Wondering how to keep your students coming back season after season? In this episode, we’re diving into the power of retention and breaking down the Retention Triangle—a simple yet powerful approach to building loyalty and connection in your studio. Discover practical tips and strategies to make your studio a place students never want to leave!
And if you need a little more help with what should be your new #1 studio focus, you can pick up The Retention Solution at studioevolution.com/start for your comprehensive guide.
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Michelle Hunter (00:49)
Meh. Do you like that? It’s a fancy vocal warm-up Meh. Meh. Is that even a vocal- does that do anything for your vocals?
Chantelle Bruinsma (00:51)
You sound like… Can you do it again?
It’s doing something for me personally.
Hello everyone, welcome to your studio podcast. Chantelle here and I’ve got my bestie with me. Hello Michelle, how you doing?
Michelle Hunter (01:09)
I am good, I am good. I’m excited for today’s episode.
Chantelle Bruinsma (01:12)
Yeah, we’re going retention friends, which is if you haven’t heard me talk about this topic in the past, I am very passionate about retention. For me, it is the heart and soul and foundation of your business. And we’re to share with you some really, really practical and important philosophical considerations to know and understand deeply when it comes to your strategy for retention in your studio, which is going to be really fun.
Michelle Hunter (01:20)
Mm-hmm.
And it’s actually a really interesting topic because before I started working with Studio Evolution, if you said to me retention, I had like no idea what retention was when we spoke about it, but it always makes me come back to the Jiu-Jitsu kind of analogy and how their gyms are run. And Chantelle, as you know, we’re big BJJ fans here in the Hunter household.
Chantelle Bruinsma (02:05)
And for those of who are like me who didn’t know what Jiu Jitsu was, it’s kind of like a variation of karate. It’s like a martial arts. They’re probably even not describing it right. Your husband’s going to be like, Chantelle stop talking now. Which is like, no, Chantelle, sit down, sit down.
Michelle Hunter (02:11)
No, no, no.
And there’s quite a few Jiu-Jitsu people who do Jiu-Jitsu that actually listen to this podcast, I know, in our network.
Chantelle Bruinsma (02:21)
Shout out to the BJJ. This is probably one. It’s like his name’s Brad. I need you right now.
Michelle Hunter (02:26)
slamming the wheels.
More wrestling, would say grappling kind of martial arts. Yeah. A lot of grappling. Yeah. But it’s also very controlled. It’s very controlled and it’s very, you know, technical and methodical. yeah, it’s actually a really wonderful sport that has a really, you know, well drilled out retention strategy, which is, you know, could be intentional, could be unintentional, but it’s actually fascinating. So they actually have a belt progression.
Chantelle Bruinsma (02:35)
Okay, grappling. So there’s like aggressive hands and more like, grr!
Michelle Hunter (03:01)
and the gym that we actually trained at, my husband is a black belt there at Renegade in Melbourne. it is so fascinating how the retention strategy is so ingrained into how the progression through the program. So for adults, you start at white belt and it’s like, you’re a white belt. It’s everyone like, but you then progress to blue belt and like, you, pretty much know your stuff, right? You know, you’re stuff there in Jiu-Jitsu Then you get to purple belt and they.
They all think they’re professional fighters at purple belt I think then at Brown Belt, it’s like, you’re pretty, you’re pretty serious. And then at black belt, they’re such experts. They’re not even trying and they submit you in like, they’re just letting you roll with them for fun. I think at that level. Well, I know when I was there, but, it’s what’s so fascinating is as like the progression through those belts really give you something to work out at milestones and actually find that as you start.
Chantelle Bruinsma (03:31)
Okay.
Mm.
Wow.
Michelle Hunter (03:54)
You actually have like the lower belts kind of like training you as well to get to the higher belt. So it has such a wonderful retention progression built in to the gym that it really is the foundation and the bread and butter of the business. And that’s where the profitability is based because the retention retention is so well dialed out.
Chantelle Bruinsma (04:04)
Mm.
And I do want to just pause for a second and just like Michelle’s husband, Mitch, he’s the most lovely man you’ll ever meet in the world. And he’s not just a black belt though. He is actually the pan Pacific champion of Jiu-Jitsu.
Michelle Hunter (04:27)
Well, that’s when he that’s when he was a brown belt in the open. So he competed at the brown belt level a few years ago. He hasn’t competed as a black belt, but yeah, he he’s he is pretty good. And it was a pretty.
Chantelle Bruinsma (04:39)
That’s generous wife.
Michelle Hunter (04:41)
That’s look, he’s, great. It’s funny when I turned up when the whole 10 months that I trained then dislocated my knee and had to stop my whole white belt career. And I’d have to say it was the happiest nine months of my husband’s life. Every time I turned up to the gym on the mat, he would just look at me with these puppy dog eyes and we would roll and he’d be like kissing me and like, okay, I get it.
Chantelle Bruinsma (04:54)
No.
It makes him happy, you’re doing it together. Sweet.
Michelle Hunter (05:05)
It was, it was lovely. But yeah, he is amazing and he’s a really good instructor and coach. But, when he competed at the Pan-Pac’s it was a very significant day and it was very important for our family. And I brought the kids there and I missed his fight. Cause I took the kids to the pool next door.
Chantelle Bruinsma (05:23)
It’s really uncomfortable. Well, cause it was a long day. I understand this. you can’t have our kids, the ages our kids are, can’t just them sitting on a bench for six hours. You did the sensible motherly thing.
Michelle Hunter (05:33)
Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. But I was there for the medal ceremony, but in saying that, yeah, Jiu-Jitsu gyms have a great business model because their retention is so structured. And today, like we want to get into Chantelle, how retention is the foundation of studios and how that can move the needle of their business.
Chantelle Bruinsma (05:39)
You
Mm.
Yeah, I think a lot of studios put a great deal of focus on attraction and on marketing to get new students. And yes, this is true, right? We do need a really solid strategy for marketing. However, from my perspective is if we are not retaining students, we actually never get to see growth. You don’t get growth without retention. Otherwise you just get churn and the expense of like trying to attract and enrol more students into the studio without kind of capitalising on keeping them.
Michelle Hunter (05:58)
Mm.
Chantelle Bruinsma (06:23)
means you’re having to work so hard all the time to fill in the gaps. And so for me, you know, retention strategy actually comes before marketing strategy in my, my worldview. When we have a strategy for retention in your studio, then it’s kind of just like turning on the taps of cash. Really. If you know how every student that comes through the door, you’re going to retain them for X amount of years. And you have an approach that you have a plan for it.
then every marketing dollar you spend, every bit of effort you spend to enrol a new student is going to pay dividends for a very long time to come. And that’s when we see your capacity grow. It’s when we see your word of mouth grow. Like everything happens, but unless you’ve got a retention strategy, you’re just like this duck paddling constantly, right?
Michelle Hunter (07:11)
And that’s a hard mindset shift. Cause you’re right. A lot of studio owners is like, if I just get 50 more students, my life will change. It will change. And for them to go, no, no, no, no, you got to focus on retention because we’ve seen a lot of studio owners come in in the community and they are like on that retention roller coaster, you call it. And it’s exhausting the amount of energy they have to put into retention when they get to the next term. And that hasn’t been re-en-, you know, all those students haven’t been re-enrolled.
Chantelle Bruinsma (07:30)
Yes.
Michelle Hunter (07:40)
and then what energy do you have for marketing?
Chantelle Bruinsma (07:43)
You don’t, it’s so depleting. And when we’re talking about the statistics, from my benchmark of retention percentages, we would be looking for an annual retention of students above 85%. And so what that means is students who enrolled in this calendar or academic year, 85 % of them continue in the following academic year. And when you really, this is the tricky bit, when you really dig into the numbers with studio owners of looking at every
Every person who comes through the door, in my perspective, is a student in the studio. So everyone who comes for a trial is counted in those numbers. So if we, if it’s going to be really transparent of like, if your trial strategy or if you’re like, have you got an introductory bundle or introductory package, if those mechanisms aren’t working in the business, then that’s going to be translating into low retention. So when, what I often see is that studio owners think they’ve got good retention because their minds go to those
those diehard raving fan students who’ve been with you for eight years, that, you know, the rock solid ones, you’re like, yeah, I’ve got good retention because you’ve got those relationships. Where I get really interested though, is at the bottom end of the studio, the newbie, that churn rate, because that’s going to show how effective and efficient your retention strategy is. So if we start counting everyone who enrols in the studio, everyone who’s on your studio software, they are counted. And that’s what we really want to start.
tightening that area. And a lot of it comes from onboarding. But what I want to share with you today is my retention triangle. And this is something that we work on really, really carefully with our evolutionary studio owners in Studio Evolution. And the retention triangle, you might like to just, if you want to grab a piece of paper right now, we can actually just map it out for you. There are three kind of main points to this. And the karate example that Michelle said earlier.
Michelle Hunter (09:31)
Mm-hmm, yep.
BJJ.
Chantelle Bruinsma (09:40)
BJJ. Sorry Mitch. Michelle’s husband’s gonna be like Chantelle! Apologies to Mitch.
Michelle Hunter (09:46)
But it’s karate too, right? With the belts. It is, it is. Similar model. Yes, that’s right.
Chantelle Bruinsma (09:50)
It’s a similar model. They have belts of rainbow colors, not technical rainbow colors. My kids would have corrected me on that too. They’re not actually in the rainbow color. But there is a progression, right? What’s so brilliant about that is that this retention triangle, what this model of distilled is kind of an encapsulation of that. The first, if you draw a triangle and the first kind of one of the points you’re going to put variety. So the main thing that we’re seeking to create in a long-term studio experience.
Michelle Hunter (10:00)
Mm-hmm.
Chantelle Bruinsma (10:18)
I’m not sure how long you wanna retain your students for, friends. Like, are you thinking you wanna retain your students for two years, four years, six years? We’ve got clients who are like 13 plus years is how long they wanna retain their students for. And like it’s possible, isn’t it, Michelle? It’s really possible.
Michelle Hunter (10:32)
It can it completely is. It’s funny when we look at the life cycle, like how long they want to retain that student, it is totally we’ve got a lot of clients with with high high numbers of them up there.
Chantelle Bruinsma (10:42)
You’re wanting to really consider that variety of experience as they grow. So we’re to kind of scaffold something that they’re looking forward to, like scaffolding that aspirational experience. When I get to here, I get this. When I get to here, I get to do that. I get to be that person. I get to wear this t-shirt. I get to go to that workshop. I get to be kind of that kind of cool kid. I get to have that.
access to that knowledge and information. So we want to kind of have that feeling of like I’m working towards something and we can look at this from a multiple perspective. So when we’re about variety, we’re looking at variety on an annual basis, like how from one year to another there is difference in their experience and we’re mixing up a little bit giving that kind of spark and creativity and like, I didn’t expect that. There’s a little surprise. We’re kind of delighting them. We’re putting a smile on their face with this something new that kind of like interests them.
But we can also kind of look on, you know, through the months of the year, is there contrast in the experience, like the seasonality, the different kind of maybe performance elements or kind of different focus theme areas that we might be concentrating on. But even like class to class, is there a shift in how things are done every now and then? Can you mix things up? If things are static and pretty consistent every week of the year, you’re not going to retain them.
for 10 plus years friends, like full stop.
Michelle Hunter (12:09)
And we normally see in this process, it’s quite the fun element, the design element, you know, as studio owners, a lot of you are very creative beings and we see them kind of come alive when they get to really map out these trigger points.
Chantelle Bruinsma (12:13)
Yeah.
And thinking about the flow of the year and how we can kind of, you know, navigate like where we’re to get them very excited. And then like, it’s a bit low here. We need to kind of do something to kind of spark up the connection, the engagement, the kind of the wow factor, really thinking through the variety of the 12 month cycle and how we can create that level of engagement and interest. So that’s one of the points, right? So what variety is something for you to really consider strategise for plan for how are we doing this in a 12 month period?
Michelle Hunter (12:25)
Mm.
Chantelle Bruinsma (12:51)
And then also when people stay with you year after year as they grow with you, how are they doing? know, so today is Halloween and as we’re recording this video and I went to Pilates this morning with Meher and I walked up and she’d fully decorated the Pilates studios. There was cobwebs hanging from the tower. Like there was spiders on the wall. No, right. She’s so, she’s so fun. But like I got there and was like, my gosh, we’re doing Pilates and she’s there in devil horns, which is just super fun.
Michelle Hunter (13:08)
I wouldn’t have picked that from here. Yeah, yeah, it’s awesome.
Chantelle Bruinsma (13:20)
So like even that was like such a lovely burst of energy. I walk through the door. I’m like, this is fun. It’s different than I’m in my normal experience. So we want to curate that intentionally and consistently in a way that’s really also easy to deliver. Right? So we’re balancing your energy output in creating variety with something that’s pretty consistent. Number two, the second one is connection. If we don’t have connection,
your students will kind of, you’ll see them, call it the silent slink away. Like the students in the class that just quiet, and they’re not really chatting to anyone, and they’re kind of lurking in the back, and then suddenly they disappear, and they’ve ghosted the studio, right? It’s, every day, it’s every day, the being able to identify who is a flight risk, and educating your teachers how to identify a a fright risk, still on Halloween mode.
Michelle Hunter (14:02)
We say it. Yeah.
Chantelle Bruinsma (14:16)
a flight risk is super important. Who is at risk of leaving the studio? If you would like, sit down with your teachers in every class you teach, which student you think is kind of teetering, just feeling a little bit disconnected, feeling a little bit disengaged and knowing what to do. Because I bet you as a studio owner know what to do. You intuitively sense it. You kind of like, you’ve got the beacon signal and you go over there and you connect with that and give them a bit more one-on-one, give them some kind of attention. You’ll know to bring them back into the fold.
Michelle Hunter (14:36)
Mm-hmm.
Chantelle Bruinsma (14:46)
your teachers may not have that skill set yet.
Michelle Hunter (14:49)
And, you know, when we, when we think of a lot of our amazing teachers in our studios, you know, a lot of them, this is like either their side gig or they’re somewhere coming after. sometimes like their, their mind is not completely. Activated to put that in the forefront. So actually like changing that kind of thinking for them to be more aware, it can be game changing.
Chantelle Bruinsma (15:09)
And it’s a teachable skill, I think is the lovely thing. This is a teachable skill that you can give to your teachers, but they may not be aware of it. But just kind of having the conversation, having the weekly kind of intel to share with you who feels like a flight risk right now. And then whether the teacher is empowered to go and connect with that student more, you know, that could be just a weekly reminder every class, like who’s the flight risk in this class, go and kind of love on them. You know, it’s this easy thing, but you got to teach them to do so.
Michelle Hunter (15:11)
Mm-hmm, 100 % a kid.
Yes, such a simple.
Chantelle Bruinsma (15:38)
There’s layers of connection as well that we are wanting to really think and consider. So there is that relationship that’s teacher to student, right? And that’s really a lot of the core. But the tricky thing with that is that if a teacher leaves, you guys have had it happen before, right? What happens? A teacher leaves and…
Michelle Hunter (15:56)
Yeah, they want to, you know, that experience is so different.
Chantelle Bruinsma (16:00)
Yeah, sometimes it’s normal for kids to leave. It’s normal for students to leave because they had an attachment to that teacher. So we don’t want to put all of our eggs in one basket. We have this wonderful grad of ours. I remember her saying this to me. Her name is Kathy Morrison. She’s a Kindermusik studio educator in America. And she worked on the idea of a tripod, like a stool, and that every student had three points of real connection with their student or studio experience, because you can’t have it purely related to the teacher.
Because teachers leave, real life happens, right? And so there needs to be more. So then like each student also was really connected to the studio. So there was like a studio concierge role who was really like, how you check, how you going, how you traveling? your dog had surgery, how’s your dog? Like that type of level of relationship, right? So you’ve got the relationship with the teacher is one leg of the stool. You’ve got the leg of the teacher that’s, sorry, the leg of the stool that’s the.
Michelle Hunter (16:46)
Yeah.
Chantelle Bruinsma (16:55)
kind of more studio owner or front of desk, that kind of mother hen kind of role. And then also you’ve got the kind of the student to student relationships. So you really want to be cultivating those friendships and relationships in the classroom too. So we’ve got the kind of relationship to the studio, relationship to the teacher and the relationship to the other students. What can happen, and one thing that has been game changing for our Evolutionaries in Studio Evolution is
Michelle Hunter (16:56)
Mm-hmm. Yep.
Chantelle Bruinsma (17:25)
when and this is really tricky because curriculum and academic outcomes are super important to all of us and getting the results but there’s never enough time to teach right but sometimes when we’re so focused on the teaching we we neglect the connection time so even like if once a month if just once a month that you could allocate eight minutes for at the end of a class to sit in a circle and just like how are you and just in one word share how you’re going in these classes or like
you know, it could be a different activity, but just having something that’s kind of about the human experience, you’re not just coming here to learn these classes, like there’s a human side to this as well. And to share, it’s beautiful.
Michelle Hunter (18:03)
Yeah. And it’s so, it’s so true. Like the, the studios who do this, who are really successful and do this well, it’s about the connection. And it doesn’t matter what kind of studio you are. We’ve got, we’ve got woodworking studios, you know, even in our facility, yoga, Pilates, dance. If you do that connection piece well, it’s really golden. It’s really golden for the retention.
Chantelle Bruinsma (18:26)
People just want to be seen. People just want to be heard. People just want to feel like they belong. And if we’re so focused on the teaching and there’s no time for people to, usually it’s a verbal thing. It’s like there’s a verbal thing or a creative thing of them actually connecting on that level. Unless we’re creating space for that, there’ll be less bonding on an emotional level. And that is paramount for retention friends. So again, as part of this retention triangle, we’ve got variety.
Michelle Hunter (18:37)
I agree.
Chantelle Bruinsma (18:55)
on a macro micro level. And then we’re really thinking about how am I creating space for connection and doing it in the studio experience, like in the classroom, you don’t have to do kind of big sleepovers. You don’t have to do big weekends away. How can I create this and integrate it into the classroom weekly experience is magic magic, right? It’s beautiful. So we’ve got variety is the first point of the triangle. Connection is the second point of the triangle and progression.
is the third point of the triangle, progression. Variety, connection, progression. If you don’t have a really nice plan for progression, and what I mean by progression is that we are feeding back to the students how they are growing and developing in their education, their practice. What happens is that they don’t have a relationship with their own achievement.
and then they start to devalue it. So there’s kind of like that, like I’m not, don’t know if I’m growing, I’m enjoying it. Don’t know if I’m kind of getting better. So there is a relationship, they start to kind of start feeling, maybe it’s not essential that I keep going. Communicating feedback in a really strategic way is one of the most important things you need to do. It’s also particularly for yoga and Pilates.
Probably one of the things I think is really the big opportunity to be expanded upon. Really big opportunity spot here because people, again, like they want to feel seen and heard, but they also want to have it recognized to them of how they’re growing. They want to be like, you’ve achieved this, like that pose there is kind of like, feels like you’re really embodied in it, right? If you’re wanting to retain people for 10 plus years, we need to know that they’re kind of progressing up. It’s like the karate moment, like when…
when your kids, I know Michelle, are at their grey level, what’s the next level after grey white that they’re on?
Michelle Hunter (20:57)
It’ll be solid grey. It’ll be solid grey.
Chantelle Bruinsma (20:59)
And the moment when your kids step on that stage and they get their solid grey, or as even an adult, when that moment when Mitch got his black belt, like, huge validation, right?
Michelle Hunter (21:09)
much validation and what they did so well it was it was the feedback it was the moment it was how it was delivered you know not everything has to be so ceremonial you know what i mean but it it was very impactful in that moment how it was conducted whether you were eight years old or you were 28 years old it it has a lot of impact
Chantelle Bruinsma (21:18)
Hmm.
Yeah.
people have got to have something to work towards. Like Mitch, like that goal of getting to Black Belt is like super glue to the studio. For your studios, you know, getting to be able to like have reached this, like whether it’s like a hundred hours or whether it’s like they reach that being accepted into this kind of like celebrity kind of level program in your business. Being that aspirational, getting to that point, if you don’t have that kind of like driving thing of like, I want to be there. And then we kind of, have that pathway, that roadmap connected.
People will just like float in, float out And that’s where it gets floppy and loose.
Michelle Hunter (22:03)
And it does. And what is so key to what we see is having that mapped out. It creates this effect where everyone’s moving, right? Because they’re seeing, they’re seeing the progression. They’re not like, it’s not only the individual progression, but everyone else is witnessing that progression in front of them. And everyone wants to move along that train and it’s just momentum.
Chantelle Bruinsma (22:11)
Yes.
Yeah, yeah, and it’s the kind of the social proof that others are looking at. I want that too, which keeps them hooked into the experience and valuing and putting their hand in their pockets every month and paying you like, that’s important if we don’t have that structure. This is a scaffolding of progression that we’re looking to introduce. Some studios, it’s easier, easier to do this. Some studios, it takes a little bit more creativity, but it is honestly the most important.
Michelle Hunter (22:33)
Yeah.
Chantelle Bruinsma (22:48)
important thing for us to have navigated for your studio because again like if we don’t have retention and we don’t have these things elements drilled in I like to say it’s like being a colander like imagine that right now you’re getting new students coming in the door I should have brought one from the kitchen downstairs You’re you know, we have got a colander like a with sieve with holes in it, right and we’re pouring water in the top We’re getting we’re doing all this marketing work. We’re getting new students in but they are just absolutely flowing through friends the students come in they flow out
What we want to do is plug the holes. I want you to be a solid bowl so that when a new student comes in, they ain’t going anywhere because we’ve got variety, we’ve got connection and we’ve got progression locked in. And we know what we’re doing. We know what our variety plan is. We know how we create connection and we know what our solid progression strategy is. Rock solid.
Michelle Hunter (23:39)
solid and then when it’s locked in and it’s churning and it’s working then when you start to market and do all the work of the attraction on top it’s pure profit.
Chantelle Bruinsma (23:50)
It’s pure profit. You also have the most stable business of anyone. If you don’t have solid retention, your business probably goes up and down like a yo-yo. And it’s very, very difficult to sleep at night really kind of solidly. When you have got 95, 98 % retention, like a lot of our evolutionary clients have achieved now, imagine you know your cashflow. You know what you’re going to be earning next year. You know it’s all just cream on top. It’s just.
Beautiful. this is, we spend a lot of time working on this with our clients because we know that this is so transformative for their profits and their growth of their business. Like if we get this right, everything becomes more efficient and effective and really joyful. Cause the other thing Michelle is like, I’m a teacher and why I’m a teacher is because I love that moment of when you see that sparkle in the student’s eye when they get something for the first time.
Right? Like that moment is just what we live for. And if people are coming in and out, we can’t do that. Right? It’s, you’re not going to get that long-term relationship that is everything. So as educators, it’s in our interest to work with them for a longer term. And so helping, helping you and your team do that through retention strategy is so, so very important. It really is.
Michelle Hunter (24:55)
Yeah, and you’re not gonna get that experience.
And would you say that like with the retention, you know, when we do move through other pillars in studio evolution where we’re teaching, you know, business model profitability, there can be big changes made, but in retention, when we’re locking down these three points of the triangle, would you say that when you’re implementing this change or this structure, is it like a big change on the front end or is it something that can subtly be done like behind the scenes? So it’s just such an organic natural experience for the student.
Chantelle Bruinsma (25:40)
Yeah, for sure. mean, there’s two ways. I mean, there’s definitely going to be just little things introduced and a little eight minute sharing circle here, a little kind of email checking in, like, how are you going? Or just like a little special, little surprising, hey, we want to celebrate this. And we just noticed you’ve been like really nailing this particular thing. And we just like celebrating this with you. Like it can be like small little things. And then also on the progression front.
sometimes adding in like a really strong progression model of the structuring of the programs of your business. They start here and then they move here and tightening that roadmap up, like really getting the flow of like, you know, from white belt through to black belt and getting that one clean pathway that’s very easy to teach, easy to communicate, particularly in onboarding is just revolutionary. So imagine someone enrols in your studio and as part of their welcome pack, one of the first pages is like, here’s the, here’s where you’re going to go.
Michelle Hunter (26:14)
Mm-hmm.
Chantelle Bruinsma (26:34)
and here’s who you’re gonna be, and here’s how this is gonna look like. You’re gonna go here and then here and then here and then you’ll get to that process, right? We are educating them on the flow as part of their onboarding, which again, such, plants such seeds for their growth. And it’s really rewarding when this retention kicks in because everything, the studio owner’s nervous system just goes like, I can relax for the first time ever. I really can.
Michelle Hunter (26:55)
Yeah, yeah, it’s so clear, it’s so clear.
I love how excited you get about retention. You could talk about retention all day since I’ve met you, since I’ve met you.
Chantelle Bruinsma (27:05)
Whatever. Like it is, it’s the only thing. Like it solves everything. It solves marketing. It’s cause you have to, don’t like, my goal is honestly, my goal is for you not to have to market. Like how I know that I’ve done my job when I work with you as a client is like when you don’t have to market because your classes are full because you’ve got such rock solid retention and then the raving fans because they love it so much that they just bring all their friends and you don’t have to actively market. That’s when I’ve done my job really well. But it starts with this. It starts with a retention triangle is the truth.
Super fun, super fun. So a few years ago I recorded, because I love this topic so much, I actually recorded a training called The Retention Solution and it’s two parts. The first part is like really in-depth retention training for the studio owner, but I know that that’s actually only half of it because your retention, I bet two cents, is the best retention in your studio. Like your classes have higher retention probably than all of your other teachers combined.
because you intuitively know what to do. You’re also a bit motivated and invested to ensure retention is there. The other teachers, they need training. So the other half of The Retention Solution program is where I train your teachers. So it’s videos where I’m talking direct to your team and teach them about the fundamentals and core elements of retention. And it’s done in a way that allows them to kind of get some more tools in their tool belt and learn about what is.
at learn how we create this retention triangle experience every day in their classrooms. Because if we can upskill them, we’re going to see dramatic results across the board. Some things you can control. We also need to be paying attention what’s actually happening in the classroom. So if you’d like to check out this course, you’re welcome to kind of have a look. If you go to studioevolution.com forward slash start, you’ll find the information. You can jump on board and have a look at that program. It’s really good. It’s it’s one that I love. It one of my most favourite programs I’ve done.
because again, we’re going right to the heart of like, let’s get your teachers retaining better. And that’s gonna move the needle on your growth in your business. And that’s what I’m here for.
Michelle Hunter (29:01)
Mm-hmm.
And that training, have sold thousands of that and that’s so much fun. We’ve had studio owners send us pictures of actually putting that training up on a screen in their studio with all their teachers sitting around and doing the activities and just say how it’s game changing. So jump onto it, everyone.
Chantelle Bruinsma (29:25)
I love them. And please do take a pic and tag us in it at @thestudioevolution on socials. We’d love to see you doing that activity with your team. Hope this conversation was valuable friends. You’ve got some things to think about because this is really again like we’re here on Your Studio Podcast to talk about what is really really gonna move the needle of your growth and I love this topic so much so we’ll talk more about it another time but we love it. Thanks Michelle.
Michelle Hunter (29:47)
official.
Thanks friends and we will catch you soon. Bye.
Chantelle Bruinsma (29:53)
Bye bye!
