The Top 5 Tasks to Do Now to Crush Your 2025!

Hello, friends. I'm Amanda Barr.

And I'm Rebecca Lou Brennan. And welcome to Dance Principals 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 Back to the 20 live dance principles United Podcast. Beck. Happy New Year. How are you, my love?

I am super awesome. I'm so pumped for this year. I feel like it's got such a good vibe about it. It is going to be an incredible, incredible year. Don't you think so?

Absolutely, absolutely. So Happy New Year to all of our listeners. I hope you've had a. A little bit of a break, maybe. We're recording this, you know, beginning of January, so hopefully it's time that you are now starting to get back into the studio rhythm, to get done, to make it the best year that it can be in your studio and to grow the studio of your dreams.

Yeah, absolutely. Amanda, I don't know if you used to be this person, maybe not because you were like a gun business owner. I feel from beginning, but I was not. So I used to take pretty much the whole of January off. I would maybe start.

It gives me anxiety.

Yeah, yeah. Well, now it does, but back then I just felt like I needed six weeks off. So I would take from, you know, pretty much the end of concert all the way up until maybe 22 January, would do nothing for the studio. No goals. And, like, how much my mindset has now changed to no, this is probably the time that you need to work hard. It's like, that's what we were just saying to our SJC members. Right. Like, we just had our first call of the year with them, which was so epic. I can't believe, like, I was so proud. I don't know if you felt like that, but there was so many people on the call, like, it was absolutely.

Ready to make it a great year and, you know, they're ready, you know, keen to get it done. Yeah. So exciting.

Yes. So good. But I think, like, now we know, and we should know that January is the time to set goals, to get yourself organized and to work hard.

Absolutely. Which brings us into our topic today, our top five things to do at the beginning of the year to grow the studio of your dreams. And if you haven't really started yet, use this podcast as a great way to start growing that studio, to get back in the groove, to find your energy levels and really get it going for 20, 25.

Yep. Absolutely. And really picturing what that studio looks like. You know, really thinking about what your ideal studio is. You know, how many kids are there, what sort of classes are you teaching, what does your team look like, what does all of the things look like? Because when you have that vision, I think it's easier to then set goals, Right?

Absolutely. Which totally brings us into number one of our top five things to do, and that's set meaningful goals. Set goals that mean something to you. And, like, it's really important to, like, to get that started. Like you said, to start dreaming and thinking about the goals and not just the goals, but like what your dream life looks like and then the steps and the goals to get yourself there.

Yes. And, you know, we've talked about this a lot, but putting those goals around you, putting them, I, as I said to you before, Amanda, on your phone, like putting it on your bedside table, having it so that you wake up and see them in your office, have them up on the wall of your office, if that's where you work, so that you're constantly looking at them. The more you look at them, the more you talk about them, the better those goals are going to be and the more you're going to keep trying to achieve them.

Absolutely. So I think it's really important that we understand why we're setting the goals that we need to set and that we're not just plucking numbers out, out of thin air. Right. It is so important to know, like, is it because you want to pay yourself X amount of dollars a week? And if that's the case, great. Like, you know, work out what that X amount of dollars is, then work backwards to how many students you need, how many class placements. That looks like. But goals have to be meaningful to you.

Yes, exactly. And so you need to think about each part of your life and what sort of things you want to be happening in that part of your life and then set your goals in and around that. So, you know, your health is one. So you're going to set some goals in and around your health. Maybe your obviously financial goals is one. And set some financial goals in and around that. You know, maybe you've got some goals around your family and maybe there's some goals in and around that. So being really clear, clear in that to start with, then going to the business numbers, I think is a. Is a great way to start. I don't know. What do you think, Amanda?

Absolutely. The other thing that we know about goals is Tracking where we're up to at those goals. Not just writing goals down on a piece of paper and then just leaving it. Like, let's talk weight loss, okay? We all know that if you want to lose weight, you have to weigh yourself every day or every week or, you know, whatever that is. Right. Or measure your centimeters or, you know, whatever that is for you. That's how we keep ourselves accountable to lose weight. Now, let's talk about that. In terms of business. Have you been checking your student numbers every day? That was something we talked about on our studio Growth Club call today. Right. Like, the importance of actually waking up every day, especially at this time of the year, and going, I have X amount of students enrolled. I have X amount of class placements. I've gone up three from yesterday, two from whatever that is. But the impact that can have is incredible, right?

Yeah. It makes you push so much harder when you have an end goal, knowing, you know, I was just saying to you, we know exactly how many class placements we want. And so we are really pushing so hard to get to those class placements because we know what we're aiming for. But if you don't know where you're at and then don't know what you're aiming for, obviously you just put.

Absolutely. I was literally holding up a whiteboard today. Now call. Because I literally think that, you know, writing it down on a whiteboard every day. Why writing it down on a post. Don't overcomplicate it. Don't wait until you get the pretty journal or you have the goal setting sheet that you're going to write it down on paste paper every day and cross it off and then write the new numbers the next day. Like, that's all it has to be, right? Just something to actually market. Just like you do if you were losing weight every, you know, and checking that all the time.

Yep, absolutely. And it keeps you on track with what you should be doing when you, you know, going back to the weight thing, when you do measure that each morning, it kind of makes you think twice about, maybe I won't eat that piece of chocolate cake today. You know? And it's the same with your business, right? It's like, okay, maybe I should spend an hour, hour and a half today calling some cold leads and trying to get those enrollments in, because that'll up me, you know, three or four or five more students.

It's just that, and I like writing that number down. And then the next morning, it's like that adrenaline rush or that you know, serotonin. Is it serotonin? Is that the word?

Yeah, yeah, yeah.

That you get from, like, you know, getting that number to go up. Like, how good does that feel? And I think 100, like what you're saying. It just holds you accountable. Now, Becca, I know you're really of sharing your goals with everybody, including your team, but that scares the shit out of some studio owners. Right? Like, sharing those goals with a team is a scary thing for some people. So do you have tips on that? Is there anything you want to share and how you do that?

Yeah, look, I think it's explaining to the team that when you reach big goals, they get benefit as well. Because I feel like we all think that we don't want to share that because then they're going to think that we're earning lots of money, therefore we're really rich. And that's really unfair. But I don't think Richard Branson probably feels about that with his virgin stuff, for example. You know what I mean? Like, so I think we need to get rid of that mindset for a starter, and then I think we need to let our staff know what's going to happen if they do hit those goals or if they are on board. And it doesn't have to be huge. It can be huge. For me now, it's giving them, you know, extra money in their paychecks or whatever it might be. But maybe for you, it's doing something like, let's go out for a nice lunch or a coffee together, or, you.

Know, we can finally buy that air track for the studio if we had X. X amount of students or, you know, whatever that is.

Exactly. So I think getting them on board with the rewards is probably the key to making that more comfortable, but also just sucking it up and doing it, because there's no business on earth. You know, when I was working in retail, I was talking about working retail today a lot. But when I was working retail, we had things that we had to hit every single week. We had targets that we had to hit financially. I knew exactly how much that shop was bringing in every single day.

The juniors in Cotton on know how much they have to bring in every day.

Right. And they're not getting a bonus or anything extra out of that. And I certainly didn't feel angry with Michael at Block, who was my, you know, owner of Block. I didn't feel angry towards him that I wasn't making more money. But I knew what I had to hit. And in fact, I liked it because it gave me something to aim for it gave me something to work towards. So I think we just, for some reason, studios feel like they have that mindset that they can't share it, but I think they need to get out of that. Because honestly, when your staff know your financial goals and what you're trying to get, they work really, really hard for it. Well, that's what I've found anyway.

Absolutely. And look, even if you don't have a team to share that with, you can share your goals with other people around you. You know, I think it's really important to share it with your partner. If you have a partner, your best friend, your mom, your dad, like, you know, there is other people in your life that you can share those goals with. And I think finding someone who helps hold you accountable to that is really, really great. Like, you know, if your mum is, you know, you love your mum dearly, but she's not going to turn around and say to you, oh, come on, how are you going? You haven't hit those hundred students yet. Well, then find someone else to, to share those goals with as well. Because, you know, your mom might be that person for you. She might not. But have you got a business bestie you could share it with where they', hey, you told me you were going to hit this goal and, you know, what are you doing? You haven't got it. So what have you done this week to work towards it? Find someone who does hold you accountable and, you know, pushes you a little bit.

Yes. And also, the more you say it to people, the more accountable you make yourself as well, because you're like, crap, I've told all these people I have to make it happen now. And I like that about telling people your goals too. It just like, the more you say it, the more it's going to make you think, I better make that really happen. And we can all make it happen. It's just how much time, effort and, you know, all the things we put into it, really.

Absolutely. I love that about our relationship, Beck. We. We share our goals and our numbers and things like that together, but we also kind of challenge each other on it. It's not like, you know, you tell me your goals, I'm like, oh, good, that's all flowery and lovely. Congrats to you. I'm like, okay, so what are you doing about that? Okay, so like, we literally had that conversation before. Have you actually checked that? Like, can you actually reach that? How many kids have you got this, like, you know, find someone in your life that you can do that with. Because it is all well and good to have a nice, flowery, lovely friendship, you know, relationship at some times, but sometimes you also need someone that's going to give you a loving kick up the ass.

Oh, absolutely. And like, it's good if it's someone in our industry too, which is, you know, why we love the communities that we've created. Because if you have other studio owners who are there with you, pushing you along the way, it's an absolute game changer.

It's.

It's the best thing you can possibly have.

Absolutely. So number one is really make sure you are setting great goals for 2025 so that it is going to be the best year yet to grow that studio and to make it incredible. All right, tip number two, Bec, follow up on your 2024 enrollments. So important, if you haven't got all your kids re enrolled for 2024 and you're in January, now is the time to do it.

Yes. I think the first thing that we have to realize is we just have to ask them to re enroll. And, you know, parents are busy and all of the things and you're not annoying them and it's not scary to ask them. They want to be asked and to re enroll their children. So that's probably the first tip I would give is to actually just ask, hey, absolutely. Time to re enroll. You need to do this right now.

Absolutely. At this time of the year. Also, I wouldn't rely on group emails. I'd be making it more personal. I'd be reaching out to them indiv. Like, send group emails too, for sure. But, you know, reaching out to people individually and yes, that can be a bit of an overwhelming task. If you sit there and you're like, I've got 200 people to call. That's. You could look at that list and go, oh, that's overwhelming. But start today because if you leave it till tomorrow, it's even more overwhelming. Get started on it. Call those parents, send them a text, send them a voicemail. Like, what can you do to reach out to them personally to encourage them to enroll?

Absolutely. And if you've heard that someone's maybe not coming back, call them first because you get that out of your head. Because a lot of time we avoid calling people because we're like scared that they're going to say, no, they're not coming back and that's going to hurt our feelings and then it's going to be a whole thing. So then we just avoid calling them all together. So Call that first. The ones that you feel like maybe they're not going to come back or you've heard through the grapevine, you know what I'm talking about. Amanda, like, you know, he through the.

Grave spits on us that it's heavy and we're like looking at their socials for clue. Like, we've all done that.

Just literally pick up the phone, call them, ask them, and then if they're not going back, then, you know, that's the answer. Or it gives you an opportunity to talk them around. Maybe you can say to them, you know, what's gone wrong? Why, why are you unhappy? What's happened? And maybe you can chat them around that at least that gives you the opportunity. But I know a lot of people just completely shy away from it and do not want to. They just avoid it.

Yeah, absolutely. Look, the other thing that I would really love to encourage you if you've still got 20, 24 enrollments that haven't re enrolled people that, especially if you offer them great re enrollment, you know, ideas and ways to do it last year and they haven't done it. They're the parents at the moment that are a little bit slack, let's be honest, that two is left who hasn't re enrolled, especially if you've given them ample opportunities. So make it easy for them, don't make it hard. And what can you do to make it easy for them? Like literally sending them a text going, hey, would Susie like to do the Tuesday 4pm ballet class? Right. Reply, yes. You know what I mean? Like, something along those lines is so much easier than going, oh, you've got to log into your portal. Because, God, that's hard. Right. For those parents, they're like, oh, what email address did I sign up with? I can't remember. How do I get into my portal? And then, like, we all know that a lot of, like studio software portals are not as user friendly as we'd like them to be. It's just the reality of it. So do the hard work for them so they don't have to make it super easy for those parents who are struggling at the moment.

Yeah. Or just be like, hey, I notice you haven't re enrolled. I'll assume, I'm assuming that Susie wants to do the same classes next year. I'll just enroll her into them now. Like just, you know, just. I would love that. Like, I would love some. Oh, notice you haven't had time. Hey, I'll just do it for you.

Absolutely. Do the hard work. So they don't have to. I think that's the biggest tip around that. Do all the hard work so they don't have to. So if you've still got 20, 24 enrollments, you know, make a plan. Systematically go through them. You know, I. If it's just you doing it, print out the sheet of all the people that haven't re enrolled and highlight them as you do it, you know, as you get them enrolled, you know, or whatever that is, color code, whatever it is for you, but whatever works in your brain, get it done. Don't like, let it get in the way. I think is a really, a big thing. Just don't get overwhelmed. Just start.

Yeah, just start and just. Yeah, just get it going. And make sure that you're not leaving it till the end of January like I used to. And then you're in panic mode. And then you're like, where are my kids?

I need to start classes. And I don't know how much. I don't know if I can afford that tap teacher or if that class is going to run because what if I only have four kids in it and I can't afford that teacher? But, you know, like, don't let that happen. All right, should we get into tip three bec?

Yes, absolutely.

I, I think this is a really important one at the moment, and it's. Be clear with what you want your people to do. Don't confuse the message. I think too often we get a bit, let me say, excited with our marketing plans and in our socials, on our marketing, we're advertising. Enroll now for 2025. We have a open day on this date. We have a summer workshop happening here. We have, you know, free trials available. It's all of that kind of stuff. And, you know, it gets confusing because we're like, okay, what do you actually want the client to do? Do you want them to enroll via the portal? Do you want them to sign up for a free trial? Or do you want to, you know, make sure that they are, you know, you know, just coming along to that enrollment day. What is it that you actually want them to do?

Yeah, absolutely. And I, I think, like, just sometimes I think it's good to go outside of your business and imagine that you're that consumer and go in there and see if you are giving clear, concise messaging or not. I think that's really, really important. So, you know, just have a look at your socials, have a look at your advertising. I hope all of you are running ads at the moment and just have A little think to yourself, am I being clear about this? Am I not being clear? And what is the thing that you're offering? Because you're right. Like, it's too confusing. Honestly, right now, I just. At this beginning of January, I feel like it should just be enroll now. Like, just enroll them right now. Like, get them in, enroll them. I would, I would. I'm happy to pay an enrollment fee right now for my kids activity, and I would happily just enroll them. I'm kind of that parent. Like, I don't care about the free trial or the blah, blah, blah. Like, I'll just do it, you know, and take them along and if they don't like it, well, we'll quit after six weeks or whatever. But I feel like most parents are like that. Like, they don't need the free trial necessarily at this time of year. I don't know. What do you think about that, Amanda?

I agree. I think just enroll them now. That's the best thing. I think if you're going to do an enrollment event, like, you know, an enrollment day in late January, in February, February, you know, an open day, you know, whatever that is. Great. I don't have a problem with that. However, don't confuse the messaging and advertise that later in, you know, right now it's enroll via the portal or sign up for the free trial, or, you know, fill out this enrollment form. What is it right now you want them to do? And then later on it's what do you want them to do right now? Because you don't want to put people off. Like, I, you know, I have seen a few studio owners. I'm so sorry. My phone is going off and I can't stop it going off. And I'm trying so hard and technology is failing me and it's just not working. Do we all have those moments when it's just not working? My daughter's asking me for money. It's just standard stuff, isn't it?

I love it. I love it. I have those moments all the time. Amanda, don't stress.

And I don't know how. I won't know why it won't turn off. I've tried to close everything. Anyway, this is off topic of our podcast. Oh, my gosh, Azalea, please leave me alone. Does anyone else have teenagers that just message constantly?

Do you know what? This is so off topic, but Phoenix has just got Kids messenger, right?

Oh, that is so annoying.

And he calls me all the time on Kids Messenger. Like, I was teaching privates this morning because We've got showcase coming up and he's calling me over and over and over again, calling, calling, calling, calling. And it's going straight through to the speaker and I'm like, stop calling me. So yes, totally get it, get it.

You get it. I don't know why it's. Anyway, teenagers that want money and just want things right now, right this very second. Anyway, we're back on. Don't confuse the messaging. If you've got someone that wants to enroll, don't say, hey, wait a month and then come to my enrollment day in a month's time. Like if they're kid now, enroll them now. Don't let it wait for longer. I feel like that's our biggest thing, right? If they want to give you their money now, take their money now. If they want to, even if it's not giving any money, even if it's just committing now, do it now. Don't put off things because who knows what the future brings.

Yes. And it locks them in, it makes it simple for them. It's, you know, all the things. So that's definitely what my team is working on at the moment. Amanda is just enrolling all of our leads and then later in the month we'll do, you know, a discovery day or free trial or whatever it is. But that's later in the month. Right now we just want them in locked into their classes and then parents feel like, great, I've got them locked into something for the year. I'm such an organized parent. I know I would feel like that if I'd locked my children into anything, which I haven't. So go me.

It's funny, I'm actually like, you know, we all go, oh, parents don't want to talk about it at the moment. They absolutely do. I, you know, had my mother in law over for dinner last night and she was asking me, hey, what day can I help with the kids after school this year? Because she wants to organize that. Which means I need to know what activities they're doing on what days and where they're going. So last night I was literally doing carpool lifts and organizing carpools, etc for my kids after school activities. Like a lot of parents actually want to organize that now. They don't want to go, oh, I'm going to an enrollment day in a month's time and then I'll find out what class she'll be in and what like they actually want to know now.

100 and even. I'm like googling, you know, different kids activities in our area right now because that's something that I want to do. Like, I feel like people do want to be organized before school as well. So don't, don't disregard that. Start, start getting out to them and start really re enrolling everyone that you possibly can. It's. It's so important right now to do that.

Absolutely, absolutely. Should we get into tip 4 bec?

Sure.

Tip 4 is call those leads. It's a big one. Right. I feel like so often we give up too easily.

Yes. We were just talking about this with SGC as well. It is like you've got so many leads there of people who have opted into you throughout the year. Last year and maybe haven't come along for whatever reason. They got busy with family, a kid got sick. You know, like, how many times have you done that, Amanda, where you've tried, you've opted into something and then not turned up. It is time.

Pilates, right? Yeah.

The gyms, the amount of gyms I inquire with, it's like so, you know, call them, pick up the phone, chat to them, email them and say, hey guys, we're now enrolling. We'd love to see you, you know, doing all of that right now is so important. And also if you do have money behind ads right now, which I hope all of you do, because there's no other way for people to know about your product unless you're putting it out there, make sure that you are actually. If someone inquires, responding to them and picking up the phone and speaking to them, because they're not going to inquire and then wait four weeks until you go back and then opt into you, they're going to inquire, not get a reply, and then they're going to go to the dance studio down the road. Who does reply?

I think that is such a big thing. Right? I honestly think at this time of the year, and I'd be like that as well, is I'm like, oh, I'm going to inquire for. Let's go swimming classes. Google swimming classes. In my area, there's three. I call all three of them. The one who answers the phone first is the one I'm going to enroll in. I'm not going to sit there and go, oh, actually I'm like, you know what I mean? It's just literally whoever answers the phone first, whoever calls me back first is the one that I'm generally going to enroll in. So be that person that calls them back first that messages them first. Because if you can do that quicker than your competitor. You are going to win the game.

Yep. It sounds so obvious, but how many times do we have that people haven't called their. You know, people that have inquired and haven't. Like, it's crazy how much that happened.

So is there a magic number, Beck? How many times, like, someone calls you, they leave a voicemail, they send you an email, you send them an email. But, like, is there a magic number? Do you think of how many times you should send them an email without a response? Send them a text, send them a. What do you think?

No, I don't think there is a magic number.

I agree. Yeah.

I feel like for me, like, people have probably called me 10 times and I haven't answered them, and then the 11th time, for some reason, I've picked up the phone and then I've opted into their product. And I'm sure most of you out there would be the exact same. Like, I never answer phone calls ever on my phone. Doesn't mean you don't.

You're not interested in your product.

Yes, it doesn't. Of course it doesn't.

You know, it's just, like, mean you're somewhere else or you're busy that day or you're in a bad headspace or like, whatever it is. Right.

Or it's the same as you see that ad pop up on your Facebook. Over, over, over, over. I don't get sick of seeing the ad. I actually like the ad. I probably want to buy that dress, but I just will opt into it when I feel like opting into it. And that's. I think we take things apart too much with consumers, but we actually do it all ourselves.

Absolutely. And I think you got to think about how you are as a consumer, and then, you know, think when you're on the other, like, on the other side of it. Right. So I think it's really important there's no magic number. Just keep calling them, keep emailing them, keep texting them until they pick up the phone and, you know, try different ways. The other thing I would really recommend is, you know, going back through old leads. If you haven't got heaps of leads coming in today. If you open your computer and you're like, oh, I didn't have any inquiries overnight. I'm done. I would be going, okay, what can I do? And I know that, you know, we like to set up really great systems for your leads and all this kind of stuff, and you might not have a system in place, and that's fine. If you don't have a system in place. Don't let that hold you back. Start with what you do have. Can you scroll through your Facebook messages or your Instagram messages and start it, I don't know, July last year. And go through and go, oh, that person never inquired. I'm going to reach out to them again. Like, literally, like, I'm going to say, hey, I know you never ended up coming, but if you're interested, we've just released the 2025 timetable. Would love to have Susie along for a free trial. That's a great way to start. Is it scrolling through your, you know, wherever you're inquiring your info at, kind of email inbox and finding people who have inquired that never actually enrolled. Like, don't let not having a system hold you back. Just start somewhere, be a bit scrappy, find people to reach out to.

A tip for now, I don't know about your mum's pages, but our mum's pages have people asking every single day about activities for their children. Dance classes is a big one right now. So, like, get on those and if you've got pages, like, my pages are so heavily managed, like as a business, I'm not allowed to post. I don't know if you have that. Yeah, it's really.

We don't have that.

It's really.

It's free for all down here.

I tell you what, I wish, I wish. But anyway, I always just put all my stuff. Always just put, hey, have PM Jew. And then we PM them and be like, hey, I saw that you wanted some hip hop classes for your little boy. We've got a class on this day, you know, we've still got a few enrollments left, like, blah, blah. So that's a great place to get some new inquiries from for sure. And like, absolutely. I think, like, people aren't on that stuff enough, you know, like, that's a really great way for you to get some leads.

I love that. And look, you know, if you want a really quick action tip to do, like, commit to, you know, finding yourself five new leads a day at the moment. And that could be scrolling back through those old messages, that old info inbox, that could be going through those community pages, that could just be looking at your followers on Instagram. Look at your followers and go, hey, that's interesting that this mum always likes my thing and she's not a student there. I'm going to send her a message, you know, like, it depends what that is for you, but like, there are so many ways to Create your own leads. So make sure you're doing that. And I would literally, at this time of the year, you know, commit to doing five a day. It takes not very long. It could take less than 15 minutes. You have a copy and paste it. That's my other big tip. Like on your phone, have a copy. If it's just you literally doing it yourself, write something in your notes section and copy and paste it from your notes section all the time. Just make it easy for yourself. It doesn't need to be too hard. It doesn't need to be too systemized. Be a little bit scrappy with it.

Yep, absolutely. And, you know, the more work you do on this, the better. Guys, like, it's. It's up to you, but you. Hard work equals success at the end of the day. And if you're spending a lot of time trying to get new leads in and really working hard at it, then you're going to be successful. If you, you know, and not spending time, if you're not doing that, then you're not going to be successful. The amount of times that we talk to studio owners and they're like, oh, I just can't grow my business. And we're like, what are you doing to grow your business? And the really, when we get down to the bottom of it, they're not doing anything to grow their business. I don't know. People don't just come to. Students don't just come to you on a silver platter.

Yeah.

You know, there's so much that you have to do to get there.

Yeah. Put in the work, get a bit scrappy, do all the things. Like it's. Yeah. I love that word today. Scrappy.

I know you're so into this scrappy word. I love it too.

Maybe it's a good word. It's like, I feel like that's what you need to do sometime. All right, last tip tip number five in 2025 social media game. You need to up it. It needs to be great. Right. We have such great content at our studios. Like, there is so much stuff that you can post. You need to make it look amazing. You need to be good at social media.

Yep. And by good, we don't mean that you need to have perfect esthetic looking ghosts that are, you know, it's actually the opposite. The more organic, the better. And if you guys think about the influencers and people that you're following, I bet you their stuff is really organic because that's where it's at. Everyone wants that real life feel I love what you just said, Amanda, that we have so much content, and Nath talks about this all the time, like, we have so much content in our studio, it's ridiculous. So there's no excuse, in other words, is what I'm saying about that it is such a game changer if you up your social media, get your parents sharing stuff and, you know, tagging people in things because it's free advertising at the end of the day. And I don't know about you, Amanda, but the first thing I do, if I start talking to a new studio who we haven't coached yet, the first thing I do is look on their social media. Isn't that the first thing you do? Or, like, if I'm doing, you know, a sales call for little groovers or something like that, like, the first thing that I will do is check what their school is like on their social media. Guess what your clients are doing? The first thing they're doing is looking at your social media to see what's happening at your studio. If you haven't updated it, if you don't have great stories up, if you haven't done any of the things and they're going to go, that looks a bit crap. Even if it's amazing. We've seen some of the most amazing studios we know they're doing great things in there, have a terrible Instagram, and so therefore people aren't coming to them.

Yeah. And as Beck said, it's not about having the perfect image and the perfect filter and all of that. People want to see kids having fun.

Yes.

And that's okay if it's a little bit messy, because that's what life is. Right. You know, and the reality is our studios are a bit messy sometimes. And sometimes there's kids that aren't in uniform and don't have their hair perfect. And like, all of those things, that's how our classes actually look. As much as we'd all love to stand here and go, yes, every single one of my students always has their perfect leotard. It's not the reality. Reality of it. So that's okay. That's all right. To show that.

And if their foot's not perfectly pointed and their legs not in an amazing position. And you know, that's. That's you marketing to your peers. That's you marketing to other studio owners and dance teachers. It's not you actually marketing to your clients, because your clients are new students who probably don't know those parents probably don't even know what a pointed toe should look like or what, you know, a nice mount should look like. Get. That's your job, to educate them. So when you're getting new people in, they don't know much about dance. So you don't need to worry so much about that stuff.

Absolutely. There is so much content in your camera roll at the moment that you have never posted. Scroll through your camera roll and post some of that content. There is so much great stuff in there. If you've posted it before, repost it. There's no problems with posting something twice, three times, eight times. If you've created a great reel last year, replace post it. There is absolutely no issue with doing that. So make sure it's just coming because consistency is absolute key with this. The more you can post, the more you know you're consistent with your social media. We know that's what works in growing a studio and it's the game we're all playing at the moment, right?

Absolutely it is. And don't say we hear this all the time. I just don't. I'm just not really into social media. I can't get into it. If you can't get into social media, then you don't want to grow your business. It's that simple. Because that's. That's where it's at now. It is at social media. Everyone is on their phones. All the people that you want to come into your studio are following people on Instagram and Facebook. We know that's a fact. So that is where it needs to be at and that is where all of your advertising for your business is.

Absolutely. Absolutely. Make sure you are posting at this time of the year. Look, I want to say at least every second day, minimum three to four times a week on your socials in January especially look preferably all year. But at this time of the year, I think that's what needs to be happening.

I think your story needs to be up every day 247 right now. Like their story should be there. There should always be something happening on it, be it your off it. Also, you don't have to come up with new content all the time. Like it can be the same story every single day. If you've got an offer right now, enroll now. For example, just schedule it so that it's there every single day.

Absolutely. Absolutely. They are our five top tips to growing the studio of your dreams in 2025. Should we do a quick recap bec starting with setting meaningful goals, following up those 2024 re enrolments that you haven't had yet being super clear with your messaging, calling back your leads or creating your own and upping your social media game. Is there anything you want to leave our listeners with? Beck?

I think what you were saying before, Amanda, start now. You know, if you're listening to us now, then start now. And don't just leave it. Don't procrastinate through January and then get to the end of January and have a panic attack. People who are going to make a great year out of 2025, they're working hard now on this stuff and we know that. So start working.

Absolutely. Hey, to finish up, if you are a Melbourne listener or a Victorian listener, or if you're keen for a sneaky trip to Melbourne, we are so excited to be hosting a One Day live event on February 9 in Melbourne. If you want the details, it's open to everybody. We'd love to invite studio owners to come. Drop us a DM and we'll send you all the details. We're so excited for this.

So pumped. Live events are where it's at. We know that you guys get so much out of those one or two day events and this is going to be epic for you and your studio. And we love our Melbourne friends. We really want to help you guys out. So come along. It's going to be awesome.

So good, we'll speak to you next week. I can't wait to see you. I will be at Showcase together next week. Beck, doing all the things at Nationals in Gold Coast. But everybody else, I hope you're having a great January and keep working to grow the studio of your dreams. We will see you next week on the 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.