Staff Drama? Here's What You're Probably Not Doing As A Dance Studio Owner

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.

We're actually recording today for our podcast, which is super exciting. So some of you might get to be a little part of that.

We wanted to let you know we're recording this, but your faces won't be seen or anything like that. So don't need to stress about that. But yeah, we're super excited to chat about staff today.

So excited. So let us know in the chat how you're feeling about your numbers, how all the things are going. I'd also love to know how you're feeling about team. Do you think you've got a great team, a good team, or a terrible team? Sophie is an 8 out of 10.

Yeah, so good to hear you've got a great team. So, so good. We love that. If you're happy, happy with all that. And we can't wait to help you with that today, right?

Yeah. Love that, Alex. Julia's a 9. That's so good, Julia. How amazing.

Love that.

Everyone's feeling very positive. I feel like it's a great year, Amanda.

Yeah, got it all happening.

Yeah, I feel like— yeah, I feel like this is such a good year. Um, I don't know if you guys feel that, but I really feel like there's a very, very positive feel to this year.

Awesome.

So super pumped to chat to you today. All right guys, so we're gonna chat today about staff matters, all things staff. Hopefully we inspire you a little bit with your team. I do I think that team is often the very, very last thing, um, that gets pushed to the side and there's so much other stuff that we worry about, right? Can you guys all see my screen? Because that's doing something weird that doesn't normally happen.

Can you give us a thumbs up or a thumbs down?

Thumbs up?

Yeah, cool. Wonderful. Yeah, I think I completely agree. I think sometimes, you know, staff, it gets pushed to the side. It's that last thing that you think about, you know, you're like, oh yeah, the team are great. I've just got to worry about the marketing, the trials, that parent email, the You know, all the other things, fixing the toilet, like there's always crap that you've got to—

entering the comps, like what comps are we doing? You know, that's us at the moment. What comps are we doing?

Absolutely.

The thing is, it's interesting because I would say most of the businesses, Amanda, staff is their number one thing. Mm.

Yeah.

And, and the problem is that with us not focusing enough on it and not making it the most important thing, then we lose kids. We don't have great retention. We end up fighting with that staff member because they haven't done what we wanted, but were we even clear in what we wanted in the first place? And it just, it ends up being a whole shebang.

Yeah, absolutely. So let's get into it. I know you are incredible at training your staff. So tell me, what do you feel like is like the first thing you'd like to talk about around here?

Well, first thing I want to talk about is removing financial anxiety from your staff. And the reason I want to bring this up is, you know, I have a lot of teachers at my studio. Who teach at a lot of different studios because I've got a lot of, you know, high-end teachers. And I know that it's such a common thing that they don't get paid, aren't being paid their super, aren't being paid properly. Like, there's so many factors in this that's consistently coming up. And I know that our tribe members are very educated on this, but I thought because we're making this a podcast today as well, Amanda, it's something really important to talk about.

Absolutely. I feel like, you know, if you want loyal staff, that ongoing stress from the staff and like, you know, that like undercurrent, you know, sometimes you can like feel this undercurrent where they're like, hmm, I wonder. And maybe it's not even as like far gone as like, am I gonna be paid on time? But maybe it's just like, oh, I wonder, uh, if she's happy with my work. I wonder when I'm gonna be due for a pay rise. I wonder if we're still doing the rate that we decided on last year or if that's gonna be redone this year. I wonder if I'm going to get paid for that extra 20 minutes that she asked me to stay back. All of those things create financial anxiety in our staff, which is completely fair.

I love that. And before I move on to the next thing, like, make— I love what you said then, because making those pathways for your staff really relevant. Like, if you have a junior staff member and they're a really great teacher, and you could say to them, okay, I would love you to be a full-time trainee for 2 years, then I would love you to move up to head of junior school or whatever, then I'd love you to eventually maybe be a studio manager. Like, if you can tell them that there's a pathway and there is a career in this for them, they're probably going to be more likely to actually work for you.

Absolutely. And I think also knowing, like, what's included in their hours, what they have to do, uh, that, you know, at home, for example. Um, and I think that that's really interesting because, you know, uh, I think so many of them, like And however you do it and whatever it works, that's kind of not what we're going for, but more the fact that, you know, you need to know up in front what's expected. Are they expected to post on band at home? Are they expected to cut music at home? Is that, you know, how many hours is that kind of at home that they're doing? And are they compensated for that or are they not? Do they have a higher, you know, hourly rate because of that? But I think just being super clear with what's expected.

Totally agree, totally agree. Um, guys, if you're listening to the podcast, we have a chat. We've. So we've got a couple of comments here. Sophie's written, it's concerning what I've heard about what studios aren't doing in regards to regular payments or paying super. Totally agree, Sophie, but I want to put this out there right now. I was one of those studios because I was just uneducated. Yep. Probably 10 years ago, I would say I wasn't doing any of that. And that's why I'm passionate now about talking to people about it, because most studio owners— and Sophie, I know you're a gun businesswoman and, you know, that's super awesome— but most studio owners get into teaching dance because they want to affect children positively. They grew up doing dance, they love teaching dance. And so that's it, you know. And when someone comes to them and they're a contractor, they're just like, okay, I pay you as a contractor. That's just what happens. Yeah, it's, it's— yeah, I think education is definitely the key.

Absolutely.

And if you're not educated, that's okay. There's no judgment from Amanda and I ever with any studio. Yeah, just get educated.

Yeah. We've got an incredible speaker coming to Dance Teacher Expo, an accountant who is not from the dance world., and he is a wealth of knowledge. We've started working with him personally and he's amazing. Like, yeah, I think, you know, talking to people that are outside of our world because otherwise we get so into the, oh, this is how it's always been done, so I'm just going to do it this way. I think, yeah, you know, it's important. So yeah, learn, get educated. There's also great resources online that are free.

There's so many. But I mean, you say he's not from the dance world, but he's worked with Paws and—

oh yes, he is now.

Originally, sorry, he is— he gets it now. Like, he totally gets us. Yeah. I love what Dee's written, guys. If you're on on the podcast, um, because our tribe members obviously can see the chat. In no other industry do we demand a pay rate. Blows my mind. And I have to say about that, my bookkeeper Kirsty, who's a bookkeeper for magazines, hotels, like so many different things, but she cannot believe the audacity of teachers saying to me that they want a $10 per hour pay rate. She's like, that would not happen in any other industry ever. Like, it— she just cannot. And she can't get over the rates of pay. She's like, you are paying some of these teachers more than a surgeon gets paid per hour. Like, it's just so crazy and insane. I also think if you're giving them a really good block of time that you can renegotiate that, because I do understand that if they're coming out to a studio for an hour or hour and a half, then charging $100 an hour, I get it, because by the time they travel there, teach for that hour and a half and go home, that's probably a whole afternoon done for them. But if you're giving them 4 or 5 hours in a row, then I think you can say to them, like, I'm giving you a really good block, and I work really hard to do that at my studio. I try and give them like a 3:30 to 8:00 minimum, um, if they're coming out. And then, you know, I'm giving you a really good block, um, so we can reduce that rate for sure. All right, so I wanted to say always pay on time, and I think, you know, this is where you really have to work on your cash flow in your business, because if you're someone that's chasing fees because you're still invoicing at the beginning of the term instead of getting that direct debit weekly. This is going to be very hard for you to do. And I totally get that because, you know, it takes people forever. Or maybe you're invoicing late. Like, you shouldn't be, in my opinion, Amanda, invoicing at all. You should have a studio software that's taking that money out every single week. That was such a game changer for me when I started doing that in my studio.

I'm sure it was for you as well, right?

Absolutely.

And I think, you know, Coming back to the always pay on time thing, you know, if we, you know, the chat that we just had and we expect these things from our employees, we've also got responsibilities as employers and you can't have your cake and eat it too, right? So, you know, to me, like paying on time, like to me within like an hour of the same time every single week, you know, if you went and worked for a corporation like we're talking about, if you worked for any other business, you know, they don't muck around with that. They don't go, oh, I was sick, so you didn't get paid this week, because that's not their fault. That's not their fault if they've got rent due, all of those things. It's not, oh, so-and-so didn't pay me, so I can't pay you. None of that is their problem. No matter what, pay your staff on time.

I also think this is again why they don't necessarily take some studios seriously. Yes, because they're not going to take you seriously and think it's a real job if you can't pay them on time and correctly.

Can we go back to the correctly? Yeah, exactly. With proper payslips, with everything. Going on, like exactly to be done.

Because if they went to Woolworths, Coles, McDonald's, anywhere else, they're going to get paid on time every single week without fail properly. Yeah. So if you want to be taken seriously and again, this is about having staff retention, you just need to really think about that. I know you're very passionate about this. I am as well. You know, if your staff work for you on concert day, they should be paid. And I know back in the day when I was a teacher, guys, I did not get paid for any of that ever.

It was not even a thing. You know, even I've done the same, like given a cash bonus. That's not the same thing. Yeah, a cash bonus for that day is not the same thing as paying them correctly.

And they will resent you. I remember once, and this was probably— I don't think I've even told you this story. I think I was 18 or 19. It was my first year of teaching properly, like really teaching properly. I must have been 19. Anyway, this teacher that I was working for got me to help with costumes. Now, I reckon I probably did 2 or 3 hours a day for maybe 5 or 6 weeks of costuming. Yeah. And she said at the end of the term she was going to give me a bonus. And at the end of the term she bought me a pair of Ray-Bans. I'm not kidding. That was my bonus. Yeah. And I was so resentful of that and so angry about it. And, you know, it's, it's the same thing. Like, it's just, it wasn't done properly. It's just such a—

oh, And it's hard. And I want to go back to the financial anxiety that we talked about before as well, because also I've heard studio owners that go, oh yeah, I pay my staff for, um, concert day for sure. And I'm like, did you tell them that before you asked them to come? You know, because if they're like, oh, I wonder if she's going to pay me, I wonder what she's going to pay me, I wonder what hours she's going to pay me for, for concert day, then there's going to be this like a little bit of anxiety from there. Behalf, you know, about what they're doing and what they're expected to do. And that's going to affect their performance on the day. So you need to be super clear. Hey guys, you know, I'm asking you to come for a concert. It'll be an 8 AM show up till 4 PM. You'll be paid for the entire time from 8 till 4, you know, whatever it is. Um, you've got to be super clear about it. You'll have a lunch break at this time. We've got to be professional.

Yep. Also, to be clear, I am not paying them $70 an hour to be at the concert. I always pay the award wage and admin rate is what I say to them. For their level. So I go to the Fitness Award wage for their level and age, check what that would be, and then that's what I pay them.

Did you do that? Yep, absolutely.

Awesome. Next point. Well, we've already talked about this, but be educated on super tax and all the things. And if you're not educated, you know, one, come to Expo and listen to Ethan. That's the first thing I would suggest you do. Two, you can look this stuff up online.

It's so easy on the Fair Work— like, that's a New South Wales thing, I think. Oh no, Fair Work's Australia-wide, I don't know, but there's incredible websites, government-based websites that have all of that info. It actually isn't hard to find. There is a great Fair Work helpline. You know, I was talking to another studio owner about that. Like, they were so shocked about how helpful the Fair Work— they thought the Fair Work was kind of like, you know, on the side of the employee. Absolutely not. They just want it to be fair and they will give you help if you need it. If you call those lines, they are incredible. I highly recommend doing that as well.

And I know I harp on about this to everybody, but I'm going to harp on again. You cannot have contractors in your studio if they are coming out every single week as a weekly teacher, as a weekly teacher at the exact same time. If they are booked as that, as if they're wearing your uniform, even if they're not wearing a uniform, if they are coming to staff meetings, if they're— yeah, they are not a contractor. Okay. I've been burnt by that before, as you all know.

Okay.

That's it about finances. We're going on to expectations. Now, this is interesting because I know that a lot of studios just start their classes, bring some new staff in, put them into the classroom and go, off you go and teach. And that is a major, major issue. So clear expectations are where it's at. This makes it easier to manage them because you can be like, hey, when you— when we had the staff training, which I'm very passionate about, but even if it was when we had our original meeting, I spoke to you about the fact that you can't be on your phone during class, and I've noticed on the videos that you're on your phone during class. Like that, you know what's funny about that? As studio owners, we would never think that was something that we needed to say.

No, that's exactly right. And I think so often we become resentful to our staff because we're like, they should know that. They should know that they shouldn't be on their phone. They should know that they shouldn't be eating during class. They should know. But I'm like, but if you haven't told them, it's not clear.

Yeah.

And I really feel like setting those expectations early and pulling them up early before it becomes a big deal, that is the key.

You have to pull them up early. And please don't think that my staff don't do any of this stuff. Oh yeah, they do. Yeah, they really, really do. I had a staff member eating in class last week. It's week 3, you know. Straight away though, I have to go and talk to her. Yeah, I can't let it fester and leave it and then think, oh, why can't you do the right thing? And then go and bitch to someone, why can't you do the right thing? Absolutely.

That is not the way to manage the year. And be like, oh, I just, I'm so sick of that teacher because she always eats in class. Well, like, you know, if you told her after week one, hey, just remember, um, I don't love eating in class, or whatever that is for you, right? Remember we talked about at the staff meeting, I don't like it because of X, Y, and Z, so can you instead do XYZ? And before it like festers into this huge problem, right, just nip it in the bud.

Again, like, I used to manage retail stores, and every single day managing that retail store, we were constantly talking to the staff about what they needed to do better, where they could improve, how they needed to, you know, whatever. You're constantly giving them feedback. I always say this, but you have made a choice to be a studio owner, which means you're a boss, which means you are in charge of giving consistent feedback to every single staff member. Yeah. And you know, it's— and they like it. 9 out of 10 of them actually like the feedback and appreciate it.

Absolutely. Especially if it's done before it becomes this big deal. If it's just like, hey, great job tonight in class. That dance looked awesome. Hey, P.S., if you could just make sure you have your snacks like between classes, that'd be awesome. Thanks so much. Like, that's all it has to be. It doesn't have to be a come into my room and sit down and have a meeting and it'd be really serious and scary.

Amanda is a lot nicer than me though. I am like so straight to the point.

But like, it's— that's a personality.

That is true. Yeah, I'm very straight to the point with my stuff though. Um, okay, knowing your values. Now I think this is important not just for your staff knowing your values, but for you to know your values so that you don't have staff that try to waver you away from them, because that is such a big thing. Yeah, absolutely.

Staff have their own ideas and they're like, you should do this, this costume, we should do this. And you're like, oh, okay. They're like, oh, the kids think it's so cool, or that's going to win well at comps, or whatever. It's so easy to get swayed by them, especially saying they're the one in the room with the kids, and to take their word as gospel.

Yeah, absolutely. Now, if you don't have values I would highly suggest you spend an hour or two going through. You'll know them. Um, and just trying to think about what your values are. 4 values is enough for me, I think. And, you know, so one of my values is family, which includes inclusive classes. It might include that we all wear uniform because I want everyone to feel equal. It might include that I provide events so that people can connect with each other and so that Paws becomes a family. Age-appropriate costumes and themes like there's lots of things that go under that little bracket of family. So you can be like, my value is family and here's all the reasons why we want to—

reason you can't wear that slutty costume. Is that basically what we're going with? I'll just put it out there.

Literally. Yeah, literally.

Okay. And dads in the audience are not going to appreciate that costume.

Exactly. Exactly right, Amanda. And so I think, you know, again, if you've told them your values, if you're clear in your values, then when they do something against your values, you can say to them, hey, let's just go back to the values. Remember, this was a part of the values. It's really important to us at Paws, or wherever you are, that this is adhered to. So we need to change the way we're doing things. Again, it just makes it easier to manage. If they don't know the expectations and don't know the values, then they feel like they can do what they want, and why wouldn't they? Absolutely, absolutely.

So you've really got to make sure, and you know, that comes back to the really being clear with your expectations, your values, everything upfront, because otherwise I feel like sometimes it feels like they're teaching their class and someone else is teaching their class, and then you are doing this and it's not connected, you know? And I think it's really important to make sure everyone's on the same page and they're not just like individual things that are going on in our studios.

Absolutely. So when I do expectations and I do it nearly every single staff training, and I do staff training 4 times a year, the reason that I do it so full on is because I think they need to know every little thing. So from the basics, like don't sit down while you're teaching, like to me that's so obvious. Don't be on your phone while you're teaching, you know, like just basic things. And then I'll go all the way through to make sure that you say every child's name in a positive way in every single class that you take, right? Make sure you go out and speak to the parents in between classes or make sure you, you know, Do you post your videos on Band so that they can see what's going on in the classes? Like every single thing needs to be mapped out.

Yeah, I love that. And being super clear with that upfront, as we said, that they need to know what's expected. They need to know if they're meant to be posting on Band, if you expect them to cut their music, when that's all due, you know, exactly the types of wording that you expect them to use with parents and kids.

So important. Remember, if you're a Tribe member, these slides are in your portal. For you. So you can grab those slides with all the expectations and then you can just change them around for yourself. Okay, so that makes it super easy for you guys. This is an interesting one. Don't only talk to them when something is wrong.

I want to tell you, it looks like there's something wrong.

Yeah, there is.

There is, Nathan, but that is not what's happening in that photo. But regardless of the photo, you know, I think it's so important to, you know, not just talk to them when they're there's some big drama.

I wanna tell you a little story. This is from a few years ago, but one of my teachers who also grew up at my studio, and he's had an incredible, incredible career, and he's come back and teaching for me the last couple of years, was telling me that he was teaching at a studio and he went in the first day and the studio owner said hi and bye to him, didn't stay for the class or anything like that, just said hi and bye. He's teaching their senior contemporary class temporary class. He did not see that studio owner for the entire rest of the year. She did not— I'm not kidding, she did not communicate with him at all for the entire rest of the year.

That blows my mind. I'm such a fucking control freak that I, you know, I'd sit there and watch the class every week, pop my head in for 5 minutes every single week. I just couldn't do it.

Yeah, and I'm the same. I don't think that is a control freak. I think it's making sure that you are feedback again. Like, you should be giving feedback even to top-end choreographers. Absolutely. You should be saying to them, how are you going? Is there anything you need? I was on the phone to— I didn't go into the studio last night, Amanda, and I was on the phone to Lockie, who taught all of the troops last night, just before I came here, saying, how did it go? Like, you know, tell me what happened. Like, I want to know what's happening in my classes. And so I think, like, like you want to try and chat to them every single week if you can. Okay.

And that can just be a quick like little message. It can be between classes, 5 minutes. It doesn't have to be a sit-down meeting every week, but it's a check-in at some point.

Yeah, absolutely. And 3 times a term minimum. And you guys need to make sure that you're writing this down. Oh, I spoke to Lockie Friday, 20th of Feb. So therefore, if I'm going to do it 3 times a term, I'll talk to him again in 2 weeks' time. Like, that's fine too. I try and check in with each teacher, or one of our managers does check in with each teacher every single week without fail.

I love that because it also lets them know that they have an opportunity to, you know, be heard as well if they've got an issue. And sometimes it's just asking for advice. Oh look, I had a bit of trouble with, you know, so-and-so today. Like, you know, she wouldn't really participate. I don't know, has anything been going on at all? How do you think I should handle just having those conversations, it grows all of you as a team.

Absolutely. Absolutely. So staff appraisals don't need to be scary. And I know that you guys are like, I would never do staff appraisals. A lot of you, I would never sit down with a staff member and do that. But it's such a game changer, you know, to spend a day in the school holidays. And it doesn't have to be in person. It can be on Zoom exactly how we are here. So So my suggestion is set up a little Calendly. That's really annoying that that video just keeps going over and over. In a loop. There's a video of Jim Carrey, for those of you on the podcast, just doing this whole like, whoa, thing, and it's just going over and over. Anyway, set up a Calendly. It's very simple to set up. Put your times in for, I'm gonna do it Tuesday of week 2 of school holidays or whatever it is. I'm gonna meet with you all for half an hour, meet with them on Zoom, there's a staff appraisal sheet in your portal for you guys to use, and you can change it up how you want. But, you know, I have things on my staff appraisal like give yourself a mark out of 10 for how you marked the roles this term, because that's really important.

Give yourself reflection.

Yeah, give yourself a mark out of 10 for how positive you were in class. Give yourself a mark out of 10. Like, I get them to grade themselves, and then I give them feedback on your choreography, on your You know, and they love talking to you and then saying to them in that meeting, what support do you need? How are you feeling about things? Like, it's, it's just such a good thing to do. I'd love to know in the chat if you guys do staff appraisals, let me know. Yeah.

While they're writing that, can we go back to like, you know, something little like marking a roll, right? Because like, you know, we know a studio and it's like, that can be a killer. And I think it's so important, you know, instead of just being like, you didn't mark your role in week 7, like, yes, sometimes you do have to do that for sure, but when a teacher comes to you and goes, oh, I'm a 10 out of 10 for marking role, you're like, well, you're not. Or if they go, hey, I'm a 6 out of 10, go, okay, cool, I've noticed that you've done that, thanks for being honest. Yes, I've noticed you've missed a couple of roles. How can I help you? Do you need me to show you how to do that again through the portal, or can we set up a reminder or, you know, what is it? But then also having the opportunity to talk to them about why that matters.

Yes, that is the key.

Because it's not just like, mark the roll because I said so, because then they'll go like, oh, but I know that they're here. You're like, no, no, because we've got to see— there's problems with admin and billing that we've got to go back to. If there was an emergency, we need to know it. You know, if it's a child safety issue, like all of the issues that we know as studio owners, being super clear, but explaining not just just mark a roll because I said so.

I always tell the story in staff training about this for a kid that came to my studio from another studio, and the mum was very involved in that studio, like, you know, one of those mums that volunteers and helps out and just is a lovely mum. And the child actually went into hospital and nearly died and was in hospital for 3 months, but because they, they didn't even realize because this teacher didn't mark the roll or didn't flag it with the admin. And so she left the studio and she came and told me that studio and she was crying at that story and she was crying as she was telling me the story because no one noticed. And I tell that story all the time to my staff because I say we don't ever want any child to feel like that in our studio.

Absolutely not. So great to see people in the chat saying that they've started doing one-on-one catch-up. So, so good. Like, it's so impressive, and I think it's so important. And if it's something that you've been too scared to do, hopefully this is your sign that maybe it's a great time. It's term 1, you know, organize them for the end of term 1, organize them for the holidays, you know, whatever it is. It's a great time to start.

This should be your sign. Absolutely, absolutely, guys. And it's not too late to train your staff, you know. If you haven't done any staff training this year and and you're like, oh, I can't start it now, it's already week 4 or 5 or whatever it is depending on which state you're in. It is never too late. It is time now. You know, sit down with them one-on-one, organize a team meeting in a few weeks' time, whatever you need to do.

I think it's so— You know that whole saying like, you know, best time to plant a tree was 20 years ago, next best time is now. I think, you know, it's never too late to do something. One of our studio both club members. Zoe did her first staff training in like 20 years last weekend, even though it was like week 5, and, you know, said how great it was. And like, I think that's so empowering that it was so incredible for us. She said the team— she was so nervous that they wouldn't be into it, but they loved it, got so much out of it, and feel like, you know, moving forward that they're all on the same, you know, page, which is so important.

Absolutely. One of my last calls, um, tribe members, was literally me going through slides of staff training and telling you exactly what I do in staff training. And those slides are available to you. So if you haven't done staff training and you want to go back, just look in the portal and you'll see that. Yeah. Okay. Don't just give them classes, give them tools to succeed. I wanted to talk about this, Amanda, because I feel like we have such a culture in our studios where we just— a teacher isn't doing what they should be, or they don't have great behavior management, or their choreography is not good. Or they don't teach technique well, and so we fire them. Yeah, and we just, we just keep repeating that process over and over. And I've been one of those studio owners that's done that 100%. But I do believe there is so much value in investing in your staff. If they aren't doing great with behavior management, get them to watch the behavior management tutorial in the portal. Or I'm actually doing that at Expo, I think, this year as as well, a behavior management tutorial. So, you know, get them to come to Expo and learn how to have behavior management. But I even do things like, you know, I'll get a tech coach out to teach them. I'll get an acro expert out to upskill them in acro. I'll get like, you need to continually upskill them.

Yeah, I think that's so important that we give them the tools to succeed. Like, don't just expect that they know how to teach. And, you know, we have to build them. It's our job. Employers to make sure that we're building our staff up and encouraging that ongoing training. You know, even with high-end teachers. And look, you know, I personally, you know, I, I'm a great dance teacher for sure. My choreography took a lot of work to get it out of me. Like, you know, I could choreograph really good routines, but like, it wasn't— didn't come as naturally to me. And I was fine and could see that as well. However, you know, I would have I have some very high-end choreographers who, let's be honest, were a better choreographer than me. But I would sit down and give them feedback because it was a feedback done not in the way of, I don't like that step, you should change it. But like, hey, can we talk about this formation and what that looks like? And hey, let's talk it out together and let's discuss it as a team and how we can make this better together. So I don't think ever feel like you're not, you know, you can't do that. Just like you train your acro teachers, you're not an acro teacher. But it doesn't mean that you can't work with them to give them the tools to succeed.

Oh, absolutely. And, you know, Stephen Townhouse worked for me for years and he would always ask me to come in and give him feedback. And he's one of the best choreographers in the whole world. Yeah. Like, it's, you know, they need the feedback. They need someone to bounce off. You know, it's so important for them. Julia is doing her staff training tomorrow. How awesome. That is so good, Julia. Let us know how it goes. I love what Dionne's written. We have changed it to staff development. That is really smart, Dionne, and I'm totally stealing it. So—

Dee's a rock star.

She is, but that's the mindset of teachers are different. That's really good. They're being developed. That makes so much sense, Dee. I absolutely love that. Sophie, we have set up a resource drive to support our start with class ideas, our info, workplace health and safety, behavior management, and child safety. Safety's so good. Yeah, so good.

And there's so many great things that you can give your staff as well. Like, I was always making sure I was subscribed to, you know, programs in the US, you know, uh, masterclasses, online trainings. I would be doing all of those things and being giving all of those resources to my staff because you want them to upskill, you want them to get better, because if they get better, they're going to do better for your studio. Like, you know, that whole, uh, What's that saying? Like, what if you train your staff and you— they leave? And that's what a lot of people go into that mindset. What if I spend all this money on my staff? What if I put them through, you know, that acrobatics course? Or what if I pay for them to do this and that and they leave? Yeah, but what if you don't and they stay and they're just the same teacher and they're not getting better?

Absolutely.

You know, yes, people are going to leave. Sometimes that's going to suck. Absolutely. I get that. That. But if they end up staying and they don't get better as a teacher, that's much more damaging to your business.

Absolutely. And that's why you're not retaining students. That's why you're not, you know, you're bringing trials in, but they're not converting. And the answer is not necessarily to fire them. I really believe the answer is to try and upskill them and to, and to help them as much as you possibly can. So now I want to chat to you guys about about marketing and growing classes?

Because I hear the teachers perspective.

Yeah. Yeah. Because, well, I hear a lot of studio owners say, oh, they're not growing their class. Yeah. I'm like, well, it's actually not their job.

It's not the ballet teacher's job to grow her class as such. She can, but yeah, but you have to be able to give them the skills and the tools required.

Yeah. Like it is and it isn't. Okay. So first of all, I guess you've got to self-reflect as a leader and you've got You guys know that I'm all about this, okay? Constantly self-reflecting. So one, are you marketing their class? You know, are you actively putting some spend behind that class and getting trials into it? Okay. And no one ever is going to be able to retain 100% of their students. It is not doable. It's not doable. It's not possible. You can't have that expectation. If kids are leaving their class, have you straight away had the conversation and said, kids are leaving your class, we need to fix something here. You know, that happened last week in my studio where kids wanted to leave a certain class, Amanda. Straight away we're talking to that teacher. Yeah, straight away. Rather than just letting it go, right? Exactly, that teacher had to know what was going on. She felt terrible about it, so she spoke to those kids and said, come back this week and let's fix it. Like, you know, sometimes as teachers we don't always know that we're doing things wrong either, and we need the feedback. So I think you guys have to self-reflect and make sure that you're actually marketing. Would you agree with that?

Amanda?

Absolutely.

And I think it's, you know, don't just put all the pressure on the staff. You know, are you giving them the tools that they need to grow the studio? Like, and are you including them in the process as well? I think it's really important to make sure that they're part of that process. They understand it. They understand the whole thing from marketing to what the conversation is to, you know, that conversion piece where they come from the trial to the enrolled and that you support them through it and train them through the whole process. Process.

Yes. And, you know, I always— I'm so big on social media with your staff being allowed to post on the stories of social media. You know, we have all of our staff have access to our social media. They're not allowed to post posts, but they're allowed to post stories. And not only allowed, they're supposed to. It's a— yes, it's a non-negotiable that they post stories every single day that they teach, because that way we're putting our classes out there. You know, I always say to my ballet teachers, how do they know that we have this incredible ballet program if you aren't posting it on social media? Like, how do you think people are even seeing that if you're not being bothered to post? And they have gotten a lot better at that, I have to say. But I think, you know, letting them do that and getting them to share the amazing things they're doing on social media is a great way to market their class. Absolutely, absolutely.

So support your your team with that, I think is the main point.

Absolutely. All right, finishing up, guys, we have some bonuses for you in your portal, as you probably already know, but I thought I would just remind you of them. So there are the appraisal sheets in there with everything that I do with my team. You know, like I said, choreography out of 10, yada yada. So there's heaps of those in there for you guys to, you know, you can just copy what I do. There's no issue with that. Or you can put your own stuff into it. Totally up to you. And also like the jump-in slides, we didn't talk a lot about jump-in today, but—

Can you explain what jump-in is?

Yeah, definitely. And I've done lots of chats on it, as you guys know. But jump-in essentially is acting out in your studio potential issues that you're having to help train them. So, you know, behavior management is a great jump-in thing to do, getting the kids to be naughty, asking the team what problems you're having. You know, maybe it's a teen that isn't trying hard. How do we fix that? Maybe it's a kid that's swinging on the bars. How do we fix that? Maybe it's a class that constantly talks over the top of you. Like giving them the tools of what to know for behavior management and acting it out. One, they find it very fun and funny because especially if you're like, okay, it's a preschool class, everyone be a preschooler, you know, they love it. It's a fun team building thing as well. But also it's very, very important for them to understand, you know, different ways to deal with children. And a lot of these kids that come into our studio teaching— and I say kids because they finish full-time. And let's be honest, in our industry, 90% of those full-timers are going to become teachers and not necessarily professional dancers. There are that many full-timers now. There's that many kids doing full-time. I think the stats are and this was a couple of years ago that I knew these stats, 3,500 kids do full-time a year. Holy shit. And there's usually about 30 jobs for them. Yeah. Isn't that insane? Like that is just so insane. Like, so then they teach, but they haven't been taught how to teach. They haven't gone and done a degree in teaching like a kindergarten teacher would, you know, they're just expected to go in and teach. And if you if you help them and mold them and work with them, they will become your best, most amazing teachers. But if you just expect them to go in and teach without giving them any of the tools they need, then you're setting them up to fail, and that's not fair.

And it's your job and your role and responsibility as an employer. Like, you know, we can sit here and talk about, oh, that there was, you know, maybe they should have been more trained, whatever, doesn't matter. It's the world we live in. And if you want them to be great staff for you, you need to do the work to make sure that they're well trained. So these jump-in slides are basically all done for you. So you can go through, it's like, you know, usually an hour session you can do with your staff.

So you'll find that in your portal as well. Absolutely. I'd love to know what your biggest takeaway of today is. Let me know in the chat. And also if you have any questions, Alex just wrote, that's so cool. Thanks, Alex. If you have any questions, we've got a couple more minutes that we can spend with you guys. So let us know in the chat if you have a question. The other thing I'd like to say to you is don't just jump off this call, be all inspired, and then just be like, oh, okay, I'm all inspired. Now I'm gonna go answer some emails. Like, actually sit down. And I say this every time. At the end of TRIBE, Amanda, because we just run as studio owners. We run and run and run and run and run, and we don't actually think about the moving parts of our business. I'd love you to get off this call and go, okay, I am now gonna book in staff appraisals with all of my staff. I'm gonna set my Calendly up now and I'm gonna book it in. Or, okay, I'm gonna make the effort to go and talk to each staff member. Let me look at my timetable and see when I can do that, or whatever your takeaway was from today. I don't know what it is. I would highly suggest that you do that.

Absolutely. So, so important. We hope that you've gotten so much out of it. Should we go through that question first before we jump on it? Yeah. Any resources, obviously, that Alex, the ones in the portal, there's heaps in the portal. So make sure you jump in and have a look at those. But you know, to me, it's really about being clear with your expectations. Alex is saying, you know, she wants to train herself, her staff, but she just goes blank and doesn't know what to do. But I think it's just starting from the start and not feeling like anything is too silly to go over, right?

Yeah, Alex, there definitely is that stuff in the portal, but I might chat to Mel and get her to just direct you guys to that because, yeah, I think the slides that I use for staff training in January should be in there.

There.

Um, there's also, um, the staff appraisal forms and those jump-in slides. So all of that is definitely there for you, um, but we'll make sure that you guys have easy access to it.

No worries. Absolutely. Thanks so much for joining us, tribe members. We can't wait to see you back on Tuesday for our Q&A. Q&A. So excited for that. Uh, if you've been a podcast listener, hope you've enjoyed being a fly on the wall today, and we can't wait to see at Expo.

Absolutely. Thanks guys, chat to you later.

Bye-bye. We hope you enjoyed this episode of the Dance Principles United podcast. If you'd love to learn more from us, we have a special offer just for our podcast listeners. Go to the link in the show notes right now to get 2 weeks free in Dance Principles United Tribe. We would love to see you there.