Discover how to turn team retreats into unforgettable experiences that inspire connection, collaboration, and motivation. In this episode, Chantelle and Michelle share practical tips and fun ideas to create meaningful retreats that your team (and you) will love!
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Michelle Hunter (00:48)
I’m ready. Let’s turn on. Perform for me, monkey.
Michelle Hunter (00:52)
I had Tilly’s dance concert on the weekend.
Tilly is Tilly at the dance concert. Beautiful Chantelle beautiful.
Chantelle Bruinsma (00:53)
Who’s this? Let’s try it.
We had Madeline’s yesterday too. God, it’s the best, isn’t it? So.
Michelle Hunter (01:02)
that’s true. was a long day. I was backstage this year. I was backstage helper. Did not wear appropriate clothing for backstage helping. I wore a dress with slides. I wanted to be the pretty mum. All the other mums had leggings and shoes and I was like, I haven’t been backstage for 18 years and.
Chantelle Bruinsma (01:13)
you wanted to be the pretty Mum.
You need to be in like active wear friend, right?
Michelle Hunter (01:23)
Activewear. I live in activewear. The one day I decided not to wear activewear was the day not to wear
did not
Chantelle Bruinsma (01:30)
so
Michelle Hunter (01:30)
care for me to be there.
Chantelle Bruinsma (01:31)
part of going to your child’s dance studio is that your, because parents they get a lot of parent helpers for the concert?
Michelle Hunter (01:31)
was just saying to Holly.
No, I pushed to do it this year because I just wanted to see what their process was like backstage.
Chantelle Bruinsma (01:41)
You push to do it.
Uh-huh, uh-huh, this is the thing. For those of you who listening, like this is the kind of occupational hazard we have with being in our profession and having children actually attend studios.
Michelle Hunter (01:55)
And then can I tell you what happened? I’m sorry. I was talking to another Mum and Til- Tilly was just ignoring me. And then she said, Mum this is not Studio Evolution time.
Chantelle Bruinsma (01:57)
What happened?
No, no she did not.
Michelle Hunter (02:11)
And we were talking about lunch boxes and then I took five kids. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. And then, you know, she did. She had to take five kids for the toilet break and it took forever because I didn’t realise the tutu situation, five kids in the toilet. I was like, this is really stressful. And then she went to the owner of the school and said, do you know where my Mum is? And she’s like, I don’t know, sweet heart, she’s like, she’s taking a long time. Can you check if she’s doing a poo?
Chantelle Bruinsma (02:14)
I mean, lunchboxes is very important to us, but like, why is that student evolution?
Michelle Hunter (02:42)
Died. Died. Died. Just… I just stayed with the toddlers for the rest of the day. I just stayed in the back. It’s like I’m not welcome here.
Just your old regular tiny’s Mum taking a crap during the show.
Anyway.
That was my weekend?
She is wild. I just looked at her. It’s like, have I done? What have I done? She’s so… Remember how at the team retreat I said to you guys, I don’t care what people think of me. She really doesn’t give a shit what people think of me.
Chantelle Bruinsma (03:11)
She won’t.
So did the, the studio owner came back and said, do you know what your daughter just said? Is that how this came how did you find out?
Michelle Hunter (03:31)
Yeah. Yeah, they came back and told me all the mums are laughing and they’re like, my gosh, she said, is my Mum, can you go check if she’s doing a poo? I was like, hmm.
Chantelle Bruinsma (03:41)
No Tilda that’s not something we do with grown-ups. So funny.
Michelle Hunter (03:49)
Hilarious, it was a big day. How was Madeline’s?
Chantelle Bruinsma (03:51)
Our Madeline’s concert was gorgeous. And we were on the other extreme. So Tash, who’s in Evolution with us, she, my daughter goes to her studio because we just love Tash and she’s, it does a great job. And it is designed, her whole studio is designed for that easy, simple, convenient, right? So there is no rehearsals. There’s no extra involvement. The concert goes, you arrive at one o’clock for a 1.30 show and you’re out the door by 2.30. You’re out the door by 2.30.
Michelle Hunter (04:09)
Mm-hmm.
the best.
Chantelle Bruinsma (04:20)
home. And it is just effortless. It’s run so very easily for the families. And so there’s no parent helpers . We’re all in the hall. The kind of kids go up, they come in between, I get them changed between their items and then she’s back around. It’s just pro, all pro. And all parents are in the audience watching, which is quite lovely too. Which is quite lovely too. So yeah, it’s really, and it’s funny, like, you know, when
Michelle Hunter (04:21)
That’s my dream.
I love that.
Chantelle Bruinsma (04:50)
When you’re choosing studios, that type of thing actually matters to me. We’ve got friends who kind of go to a studio local, which is a really great studio, but there’s a lot, there’s a whole day of rehearsals and the kids are four. And I’m kind of like, ooh, that’s a lot for a family. It’s a lot for a family.
Michelle Hunter (04:54)
Here.
It’s too much sometimes, I think. I had a four-year-old asleep in my hands at the end of the concert.
Chantelle Bruinsma (05:14)
You don’t have a four year old, so who’s was it?
Michelle Hunter (05:16)
It wasn’t mine.
She was fricking cute though. And I couldn’t, I couldn’t leave her on the floor.
Chantelle Bruinsma (05:23)
You’ve got a one year old hun and you’ve got a six year old.
Michelle Hunter (05:26)
Yeah, it’s like who’s the four-year-old? I don’t know, but she I couldn’t let us sleep on that cold floor. I was like I have to hold you I cannot
Chantelle Bruinsma (05:33)
hun, hun, so funny, so funny. Well, we kick this off?
Michelle Hunter (05:39)
can you remind me what the podcast is called again? You just told me, I
Chantelle Bruinsma (05:43)
It’s called your studio podcast. You have three children their age to one six and eight Your name is Michelle Hunter. This is the your studio podcast. Okay, and if you need to do a poo just let us know
Michelle Hunter (05:46)
No no no no no no!
And I do and. you just had to get that one in there.
Chantelle Bruinsma (06:03)
Where’s Michelle? Can we just check? I mean, I’m going to use this for years, friend. Where’s Michelle? we just check if she’s doing a poo?
Michelle Hunter (06:07)
See you again.
You’re gonna use that every time. Chantelle’s gonna use that every team retreat, every time we’re at Peppers, she’s gonna use that.
Chantelle Bruinsma (06:16)
Where’s Michelle? Can someone just check if she’s doing a poo?
Tilda, you’ve given me gold. Thank you, kid.
Michelle Hunter (06:24)
my gosh, she’s giving you gold. mean, best activity for your team retreat.
Chantelle Bruinsma (06:32)
right.
Do you need to do a poo?
Michelle Hunter (06:35)
No, you, fu- shit. I said ffff that word like seven times.
Hello friends and welcome to your studio podcast. It is Michelle Hunter here and I’m here with my work wifey.
Chantelle Bruinsma (06:47)
Hi, it’s Chantelle Bruinsma my friends. We’re so thrilled to be here with you today.
Michelle Hunter (06:52)
We sure are. And today we are diving into a really fun topic that we love to talk about. And we’re to be going into team retreats, you know, everyone runs them. Some people might, some studios do this really well. And we’re to get more into the crux of the team retreat and how to make it fun. Aren’t we Chantelle?
Chantelle Bruinsma (07:11)
A lot of studio owners I know struggle to get their team to actually want to come to meetings or like, sorry, I’ve got, I’ve gone to the movies at night and you’re like, I need you to come to the meeting. And we’re to talk about how to fix that problem, how to change the culture so that you actually have team members wanting to come to your meetings. And we’re going to dive into all of that today. But before we get in, we were wondering if you could do us a huge, huge favor. And that is to subscribe to our, to follow the podcast.
And that means you get all the updates for when we release a new podcast and you can be one of our kind of VIP special people, part of our little poddy family here. So if you would go and just pause the podcast, jump and do that now if you feel like it, that would be, it mean the world to us and help us as a pod move forward. Thanks friends.
Michelle Hunter (07:56)
Well we just had our team retreat Chantelle, how awesome it was wasn’t it?
Chantelle Bruinsma (07:59)
It’s just we’re a virtual team so we don’t get to see each other every day. So getting together doesn’t happen very often but when it does it is wonderful. It is wonderful and very very special. So yeah we caught together we caught up last week.
Michelle Hunter (08:15)
And we’ve had some team retreats. I’d have to say that have been pinnacle to some real, not only personal connection, but some real turning points for the company as well. I remember when we went to Hawaii, that was huge, huge, huge, huge before the world closed down literally four weeks before COVID exploded. We went to Hawaii for a team retreat. And back then, I think, you know, a lot of us didn’t know what to expect. One, you flew us all on a plane.
Chantelle Bruinsma (08:28)
Huge.
Mmm.
Michelle Hunter (08:43)
to a tropical destination and my visa nearly got rejected and I didn’t get there.
Chantelle Bruinsma (08:47)
It was very stressful. It was very stressful.
Michelle Hunter (08:51)
But two, we also, I think we went thinking, we’re going to go hang out and. You know, do some things and work, but we didn’t.
Chantelle Bruinsma (08:58)
some Mai Tais and an understandable expectation.
Michelle Hunter (09:02)
100%, but you know what really blew us away was like day one. And as you know, you’re an extraordinary visionary and you know, also the most awesome teacher, but as a visionary, what were your intentions there? Like let’s let’s, know, on that day one.
Chantelle Bruinsma (09:19)
Okay, okay, so look, this is getting into the philosophy of like, how to structure team meetings, team retreats in a way that is going to get the outcome you want. And apologies that I’ve got a croaky kind of gross sounding voice right now. I’ve got a bit of a cold, so forgive me for sounding a bit croaky friends. So what you’re doing is you’re creating an environment in these team meetings, in these team retreats for transformation.
And I feel like a lot of studio owners approach the idea of having a team meeting, having a team retreat, it’s like, I’ve got this window of time, but I’ve got them all to hear and I want to shove as much information down their throats as we can, right? So the exchange is very passive. They’re going to sit and you’re going to tell them information about, here’s what’s happening here, here’s what this is about, here’s what you need to know, here’s what you to be prepared for. And then they’re going to nod. And then you go, good, I’ve got this all taken care of. We’re all on the same page. Fantastic. Off you go.
maybe there’s a bit of collaboration, maybe you’re deciding on some themes or some elements, you know, come together to make some, you know, do some things together, but largely it is about the studio and it is about information. And I have a little catchphrase that is the centre of how I approach these types of things. And it is inspiration before information. If you start off a team meeting and it’s just, okay, thanks for coming here today, friends.
Here’s what you need to know. We’ve got this coming up, we’ve got a concert, we’ve got a workshop and you just kind of roll through it. They all sit there. But yeah, Michelle, it’s not really fun. mean, like you’ve come from corporate friend. You would have experienced the old death by meeting.
Michelle Hunter (10:50)
You’ve lost ’em
100%. And I think when we’ve run a few team retreats, I’ve gone straight into information. It’s like, pump the brakes, pump the brakes. And it is like, you know, I think some of us are so trained to go in, you know, everyone’s together. Let’s make use of this time. But I think when you do that information overload, they’re just, they’re there, but they’re not there and they’re not thinking and you’re not tapping into their creative side or even what intention they want to bring. So yeah.
Chantelle Bruinsma (11:27)
Yeah, you gotta bring some fun friends. whenever you’re doing some sort of meeting retreat activity, before you actually get into the details, it really changes everything if you start with some fun factor. So last year for our team retreat, we did butt mugs and margaritas. I mean, you don’t have to do this. This is not a prescription, right? But we took everyone to a place where we…
got to drink margaritas and we all did a pottery class and we made mugs. I wish I had mine right here to show you. We made mugs with butts on them. Or actually I did a boob mug, because I’m more of a boob girl. So I made a boob mug and I made one for you too, Michelle. It was quite a work of art, wasn’t it, from memory? it was a work of art. Something that’s never been seen in light of day in your house. But you’ve got to do that before you get into the conversations about…
Michelle Hunter (12:10)
It was a work of art.
Chantelle Bruinsma (12:19)
like logistics and details because otherwise their hearts aren’t connected. I’m not saying you need to do butt mugs and margaritas, I’m saying by doing that you loosen everyone up, you actually get a connection happening between the people and then you can run, then you can run, then you’ve got a team.
Michelle Hunter (12:32)
Yeah.
So true. We’ve been in that situation as well. think more studios and companies are starting to work more remote, especially in studios. They’re working different timetables. They’re not seeing each other a lot. That’s really important because I even saw when we had a previous team retreat and we had team members who actually never been really in the same room or anything together. And if you don’t do that connection piece first, you can’t even get them to collaborate on any level after that.
Chantelle Bruinsma (12:44)
Yeah.
That’s true. That’s really true. it has compounding impacts on a lot of things actually for studio businesses. Like if you’ve got, this is, comes down to again, like your decision on your business model. Do you have more teachers teaching less hours per week or do you decide like, we’re actually going to hire people who are able to work more hours, who are more invested, but have fewer people. So again, like depending on that ratio that you have, like number of teachers to number of students.
If that ratio is really high, you’ve got more teachers for number of students, it means that you’ve got more work to do to sustain the culture, more work to do to kind of make sure there is connection. And even like that can come down to like, let’s say when you teach an absence, someone’s sick, if they have a relationship with the other teachers, they are, I’ve got your back hon, I’ll take that class for you. There’s more rapport, there’s more camaraderie, there’s more relationship to kind of keep things consistent. So bringing people together.
is really important. And I know probably there’s a question in the back of your mind right now that’s like, do I pay the team for this time we come together? And the answer is yeah, yeah, you do. We’re gonna pay them. And in fact, depending on their employment relationship, like whether they’re employee or contractor, I would be looking to introduce an element even with contractors that attending team trainings are part of your role. You’re not just here to teach and then kind of scidaddle out of the door. Part of your being a teacher in the studio.
Michelle Hunter (14:04)
Mm.
Yep. Yep.
Chantelle Bruinsma (14:26)
is coming in and attending these bits where we kind of build this team together. You need to check with the legalities of your contract agreements, but like if you are able to introduce that as an expectation, do that so that you can actually kind of say like, team member, you haven’t been attending our team trainings on a consistent basis. And this is a real requisite as part of your role here. It’s important for us that we have this connection and that you are also really across what is happening in the intentions of what we’re doing here in the studio. You got to have that.
really integrated. Because if you don’t, Michelle, right, they just tend to be on the periphery. They kind of feel less connected.
Michelle Hunter (15:04)
100%. And you can tell the, tell the team members who are more connected than those that aren’t. And I’ve got a, like, and and a question we do see come a lot up a lot. We work with a lot of studios who have a lot of team, a lot of teachers. If you’re doing an annual, some do twice a year team retreat. And I’ve seen, you know, we see a lot of them take them to remote locations. They kind of stay overnight sometimes. How, what’s your kind of rule or philosophy on the spread of that?
Is it like, no matter how many hours they’re working in the studio, you know, if it’s feasible, bring them together. Or do you prefer like a core team doing more of the experience, like more time away or, you know, the less hours it’s yeah. What’s your philosophy on that?
Chantelle Bruinsma (15:35)
Yeah.
Good question. Okay, so here’s my dream and here’s my kind of core take on that. So I think if you’re working for a company, you’re on the team. Like even if they’re only teaching four hours per week, they’re part of the team. They’re delivering the experience. The students are having a direct exchange with them. And even though that teacher’s not working as many hours, they still are a representation of your company. So I am, if they are employed and they are particularly if they’re student facing, yeah, we got to bring them in. We got to bring them in.
Michelle Hunter (15:55)
Mm-hmm.
Chantelle Bruinsma (16:17)
And, you know, I understand in the early days, like financially, can be a significant investment to be bringing people in. It doesn’t have to be expensive. You know, last year we took the team out, but then I brought them here and I cooked them dinner at my home. And we had this beautiful meal. And then we just sat around in our kind of lounge room and kind of chatted and had glasses of wine. It doesn’t have to, you don’t have to do extravagant things. Some of our clients will rent an Airbnb and take them all away for a night or two.
You then might decide to do an extension day for the kind of core team, like more of a leadership team, or you might decide to that at a different time of year. But, but I really believe that people want to feel connected and more than that, they don’t just want transactional information. They don’t just want to feel like, all I hear about is like timetable changes and kind of like, here’s this kind of policy update. They want to understand why we’re doing what we’re doing and, and
Michelle Hunter (17:12)
Mm-hmm.
Chantelle Bruinsma (17:12)
connecting the joy of the mission of your studio and why you do it.
Michelle Hunter (17:17)
Yeah, 100%. 100%. And it’s also getting…
Chantelle Bruinsma (17:18)
What’s been your favourite moment that we’ve done on a team retreat Michelle?
Michelle Hunter (17:23)
wasn’t one where you were doing a three year visioneering and I fell asleep on the couch. That’s not my favourite ones. Probably my most embarrassing. Just I’m not big. I’m not as big picture. We know that. Right. So it’s like, we had a big picture day, but the recent team retreat, someone’s like, what’s our minimum viable X and I’ve got some, I got numbers for you. I can bring you some numbers. That’s that’s where, that’s where I’m at. But I would have to say.
Chantelle Bruinsma (17:29)
I mean it’s not a great reflection on me either.
We’d had a big picture day. We’d had a big picture day. Yeah.
Michelle Hunter (17:54)
One of core memory was in Hawaii when we were on that yacht and we were on the yacht and it was just pure joy. had like a really big day. Actually, we did some huge planning. actually, how our calendar actually works here at Studio Evolution, it’s very cyclical. So we actually planned like two years of marketing, curriculum, delivery events. It was a massive day. And then, to celebrate, Chantelle took us to this amazing beach.
Chantelle Bruinsma (17:58)
Mm.
Michelle Hunter (18:23)
in Maui and we’re like, we’re getting on a boat and we’re like, where’s the boat? And then no joke, you just saw this big yacht just coming towards us on the shore. And we had to walk through the water to get on the yacht and we went scuba diving. I had lunch on.
Chantelle Bruinsma (18:39)
Even at the time that we saw something else in the water and was that actually full of joy? I have a different memory of you in that moment.
Michelle Hunter (18:44)
Sorry.
Well, we did go snorkeling and took about 20 minutes of you and Trav trying to teach me how to snorkel and actually breathe through a snorkel. And then we got into the group and we’re swimming and I’m like, this is amazing. And then Chantelle’s like, look, I can hear her go, look. And I was like, what am I looking at? Is it Nemo?
It was a shark and no joke. Instantly I heard, da-dum, da-dum I, know, Chantelle we’re we’re wifey’s I left you for dead in that moment. My high school regional swimming skills and I got, I flicked the snorkel, I threw it. was like, F the snorkel and I swam so back to that boat. I had flippers on the flipper, caught. ripped the, I was like, I’m quicker without the flippers. And I ran everyone.
The crew on the boat were like, what is wrong with this woman?
Chantelle Bruinsma (19:47)
They don’t have teeth. They’re gummy sharks. They don’t have teeth, hun. Like, you’ll be like, you’ll be fine. You had a very visceral reaction to the sharks.
Michelle Hunter (19:50)
I don’t know, it was a coming shock.
ew.
It’s scariest moment of my life and I’m still scared to swim in pools to this day if it’s dark because…
Chantelle Bruinsma (20:02)
Yeah. So, so far we’re hearing about my team retreat leadership experiences. You’re falling asleep on the couch and you’re terrifying me. I’m really someone to be giving advice.
Michelle Hunter (20:11)
No.
But I’ll get back to the crux of it though. But when we on that boat, if you saw us when we landed on day one and you know, some of us, you know, working in America, different sides of the world, hadn’t, we had, we had members from the Philippines come, Hawaii as well team. And then you fast forward to four days and we were on that boat. Someone who was on the boat was watching us. were like laughing, jumping off the boat, doing flips, swimming. They said, you guys actually look like a group of girls from college who have just caught up for a reunion.
Chantelle Bruinsma (20:28)
Yeah.
Michelle Hunter (20:43)
And it was, think it was that moment was so heartwarming because we were so bonded. It was like, okay, we’ve gone through this whole journey. And on the first day you really did some big picture work. And I was like, where is this going? But we were so connected and the decisions we landed on that week really, you know, we made decisions that carried our business till this day at that retreat. and it was because of those connections we formed that week and the work we actually collaborated in those magical moments.
Chantelle Bruinsma (21:11)
It’s true. mean, you can’t make big decisions when you’re just in kind of in the role in doing the day to day. You have to usually, I find for myself and a lot of people we work with, by kind of having a little bit of space and getting out of your environment, you can actually see things with more perspective, make some decisions that can allow things just to settle.
So we’ve got a project in Evolution that is, we actually have many projects that kind of help really step into that, being able to host it, host events and host meetings and host retreats for your team, because it is a confronting thing and knowing what to do and that people aren’t gonna be bored and who am I to kind of speak in this way. And it takes quite a bit of confidence to get to the place of feeling comfortable in holding team retreats and not just keeping on with the work, right? To actually pause.
and bring them into the bigger picture and to invite them to have a voice can be quite a scary thing to step into in your business. But my philosophy is always that as leaders, this really comes back to.
The more their hearts are invested, the more everything works, right? And we want an invested team who have your back and who are there for more than just a paycheck. And that comes from giving them inspiration in their hearts. So, you know, one of the projects that we love to do in Evolution is one called Continuum. And this is again, to just inspire the team members with why they’re doing this.
like why they’re teaching with you. And so we actually get them together and we called Continuum because we kind of, get them to get a ribbon and then draw little note cards along like who was, what was your first dance class or experience with yoga? Or, you for me, my first, like when did you like first love singing? And actually kind of mark all the milestones of their life. You know, this is when I first did this and then I got this teacher who was horrible, horrible abusive teacher.
But then I got this beautiful teacher and she showed me this whole other way of relating to singing. And then I went to the conservatorium and then I kind of got my music education degree and then I was teaching here and then I was conducting here. you can actually see what, you know, for me, it’s singing and performing gave me in my life and how that, how, how beautiful it is to share that with others, you know? And so creating just even short, like even if you could just do 10 or 15 minutes of something creative.
something introspective, invite them into reflection or sharing because that’s what’s going to soften them around the edges and make them feel safe as a team. You got to make sure you’re kind of not overstretching them and making them feel uncomfortable, but absolutely creating an environment where there’s creativity. Like like craft. find craft gives people things to with their hands, get some play-doh out, get some kind of, get them creating or building something, get post notes on the wall.
Something interactive usually again is the way to soften and kind of get people relaxed. So anything they have to kind of create or glue or stick or write or get markers or get paints, anything interactive is going to really support your team members participating. And then once you’ve kind of opened up with an activity and we’re teachers, this is what we do, right? Thinking about how you can talk about, you know, let’s talk about retention. What’s the way you could kind of symbolise retention in a metaphorical way. Let’s talk about
onboarding process, how do want to welcome people, how can we initiate, how can we start. It’s just about being creative and starting with an activity before you get into information. Inspiration before information is our mantra. Right Michelle? Are we rolling?
Michelle Hunter (24:54)
100%, 100%, and you know, when they share their personal stories, it’s actually quite lovely as the studio owner to be a part of and allowing them to be so vulnerable and share with you, because you find out so many things about them that you never knew about their journey. most of the time,
People who work in studios normally have grown up in a studio. So there is that element of them wanting to share and then being along with your journey.
Chantelle Bruinsma (25:24)
Yeah, because at the end of the day, know, what’s our job as a leader of a studio? It’s to help our team have sparkly eyes. Like I know that sounds silly, but like if you can get your team sparkly-eyed, excited to be there, you know, really having an intention, they’re not just kind of going and just doing the do, but they are coming in here and they understand what’s really important. And that’s not what color ribbons are in the concert. You know, that’s not that shit.
Michelle Hunter (25:30)
Yeah, it’s so true.
Mm-hmm.
Chantelle Bruinsma (25:50)
What gets them inspired is like why they’re doing this and why this matters. And if you can bring that to the front and you lead from that place, you create experiences that make your team’s eyes sparkle and get them having that fun and that connection that will transfer into the classroom. When the students in the classroom, they’ve got a teacher who’s all sparkly eyed, what happens to your retention? It booms, right? Then your capacity is higher, your word of mouth is stronger and then your profitability increases. So all I’m saying
is maybe taking your team out for bottomless margarita’s and butt mugs ain’t a bad idea. That’s all I’m saying.
Michelle Hunter (26:26)
Ain’t a bad idea at all. Ain’t a bad idea. And it also improves like people who work in admin marketing for us. We’ve seen radical transformations after really connected and successful team retreats. And it’s just a joy. It’s just a joy, even though they might be working to admin, even though they’re behind the inbox, they might be managing your Facebook ads or your funnels. Every person counts and their contribution at that team retreat makes them feel really seen and heard.
Chantelle Bruinsma (26:31)
Yes.
Michelle Hunter (26:55)
really shows how important their role really is. It is just.
Chantelle Bruinsma (26:57)
Well, admin student facing, like they are the ones on the front line of inquiry management and retention, like what they can do and how they connect and the joy that they bring to the exchanges. Like that’s your business. Like it really is. And so they are needing to be a part. People are yearning for connection. Let’s be a company that people want to come and work for. you know, I think I’ve said this before in the pod, but you know, one of our beautiful grads, Kathy Morrison, her catchphrase was she didn’t want to wait list of students.
Michelle Hunter (27:17)
big time.
Chantelle Bruinsma (27:26)
She wanted a wait list of teachers. She wanted to be a studio that was so respected, so acknowledged for the quality of team and work culture, that teachers were like, I wanna work there. Because if you have a wait list of teachers, you are golden. You are golden. You can take the best of the best, the pick of the bunch and bring them into your studio, right? And your students will benefit. Everything.
Michelle Hunter (27:52)
Everything, everything. if you look, know it’s concerts, recital time, you know, for a lot of our Aussies at the moment, our Southern Hemisphere peeps. So I know a lot of also wrapping up with Christmas parties and team retreats. So if you head into that team retreat, just start with a little bit of fun connection, transformation before information and let us know how you go. We would love to hear how some of your activities go. Check in with us. Let us know. What was your big highlight?
Chantelle Bruinsma (28:20)
Actually tag us, like if you’ve got some photos going up on your studio’s Insta, would you tag us, our handle is at the studio evolution. Make sure you get the the, otherwise it tags another random company and we’ll never see it. So at the studio evolution. We would love to see your pics of your team retreats and team meetings. This is a beautiful time of year to be really planning and thinking about how you’re setting the intentions for the year ahead, how you’re wrapping things up. You know, the most basic team meeting you can do is an annual reflection one. Get together.
Michelle Hunter (28:24)
Mmm.
Chantelle Bruinsma (28:50)
What worked really well this year? What are we really proud of that we did as a team? Like could it be students progression we rolled out this particular thing like and actually coming together and celebrating it. Teachers, admins, yourself, you know, really getting it all in one big giant post note. What we’re really celebrating and then like what we learned. What did we learn this year? It’s a beautiful process to actually get their input of like we’ll never do that again. And then like move to what’s important to us for the year ahead. What’s our theme going to be as a studio?
Michelle Hunter (29:19)
And speaking of team retreats, we just celebrated our big milestone birthday at our recent team retreat, didn’t we Chantelle? And we decided we’re going to do something pretty bonkers for Black Friday. And we decided to celebrate our big milestone birthday where we did a lot of salsa dancing with the team or a lot of watching on while Chantelle salsa danced. We are doing 50 % off The Leap. We’ve gone crazy. We have gone crazy, haven’t we?
Chantelle Bruinsma (29:46)
This is a big deal. This is a big deal. for Black Friday, we have never done a Black Friday sale in history of Studio Evolution. It’s not really a thing here in Australia. It’s funny. One of our US team members said like, I didn’t realize you had Black Friday in Australia. We really haven’t, but you know, as Australia tends to, we kind of like, it’s like Halloween. We’re just like, it’s just gradually creeping in, right? Creeping in. But we are excited to launch this Black Friday sale for you. It is 50 % off The Leap, which is unprecedented.
and it’s only available for a very, very short amount of time and you have to jump in now if you’re wanting to do The Leap We’ve just recorded a whole course revision and it is so, so powerful, so dialed in. So if you’re really looking for a way to make marketing your studio easier and simpler to enroll more students, this is an essential studio marketing program that within six weeks, you will have at least 20 more students and so much more confidence in marketing your studio. You’re gonna love it.
Michelle Hunter (30:45)
Yep. And we’ve got loads of bonuses. We’ve got $3,000 worth of bonuses, know, Chantelle’s well-renowned pricing and packaging, you know, most converting website landing pages, you know, for your enrollments. is our library of resources. It’s huge. It’s huge. So just head to studioevolution.com forward slash the Leap and you can get your 50 % off now.
Chantelle Bruinsma (30:48)
Wow.
social media templates, yeah, we’ve thrown everything we can. The biggest, bestest deal ever.
Woo woo woo woo woo woo. I know Michelle you’re about to turn 40 so this is a big time for you. How are feeling about it?
Michelle Hunter (31:18)
Like that.
Chantelle Bruinsma (31:20)
Sums it up. Sums it up. Okay.
Michelle Hunter (31:23)
You know, I had all these visions for my 40th. I was like, told you I was going to run a marathon. I was going to be the life gets in the way. Right. And this is it. This is 40 is… A pause.
Chantelle Bruinsma (31:31)
Whoa.
Yeah, you’ve had a very big year with a lot of surgery this year, our triathlon goal is still kind for those who’ve listened to the episodes, it’s still kind of on the horizon for next year. See how you feel.
Michelle Hunter (31:45)
It is, it is, it is. But no, it’s been just a joy. We turn 40 in the same year and, you know, we had some really precious memories this year. So I’m very thankful. It’s been the best year. Apart from all the… Yeah.
Chantelle Bruinsma (31:56)
I’m excited for us. Like we’ve always said, like our 30s of the year, we’ve had all of our babies. We’ve kind of, we’ve been through the newborn stages. We’ve done all that. Like 40s feels like we’re stepping into our prime. Like I think this is our era, Michelle.
Michelle Hunter (32:01)
All of them.
This is it. actually said, I’m a do you remember? Might’ve been like 36, 37. Maybe you and I hadn’t slept for six days. And I said, you know what, Chantelle? I think like our forties, we are gonna hit it. It’s gonna be the best. And we’re kind of embracing it. So we’re here to celebrate. We’re here to party and you know, head to studioevolution.com/ the Leap and get your 50 % off sale and peeps.
Chantelle Bruinsma (32:15)
Yep.
Yeah, I think we’re just tapping our prime. We’re just starting to tap it.
Michelle Hunter (32:36)
We can’t wait to connect again with you soon. And thank you for listening today.
Chantelle Bruinsma (32:40)
Lovely one. See you next time.
Michelle Hunter (32:42)
Bye
