Feeling buried in emails, scheduling, and to-dos? In this episode of Your Studio Podcast, Michelle and Chantelle discuss the transformative power of hiring a studio admin, even for a few hours a week. Learn how to delegate effectively, overcome common roadblocks, and finally reclaim your time and sanity.
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Michelle Hunter (00:00)
Hey friends, it’s Michelle and Chantelle here and today we have another fun episode to dive into.
Chantelle Bruinsma (00:07)
Yeah, that’s right. We are going to be having a good convo today, but first up funny story. So I umm I got this text from one of our long -term clients named Ryan, who is a transformed, the Ryan’s actually two Ryan’s business. Yeah. They’re the Ryan’s. You probably hear us talk about them because we adore them and they’ve just created unbelievable success in their business. Anyway, so I get a text from him on like Saturday at one o ‘clock saying, Hey,
Michelle Hunter (00:23)
Yeah we call them the Ryans
Chantelle Bruinsma (00:36)
fun thing, there’s a bunch of us evolutionaries going for dinner in Beecroft and I live in the suburb called Beecroft. I was like, we’re going for dinner tonight. Ha ha ha ha ha. And I’m like, and Saturday I have young children. So obviously don’t really have a life. I was like, okay. Honestly, you’re going to come and he’s like, we’re going to this restaurant called the Veranda. I’m like, that’s 500 meters from my house.
Michelle Hunter (00:49)
Let me just check my diary, I’m free.
So who closed your hand? So close.
Chantelle Bruinsma (01:00)
no, sorry. He actually said like, it’s for Sunday. So this is, he texts texts one o ‘clock on Saturday and said like, this is for Sunday. And I was like, yeah, Sunday night, like sounds lovely. It’d be so fun to catch up with, with all of you. And then he texts me at four o ‘clock saying, my bad. it’s tonight. I’m like, all right, that’s fine. Just checking my calendar again. Still, still no plans. So I said, Trav like, could, could you just help with bedtime and.
Michelle Hunter (01:22)
I’m free.
Chantelle Bruinsma (01:29)
I could just go off the road for dinner. And we decided to not tell any of the members, any of our clients that I was coming as a bit of a surprise. Yeah. Yeah. So I texted Ryan when I was like outside the front door and then he came out to get me. And then we came in and he said like, look who I found walking outside. It was very fun. It was really fun. And it was just such a joy to see everyone. It was a bit of a special weekend because our members had just finished a pillar.
Michelle Hunter (01:35)
That would have been, I didn’t know that. I didn’t know that. You did a surprise pop in.
Chantelle Bruinsma (01:57)
So they just submitted all of their projects and they were like, we’re done, we’re in celebration week, we can just enjoy it. And so everyone was just like, yay, we did it. And I said that you’d given me permission to buy wine for everyone, which they were thrilled about. So they, thank you for the pinot noir, Michelle.
Michelle Hunter (02:18)
I approved, yeah, that’s okay.
Chantelle Bruinsma (02:19)
Yeah, I said he said we could put it on the company credit card. But it was such a joy. We were the last to leave the restaurant. They put us in like a private area because we were raucous and loud and probably…
Michelle Hunter (02:31)
I could imagine how loud that dinner table would have been.
Chantelle Bruinsma (02:35)
I mean, like Beecroft, the suburb I live in it’s a very established kind of like older population. And we were, you know, just having a bit of fun. So we were the last to leave, like they turned the music off. It’s like all of the stuff at the front door. And then we’re like, okay, it’s time for us to go. But we think, yeah. But we think we might kind of do it again every, at the end of every pillar, just to kind of have a little catch up. It’d be super fun.
Michelle Hunter (02:53)
It’s time that the lights are off. We’re going to go.
Why not? Why not? So much fun.
Chantelle Bruinsma (03:03)
And if they can just be happy to come 500 meters from my house, I’m happy to show up. Like that’s, that’s what a joy. Yeah. Yes. So happy. Such good people, such good humans. so today we wanted to kind of dive into a really big topic that is like one of the pivotal transformation points on a studio owner’s journey. And that a lot of people stay stuck in for so long, so much longer than we.
Michelle Hunter (03:07)
100%. I’m happy to put on shoes and come and meet you.
Chantelle Bruinsma (03:32)
would really desire for them to stay stuck in that stage. And it’s not an easy one, is it, Michelle?
Michelle Hunter (03:38)
No, it’s not Chantelle. And this is a question we get asked a lot in person at retreats and even online. And, you know, the question is, when do I know I’m ready to hire a studio admin or bring someone else into the business? So from going solo, doing all the things, being right in the thick all day, every day to bringing someone in. And it’s a big decision, you know, growing up in a studio with my sister
I hate, it’s horrible to watch when someone is so in it. And then when they’re on the outside of it and they can get to that stage, it’s such a transformation. So.
What the first thing when they say that there’s a couple of factors, right? What are the obstacles we hear when we say when it’s time to hire a studio admin or get some help? Can’t afford it. Can’t afford it. Or, but I like to do everything myself. That’s another one that we hear quite a lot.
Chantelle Bruinsma (04:31)
Can’t afford it.
Yeah. Well, people trust themselves that they can do it and, you know, particularly like responding to inquiries in the inbox, like there’s, you have your way of doing things and you, your way of doing things has, has gotten the results that you’ve gotten so far. So you have established, you know, evidence that how you do it has worked. And so the, the idea of someone not doing it kind of as you’ve done it. And then I think another factor of this is also that feeling of.
my systems or I don’t have a systems. And so there’s almost like this kind of resistant shame of like, but if they’re going to, if I’m going to hire someone, nothing, it’s all just in here, right? And it’s all on me. And so there’s like this fear of what are they going to think of me that I haven’t got this set up. And then like there was, it’s tricky. And then like, but then I need to be prepared if I’m going to hire someone. So, but I haven’t got time to build the systems because I’m drowning. And so then we don’t hire someone.
Michelle Hunter (05:14)
Mmm.
Even now then.
Chantelle Bruinsma (05:38)
we say stuck in this cycle. And so there’s kind of almost perfectionism of wanting things to be ready for them to hire, but then you’re not able to do so. It keeps people stuck for a long time.
Michelle Hunter (05:40)
And that’s that cycle.
So they, then they jump back on that hamster wheel and they just keep on going and they’re on the hamster wheel to burn out. It’s just, we see it every, we see it every day. And probably the place to start, Chantelle, I don’t know, you hear me say this and I’ve heard you say it too. Sometimes it’s just like, just start with five hours a week. If you can bring someone, if you’re a solo studio owner and you’ve been doing it for years, I can only imagine.
Chantelle Bruinsma (05:52)
Mm.
Michelle Hunter (06:16)
how overwhelming it would feel to get all of it out in here, into here and training someone. But if you can start with five hours a week, and when we say that to people in studio owners in person, you just see they kind of relax a bit, right? So it’s like, five, maybe I could try five hours and just start with, just like the simple, just start with the inbox, even though the inbox is a beast. Just start.
Chantelle Bruinsma (06:36)
But it changes your life. Like if you can get out of the inbox, you regain freedom. You know, I remember Michelle, back in the day when I used to work one -on -one with, with a lot of clients, it was a different kind of stage. And I had one client, so beautiful. She’d been running her studio for like at least 30 years. And she’s, I heard she’s kind of sold the studio now and so it’s a beautiful stage of life. And I was working with her one -on -one.
Michelle Hunter (06:44)
You, 100%.
Mm -hmm.
Chantelle Bruinsma (07:06)
And it took me 10 months to convince her to kind of release the grip on doing all of the admin herself because she was so burnt out. Like she was so exhausted. And after 30 years, fair, like fair, fair call. Like, you know, and she ran this beautiful Kinder musik studio and it got to the point by the 10 month mark, she like, okay, like we’ll hire someone for five hours a week and.
Michelle Hunter (07:20)
Fair call. Fair call.
Chantelle Bruinsma (07:34)
It was radical within like a month or so. I remember the email that was just giddy. It was giddy with, I can’t believe I didn’t do this sooner. I can’t believe I held onto this myself and just, and they’re doing it brilliantly, like brilliantly, right? And this is the shift. It’s kind of like, gosh, we hold onto things so much longer than we need to. It’s just that kind of that confidence to just go maybe.
Michelle Hunter (07:51)
Yep.
Yeah.
Chantelle Bruinsma (08:03)
it can be a little bit easier for me too. Maybe that’s worth it.
Michelle Hunter (08:07)
guilty of it, right? It’s not like, what are you talking about? Never. Never have you once held onto.
Chantelle Bruinsma (08:09)
No. No. Not me. Not me.
Never have I ever been controlling about the work that I’m, God, yes, because we’re human and we give a shit and we care and we care about how people experience our businesses and about, you know, that things are done right. And that’s not wrong.
Michelle Hunter (08:23)
But we’re all guilty of it.
Yeah, no one cares so much.
Chantelle Bruinsma (08:37)
That’s not the only way either. It’s the truth.
Michelle Hunter (08:38)
Exactly. And you, and you know what is so freeing and you see this when with studio owners and they have that fear and then they actually empower us. They’re so good at empowering their team. And then like 10 months later, it’s like, yeah, I’ve outsourced my laundry. It’s like, we’re here.
Chantelle Bruinsma (08:52)
Yes, you’re exactly right.
It’s so true. Even like we were having this comment with Ryan at this dinner, this dinner party we were talking about on Saturday night. he was saying like before he would like, he would be at the studio to like, to get the keys and like unlock the doors and then like lock them at the end of the session. And then he was saying like, I don’t even know who’s got keys to my studio for like 20 seconds. It’s like, he’s like, you want keys? Here’s your keys. You want them? It’s like, you get to that point where you feel just this like, liberation. It’s, it’s liberation.
Michelle Hunter (09:22)
in that liberation, you still care. Like I think this is where some people can get it mixed up too. They’re like, I don’t want to be that person that does. You can still be a studio owner that highly cares, engaged, loves your team, love your students, but you don’t have to be opening the doors, locking up, being in the inbox. Yeah. Yeah.
Chantelle Bruinsma (09:38)
I mean, there’s a pendulum, right? There’s the pendulum of being like, doing all the things all the time, which we see is, you know, the level of burnout that we see in studio owners is largely kind of from that. And then there is definitely, you know, the kind of like, you get someone and you’re like, a few hands off. In fact, I remember a client, even at our recent reunion live event in New South Wales, was saying that, that she kind of like got someone and then she’s like,
And then it all kind of went to shit a bit and you guys like, no, no, it’s a bit, it’s a bit more involved than that. It’s not just, I’ve got someone you just kind of relinquish the reins. There is a training, mentoring, guiding feedback systems, Michelle Hunter esque style training and onboarding.
Michelle Hunter (10:07)
Yeah.
It is the heart of that whole process. The, how you onboard, even if it’s five hours a week, anybody who comes and works at Studio Evolution, unfortunately, if you work three hours a week or 30 hours a week, you’re going through the same onboarding process with Michelle Hunter, but it, it works and the, and we document. Well, I think it’s really important.
Chantelle Bruinsma (10:26)
Mm.
But people love that. People love it. Like, what’s the… Yeah.
Michelle Hunter (10:45)
You’re still working for the same company. You’re still dealing with the same people, have the same connections. You’re still, you know, dealing with our, you know, our community members and our members. So it deserves the same amount of effort. And at any time you feel like it’s too much on boarding and the systems that you implement when you bring someone on even five hours a week, you will never regret investing time in doing that. I tell you now I’ve never.
from staff members that I’ve worked with us and contractors, I’ve never regretted one hour over or 10 I’ve spent onboarding them into the company. Cause it’s just, but it.
Chantelle Bruinsma (11:21)
It’s your superpower. It is undoubtedly your superpower.
Michelle Hunter (11:25)
But it serves you well in the end, right? You have to understand that the investment you’re going to put up front, the more you record, you know, you create a playbook with them where they have all their systems and processes documented. That’s another hour they’re not going to need you knocking on your door and the communication is going to get less and less. Yes, it will be heavy to start. Yes, there’ll be a bit of to and fro and back and forth, but it will calm down and then you will step more into freedom.
Chantelle Bruinsma (11:40)
if you’re knocking on your door.
So Michelle Hunter, let’s say we’ve got a studio owner here who is like been doing it all themselves, like absolutely spinning all the plates, all the teaching, all the marketing, all the operations, all the admin, buying the toilet paper, you know, you name it, they’re doing it, right? And they’re kind of entertaining this idea of maybe, okay, maybe I could get someone to help me with admin for five hours a week. Like where do they start? Like where do we begin here?
Michelle Hunter (12:10)
Yeah. Yeah.
I always think in that kind of role, it’s so beneficial to shadow the, probably the studio, like come in and just see what they do in a normal, probably the busiest time period. So I have some briefing time with them and then the busiest time period. And then just get in that inbox. I think if you can master the inbox, even if that person’s doing the inbox five hours a week, that’s five hours of undivided time you get to put to working on the business, not in the business.
Chantelle Bruinsma (12:43)
Mm -hmm.
Michelle Hunter (12:49)
And why I always say the inbox is because the inbox is the gateway to so many functions and pathways of the studio that you’ll understand pretty soon how the whole studio works when you get that inbox under control. Yeah.
Chantelle Bruinsma (13:03)
I know a lot of studio owners struggle sometimes because, like the, the, the studio inbox is often kind of their personal, like if you’ve been starting, like it’s been, you’ve owned it. So you might be getting personal things or family or friends or kind of other things are coming to that inbox. And so it’s a beautiful opportunity to give yourself a private email address. And so one of the things we really recommend, and I have this myself, I have a private email that none of our clients have.
that is only my team knows. So only my team has my private work email. And so my inbox is very, very neat and tidy because I don’t get a lot of emails. It’s only from the team, right? And then you have a public facing inbox. So that will be something to do straight away is to get yourself a private email that only your team knows. And then you can have the public email address as well that the team member that you can both have access to. So you can both be working in that and see what’s being responded to in real time.
Michelle Hunter (13:47)
Mm -hmm.
100%. And look, we know again, studio owners have a very personal feel when they’re running the studio and how they greet emails and how they sign off and all the love that they put an effort into all the email responses. And then from there, I think really starting to understand the voice of the studio, you know, the culture, the brand, whether that’s built on the studio owner or, you know, the community or what your studio is all about. Once you nail that, you’ll be
Chantelle Bruinsma (14:17)
Yeah.
Michelle Hunter (14:27)
managing that inbox and, you know, use text expander, which is just a software where you can shortcode abbreviated emails and template responses and frequently asked questions. You. Okay. Life changing. So when you’re in any kind of admin function and you’re working in inbox, there would be at least 10 different email responses off the top of the studio owner’s head. They say.
Chantelle Bruinsma (14:39)
Actually, this is we need to go into more detail here, because like this is this is life changing.
Michelle Hunter (14:55)
You know, you’ll get these regular 10 emails where it’s about enrollment, payment, upcoming concert, makeup lessons, et cetera. And in the old kind of sphere world, you would open up a Google doc or a word doc and you would have your sample responses in there. And then the admin person would be going in, copying it and then paste it. So then I have to manually type it. Text expander is like an online app. So it’s a program. Just go to text expander .com.
And then it has like a little app that you can download to your phone now. And it works amazing. And your desktop, whether you’re on Apple or PC, and you can enter those template responses. So any text template, and then you can abbreviate a code and, pretty quickly, your admin will be able to remember the codes for instance, if I have a zoom link that I use 24 times a day, cause I invite staff members to join me for a catch up in the zoom room. My abbreviation is Zed one.
And I just go ping and it, and I just pop that into an email and that just goes in. They can do email sign -offs. They can do, you know, if it’s a certain season, like reminders, like a PS, you know, and they might put like P2 a code. So, you know, and you’ll be how many studio admin people I know that know 12 to 15 codes off the top of their head. And it’s just, they smash, they do it. I call it the email smash in the morning or in the beginning of their shift and they clean that inbox out and then they’re ready. They were into Trello. They’re now.
Chantelle Bruinsma (15:51)
Zed one.
more.
Michelle Hunter (16:20)
You know, setting up for the week payments, they’ve got time to call. And that’s when, that’s when the growth happens and the freedom happens in that role. Like, you know, you use a bit of smart software, like text expander you get some processes, you train them on how, you know, you respond and your brand and you record all of that and have it really systemized in, in, in, you know, software like Asana or Trello. And then they’ll get used to that week in first week, the learn second week, they’ll get quicker.
Chantelle Bruinsma (16:46)
Yeah.
Michelle Hunter (16:49)
The third week they’ll be responding without even asking you what to say. And then it’s just, it compounds and it happens so quickly. It happens so quickly.
Chantelle Bruinsma (16:59)
And like what I love about Text Expander is like our team uses it, but there’s like a centralized account where you can enter the templates in. So then Michelle can just go in and then just change the templates. Like, I want to add this bit in here. And then when the team actually like uses the short code, it’s all kind of aligned with how Michelle wants it to be. Right. So like there’s such beauty for you as a studio owner, knowing like, I want it to be like this. I don’t have to train everyone. I can actually just go in and just kind of tweak it. It’s gold. And how expensive is it? Do you remember?
Michelle Hunter (17:16)
100%.
I think, look, it started off really cheap back in the day, but I think it might be like three, four dollars a month. I think we’re looking at and that’s.
Chantelle Bruinsma (17:27)
Not much. I’ll do a quick search. like the cost of a coffee. If you’re lucky and you don’t live in Sydney.
Michelle Hunter (17:36)
Yeah. If you don’t live in Sydney. and it also, yeah. And you can also.
Chantelle Bruinsma (17:39)
Yeah, because it’s a lot more expensive here. my gosh, yes, it’s individual is $3 .33 US a month. Business is $8 .33 US a month. So like peanuts, peanuts.
Michelle Hunter (17:51)
It is so worth it and your admin will love it and then they’ll get it on their phone. And then it’s just.
Chantelle Bruinsma (17:58)
Now let’s talk about another thing when we’re kind of looking at bringing someone in to work five hours a week and that whole feeling of like, I haven’t got my system set up. So they’re going to be like, I haven’t got nothing to kind of give them. So that again is something that just holds you back. And I wanted to give all of you permission to like, how about you just build it as part of the training process. So like if even like hearing about this text expander, so you go like, okay, we’re going to sit down together. We can actually kind of put this into text expander together. Like here, I’m going to show you.
Michelle Hunter (18:03)
Mm -hmm. Mm -hmm.
Mmm.
Chantelle Bruinsma (18:24)
Here is a sent email that was talking about our kind of one of our FAQs. I’m gonna grab this from here. I’m gonna put it into TextExpander. Hey, what do you think an easy short code would be for us to remember and get your team to do it, right? Let’s actually build it together. There’s no shame in this. Just if you can put aside a bit of time to building that together, then they could actually do more. You could actually show them, okay, could you bring out some more templates? Just go through these types of emails, chuck them into TextExpander and you’re gonna have more freedom now. And like that.
is when we start to see things getting really fun for studio owners.
Michelle Hunter (18:56)
So fun Chantelle that reminds me of a quote that we heard at a recent reunion event and Chantelle taught this awesome ladder, like a progression of the stages that studio owners are in as they progress through their journey and their life as a studio owner. And then someone said, no, correct me if I’m wrong. And you’re going to probably remember this a lot crisper than I did, but it was like a manager pushes team through change of systems, but a leader.
Chantelle Bruinsma (19:00)
Hmm?
Michelle Hunter (19:26)
takes them with them or something like that. It exactly captures what you just said. You know, there’s no shame in, you know, that’s leading. If you’re saying to someone, hey, we haven’t got a system for this, but this is a really good opportunity for me and you to check this software out. Let’s, you know, design it so it’s good for us and let’s make it work. There’s no shame in that. That is leading.
Chantelle Bruinsma (19:28)
Yeah. Yeah.
Mm.
they’ll be invested, they’ll be empowered because they’ll understand it and they would have built it so they’ll kind of know how to use it. It’s a good way to go. So let’s put all of that kind of feeling of having got this to the side and just go, let’s just kind of bring someone in. The investment of five hours a week of getting an admin for five hours a week, depending on where you are in the world, honestly for…
the growth it’s going to give your business. If you, it’s that kind of feeling of like, you know, so many studio owners, they’re stuck doing all the itty bitty, they can’t do the big. And one thing that we are devoted to at Studio Evolution is clearing out that gunk and that fluff and all of the superfluous things that just tie you down so that you can run. We kind of want to give you freedom. And this is the kind of where it starts. It starts with just one admin, five hours a week to change your life.
Michelle Hunter (20:38)
Mm -hmm.
That’s it. Good job.
Chantelle Bruinsma (20:42)
So go do that.
Chantelle and Michelle say you have permission to hire someone for five hours a week week.
Michelle Hunter (20:49)
100%. And let us know how you go.
Chantelle Bruinsma (20:51)
It’s the best thing for their business. It’s the best thing for their business to enable kind of it to be held with more than one person too. Like it’s really, it gives it stability is the truth.
Michelle Hunter (21:01)
And if you so worry about cost, what do we say? That’s one student. We say that we, we, we equated it. We worked it out a lot of them with like everyone there. And we said, well, then just go now and roll one student or two. We kind of worked it out even if they used a VA and yeah. And, and remember that switch when we said it, they were like, okay, I’ll do it. And it’s the, they did it. Yeah.
Chantelle Bruinsma (21:10)
Yeah.
Okay, I can do that. Yeah, it’s really good. It’s really good. So I hope you found this useful friends. Hope you’ve got some kind of little things to think about and we’ll look forward to seeing you next time on your studio podcast. Bye.
