Let’s get personal, studio owners!
In this episode of Your Studio Podcast, it’s our very first Solving Your Studio segment, where Michelle and Chantelle dive deep into the challenges facing YOU – studio owners. From lead generation and marketing to expanding your business, we’ve got you covered. There is SO much gold in this episode!! Get ready to discover practical tips and actionable advice to help you grow your studio.
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Michelle Hunter (00:00)
It’s that time of the year again, friends, and it’s our Gala training event, the Enrol-A-Thon. We’ve been running this now for seven years and it is back bigger than ever
Chantelle Bruinsma (00:11)
That’s right, my friends. The Enrol-A-Thon is where over five days we share with you the most proven, powerful strategies that aren’t complicated, aren’t stressful, aren’t expensive, but actually work at getting students through the door. And each day I give you one little tiny thing to do. And by the end of the five days, you’re just going to watch the students streaming into your studio. Best bit, it’s completely free All you gotta do to join us is go to studioevolution.com
forward slash enrol and you can join us for the five day Enrol-A-Thon and get more students in your
My name is Chantelle Bruinsma and this here is
Michelle Hunter (00:47)
Michelle, I’m sorry, I thought you were gonna say my name. Get from there again.
I swear, I swear I wasn’t asleep. And this is, cause you know, I’m looking at the camera and sometimes I miss your cues. Yeah, yeah, yeah.
Chantelle Bruinsma (00:58)
That’s fair.
That’s fair. I don’t quite know how to resolve that, but I will consider it. No, you don’t need to be afraid. You don’t know what’s inside my brain. God knows neither do
Michelle Hunter (01:03)
No, no, no, I just need to be prepared. Be prepared. OK, OK, here we
Hello friends and welcome to another episode of the your studio podcast it is Michelle Hunter here and I am here with my bestie my work wifey.
Chantelle Bruinsma (01:21)
Hello, I’m Chantelle Bruinsma and we are just in such a happy mood today. We’ve just got back from a trip to Bali and my goodness, did we have the best time and my goodness, did we consume a lot of nazi-goreng
Michelle Hunter (01:35)
All of it. There’s none left. There’s none left in Bali. Chantelle and I have eaten it
Chantelle Bruinsma (01:38)
No, we ate Bali, we ate nazi goreng legitimately three times a day, breakfast, lunch and dinner for six days straight. And we even like took a takeaway bit of nazi goreng back on the plane. It’s now part of my cellular DNA.
Michelle Hunter (01:51)
was amazing.
It’s the best. we were doubling, double coffee every morning.
Chantelle Bruinsma (01:58)
Yeah, you hit it hard. Yeah, you were kind of double parking the coffees. Yeah, you were simultaneously sipping I thought which was quite impressive
Michelle Hunter (02:03)
That’s amazing. It was so
Because Bali coffee is just so good. And then they make you the, like a latte, they call it the Americano and then a Bali coffee. And it was just, it was the
Chantelle Bruinsma (02:16)
You’ve never seen her happier. You’ve never seen Michelle happier than when she has two coffees in her hand in the morning. It’s just a joy. But the reason, one of the reasons is this trip was super special for us was that it was a bit of the 40th birthday celebration. So I’ve just turned 40, which has been so fun. And Michelle, you’re not far behind me, friend. So you’re catching me. You’re catching. And on the trip on the very first day of our Horizon House retreat, where we took 13 amazing clients.
Michelle Hunter (02:29)
Woohoo!
No, I’m coming up.
Chantelle Bruinsma (02:42)
for this immersive strategic kind of planning and visionary session in Bali. And on the first day of the retreat, one of our most beloved clients, Ryan, he turned 40 that day. And so it was this like festival of 40 and the decades. We had other clients kind of turning 50 this year too. And what was super fun was that around the table this night, we started kind of like remembering what was the song that was your jam? Because like Michelle and I, we graduated high school the same year. We’re both born in 84 and Ryan was too. So we have this
connection because like that music was like we so know it like that era.
Michelle Hunter (03:16)
us in the club, the 18 year olds in the club, 18, 19, it just took us back. Those songs instantly took us back to those moments.
Chantelle Bruinsma (03:25)
and so they’re like trying to remember. What was that song? What was that song?
Michelle Hunter (03:27)
No, no, Chantelle was like, I know what song I want. I love this song. I love this song. Michelle, what’s it called? was like, I know. Then 10 minutes scrolling on Spotify.
Chantelle Bruinsma (03:34)
Who’s it by? I’ve got no idea. Going through like 2000 bangers.
Michelle Hunter (03:42)
And just kept on typing in fat man scoop because he says that in the song.
Chantelle Bruinsma (03:47)
Yeah, I remembered like the your girlfriend is your birthday your girlfriend is your birthday? I don’t know the words
Michelle Hunter (03:50)
It’s the birthday
Yeah, I’m just, I’m the woo girl. Woo! it was…
Chantelle Bruinsma (03:59)
Yeah, yeah. I mean, the night ended with us dancing dramatically to Celine Dion’s All Coming Back to Me Now under the Balinese moonlight.
Michelle Hunter (04:07)
with the wind and you guys had like sarongs as like sashes and someone clipped them into the side of your skirt and they flew behind. It was so dramatic.
Chantelle Bruinsma (04:15)
my god, it was so great. I mean, this is the perk of going on holidays with particularly theatrical people. They really indulge your daggy side.
Michelle Hunter (04:23)
It’s amazing. So if you ever want to travel and work with us, that’s night one. Night one check.
Chantelle Bruinsma (04:28)
What? People are like, nope, not in for that. Like, Celine Dion, that’s a no in the pool. No, thank you. Mind you, she was amazing in the Olympics. Like, wow.
Michelle Hunter (04:40)
Amazing. Amazing live
Chantelle Bruinsma (04:44)
And she’s just overcome like an incredibly difficult illness. What a woman. Still got
Michelle Hunter (04:47)
She’s unbelievable.
Chantelle Bruinsma (04:50)
today friends, we’re doing a really fun, little segment with you because we’ve been so appreciating that many, many, many, many, many, many of you have sent in voicemails for us to listen to with situations about your studio. And we’ve been loving listening to them. Holly, our producer has just been like immersing herself in these voicemails. And today we’re going to start answering them. So this little segment is called
Solving Your Studio where we get to actually listen to the problems you’ve got in your studio and we get to give you our best, most practical and proven advice to help you along.
Michelle Hunter (05:25)
This would have to be Chantelle, one of my most favourite parts of when people work with us in the gates and in our programme. So in the leap and in studio evolution, sometimes we call it popcorn with Chantelle or we call them spark sessions and we kind of just like open up the floor and the studio owners just get to get all their burning questions answered. So this is one of my favourite times. So let’s jump in.
Chantelle Bruinsma (05:47)
Yeah, let’s
We’re to start with a question from Allison who has a Kinder musik studio.
“Hey, it’s Allison Antoine, SE graduate. I’m so excited about your podcast. And one of the things that I’m still kind of wrestling with
even after these years of pondering is what is a great lead generator? What is a great incentive to help people want to send it for my email list? Is it free classes? Is it an instrument basket? I’m just struggling to find just the perfect catch to make people excited to even kind of make that initial contact with the general population. Thanks so much.”
Love it. Thank you, Allison hon So good to hear from you, lovely, and appreciate your sending in this little note to us. Look, it’s a good question and it really is such a critical one, isn’t it, Michelle? Like this is the, it’s the kind of the hook that kind of starts populating the pond
Michelle Hunter (06:46)
Yeah. And it’s also how you, know, a real opportunity for you to connect with cold traffic. we say, when I say cold traffic, it’s people who haven’t come across your studio or your brand before.
Chantelle Bruinsma (06:56)
So what I thought we might do to answer this question is I’m going to teach you a little thing of what I teach in The Leap. Now The Leap is our six week course and it is like a marketing intensive and the purpose of The Leap is to get you from you know you’re at this level of students to leap you to the next level of students and it really is about crafting your whole approach to communicating about your studio. And one of the things that we teach in The Leap is a little thing called the burger and the burger is this idea. So in Australia this is a funny story.
If you ask for a burger with the lot, you’re going to get like the patty and the bun and the cheese and the lettuce and the tomato and the onion. But you’re also going to get a North Americans don’t believe me when I tell them this, you’re also going to get beetroot and fried egg and bacon and sometimes pineapple in fact, and the pineapple, right? So burger in Australia is like bun, patty, cheese, onion, lettuce, tomato, pickles, but not as many pickles as Americans.
Michelle Hunter (07:42)
Yeah, I was gonna say and the fried pineapple.
Chantelle Bruinsma (07:56)
honestly, but that is the lot and it’s kind of got everything and my god it’s delicious but the thing about that it’s super juicy right Michelle they just dribble all the way down your arms and what we’re seeking to do is to really craft a marketing kind of burger for your studio that has everything in it that’s like it’s got beetroot like add in the fried egg chuck in some pineapple we want to make sure that we’ve got an offer that really speaks to so many different people
And that also it’s so compelling. like, how could they not say yes. Right. So we want to craft a burger. What I found is that a lot of studios have a, have a, you know, a junior burger, like pretty much they’ve got a bun and a patty and that’s all they’ve got. And they’re relying on that. The difference between that and a burger with the lot is that you are going to be like stack, stack, stack, stack, stack. So from a competitive analysis perspective, there’s no way other people could compete. So we’re wanting to craft for you, what is the right.
combination of inclusions that is going to be just, yep, sign me up. And that may be something like an introductory bundle, like, you know, it might be three classes for X amount of money and you also receive an instrument pack, but it also might be that you have this really fantastic money back guarantee. also might be a t -shirt. It also might be their name is going to go on this beautiful kind of wall or experience. It might be that they get
access, kind of priority access to a workshop in the summer. It might be that they get some other merchandise. You can literally kind of go through and stack everything that they received. A personalized check-in call with their teacher after three weeks to kind of see how they’re settling in. There’s lots of different layers of what you can include. You know, even you could have like a parent, you
particular thing for kinder musik studios, like, beautiful parenting sessions, like once a month, they get invited to complimentary being part of the studio. There’s so many different things that we can stack. And what we’re wanting to really do is to, when we have that combination of different elements, you’re going to be kind of reducing all of the barriers to people making a decision. So we wanting to do is like, wow, it’s like that whole thing of like, and you get steak knives too. Wow. Wow. Wow. Wow. Wow.
So the invitation for you, Allison, is to really think about, it’s not just one. This is the of the pivot in thinking. It’s not gonna be just offering free trials. It’s not gonna be offering an instrument kit. It’s gonna be what can I combine to make the goddamn most juiciest burger in the world.
Michelle Hunter (10:23)
And that’s so true, Chantelle. And you know what we find, and we say, and we’re working with our clients on this on the burger, it’s like, you’ll know when it’s a hell yes. And then you know that you’ve got the combination right. And then you just put your foot down and keep going. And the lead-gen just starts to come in and in and in.
Chantelle Bruinsma (10:39)
Yeah, for sure. And if it’s not coming in yet, then the work we’ve got to do is work on your burger. So if we right now are not getting a high response rate to your marketing, I would say we’ve got to kind of dial up the inclusions factor. And the cool thing is you’re probably doing a lot anyway. There’s a lot you’re doing inside your studio that you’re offering and creating and experiences you’re giving, but maybe we’re not communicating them. Maybe we’re not bringing them right to the front of your burger.
And what I like about the burger as well is that you can communicate like you get bam, bam, bam, bam, bam, bam, bam, up the burger, right? But you can also pull them apart. So then, you know, there might be some advertising that you do where you’re just focusing all in on the money back guarantee. Maybe you’re going all in on this kind of, you give them a tutu, give them Pilates grippy socks. You’re kind of like, you’re going all in on, you get to be part of this experience. So really kind of seeking to connect that.
Because we teach largely intangible things. We all teach, you know, skillset acquisition. We all teach, you know, you come to me at this level, I’m going to teach you how to improve your skills and get to here. And they don’t necessarily, unless you’re like a visual arts or woodworking kind of studio, they don’t always walk away with something tangible that they can see. So bringing tangible things to accompany the selling of an intangible thing is a really great way to kind of reduce the risk of it
because they’re gonna see like, yeah, I’m gonna get all these skills, but I’m also going to get things I can touch. I like to encourage you to include at least one tangible thing that they’re gonna receive when you’re building out your burger. That’s one little tip for sure.
Michelle Hunter (12:14)
So good, so good Chantelle. And we also,
another big belief we have, and we teach about lead generation at Studio Evolution is following a paid lead strategy. And that’s where we’re seeing a lot of studio owners get dramatic results and growth, not only in growing their list, but actually direct enrollment, aren’t we?
Chantelle Bruinsma (12:34)
Yeah, that’s right. mean, it’s, it’s tricky. see a lot of studio owners putting so much time, energy, blood, sweat, tears into posting on their studios page. And that takes a lot of effort, right? But not getting direct enrollments and the shift is actually looking at using ads manager. Now I’m just going to say upfront here, like learning to use ads manager is going to give you gray hairs. It’s going to make you want to cry and it’s going to make you want to throw your computer keyboard at the wall
So I recommend, cause I’ve done it, I recommend not is the kind of short form. There are people who do this professionally really well. The algorithms change so fast. This shit changes so quickly. It’s impossible for us to do what we do and keep up with all of these changes. So in evolution, we have a little mantra, which is who, not how, who can help me get this done? Not how can I learn how to do this? It’s not worth your time and energy learning to how to use ads manager.
So the difference is, is that we can be really strategic in the targeting and kind of give you kind of a broad overview of the strategy that we really like to work through is getting really clear first and foremost on your burger. Because what I have experienced in the past with many, many, many, many, many, many clients is that they say, I put some money into advertising and it didn’t work. And then I’m like, okay, can I have a tea? I can have a peek at what you’ve done.
And I can see that they may have had a good ad, and they were getting clicks through, but they were taking them just to a page on their website that wasn’t designed to enrol a student from an online ad. So to take someone who’s never seen anything about your studio through and walk them through to a direct enrollment, then and there. So the thing that I want to really think about is that page that you send an ad to,
is so important friends, so important. So we’re wanting to really think about the headline and speaking to what they’re going to. We’re wanting to be really clear on exactly what to do. Stacking, stacking, stacking, stacking that burger of you’re going to receive this and that’s going to make you feel this. You’re going to get that and it’s going to give you this. You’re going to get this and wow, you also get this and know that you’ve got a hundred percent money back guarantee or happiness guarantee or satisfaction guarantee, whatever you want to kind of call it, however you want to play it
is there too. You’re going to have testimonials. You can have multiple buttons saying click here to enrol now or whatever kind of a call to action we have multiple times, at least three buttons on that page. Because what happens is that if you’re finding that you’re getting clicks, but people aren’t actually enrolling, I would say that that page needs a lot of attention and a lot of love. Because when you get that page dialed in
and you get your burger dialed in and we teach all of this in The Leap friends. So if you’re kind of wanting more information, please come and do this. six week is a short course, but I’m going to give you everything you need to know about how to really get your marketing performing in your studio. And so we really start optimizing that page. Then it’s just like, you just turn on the taps friends. So what our clients are doing right now is that we’ve worked on the page. We’ve got their kind of offer. They kind of, their burger mapped out and then they can just turn on the taps of money.
of, you know, I just spend a bit more on advertising this month. I want more students and it flows through. But if you haven’t kind of strategically mapped that flow of how you’re guiding people through the psychological process of learning about what you value and like what they’re going to get and how they’re going to feel and answering all those questions and reinforcing like it’s so convenient and it’s so easy and we’re kind of here to make it easy for you as a student. We’re going to lose people through the holes.
So it’s about tightening all of this up in order to get the studio really, really performing. And that’s what’s exciting. So Allison, to answer your question, I would say work really, really closely on your burger, getting your offer dialed in and then look at the page that you’re kind of wanting to enrol people on to make sure that that is incredibly specific in just enrol here. Don’t take them other places. Don’t send them to the kind of the pricing page, put the pricing for that program on that page. Get really, really clear. They’re not sending them anywhere else.
just do this because there’s no greater feeling than having a student enrol while you sleep and if we do this work that’s what’s going to
Michelle Hunter (16:53)
It will. It does happen. Awesome. Awesome. Thanks Chantelle.
Chantelle Bruinsma (16:57)
So good.
Michelle Hunter (16:58)
OK, so we’re going to our next voicemail sent through from Katherine, and this is an exciting marketing question because Chantelle we know personally a lot of comments I’ve seen online on Instagram and Facebook. We’ve got a lot of studio owners opening up new locations and Katherine has been running her studio for a while and yeah she’s got some questions about opening her new studio location. So let’s dive in.
“Hi, Chantelle. My school is 27 years old and we are just moving to new premises.
I really want to have some extra help on how to make the school stand out and how to market it to the best advantage in the new premises. So if you’ve got any ideas about what I might do, I’ll be really pleased to hear them. Thank you.”
Chantelle Bruinsma (17:50)
Katherine, 27 years. So exciting. A whole new era after that time. This is really, really game changing. Congratulations to you. We are just cheering you on. And I have a lot of kind of questions I would like if it were person, I’d like to ask you, but to kind of just give you a real
snapshot of like what the situation is. So I’m assuming you’re moving to a bigger premises. Like usually when people move, they’re going to be expanding their location. So this really is a question about, okay, I need to get to capacity quickly. And I’m sure there’s one or two people listening who would appreciate a bit of guidance on that point too, right, my friend. So the biggest thing that we’re looking at when it comes to starting a new premises. And again, like, I’m not sure if this is just down the road or a bit further apart, but I’ll speak to both ideas.
We want to be really increasing visibility and awareness well, well, well before you open the door. So we’re looking at six to eight weeks prior, starting advertising, kind of really communicating, hey, there’s a new place coming, get excited. Like we’re stepping into here, putting photos up of the kind of the exterior, really boosting the kind of whole presence. You’re going to be kind of doing grassroots thing. Like kind of you’re putting the flyer at the cafe down the road. You’re kind of going to be absolutely
stepping into that place, you might like to do an opening offer. You could do something like that or just kind of like, just keep your kind of strategy of enrollment the same. But one thing that is really, I heard you say was how to make my studio stand out. And this is what’s difficult in a, in an industry like ours, which is super competitive, right? There’s the studios left, right and center, and it’s difficult. It’s tricky to kind of differentiate when
Many of you offer the same style of programs. offer, you know, reformer Pilates You offer Hatha yoga. You offer jazz ballet and tap. You offer piano, flute and sax, right? So it’s difficult when there’s similarity. So when that is the constant, where is the variation that we can bring? And so this is where we need to be very strategic in crafting out and actually carving out. fact, like this is what our studio is known for. This is kind of
the, what you come to our studio for. If you are this type of looking for this kind of studio, this is us. And in The Leap which is again, like, I really recommend for you guys to all jump and jump on and join me for The Leap is all leap into The Leap it’s a six week course and it’s kind of just going to absolutely refine the, the marketing message and the positioning and the kind of strategy for marketing your studio. And one of the things that I really, really.
spend some time locking in with each of you is what we call our magic words. So I want to understand what your studio does so differently than all the others. And we’re actually going to lock down some particular words. We’re going to call them your magic words. And this is this whole idea of, okay, that studio over there, like they’re kind of really nurturing and that studio over there, they’re kind of more like to challenge and stretch. They’re kind of more performance -based.
But what we do is like, we’re like super creative, a bit quirky. And it’s kind of like understanding who you are and what you do best how we can lock down a couple of words that we can start using over and over again and training all of our students, all of our teachers, all of our community, like we are this, you come to us for this. And over time, what’s gonna happen is
the community is gonna start to use those words, right? Everyone’s gonna know, that’s the studio that is all about giving kids confidence. This is the studio that’s all about kind of friendships. And we can be really strategic in how we craft the positioning of your studio, but without that kind of clarity, we’re just a wash in the sea of studios and I do not want you to be there. It’s not a fun place to be. So for me, it’s kind of understanding with you, Katherine, okay, there’s all these studios, but what do you wanna be known for?
And that’s your magic words. And so we have a whole process of kind of a listing this to ensure that you’re really, really clear and we can be have laser focus on your positioning.
Word of mouth strategy is legitimately, you know, many of you listening will attest that most of your students come through word of mouth, but the majority of studio owners don’t have an actual strategy for word of mouth. And it’s kind of like, this is where we’re getting our students, let’s get better at this. so knowing what we are putting on the tip of their tongue and
And being highly intentional around like what we’re wanting people to say about our studio is game changing. And they’ll come a day friends when, when you really get your word of mouth strategy locked in that you will receive an email or a phone call. You meet someone on the street and say, that’s the studio that does that. And you’re like, I crafted my magic words to say that exactly. it’s like, yes. Within weeks.
Michelle Hunter (22:51)
And happens and we’ve seen it with studio owners in our program. And when you really get this dialed in and right, you know, your magic words and your word of mouth strategy, it really is like the fastest way to grow your studio.
Chantelle Bruinsma (23:04)
It really is. It really is because you’re leveraging people who already are connected to others, right? And particularly if you’re opening a new studio, it’s that whole idea of the people in your studio probably know people who are similar, right? So it’s kind of thinking about, okay, what can we do to absolutely kind of get them talking about the studio? What would be really exciting? And so half of this is like, you’ve got to bring your current students in. So this is
Getting, how can we get them super excited about the space? Can they choose the paint color? Can they kind of, you know, do a tour, kind of walking them through? How can you get them excited so they can be talking about it more? Half of your job friends, as studio owners, is thinking about how can I get people talking and sharing about the studio? That’s all it is, just bring them in. Share your work.
There’s a great book called Show Your Work by Austin Kleon and the whole premise is, you know, to bring people in and you’re already doing these things, but can you share it? Can you let your students know kind of this little bit, guess what? This is happening this week and kind of really doing that kind of hype up countdown, like six weeks to go, five weeks to go, four weeks to go. And really thinking through, I’m going to share this little bit here. We’re going to share, this is coming up here. So absolutely building up the sequence
hype and expectation and excitement that they can be talking about it more. You also could really, it probably is worth your while to craft an opening offer. This might be some sort of introductory offer where they get some bonuses. They get a limited time incentive. I’m not massive on discounting, but I kind of think in this case, if you’re going to kind of do like, you know, a two week opening window, then go for it. and that could be a referral based one. Like if you want to bring a friend to the, to come to the new studio, he’s this kind of fantastic value stack
package that they could step into. So have a little think about what you could do and how we’re bringing a lot of excitement from the students in. I know it’s a big time logistically organizing all of these details, but putting enough energy into the marketing is what’s going to actually make this very successful. So Katherine, I’m so excited for you and please keep in touch with how this all goes.
Michelle Hunter (25:08)
Well, they was some great marketing questions, Chantelle, and that is truly just your superpower. You just fire away when they come through. But speaking of marketing, we have something so exciting coming up and it is really our Gala training event of the year. Chantelle, we’ve been running this upcoming training for seven years. Now, can you believe it? This is our seventh year we’ve been running it. And it is the…
Enrol-A-Thon we are so excited to be starting that very, very soon. And the Enrol-A-Thon is where we work with thousands. I’m thousands of studio owners come together and over five days, Chantelle and I just work with you to completely drive the enrollments in your studio. And Chantelle, see unbelievable results, don’t
Chantelle Bruinsma (25:56)
massive growth because we teach a few brand new strategies that you may not have had access to before. And it’s like, okay, just do this. And every day I give you one specific little thing to do. And by the end of the week, we just get to watch the students rolling into your business. It is just so fun. And what I love is that these aren’t stressful or complicated or expensive strategies. They’re like easy, they’re proven, they work. It’s fun. So please come on and join
for the Enrol -A -Thon. you got to do is go to studioevolution .com forward slash enrol And that is with one L my friends E N R O L. And you can join us for the enrol -a -thon. It’s completely free, completely free. And we’re going to share with you everything you need to know to grow your studio over these five days. It’s a super fun and we’d love you to be involved.
Michelle Hunter (26:43)
Thanks friends. again, if you’ve liked today’s episode, just subscribe so you can keep hearing when our latest episodes come out
And if you want to send in your voicemail on having any of your studio owner questions answered, we have included the link in the show notes and we look forward to seeing you in the Enrol-A-Thon. Bye.
Chantelle Bruinsma (27:00)
Go on now, go to studioevolution .com, forward slash enrol and we’ll see you there. Bye friends, bye!
