podcast studio, back at the beginning of the year.

Yes, dancing is back. I, um, have started going back to the gym.

Oh good. Of course, you know, I'm back after summer holidays, had to get back to it. Yeah, but I've hurt my knee and I didn't ask you how you went at the physio the other day.

So I have to tell you We were at the South Coast. We went to the South Coast to Paperbark Camp. I love it there for one of my friends' 50th. And what we do, Amanda, on the South Coast is we ride our bikes to the brewery, we have a few drinks, then we ride down a bit further to the pub, and then we all ride back. Yep. You know, as you do, have lunch at the pub, do all the things. So we were riding back and Bec was complaining a lot about the fact that she was the slowest on the bike. Surprisingly, I'm not that good on a bike. And one of my friends tried to hold onto my bike and help me and to go faster, to go faster. And it was a massive crash. And I think I've hurt my knee really badly. And I didn't realize how bad that was until I started.

Is that what— because you showed like, I saw a picture of the bloody knee, like with the bruises and, you know, just what, you know, what you get in the group chats. I love that photo of your bloody knee. That's what I needed.

Thanks. Pretty special.

But I didn't realize that's what you've done that's actually done damage. I thought that was a gym thing.

Once I started teaching, getting down and up off the ground, started running on the track, I'm like, Oh no, that's the worst. The worst.

You know that you're not 25 anymore when—

literally, literally. I refuse to let it stop me though. I'm not— I, I need to get back into my fitness. So I'm not going like 7 days a week or anything, but I'm, you know, trying to go 3 or 4 days a week and just trying to do all the things, get back.

So good. My New Year's resolution was Pilates. Uh, it hasn't happened yet. Oh, every year I'm like, oh, I've got to do something about this. Yeah. Oh, I struggle.

I think the thing with you is you've got to find something that you like.

Yes, that's the issue. Because, you know, I just don't like anything.

Yeah. You've got to find somewhere that you— I don't like going though. Like, I hate going there.

You go with your friends and that helps.

Yeah, not always. But I think I like that it's 45 minutes in and out. It takes a lot of self-talk to get there. Let me tell you, a lot of self-talk. But I feel such a long part of my day. Yeah. Yeah, but you feel so good after it. You feel really proud of yourself and you're like, good job, Beck. Yeah, you, you know, and one of my friends— this is not about the podcast. Yeah, but anyway, we'll get into the podcast. One of my friends wrote the other day on her Instagram, and I loved it, I'm not trying to get my summer body, I'm trying to get my old lady body. And like, absolutely, that it's literally like, it is so important for, you know, people in their 40s, which we are, to do weights, to do exercise, because otherwise when you get to 60, you're going to be screwed.

And I've, yep, read that so many times. That's why I'm like, this year's my year. I have been walking, but I haven't gotten into Pilates. Hey, if anyone listening has any like great ideas, because this old dancer does not like exercise and does not like the gym, uh, so I need all the ideas of what I can do. And maybe something, maybe there'll be something, I don't know, that I don't know of that maybe I'll love. Maybe, maybe, who knows? Hey, today's podcast is not about helping me with my fitness journey, as much as you all want to hear that. Today's podcast is actually talking about mid-year concerts because I know it's early on in the year, but it's the perfect time. If you've never done a mid-year concert, today's podcast is for you.

It is. Well, I know we've been doing a lot of one-on-ones with our Studio Growth Club members the last week and Something has come up for me with a lot of those new members that have come in is they've never run a mid-year concert.

Oh, it kills me.

Interesting.

Mid-year concerts are my favorite. I think I started running one maybe 2 years into my studio, like very early on, and I absolutely love them. Should we start with what is a mid-year concert for those people who are like, I've seen that some studios do it, but what the fuck actually is it? Sure.

Go.

That's me. Okay.

All right.

So to me, a mid-year concert and a great mid-year concert, there's different versions, of course.

Yes.

And everyone can do their own version and stuff. But what I love to see in a mid-year concert is something a lot more low-key than an end-of-year concert. Now, low-key meaning the location, 100%, something a little bit more low-key. The price point for the parents, more low-key. I love it to be in uniform. Absolutely love it to be in uniform rather than costumes, more low-key. And all of those things are great because it gives you somewhere to build, right? When people see the ticket prices for a mid-year concert versus an end of year, then they want— number one, won't be so shocked because they'll also see the value in between. And they can see like, oh, but this is a better theater, this has proper lighting, this has better costumes, this has tech staff, this has ushers, this has, you know, whatever that is, right? And I can see why the end of year costs so much more money.

Yeah, I love that. I love that. I think other reasons for doing it is, and I've talked about this a lot, yes, we don't give parents a big enough window into what the kids are doing. And, you know, Phoenix has just started soccer. He's had soccer the last 2 weeks. I've watched those training sessions.

You know exactly what's happening. You know all about his behavior. You know when he's improving.

Yep. He's going to start games soon. I will be at every soccer game.

You know, soccer mom.

Well, I actually— this is the first year in 22 years of running my studio that I'm not teaching on a Saturday morning.

Do you know that?

I mean, apart from COVID obviously, but it's the first year I haven't put myself on a Saturday. Is that crazy to you?

I think that is a sign of a good business person who's there every Saturday because that's what you've got to do. It's a big day in our industry. I think, yeah, regardless of crazy or not crazy, I think it's what you need to do to grow a business.

Yes. And I'm lucky enough to have other people in place now that can do that.

Yes.

So I will be at all of his soccer games because I missed a lot of them.

Yeah.

And that's really sad. Like, I probably only got to 3.

Yeah.

You know, so this year he will be playing, but I'm a part of that. And he plays a game every week.

Yes.

And I always say to dance parents, the game is the performance. So if you're only giving them a mid-year concert, an end-of-year concert, they're actually only playing 2 games.

Yes. Absolutely. And so I love being able to give them another snapshot. And I think we've got to really remember that, you know, a lot of studios are like, oh, but what about competitions? Yeah, but for most of us, it's only a small percentage of our kids that are doing competitions. What about the rest of the kids? Um, obviously not the same in every single studio, but what about— and regardless of, you know, what percentage of your kids are comp kids and rec kids, like You know, what about the kids that don't do the competitions? It's so, so important to give their parents— they're paying the same money for a class. You know, it's important for them to have the same experience and get to see their kids. So, you know, I love mid-years, like almost counter to what you're saying, but like, you know, we're going to go with it anyway. I do them instead of viewing weeks because I feel like viewing weeks in the studio are hard. They're hard for teachers. You don't get a lot done in the class. There's all of those things. But the way you can explain that to parents is benefit drive it. I'm always big on everything being benefit-driven. So to parents, it's like, oh, it's always so hard when you come in because, you know, dad's at work, so he can't make that 4:30 class and the grandparents can't come down for that. And there's, you know, one class on a Monday, one class on a Tuesday. This way you can just come and see all the routines. The whole family can make it and it'll be on a Sunday or a Saturday afternoon or whatever that is. Right. And that's a benefit for parents rather than them having to change their work schedule, you know, all of that to try and make that class time, which normally they're not there for.

Love, love that so much. Let's talk about how we both do mid-year concerts differently because I have a very different school.

Absolutely.

So I think it's interesting too, because I think any school can do a mid-year concert. You have to nut it out how you can do it. But how did you do it?

So ours was 2 days. We would do, you know, depending on the number of kids, 8 to 9 shows over 2 days, short shows. Like we're talking like 40 minutes to an hour sort of thing, like tops. Um, so sort of like shows that sort of started every hour and a half, 2 hours, something like that. Very low-key, all in uniform. I love all in uniform because I actually think that's when you get the best promotional shots. I actually invested more money in photography at mid-year concert than I did at end of year.

Smart.

Because the photos that you get in uniform play so much better on social media. Than the ones of them in full tutus or full costumes and hair and makeup, because that scares people off, right?

Absolutely.

So they're in your branding, they're in your uniform. So little short shows, very like professionally run, but very casual in a sense, meaning the kids are kind of lined up on the side. You know, we did it in a basketball court. We had done it a few different places, like a leagues club, like a community like little stage thing in like a community hall, different places like that. But, you know, the kids would have a chance to watch the other dancers, which I think is key. And we're going to talk about the benefits of upselling because they can watch. And, you know, I would stand on stage, I would introduce every dance and really explain things. You know, for example, if it was an RAD exam class coming out, they would do a little presentation of their work, however that looks. And I'd be explaining, hey, these guys are getting ready for their ballet exams in September. Here's what they've been working on. They're gonna show you a little snippet. Now these exams are great because of blah, blah, blah, blah, blah. All of that education that parents need that they don't always have time to get. I've got a captured audience. They're gonna listen to what I have to say when I'm on that mic. Like I'm gonna talk to them about the benefits of doing acro and why this kid is doing really well because they're taking 7 classes. I'm gonna talk about exams. I'm gonna talk about, the end of year concert gives you a great chance to seed that, especially for studios that say they don't have, you know, they have like a big opt-out rate of end of year concert.

Yep.

Being able to talk about that at mid-year.

Yep.

And about how incredible that's going to be and start the excitement build from there. I think that's so, so valuable. Has that explained how I run it? Yeah.

I love that. And I love what you're saying about talking on the microphone and I'll talk about how I do things in a second. But for preschool, I always say if your little one's only doing one class per week and you'd like to see them more on the stage at the end of the concert, you know, it's now time to opt into another. That's literally what I say. Same thing. I talked about ballet at our pep rally, and I'll tell you about that in a second. And we had the biggest number grow in ballet that we'd had in years because I said to them—

spoke about it.

Yeah, because I said it's the most important genre. If your child's not doing that, you know, they're really at a disadvantage. And we had so many because they don't know that.

Absolutely. And how interesting is that? Because we can sit here and, you know, you know, you've got hundreds of kids, make all these phone calls, you know, to go, you should be doing ballet, you should be doing ballet. But actually saying it on the mic, I think there's something about having a mic because you're the person of authority. You're sitting there and it's not just you having a phone call with the mom. The dad's sitting there, the grandma's sitting there going, hey, how come she doesn't do ballet? Like, do you know what I mean? There's so much power in that. Yep. That really like builds that. So I think, you know, that opportunity to upsell. I love the kids sitting and watching the classes too, because so many kids like, what's contemporary? Isn't that like, what the hell is contemporary? They don't know what that is.

Yeah.

And they're like, oh, that looks great. I always would seed classes as well. Sorry. Now, before you jump into what about yours, I would say some classes like, oh my gosh, you thought that dance was great. I've heard what their end of year concert song is. Oh my gosh, you would not believe it is going to be one of the best. I've seen their costume. You're going to love that. You know, like those kind of things really make a difference.

Yeah, I love that.

Tell us about how you run yours. You run yours slightly differently.

I do, because we have so many comp kids, as you know. So I think this year we've got 220 comp kids. Yeah, that's insane.

Crazy.

It's crazy. Anyway, so we've got 220 comp kids. So we do a thing called a pep rally, which essentially is where they perform all of their comps routines for the first time, try their costumes on for the first time.

It's a dress rehearsal.

It's a dress rehearsal for comps. We have a judge there who gives them feedback on each routine. Same thing though, they watch each other's routines, which sometimes does infuriate me because kids run across in front of the judge.

But yeah, it is what it is. Yeah, deep breath.

Yeah, but it's good for me as well because like 14 Under Jazz costume last year, I hated it when I saw it. Onstage for the first time and so completely changed it. Isn't that crazy? Yeah, but you can do that. Or you're like, oh crap, that child doesn't have a costume. Why is that? Like, so, you know, you can kind of nut that stuff out, I guess. So we love it. That's how we do that preschool and our rec kids do a media concert as well. Yep.

Back to kind of how I was talking about that format. Yeah.

Yes. But they don't watch each other. And mainly because we do use a pretty big venue.

I think it just depends on your venue, right? We had different— depending on different venues, sometimes we did, sometimes we didn't. Some shows we let them, like preschool, we didn't because we were worried about their safety. You know, different things, right? Yeah.

Yeah. So yeah, I think in saying that, you guys have to work out how it's going to best suit your studio.

Yes.

We get a lot of pushback when people say, but I'm getting them ready for exams. And I love that you're just like, So just do 3 exam exercises. Like, it's really not that hard.

Absolutely. I was chatting to someone about that the other day and they were telling me they do like RAD ballet. They do— I can't— I think it was comdance, jazz, and I don't know, contemporary or something. I could have that wrong, but, you know, something along those lines. And she's like, we all get ready. And I'm like, that's really easy. Like, there's so many versions of that and that you can be creative, whether that's, you know, for RAD, like you know, looping the music and doing the dance in like 3 groups but have it looped, and then they do a nice little run around in between and then do some sort of reverence or like whatever, you know. For the other ones, it could be like, you know, even changing the music up and doing the exercises to a different— like putting 4 or 5 exercises together and make it a little 2-minute routine. That should only take a class to do. It's not hard.

Absolutely. And I think as well Parents want to see that. Like, you know, I can't— I'm trying to think of Phoenix. It's hard for me to relate it to baby because obviously I see everything she does all the time in the dance studio. If I wasn't ever watching him play something or be a part of it in some sort of way, I wouldn't feel invested in it. Would you? Like, if you like, think about, yeah, the other activities your kids do. Yeah. If you weren't actually watching that and knowing what was going on in there, how would you have value with it?

Absolutely. Especially if they're little. Yeah. You know, it's different. You know, you talked about baby, baby's, you know, 16, 16, 16 soon. Amanda, 16. So I was like 15, 16. Where are we going with this? You know, she's obviously old enough to articulate how much she loves dance and blah, blah, blah. But, you know, there's plenty of 4-year-olds that come out of class even though they love it and go, yep, it's good. You know, like, that's the answers I get about school, right? We all have those answers. And yeah, it is hard to buy into it, but it's so great when you get a chance to see inside. And, you know, I think sometimes we get too caught up— back to the exam thing— about making it entertaining. Sometimes the parents just want to see what it really is. They want to know what the exam looks like, especially if they don't have a chance to see the exam work beforehand.

Like, absolutely, it's important. Well, funny story about Bibi. She hated dancing when she was 7 and 8. Yeah, didn't hate it. She was there for the social life. But to be fair, I made her go because it was my studio.

Absolutely.

But probably she wouldn't have kept dancing, to be completely fair. Isn't that crazy?

Yeah, nuts. Absolutely nuts. So I think it's so important to be giving those parents a snapshot window. Like, we can talk about the other benefits of it as well. Do you want to dive into Pep Rally a little bit different, more around that? Because I think, you know, sorry, before we talk about the other benefits, you know, your Pep Rally also inspires community. And I think that's a big thing. I always loved— I always sold more tickets to mid-year than I did to end of year because they were cheaper. It was more casual. They felt like they could bring the little kids rather than, you know, sometimes in a theater they feel like, you know, you can't bring the 3-year-old that jumps around and, you know, all of that. Or the grandparents don't mind coming and all of those things. But you really inspire community at your pep rallies.

We do. And I guess it started because I was finding that parents at comp weren't cheering enough for the kids and I want them to cheer for the kids. And so I was like, okay, I need to get the parents more involved. And so we did Pep Rally, I don't know, 6 or 7 years ago, maybe longer. And I was like, okay, I want you guys to dress up and you get prizes for dressing up.

So we've grown over time.

Yeah, we probably had you know, 30 of the parents dress up and the rest didn't. And they bought signs and did all the things. And now it is out of control. Every person fully dressed up with the skirts, the, you know, the big heads. They've got their child on a head that they hold up. You know, those corflute heads at the football. They have those. They print t-shirts. They do. They have posters. They have pom-poms.

So they have like, you know, Chloe's mom written on the front of their t-shirts. We're talking.

Yeah. Which they made themselves. Yeah. It is. Insane. Yeah, we give away some pretty epic prizes, but it does get them involved. We have a red carpet with like photo opportunities. We have all the things there and it does make it a really fun community event. It's a long day. Yeah, it's not what you're saying, how it's, you know, an hour concert. It is a long day because you do all of them in the one. We do all in the one. We get all the feedback. We want the kids to watch each other.

And I think that's different for comp parents, right? It's different.

Very Very different. Yeah, very different. But it's a very fun day.

Yeah.

And everyone loves it and it's a community day and, you know, they all sit up in the bleachers with their cheese and literally they have a basketball court. We do it at a basketball court, but they all bring their own food. They—

right. They get so into it.

They get so into it and have a great day. And I think creating that community is so important. We forget how— again, you know, last night I'm at soccer. Sorry to keep bringing up soccer, but it's my life right now. I'm at soccer, all the mums, we all sit together and we all chat with each other. And Tim said to me, because I didn't have my steps where I wanted them yesterday when I left for soccer, and Tim said, just walk around the soccer field. And I said, no, that's rude. I want to sit with the mums and talk and make connections, which I'm not a chat and talk person. You know that. I know that. Like, I'm not that person at school or anything. But in that community, I feel like it's what needs to happen.

Absolutely.

We need to create those communities and opportunities for our parents to feel like they're a part of things, because when they feel like they're a part of things and their friends are there, you're going to get much better retention.

Absolutely. I love that so much. There's so many benefits to mid-year retention. You know, community is such a big one, but there's also profit to be made.

Oh yeah.

I think that's important for a studio owner because, you know, we work our guts out. It's important to do those things. And to me, the profit in mid-year is great and is a great byproduct. I think it's not the only reason to do something for sure. But it doesn't take a lot of organization, mid-year concerts. They're pretty like low-key. Once you've kind of got the formula together, I think, it's so, so great, especially when you're not ordering costumes and stuff like that. We know that costumes is the biggest, hardest part of a concert, right? So without that, you know, it's not a huge amount of work. And it's so low-key, so the profit's really great. But to me, the upsell benefits, you know, we would always increase our class placements so incredibly at mid-year concept. But we would go in with that intention. There was an offer, there was a plan, there was, you know, that was the intention was to go in and increase them before the end of year. It's not just like a, hey, this magically happened. It, it was created, right? And that's so, so good. Like you talked about being on the mic and those benefits and having a chance to upsell classes. So, so valuable.

Also upselling merch at that time. Like if you have your uniform, you know, you can bring out and we always do bring out a new uniform item just before, just before, which they're going to absolutely want to wear. And, you know, so that's also a really good way to up those profits. So yeah, there's a lot of benefit to doing it.

Yeah, I always loved it for the uniform thing. Like you, we brought out like a limited edition, you know, just beforehand or something like that for most age groups. But even if not, a lot of people, we had a lot of parents parents, uh, that would— our, our preschool tutus would like go a bit floppy after wear. So we had a lot of parents that had the plan. I had this whole group of parents that every year they'd buy a new one for Midyear Concert so they look cute in the photos.

Yeah.

Um, and just kind of keep doing it. So they always had the fresh one. They wouldn't buy at the beginning of the year, they'd wait and hold out and buy it there, which I think is so, so great to be able to do. We always would sell merch on the day as well, and, you know, extra things like hoodies and, you know, stuff like that that people want buy, which is great. But it's also a good reason to have them all in uniform as well, because like everyone, we all struggle with, you know, getting— we say uniform's compulsory, but then, you know, the kids rock up in the black hot shorts or whatever, and it just becomes a thing. We're like, uniform's compulsory, they must wear it to be on stage at mid-year concert. And it really makes it like there's a date, they have to have it, they've got to be ready for it.

Yep. We do have a lot of clients who we've talked into mid-year concert that really go all out.

Yes.

And I want to just quickly talk about that before we finish up.

Yeah.

You know, I said to you, we have the photo wall and we have like little Core Flute signs that they can hold up that we do different ones each year that go with the theme.

And they're from like Easy Signs and they're like, you know, $20.

So simple to do. But you know how like Six Seven, for example, like obviously we'll have a sign saying Six Seven because, you know, it's the in thing at the moment. So you want them to feel cool and think it's funny and all that stuff. But what happens with that then is they share it on their social media and tag us, and we give prizes out through the day for them to share and tag. It's free advertising. When other parents from their school are then seeing that child have a great time at this incredible pep rally, they're like, well, I want my kid to be a part of that.

Absolutely.

Like, you've got to think smart about this stuff as well.

And we actually encourage people to take videos and photos.

I tell them to.

Yeah.

I tell them to.

Yeah.

And I say to them, and we actually give out prizes to the best, the best share.

Yeah.

You know, and it's not too late, like, to do mid-year. Like, I know if you're listening to this and it's March, it is not too late for you to say, hey guys, we're doing this awesome mid-year. It's going to be on this day. Everybody's involved.

More details coming soon. Yeah.

Like, put together a 1.5-minute routine. It does not need to be a long routine. Longer is never better, in my opinion. Yeah. Kids go on and off, have a great time, give them a medal at the end. Done.

Yeah. So easy.

So easy.

All it needs to be. And, you know, there's so many benefits of it. So we would love to encourage you to do that. If that is something you haven't done before, give it a go. Hit us up if you need any advice or anything like that. We've got photos and different things of different setups because there's so many ways you can do it based on what your venue looks like and what you can get.

Absolutely. Yeah.

So exciting. I hope you go out and do a mid-year and it absolutely goes off for you.

Absolutely. Thanks, guys. We hope you have a great week and we'll see you next week.

Bye.

Bye.

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