Amanda Barr 0:00
Hey friends and welcome to the dance principles United podcast back. Oh my god and Facebook memories have been coming up. They have four years since. What? What COVID For my sins Co. That's crazy. Since SS locked down.
Rebecca Liu Brennan 0:21
That is insane. I knew I was talking to someone the other day and I think there's a parent at the studio. And they were like I loved COVID. And I said, I loved COVID to actually loved it. I miss it. Sometimes. Another good lockdown would be great. I know that's a really unpopular opinion.
Amanda Barr 0:41
I was gonna say that's an unpopular opinion among studio owners. But yeah, like there was definite benefit. I think the first one was too stressful. The second one didn't mind so much. I was quite happy at home.
Rebecca Liu Brennan 0:53
Like I didn't mind it, but I, I love just actually getting to spend time with my family and being at home. And I know that online teaching thing was hard. But I actually enjoyed it. I didn't mind being online. I didn't mind being in front of the camera, teaching my classes was I liked the
Amanda Barr 1:12
challenge. That was what it was for me. I liked the challenge. I like the stress of it. I thrive under pressure. Yeah, it's a funny thing, right? Like, we all had our own experience, and whether you are lovely listeners loved COVID or hated it. It was part of all of our lives, you know, for a good two years. And what we wanted to chat about today is it's been four years since our first lockdown, obviously, around Australia, and depending where you are in the world, it might have only been two years since you've last been in lockdown. It might have been last just depending on where you are and what happened. But I think there was some incredible lessons that we learned from COVID that sometimes we've forgotten. And so that's what I wanted to talk about today. Like, I don't know, do you agree that there was some things that we were like, This is amazing. I'm never going to change it. And we've just gone back to our old ways. It's the same with everything, right? Like we just go back to the old way of doing things. Yeah,
Rebecca Liu Brennan 2:11
absolutely. And I think it's always good to self reflect and realize the things that we did well during that time and about whether, you know, we should have continued to doing them or should continue doing them. Absolutely,
Amanda Barr 2:25
absolutely. So we're gonna jump straight into it today and talk about a few things that we most studio owners did during COVID. That worked really, really well. And hopefully it might make you kind of like question like, should I still be doing that? Maybe that actually was a benefit and maybe we should change the way we've done it because dance doesn't always have to be exactly the same. And done the same way as it always has been and we're seeing that in a lot of our that. Sorry, I'm gonna go off tangent. This is what Beck and I had planned. Sorry, back. She's in hysterics. Can I go off tangent? Will you allow me that for a second?
Rebecca Liu Brennan 3:09
That would be very unusual for you to do that. Amanda.
Amanda Barr 3:14
A hint of sarcasm I text.
I have seen so many other kids, sporting companies, kids activities, change how things are done by changing and evolving with how they do things rather than doing it the same old way. Let's talk about like all the private clinics that are popping up for soccer, basketball, football, whereas before it used to be you just pet play for your local club, right? And all of a sudden, there's commercial, you know, private trainings that have come in, they've changed the way they do it right. You know, even even things like Nathan is a cricket fiends like oh my god. Those people might not realize that Nathan plays cricket, he is still the captain of first grade cricket team. He's on the board. He's obsessed with cricket still, like, does my head in any way off topic. But him talking about cricket evolving with the times as well, you know, they've moved to new format, even on TV, they've moved into that 2020 format, you know, to make it fresh and exciting and change things and so many sports, so many activities are evolving the way that they're always doing things. And we need to be doing it and dance as well. We can't just go back to the old way that we've been doing it you know, just because that's how we were brought up that we learned per term and we had a different trip class that we had to be selected to to our belt like whatever like let's evolve let's let's change things up sometimes.
Rebecca Liu Brennan 4:55
I love it. I love it. One of my friends does online karate classes. So Oh, my God, I think mentioned that the other day. Yeah. I think honestly, the karate school is like three hours away from here. But they've been doing it since COVID. They just kept the online part of their school growing. And can you imagine like, how much bigger community that is? That's what we don't realize about online. You're not just reaching the people in your local area, you're reaching the whole of Australia, potentially.
Amanda Barr 5:26
That's the world. Well, yeah.
Rebecca Liu Brennan 5:28
Like, think about limits you could have. And there are some online dance programs. I know. Obviously, there's heaps of them. But also, why aren't we doing it ourselves? Makes sense? Absolutely,
Amanda Barr 5:44
absolutely. So let's jump into them. Let's talk about a few things that we did during COVID. And we'd love to sort of question you on those. Hopefully, we're not giving anyone PTSD around COVID. I know some studio owners feel that way. But I think it's always good to reflect back on it. It's been so many years. And I think it's so so important. So number one thing is using the online platform for parents. I think that is something that we did a lot of during COVID. And we haven't back, we're about to do parent teacher interviews, at our school at our school, they're still doing zoom parent teacher interviews, they haven't stopped
Rebecca Liu Brennan 6:30
them. That's crazy to me. Because I've also got parent teacher interviews, and I have to go into the school, which is a huge inconvenience. And I have to find the classroom. And then you've got to find the teacher. And actually, I haven't told you this story. But I've babies High School had parent teacher interviews, if I told you this last year, such as in the seventh last year, obviously. And I thought that they would just put all the teachers in the hall, that would make sense to me. So I booked all of the interviews kind of back to back with no breaks in between. Would you do that? If it wasn't explained to do properly of Yeah, of course.
Amanda Barr 7:07
But you're what you had to walk all over the whole school and the campus and it's huge. It's
Rebecca Liu Brennan 7:12
like a rabbit brand. And you have to find classroom 33.7, which is up the stairs and around the corner, and I'm terrible with directions to the best of time. I would. I'm not exaggerating, I was crying at one point. It's horrendous. It was an experience.
Amanda Barr 7:28
It was always interesting, yeah, that they didn't tell you that you need to walk around and obviously allow 15 minutes, especially when you haven't been there before and don't know how to get to the classrooms, etc.
Rebecca Liu Brennan 7:40
And then I was like for every teacher. So then I only got three or four minutes with every teacher and I was just in such a fluster. And I think the last three teachers or something because they do billion subjects in high school. The last three teachers, I was just like, I'm going home, I'm done. Okay. And so yours is online. That's great.
Amanda Barr 7:59
Look, it works as a parent, great for me, because number one, I have booked back to back with my to my different the different teachers for the different kids. And they are like we run to the second, they've told us that in the email. So there's no problems running back to back, the day that I've booked it Nathan's on at home with me. So he'll jump on from where he is, you know, the same for other parents like because you know, some of them are in the afternoon, one parent can be at work, one can be at home, my kids are at dancing the afternoon that it is. So I'm gonna sit in the car out the front of the studio, you know, there's so many more options, and I didn't have to worry about leaving one, there's all of those things. But as a parent, I love it. Because it's so much easier for me, like you said, like for you to go down to the school in the afternoon. And if you had other little kids that you had to drag around with you and walk around and find all the places it's hard, but I could also see it from the school's perspective. You don't need to make as much small talk online, you know, you can be very much like, oh, the next person's in my waiting room, I'm sorry, I've got to go and cut it off. You know, you don't have to, like have that small, like, oh, come in, sit down on the chair, you know, like all of that kind of stuff. Which allows them to be a heaps more efficient and allows the teachers to also do it from home. Right.
Rebecca Liu Brennan 9:17
So what are you suggesting that like studio owners should do parent teacher interviews online?
Amanda Barr 9:23
If they do parent teacher interviews, 100% I would totally be doing them online to make it easier for yourself. But you know, a lot of a lot of studios don't do parent teacher interviews. That's not a normal thing. Maybe it is something you do with soloists or high level kids. And obviously some studios do that. But what I was thinking about is, you know, parent info nights for example. You know, like a lot of studios would have like a True Parent info night. Or you know, the first comp or even like how to do your kids make up for the comp like those kinds of info nights how
Rebecca Liu Brennan 9:59
to do You hear even like, travel, if you're traveling with your studio, you know, when info nights are always a nightmare for that, because I always have other classes on it's noisy and it's like, you can't hear the person at the front. But that would be a great thing to do online.
Amanda Barr 10:15
Before? Absolutely, just having those online, you know, like I do, you know, it's a hard thing, because I think connections with parents is really, really valuable. So I think there's both sides of it. But I do think that, you know, having those things online, it makes it easier for you, it makes it easier for the parents. I know that I actually went to a parent information session that was online. Actually, as I'm saying that I'm like, No, I didn't, I sat next to my head of troop who ran one of our parent information sessions online, must have been two years ago. And a whole heap of the parents were like, so good to see you don't have my camera on have my pajamas on like they were loving wife, especially when it was young kids, because a lot of the parents, you know, it was, you know, the six and under treat parents, for example, we put it at eight o'clock, so that the kids had gone to bed. And the parents could sit there, you know, in their pajamas, or whatever, and do it so much easier for parents. And so I think the Sharpe rate was so much better. Oh, it would be, it'd be
Rebecca Liu Brennan 11:20
so much better because parents lives are crazy. I know how crazy my life is. We always talk about how crazy your life is. And yeah, I love that. I absolutely love that. What a great idea.
Amanda Barr 11:31
So that's my thought, number one. Thought number two in terms of what we did. Well, during COVID. And back This was your idea was, you know, the amount of extra things that we did for our families during COVID. Like, what extra things did you offer your families during COVID.
Rebecca Liu Brennan 11:51
So much. So we did a free adult fitness class every single day for all of our parents. And that was very, very popular. We did a every weekend we did like a trivia night or a Kahoot or a disco or something for the kids to get them to have some fun over the weekend because they couldn't go anywhere. We send out packages to people we so much I can't I'm trying to remember all of the things that we did, but they probably the top three. Absolutely.
Amanda Barr 12:27
And most studios did those things. Right? Most studios went above and beyond. And yes, we had to do that. And COVID Without a doubt, like we had to do we also had job Keeper which helped, you know, because our staff had to work anyway. And all of that going on. And you know, I would never recommend Oh, yeah, you should run daily fitness classes for your parents for free. That's not what in person. But what could you do? Could you do a version of that? Maybe, you know, you don't need to run a trivia night, every single weekend. But is it nice to bring your studio community together once a term or twice a year? You know, whatever that is? Yeah, there are definite things in that. Because there was so many great connections made during that time, don't you think? Yes,
Rebecca Liu Brennan 13:09
I think we forget about the customer service and how important it is towards inherent sometimes as well. And creating those I don't know, like just doing the simplest thing for them can really mean so much. And I think we do forget that, or even the simplest thing for the kids. I think people forget how important that is. And that that little thing can really make such a big difference.
Amanda Barr 13:34
Absolutely. You know, even just things like the birthday card in the mail. Like, such a big thing for some kids like that would just, you know, make their day. And something as simple as that, which we were doing things like that during COVID We were sending things in the mail, because kids like to get things in the mail and they don't normally, you know, like, what things could we bring back that really is that customer centric kind of idea. Or, you know, that just really like creates that community amongst our families and our parents and stuff. There's so many great ideas of things we could bring back.
Rebecca Liu Brennan 14:10
So many you know what I'm thinking of someone who's great at this is Darren from flair dancewear. And every year I get this big package from him for Marina, but I know it's like his thing because he does it in his business, right? And he'll give us like chocolate. So this year, I had an intelligence with my name on the Nutella jar, and then like champagne, and it's literally just thanks for being our client. You know, there's no rhyme or reason behind it. It's literally just thanks for being our client client, but it makes you remember them in such a positive sense. And I think that's the key like it's interesting at this time of year we got a lot of kids dropping out. You know, we're hearing it from a lot of clients because they're dropping out for sport or they're dropping out for this but creating little memories and moments like that does make See, retain more students, I truly believe that.
Amanda Barr 15:02
Absolutely. Like, whatever you can do, you know, one of the big things and we did it for a couple of years was we would pick it our top 30 clients will look at it financially, our top 30 clients, and once a year, we would drop them a gift. I remember saying this with a handwritten card, just saying thanks so much for being part of it like something that they weren't expecting. A lot of it being more focused towards the parent, rather than the child, which I think because some of those parents, you know, they, they do give a huge amount of money, like to our studio, they are not give sorry, you know, but they pay a lot a huge amount of money. It's a big part of their lives, and they don't get the thanks for it their kids do. So what can we do for that? Parents, especially some of those parents who are paying huge amounts of money? Like, I think there's so many ways you can really think about bringing people together around that. Yeah,
Rebecca Liu Brennan 16:02
I love it, I think, does that customer service as well, like just thinking, even if you just did one little thing from COVID, that, you know, you provided that extra customer service for that extra effort? We should be trying to put that effort in more, I believe?
Amanda Barr 16:18
Absolutely. Especially at the moment, like, you know, we're hearing from a lot of studio owners, you know, the Financial Times are tough for some people. And, you know, finances come into play for all of those things. And I think it's just, you know, the more positively a parent can remember you and your business, the less likely they are to drop when times are tough because you become an integral part of their life.
Rebecca Liu Brennan 16:45
Yep, absolutely. It's it's imperative and at end of their children's lives, you know, and it's like things we say, like building the friendships, and, you know, like making sure that they can actually interact with each other. That's just so important. But like you said, during a trivia night, once a turn, well, we've got our Easter picnic coming up. I know, I talk about it all the time. But I know, with all my new, especially six and under troop parents, we've got 53 and six and under troop this year, like I imagined them I know, imagine them, they're not all on stage at once. interacting with each other. Now I'm creating bonds and becoming friends for life. And then they stay at the studio because their friends like it's just so you know, something that costs that little bit of money is just so huge and has such a huge impact.
Amanda Barr 17:33
I love that so much. I think that is to picnic is such a good example of that. And I think we spoke about our podcasts the other day, one of our clients, Marie from dancing with Marie did a like a huge, amazing. Was it like a challenge day is that what it was that she does invited all of our families for free, she paid a company to do it. And they you know, they were in the red team or the blue team or whatever. And they did like a series of whole family activities. And like things like that. If you have the finances for them, I think they can be so great for bonding in your studio and such a great customer service. Add on that you offer.
Rebecca Liu Brennan 18:09
Yeah, absolutely. Absolutely. Anything else that you can think of from COVID? Amanda that you think we should definitely or anything you think we should definitely not keep even?
Amanda Barr 18:19
Oh, let's start with the to keep? Okay, I'm gonna say online dance classes. That's my thing. And, you know, we've seen the rise of online dance programs, for sure. There are specialized dance programs out there that some of our higher level kids would be taking. And they work really well. But why not do it in your studio yourself? Why not offer? You know, one thing we're kind of toying around with the idea was, and we kind of spoke about it last week on the solo podcast as well, was an additional technique class, for example, for all your kids on the unlimited or all your trip kids are all you know, whatever it is. You could run one of those online once a week at a time where probably none of them are going to come to the studio. It's going to you know, you could charge a very small amount for it because you could put 100 kids in the class if you wanted because there's no limit to online, right? You know, imagine this, this is this is where I'm going with this. This is my headspace. So they enroll in a class, there's a ticket box saying, Hey, would you like to, you know, as an add on? Would you like to pay an additional $5 a week to be a member of our online dance classes or online dance community? Something cool, right? You got to give it a cool name. You know, an extra couple of dollars a week, whatever it is, but if you could get 100 kids to upgrade to that. And all that meant was you No one extra class at 8am. On a Saturday morning, that was a technique class that you did. And then a portal of all the old classes and the recordings. Could you make an extra? Like, I don't know, could you make an extra $1,000? A week from that put him as an extra 500? Like, you know, even a couple of 100? Like, what could you do that would really you know, and be a value add to both your community but also to your bottom line.
Rebecca Liu Brennan 20:27
You know, what we used to do? Sorry, just as you're doing that, I'm getting ideas.
Amanda Barr 20:32
We're getting excited. You and I are getting excited. Never I am
Rebecca Liu Brennan 20:35
actually so we used to do a stretch class every morning for the kids before they went to online schooling. So they'd get up and come on and do a stretch class. And I'm like, that could be really cool. Like just to do a 15 minute stretch with me spec every morning before you go to school. Parents would love that too. Because we're always going saying to our kids, you got to practice your stretching at home, you got to practice it, like a parents get sick of saying to them practice. So like imagine just, you know, getting a staff member are you doing it getting online, that would be amazing. That would be so
Amanda Barr 21:11
so good. And like as a mom, as a parent, I am not that parent who's taking my kid to dance classes at 730. I know some people run before school classes, that would not be me, I am not doing that. However, every morning, I'm hassling my 11 year old to do her, you know, point exercises and to do her conditioning and stuff. If she could jump on line for 15 minutes or 20 minutes or half an hour at seven o'clock to do it before school? I would be all about getting her up to do that. Yeah, game changer. Absolutely. I'd happily pay $10 a week, whatever it was, it doesn't have to be a huge amount of money because it's scalable, right? Yeah, could get everybody you know, if it was $10 a week, for example, but you had 100 kids in it. For you back at your studio 100 kids in that that's very doable for $10 a week. That's an extra $1,000. Like, you wouldn't pay the teacher that much money like for that. Like, I think that's such a great idea. And it also it's gonna lift the level of your school? Yep. It's gonna get our kids more invested. There's all of those things. And, you know, it's that funny thing, right? Like, a lot of us did incredible content. And I think we talked about this on the Easter one as well. We did incredible content. And we have these videos that are probably just you know, sitting on the back of your Mac's book somewhere that you created during COVID. Use them, recycle them, even if it's just posting them for free on his socials. But get out there and use them. Because content can be recycled.
Rebecca Liu Brennan 22:51
I love it. I absolutely love it. My brains like tick, tick, tick, tick. And I think like, no, it's just such a simple way to make some extra money in your studio. And yeah, especially especially love that during this extra stretch class. That's really clever, Amanda, love it.
Amanda Barr 23:09
Thanks. I think that would be amazing thing to do. I really would as a parent, I would love it. Because I think we talked about last week's episode about solos as well. I would love for my girls to do more classes, but I just can't physically do any more driving back and forth to the studio. It's just not something I could do. However, if it was online, if it was at their own time, if I knew it was appropriate for them, because I also look at some of those. And obviously, I am a dance educated parent. However, I look at some of those online programs. And there's so many of them going around, right, like so many. But I look at them and go, Oh, look, that one's probably too hard. That's probably too advanced for my daughter, or harder. You know, I don't really know what I'm buying. And my kids are decent level, but they're not super high level. So it's like I don't want them to do something that's way too hard for them. And not safe for them as well. I think that's a big thing as well. But if it was run by their studio, I wouldn't know what's appropriate. I believe in in their studio, as most parents do. That's why they come to your studio. They trust you. So they just go. That's the easy one. I'll just do it at their studio rather than going and buying it from someone else.
Rebecca Liu Brennan 24:28
I love it. I love it. So many cool ideas. So many cool ideas. Absolutely.
Amanda Barr 24:32
And I just think bring back some of those things like COVID was horrible, for a lot of ways, but it also really brought out an innovative side of dance. And so if there was something that was really innovative, something that was really different that you did that worked. Let us know. Why did you stop it? Why don't you bring it back now? Because yes, I do think we all kind of needed a bit of a break as well from online classes. I get that but maybe It's the time to bring them back.
Rebecca Liu Brennan 25:01
Yeah. And we're not saying to do it all day, every day necessarily. We're not doing it as that one off, you know, even workshop or anything like that. Like, why not do it? You know, why not do it? I love it. Amanda, you're so clever.
Amanda Barr 25:16
Well, thanks. I think definitely give it a go. Give it a try. If it's something that calls to you, that if there's a way to do it, but you know, sometimes it's even just a bit of a, like a free online class in the holidays, maybe that's a great thing to do, as well. You know, keep connecting with your students, you know, jump on your closed Facebook group, jump on the band, and do a half an hour, hey, anyone in our community wants to come along and do a stretch class with Miss Beck. We did things like that all the time in COVID. Right. And it's a great way to give back to your community. So I would really recommend just thinking about what you could do to do that. To make it incredible experience for your students. Yeah,
Rebecca Liu Brennan 25:59
amazing, guys. We hope you inspired we hope we inspired you today. It is so close to Expo. We're so pumped about it. We cannot wait to see you guys all there. It's going to be
Amanda Barr 26:12
epi cannot wait. If you listen to the podcast and we're meeting you for the first time at EXPO come and tell us we'd love that. So please come and tell us that you listen to the podcast, and we can't wait to see you there. Bye friends.
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