Join us for a special recap episode as we revisit some of the biggest highlights, insights, and inspiring moments from this year. We'll reflect on key takeaways, listener favorites, and valuable lessons learned from our amazing guests. Whether you're catching up or diving in for the first time, this episode is packed with memorable moments that made this year one to remember!
Transform My Dance Studio – The Podcast For Dance Studio Owners
The Show Must Go On…Or Maybe Not?
Hi there, dance studio owners. My name is Lisa Dimeo and I am the Inner Circle Program Manager and I hope you're ready for the next big thing here on the Transform My Dance Studio Podcast. These next few episodes are the best of episodes from 2024. These are the episodes that you, the listener, told us gave you the most insight, solved the most problems and gave you the most encouragement. Now turn those earbuds up and get ready to be re-inspired. Hi, Angela. And I'm Jody. And welcome to Elevate Your Studio. Jody, how are you doing today? It's a great day because I get to talk to you. Well, I think the same thing. You know what we're going to talk about today, Jody? Why? It's something that I think that not a lot of us studio owners really do. We're going to reset and recharge. What? What? What is that? I think so often we just keep going and going and pushing and pushing that we sometimes get in the mode that we don't even stop to like up level or stop to even give ourselves a break. What do you think? I'm totally guilty of that. Honestly, really guilty because I am of that mindset. The harder I work, the further I'll go and achieve, the more I can do for everyone else. There's no rest for the weary. The show must go on. All these phrases have been ingrained in us since we were doing performers and we don't rest. I used to perform sick. You just do it. I had a ballet teacher in college who would say, just put your face on Jody and keep going so she would say to everybody. Dancing through injuries or just keep going after family emergencies or tragedies. Well, if you don't need a reset, then you're super young, superwoman, because you're seriously and you're probably living in a different world. But yeah, all are so drained from the last few years. There's so many unhealthy ways to reset and recharge like eating or drinking or sleeping too much or whatever. And I think we need to come up with some really healthy and good and positive things that help not just us, but then we'll in turn help our families and our studios and ultimately our society around us. I love that. Yeah, so on a daily basis, I'm a daily basis. What do you do to reset and recharge? You know, I'm not so good on a daily basis. I try every day. I start every day in prayer, just with a grateful heart and thanking God for all the gifts that I've been given. And I think that really helps me to get in a good frame of mind that it's not all relying on me, that there's something higher and I have to allow that into my life. For me, that's the biggest reset and like recharge of my daily routine. How about you? You pray every day too, don't you as well? I do morning and night and one thing I implemented this year was I stop working no later than 6 p.m. What you're so good. I get to have dinner with my family every night. I get, I love 7 p.m. when we put our young kids to bed because then my husband and I can network the way. But honestly, my brain shuts off and that's just how I'm wired. I work, I get up really early. I get up at like 5, 5, 30 a.m. because I wake up ready to go. And so I get my best planning and work done before anyone else wakes up. Yeah, I know that's great. I teach a lot still at night. So for me, I have to take an afternoon nap every day. I know it sounds silly, but like I do work in the morning and then I take a little hour-long nap and then I'm ready to do my stuff again at the end of the day. It's like I get two days in one really, so I'm pretty old now. But it really helps me and I know that my brain won't work unless I take a little nap. I just, that's how I am. So for me, that works. Yeah. And the other other ways to just make things easier for yourself is like getting a meal delivery service. I'm almost embarrassed about how much I do for myself so that I can put that in charge. So meal delivery service, gardener, pool guy, house cleaner. I want to be you when I grow up. I don't have any of those things right now and those aren't things that I really want to do because it takes up so much mental time to just think about those things and to prepare all those things. And when time is money. Absolutely. And I'm honestly seeing that this year. Like I value my time. Right. Right. No, I agree. I agree. That's great. It's been interesting because taking that plunge for like the meal delivery service was a little scary because I'm like, oh, this is sort of pampery. Like, what am I doing here? I can't go. But it's helped my family so much. We're healthy and I don't have to prepare it. I can spend that time doing homework with my kids. Right. No, I think I wanted to. Yeah, I think it's brilliant. I always say, you know, I'm just going to take a Sunday and I'm going to make all my meals and it never happens. So I should just do meal delivery service. I found too that like once a week, if I take a like, I have to take Wednesdays and Sundays off, those are like my day for me and my family. That really helps because I can't work some days a week anymore. Yeah. Speaking of weekly recharge, I did something this year. My daughter, Pixie, Pixie, like a little fairy, she has been showing this, this really great skill in visual arts. Yes. And I've been like, you know, I need to cultivate that. And I also have always wanted to learn how to draw and paint. So I on every Thursday, I signed us up for an art class after school, right? I go in and take it with her. And I sit with eight to 12 year olds on these little like art benches. I love it. It's my favorite time of the week. It's so funny. Absolutely. And it's a thing that has nothing to do with running the studio. It's just time with my daughter, time for myself, doing something that is just frivolous really, like, but it's working a different part of your brain and you're not in charge. Like, that's how I feel about taking my weekly plotties classes. Like, I don't have to teach. I don't have to think. It's just somebody else. That's great. I think that's great. I think too, for me, when I get stuck in creativeness or creativity, I love to go see a show or a movie or, you know, even if it's like a high school production of some show, it just gets me kind of jazzed up again, literally, for what I do and what I love to do and gets those creative juices flowing. Exercise, like you said, always clears my brain. We've been going on hikes. We live kind of near a mountain, where we'll go on hikes. And it's just gorgeous. It's beautiful. I'm still a family and take the dogs. And also, a few times a week, I have a private trainer because it's accountability, my friends. Yes. If I didn't have that trainer, I would not be going to the gym. No, it makes sense. But, you know, I don't think those things are frivolous. I think those things are necessities. And, you know, we talk as women about self-care, being a massage or whatever, but it doesn't have to be something like that. It's something to set up your week so that it's easy and makes it flow. You know, those are important things. And creating those patterns in your daily and weekly and monthly routines that do recharge in me. Yeah. I finally, after how many years in the inner circle, I have scheduled many vacations for myself this year. So every six weeks, I am taking three days off to just recharge. And sometimes my husband and I are going to go to a hotel. Other times, I'm just going to stay at home and do laundry. But it's going to just be nice to get away from the studio and just have a little break. So it doesn't have to be something expensive either. Just some things that you can put in your life. Those three-day weekends are amazing. Yeah, absolutely. Even if it's you and Vinnie, your husband, or just your you and your husband, or it could just be you. Yeah, just that little break. I know that you're about to go on a big vacation. I just got back from a big guest. I haven't been on a big vacation since 2017. Oh, really? Yes. Okay. Well, my vacations have always been inner circle. Which I love. So this is going to be fun for me just to go to a resort and chill and you went to Hawaii, right? We went to Hawaii for two weeks, which was crazy. Crazy. But nothing fell apart, did it? Nothing fell apart. They didn't contact me. At all. That's so great. I'm the one that contacted them a couple of times. Like, is everything still going well? Like, Jody, get off the slack and enjoy your vacation. So what did you have to do? So I find that when I do go on a vacation like that, there is a lot of stuff that I have to set up for my team so that I'm able to rest and able to, you know, take that time off. I think if you just leave and leave, you know, your people just to fend for themselves, that's where you really get into trouble. Well, there is strategy on when you're going to take those big vacations. So I, you know, we did ours in November. It wasn't going to conflict with anything really. There was no shows coming up or, you know, heavy enrollment time. So November was a really good time for us to do it. And then probably summer will be our next one. But I did. I had to prep some things the week before. And then I had to play a little catch up when we got back here because there are some things that only you can, like, and I'm taking my the first week back in class. So, you know, if they can make it through this, they'll be great. So yeah, no, I think that's great. You know, what I like to do too, Jody, is I like to journal a lot. I know you do too. But I like to think about what really worked this year. Even if there's like two or three things that really worked, maybe it was having a meal delivery service, or maybe it was doing laundry on a certain night. And then what didn't work? And like, how can I switch those around so that more things work than don't work? Yeah, similar, similar, I, if I can't follow through with something like the year before, I joined the stupid gym, right? I love that you call it the stupid gym. I honestly don't love working out. And I despise running. That's why I'm like, good things that are more artsy. I really don't like going to the gym. But I am appreciating it more. But I wasn't so I had this gym membership that I wasn't using in part of the reflection life. It was like, well, how am I going to get myself to use this gym membership? And so I had to invest like another $80. Because that private trainer twice a week or two, two or three times a week. So that would go because I know from being in the inner circle that I work well with accountability. I absolutely, absolutely. Yeah, I think that's great. I think accountability, I mean, like we have people in the inner circle or other studio friends that we check in once a month. We have our squads that we do once a month, you know, small groups that we really hold each other accountable. And it really does bring success. But what's funny with me is accountability only works with people that I want to be held accountable to. Yes. Someone who I didn't give permission to right hold me accountable holds me accountable. I get really mad. I agree. And it's like, yeah, there's select people that you want to have hold you accountable. And there's certain people that scare me that I really need to hold me accountable. Like those are the ones that I get the most done because it kind of scares me if I fail for them, if that makes sense. Like who am I? Maybe Clint. No, and you. No, but I know. And I mean, like, I just, I really want to do well for certain types of things. You know, speaking of the gym, one thing that I find that's always good to do the beginning of the year is to reset all of your dumb subscriptions that you have. Like, I don't know about you, but I find every kind of beginning of the year in January, February, I go through all my subscriptions. And I cut out like about a thousand dollars a month just for things that I haven't, you know, I haven't gotten rid of. And it makes a huge difference and like cleaning out that inbox and getting everything set. Those little things I spend one, I spend about a day a month just organizing my inbox to make sure that the next next month, the next two months will be so much easier. So taking time to make time. That's so good. I, I, I email as a problem for me. It will always be a problem because I hate it. I avoid, I avoid the things that I hate. Okay. Well now you can hold the, be held accountable to us. Well, I just need to delegate it. I don't know. Look at my email. No, we've talked about a lot of resetting and recharging ourselves as studio owners, but our students sometimes need a reset. Absolutely. I remember in college, you know, you're doing ballet every day. That was a great major. And like once a month, one of our instructors would surprise us. And she would say, today is floor bar day. Oh, didn't you love those? And, and, and the floor bar is really hard. Oh, yes. It was, then it was something different. Right. Like a little reset. Like, oh, something different. Or even if they would change the direction of the room or yes, we just something once a month in a ballet class where we'll let them wear like a sweatshirt, just, you know, for warmups or something. And it's like amazing how much that little tiny thing just gets them excited and jazzed up to continue on. Because yeah, it's tough for our students right now. Yeah, I'm not me of it. I'm always grateful for the spacing of the holidays. Yes. I'm like, this is great. I think it's human nature that you need a little change because you got like Halloween and Thanksgiving and all these like fun Valentine's day, like all these fun little things that you do with your students to kind of reset them in and break up the monotony. Yeah. Yeah. Or we do things through, you know, throughout our studio, too, like we'll have a pajama week. Yeah. When we're in the dead of winter in Minnesota. Like, that's the best because everybody just comes in their jammies and people dance better in their jammies once in a while than they do when they really get tarts and toys. So, it's pretty fun. What do you do to reset and retry your instructors and your staff? Yes. Well, I give them some time off during the holidays. And I pick up a little bit of the slack with some of the stuff going on for the holidays. So I give them some time off. I also, I also really try to talk to them and have some one on one time with them throughout the year to just check in with them and just talk and see how they're doing and see, you know, what's going on in their lives and what they're comfortable sharing. And that does more than anything really, just for them to be humans around me and not just instructors. How about you, Jodi? Well, we will, we'll do the summer staff retreat, which is fun and learning. And then we'll do socials like quarterly. Yeah. Even if it's just, you know, well, not during COVID, we would go to a bar and get a drink. We can't do that right now. You're right. Or we couldn't now we can, but it's harder. But like, even like fun, weird things, like I hired a chef to over zoom. Yeah. Is all how to make sweet and savory crepes. Oh, how fun. We laughed so hard because our crepes looked like it was fun. It was very silly. That's awesome. Yeah. We do things, you know, you're so creative with all that stuff. But we do, we have like bowling nights or different things to kind of get everybody excited again. Yeah. Sometimes you just need a little social mixed into the work, the monotonous work. This year, I've been planning for it. It was a very good year for me. Yeah. I mean, actually, finally at real. It's so great. So I had been planning and saving, and I got to do paid time off for the winter. Really close. First time ever for my employee. It's amazing with bonuses and their faces. It was just, it was awesome. It was so awesome. So sometimes it's just those big surprises. Yeah. Like totally unexpected. No one knew it was coming. Right. Right. Delighted surprise. That's great. Oh, congratulations, Jody. That's wonderful. What a gift. It was really fun to give that one. Yeah. Fun. I always find every like six months, I upgrade my studio too. Even if it's just painting a wall or adding something new to the physical space, because for me, the physical space is so important too. And it kind of brings a little bit of joy back into the studio. Yeah. I love that. Deep cleaning. Oh, yeah, steep cleaning is fun. But we have, for Christmas, we have like our competition teams. We really decorate the studios and make it, you know, just so much fun and have different themes for each room and things like that. And so then when we come back in January, we start to get, you know, we paint everything and have new little, I always hide little animals in the studio, like little fake animals, because we have this big tree. I'm sure people have heard about it, but this, I have a forest theme in one of my studios. So I always bring in new little animals. So like the Christmas animals go away. And then we have, you know, springtime animals in the tree and I decorate the tree and stuff like that. So those kind of things are fun too. I just love your creativity. Well, yours too. You guys have never seen Angela's forest tree room. It is something to behold. It is really magical. And it's where you hold your like younger classes a lot of times. It's like a seven foot tree that they can walk in and it has a little owl that moves around. Somebody like has a stick that makes the owl. So when we do freeze dance, the owl looks at them and little animals in it and little fairies and it's just fun. It's fun. So those are the kind of things that really make me excited again. And the kids get really excited too. They're like, Oh, look at, you know, there's a new squirrel or, you know, and then of course I make up a story about, you know, the squirrel came over break and decorated or something. So yeah, I think those kind of things are fun just in that physical space too. How do you reset and recharge with your family besides vacationing? Yeah, that's a tough one. I think sometimes my family gets the worst, to be honest. And isn't that sad? Because it is. And they're like the most important thing in the world to me. Over my studio, I would choose my family in a hard team. Yeah, do I put them last? I know. And that's something I really want to work on in 2022. For me, what's hard too is my son is getting older. So he's a teenager now. So he doesn't really want to talk to me or, you know, he's a great kid, but like he doesn't want us mom around. So things like that, it's so much easier to go to the studio where, you know, 23 year olds will give me a great big hug and say Miss Angela, we're so happy to see you. So but yeah, I think that it's really important. And we do every Wednesday night, we have a family meal together. So for us, that's a big thing. And then on Sundays, we go to mass together too. So even just those little things help. But I do want to be more present in this year with them. Yeah, that's a goal of mine as well. Well, let's pull each other accountable. Yeah, cool. I was just thinking about your son and other people I know in my life. And it's those quiet ones who need us most. Yeah, the ones that seem like they don't need anybody. Right. Absolutely. Yeah, absolutely. And we also watch a scary movie every Sunday night. And I hate scary movies. So in my son and husband love them. Like I hate scary movies. So that's kind of a funny thing that we all connect with because I'm like freaking out and they're laughing at me. And so I kind of, that's kind of our newest thing is to watch a scary movie on a Sunday night. So I think, you know, that is hilarious. As you were saying that I was also thinking about what would happen if we didn't reset and recharge. Yeah, I can tell you what happens because I can tell you for what happened too. Yes, because I've been there when I am guilty of working too much over time. And personally, the stress got to me and I ended up with something wrong with my head. Yeah, I made it like vertigo. And it was a huge issue that I'm still have to deal with sometimes. So I think when you're overstressed and you don't take care of yourself, it manifests and illnesses that are far worse. So if for me, it was my dissected artery, like my artery ripped. Yeah, you know, and because I didn't listen to those key signals that my body was trying to tell me. So it had to scream at me. So I think, yeah, I know that we're not the only ones. I bet everyone who is listening can think of a time that they were overstressed, even if it was that you got is it. Great, it manifests. It does. It does. Yes. Yes. Absolutely. Absolutely. So I think that's really important. As much as we take care of our studio, we need to take care of ourselves really. Absolutely. And it's so hard to do though. I mean, I know we all say it, but it's hard. It's hard. So how do we make sure that we do do it? I just said you do. You said do do. I think having accountability partner is a good thing. Yes. And I think for me, knowing how to be proactive instead of reactive. So I know when I get too stressed and a lot of it has to do with I didn't plan out that week well, even, you know, even took some time to like physically map it out. And it doesn't always follow that path, but if I don't do that, it really catches up to me on the other end. So for me, it's really important. If I don't put it in the calendar, it doesn't happen. If I don't make the space for it to happen, it will not happen. There's this one instructor she almost she makes me laugh every time she contacts me because she's like, Hi, Jody. I know this isn't in your calendar, but can we schedule a meeting for today, for a week or whatever? It's so funny because she knows how it has to be in my calendar. And this is what's weird for me, Jody, is I have to put in my calendar when to stop because I can just keep going. And I'm not real great with calendars, to be honest. So I will just keep pushing and pushing and pushing and pushing. And then I'm exhausted and come home. And I'm not who I want to be. So I have to put in my calendars, like, no, this is a stop. No, you're not doing this today. This is not happening this week. So and holding those those precious recharge time slots, as important as the most important meeting of the year, right, you have to you, you have to hold it in place so that it's not disturbed. No one interferes with the little art class that I take with my daughter. It happens every Thursday at 315 and no one schedules during that time. But the other thing too, you're accountable to her too. So that's part of the whole thing with accountability is you're not going to disappoint your daughter. So why do we allow ourselves to disappoint ourselves, you know? Question of the year. So good talking to you. You too. Hey, I hope you guys find something to help you reset and recharge. And that's a wrap for today's recap episode on the Transform My Dance Studio Podcast. Keep those earbuds charged, stay motivated, and get ready to join us again next week for another powerful episode on the Transform My Dance Studio Podcast. [BLANK_AUDIO]