Unknown Speaker 0:02
Hello friends I'm Amanda bar. And I'm Rebecca Lew 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.
Unknown Speaker 0:26
Well, hello friends, I hope you are super amazing. And having an awesome week. I have the incredible Nathan with me today. How are you need? Really good. Thanks back. We were just chatting before we hit record on all the things that we think we're going to have planned for school holidays, right in New South Wales here for us as parents at school holidays, not just as studio and as we're talking here, and we have these grand notions of all the things we're gonna get achieved in school holidays. And then look, to be honest, a lot of the time it just turns to shit, right?
Unknown Speaker 0:57
I have said to my kids, now I'm recording a podcast, you need to be quiet, but I am not making any guarantees. It's really hard. It is super, super hard. Like we were joking last week. So our school, our girls go to local Anglican school. But we get an extra week of holidays in this.
Unknown Speaker 1:16
Exactly right. And then we're like, because we're like, oh, should we go away like even just like down the coast or something just like break it up right now. Like we just moved into the new place because like, do some stuff around here. Then by 930. Last night, first day of the holidays, 930 in the morning, they were already at each other. We're like, man, we should have just gone away.
Unknown Speaker 1:35
Going away makes it better, though. Like I don't know if it's really fixed. It's just taking your problems to another place. Sometimes Sometimes, maybe. But yeah, we we went down to like just just down the coast and our site is still a caravan park or something just so they can run around. And just just just just let out some of the energy. But here we are struggling through can't really be too well with us. Can we were doing okay, but we didn't want. We didn't want to whinge about school holidays. today. What we did want to talk about is look to growth club, we're doing leadership month at the moment. DPU strategy session yesterday was all about staff, and particularly helping our studio owners through maybe some staff challenges or issues that they're facing. And look, just the few of the conversations we've opened up around that is we know that it's an area that studio owners need help with, right, so we just want to jump on today's podcast, and jam about all things staff, and I guess some strategies for how to effectively deal with them, right? Yeah, my favorite thing to jam on Eighth my favorite. I'm so I'm so passionate about this, because I feel like it's the thing that gets pushed to the side by the majority of studio owners. And it should be in my opinion, their number one thing because your staff is your studio. And if you're not managing them, it's not the studio of your dreams, because they will just do what they want to do. And I think as studio owners, we need to start taking responsibility for that, right? Absolutely. And stepping up to be the leaders like you've, if you're a studio owner, you've chosen to be the business owner, you've chosen to be the leader, you're taking that next step from being a teacher, which like we know, pretty much every studio owner starts out as right. And it's that progression for yourself. So if you're stepping up into that, there's lots of amazing things that come with running your own studio, but one of them and you can either sort of embrace it, and that helps you studio thrive and that stepping into leadership. But if you don't embrace that, then it can be really tough for you to be running your studio, right? Yeah, absolutely. And something that I said to the SJC members yesterday. And what I want to say to our listeners today is, every single time something goes wrong in your studio, and the example I kept using was you get to the concert, and one of the teachers hasn't done the dance properly. It looks terrible. The kids aren't confident with it. And it's our nature to then blame that teacher and say that it's their fault. But I truly believe that we have to self reflect and as leaders and go okay, did I check in and watch that routine each week? Did I offer support to that teacher because they weren't coping with it? And you could tell that they weren't coping with it? Did I do everything in my power to stop that from happening? Honestly, nine and a half times out of 10? When I self reflect, I can say no, I didn't. I need to change what I'm doing. And I think that's the thing. Like it's so easy to blame stuff and get rid of them blame stuff and get rid of them. Whereas we're not actually setting expectations and doing what a leader should do in the first place. Absolutely. Everybody listening to the podcast I'm sure knows that I'm a huge Gary Vee fan and one of his big things that he talks about is always pointing thumbs, not fingers. And I'm doing the motions which if you're watching on the YouTube, I guess you'll be able to see but the podcast doesn't quite translate but exactly what you're talking about, right anything. As a leader, the first thing you need to be doing is pointing the thumbs at yourself and reflecting on what you're doing, rather than immediately point
Unknown Speaker 5:00
I mean, the fingers at your staff members, because so often what what are the kinds of things that sometimes you reflect on back? Like if you've had that issue and you've reflected like, where's often the first thing that you go to when you're having that first reflection?
Unknown Speaker 5:14
Well, the first thing that I would do, like you mean, look into myself, is that what you mean? Yeah, yeah, I just look at what I've, what if it was the concert idea, for example, I probably like I said, haven't watched that teacher enough, haven't done that. I'd go to the teacher and speak to them and ask how I can support them more. I think that's a big thing that we don't do, we just something goes pear shaped. And we just kind of walk away from it and complain about it. And then I'd work out a strategy on how to train them better. So that that doesn't happen again. And I think that's the process that people need to go through, you know, where did you go wrong? How can I fix it, where were the holes, and let's work together to fix it. And if you support your staff like that, and if you're willing to help them and train them, you might find that that staff member who may be messed up that time now becomes your very best staff member of all time. Absolutely. As the as the boss, as the CEO, as the leader in your business, that the buck stops with you on everything right, on everything good. But also everything not so good. So we've got to make sure that they're super, super important. I think that's tip one is to make sure that you're always reflecting as a leader, and that any problem that comes up, the first thing you need to be doing is reflecting what have I done, to not help this audit to get this situation to where it is and what can I do to help support my staff member to fix it? Tip two, I would love to get your thoughts on Beck is not being afraid of confrontation, because too often and we keep like we deal with help so many of our members through staff issues, from quite small staff issues right up to pretty big,
Unknown Speaker 6:49
scary stuff issues, if we're honest, a lot of the time. And quite often when we dig all the way down into it.
Unknown Speaker 6:55
It ends up being I think, because they've been afraid of that confrontation. And rather than nipping issues in the bud, when they're possibly one or two out of 10 issues. They've waited to deal with that situation when it's now an eight or nine out of 10 situation. So and a lot of it comes back to like I said, being afraid of that confrontation, you always talked about that. That's something that you've really worked on that you used to be that person that ran away from the confrontation. And we get I think we get too much that we always think of connotations, this big negative thing, right, but it doesn't have to like this healthy confrontation. And it can be a real positive. So how do you, I guess, approach that confrontation with your staff and nipping those issues in the bud? Yeah, look, I definitely was that person neath who I didn't even talk to my staff, let alone, you know, go and confront them when things went wrong. I think for me, now I deal with things pretty much straight away. That's the biggest thing that I've taught myself to do. Because when you dwell on things for too long, and I'm not saying to not think about it, I'm not saying to go into hot headed, but I think it is important to pick up the phone, call that person and just say, Hey, we've had a complaint, we've had an email this has happened, what happened. And having that relationship where you call them straight away, makes things a lot easier. The other thing that I've really implemented is I have a one on one with every single staff member every single term. And because I'm having that one on one, because I'm watching what they're doing, because I'm giving them feedback, it just makes those conversations easier. Whereas if you don't have that time with them, and you don't really talk to them, and then the one time you are talking to them is to call them to say, Hey, we've had a complaint, it's a lot harder. So building that making the time for that. It does, it's, it was hard. Like I did it the last week of last term night, we had project release, I had concerts I had open week, there was a lot going on, and I still booked those one on ones in because it's so valuable and important. And it was amazing. You know, I got so much out of it. I found out what staff needed. I got to see, you know, where they were at with things. It was incredible. Yeah, absolutely. And I think like you said like, it's it's an investment, right? It's an investment of time. And it's that easy thing to to constantly to push down and push away. Within those those one on ones, how long are they for your studio for each of your teachers? And are they Is it a paid meeting for them?
Unknown Speaker 9:23
Yes, everything I do is paid. It's a half hour either on Zoom or in person depending so I just put a Calendly booking link out. They book in and then we just catch up but some of my staff like not one of my circus teachers I don't see because the day that she's there on my days with my family, so it's very rare for me to see her. And also, you know, it's just that craziness that happens so I hadn't really caught up with her. And it was really good that I got that time to catch up with her. She kind of teaches a bit later in the night when I'm not there. And just She's loving it and loving pause and all
Unknown Speaker 10:00
things, but it just really helps me to have that relationship with her. And then if there was a complaint, it makes it easier. Yeah, absolutely. And I'm sure there are people sitting there thinking, oh, gosh, like all of this sounds like expensive, right as well, like if you're paying them, because we've talked about lots that like your big staff training days that you have, is a paid thing that you're paying them, you've got a big team. So paying all of those team for an extra 30 minutes, like I can understand studio owners, maybe listening along here thinking, oh, gosh, this expense, like it just keeps racking up. But I guess trying to, I want to push back on that a little bit. And I'm sure you will, as well. But it's also really expensive to lose staff members, and to be constantly having to bring new people in and invest in training them up. And there was a saying that I've always sort of resonated with that people always think, you know, are but what if I, what if I invest all this time and money into training them and they leave. But then the flipside is, what if you don't invest in training them and they stay?
Unknown Speaker 10:59
And that's always sort of resonated with me that you end up with these teachers that just don't progress? Don't advanced aren't buying into your values? What do you what are your thoughts on that one?
Unknown Speaker 11:09
Well, my thoughts are in no other industry, would you have to work, go to a meeting, go to a training session and not be paid. And I think that's the key, like, we just have to be professional about it. Also, if you want your staff to value you and your studio and what you do, then paying them to me is the absolute most important thing. It's interesting. I just had something come up yesterday where my two Rockstar new circus teachers, I just love them are taking our kids to their very first circus camp next weekend. And one of them. Yeah. And they've organized it all and done everything right. And it's like, obviously checked in with me about it. But it's so exciting. And one of them said to me, Hey, we've got this circus comp next weekend. Totally fine, if you can't pay us, but I'm just wondering if we could charge an admin fee for the day because we will be there with the kids for seven hours. And I, I really appreciated the message. But I was like, Okay, I'm paying your full teaching rate. I appreciate both of you so much. And I just want to say a huge thank you. I'm not going to be there that weekend. And they're doing that all on their own. They've organized it. They've been doing extra little rehearsals like they are. But look, it's it'll be an expensive day for me. But it's important for me to value them. And for them to feel valued. So they keep doing that wonderful work for me. Yeah, absolutely. And I think that touches on, like, the flip side of that is what we see a lot of studio owners get caught out on. So you've obviously because you have that
Unknown Speaker 12:41
professional relationship with all of your staff because they know that you're approachable and contactable. And that you always discuss these things with them that they've approached you before. Like, even though you're obviously going to be paying them anyway, that they've asked that question beforehand, because where we see a lot of studio owners get frustrated, is that teachers would do something like that, like I know, we've talked, I've talked, I was talking to a studio owner a couple of weeks ago, where they had staff members turning up to solo comps, off their own bat like the studio and I hadn't asked them to because it's like, it's a lovely thing. But she's like, I don't need you to go. It's not. It's not like something that's adding to our business at this point in time. And with the amount of soloist this person had at their studio, it's not realistic to be able to send a teacher to every single soloist. But then the teacher tried to invoice them for going to that to that solo. And I think sometimes by not being approachable if we're not being able to open those conversations before these things happen quite often right, then that's where the studio owners are quite often getting burned. So how would you maybe deal with that situation? Because it's one that keeps coming up and up again, when teachers if teachers maybe would spring those sorts of things on you? Yeah, look, I've had this happen to me multiple, multiple times. And I think, first of all, you've just got to be really clear, and learn the lesson and go okay, guys, in the next staff meeting, guys, if you are going to go to the competition, you need to let me know, I've explained this to my staff before, like, I want them to go to comp to see what the said it's like 100%. But when it's happening over and over again, it's not great. So they need to just let me know so that I can budget appropriately for it. So that's how I'd explain it to the staff. I would still pay that staff member neath because they have gone. And I would just say to them, Look, thank you for going I appreciate it. However, that is expensive for me. So just let me know when you need to go. Or if you want to go for your own self to see what the standard is great. Let's work out a day rate or whatever you decide to do.
Unknown Speaker 14:46
But yeah, it's tricky and I have stuff do it all the time. I even had stuff turned up to my pep rally that I didn't know were coming, which is fine, but same thing. It's like I just had to say to them Oh, you didn't I didn't know you were gonna come today.
Unknown Speaker 15:00
It's always really important to let me know when you're coming to things so I can budget appropriately. You just got to have that conversation with them. And I guess that probably ties into something that I know you're huge on is setting those expectations. And that's where having like your, you know, you have them, is it every term or every two terms that like the full staff meeting, to be able to set those expectations to be able to say around, hey, like solid teachers, we're doing great work amazing. Just so you know, you know, if you do want to go and support amazing
Unknown Speaker 15:31
where we're at, I can't afford to follow whatever that looks like for your studio, like maybe you want to pay them to go to three comps a year or four comps a year or something like that. But just so you just so everybody knows where those expectations are right around everything. I'm just, I don't know why I'm fixating on this solo thing, maybe because it just came up. But having clear expectations around everything stops those little surprises, right? Yeah. And I think that's the biggest thing that we find eighth is that people haven't set the expectations strongly enough in around everything that every staff member is doing. It's something we dived really deep in yesterday with SGC members. And it was such a great session. But it's just that self reflection, again, of it's like, you know, you see a teacher on their phone, whilst teaching a class or sitting in a chair was teaching a class and they're like, I can't believe they sit in the chair while sitting. Have you told them that that's an expectation at your studio, or when they give the dance and inappropriate piece of music? Now, I can't believe they chose that music. Did you tell them that that's your values within your studio, and that you don't want that type of music to be played or dance to? You know, it's the more expectations you give them, the more they are going to do what you want them to do in your business, and it is your business. I think too many times we just expect that the accurate teacher is going to teach acro perfectly, because they're an accurate teacher. And the ballet teacher is going to teach perfectly, because they're a ballet teacher. But there's so much more to it than that. And you need to really train them in and around what you want. What are your expectations? How do you want those classes taught? Amazing, amazing. So so far, we've gone through our top tips around this pointing thumbs up fingers, so making sure that we're taking ownership and leadership when things go wrong, not being afraid of confrontation, making sure that we're having consistent communication with our staff, and that they know how to approach us as well, setting clear expectations. And then you sort of just touched on this, I think it's a really important. Fifth point is having really clear studio values that you're consistently communicating with your staff, like what are some of like your studio values that you've got a pause?
Unknown Speaker 17:38
Family, you know, and like things go into family, like not having too many comps on through the year because we value their family time, making sure that everyone has uniform on because we want everyone to feel a quality within the studio. So there's lots of things that go underneath that. Integrity is probably my most important value within myself and my team. And what integrity is, is if you mess up, that's fine, just come and tell me and we work through it together. And just being us as staff members being honest with each other, about every part of the business, that's really important to me. Also, as being honest with parents, you know, it comes down to that. So we've got our big values, and then we've got lots of little things underneath it that my staff know. And other ones always age appropriate routines and costumes is a drop down in, in our family when I think so we're really clear on those. And we've got we go through them at least once a year. So we have forged staff training sessions, where we bring everyone together four times a year. And at least one of those sessions usually the first one is me going through those valleys, because we always have new team members also always good to remember what they are. But I think as a studio owner, you have to be so strong in what you want in your business as well. And you know, not just in your values, but how you want every class to be run and how you want every child to feel in that class. All of those things are going to really create your business for you. And if you're not strong in it, you will get wavered by other staff members or by parents, and you'll never really have that strong foundation. I don't know if I'm making sense with that. No, no, absolutely. And what I love about the values that you've got at PAWS, is that I think there's a real art in making these things simplified, rather than we see sometimes people have got like, we can definitely see what they're trying to communicate and get across with their values. But there's just too much right there too wordy. And the more word and this is something that I've really learned from Amanda, is that sometimes when we overcomplicate these things, there's too much wiggle room and there's too much room for interpretation. And not enough room often for you as the leader to shut things down that may be out with that. So like if one of your values you were talking about was age appropriate music and costumes. It's just
Unknown Speaker 20:00
So short and simple, right? And so if you've got a teacher that brings you a song or a routine that you're a bit leery about, you'd be like, Hey, I'm really sorry, that just doesn't align with our value of age appropriate music.
Unknown Speaker 20:13
So we're just gonna have to find something else, it just makes those decisions so much easier, right? Rather than what's your one around concert, I love that one as well.
Unknown Speaker 20:21
around like, concert is that every single child is equally seen and valued. Because with concert, what I find is what I say is, in competition, we put our best foot forward, in concert, it's everyone has a turn. And I really feel that that's so important because every parent is paying the same amount of money. Every child deserves to be seen. And we want to make every child feel special, no matter who they are, whether they're the kid that's, you know, flapping around in the back, or whether they're that amazing kid at the front, they all should be equally valued unseen. And we try and give them something that they can have, that's a special thing. So the kid that's maybe not as strong a dancer, and not as confident, they might get a special part where they get to just mouth the music or have some sort of a moment. So that, you know, it's really important for them to feel special as well. So that's probably a biggest one around concert unless you had another one that you
Unknown Speaker 21:18
know, that was it. Because what I think it helps as well, it helps you give ownership to your teachers to make decisions around that as well. So things like you know, like, we know that concert sometimes can get a little bit crazy, or things sometimes go wrong. But if your staff are really clear on your values, then like if that kid misses the routine on the day or something like that, then the staff member is thinking about the solution to that already. Well now hang on, our main value isn't to run the most professional, amazing show that's ever been seen to mankind, it's to make sure that every student feels seen and valued. So what we're going to do is we're just going to run that, that little preschool dance again, to make sure that everybody has that experience. I think that sometimes having those values more simplified, helps our staff so much to make good decisions as well. Yeah, absolutely. We just had three preschool concerts last weekend. And we made the choice this year to because we've got big preschool classes now neath we've got about 22 Kids in most of our classes. So we made the choice to actually swap the lines over, which is tricky with preschool. But the staff really practiced it. And I could see on stage that they worked really hard to get those kids not that it is really that big a deal is only two lines, but we wanted to make sure that every child was in the front at some point in the dance. And, you know, it's little things like that that mean a lot to parents, I think and that just making that extra effort and thinking about your values when you're doing that stuff can really be a game changer. Yep, absolutely, absolutely. Look, as always back we've gone, we just thought like, oh, this might just be a quick one. But we're sort of like keep keep always just keep running away. I don't know if it's you or me that keeps talking. But I think the top five things we talked about was obviously making sure that we're taking ownership of everything in our studio, that we're not being afraid of confrontation. And that confrontation can be a positive and healthy thing in our business, as long as we are nipping things, using it to nip things in the bud at that one or two out of 10 before the eight or nine out of 10, making sure that we've got consistent check ins with our team, that we've got strong expectations, and that our staff, or know our values, if you can really focus on especially if you're like New South Wales, and you've got a couple of a week and a half left of holidays, I think checking in on all of those five things will really help not only like your team, like come up and rise up to the next level, but will also stop issues coming up, right? Yep, absolutely. And, you know, even if you just do one of these things, even if you just do your values and share them with your team that is going to be a game changer. Write down your expectations of this term that is going to be a game changer. Like do one of them if not all of them. But I think yeah, that that constant check in the dealing with stuff is I'm so passionate about it nice. And that's why I can talk about it forever. But you know, really self reflect on how well you are being a leader because that is what you're there to do. Absolutely. Well, thank you so much as always for listening, everybody. If you haven't already, we would so so appreciate if you give us a like or a follow on Apple podcasts or Spotify or wherever you're listening. I mean the absolute world to us. But as always, we like I said, So appreciate listening, and we will chat to you again next week. Thanks, everybody. Thanks. Bye bye. We hope you enjoy 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 dad's principles United tribe. We would love to see you there.
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