Studio Business Accelerator

Today we speak with Mary, a client and owner of a dance program for more than 25 years. Mary talks about the nature of fear and the idea of value, and how both of them are in some way self-generated. Her business was completely wiped out by the pandemic, and she had to work hard to rebuild it and to overcome her fears.

Today we pull back the curtain and walk through one of our strategy sessions with a prospective client. Special guest Kelly King graciously joins us to talk about how the pandemic decimated her business, how she's begun rebuilding, and what's next. Mago walks her through some immediate steps she can take to overcome her fear of over-commiting to a new program and how to cover her payroll costs.

Mago presents some info today on what the word "scientific" actually means and its impacts on how we run studio businesses.  Objectivity isn't all it's cracked up to be, and it may not exist, even if your name is Albert Einstein.

Today we're discussing a chapter out of Robert Cialdini's landmark book Influence.

Social proof is the phenomenon where we tend to do and believe what others around us also do and believe.  Most of the time, this steers us right, but occasionally it can lead us astray.  Inside a studio business there are plenty of ways to use social proof to work towards a common goal, one that's best for the owner, staff, students, and prospects.

Today, onward through Commandments 5-7. Evan details a beautiful website he once built that was immediately discarded, and Mago confesses his fear of the prophetic powers of the movie WALL-E.  We talk about automating instead of employing, then move on to higher-level messaging and the importance of seeking elegance. 

Our special guest Anne Lauritzen returns to talk about some business-y ideas that can help us have better, richer personal lives.  She walks us through principles like "feared things first", radical candor, and imposing a cool-off period before making any judgements or analyses of an emotional decision.

Special guest and co-director of our team, Anne Lauritzen, joins us to talk about putting leadership lessons inside and alongside of your classes.  Studios always promise to help develop things like integrity and discipline in their students, and Anne shows us the ways we can actually deliver on that promise.  It's not about seminars or bonus classes, it's about what Mago calls an enriched environment.  Plus, Evan reveals how frightened he is of checking accounts.

Today we talk about a few things the dance world can learn from the martial arts world, and vice versa.  Both industries are more similar than they are different, but we think there are some significant advantages to certain approaches.  Evan recounts watching a disturbing scene where a young mom beats the heck out of a training dummy, and Mago floats his theory that gender roles have an impact.

The finale of our three-part series on our ten commandments of studio management.  We discuss outsourcing work, the importance of elegant solutions, and the imperative to challenge the industry's conventional practices.  Mago talks about his journey through the land of software, and Evan is still bitter about a website he built for a former employer who unceremoniously trashed it after a month.