Dance Recital Programs: Three Ways to Create, Design & Produce

Transcription

1 Suzanne Gerety: Dance Recital Programs: Three Ways to Create, Design & Produce Welcome everyone; this is the dancestudioowner.com member only webinar, featuring three of our expert panelist studio owners on the topic of dance recital programs, three ways. And I m really excited about this topic because, you know, dance recital programs, you might have been doing them a certain way all along. If you re looking to refresh the way you do it, or maybe you just want to infuse some new little bits and bits, here and there. I think almost everybody walking away from listening to this webinar is going to have an idea that they can totally put into action that will make a difference. I m excited about the content, and I m extra excited about our special studio owner guests. With me on the phone, I have Mandy Moore, of Make Your Move Performing Arts Studio. I have Morgan and Katherine Roberts, of Musical Arts Academy of Dance and Music, from New Hampshire. And I have Cynthia King of Cynthia King s Dance Studio, in New York. And we re going to go through, if you re listening in from the web, you can watch the slides. But if you re listening in from your phone, I ll make sure you have the slides available as well, with the replay. So welcome everyone, I m so glad you re here. Cynthia King: Mandy Moore: Morgan Roberts: Hi, Suzanne, we re glad to be here. Hi. Hello! This is the first time we ve ever tried this with this many presenters, so we re going to see how that works. In this webinar you are going to learn how to create a keepsake style of recital program, how to sell ads and manage the process. Some design tips for using your dance recital program to boost the Summer and Fall enrollment. Paper-less ideas and digital messages so that you can go green with your recital program. Plus some new ideas for creating content within your program that can help engage your audience and your customers. And that s sort of what I m also passionate about, is if you re 1

2 going to go through all this effort to create the content for your program, how can you leverage that into your other studio marketing and communications. So I m really excited about what we re going to cover. Alright, and each of these studio owners who, I want to make sure in each segment they give a little background about their studio and you can get to know them better. But they re each going to address these questions, so if you re listening in and you re like, I hope they cover this, here s what you re going to get, as a take away. They will explain the style of the program they create, whether they do it themselves or use a graphic designer, or both. The costs to produce these programs, and, or, if they print, how many do they print, on average. Is it profitable or promotional, or both? You know, do they use it primarily as a promotional piece or as a studio process and many of these, you ll find, it s a little bit of both. Plus some advice and tips, if you re ready to take any of these ideas and implement them into your studio. And lastly, they re going to share the biggest benefits that they say happened for their business as a result of doing a program this way. So there s a lot of content, but I m really excited about this and we re just going to get right into it. So, I would like to introduce to you Mandy Moore, about the keepsake program book and, Mandy, I highlighted some I highlighted her bullet points for my opinion, but I would love for you to tell us a little bit about your dance studio, where you re located, and all that. Hey. We are located in Opelika, Alabama. And we have roughly, you know, 200 students, and we ve been in business 21 years. Actually, I m the sole owner, but my sister is my main partner. She s like the co-director of our teams, and stuff like that. We have a staff of 11 and we teach recreational and we have competitive teams. Great. And I just want to say some people say, How do you know Mandy? Well, Mandy, you and I know met about six years ago, you were an early adopter of dancestudioowner.com. You were here at just the beginning as were Cynthia and so many of you listening. So I appreciate, you know, certainly the gift of your friendship, and in this business, but I also will say when I am in a room with you, let s say a convention or a conference, you embody the enthusiasm that dance studio owners. You re always happy, and you make the best out of any situation. You have creative choreography, and you love the color purple, which is one of my favorite colors! Thank you. But, you know, I guess it s easy to minimize and I mean, if you weren t worth this mention, I mean, you have national recognition for your competitive experience judging you've done and certainly the coaching your daughter has probably grown up with, right? You probably want to mention that briefly? Yeah, I m actually, my daughter was Miss America in 2013, Mallory Hagan, and she was in tap dancing from New York. The first Miss New York to win in this trifecta, so that s that. And then this summer we attended nationals, and we actually went away with top studio and grand national champion, which was a huge, huge accomplishment. 2

3 You know, coming from a very small town, we do try to be creative, and you know, attend as much as we can and kind I stay abreast on what s happening so that we re not judged, you know, known for recreational dance, so to speak. You know, we want to give the kids something that they can use later, I guess. Thanks so much for your kind words. You re welcome. So, the reason why I wanted to have you share about your keepsake program book is I m amazed at the effort, let s just get right into it. You can give us the details about it. I mean, it s truly a yearbook style, I guess you could call it. I ll let you go ahead and explain how it works. Yeah, we do I mean, it s really, I feel like it has evolved. In the beginning it was very basic. It s 120 to 130 pages. It s basically, you know, one picture fits a quarter of a page, and then up to four pictures if they do a full page. There s only three ad, no, three ad options I believe. I used to do like an eight of a page, and stuff like that, it got too difficult. So I ve just kind of, over the years, you know, I got, honed that feel, like I just copy and paste it over for the next year and I delete all the pictures. A lot of the same kids get, you know, the same they always buy an ad. So, you know, kind of stuff like that, going from year to year, makes it a little easier. I kind of have a system I can, I put it all, I lay it all out, delete everything, keep stuff that I might need to use for the next time. And then when all the pictures are ready I just go and just pop them in, and it s really, I mean, I don t want it to sound like it s super simple, but you know, if you get your flow on, you can do it yourself. For sure. Right, exactly. So, and we re going to explain, Mandy is going to, in the next slide, we re going to go into a little more detail in how you sell the ads. That was the one piece I wanted you to highlight, but you print the book. It s spiral bound, you said it s about 120 to 130 pages, but you re creating it like on your computer using Adobe s InDesign, correct? I started with Publisher, and then changed over to a Mac, so I had to find something that was, you know, a little more updated for the printer, as well. But InDesign is really simple. It s kind of like using Word, or Publisher, with a few more bells and whistles. So if you just want to, you know, hit us the basic business of just opening a text box, opening a picture box, and then popping pictures in and putting words and changing fonts, it s super easy. I taught myself how to use it. There s this awesome website, it s called lynda.com, L-Y-N-D- A. And you can pretty much, I think they do a 30-day free trial, which is what I did, and I turned it on and I clicked on the most important things I thought I needed to learn on InDesign. And you watch, like, two minute videos and I just took like two pages of notes and so, that s how I got started. And, you know, it s basically very simple, if you are medium computer-savvy. Exactly. Well, and I think, that s the thing we re going to talk a little bit about, the do-ityourself model. And then there s the hybrid model where you do some graphic design from yourself, which is how we do it in our own studio. And then, you know, hiring out some professionals for some of the work, and then integrating your own, and then, of course, the fully outsourced model. 3

4 But so you can use a program like that, and then because your book is so many pages, obviously, paper price changes. Everyone listening to this, paper, it changes in price, but give or take your average cost is $10 to $12 per book, correct? Yeah, yeah. And, you know, since I ve been doing business with this same printer, they really try to, you know, honor the best price that they can give me. And they work, I give them my stuff and I m like, If anything needs to happen, let me know. I asked them one year what it would take for them to produce it, and it doubled my costs. So I was like, out of pocket that bit of money myself, and so I just did it myself. Right. Good. But, I mean, usually it doesn t fluctuate that much with paper pricing. Right. So you re good. And then you print about 250 to 275 books, and we are going to mention some tips that Mandy suggested about not having too many and not having enough. So we ll get to that in a minute because I want to get into, you know, everyone listening, this is where you might have questions. She s going to talk a little bit about the ads, we can probably do a whole webinar on selling ads. But let s get into I put in this slide that is showing, if you re listening in on the web you ll see it, an example of a full page ad that a parents or a family member bought. So let s talk a little bit about the ad selling process, Mandy, and I ll just have you walk us through it, like when you should start and all that. Okay. We send out a letter and we actually just send it out this week, and it just kind of said, you know, Hi, this is our 21st season, we do highlights of our, you know, at our concert, this beautiful keepsake program. If you would like to purchase an ad to wish your dancer good luck or if you have a business, then there s a form that goes behind it. And I ll be glad to shoot this over to you later if you want to put it up for people. [ ] It s very simple, the second page of it you get three check boxes, you check off what you want, the quarter, half, or full. It s got their name, dates, if they pay cash or check and there s a deadline. For us, this year, the deadline is May 14th and our show is May 31st. So I usually do two weeks out and that way, I have enough time to procrastinate before I get it to the printer. Wow, that s a short frame time because I was going to ask you, what is the price range for those ads that you sell? Okay, a quarter page is $45, they get one picture. A half page is $65 with two pictures, and then a full page is $125 with four pictures. And with the full page they get a free book. And we used to do two extra tickets for the show, but we cut that part out, so Okay. And so what, you track it really, the method you are using to keep track of it is the form. And it looks to me, from what I can see, you do some incentive for the kids to also go out and sell more ads, if they would like to, to their community or their relatives. So say a little bit about that. 4

5 Yeah, we do, whoever sells the most full page ads by the deadline, like, we are very specific, it s Thursday, May 14th at 08:00 PM. So whoever sells the most full page ads gets a free year of dance, which is our basic dance class. And so, I mean, honestly, when they sell a full year, I mean, if they sell ten pages, that s really, I m gaining $556, because ten pages of 1200, a full year with us for basic dance is 556. So, you know, it comes out very nicely so I mean, it s just for tuition. Right, and I just want to make a note, so if anyone is listening because you re like, Oh, gosh, ad sales would never work in our studio. You know, we ve never done that before. This, you might need to work it, if you re considering ads, you have to probably, you probably didn t get to this overnight. You have to start somewhere. Or, you know, you gave your time frame, it looks to me, Mandy, you ve got your recital photos done really early so you can use them for the program. Well, actually, we did, this year we re doing photos like April 28th, 29th and 30th. I have been using the same photographer, and he actually, like, several years ago switched over to digital, so it would be quicker for him to get the pictures to me. So, like, people go online, they write the number of the photo they want on their ad form, and then I go ahead and create the ad. So when he s ready for the pictures, he brings me a jump drive and I just start dropping pics then. You know, dragging and pop them in. Right, that helps a lot. Okay, awesome. So, but it sounds to me like if someone didn t have the ability to have their photos taken early enough to do that, you could also have people submit their own candids. Yeah, they usually submit them on a disk, or a jump drive. And then, I mean, it s so easy in InDesign, you know, you just open the jump drive and you click on it and you place it in the photo box and it s there. I mean, so whenever you need, you can kind of digital, it s so easy to use. That s awesome. Now, you don t have to give like exact numbers, but would you be willing to share with our members obviously that sort of ball park estimate of what you bring in, revenue wise, to the studio, for doing this process? Absolutely, yeah, absolutely. So, I usually, from the sale of the ads roughly I bring in around $10,000, like that s my goal, it s to bring and that s just from people buying personal ads and selling ads in the community. So I bring in about $10,000. And then it costs anywhere from $2800 to $3300 to produce, depending on how many pages it is each year, and how many I m getting. So, from the pre-sales of books, that usually pays for the printing. So I usually end up clearing between and $8,000. and $10,000. Awesome. That s really great. And so, which I m moving on to the next slide because there s so much great content. Anyone listening in, you might have questions, you can type them in on the web. I will make sure we get to those, plus if you have follow up questions, Mandy, you re generous, you re going to leave the order form for us in the replay. But let s go through, I have looked through all 130 pages of the examples you sent me of your past books and they re great. I have a highlight in this next slide of the collage type page that you include through probably your competitions, and just candids around the studio, so that s cute. That s a nice idea too. 5

6 Yeah, and that was really easy. I just downloaded picstitch.com and actually that s Jamie s job. She goes through, she, like, starts stalking Facebook and pulls pictures of kids and then a lot of stuff that we ve taken over the year and pops them into this nice little collage, and then we just, you know, place it right into InDesign, it s super easy. Good. So let s go through the tips on this slide about, you mentioned at the beginning the best thing is to create a template, correct? You can kind of go through these tips. Yeah, yeah. I mean, you can create a full page template, a half page, and then a quarter page. And then you can just, like, copy and paste it, you know, to the next. Like in InDesign it s so easy, you can just like duplicate this page, and so it pops another one and all you have to do it fill in the name and drop a picture. Great. So obviously good photography is important, but there s also, I love the good photography that you ve shown through your recital pictures. And I think this example of the pic stitch, which is actually a cool app, there is something really fun about the candid, too, placed in the right, you know, location, so keep that in mind if you re worried about your photographs. Yeah, and I tried to make sure that just about every kid, especially the kids that aren t team members, are really highlighted enough in the collages. Because they love to look and find themselves, you know, and think that they re very important, which they are. But, you know, sometimes teams overshadow our recreational kids, so I want to make sure that it s as much about the rec kids as it is the team kids. That s awesome. So, and you pre-sell the program so that you can get an accurate number. How has that been helpful for you? That has been very helpful, because like the first couple of years, you know, we would have several books left over, and I was just wondering, you know, what can I do to make sure that this doesn t happen for next year? And it came, we normally send the form out for, you know, flowers and t-shirts and we just added the program books on it. And it saves a lot of time, and that way everybody makes sure that they get one. Because if they don t sell out, or that, you know, they don t get tossed out and then someone wants one a month later. So Great. Good.And so a couple of these that you ll probably will mention as well, that you keep some extra issues at the studio for people to look at, which is a great promotional piece. Yes, yes. That s key. And then obviously you shared a lot about the, you know, the revenue model, which I think is super helpful, so I appreciate that. And just keep in mind that if you want to take this on, I mean, there is that sentimental memory keepsake piece of that, if you re ready to, you know, do that. Is there anything else you want to say about that, Mandy? I just want to say, like, when kids, it s the kids especially, like, when we have back issues in the lobby, and you know, they are like grabbing and they look at them. You can really just see their progress, number one, you know, looking at a picture of a dancer when they were seven, compared to when they were, you know, 11 or 12. 6

7 It just makes it, like, reinforces what you re doing and it makes them feel so good about themselves, that they were, you know, thought of, that their family actually did that. And, you know, we all have a little bit of ego, we want to see our success. I think it, you know, I think it really makes the kids so special, because we re really the only studio in our city that does it. Great. That s awesome, Perfect, well we have, I have a few questions coming in that I think we should take specific to you, Mandy, and then we ll move on. Morgan and Katherine are going to share about sort of like the traditional format. So let s take a couple of questions from our members. These are great questions, everyone. Let s talk about, Michelle asked, Is your program book and the 8.5x11? And I think the answer is yes. Yeah. Yes, it is. You design for the traditional 8.5x11, which is, you know, standard size keepsake for front and back, on each. That s the size we do as well. Yeah, and I was just going to say, the front and back cover are like a harder type cardstock, and it s usually shiny. And then the front and back are color, and the inside is black and white. Awesome. Now you were kind and generous to say that you were going to share the pricing. Someone said that they missed the pricing, and I think, we will include that, about the prices you use to sell the ads. Would you be willing to let us share maybe like a few pages of the example book with the replay, Mandy? [ ] Absolutely, yes, yes. Please do. Okay, yeah, it s a big file, so I will make sure that with the replay, it s in PDF format, it s just 130 pages so we can t put it up on the slides, though. But, yeah, we ll make sure we are making notes of that to include the order form for the ad, which includes the pricing and of course of the example of your program, which is great work, it really is. So, thank you for that. [program is linked above] Thank you. Yeah. Okay, I think that, there was, Sam had a question about, for the contest, regarding the full page ad. It s really a matter of, I m guessing you have to at least sell one, so is there a minimum they need to reach? To win the free year? Nope, there s not a minimum, and I tell you, the least amount we ve ever had someone sell I think it s like eight. So, you know, you ve got $800 right there that you pulled in, so you re still making money off the free year. Great, great, that s awesome. So, perfect. So let s, I want to make sure that we move on. There might be more questions, everyone, and if you have them, please go ahead and close them because we re going to, we have a lot of great content to move into. So Mandy that was awesome, thank you. 7

8 Thank you. The next topic is with Morgan and Katherine Roberts. Morgan and Katherine, welcome. I m going to let you guys, on this slide we have sort of some of your highlights but I just wanted to say how grateful I am to call you guys friends and colleagues in this business. And kind of a cool bit of info, Morgan and Katherine, they have two locations, but one of their locations is in the town I live in. But I actually live about 40 miles from our own dance studio, so, I don t know, it s kind of a cool thing, that s how we met. But I ll let you guys tell a little bit about your background and then we ll get into why we invited you here. Okay, sure. Well, we re musical arts, we do music and dance, and we have two locations, one in Exeter and Dover, and we ve been doing it for about 14 years. And we also have started a marketing and consulting business studio guru, so we re really passionate about marketing materials and print media, so this is really an interesting topic for us. Exactly, and I invited you guys obviously, I mean, we ve had many conversations about print material, and I feel very passionate as well about what Morgan and Katherine are doing. They have a sensitive eye for dance and music and they bring a really different creative approach to their process. So, they re going to share a little bit about what works for their own dance studio, and you know, some ideas that they ve been working with. Great, Morgan, is there anything else you want to add? No, I think that s perfect. Awesome. Perfect. Well, then, let s talk about the playbill format. I have the picture up of one of the designs you use, and I ll let you just kind of go through and share. Sure, yes. We really do a traditional, we don t do ads. And this is just an 8.5x5x5, and we usually do 8 to 12 pages. We don t do a big monster booklet. And our real goal is to produce something that s really quality programs that really, you know, matches, like, the professional experience that they ve had all year. So, and then we created an InDesign and Photoshop we use that, we taught ourselves how to use that. We edit photos with Photoshop and things like that. And our second goal with our program, besides having students names and all the information in a professional program, is to really push our Summer program as well. So we put a big spread in there, which is from the next slide. Yes, it s in the next slide. Yes, I m going to actually that s what we re going to high we re going to go in deep on the using your program here. I was, like, what I would call a promotional brochure. Interactive, you know, audience engagement piece, so, absolutely. Absolutely, and like you said, you know, we had this conversation before, that you have a captive audience. You re typically never starting these dance recitals on time, so you have extra time where people are sitting, looking for something to do. So you really do have a captive audience and it s a great time to be able to help sell some of your programs, and push that along, so Exactly, I mean, if you even just take a concept of Broadway playbill, right? There s 27 pages of ads and information before you even get to the cast. And there s obviously that works, and there s a message to that. And frankly, I m actually one of those people that 8

9 really enjoys looking through every page of programs that does. It could be like the theater geek in me, or something, but I just love looking at everything and reading all that stuff. So I don t think you have to worry about, you know, being afraid to, I would say, promote your stuff and in your own program, so that s a good point. So, in the example we show here, the cost to produce, you do both two shows, and Mandy, let me, I forgot to mention, Mandy, you do three shows in one day, correct? Yes, yes. Okay, so that book covers you for obviously your three shows and then, Morgan and Katherine, you are currently doing two shows with this one program, correct? Correct. That s right. And about 2000, you print, is around, I mean, we re just giving ball park prices, everybody, but they re around $650 and with graphic design, obviously, it can go up from there. But if anyone is looking for offers, I m going to show a couple of examples. Morgan and Katherine have some really fun program ideas on their website studio-guru.com. And, on a side note, we actually, our own dance studio, we are going to use their services for our own recital program this year, because I m just, we want to try something new. So I m just going to mention that. Alright. Because I trust you guys and you know what you re doing. You know dance, and just somebody, you know, and I ve always shared that with all members listening in, people who get it, they get it. You know, dance is a special thing, you can t just map on another industry into it, so that s why. Alright, so the piece I want you guys to teach on here a little bit is about, well, there s three pictures on this slide. Talk about this part of your program. Yeah, so this isn t actually in the middle, this program, actually, you could see it, it was at the very beginning, I think. There s a cover, but on the inside, the very middle of it, you can actually fold it down. So it pulls open, so you have a big leisure size poster, which we use to help kind of highlight different Summer programs that we have going on. So it s a nice way to kind of be interactive and everything, you know, kind of peeling it open, getting people engaged. And in addition, you know, we make sure to put a QR code on there, as well. So, you know, people with their smartphones can scan it right from there, it takes them right to our Summer page. Which, you know, we use jackrabbit, so they can actually, on their smartphone, they can actually, technically scan that, go to our page, and register for that Summer camp right there. So it kind of brings it all together, and it s a nice way to incorporate it into the program. Yes, exactly, and I think that we, the thing that Morgan and Katherine have really done a great job on their dance studio, because, you know, you guys are creative people. You take the traditional, sort of like a flat piece of paper and make it fun. They do these little cootie catcher things that kids like to play with. There s just some interest in openings and cut-outs and die-cuts. 9

10 Things that maybe feel, they might cost the slight bit extra, but the difference it makes, that it doesn t get put in the trash, is what we re talking about here, so that s why I wanted to share this cool concept with you. So let s move on to the next slide, which will show a little more detail about sort of your invite. So let s talk about the QR code, because that s, I sense the jury is still out for me on this. But if you you know, like, some people are like What do I do with this code? What do I do? Is there, is it recommended you say, you know, Download the scanner app so you can scan this. What if people don t know how to do that? So, I m kind of an Apple guy, so I m used to my iphone and how that works. I know, there s part of QR codes work for the iphone and I do have to download a QR app to have on there. I think other phones might, your camera might just recognize it and it might be able to work from there. But I think most people know, you know, the ins and outs of what a QR code is, and they know how to use it. Yes, and I think that, you know, you ve got people who are really tech-savvy and they love those kinds of things, you know. If they have that QR code or they re into QR code, those people are going to scan it. And then you have the other people, you know, you have your website and your phone number, so you have it all on there, so For us, we see it as, you know, it s a little bit of space on our poster for the people who are really into QR codes so, it s all good. No, it s good, well, and I think it shows that you guys are tech-savvy and you re obviously online. It s all of it, right? I mean, we can t, we still have parents that, you know, they can t even open an , and that s okay, you know. We re paid extra. But then there s some people that, you know, they re way ahead of the curb. So I love that your program says Fill the Summer with creativity, and your whole program is creative. So, and you basically said, you know, and that s what s cool about it, you know, I wanted to show our members. And lastly, I mean, it goes back to what your goal is with your program, is to brand and present your school in a professional format. And that, you know, keeping it consistent, making sure it s a message that you re giving, you know, with your program is consistent with, you know, your message of your dance studio. Awesome, that s really great. So, and I know there will be more, there s more questions that will come in, so thank you for sharing all that. And like I said before, I highly recommend you reach out to Morgan and Katherine if you re, you know, thinking about some creative ideas for your Summer marketing or Fall marketing. Different, you know, looking for something new and interesting for your program. Because they get it. So, awesome. Before we re going to move into Cynthia s presentation, I just wanted to scan the Q&A. Okay, questions. So we did, they did ask them enough, what is the app you use for the QR coding? Can you mention that again? I know you can search it, you know, on the iphone, you can search for it. Just search QR code in the app store. Is that why you did it? To generate the code, to make the code. 10

11 To make the code. You can actually just search online, just search for QR generator. And you can simply, you can just put in a web address or any kind of information you want to put in there. I know it s something that we had discussed too, you can actually, you could technically send this QR code, you can send them to a special web page, you know, where you can track how many visitors from your dance recital actually pulled out their phone and scanned the QR code. So you could track it that way, you know, and see if it is beneficial. See if your audience is interested in that kind of information. Well, and I think, just one more thought on this that came to me when I was putting the slides together. You know, Instagram is just, you know, where it s at, with all the kids and the people and the sharing. You can also encourage, if you just want to get people over to, you know, if you want to have a secondary stop. So if you want to get people, it doesn t have to be at the register, but to watch a really fun video of a highlight reel from the year. There you go. I mean, you could make it be less promotional, so it can still be promotional, but you can have them say, you know, You want to watch a really great highlight video from this year? You know, scan this code, and then it would take them to something like that. Absolutely, yeah. It s great to engage somewhere, I love that. Yeah, I like that. Cool. Awesome. So, Cynthia, let s move on to you. Cynthia King is here, when I reached out to our expert panel, I was like, Who s doing something different and cool with their programs? And Cynthia was like, I am, I do everything paperless, and I was like, We have to hear about what you do. So let me first start off by saying that I m also blessed to call you a friend in dance. I ve known you for just about as long as dancestudioowner.com has been running. And you re obviously a vital part of your community, but I ll let you sort of give everyone your background and highlight. Thank you, Suzanne, and great to be with everybody. I have a studio in Brooklyn, New York, now two studios, and been here quite a while. And I serve about 300 students, children and adults. And I also have a vegan ballet slipper business, which runs out of the studio. And what else can I tell you? I m excited to talk about the program. You re a passionate, yes, but you are you re a passionate advocate for animal rights, and, you know I am a long-time advocate for animals, that s true, and the messages that are strewn throughout my programs and throughout my studio, but especially, I guess, because of the shoes. Because everyone is wearing my leather-free ballet slippers, so That s true. Right. And if anybody, if anyone listening to this is, this is news to them, Cynthia came her vegan ballet slippers are very special. Like, if they wanted to learn about your ballet slippers, what s the website for the slippers? 11

12 Well, my studio is cynthiakingdance.com, and then there s a link to ballet slipper page, and also just a note that next month, I m introducing a new shoe that is stretch canvas and I m very excited about that. So, it s, and colors including as well.. Of course. And that s the thing, if anyone listening has, you know, maybe they don t know, you know, if they have dancers at their studio who are very not only are they a highquality product, but people have, they have a passion to prevent cruelty to animals and you don t use any leather. And I want people to know about a good thing, so that s why you re here. So, on that note Thank you. Yeah, talk about, I was fascinated by your digital program. So I have the slide up that explains about it, why don t you walk us through the process? Okay, well, I started this a couple of years ago. We just tried a PowerPoint slide of each piece in between the pieces. Now, my performances are one hour, that s one of the reasons that I do this, I have this one hour limit that I try to keep each show for one hour. So I have very, very, very short times between pieces, it s almost like a TV show, I keep bringing the next pieces on stage. And we re also in a small theater in New York City that has no travel or no curtain, it s blackouts in between each piece. So we always had issues of transitioning on and off in the stage in the dark, etc, and so now what we do is we project. And we also have six seconds between each piece. And that s my own little mania, but it works for me. So, we project the name of the piece and the student s names and, dancers names, and then that little bit of light projects enough on the stage that they can see where to go. And it distracts the audience enough that they just read the title, and the next thing you know, the lights come on, the kids are there, it s kind of a magical event. So that, it just kept the show moving very fast for me, and that was one of the important features. Also allowed us to change the order very quickly. And we just slide, you know, move a slide over and then that order has changed. And there were so many last minute changes happen that that really solves that problem for us, as well. And, you know, I was carrying shopping bags full of programs out, at the end of the run, if we were at the theater for a week. And it was just, you know, I thought, I was looking at these, maybe people aren t even really using them, and because I don t even give them time in between each piece to look at the program, you know. So, I didn t want people to look down and then up and, you know, they missed something. So, and then, you know, then they would use the phone for light, and you can t use your phone or anything. We have, like, we have a Gestapo crew of ushers in that theater that shine lights on you if you touch anything electric, like the which it works well, they keep people focused on the stage for one solid hour. And it really, you know, it just works for us. It was so much fun and I could even change names on, you know, just, we work from a laptop so you can just change, you know, even if you have a cast change. You just send the message up to the booth to type in someone s 12

13 name and then they know. And we can do it within minutes of the piece going on stage, so that was really fun. Right. That s awesome. Because I know, I want to talk about some of the benefits on I have in a few slides some of the true benefits of, you know, of this process. But from the, I would call it, the technical step, basically you re creating the program in PowerPoint slides, and I gave some of those examples. And then you project the words, kind of like, I guess, how, I mean, it s projected on a white scrim, or is that what you Yes, the scrim is, yeah, we have a solid scrim and then, from the sound booth, our lighting, actually, our lighting designer volunteered to take on the extra job. Which was nice of her, because it would be a lot to have someone just running the projection throughout the five, we do five different shows. So, yeah, and they re all different, so it would be So each PowerPoint presentation is for each show. And it s just a black background and lettering on it, it s really very simple, there s not much to it. Just typing in the names of the shows, and there s, you know, cut and paste, basically, from other documents. Right. And unlike a gobo, which is like, you have to burn it in to do but it s similarly projected, like you would, a gobo, right? You could sort of, yeah, it s from a regular projector. It s from the laptop via projector, yes. Great. So someone would, if they wanted to use it, you know, I have some ideas on this. You could do this in addition to other things. I mean, this is very cool, it almost reminds me of like dance some dance competitions have the side monitors going with, they ll just project, not even project, but they re running slide shows through a monitor. You can do some really cool things with this, I love it. Well, actually, before, I say, when people arrive, the house opens a half-hour before the show and I start running a slide show for, all done for half an hour. And it just repeats and it s photos from throughout the year and other, you know, events that we have throughout the year. Now, I have not added advertising, but this year I m going to do the first time I m so I had stopped doing ads in the programs anyway, in the printed programs, just because it was too much work for us. And I didn t have a crew at launch here, I don t know if New York parents are more busy than other people. But nobody really wants to do anything, and you know, we couldn t really, it was very hard to recruit people. So we weren t really running ads anyway, we were just spending money on the programs. And so this year I m going to put a few ads in that are just from businesses of friends of mine. And run it and see how it looks. And if other people are interested in getting a slide repeated at least maybe six to eight times during the pre-show, to advertise, you know, amidst all the photos. So I think that might be another, make it a fun way to include advertising into the pre-show. Yeah. Absolutely, so let s move on, so you do all that with the slides, which is awesome, now let s talk a little bit about your, the posters in your lobby. I have an example in the next slide about the beautiful cast and stuff, so you can talk about that. 13

14 Yeah, well, I did yeah, I did think that somebody would want to see everything in writing with all the credits, and I like, you know, I like the idea of just putting it all in one place. So I have a designer who does that. I looked down here, the cost is about 200, but it kind of varies. I mean, it s just a big poster board, you know, it s just paper. And this one that you re seeing is, I think they re mostly black and white that we ve got, so it s not very expensive, and it sits on an easel. We get a couple of them made and it sits on an easel in the lobby. And families can take a photo of their kid next to it and then they can, you know, you can see all the names. But I mean, it s hard to see them there, they re so tiny. But it s a nice, it s just a nice touch, I think. Yeah, I mean, obviously this is, I shrunk the image down really small for this slide, but it is quite lovely, the font and the layout. It s a clean, clean look. Which a lot of people love, and like you said, it s just creative, Cynthia, and that s why I wanted you on this call. Because if somebody might say, You know, I m listening in, we could do that anyway, we could blow up a page of the Thank You s, or, you know? Right. I really want everyone listening to this to not say, I have to map this on word for word for my studio. Right, right. But maybe there s some things that you hear, you know, between what Mandy shared, and what Morgan and Katherine shared, and what you re sharing, that you could integrate. You could try those new things and not, you know, my hope and goal. Right. Right. So let s talk a little bit about what you say are the, sort of the benefits and the tips on this next slide. Well, I like the last minute changes, and I also, I really like that people don t know what s coming next. I kind of like for them to not be looking out for their child, you know. So that they can just enjoy the entire program, and you know, I never ever let anybody know in what part of the program their children will be. I always say They re always in the end, they re always in the end. So people just come in and sit down. I really want everyone to listen to this, this is such a cool thing. When I read this in your notes, I m like, that s great. People have no idea when their kid is dancing because you don t let them know in advance the order of the show, the order that you commit to it. So they can t leave. They have to pay attention. No, and that s so much right. And then they say, wow, it was so great, but it was so great because it s one hour. And like, you know, the reason that I go so fast with all those transitions is I, myself, have a, you know, a 2015 attention span. It s very short. I can t sit for very long, you know? And I have to check my phone, I have to check, you know. So they can t do that. 14

15 They have to, they cannot touch their phones. I figured an hour is about, in New York City, that s a very long time for people to not touch their phones. And, so we want to make it go quickly, and I don t want them to know what s next. I want it to be like a roller coaster ride, you know, it s a film. They just, they watched this, they look up at the stage, and they never stop. That s awesome. Yeah. Yeah. and like, we don t have, I tried to make it and each of our shows is different, so I tried to get them to come to more than one as well, which they do. We just saved it, like I said, we saved on the cost of the printing, and it doesn t cost anything to do. The PowerPoint and also our videographer, who is great, she uses the slides now. And it makes her job easier, too, because she just uses those as the slide in between each piece, when she creates a DVD. So, it really kind of streamlines the whole and then it mimics what people have seen, when they were at the show. So they see the same type of visual. I love everything about this, I just love it, and you know, the ideas that Morgan and Katherine have shared are awesome, because you know, just making you interact more. And then of course, Mandy, we have more questions for you here in a minute. But I want to go, let s do one last slide, and then I want to follow up with any other questions again. When people, people say, What about the printed program, what if someone wants one? We will give them a PDF of the poster, or of any part of it. But honestly, nobody has ever asked for it. Great, so you make it available. I make it available but nobody has ever asked for it. Okay, that s good to know, that s great. Thanks for mentioning that. Yeah. Yeah. I work with our office manager and our head teacher, and my mom. And we work on what content are we going to put in the program. And sometimes you know, you re looking at a blank Word document, you want to just say, Gosh. But, you know, Mandy gave a good piece about use a template. We ve started from that. We create our own program, honestly, in Microsoft Word, and then we import some professional graphic design from our Summer programs. It s sort of like a mash-up, honestly, it could there s always room for it to be better, and I think, but it s still professional enough looking. But I would say, if you re going to think about, definitely be putting promotional stuff about your Summer program and Fall. We always publish our Fall Open House dates, you know- Mandy, you do a great job of letting people, obviously they re paying for the ads, so those congratulations messages. Yeah, that s what really gets those parents to purchase an ad, is that, you know, they can let their kids know how special they are. 15

16 You could start with that, like, I think you could, if someone was like, I don t know if I want to deal with photographs, what a nightmare, I don t even want to deal with that. You could let people just pay for congratulation messages and the words and submit their own photo and keep it less expensive, if you wanted to. Yeah, yeah, and actually, like when I used to do an eight of a page, you know, that s only a business card size. So it usually was just, you know, We re so proud of you and your accomplishments this year, love, Mom and Dad. You know, something like that. Exactly. And then, you know, if we have new faculty members that are coming on to the team, we include that. I m assuming that you re already including in your program the Cast & Crew, and the Thank You s and the Welcomes, and you know, all of that. But make sure you re putting your social media handles on your program, so people know how to, you know, post on social to you. Any other, you know, dance team highlights if you want to acknowledge them, and sometimes people acknowledge their teams, their graduating seniors. I mean, the sky is the limit on what you can add in there. Is there anything else you guys always include? We always include like a welcome, like a Thank you for being part of this journey type thing like a really, you know, special message to everyone. And then like you said, the whole back page is dedicated to thanking everyone. And then I think that making your seniors feels special, like we don t charge this for seniors, for ads, we just kind of do that ourselves. And we always get the seniors to write like what they, you know, what has made Make Your Move special for them. And I think that, like, it kind of helps their parents continue to, you know, give good reviews on you guys, on your studio, once they ve graduated, you know. That s awesome. Cool. So we have, let me go through, like I said, if anyone is listening on the phone, and we have plenty of callers on the phone. So if you, seriously, if you have anything, you might have a you might have something to add from your own program that you want to share so feel free to unmute. Star Seven should do it, and if not, I apologize. But Star Seven, and then let me go back to the Q&A from the web. Okay, Vivette shared that she has a simple low tech program, which is just perfect, and the parents put in love notes without photos, for $5. That s cute, Vivette, I like that. Littlelove notes for $5. And she also highlights her seniors, which I think is really nice. That s awesome, so thanks for sharing that, Vivette. That is a great idea, yeah. Absolutely. Christine had asked this question, Mandy, to you, I guess. How much do you sell your programs for? Can you just tell everyone again what you sell them for? Yes. We sell them for $15. Great. So, everybody, whether they pre you don t give a discount for the pre-sale, it s just $15 across the board. No. yeah, yeah. The pre-sale is just, again, it s easier to get one, you know? 16

17 Got it. So, they can still buy it that day, though, for 15. Yeah, but there s just a limit to the amount that day, absolutely. Okay, and someone, Alisha had asked, Are, do you do your ads in pictures in black and white? And obviously, I ve looked at the book so you go ahead and share. Our pictures, like, they re all in color, and so the printer I used to, you know, transfer them over to black and white but the printer was like, it s just easier to just bring it all in in color. So, after that day, I just send the file over in color and they just convert it to black and white when they print it. Okay, so the actual PDF you will see is in color, which is why they thought that. It would be impossibly cost prohibitive to print in color, if nothing else. Yeah, it s almost double to print in color. I wanted to add that there are some great online printers out there, that do digital printing. And the color cost is actually not quite the cost, so It s pretty close, now. Or you re printing, or you have it print, it can be maybe a difference of $100. So definitely if you re going out and you re, you know, price shopping around, you know, check out the online printer s fees. You have to pay shipping, but if you want color, in your program, you can do it. Pretty similar. Pretty similar price. That s a good tip, that s a really great tip. Alright, perfect, then there was one of our members, Christine asked if Cynthia Christine is in the New Jersey area. Cynthia, would you be willing to share your videographer s information with her? Yes, she s actually in New Jersey, yes, I ll be happy to. Okay, you want to mention it? I can tell everybody. A shout out to Shannon, at Signature Video. Awesome. And we ll make sure that Christine gets that info. Yeah. Well, this has been great, everyone. I think that there s, I really appreciate all of the time and talent, here. I know that anybody who took the time out of their day to call or listen in from the web, you found this incredibly useful and with some new ideas. I know I have just by talking to Cynthia, and Morgan and Katherine, and Mandy, have come up with a bunch of 17