Amanda Barr 0:04
Hi friends and welcome to the dance principles United podcast. Lovely Bec. How are you? My love so
Rebecca Liu-Brennan 0:10
amazing. Super excited to be here. I feel like it's a good week like everything's just not as crazy in the studio. So I feel like really focused on Expo and all the things and yeah,
Amanda Barr 0:24
it's so so exciting expos coming up so quickly. Oh my gosh, I'm so excited. That is going to be out of control. And Becky and I were just talking before we jumped on, it looks like we're going to sell out tickets, which is so exciting. We can not wait for an incredible event and hope, meet some of our lovely podcast listeners there. Right?
Rebecca Liu-Brennan 0:42
Yeah. I loved that last year when people were coming up to Savannah. And they were like, Oh, I love the podcast. And yeah, that was so lovely.
Amanda Barr 0:49
It was so nice. It was so so lovely. And I'm so glad that you guys have gotten some value out of our podcast. Drop us a message. Let us know if you are a podcast listener that's coming along to the expo, we would love to meet you. Yeah, definitely send us a DM on Instagram or Facebook or you know, all the places. But today, we are here to talk about Easter celebrations because Easter is like oh my god, it's so close this year.
Rebecca Liu-Brennan 1:17
So close. It's it's such a weird time of year this year. But it is super close. And I know my team at the studio has been working very hard on all the things. So I love Easter, I think it's a great time to connect with the families at your studio. I think it's a really great time to make the kids feel special. I'm all about it.
Amanda Barr 1:35
I love Easter, because I feel like it's the holiday that falls at a really good enrollment time for us, as studio owners, you know, like we can make a big deal out of Christmas, but Christmas kind of gets. And of course we do like right we have Santa visits at our studio, we do all the things. But Christmas gets lost in the noise number one because it's just crazy time of the year. People aren't really looking for new activities as such, by the time it's Christmas weekend hoped that most of them have booked it earlier than that. Same with Halloween or something like that. Whilst it's a great community building event. It's less of an enrollment incentive. It's that hard. Yes, we should be enrolling kids all times of the year. Don't get me wrong, but it's getting towards the pointy end of the year. Right.
Rebecca Liu-Brennan 2:23
Yeah, absolutely. I love that. I've actually never thought about it like that.
Amanda Barr 2:28
Yeah, so that's why I always love Easter. Because I really feel like if there's any time you're going to push your enrollments around a holiday event, Easter's the time because we know so many people have like finished up their summer sports, it's a great time to still enrol. You know, it's early enough in the year that they feel like they've missed too much. So I think it's a great chance to obviously build community at your studio. And that's, you know, a really important part of it. But also to get those shares out there to show the general community all the amazing things that you're doing at the studio, which hopefully means that they're going to want to come and visit.
Rebecca Liu-Brennan 3:05
Yeah, absolutely. Well, we make a whole event out of it, especially for our preschool. And what we do is we have the kids come in for like an hour and a half in the morning. There's an Easter egg hunt, which we're doing one studio, we kind of just like so we have we have three studios downstairs. So we have one that's set up for the Easter egg con and that's set up beforehand. And they have like, you know, little things hiding all the eggs, which is super cute. They go in and do some crafts to start with. So we've got Easter crafts set up, but you can find on Pinterest and stuff. It's so simple, Kayla. Yeah, exactly. Then we have an Easter bunny suit that we've had for years and years. So the Easter Bunny appears in the room and they hunt for the Easter eggs. Then they go into the big room, they learn an Easter dance, they perform it for mom and dad. And then this is the really the best part I think is once they've performed it for what mum and dad, they we have a morning tea with the parents where our love is talk to the parents about how amazing their children are and how awesome it is. And blah, blah, blah. And we do like hot cross buns and poppers and all that sort of stuff. So we make a big deal out of it, but I think totally worth it.
Amanda Barr 4:15
Oh, that is such a cute idea. So can you tell me about that, like, is that as well as their weekly class? Or is it instead of weekly classes that day? Like how does that actually work?
Rebecca Liu-Brennan 4:27
Yeah, it's actually instead of and because we're doing you know, little groove is which has seven programmes, we can't possibly do that in 45 minute increments. Also, some kids stay for two or three. So then they're doing the same thing three times, which doesn't really work. So we just do everyone on that day comes in for the hour and a half and then has the morning tea with us and whether they're in injuries or whether they're in ballet. They all do the same dance and then they have the morning tea together.
Amanda Barr 4:54
So cute. So you just basically say hey, it's a special event week instead of coming in You know, 10 to 1030, this week come 930 to 11. Everybody come 930 to 11, or whatever that is, is that right? Yeah, that's
Unknown Speaker 5:07
exactly right. Exactly. So
Amanda Barr 5:09
cute. So cute. So, tell me to the parents, like, how's the response to that? Normally? How do the parents? Do they enjoy it? What? How does it normally go?
Rebecca Liu-Brennan 5:18
Yeah, they love it. I think they love the being able to talk to the teachers the most. And I think we forget what time that is. It is. And I also think, like, I just think we forget how important that retention is, especially at this time of year, it's like week six, or something now for us. So even at our studio now, where text messaging every single parent, and just being like, Hey, how's it going and dancing, it's just that whole, making sure that parents have a voice, I think is sometimes really important. And also just getting that feedback and also just allowing them to have that, you know, chat with you, I think is imperative. Like, I'm, I don't know about you, but I always go to the parent teacher interview at the kids schools. And I like think it's important for us to talk to their teachers, I'm, I think that's like a no brainer, really,
Amanda Barr 6:07
absolutely like this really interesting. Off topic from Easter. But I crave that from my kids schools, and I've talked before that, you know, I I'm really happy with my girls school, they do an awesome job at the school. However, since COVID, we still aren't going into the, into the school, we wait in the cars, and they do like a drop off kind of situation to the cops, like we get out of the cars, but they kind of walk the kids to us, which means that there's different people walking them to us, not necessarily their teacher, They line them up again, and it comes with other people. Now, yesterday, you know, and I wouldn't say that I'm a I don't know what the right word is. But I'm not one of those parents who's all over their kids and you know, needs every single little thing. I'm not a helicopter mom, that is not what I am by any stretch of the imagination. And it's my third daughter. So you know, it's like, I got the school thing down packed and all of that. However, yesterday, it just so happened that my daughter's teacher was the one that walked her out, which should not isn't normally and she's not normally there. And you know, I crave that chance to grab her and go, Hey, actually, how is sassy going? And I saw a heap of other parents and I did have that thought that I'm like, I wish that we could do that more often. That's what I want to hear is, you know, I want to just go hey, no, she had a great day, like just a quick, I know that the teachers are busy. I know there's so much but all parents want that preschool parents even more so. So whatever you can sort of build in your studio to allow people to do that I think is so so valuable. Oh,
Rebecca Liu-Brennan 7:43
absolutely. I know, this is totally off topic for Easter. I was chatting to Shannon Atkins about this the other day, and she was saying like, you don't understand what a difference telling a student in your class, just something simple that they absolutely, you know, love. And then the difference that can make in that child's day or life or whatever. And Shannon was teaching in my studio the other day, she was teaching a lyrical trip, and one of the backline. And she said to them, Oh, I loved how you, I love your quality of moving in that or something. And this kid was like, Oh my gosh, she said something positive. And it's the same with parents. Like the other day manager, I just ran out quickly, I was doing back to back classes that I ran out quickly and told this parent how well her child was doing because their child was really working hard. And she was nearly crying. And to me, it was just like a simple, hey, I'm so proud of her. She's actually really working on blah, blah, blah. But to the parent, it was everything. And we forget the value in that the retention around that is so important. And that's why I think this Easter thing is so important. And we really talked about stuff like it is their absolute, they have to go and talk to every single parent, I usually try and make the effort to be there that week. And I'm not normally there in the mornings. But I really try and make the effort to be there. And the reason I make the effort to be there is because I can then say to them, Hey, I've noticed you haven't talked to that parent yet. Go and talk to them Go and talk to them just to make sure that every single parent gets that attention, I think is is key.
Amanda Barr 9:11
Absolutely. I think that's such a great lesson, you know, and so you were talking about on last week's or the week before podcasts, with Jade from Dance life. Like even with 18 year olds, 20 year olds, how impactful it is sometimes as a teacher the things that we say to them that we don't even realise and how impactful our words can be. I think that's so so valuable. And super, super important.
Rebecca Liu-Brennan 9:39
And like yeah, for us, Amanda like if we get a compliment if something happens with us that's like, you know, someone's tells us that we've done something but we feel that too. So I think we forget about that. Now the other big thing that I do for Easter is a big Easter picnic and I know I've talked about this before, but we just love it. It is so awesome. So we've just been sending all got invitations out for it. We do it on Easter Monday. And there's kind of like a big park and river, you know, to quite close near to us. So we take everybody down there we do egg and spoon races, we have face painting. You know, we do the whole shebang. And parents love it. What I love about it is parents connect with each other, and meet each other and then become friends. And we know how powerful that is in our studio. It just makes us feel like a big family. And you know, it's it's such an epic event. And we've been doing that I've had my studio for 20 years, I think we've been doing it for 15 of those 20 years. Tradition now obviously didn't do it through COVID. But we've done it every other year that I can think of and it's yeah, it's a huge division. It's also a very busy spot down there, especially on Easter Monday. So we put a lot of signs up, and things like that. So you know, it is good advertising as well. Absolutely.
Amanda Barr 10:57
So do you want to tell everyone I know you've spoken about on the podcast before. But let's go back. So what is actually involved in your big Easter picnic? How does the whole thing work?
Rebecca Liu-Brennan 11:06
So we get everyone to arrive at about 10 3011 They all bring their own picnic baskets, and B connect blankets and own food. We don't provide any of that. We ask everyone to donate eggs the week before. And that's like our prizes, and also for our egg hunt. So we start the day off by doing sack races, egg and spoon races, three legged races, we involve the parents in it as well. And we just give out like little prizes or you know, obviously the preschools, everyone gets a prize. And then we just funny thing with parents where they get raw eggs and they have to play, catch and throw and step backwards from each other. And then everyone gets egg all over them and laughs and think it's hilarious. Then we do a scavenger hunt. So I get some of my seniors to go down quite a big park. So kind of down the back of the park and hide like usually we just buy like some little bunnies or something like that. And there's like 10, or depends how many people we have coming this year is going to be epic. So we'll probably have about 20 of them. And they've got to look for them in the trees and stuff like that kind of like Survivor, you know how they like have the immunity idols, it's that sort of field. So they hide them, then they will find them whilst they're down there. Everyone's hiding all the eggs, and doing getting the egg hunt ready. So all the parents stay back. And then the Easter bunny comes, we have the big egg hunt. And then would you photos with the Easter Bunny? And then that's it.
Amanda Barr 12:27
Cute. I love it. So, so cute. What a great, you know, community activity. And it's that thing, right? Like, you know, the, the parents go back to school on Tuesday this year. And they're talking to their friend at the school gate, and they're like, hey, you know, what did you get up to on a so they go, Oh, we went to this amazing, amazing, like, you know, thing with my girls dance studio. It was so good to have the community together. And they're like, Oh, tell me about, do you not? I mean, it just starts conversations, or they posted on Facebook, or they whatever that is. And I think that's what it's all about. Because we know that referrals are the best way for us to build our studios. And so even if that person isn't thinking about dance classes, right, then it just makes you then think, oh, that's the place I would ever go because it sounds so cool. It sounds so amazing, right?
Rebecca Liu-Brennan 13:16
Yeah, absolutely. And we do a big setup, talking about sharing things. So we do a big Easter setup at the studio. And it's epic. And we try and take a photo of every child in that Easter setup, and then we share it on band. We can't share it on Instagram because we've got so many kids but you share it on band. And then a lot of people will save it from band and post it on their socials. So I think that's really important as well and we write Hey, feel free to post this on your Instagram, we'd love to see you all sharing it like we always write that I think sometimes it's good to write that. But like why scared to write that we want to share it. That's why we're making the effort to take the photos they're asked for the to do it.
Amanda Barr 13:57
Absolutely. You know, a little bit about what we do. And it was interesting last year, being a parent on the other side of it at dance sensation. So we've always done like a really great Easter setup for a really great photo opportunity and done it for all the preschoolers exactly what you said. But I noticed last year, seeing some of the parents and what they actually want to share with their older kids. And so at DS they left you know the back that it up in the waiting room and said for anybody to use, but they actually had I want to say maybe five or six parents who pulled their kids out of school half an hour early, dressed them up in matching outfits, and came to do a whole photo shoot and asked to do it. Like to do a family photo in front of the wall. Like how cute is that? Look how smart is that? Not something I would do but You know, how good was that? That they obviously want that place people want something to do, because you know, you have the Santa photo, but there isn't the Easter photo. So that's obviously what people are craving. So create that in your business. Have your logo on it. You know, just like when you go to the Westfield it says Westfield, wherever you are. In the Santa photo. Do it in your studio as well.
Rebecca Liu-Brennan 15:20
Well, Easter Fridays are actually becoming a thing out here. Mantella. Really? Yes, it's like, photo studios are hiring easter bunnies. And there's a whole Easter photo thing out here. So cute. Yeah, that is actually so smart. I've never thought of doing that. To them for that reason. But that is really smart. Yeah, so
Amanda Barr 15:39
they had a lot of that. So, you know, we always did that we used to, we've done a few different ways. We used to take a photo of every kid and then AirDrop it to every parent works really well. We also have done like Polaroids for them to take home of every kid in front of it. And we'd all like we'd pre write something nice on the back. We've done that for mother's day too, which worked really, really well just as a off topic for Mother's Day, we actually like had like in a card. And then we'd like slightly you know, like, you know, when you put the photo into the card. And we wrote to my mom, you know, Happy Mother's Day, I love you so much. And we did it in secret of all the kids and then put their photo in. And we did that for Mother's Day. And it was like their present to take home for mom, that was super cute.
Rebecca Liu-Brennan 16:25
But that is so like all of this stuff is big effort. But I feel like it's so worth it. That's a thing like, yes, it takes time. It takes energy, you know, my staff packing bags with Easter eggs the other day. It's a part of it, but it's it's worth it. I think it's
Amanda Barr 16:42
totally worth it. Absolutely. Hey, I want to talk about one other thing that I've done during the so we didn't do the big parade, you know, no parade, sorry, the big picnic that you've done, we just do like the bunny comes to class and gives eggs and has a bit of fun at the end of every class kind of thing. And then the photo wall. However, one thing that we started doing COVID. And we kept doing even since COVID was a dance at home class with the bunny, an Easter morning dance at home class. And what we did is I actually live streamed it to all the community pages in the area, which probably a lot of people did similar things during COVID. But then we've all kind of forgotten about it, right. So I had it coming up on obviously, the dance sensations, page and Instagram. And then also sent it out to all of the local community pages that let me live stream on to it, or I'd link back to it, either one, and it was like a half an hour, you know, let's dance at home with the Easter Bunny with a host and the Easter Bunny doing the dances to go out. And I've done it tried it on different days as well, like Easter Sunday probably isn't the best day for some people. Unless you do it a bit later, when it's like they've done their eggs. And then the parents like you were up too early, you know, go and entertain yourself in front of the TV or this as I'm here go do that. But also, you know, on Easter Monday when the kids aren't at school, like stuff like that, which really pushes you out into the community makes you a leader in the community is giving something to the community as well. I think that's really, really beneficial and just kind of shows what you do. I had great traction from that before. And a lot of people that said I saw that that was so awesome. I'd love to, you know, and then you know, inquiring through that?
Rebecca Liu-Brennan 18:38
Did you reach out to the pages beforehand? Or did you just livestream it not too long?
Speaker 1 18:43
Um, different for different groups and
Amanda Barr 18:47
pages? Yeah, in our area. Our groups are not like I speak to other studio owners, and they talk about that their local community groups are like, oh, so strict with the rules, you know, you can only post on your posts on certain days, you've got to pay to post you've got it like, yeah, the ones in the Shire, a couple of our studio owners in this, like Shire kind of area, and they've got a pay per post and stuff like that, and everything has to be approved. might not like that. Luckily, like, so I haven't had that experience. But I think give it a go even if it's only on your own socials, right.
Rebecca Liu-Brennan 19:23
Yep, no, so smart. I was just thinking about Yeah, we have a lot of, we've got a lot of different groups. So I feel like some are more stringent on rules and all the things and others like we're not allowed to advertise on most of our groups. But giving free value like that. I think apps are amazing lately.
Amanda Barr 19:38
And even if you're not lives, absolutely even if you're not live streaming it just like hey, looking for something to do tomorrow morning with a little one and Easter activity. Come over to our page. You know, maybe you can do that and then not livestream it maybe that's an idea. But I think that was really cute. A really great thing to do. During COVID We actually went all out with it and We had the bunny on the bike riding down the main street trying to find the studio and like we were, you know, filming next to that, but like, we went all out with it during COVID. Because, look, we're all bored, and we just needed some ideas. So we did do that during COVID. But then it kind of just turned into like, a little half an hour dance at home class, you know, but it's also that thing, like, you know, if you, if you did wandering COVID Pull it back out. I think we all forget that a lot of us did great content. And there's no problems with recycling it. You know, just pull it back out, put it back on, especially if you did something fun during that time, or did something cute that you're like, hey, that was really cute. Find it post it again.
Rebecca Liu-Brennan 20:44
Yeah, absolutely, absolutely. And, um, I love that, like, we forget how powerful online is. I think like, because, you know, we had to do it. And so we have that whole, never want to do it again. But it actually can be very, very, very powerful. I was thinking one of my friends, her son still does karate online, every well. Yeah, so it's actually a karate school, that's a good hour away from where we live here. And they've just kept the online class and you know, probably have hundreds of kids that are doing it all over Australia. Doesn't matter where they are. And teaching it online. It's so smart. Absolutely.
Amanda Barr 21:22
And it's so scalable as well, which is what I love that it's so so great. And I think there's benefits to it like not always not for everything that was an idea we toyed with afterwards was doing like an additional, an additional class that was paid. That was like an upsell, that was like a technique or a flexibility class before school at home. But online as part of their regular, you know, they paid X amount to be on the unlimited package, and then an extra $5 a week to also do be part of this class. You know, it was something we really toyed with, we never took it off. But I do think those things would work. Oh, absolutely.
Rebecca Liu-Brennan 22:05
And like, I think you know, it being a dance mom as well, as a studio owner, you just You do realise how much time there's kids or sometimes at the studio. And sometimes that online thing is just so much easier when you've got four other kids at home. And you don't have to take them you don't have to be the taxi and do all the things. I think that's a no brainer. Hey, I just wanted to say I don't know if you saw this morning, but generally one of our amazing SGC members wrote up, hey guys who's doing you know, advertising over Easter, it's a really great time to advertise because everyone's sitting on their phones. And I thought very true. So the last thing I wanted to say about our isa Convo man was great time to up you spend on your Facebook ads. You know, you could do an Easter Special or you could do a after Easter week free trial. I mean, I know we'd probably do free trials every week, but it doesn't matter what you call it right? People will just see it and go, Oh, cool. That's a good, it's great that they're doing a free trial week after Easter, maybe a
Amanda Barr 23:06
free pair of ballet shoes and, and we know that everyone's social media, you know, consumer consuming goes in during those crazy times, it's like people are in the car a lot. If they're driving to go away, people are not at work. There's all of that. So whatever you could do, if you've got some sort of Easter Special, such a great time to drop it. So
Rebecca Liu-Brennan 23:29
have a really good thing about that guys and have a think about how you can really, you know make Easter Special in your studio. It's not too late. It's definitely not too late. And you know, even if it's just something simple this year, and maybe putting that spin behind the ad and then plan for it next year. But hopefully we've inspired you to to do something a little bit special with your studio. Absolutely.
Amanda Barr 23:52
Thank you so much for joining us. Hey, you know what would mean the absolute world to us is if you jumped on to Spotify or Apple and left us a review because that's how we grow our podcast. And we would so so be appreciative of that. Natalie left us a review last week, which we so appreciate. Thanks, Nat. And if anybody else out there wants to leave us a two second review would mean the world thank you so much, guys for listening.
Unknown Speaker 24:17
Thanks, guys. Bye
Transcribed by https://otter.ai
