In this episode of Your Studio Podcast, Chantelle and Michelle dive into the art of hiring a true “unicorn” for your studio—a rare gem who brings the perfect mix of passion, skills, and cultural fit. If you’re struggling to find the right person to join your team, this episode is packed with actionable tips to help you attract and retain that ideal candidate.
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Chantelle Bruinsma (00:48)
Guess what we got yesterday? Bees.
Michelle Hunter (00:50)
What? What?
Where are the bees? Where are you putting bees?
Chantelle Bruinsma (00:56)
So my beautiful friend, Jose, gave me for my 40th birthday a beehive. Is that not the coolest present?
Michelle Hunter (01:01)
Shut the f- That is the coolest frickin’ present ever!
Chantelle Bruinsma (01:05)
coolest present ever. So it’s a native Australian beehive and it’s filled with native bees and they don’t bite and they look they don’t even look like traditional kind of bees yellow and black bees right they’re like ants they look like big ants with wings like normal garden ants and we have this really cool little cute little white house a little color bond a little gray roof on it and it’s in the backyard.
Michelle Hunter (01:19)
Yeah.
So where is it?
Like we’re about to be back out, like towards the bush bit, over the creek.
Chantelle Bruinsma (01:30)
Over the creek. Yeah. Over the creek. Yeah. So you can kind of see it, but because they don’t bite, it’s they’re just beautiful. And like the kids sit by the little kind of entrance and like they just have them on their hands and then you can, yeah, it’s really cute. And you can flip the lid back and there’s got a, like a Perspex kind of plastic cover. So you can actually see into the honeycomb and watch them build it. So right now our hive has come with only 50 % built and you can, you’re watching them every day build.
Michelle Hunter (01:35)
That is so awesome.
Stop.
Chantelle Bruinsma (01:59)
the structures up and then on top it’s got a jar so this particular design of hive is like the least invasive for the bees and so you can unscrew this honeypot and they’ve built the honeycomb into the jar right and then you just undo the jar and then you put a teaspoon in you can collect the honey without damaging any of… isn’t that great?
Michelle Hunter (02:07)
that’s cool.
I’ll stop.
That is amazing. I thought you were going to go down the route of like, were going to collecting honey. I was like, have you named your honey? Because a lot of people name their honey.
Chantelle Bruinsma (02:28)
course I live in Beecroft so there’s a lot of bees in Beecroft right but we actually do have proper hives too we have them next door we have them next door we have two big hives we collect about so this one in the back the new one that we’ve got the native is gonna give us about one kilo of honey a year but we get about eight kilos from the other hives super cool
Michelle Hunter (02:36)
I did not.
What?
Funny story, back in the day when I worked at corporate, the managing partner of the firm had a beehive. And then he’s like, I’ve got a really important big project we’re going to work on this afternoon. I was like, yeah. He’s like, it’s huge. want you to clear your schedule. You’re going home late tonight. I was like, gosh, wow. Okay. Well, must be someone flying in. Takes me into a boardroom that was attached to his office, sits me down and goes, right. And throws labels at me. I was like, what are we doing? He’s like, I need you to design.
Chantelle Bruinsma (03:07)
Yeah. Wow.
What are we doing?
Michelle Hunter (03:24)
the stickers for my honey jars, because he loved beehives as well. And he had all these beehives. And that was his dream. He wanted to just bottle honey and sell it. That was actually quite hilarious. But it’s it’s it’s a yeah, just it was his dream. And and you know, it’s actually quite relaxing. Like he even said, like when he used to go out, put the white suit on and just like, you know, would go out there and be with them. He said he got it was like a form of mindfulness for him watching the bees.
Chantelle Bruinsma (03:34)
This high-powered accountant dreaming of being a beekeeper.
I mean, I’m not there for that.
Michelle Hunter (03:53)
Okay, because you have the perspex thing you’re like, this is very relaxing.
Chantelle Bruinsma (03:57)
I’m not at the stage of beekeeping yet where I’ve got the white suit and the smoke. I’m not there yet. I have a lovely man named Peter. Peter, I’m so grateful for Peter. He comes and he does all the harvesting. And then I just get delivered jars of honey in passata jars. Yeah, it’s my dream. We go through a lot of honey. I love honey.
Michelle Hunter (04:02)
Okay, but you are one with nature though. Aww.
that’s so good. that’s so cool. Yeah, my kids love a honey too. That’s so good to know. that’s such a great 40th present, a beehive.
Chantelle Bruinsma (04:23)
Yes.
was so exciting, so exciting. Next time you come over, I’ll get you a spoon, we’ll go over and we’ll get you some native Australian honey.
Michelle Hunter (04:31)
Look, I was stung by a bee three weeks ago and got cellulitis, so I don’t know.
Chantelle Bruinsma (04:36)
That’s true you were.
Michelle Hunter (04:39)
And my doctor said, she’s like, don’t know how the, she said the bee sting must’ve had staff or strep on it. I was like, I don’t understand.
Chantelle Bruinsma (04:40)
sensitive things like this am I?
You don’t want to know where that bee had been before. Dead dogs. Poo. Jiu Jitsu… Yeah, probably.
Michelle Hunter (04:54)
Choo-choo-tzu.
Yeah.
Hello friends and welcome back to the Your Studio podcast. It’s Michelle Hunter here and my work wifey, Chantelle Bruinsma And today we have an awesome podcast episode we wanted to dive into. And it’s all about finding your unicorn. And we’re not talking about the one you ride, is it Chantelle?
Chantelle Bruinsma (05:16)
Look, my best friend says that you cannot travel more than one square meter in my house without coming across a unicorn. I’ve got a six and four year old, so unicorns are life. But in this particular episode, we’re gonna let that to the side and we’re gonna talk about finding the team members that are just, that change your life. Honestly, the team members that come into your business and they absolutely transform the whole fabric of this studio you run.
Michelle Hunter (05:42)
Mm-hmm, mm-hmm, mm-hmm. it’s a hard process, but I’m assuring you studio owners out there that there are people out there that want to work with you and want to do the good work in your studio. And all you gotta do is just have the right process in place to do it.
Chantelle Bruinsma (06:00)
We’ve got a voicemail from Stacey, one of our listeners of the Your Studio podcast. And she’s got a little message about finding covers.
It’s a good question. It’s a really good question. And where my mind kind of goes is like that, is an issue that’s happening in the business. But for me, it’s like, okay, if we look one step back and actually like, what is the bigger issue here in the business that we need to resolve? And cause what I’m hearing is like, if this is a significant issue that your kind of core teachers are off quite a lot, that’s actually what I want to resolve. I want to get to a place where you’re not having to reach for covers on a regular basis. Yeah. and
Michelle Hunter (06:35)
Yeah.
Chantelle Bruinsma (07:03)
that comes from this whole topic of really being intentional around who you’re hiring. Now, you and I know friends, listening at home, that getting good quality team is tough, right? Hiring the right team members who are invested and reliable and a delight to work with is not the easiest thing in the world, right Michelle?
Michelle Hunter (07:25)
it is a common thread that comes up in Studio Evolution and even in The Leap when we’re chatting with our studio owners and team. And it can affect a lot Chantelle and sometimes it can just like slowly the rain start to loosen and then it’s something so easy when the studio owner is wearing all the hats, doing all the things it can just like loosen, loosen, loosen, loosen. then they’re big problems. Yeah.
Chantelle Bruinsma (07:36)
Mm-hmm.
the wheels come off. And then you also, you’ll put kind of like, so then like, God, I’ve got to hire someone right now. Like I’m desperate. I’m up to my eyes in work. I need someone to come and come on as teachers and things like that. So you’ve got chuck a job description out there. You get some kind of input. You’re like, this person’s great. Fabulous. Wonderful. Can you start tomorrow? And there’s this kind of like desperation when it comes to it, particularly for those in rural areas, it is tougher, right? You haven’t got the population size to have your pick of the bunch.
So we need to be really strategic here because you and I know that what is the number one thing we need if we want to grow our businesses? Michelle, this is a pop quiz for you. What’s the number one thing we need? Let put you on the spot. What’s the number one thing we need to grow our studio?
Michelle Hunter (08:32)
I’m like totally…
Chantelle Bruinsma (08:35)
I’ve totally been a bitch. Retention is my…
Michelle Hunter (08:38)
Oh yeah, yeah, yeah – it’s the foundation of profitability. But when you put me on the spot like that with pressure, it’s like…I could give you six things! Paid ads strategy! More time working on the business! Come on. Solid team! Right hand person! It’s like ding ding ding ding ding…
Chantelle Bruinsma (08:43)
I’m so horrible to you. I’m sorry.
I’m
So sorry, it was funny, it was funny. The panic in your eye was horrible. So retention, right? If we don’t have retention, we haven’t got capacity in classes, we haven’t got word of mouth happening, we haven’t got profitability happening, we haven’t got kind of enough work for the team to grow, et cetera, et cetera, et cetera. For me, the kind of number one thing is retention. And if we haven’t got really good teachers who are really good at retention, you’re kind of screwed as well. You’re kind of screwed.
Michelle Hunter (08:57)
You
Mm.
And it’s really looking at that from that different lens. And, and, know, as you’re growing your team, some of us don’t really look at it like that, but it’s so it’s the bread and butter. They’re in there every day. They’re, they’re the ones communicating with your students, sometimes more than you. That’s the reality. That’s the reality of the situation. So they really need to be, yeah, they nearly really need to be brought into the business and onboarded with that in mind and really. You know, on board with what your studio is all about and a great fit.
Chantelle Bruinsma (09:36)
Yeah.
They’re the face.
Yeah, it’s really true. So what we thought we would do with you today is talk about how to hire a unicorn and how to just tweak your hiring process to get better quality people working for you. And I thought we would tell the lovely story of the day that I met my unicorn. Shall we do that? I was, I was, do it again.
Michelle Hunter (10:12)
No! Is that what they do? Do I sound like a unicorn?
Neigh!
Chantelle Bruinsma (10:22)
Yeah, yeah you do. You do. was hoping you would neigh, but I wasn’t going to ask you because I’ve already kind of put you on the spot
Michelle Hunter (10:29)
I’ve made it. You know I’ve made it in my career when I’ve neighed on a podcast.
Chantelle Bruinsma (10:31)
You made it. anyway, back in the day, 2016, right Michelle? 2016. I was hiring for an executive assistant and I have very, very particular hiring process, which I’m going to teach you today. We’re going to walk you through anyway. So I’ve been kind of putting this big job description out. Like I’m looking for executive assistant everywhere. kind of like put it on the job websites, email it out to my database, talking to people, working the network, you name it.
Michelle Hunter (10:32)
Yep. yes, 2016.
Chantelle Bruinsma (11:01)
I’m looking for an EA. Anyway, so I found this wonderful woman in Perth and she was like a whiz and was like, this is going to be great. And we’d been through the whole in-depth application process. I’m going to talk to you about anyway. Then at Friday at like 5 PM, I get a Facebook message from one of my clients called Phi and Phi says, hi, I’ve got this, like my sister is really brilliant and she’s kind of interested in the role. And would you be kind of keen to kind of can I send over her CV? was like,
Phi, I’m so sorry, like I’ve kind of closed off applications, but look, send it through and I’ll have a look. And in my head, I’m like, your sister, it’s like your sister’s great. Like everyone thinks that their sister is great, right?
Michelle Hunter (11:38)
We’ve all know that person that says, hey, I’ve got a friend or my sister or my, so I could just imagine what you were thinking at that point.
Chantelle Bruinsma (11:44)
I was like, all right, all right, send her over. Anyway, I opened the CV and I’m like, holy shit, this is a person. This is like your sister is next level. And so I think that was on the Friday, right? Monday, yes, over the weekend, we were kind of talking a little bit and we did the kind of, I did the hiring process. On Monday, I think I offered you the role. It was very quick.
Michelle Hunter (12:01)
Friday.
Yeah. And Wednesday morning you are on my doorstep, flew inter- state and by lunchtime, you know, my six month old first child was you’re bouncing him on your lap while we doing launch planning for the next year. It is, it is crazy. It is crazy.
Chantelle Bruinsma (12:15)
I flew interstate to meet her.
It was amazing. again, like holding out for that person you’re like, yes, this is the level of business that we’re operating at. This is the type of person I want to be surrounded with. It’s that old saying, right? It’s who you have that matters. It really is. And when you find the right people who are from an admin or a teaching perspective, your life just becomes so much easier. So Michelle came on board and you started as 20 hours a week, I think.
Michelle Hunter (12:33)
Mm-hmm.
20 hours a week, yep, executive assistant.
Chantelle Bruinsma (12:58)
Yeah, executive assistant and then you moved into operations manager and then you moved into general manager. And then last year you became a business partner with me. Best decision after marrying my husband ever.
Michelle Hunter (13:05)
Correct.
Yeah. The best, the best decision. And it’s been really such an amazing ride, Chantelle. my, you know, what’s so interesting, my experience as like, you know, the user or, going through the hiring process from the beginning, how you kind of structured that hiring process, which we still use till this day. And that you teach our clients that you, you haven’t changed that process since day dot, you know, eight plus years ago. As someone going through it.
Chantelle Bruinsma (13:28)
Yep, haven’t changed it.
Michelle Hunter (13:34)
I was like from reading how you constructed that job description, I was like invested. wanted in, I was stalking you. pretty much it was shut guys. And I found every X I’ve that’s a super power. do not need to go down the road today.
Chantelle Bruinsma (13:41)
I mean, you do have stalking skills.
If you have an ex-boyfriend, if you have an ex-boyfriend and you want dirt… she’s your girl
Michelle Hunter (13:50)
DM us, I can, I’m sitting with a bowl of ice cream on a Wednesday night, I’m your girl. But going through that process, I wanted in so bad, right? I got every kind of like external email address I could find, send you new things. And as I went through the process, which we’re going to go through in a second, there was really an opportunity, and you’ll explain a bit more in a second about skillset And there was one program that in particular that you were using at the time that I didn’t have any experience, but I was like, give me till Monday.
And I will know that whole software inside out. Cause that’s how badly I wanted, you know, to be a part of the vision and the mission of the business. So yeah.
Chantelle Bruinsma (14:26)
remember you even bought a Mac because you found that I was a Mac girl and you were a PC girl and you’re like, well, if I’m going to be an EA, I’m going to be on the same software as her. you were all in and you had a six month old. It’s wild.
Michelle Hunter (14:34)
Yep, I’m going all in, I’m going all in.
How’s six months old? I was like, but it’s because I was, you know, I really saw the vision and the mission and Hey, look at us eight years later. Like I knew what was coming and I could see the impact that the company was making. And I didn’t want to work in corporate. I wanted to be in a company that was making a difference. So let’s take them through that process because this process weeds out hundreds of applications. have seen it time and time and time and time and time and time again. It.
it’s a winning process.
Chantelle Bruinsma (15:10)
So this process is called how to hire a unicorn. And before we get dive in, I do want to do a massive shout out to Phi, who is your sister, who also now is on the Home Team. So she actually kind of works with us too. massive gratitude to Phi for bringing your sister into my world. It’s changed my life. So very grateful to you. So here’s the philosophy, right? Most job descriptions we see for studio owners are around about less than one page, right? They’re a bit of an intro looking for this role.
Michelle Hunter (15:18)
Yeah. Yeah.
Chantelle Bruinsma (15:38)
some bullet points, some kind of logistical details, send me your CV. That, I think I just swallowed a bug.
Michelle Hunter (15:50)
Okay, water, water, water, water.
Chantelle Bruinsma (15:52)
I did. I just swallowed a bug.
Michelle Hunter (15:55)
just think of all the protein.
Chantelle Bruinsma (15:57)
Michelle, not helpful!
Michelle Hunter (15:59)
I’m trying to- Can you-
Chantelle Bruinsma (16:01)
Disgusting! well, we’ll be fine. Proceed, proceed. Disgusting, I’ve…
Michelle Hunter (16:04)
It’s just…
Get all Good old Chantelle grills, just here
Chantelle Bruinsma (16:10)
One with nature, one with nature, one with nature. What was I saying? okay, so the higher level.
Michelle Hunter (16:15)
There’s so much juice in this podcast.
Holly, we’re sorry.
Chantelle Bruinsma (16:22)
So the intention of this process is to be a little bit polarising, right? You want to create a job description that people are going to read it and do one of two things. The Michelle Hunters are gonna be like, yes, I wanna work for that company. I see where they’re going. I see their vision. It’s meaningful. This is not just kind of a monkey job, right? No, this actually has heart and guts and I wanna kind of get involved in this.
And other people are gonna be like, sounds like a bit too much hard work. I’m not into that, I’m out. And they won’t even apply. You want to bring enough detail and enough depth into this hiring process that there is a much more of an emotional response from those who are applying. We’re also gonna make them work much harder than you may have in the past. I’m not interested in getting sent a CV. Not interested. If you wanna come work for our company,
you’re going to bring your heart and I want to get to know you not just like just generic sending a PDF not interested in the slightest. So my recommendation is that your job description itself is going to grow to around about three to four pages long. That’s how much detail we’re actually going to provide about your company about the vision the mission of what you do in your studio what this company cares about delivering to its students. We’re actually going to tell a
Michelle Hunter (17:35)
Mm-hmm.
Chantelle Bruinsma (17:46)
whole lot more information about why this role matters and what the role is going to be doing and also how success will be measured. It’s one of the sections. So we’re kind of talking about not only this is what you’re going to do, but this is how we’re going to be ensuring you’re kind of performing at your best. So, you know, it’s not just about managing the email inbox or teaching a class. It is going to be about actually curating 85 % retention rate with our student body.
to ensure that we have very, very stable solid retention in the studio. And that’s how your success is going to be measured, right? So that’s super important, right Michelle? Like really building out the job description is one of the biggest mistakes studio owners make all the time when it comes to hiring.
Michelle Hunter (18:27)
Yep, 100%.
Putting down what’s being measured is also being important, but actually like the specifics of the role of like what they do. think sometimes we’ve even seen in these position descriptions of like what an average day looks like. It’s so important because you know, you can have expectations of what a role is, but unless you have clearly defined the ins and outs and who you’re reporting to and how you’re being measured, you don’t really get that big sense. Cause you’ve got the big picture, you’ve got the impact and the vision, but then those details are very important as well. And then.
The next stage is like, how do we know? Cause you can send in your CV and say, yeah, I can do that. But how do you really know Chantelle if they can do that?
Chantelle Bruinsma (19:07)
Yeah, it’s incredibly important that we actually get a sense for them. one of things that we teach and that we personally do for our hiring process here at Studio Evolution is that we ask them to complete an application. So yes, they will send in their CV, but I’m actually more interested in how they answer some criteria questions. So those questions will be giving like, give us an example of a time when you. So you might say, or what’s important to you or kind of, you know,
What experience have you had in doing this particular specific thing? And you might relate it to your mission. You might relate it to one of your values for your studio. You might have given them opportunity to really share a bit about themselves, like bring their personality in. And the application process is in addition to sending the CV. So we’re not just going to get the low level CV. We’re going to actually ask them to complete an application form. And that document, my goodness, isn’t it clarifying.
Michelle Hunter (20:02)
So clarifying. this document in the questions also has, you know, sent through a two minute video, a link to a two minute video. So we can know more about yourself and it’s fascinating Chantelle when we have put job descriptions out in the past and the big position description. And then we’ve put in writing at the bottom, you know, in order to be successful for this application, please for this job role, please fill out this application. And that application is a separate, takes you off the site, has all these questions that just Chantelle went through and sometimes ask them to submit a video.
And it’s fascinating that you’ve had 200 people send through the CV and then it weeds it down to like 20 people who have actually done the application and, kind of their welcome getting to know them video. You’ve just gone through, you know, you’ve cut away a lot of the weeds straight away.
Chantelle Bruinsma (20:37)
Hmm.
Can you follow basic instructions? No, thank you for demonstrating that before I’ve invested any energy into proceeding with hiring with you. So great.
Michelle Hunter (20:50)
Yeah
Yep. And so great. And those people that have submitted an application interview, like that’s probably what we get, like the 10%. They are outstanding. You’ve got a hot list right there. I don’t think we’ve ever gone through a recruiting process, gone from like educators to admin support to like managing positions. When we’ve come down to that hot list of people who actually followed the instructions and the actual application, all of them have been pretty outstanding.
Chantelle Bruinsma (21:21)
right, and the videos, the videos are so powerful because you can actually get a sense of them before you actually bring them into the studio. And again, this is just about efficiency of your time. It takes a huge amount of time for you to interview someone and set up the kind of communications of like when we’re gonna meet, how we’re gonna do it, get on the phone versus they’re sending this beautiful application in and then they’re doing a video and they’re talking direct to camera, just like casually on their phone or some people go like way over the top, right Michelle? We’ve got some good examples.
Michelle Hunter (21:32)
totally.
I remember when we recruited for an operations assistant and one of our tagline, cause you know, we have like a, you know, really good homely vibe, you know, our team is called the Home Team. And one of our pre headlines was, you like cake? We’re probably the dream team for you. And one of the videos she had like cakes, but it was just brilliant. And it just got a sense of her personality. And then when I actually came to her first interview, not her third or fourth and interviewing a hundred people.
I already felt like I had a connection. She already felt like she knew us as a team because she was already like sparkly eyes, like, my gosh, I want to hear more. I’m just so honored to have this interview because they already got a sense of our vision, our mission, what we’re trying to achieve here.
Chantelle Bruinsma (22:34)
Yeah and this is the thing like if someone’s going to put the time and effort into recording a video they want the job so you’re already kind of establishing and what’s important about that is that you are holding your studio as a destination that’s worthy of someone wanting to come and work out right this is the shift you’re not it’s like kind of that that shift of I just need some help I just need someone to come and work with me and I’ll take whatever I can get so the worthiness of you as the business is kind of just like please help me right.
Michelle Hunter (22:39)
Yes!
Yep.
Mm-hmm.
Yeah.
Chantelle Bruinsma (23:04)
No, we’re shifting away from that and we’re instead becoming to a place that’s really centered in this is what we do, this is who we are, this is what we’re creating in the world. If you’d like to join us in this, here’s how to be part of it. And what that does is elevate your business to such a strong level that people are like, yeah, I want that. So we’re gonna be eliminating and changing the entire relationship people have with coming into your business. In fact, we have had that many people, new hires say to us that our hiring application process has
been like the best that they have ever been through in terms of how much they made them want the role and understand about the company. It’s a good thing to do.
Michelle Hunter (23:39)
yeah.
Yeah. And we’ve on board and you know, worked with a lot with the team and it is a real foolproof process. And just going back Chantelle, what you just said about like changing the relationship. We have a lot of studios and we saw this at one of our in-person events this year, who was saying like, who would want to come for a teaching role here at this regional area? And we did a bit of work on that, you know, relationship and worth. And when we rewritten that job description with them and that intro, it was like,
Yeah, people do want to come to this area to be teachers because of what you offer.
Chantelle Bruinsma (24:19)
Yeah. And again, it’s kind of connecting, like, you know, if your mission is to become the, you know, a leading regional dance or Pilates or kind of music studio, you can really start to raise the level of what you’re doing in your business. And that’s going to attract a higher quality of unicorn into the studio. And, know, even small studios, just putting a bit more time and effort into your job applications, job descriptions is going to create so much more desire for the role.
And, that desire, when they come through the door, it’s like, they want to be there. And that’s what you want. You want team members who want to be there. Because otherwise what’s the point, right? And if you’re finding that your current team members are a bit flaky, they’re not kind of showing up as much. You need covers all the time. Like for me, it’s like, okay, well, where’s the unicorns here? Like, where are they? I can see horses. I don’t see enough unicorns. And if you’re having that problem on a frequent basis,
Michelle Hunter (25:11)
Yeah, unicorns.
Chantelle Bruinsma (25:18)
Maybe we need to look at elevating who we are hiring in the business.
Michelle Hunter (25:22)
Yeah. And look, and it can be scary when you are faced at an intersection where a lot of your team might be, you know, you you needing a lot of covers from the core team. can be daunting to think, I have to do a core team shakeup, but it can, and we’re not saying burn it all down and get rid of anyone. Right. But you, know, even making that change with like one person can make a dramatic difference to how covers are run and the team.
Chantelle Bruinsma (25:40)
No.
Mm.
The other thing I wanted to mention that is game changing in terms of hiring, and this is probably my favorite section of this whole application process, and know that for everyone who joins Evolution, we literally give you all the templates. So we give like administration and teaching, job description templates, we give the application process, we give kind of all the structure of how this flows around. So that’s all kind of included, I’ve written them. But there’s one part that is my favorite and it’s called the tasking.
So let’s say you have got down to your shortlist, like you’ve got a couple of people like, yep, these are strong contenders and you’re in a fortunate position of choosing between. Sometimes the best way to actually find out who is the better fit is to get them doing a little bit of pre-work. So one thing we do, let’s say you’re hiring for an admin assistant for five or 10 hours a week, right? And you’ve got two people that you’re considering.
What I would do is I would go through your inbox and I would find a really crunchy customer service email, like one where a family, a student is asking for a refund or they are not happy with something you have provided. Like give them like a horrible customer service email that’s been like awful for you to have to write back to. That makes you cringe. And I would give them that email and then ask them to respond. Like how would you reply back to this email? And then maybe get them, you know, going to your website.
Michelle Hunter (26:54)
Mm.
Chantelle Bruinsma (27:13)
and finding can you find three things that could be improved to enhance the consumer experience on our website and see what they come back with see how they think.
Michelle Hunter (27:22)
with. Yeah, it’s actually a really eye opening experience. And it’s actually a process which you might realise that this person has talents that you were not we did this remember we went out to hire an ops assistant. And one of the questions was if you can name three things in our website. And, and he wasn’t successful for that application. But we found that like, his kind of like automation
coding skills with through the roof. And we actually ended up rehiring him as a tech implementation, a different role. And it will just bear so much fruit when you follow that process.
Chantelle Bruinsma (27:56)
Different role.
Because it was interesting, even for when I was hiring you Michelle, I remember really clearly that that’s where you excelled. So I had both these kind of, you you and this woman in Western Australia, and I sent this email out and it was just night and day. And I remember one of the things that you said Michelle, that was like, sold me so much. You said that as an EA, you wanted to be able to mimic my voice. Like what was it? What’s your kind of language around that? Like you wanted to mirror maybe.
Michelle Hunter (28:27)
Yeah. I wanted to like, yeah, mirror your voice and then be able to, you know, via email, communicate and speak like you, how you your tone and your values.
Chantelle Bruinsma (28:39)
So Michelle wanted to write like me and I was like, my God, could you help me do that? Thank you so much. And you did that so successfully. And it’s it’s awesome when you have someone who has that capacity and who can think and is invested. Who knows, you might hire an EA and they might become a co-owner with you one day. You never know, you never know.
Michelle Hunter (28:59)
Yep. You never ever know where your unicorn is, but yeah, the process is tried. It’s tested. You know, we, have followed it through so many times in our own business and we’ve seen hundreds of studio owners go through this process and find their unicorns. And it’s not for admin. It’s not just for admin. You know, this is admin teaching team, you know, costume, you know, designers in the studio. goes across the whole scope of studio business.
Chantelle Bruinsma (29:16)
No.
Yeah. And look, if you’ve got like, I’m speaking to Stacey here with the voicemail. If you have a big giant pool of casuals, but they’re not, I would actually kind of invite them to go through this full application process and do some sort of kind of, know, really invite them to apply. Thank you. If you’d like to be on a casual pool, this is the process and actually kind of weed it down and get really, we’d be looking for more availability. This is all about worth, like really holding like who you believe in.
Michelle Hunter (29:37)
Yep.
Chantelle Bruinsma (29:51)
and what you want to be and being really more intentional about your expectations. Have higher boundaries, communicate more expectations of, know, you’ll be required to come to this many team trainings or kind of engage like this is going to be the availability required. The more you can state like this is what it is, really clear, really black and white and not kind of like just like, sure, I can pay you more or yeah, that’s okay. Like you’ll be earning like three times as much as I earn, but like, that’s okay. Like, don’t worry. You’re worth it type thing.
The more you hold, this is the rate, and these are the days that are required, you build the team around what the business needs, as opposed to kind of building the business around who’s available. And when you get that shift in your heart, we see dramatic transformation in your business. It’s awesome to watch.
Michelle Hunter (30:37)
the best. It’s the best. And it makes us happy. It makes us happy when you find your people and you find your unicorns. It’s really great. When we meet studio owners and they’ve got that solid and they have that support behind them, it’s everything. Yeah.
Chantelle Bruinsma (30:42)
It does.
That’s how you get freedom, right? Because you can be taking some time off over the summer as a studio owner and you’ve got someone that you know is going to be dealing with inquiries. that’s when you get to that point of you have someone you trust and who’s really on board, you can do what you do best knowing that the admin side of the business is being taken care of. And you’ve also got really good quality teachers in the classroom maintaining your retention. It goes both ways. We need really good quality in the classroom and outside. That’s what we need. So thank you, Unicorn.
Michelle Hunter (31:16)
Yeah, that’s what we need. Yeah, it’s been the best. It’s been the best ride ever. that was a big one, friends, today.
Chantelle Bruinsma (31:19)
I’m so grateful to you.
Superb.
So friends, if you would like to join us in Studio Evolution and get access to all of the tools, not just on kind of hiring, but across the entire board from profitability, retention, systems, marketing, Studio Evolution is the most comprehensive high level program for studios out there. And it will be life changing in terms of the freedom you have, the ease with which you run the business and the joy you bring into the lives of others. So
If you go to studioevolution.com forward slash apply, you can fill in a little application process. Tell us a little bit about your business and we can find out if your joining Studio Evolution is a good fit for you. Thank you friends. Well, we’re to be joining you back for another episode of your studio podcast very soon. If you have not yet subscribed to the pod do so. And if you want to leave us a voicemail, we love receiving them. So go over into the show notes, click the link, leave us a voicemail and we’ll feature you coming up really soon.
Bye.
