JULES' AHA MOMENT
Scroll down for the story!
JULES' AHA MOMENT
We all have an "Aha!" moment in our lives. That moment when time stops and everything suddenly makes sense. When all these little facts and findings that we’ve gathered from unusual and disparate places conjoin to cause the proverbial light bulb to *pop on* in our heads.
“Ahhhhh,” we say. “Now I get it!” “Hmmm… it was right there all along – I finally see it so clearly.”
My moment was this crazy constellation of everything I had learned as an artist (a dancer) and everything thing I had learned as a business woman (an executive in the pharmaceutical industry). *Bing* it just hit me and explained the reality around me.
The context of this moment is that after my four years of intense classical ballet training at the UNC School of the Arts during high school, I went to college and graduate school and worked in the pharmaceutical industry for 32 years. That’s about the most concise way I can start this story. Two-thirds along the way, I was a Manager of a large department of clinical research professionals and was given the life-altering opportunity to attend a six-month course at “The School for Managing and Leading Change.” This was well over a decade ago.
My employer at the time, Duke Clinical Research Institute, had selected the heads of 10 departments, including my own, to attend this six-month training where we joined managers from 7 additional organizations for two off-site days per month for six months. To this day I maintain that the training and insight I gained during those 12 precious days provided the second-most-important education in my life, even relative to my undergraduate and graduate experiences, with the first-most-important training being my dance training at UNCSA. In 12 days spread across six months with 70 strangers who became my steadfast sisters and brothers, I learned large-group facilitation skills, the fundamentals of emotional intelligence, how to build community, and how to inspire others to give their discretionary effort, even when things are tough. Between sessions I would nearly run back to work, excited to test out my shiny new leadership skills on the 16+ grumpy managers who reported to me. Sure, I made mistakes all over the place and probably caused my share of eye rolls; but this platform was my playground for trying out every new community-building technique I had learned! From that year forward, across various additional employers, every management meeting I led would “benefit” from my relentless team-building exercises and large group management style. I would venture to say I became known in my little circle for a management style which basically stemmed from this original training.
Long story short, after 32 years of working in the pharmaceutical industry, at 54 years old, I stopped working full-time in the pharmaceutical industry to “pursue my dance business.” I believe my husband thought I was crazy, and it does seem at odds with everything we know about the ideal age of a dancer. But at that point I had been teaching The Dancer’s Workout® (TDW) for 5-6 years, and I knew I was onto something big. The classes were finally growing in size, with more and more adult current and former dancers joining our classes every day. Each TDW masterclass I choreographed and taught felt life-altering! Exhilarating! Spectacular! Everything I had ever learned in ballet, jazz, contemporary, hip-hop, pilates, yoga, and even from my one year in the 90’s of teaching “aerobics,” was coming together in these amazing masterclasses. Their ability to inspire us emotionally and transform our bodies was undeniable. My classes and adult dance fitness business were growing by leaps and bounds.
Pretty soon I realized that The Dancer’s Workout® was bigger than me. I had choreographed and taught every single class, but I suddenly became dumb-struck by the undeniable truth that I was not the reason The Dancer’s Workout® was successful. And then BAM! Light-bulb! I hadn’t even noticed it, but then realized that unconsciously, I had been applying every single large group facilitation, community-building lesson I had learned from The School for Managing and Leading Change before and after teaching every single class; and THIS, in combination with the physical and emotional exuberance of the classes, is what was causing The Dancer’s Workout® to thrive. “Aha!!! It's the combination of the community-building exercises with these classes that has propelled our little dance fitness program into the stratosphere!” "Aha!"
This Aha moment led to another Aha moment...
While I still cannot fully explain WHY I have such a powerful passion to "pay it forward" in life by helping former dancers find their way back into the studio, the one thing this Aha moment helped me realize is that if I truly wanted to make a difference in the lives of adult dancers, it was not enough for me to teach a ballerina how to teach The Dancer's Workout® and provide her with all the TDW choreography. No, to truly make a meaningful difference, I need to teach her what I learned at The School for Managing and Leading Change. I need to show her how to build community; how to create, lead, and maintain a loving, supportive, and self-sustaining large group of adult dancers. "Aha!" LIGHT BULB! What an amazing thing! To be in my mid-fifties and finally, by the grace of God, to have truly found my calling and purpose in life.
Now it all makes sense to me as to why I got "side-tracked" with a 32-year career in the pharmaceutical industry. There was something important I needed to learn and perfect in order to really make a difference to others.
I started testing this epiphany last year by running several in-person certification workshops which not only certified various ballerinas as TDW-certified-instructors, but which also armed them with the mental and emotional perspectives and tactics needed to build their own thriving followings of adult dancers. After talking to them and to many of our TDW dancers (i.e., our adult students) we agreed that this “TDW Secret Sauce" was the magic which enabled our inspiring yet challenging TDW masterclasses to attract and retain so many adult students.
It was then that I decided to share the TDW Secret Sauce more broadly. And today I am sharing it with you.
You can learn more about the TDW Secret Sauce in two places, one of which is free and which is designed to give you a "hmmm" moment (the precursor to the "aha" moment lol); and the other which costs a fee but is quite likely to change your life, your studio's bottom line, your body, your spirit, and your social circle with an entire bevy of Aha moments.
First, our free one: We share the essential ingredients of the TDW Secret Sauce in our seven-part series entitled “Secrets of a Thriving Adult Dance Fitness Program.” This seven-part series briefly describes the six essential ingredients we have found to be vital in the creation of our blockbuster adult dance program. Check these out...
5.6.7.8. get Part 1 here
Part 1 kicks off the story and lists the six essential ingredients
Part 2 describes the first ingredient, attracting the right type of adult dance student
Part 3 describes the second ingredient, creating a safe zone
Part 4 describes the third ingredient, creating a self-sustaining community
Part 5 describes the fourth ingredient, creating an experience, not just a class
Part 6 describes the fifth ingredient, the choreography
Part 7 describes the sixth ingredient, providing adult dancers with their fitness solution
Second, our online course... After a crazy, intensive, work-until-4-am-over-and-over-again Fall, we are introducing our online course which teaches Dance Studio Owners (and the ballet students they sponsor to become TDW-certified) exactly how to attract and retain a robust following of adult dancers! This course is fabulous. Trust me. I am a perfectionist who embarrasses easily, and I can say I am proud of this.
Our online course not only provides your sponsored dancer with the skills and certification to teach TDW at your studio, but it also teaches you both how to attract, lead, and retain a large following of adult dancers at your studio.
The link below tells you more about our self-paced course and even provides free access to the first lesson so you can see what it looks like inside the course.
Our course provides six months of certification to your sponsored dancer; course registration credentials for two individuals; three fully choreographed TDW masterclasses (three of our favorites!); and tons of tips regarding how to advertise your class on social media, with access to our social media manager through our private, closed Facebook group!
This course is the turn-key solution needed to transform your studio into the GO-TO studio for adult dancers in your area.
Together we can build your community of adult dancers. Partnering with amazing dance studios like yours is the best way I can think of to reach thousands of former adult dancers across the country and get them back into the studio. And it's the best way I can think of to ensure that your studio becomes known as the BEST studio in the area for adult dancers!
I hope you'll join me and the TDW dancers on this extraordinary journey. I promise you this experience will be one of the most moving, rewarding, and successful experiences of your life; and that in the end you will look back over your life, and at all the decisions you ever made, and say, like I did, "Aha! Now it all makes sense."