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From West End To Business Owner: Building a Business That Fits Your Life · Work It Like A Mum

• 0:00
  SPEAKER_01: Hey, I'm Elizabeth Willis, and I'm obsessed with helping as many women as possible achieve their boldest dreams after kids and helping you to navigate this messy and magical season of life.
• 0:14
  SPEAKER_01: I'm a working mum with over 17 years of recruitment experience, and I'm the founder of the Investing in Women Job Board and Community.
• 0:22
  SPEAKER_01: In this show, I'm honoured to be chatting with remarkable women, redefining our working world across all areas of business.
• 0:30
  SPEAKER_01: They'll share their secrets on how they've achieved extraordinary success after children, their boundaries of balance, the challenges they faced, and how they've overcome them to find their own versions of success.
• 0:43
  SPEAKER_01: Shy away from the real talk.
• 0:46
  SPEAKER_01: Money struggles, growth, lost boundaries and balance.
• 0:49
  SPEAKER_01: We cover it all.
• 0:50
  SPEAKER_01: Think of this as coffee with your mates, mixed with an inspiring TikTok, sprinkled with the career advice you wish you'd really had at school.
• 0:58
  SPEAKER_01: So grab a cup of coffee or a glass of wine, make sure you're cozy, and get ready to get inspired and chase your oldest dreams or just survive Mondays.
• 1:07
  SPEAKER_01: This is the Work It Like a Mum podcast.
• 1:11
  SPEAKER_01: This episode is brought to you by Investing in Women.
• 1:15
  SPEAKER_01: Investing in Women is a job board and recruitment agency helping you find your dream part-time or flexible job with the UK's most family-friendly and forward-thinking employers.
• 1:26
  SPEAKER_01: Their site can help you find a professional and rewarding job that works for you.
• 1:32
  SPEAKER_01: They're proud to partner with the UK's most family-friendly employers across a range of professional industries.
• 1:39
  SPEAKER_01: Ready to find your perfect job?
• 1:41
  SPEAKER_01: Search their website at investinginwomen.co.uk to find your next part-time of flexible job opportunity.
• 1:49
  SPEAKER_01: Now back to the show.
• 1:55
  SPEAKER_01: Hello and welcome to this week's episode of the Work It Like a Month podcast.
• 2:00
  SPEAKER_01: Today I am chatting with Dance Shack founder and director, Lucy Holloway.
• 2:06
  SPEAKER_01: Lucy trained at the Italian Conte Academy.
• 2:09
  SPEAKER_01: Her theatre credits are that.
• 2:12
  SPEAKER_01: Um and include bang, chitty chuty bang, the national tour, Mona in Chicago, and then we've got the Baalbeck Festival, Beirut, and the understudy and played as well, Maria in West Side as a story.
• 2:27
  SPEAKER_01: She's also been in Cats as well, um, in Hollywood and on Broadway, um, and also been in Beauty and the Beast and Cinderella.
• 2:37
  SPEAKER_01: Um, throughout her performing career, Lucy has always maintained her passion for teaching.
• 2:42
  SPEAKER_01: She's given classes and workshops at many of the country's leading schools and colleges, including the Italia Conte Academy, Mount View Academy, Dance Roll, the Liverpool Academy of Performing Arts.
• 2:54
  SPEAKER_01: She is proud and excited to bring her love of performance and learning to every individual at Dandershack, which we're going to be talking about today because that is one of the franchise opportunities advertised on the Investing in Women job board.
• 3:07
  SPEAKER_01: So we'll obviously delve into a little bit about the franchise, but just gonna rewind it back, Lisi, because what a career you had.
• 3:15
  SPEAKER_00: Oh, thank you.
• 3:16
  SPEAKER_00: Well, it was I loved it, I have to admit, um, it's been an interesting journey and some ups and downs through it, obviously as this as a performer.
• 3:25
  SPEAKER_00: But um, yeah, no, it's I started off basically it's lovely to meet you by the way, Elizabeth.
• 3:30
  SPEAKER_01: Did you did you were you dancing coming out of the womb?
• 3:33
  SPEAKER_00: Yeah, I was singing actually, singing and acting to be honest.
• 3:36
  SPEAKER_00: Oh really?
• 3:37
  SPEAKER_00: And um I went to a little amateur dramatic society and they said you need to be able to dance and move with your singing.
• 3:44
  SPEAKER_00: So I started dancing late um around about um 10, which for a girl is quite late.
• 3:51
  SPEAKER_01: Yeah.
• 3:52
  SPEAKER_00: And then just worked really, really hard, and then never thought I could do it, was always told I wouldn't achieve it, and by hard work, you just you eventually get where you want to go.
• 4:02
  SPEAKER_00: So that's how I started off, um, and then went to Italia Conti on a scholarship for three years, um, which was brilliant and loved every moment in London.
• 4:12
  SPEAKER_00: Um, and then um went and started my career on cruise ships, which was sort of had a good opportunity going around the world.
• 4:21
  SPEAKER_00: My heart was in musicals, so came back to London, didn't work for a year, was waitressing, doing all sorts of jobs, but in that I was always teaching, and I think that's how my love for dance shack evolved, and then sort of had a lot of then was lucky to do lots of different shows, like you said, West Side Story, we covered different roles, cabaret, um, and then sort of toured a lot, did London, Los Angeles, and then um towards the latter part of my career, I worked um on Rat Pack, which did a massive US tour.
• 4:55
  SPEAKER_00: I was resident director and choreographer on that, so it was quite nice to change from a performer to then there's so many different opportunities in the business, not just being on stage.
• 5:06
  SPEAKER_00: Um, so that was really good fun as well.
• 5:09
  SPEAKER_01: Nice.
• 5:09
  SPEAKER_01: Oh my gosh, that's I mean, I've heard of it when I was younger, I wanted to be an actor, that was my thing.
• 5:14
  SPEAKER_01: And then I remember looking at all the big dance schools and things like that, and there are many you've had lots of famous people that have um come through, probably Italia Conte.
• 5:24
  SPEAKER_00: Yeah, yeah.
• 5:25
  SPEAKER_00: There's one living actually in common, um Louise Red Knapp, she was in my years.
• 5:29
  SPEAKER_00: Oh, was she?
• 5:30
  SPEAKER_00: She's very sweet, very lovely.
• 5:32
  SPEAKER_00: Um, yeah, it's nice actually, and you sort of see different people's careers evolve and take different nice.
• 5:38
  SPEAKER_00: Suddenly see Claire Goose was in my year who's in Cash.
• 5:42
  SPEAKER_00: So there was some nice, yeah, some nice, lovely people, and it's lovely when you see them do really well.
• 5:49
  SPEAKER_01: Yeah, did you have to develop quite a thick skin?
• 5:51
  SPEAKER_01: Obviously, with the auditions and absolutely.
• 5:54
  SPEAKER_00: I think the realist, the reality of the profession is probably there was about eight in our year, and probably maximum five ever went on to have a career in the business.
• 6:04
  SPEAKER_00: That's the reality of it.
• 6:05
  SPEAKER_00: And I think it's actually tougher now because there's a lot more big theatre schools and so many more people auditioning that it used to be they used to have things like an at the stage, used to get the stage.
• 6:19
  SPEAKER_01: I remember getting that when I was yeah.
• 6:21
  SPEAKER_00: Yeah, and you had an agent, but if you didn't get an audition, you could go to an open court.
• 6:25
  SPEAKER_00: That's all been that's not happening anymore.
• 6:28
  SPEAKER_00: Now it really is trying to get, and I see lots of people trying to or uh you know, trying to get even get auditions, which is really tough.
• 6:37
  SPEAKER_00: So even to get in the room now is hard, let alone get a job.
• 6:42
  SPEAKER_00: So I think it's just that constant training and being making sure that you're absolutely top of your game and perseverance.
• 6:49
  SPEAKER_00: I my I think for me, what enabled me to have a career was perseverance because I had lots of lows amongst the highs.
• 6:57
  SPEAKER_00: Yeah, work again, was a year out of work.
• 7:00
  SPEAKER_01: I don't what did you do in that year then?
• 7:03
  SPEAKER_00: Well, I was lucky.
• 7:04
  SPEAKER_00: Um, I I was well to begin with, I was a waitress and I was the worst waitress you could ever imagine.
• 7:09
  SPEAKER_00: I actually had a chef throw a saucepan at me because I was Oh my gosh, yeah, yeah.
• 7:13
  SPEAKER_00: You're that bad.
• 7:14
  SPEAKER_00: You're really bad.
• 7:15
  SPEAKER_00: Walking into the kitchen singing, he's like, Stop singing.
• 7:20
  unknown: Oh my gosh.
• 7:21
  SPEAKER_00: So I then went into teaching and I would just teach at local dance schools all over London.
• 7:27
  SPEAKER_00: Yeah.
• 7:27
  SPEAKER_00: And I developed a love for it, and then I think that's where dance check evolved because I just felt I really enjoy passing on my experience to children.
• 7:38
  SPEAKER_00: You know, if I had an audition that week, I teach then the children the choreography or simplify it to varied what age they were.
• 7:44
  SPEAKER_00: So that's what kept me going, and I found it a really good asset.
• 7:48
  SPEAKER_00: And even when I would get a job, what I tended to do would always find the school cover.
• 7:54
  SPEAKER_00: So I'd get them a really good friend of mine to cover my classes until I got back.
• 7:59
  SPEAKER_00: So that's how I got into teaching as well.
• 8:01
  SPEAKER_00: So yeah.
• 8:02
  SPEAKER_01: So what made you so you what made you like transition, I guess, from full-time performer to full-time teacher?
• 8:08
  SPEAKER_00: Um, well, basically, I it was my husband's idea, it's why don't we set up our own dance school?
• 8:14
  SPEAKER_00: I was in my early 30s and I'd sort of had a good career, but I was still working, I was still in America, and um, so we just thought, let's trial dance check.
• 8:24
  SPEAKER_00: So I was doing um actually, no, I was doing chang bang when we first started it, and I was still doing eight shows a week, and we started the dance school on a Sunday because obviously, then there was no shows on Sunday, so like sometimes it does change now.
• 8:39
  SPEAKER_00: So I would literally be in Edinburgh, get the night bus back, feeling exhausted, then do to teach in the afternoon on a Sunday, and then fly back to Edinburgh or fly wherever back.
• 8:52
  SPEAKER_00: And um it was it was suddenly because it was mine.
• 8:56
  SPEAKER_00: I felt this is amazing.
• 8:59
  SPEAKER_00: And um, I started with literally seven children in a dance, a little local village hall, and we just gradually built.
• 9:06
  SPEAKER_00: But what I found was when I was doing chitty, I was obviously my passion was still performing, and I'd be in the dressing room, and I'd be sending an email out to a parent going, Yep, come and try this class this week.
• 9:18
  SPEAKER_00: I've got to go on stage, where's my saucepan and spoon?
• 9:22
  SPEAKER_00: And and gradually I was finding actually my interest is really more on my dance school.
• 9:29
  SPEAKER_00: Yeah, and um, then I went to the States with Rat Pack and I was literally emailing parents, had somebody cover my classes, and it just was a gentle transition um that just evolved over time.
• 9:43
  SPEAKER_00: It um and I think about three or four years later, when I really decided to not perform, it was a scary jump, and I actually for a bit, but I just felt it just felt the right time.
• 9:55
  SPEAKER_00: Um, and then I had my son, and that made it complete.
• 9:59
  SPEAKER_00: So um I literally uh taught two weeks over the June.
• 10:04
  SPEAKER_00: So I was teaching, and um literally I had an assistant that was there, so it's you know, but I was literally nine months plus pregnant, still teaching, kicking my leg to the side because I couldn't kick it forward anymore, and the children, but I was just it was lovely for the kids because they could see actually it is still okay to dance, and my midwife was like saying it's fine because your body's used to it, it'll be difficult.
• 10:31
  SPEAKER_00: So I taught right up until I had to go in and have my child, and then um I did come back quite quickly, like three weeks later.
• 10:41
  SPEAKER_00: But obviously, what was lovely was I think with teaching, it's not nine to five, so you could have a couple of hours, and you know, you'd have a whole day with your son, and then just break up those two hours, which was amazing because it just kept me going, so that it was a segue, a bit of a transition, a slow transition without realizing.
• 11:01
  SPEAKER_00: But um, I think life changes and you get different priorities in life.
• 11:06
  SPEAKER_01: So, was there a financial decision?
• 11:08
  SPEAKER_01: Were you sort of waiting as well for the dance school to be paying you enough before you go?
• 11:12
  SPEAKER_00: No, I think not necessarily.
• 11:14
  SPEAKER_00: I think I think as a performer, it's a bit it's a vocation, it's a love, it's a passion.
• 11:19
  SPEAKER_00: Yeah, and it's a something because you you cater, you gear up all your life you want to do a show, want to be in the West End.
• 11:27
  SPEAKER_00: So it's really hard to let go.
• 11:29
  SPEAKER_00: And when even when I was I found out I was pregnant, I was actually covering up the fact I was pregnant on stage in the West End in Rat Pack, and thinking, and I remember it was a five-month contract in London over the Christmas period, and I found out I was pregnant as I'd already signed the contract.
• 11:45
  SPEAKER_00: So I rang my doctor friend saying, How long can I cover up the facts?
• 11:50
  SPEAKER_00: And she said, Four months.
• 11:51
  SPEAKER_00: So I went, five-month contract, right?
• 11:53
  SPEAKER_00: I'm gonna do it.
• 11:54
  SPEAKER_00: So I was literally on stage knowing that I was pregnant, and it and it was hard to let go.
• 11:59
  SPEAKER_00: But I think even then I was thinking, I'm gonna go back to performing.
• 12:02
  SPEAKER_00: But for me, it was having a family that made that I just couldn't do it anymore.
• 12:06
  SPEAKER_00: I tried, and you know, my heart.
• 12:08
  SPEAKER_00: Well, so I think with teaching and having your own business, I think you can still do other things as well, and also it was lovely because I had with children would come and see me in a show.
• 12:21
  SPEAKER_00: Now, obviously, it's I don't do that anymore, but we would take kids to go see different shows that I know people in the business too.
• 12:28
  SPEAKER_00: So, but it was just it was a weird transition.
• 12:30
  SPEAKER_00: But I think with teaching, it it gives you more freedom than some other careers where you can do that, you can be a hundred percent passionate, um, but also have other put things in different pies as well.
• 12:44
  SPEAKER_00: You within now, obviously, dark shacks are we live and breathe it, yeah.
• 12:49
  SPEAKER_01: But I guess your pupils aren't there in the day, are they?
• 12:52
  SPEAKER_01: Most apart from weekends.
• 12:54
  SPEAKER_00: There's prep, you have to do a lot of prep, making sure the classes are a really good standard.
• 12:59
  SPEAKER_00: But I think, yeah, you've got your day times to prep and weekends.
• 13:04
  SPEAKER_00: Obviously, Saturday, a Saturday or a Sunday is very popular, but obviously that's when the majority of the classes are.
• 13:10
  SPEAKER_00: But um, you you have a good chunk of your week free as well.
• 13:13
  SPEAKER_00: Yeah, yeah.
• 13:14
  SPEAKER_01: So you start off with seven pupils.
• 13:16
  SPEAKER_01: How many pupils do you have now?
• 13:18
  SPEAKER_00: Now we have 850 pupils.
• 13:20
  SPEAKER_01: Oh my gosh, that's crazy.
• 13:23
  SPEAKER_01: Whereabouts do you have you got bases then at the moment?
• 13:26
  SPEAKER_00: Yeah, so we started off at Leatherhead, just one school, and then we kind of tried just through, we were um at Nuffield Health, and they said, Oh, would you like to open a dance shack in West Wifely?
• 13:37
  SPEAKER_00: So we did that, and then that then evolved to opening one in Surbiton, Crawley, Merton Abbey, um, Kingston.
• 13:45
  SPEAKER_00: So we've just and we're literally having our first um Winchester franchise, which is really exciting.
• 13:52
  SPEAKER_00: So we opened that in three weeks' time, but it was lovely, but it's um as I said, all schools, and we would employ different teachers to look after the different schools, and like for instance, our servants school's just gone crazy.
• 14:05
  SPEAKER_00: We have three teachers, and about 250 students go through the door on a Saturday, so it's pretty full on, but it's a really lovely bus, it's got a good energy, and they go from one class to the next, so it's really exciting, yeah.
• 14:21
  SPEAKER_00: And what type of dance do you teach?
• 14:24
  SPEAKER_00: So it's all varied styles.
• 14:26
  SPEAKER_00: So dominantly we do a lot of street contemporary hip-hop, but we also do the technique, which is always most important, which is ballet and um musical theatre.
• 14:37
  SPEAKER_00: Obviously, that's my background, so yeah, all varied, and you find at different schools different styles work better.
• 14:44
  SPEAKER_00: So, for instance, Surbiton, they love the hip-hop, the street, um, and contemporary at West Bifleet, we're very heavy in the musical theatre side, so you we uh open all opportunities, but you do sort of see different uh um bubbles that are more popular in different schools, yeah.
• 15:02
  SPEAKER_01: So the like so what made you decide then because uh it sounds like the franchise um is quite new um in Winchester.
• 15:09
  SPEAKER_01: Were you employing the dance teachers directly before?
• 15:12
  SPEAKER_00: Yeah, so prior to that, um well, it started off that I was teaching and spraying my wings too thin, so started having different teachers.
• 15:20
  SPEAKER_00: Then we would open schools with specific teachers that would run those schools, but it's just got to a stage because it's all about it.
• 15:28
  SPEAKER_00: Obviously, it's quantity, it's not quality, it's quant quality, not quantity.
• 15:32
  SPEAKER_00: And I feel now it's got to a stage where we can't look after so many ourselves individually, and so it's time, it was just the next stepping stone, really.
• 15:44
  SPEAKER_00: Where now we've established our schools, we've got enough successful schools, so let's branch it out and give people opportunities to have their own dance shack where they can really nurture it, and that's what it needs.
• 15:57
  SPEAKER_00: I mean, the teachers that we employ are very brilliant, um, they're very London-based.
• 16:02
  SPEAKER_00: I think when you branch out, whether it be somewhere in Cornwall or Norwich, then at least you've got somebody that possibly really wants to get back into dancing or dance, or and they can really look after their school for themselves, and it just need it was just the next transition.
• 16:19
  SPEAKER_00: Yeah, yeah.
• 16:20
  SPEAKER_01: Does the franchisees need to have a dance background?
• 16:24
  SPEAKER_00: Not necessarily.
• 16:25
  SPEAKER_00: I think what we would do, I it it it can work both ways.
• 16:29
  SPEAKER_00: So if you I think you have to have a love for the theatre, yeah, it helps because you need to have that love for what you do, but you can also employ um dance teachers, and we could obviously really help support that, make sure that they're the right caliber of teacher, but then obviously you need that headship.
• 16:50
  SPEAKER_00: I think it does help if you do have a dance background, whether it be when you were younger and you wanted to perform or loved the dance, but didn't quite either go down that route for different reasons.
• 17:03
  SPEAKER_00: Um, I think it's definitely having a love for performance and dance, but um, we can we do have different ways of structuring the franchise.
• 17:12
  SPEAKER_00: There's one for people that can do that and young dancers, or if they feel they've just had enough of auditioning for youngsters and they want to we can really support those um clients that can really want to just have the support of open at dance school, but they have the ability to teach, and there's others that think we need help with finding the correct teachers.
• 17:35
  SPEAKER_00: So we're we're trying to go down two routes, and it can I think it's very important to be able to branch in both directions, yeah.
• 17:41
  SPEAKER_01: So if someone um were to get a dance shack franchise, what sort of support would be on off of what would the first sort of three, six months look like we've got yeah, yeah.
• 17:50
  SPEAKER_00: Well, obviously, we've go we've literally been doing this with our Winchester, which is really exciting.
• 17:55
  SPEAKER_00: Now, our um our new Winchester branch was um a teacher who had an absolute passion for dance, taught and has been teaching elsewhere.
• 18:04
  SPEAKER_00: And I think the very first bit is being able to get it off its feet, we're making sure how to advertise it, finding a correct studio space, sorting a timetable that will realistically work, and then also um we've got an amazing um caliber of teachers already.
• 18:24
  SPEAKER_00: So if there's an area that you feel like brushing up on or just touching base of this is what children like now, um, for instance, she's calm and watched so many different classes joined in different classes.
• 18:37
  SPEAKER_00: We can also offer Zoom one-to-one with different teachers to learn choreography, support, talk through warm-ups.
• 18:45
  SPEAKER_00: There's a whole array of things that we can offer.
• 18:49
  SPEAKER_00: Um my passion has always been is to give whatever you do in life 100%.
• 18:55
  SPEAKER_00: It's like whether it was auditioning, performing, so with that, you get 150% support.
• 19:02
  SPEAKER_00: So it's not just like there you go, you sign the dotted line, move on.
• 19:06
  SPEAKER_00: No, we're there to support you and have conversations, and you think this is where I'm not quite sure on, and then we're there, and we've got an amazing team, it's not just myself, it's obviously there's about five of us in the office that have different um sort of directions and you know, gasp very much on the financial, helping getting publicity.
• 19:28
  SPEAKER_00: Um, we have um Amy who does all the social media, so there's so much involved opening a dance school, yeah.
• 19:34
  SPEAKER_00: And basically, we're there to show you how to do it properly, how to get the numbers in, but how to keep them, how to build your school, get great productions in.
• 19:44
  SPEAKER_00: Um, and so it's different things like that, and there are stepping stones.
• 19:48
  SPEAKER_00: Um, our shows at Dance Jack are are huge, what we love, um more than an exam school, where we feel now a lot of children have so many pressures with GCC's A levels, even just starting A levels.
• 20:01
  SPEAKER_00: We decide to be more of a performing school, so we do a show a year, and but we make it a huge because of our West End experience, we make it completely a huge production value.
• 20:13
  SPEAKER_00: So Garth will edit, we create finales where they're 20 minutes long, but it has a storyline, big video footage to support it, music that segues, and we've got all this like a big library of Peaky Blinders made these.
• 20:28
  SPEAKER_00: We've got all sorts of London, and and it's just great.
• 20:32
  SPEAKER_00: And then we've got a vocab so we can pass those out as well and support.
• 20:36
  SPEAKER_00: So I think for us, what keeps the children there, they love the productions, they get buzzed up, they have choreographics evening where they choreograph and we do a big production of them, and it's just different things.
• 20:48
  SPEAKER_00: Giving, I think it's about giving children opportunities and having freedom.
• 20:53
  SPEAKER_00: And we are a mixed ability school, always it was always our ethos, everyone is equal.
• 20:59
  SPEAKER_00: So people that might not necessarily ever do it as a profession, but they love that passion to dance, they can just jump in and enjoy it and feel that they're doing something great.
• 21:08
  SPEAKER_00: So that's what we're all about.
• 21:10
  SPEAKER_00: Yeah, we hope our franchises will be about too.
• 21:14
  SPEAKER_01: And where are you looking to open franchises?
• 21:16
  SPEAKER_01: Is it anywhere or is it?
• 21:18
  SPEAKER_00: Anywhere, really.
• 21:18
  SPEAKER_00: We've we've from the UK across the waters.
• 21:22
  SPEAKER_00: Um, so I I think it's just letting it evolve and seeing where it comes.
• 21:27
  SPEAKER_00: And we've had lots of interests from different places, like all over, from Ireland, at the moment, dominantly UK, possibly China as well, ironically.
• 21:35
  SPEAKER_00: Oh my gosh, that's exciting.
• 21:37
  SPEAKER_00: Yeah, I think it's just let let let the ball roll.
• 21:41
  SPEAKER_00: Um, and as I say, but we what we we want to do is nurture so we keep it small, keep it tight, and let the ball rolling carefully, not just a huge expansion.
• 21:51
  SPEAKER_00: So uh whoever does decide to franchise with us, they are nurtured through the whole process.
• 21:57
  SPEAKER_00: It's really important.
• 21:59
  SPEAKER_01: And why, I mean.
• 22:00
  SPEAKER_01: It sounds quite obvious to me, obviously, having a chat with you, but why should people franchise, I guess, than starting up at a dance school by themselves from scratch?
• 22:57
  SPEAKER_00: I think I think nowadays it's having it's having a name, being able to be able to be feel proud of something that has been a success.
• 23:06
  SPEAKER_00: And we've had 20 years dance, Shack.
• 23:09
  SPEAKER_00: So 20 years of starting on that seven, and I think you would be able to jump and have a much bigger school immediately, but then also being having the security and also having a really strong product that really has got opportunities that have all you know with we've learned so much in the 20 years.
• 23:31
  SPEAKER_00: Yeah, we've learned the hard way, we've learned mistakes.
• 23:34
  SPEAKER_00: So we feel now that we're at a stage where we know how a school can be successful.
• 23:42
  SPEAKER_00: I have like friends of mine that were dancers, open schools, they didn't work out.
• 23:47
  SPEAKER_00: Now they're becoming estate agents or they're doing different things altogether.
• 23:51
  SPEAKER_00: Where and I think for whatever reason, we did have success stories and we have learned how what does work, what doesn't, and also having that name, like dance shack, having uh Craig Reville Howard, who I did Westside's story with, he cast me in West Side.
• 24:07
  SPEAKER_00: So having the sport, having a good background and knowledge, and knowing that we will be there and having something to fall back on, having the security blanket.
• 24:18
  SPEAKER_00: Yeah, because I think it's really hard to have a startup now, but if you know you've got I've got that backing immediately, I think, particularly whether it's a dancer that's had enough of the business, wants to open their own school, you've got the security fine of the financial background from us, or somebody thinks I want to get back into dance, you've got the experience from us.
• 24:42
  SPEAKER_00: So you you whatever way you've got your blind supporting you the whole way.
• 24:46
  SPEAKER_01: Yeah, I guess even a normal teacher that had loved doing dance themselves.
• 24:51
  SPEAKER_00: Yeah, absolutely.
• 24:53
  SPEAKER_00: Yeah, and I think, and as I said, what we would do then is make sure we'd find the right teachers for you, or if you want to teach yourself, make sure all you know we're aware of what works in classes, what children are into now.
• 25:06
  SPEAKER_00: It's very different, whether it's their quick TikTok dances, there's all sorts, you know, time moves on.
• 25:12
  SPEAKER_00: And I think for me, what keeps me doing what I love is the children because it keeps you in the correct generation, that younger generation, keep you inspired, keep you fresh on your toes.
• 25:25
  SPEAKER_00: So you know, so we can help that support that and go, Oh, that works actually.
• 25:30
  SPEAKER_01: Yeah, and how much is a franchise?
• 25:33
  SPEAKER_00: Well, they do it.
• 25:37
  SPEAKER_00: There's two different options now, which would Garth would obviously be able to say, which it's the start-up is 4,000, but you can do it with no cost, and then gradually you we take commission, we take it as you chuggle along and it's success.
• 25:52
  SPEAKER_00: So there's lots of different opportunities there.
• 25:54
  SPEAKER_00: So I think it's best if somebody's interested to come to us and yeah, because we found that there's some people, for instance, if you've been auditioning, you think I've had enough, but I financially haven't got that to support.
• 26:08
  SPEAKER_00: Yeah, yeah.
• 26:09
  SPEAKER_00: We decided it was my decision, actually.
• 26:11
  SPEAKER_00: Rather, there is ones where you can just start and pay the fee, and then you get um different things, you know, it it's a start-up, but then you can it sort of start it and then gradually pay it off.
• 26:24
  SPEAKER_00: But I think for those people that are just starting out, it's financially gives them that good start-up fee, and I think then once their their clients, you know, they're getting 100 through the door, whatever, it will all pay off itself.
• 26:38
  SPEAKER_00: So I think we've decided to work it two different ways.
• 26:42
  SPEAKER_00: There's two different options really for that.
• 26:44
  SPEAKER_01: And how long is the license?
• 26:46
  SPEAKER_01: Do they have the license for?
• 26:48
  SPEAKER_00: So the license is it runs for two years, um, but they obviously at a year we will look into up the two at the end of the two years we will re-evaluate it, and then it's just a constant carry-on.
• 27:01
  SPEAKER_00: So obviously, you're committed to dance shack, and if you then you couldn't then just carry it and change the name and make it your own dance, but um, you have a choice at two years we're re-evaluating it.
• 27:13
  SPEAKER_00: How's it working?
• 27:14
  SPEAKER_00: But of course, through it, that there is very much um uh you know, we will look and evaluate.
• 27:21
  SPEAKER_00: It's all about us working as a team with it.
• 27:25
  SPEAKER_01: And I guess you get a good enough postcode size as well.
• 27:28
  SPEAKER_00: It's very specific.
• 27:30
  SPEAKER_00: This side of things is obviously more guff, I'm more of the performing side, yeah.
• 27:36
  SPEAKER_00: Um, but yes, very much you will have your stamp on a specific postcode, and people can't cross over that, no.
• 27:43
  SPEAKER_00: So, and it is very much to the per mile, but it's also really important with that.
• 27:47
  SPEAKER_00: For instance, we had we've got somebody very interested um in Leicestershire, and it's very because some some little towns are very spread out, so you look at village, but it's like, but then that's only this amount of so we will look at it official.
• 28:05
  SPEAKER_00: So you might have three villages, which is a wider postcode bracket, but it only makes sense because you they'll all draw to that one call.
• 28:13
  SPEAKER_00: So obviously, when you look at you you book or you you know take one on, we will make sure that that postcode area is appropriate new enough to make sure it's big enough for your schools, yes.
• 28:27
  SPEAKER_01: I remember I used to do Columbia Beautiful um years ago, um, and it was on chimney pots.
• 28:33
  SPEAKER_01: Oh it was something like the number of chimney pots in your area.
• 28:39
  SPEAKER_01: Yeah, yeah, but that what's entrepreneurship given you, do you think, that a traditional job wouldn't have?
• 28:45
  SPEAKER_00: Freedom.
• 28:46
  SPEAKER_00: I j I just love the freedom.
• 28:48
  SPEAKER_00: I love ha waking up and feeling this is mine, yeah.
• 28:55
  SPEAKER_00: And also having choices, you know, it basically is down to you.
• 29:00
  SPEAKER_00: If you make a mistake, it is down to you.
• 29:02
  SPEAKER_00: But having if you what I've also noticed, if you make mistakes, you can build up and you can actually blossom from them.
• 29:09
  SPEAKER_00: Whereas if you're in a nine to five job and you make a mistake, I think I'd be the worst at that point.
• 29:14
  SPEAKER_00: Yeah, yeah, yeah.
• 29:16
  SPEAKER_00: Then you have that literally where your boss, so you know, I think there's so much opportunity, and sometimes, as I say, you can evolve from decisions, might not be necessarily the correct decision, but then you think, okay, well, then now we can go this direction.
• 29:30
  SPEAKER_00: You have that freedom because it's yours, yeah.
• 29:33
  SPEAKER_01: Um, and what are you most proud of now when you look back over your career?
• 29:37
  SPEAKER_00: Uh, I'm proud of the children, I literally am.
• 29:40
  SPEAKER_00: So now I have uh children that teach for us.
• 29:44
  unknown: Oh my gosh.
• 29:45
  SPEAKER_00: And it's amazing, and they've and audition.
• 29:47
  SPEAKER_00: I've got one girl that's literally been at the finals for every Chicago audition, and she messages me going, Lucy, I've lost my nerve in an audition.
• 29:56
  SPEAKER_00: How do I, you know, or I just need that confidence boost and seeing children evolve, or even just like ironically, we had I had a picture sent from a Virgin Atlantic aeroplane, and two two of my students became air hostesses and they met on a plane as air hostesses going, look at us now.
• 30:18
  SPEAKER_00: I think you the amount of people you meet and different lives, and that I've always been a people person, and it's having the community, and I feel I think whether having your own franchise, just having that school, that dance shack community, that's what I'm proud of.
• 30:39
  SPEAKER_00: You serve the community as well, you know, particularly with the shows, it's not just the students, is it's the families that go as well, or even like the spectators and absolutely, yeah, and and and I think for us, our production value on our shows does stand out from most art schools, if being really honest, because it's our experience of how to, you know, as resident director, my husband's musical director, we know how to put on proper productions where it has the wow factor where the kids are so proud of it.
• 31:08
  SPEAKER_00: You know, we did a London finale last year, and it had obviously Anne Boleyn, it had a history through like a girl getting lost in an attic, finds a book on London, opens it, and it's her story through London, and then it ended up gangs of London and crime, and you know, them attacking literally of all the hip-hop and attacking a tramp, and a little girl's uh cries over this tramp, and it was really you can really get sort of current topics, and that's what the children thrive, and we have that experience to make that theatricalness, so that's what we buzz, and we we love to follow it out and give support through that.
• 31:50
  SPEAKER_00: But that's why people children want to come back and do the shows.
• 31:53
  SPEAKER_01: It's memory-making, isn't it?
• 31:54
  SPEAKER_01: Because like I said, even if none of them, oh you know, not obviously hopefully some of them will carry on, but you know, not everyone will have a dance career, but they will remember doing these shows when they're grown up and when they're old, and yeah, you just remember it, don't you?
• 32:07
  SPEAKER_00: Uh we've got one of my clients now, no, my students when I from years back, she's now uh a theatrical agent, and she said, Oh, Lucy, I kicked what kept got me there was I just keep remembering the shows I did.
• 32:19
  SPEAKER_00: Yeah, and it just has to I think you know, and I think nowadays, even like I know for my son who's not theatrical, but it's really it's such a pressurized social media image, everything in life now.
• 32:32
  SPEAKER_00: And what we find at Dance Shack is the children come from their schools or come from their pressurized backgrounds, and they can be them, and they can just have that freedom of being able to dance or do a drama class, having the guts of losing inhibitions and just having a different community that's outside of their other social backgrounds, and just have the freedom of being accepted because our ethos is everyone is important.
• 32:59
  SPEAKER_00: So I think that's what I I love about it is the children for me 100%.
• 33:04
  SPEAKER_01: So, what's your son?
• 33:05
  SPEAKER_01: So your son's not gone into theatre, huh?
• 33:07
  SPEAKER_00: No, he's very good.
• 33:08
  SPEAKER_00: He was a good he did do dance shack, but now he's more sort of science.
• 33:13
  SPEAKER_00: Oh, right, okay, nice, nice.
• 33:15
  SPEAKER_01: So obviously, you've started the franchise.
• 33:18
  SPEAKER_01: What else is um in the pipeline for dance shack?
• 33:21
  SPEAKER_00: So we do we're doing lots of things, we're trying to offer more opportunities, we're taking children out to do more public performances, whether we recently took one to do a big O2 performance.
• 33:32
  SPEAKER_00: Oh I think it's just more enhancing Dance Shack.
• 33:36
  SPEAKER_00: I also have the agency, so I run the acting agency of Shack Artist, which was interlinked with Dance Shack, and um it started off with children, um, and we have our children on the agency.
• 33:49
  SPEAKER_00: It's a different ball game, all to particular, because then it is do it's a you know, when you're working professionally, it's a different kind of thing altogether, so it's for the children that really want to do it as a profession.
• 34:02
  SPEAKER_00: Um, and we have adults in the agency, so we've got lots of opportunities there and with the franchise across, you know, because there's things that are you know, in the films in Edinburgh, Manchester, Bristol, all sorts, Swansea and Cardiff.
• 34:17
  SPEAKER_00: So there's lots of different opportunities for children to join that side as well.
• 34:22
  SPEAKER_00: So that's another asset that we've got with.
• 34:25
  SPEAKER_01: So if someone's listening to this and they are based in Newcastle, maybe they don't want to run a dance franchise themselves, but they've got a child that's very theatrical and wants to be a professional.
• 34:34
  SPEAKER_01: Can they reach out to you and maybe speak to you about getting on their agency?
• 34:38
  SPEAKER_00: Absolutely, absolutely.
• 34:40
  SPEAKER_00: I think um we obviously we love to encourage our own dance shack children, but of course, if there's we've got some a little girl that's done really well and has been doing the little TAM in uh Miss Saigon around the UK and she's Leeds base, so there's lots of opportunities out there, but once again, I think it's having um just a whole tree of branches, and the agency is one asset to the school.
• 35:06
  SPEAKER_00: Um, that you know, there's lots of it's all about opportunities.
• 35:09
  SPEAKER_00: I think what I love is have finding opportunities for children out there, and that's one of them as well.
• 35:16
  SPEAKER_01: You have certainly found your passion.
• 35:18
  SPEAKER_01: Um thank you so much, Lucy, for joining us today.
• 35:22
  SPEAKER_01: Remind um remind everyone where they can contact you if they want to learn more about the Dance Shack um franchise opportunity or perhaps um the agency side.
• 35:32
  SPEAKER_00: So just um it just if you Google um dancehack wwwdancehack.co.uk and feel free just to email us um and then we'll get back to you straight away.
• 35:44
  SPEAKER_01: Okay, well, thank you so much, Lucy, for joining me.
• 35:47
  SPEAKER_01: I know it's lovely to meet you too.
• 35:51
  SPEAKER_01: Thank you for listening to another episode of the Work It Like a Mum podcast.
• 35:56
  SPEAKER_01: If you enjoyed this episode, please rate, review, and subscribe.
• 36:00
  SPEAKER_01: And don't forget to share the link with a friend.
• 36:02
  SPEAKER_01: If you're on LinkedIn, please send me a connection request at Elizabeth Willet and let me know your thoughts on this week's episode.
• 36:09
  SPEAKER_01: You can also follow my recruitment site, Investing in Women, on LinkedIn, Facebook, and Instagram.
• 36:15
  SPEAKER_01: Until next time, keep on chasing your biggest dreams.