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Main Street Reimagined Podcast
This is a podcast for dreamers, creators, developers, and entrepreneurs to learn, share, and be inspired to change your community through small business.
Main Street Reimagined Podcast
Episode 15: Dancing Through Life: Business, Family, and Community with Emilee Irey
Emilee Irey, the inspiring owner of Irey Dance Academy, shares her whirlwind journey over the last few years from dancer, to wife, to mom, to business owner. Once a dancer and instructor at the Edye Cook School of Dance, Emilee took a bold leap to purchase and rebrand the studio, although the timing was far from ideal. Hear about her journey from being guided by her mentor, Edye Cook, to becoming the driving force behind a beloved community hub in downtown Marion. This episode is a heartfelt exploration of her passion for dance, the variety of classes offered at her academy for children from infancy up to 18 years old, and the increasing impact she is having on the local community through her business.
Emilee shares her ties to Marion starting as a kid, her father's influence as a United Methodist pastor, and the love story that began in high school with her now husband, Kaleb. Her life today is a testament to her resilience and determination as she navigates the complex balance between her professional pursuits and family life. Learn how she overcame initial fears and embraced the challenges of managing a business while cherishing her role as a mom.
From her initial fears of the first registration day, to the remodeling of a downtown building, Emilee recounts the triumphs and tribulations of her first year in business. The unwavering support from her students and their families, the collaborative spirit within the dance community, and the unique charm of downtown Marion come alive in her story. Tune in for an episode brimming with community engagement, personal growth, and the ambitious vision Emily holds for the future of Irey Dance Academy.
Guest Links:
Facebook: www.facebook.com/IreyDanceAcademy
Main Street Reimagined:
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The Main Street Reimagined Podcast, Watch on YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PLqfkmF5bRH0od1d3iiYKs3oEn_gvMYk7N
Henry Development Group:
Facebook: facebook.com/henrydevelopmentgroup
Website: www.henrydevelopmentgroup.com
Developing News Newsletter: https://mailchi.mp/33110524eb5c/developing-news
Luke Henry:
LinkedIn: linkedin.com/luhenry
Facebook: facebook.com/luke.henry.148
#IreyDanceAcademy #EmileeIrey #DanceJourney #WomenInBusiness #Mompreneur #CommunityHub #PassionForDance #Resilience #PersonalGrowth #FromDancerToOwner #DowntownMarion #SupportLocal #SmallBusinessLove #MarionOhio #DanceCommunity #Inspiration
I remember telling my husband I'm like I don't know if this is what I want to do, but I do know that I will always regret it if I don't do it now. You know when I have the option. I know the students, the families know me. It's a great opportunity.
Speaker 3:This is the Main Street Reimagined podcast, a show for people ready to turn visions into realities and ideas into businesses. Hey, I'm Luke Henry and each week I lead conversations with Main Street dreamers who took the leap to launch a business, renovate a building or start a movement, their ideas, their mindsets and their inspirations, as well as some of the highs and lows along the way. This is a place for dreamers, creators, developers and entrepreneurs to learn, share and be inspired to change your community through small business. Enjoy the show. Hey, friends, luke Henry here, and this is the Main Street Reimagined podcast. So glad you're with us once again this week and I am so excited to have a conversation today with Emily Irie. Hey, emily.
Speaker 1:Hey.
Speaker 3:She is in studio with me and we are looking forward to a conversation. So Emily is a downtown business owner, just celebrated the one year anniversary of Iry Dance Academy. Congratulations on that. So it's been great seeing that progression and we're going to kind of dig into that whole story for for listeners here and for for my information too. I love hearing these stories and so it's been great. We've not spent like a lot of time together, but are in many of the same circles in terms of downtown events and collaborations and it's just been really exciting seeing you like buy this business, start, launch, grow and really become involved in the downtown. So I'm excited for the conversation.
Speaker 1:Thanks.
Speaker 3:Me too. Thank you for having me. Yeah, absolutely so. Let's start with. I Read Dance Academy, and so tell listeners, if they've not heard of you before, what kinds of things you offer, for what ages, what types of dance, and kinds of things you offer for what ages, what types of dance, and all of that.
Speaker 1:Okay, we are a dance studio here in downtown Marion. We offer an array of classes from, though this year we have a mommy and me class, so we really go from you know zero to age 18 right now, so just working with students at the moment, not adults. But yeah, it's been great. We offer acro, ballet, jazz, tap, the whole gamut of classes there. Yeah.
Speaker 3:Okay, so you teach all the classes, some of the classes. How does all that work?
Speaker 1:So we have eight instructors at the studio, so I divide up, and I always put it that way.
Speaker 3:Okay, yeah, but you do teach some.
Speaker 1:Yeah, I teach a lot of the classes, Okay yeah, very cool.
Speaker 3:And how many students do you have there typically and like?
Speaker 1:how many students do you have there typically? So this year we have 130 enrolled in our full season, which runs from August until June, and then we have 20 currently in like a six week classes. We're just trying out a new thing a low commitment option for people who don't want to enroll in the whole year. So we have two of those right now and we have 20 kids in that. So that was exciting. Yeah, so about 150 every week and coming in and out of the studio.
Speaker 3:Yeah, that's a lot of volume in and out in the course of a week, week in, week out.
Speaker 3:So, yeah, love that from the standpoint of downtown traffic. You know seeing those people come down, and I know that you're looking for ways to kind of integrate them and integrate your studio more into the downtown environment and everything. So, yeah, so that's cool. So so that's. I Read Dance Academy and this is a business that you purchased, and this is a business that you purchased. Tell us a little bit about kind of that journey. I mean, you were involved with the business before, right, and then had the opportunity to purchase, right.
Speaker 1:Yeah, so I grew up dancing in that building, in that studio it was Edie Cook School of Dance. Growing up and I obviously fell in love with dance and I went off auditioned for college, got my degree in later but came back when I started. We started to have our family with my husband and I started teaching for Edie Um and she um made a decision a year ago well, almost a year and a half ago now, um to retire. So that was a really hard decision, you know, and it's been your whole life she had a 42 year run with her studio, so it was a really hard decision
Speaker 1:you know, and it's been your whole life, she had a 42 year run with her studio. So, um, it was a lot to give up and I think it was. It was kind of a quick decision for her. Um, she just came to the realization pretty quickly that she didn't have another year in her. It's a lot of work, as I know now. Now, um, and I don't know how she did it for so long and at her age and um, so she made that decision really quickly and it was just a couple weeks before our big annual show and annual recital, um, so, you know, she told her family and then told my husband and I, and so at that point we knew that we had the option to buy the business from her. She offered us that option in the building and we also knew we were the only ones really to carry on. You know the business side of it.
Speaker 1:Obviously she could have sold the building as a separate thing. But you know she said, if it's selling us, if I'm selling the business, you're the only one you know if my family doesn't want it.
Speaker 3:So are those conversations you'd had like for a while at that point.
Speaker 1:Are those conversations you'd had like for a while at that point. So we had had the conversation within the past few years with her and at one point she told me she was on a five-year plan to retirement. Okay, so we thought we had time, you know, to make that decision. Owning a studio is something I wanted my whole life. I started teaching for her when I was 15, um, at a very young age. By the time I was 18, I was teaching you know five or six of her classes a week.
Speaker 1:And then I went off to college, you know, and there was a break there, but it was something that I I wanted for a long time. Then I obviously had a family and I stay at home-at-home mom just teaching a couple nights a week, and so, you know, I was just in a hard season.
Speaker 3:This is a hard season right now, you're right.
Speaker 1:So I thought we had time to make that decision when she came to us and said you know, I don't think I can do this another year. I think this is the time to retire.
Speaker 1:I want to spend my evenings with my husband and my kids, which is something she hadn't gotten to do in 40 years working in a studio, and her grandkids are growing up and she wanted that time with them. And so I've had people say are you angry that she gave you such short notice? But I'm not angry, she deserves her retirement just like anybody when they come to that realization, and what a hard decision that would be to make. So, but was it hard? Yeah, were there lots of tears all day for a week.
Speaker 1:You know, those two weeks where I had to make the decision Because we knew it was best to announce you know her retirement but say it's continuing on with someone that everyone knew I was already teaching there. I was mostly only teaching her advanced classes so I really didn't know the younger kids that well, but I was teaching. You know all the older kids knew me and so you know announcing it with that positive note at the end was going to go a lot better.
Speaker 3:And you wanted to do that at the big, like end of year show. Yes, yeah.
Speaker 1:That's when she felt like it was best you know, just to announce her retirement and we knew that that was the decision she had made. So we knew from our end, you know, if we were going to do this, we needed to decide very quickly. She did give us the option, you know, you can think about it for a little bit longer, but just you know, it just made more sense that if we were going to do it. We needed to make the decision.
Speaker 1:So, at this point I had a three month old, you know as of postpartum didn't even know what day it was, like um up all night and a two year old, so it just felt like an impossible decision, to be honest yeah even though it's something I'd wanted for so long. It, you know I was like not. You know god, why it feels like the wrong timing what are you? Doing this feels crazy.
Speaker 3:So yeah, um, yeah so we we always try to do this like leap segment and I feel like we're right here because we're trying to teed up this opportunity, where it's like you.
Speaker 3:I mean, you've, you've done the buildup here pretty well in terms of you know there was, you'd had some conversation for a handful of years, it sounds like then the actual ask came fairly quickly. The timing didn't seem ideal by any means. You were kind of in the fog of motherhood and newborn stage and I mean it sounds like there was a lot of time pressure at that point, yeah, but something you'd always dreamed of doing. And then, furthermore, to really add some drama to it, it sounds like, I mean, it pretty much came down to either the studio just closes completely and everyone's sort of out on the street, you know, kind of looking for other options, or you take the flag and carry on, is that?
Speaker 1:an accurate build up here.
Speaker 3:So this is an emotional thing you mentioned. You're talking with your husband. You're obviously working through it kind of mentally yourself, and I mean spoiler alert you decided to do it. Here we are, but you know what was that moment? I mean, you know, we're kind of like the buildup, like walking to the edge of the diving board here. And I mean, you know, we're kind of like the buildup, like walking to the edge of the diving board here, like what made you, what pushed you over the edge, to just say, yeah, despite the challenges and the unideal timing, I'm going to go for it.
Speaker 1:Yeah, I mean just God, I guess just day and night for those that short time. And, um, you know, talking to a lot of our mentors and our friends and our family, um, that we were close to it was it was hard because we didn't want um, it wasn't that we were trying to keep it a secret that this was happening, but I didn't want any students to know that we were thinking about it because if we decided this isn't best for us, you know I didn't want anyone to take it personally or um, that would just be a hard thing, you know, to feel like I let that many people down. So, um, and I went in to teach my classes and you know when you work that closely with students they become like family.
Speaker 1:And so I just came home sobbing one night after in that first week after my classes because I was like what are they going to do? You know they can go to other studios, but it's hard when you're in. You know, by the time you're in middle school, high school and you've been dancing together with the same people you know to, to have your second home, you know that's their second home close and put myself in that situation as a high schooler.
Speaker 1:you know how devastating that would be, thinking about the students. And then, um, you know it was I. I remember telling my husband I'm like I I don't know if this is what I want to do, but I do know that I will always regret it if I don't do it now, when I have the option. I know the students, the families know me. It's a great opportunity and if I hate it, it'll be hard to stop, I know. But it'll be better to do that than to get five, 10 years down the road. And you know, just always think what, if what, if what? If um.
Speaker 1:And then the day before we were listening to a podcast in the car and um, it's um. This Christian broadcast we listened to and and like it was all about in the one line I'll never forget, he just kept saying over and over and over again you say yes to opportunities because God is faithful, not always because you're ready or because you want to, but because God is faithful. And it just felt like in that moment we were getting our answer. God said to us I'll be faithful, I'm going to be with you every step of the way. I've provided this path for you. And so right after that I called Edie and you know this. This sounds like literally dress rehearsal day, pretty much like we were in the middle of tech week for our show. That's just difficult, you know in general, two little kids.
Speaker 1:And so then we, um, we went and met with a lawyer and just signed some papers that you know, just saying like we've made a commitment, cause she didn't want to announce something, and then we go back on it and so like a letter of intent or something like that, yes, a letter of intent. Exactly, Um, that just saying we do have you know, and then that could give us like the summer to get the everything figured out All the legal details right.
Speaker 1:Of the changeover and buying the business and the building. You know lots of things have to go on there so we couldn't do that in a day.
Speaker 3:Right.
Speaker 1:But yeah, we called her and then I think I just blacked out watching the show on Friday before the announcement. I just you know it was a lot but it was good, it's been good Wow.
Speaker 3:Yeah, what a beautiful story. Oh, I have to exhale I was on the edge of my seat. So you know, what was it that, like, scared you the most? You know, was it the time, was it that you would have all these people relying on you, like, what was it that you feel like kept you from saying yes more easily? You? Know, what was it that was really weighing on you as you were contemplating?
Speaker 1:weighing on you as you were contemplating. Um, all of the above, um, I think it was just being a mom has always been my goal in life. Um, and the whole year before that, I was just so content, like I just. We just had our second baby. I was just so excited, you know, to have my two little ones, and I was so content with my time. It was nice to go to the studio a couple nights a week, teach the small amount of classes I did and go home not dealing with the parents, not dealing with the behind the scenes and just kind of get to do what I love, come home and do what I love be a mom.
Speaker 1:And I think it was just that fear of not being content anymore with my life and wondering why would I be put in this situation? You know I'm finally at this place where I'm content, so why am I being pushed so far out of my comfort zone?
Speaker 3:Isn't it interesting that that's how it often works.
Speaker 1:Yeah, it is the right.
Speaker 3:Opportunities can come sometimes at what feels like the wrong time.
Speaker 1:Yeah, so yeah.
Speaker 3:What a story. That's awesome. Thank you for sharing that and yeah, it's really exciting. I'm glad that actually operating the business Really now, like saying yes, was sort of the easy part.
Speaker 1:Then you had to actually get to work, right.
Speaker 3:But before we get to that, I'd kind of like to rewind a little bit and hear the first part of your story, in terms of you know where you're from and kind of what led you up to the point where we picked up earlier.
Speaker 1:Okay, I mean from here kind of. I was born in Marion and then my dad's a United Methodist pastor. We're retired now so we and we're always in Morrow County. His churches were always in Morrow County. So we were out in Williamsport for a while and Cardington and Mount Gilead is where my mom worked growing up. But I always went to school in Marion. My parents would just drive me to Marion City and I was dancing in Marion and my parents lived here before my dad went back into the ministry and started working at his churches over that direction. So Marian always felt like home.
Speaker 3:It's interesting. I'm from Mount Gilead, I don't know if you know that. Oh, yeah, I grew up in all those places, I know where those churches are that you're talking about.
Speaker 1:Yeah, so it's funny because we lived in a parsonage out in Williamsport for I don't know, I don't remember how long eight years maybe and I always wanted to live in Marion so bad, you know, all my friends were here and such a long drive and this was like the big city to me which is funny because a lot of people think it's so small. But when you live, there.
Speaker 3:You know it's the big city. I actually lived about a mile from where you're talking about for a period of my growing up.
Speaker 1:Yeah, yeah, like there's a Walmart here.
Speaker 3:Yeah, yeah, yeah. I grew up, came to Marion as well and but transplanted here in 2006.
Speaker 1:So kind of get what you're saying yeah, um, so yeah, over my I. I I did most of my high school online, actually uming, and it just let me be at the studio more hours, and I was teaching a lot at that point. And then I did my schoolwork online through Pleasant's online program. But I ended up graduating from Pleasant and then I went to college. I started at Oklahoma City University as a dance pedagogy major and that was my dream school. There was a ballet instructor that I really wanted to study under there and after a year there my mom was diagnosed with cancer and she's doing really well now. Yeah, praise God.
Speaker 1:But that was really hard because it was a plane, a very expensive plane ride, you know, to get home. And so, going into my sophomore year of college, I just wanted to transfer somewhere closer. West Virginia University offered me a private audition. I told them I wanted to transfer closer. We wrote to them situation, so then they accepted me. So I ended up moving there, to West Virginia and finished out my degree there. This whole time I was dating my husband. We started dating in high school. We worked at the warehouse downtown together for years and years.
Speaker 1:So we were dating. He was at college here in Ohio. I finished two years before him from college and I moved back home. I auditioned for this little contemporary company in columbus, um. So I was dancing with them and working in columbus at a restaurant, as us performers do to make money, yeah, yeah sometimes dance doesn't make money.
Speaker 1:So I was just kind of waiting for him to graduate so that we could begin our life together. So he graduated, we got married and two days after our wedding I told him I wanted to go to his training program in New York that I'd been accepted into at Broadway Dance Center. This was like a couple weeks before our wedding and he's like okay, let's do it. So we moved to New York City. We just got a sublet there and that was so fun.
Speaker 3:Yeah, I can only imagine right Newlywed couple there in the big city.
Speaker 1:Thankfully I'd saved up. You know I'd been living at home. I'd saved up a bunch of money. So we went there and you know it's funny, we're in this tiny sublet with two men that we didn't know at all. You know you just do what you do and you live in New York, but so fun and a lot of my friends had moved there as performers. It's a very small world.
Speaker 1:So, I did the training program all summer and then our sublet was ending, so we wanted to find a long-term apartment to lease in New York, so we moved back home just for a few months, while we left most of our stuff at home.
Speaker 3:Okay, no room for it.
Speaker 1:Yeah, no room for it left most of our stuff at home because we? Um no room for it, yeah, no room for it. Um, so we moved back home just to kind of figure that out and, you know, look for a more long-term apartment. And we both loved new york, so we made that decision. That's where we wanted to be, um, and at this point I was also the restaurant I was working at. I had moved up pretty quickly in the restaurant and I had actually traveled with them in that time period before Caleb finished college, opening restaurants with them, oh, okay.
Speaker 1:So like around the United States, and so they had asked me to go on a couple more of those in the next couple months. I was like I'll just do that and we can save up some more money to go back to New York. So I did that. And then I came home for Christmas and, um, then we got pregnant and baby changes everything.
Speaker 1:So, um, which I mean, like I said before, I'd always wanted to be a mom. I was so excited that that was how we felt, and so that was how we felt, and my parents are older, so I just knew that this was perfect. I just was excited that they would get to grow up with our children and that it was working out this way.
Speaker 1:So then we had to make the decision, you know, do we stay here or do we still go back? And so we decided to stay here and just settle down. We bought a fixer-er upper and did that whole thing and created our home for our kids and I started teaching again at Edie's Um and I was just very happy doing that and and starting our life here, making you know, planting our roots and, yeah, forming friendships back here in town.
Speaker 1:So it ended up being a good thing, and it wasn't what I expected it to be and wasn't what. I expected our first few years of marriage to look like, but it's been so good yeah.
Speaker 3:Yeah, so then you had your second child, your daughter, right? Yeah. And then that's where we kind of picked up with the whirlwind that became the decision to buy the studio.
Speaker 1:Yeah.
Speaker 3:Okay, so yeah, there's been a lot of action packed in the last few years for you.
Speaker 1:Yeah, it's been crazy married. Yeah, coming back. A lot has happened.
Speaker 3:To Marion from New York, then it sounds like that's when it kind of all started.
Speaker 1:Yeah.
Speaker 3:And okay, so that brings us to present day, I guess. And so over the last year you've been running this small business. Tell us about that experience.
Speaker 1:It's been a journey. I'm sure.
Speaker 1:Yeah, lots of, lots of good things and hard things. Um, yeah, where do I start? Um, so we, we took it over, obviously right after recital, and then, um, we bought the building and bought the business within the next few weeks, and we, you know, I say it wasn't the perfect timing, but in the end you always find out it was the students that I had been teaching. I call them my company girls because you know they're the older girls and we call it company at our studio, our studio. They could not have rallied behind us more their families.
Speaker 1:They were so excited and I knew that the day we opened registration I would at least have 10 students, because those 10 girls would be there, perfect. So you know it's scary because you're like well, anybody show up, I'll at least have 10.
Speaker 1:So they all summer, summer. I mean they were just like what can we do? We just, you know we're bored in the summer anyways because we're used to dancing every night. So just tell us what we can do. And they went and we picked out paint together and we just remodeled the inside of the studio from top to bottom, um, you know, just really modernized the inside of it, and that was was so fun. I mean like such good memories that we'll all have forever and bonding.
Speaker 1:And you know, I think it was when I was in the middle of painting a wall covered in paint and I I ran back into the office to get something and one of the high school girls had my daughter and she was, you know, changing her diaper and she just had picked her up and just did it, you know, and it's just like I didn't ask her to do that and of course she, you know that wasn't her responsibility to do, but you know, she was doing it with like laughing with my daughter and giggling and just seeing that she enjoyed doing that. And you know, it's just amazing, they're Um. So we did that all summer and, uh, really changed the aesthetic part of the inside of it. And then came the hard part where I had to decide, you know, what parts of the business did I you know business model of hers did I want to keep? What parts did I want to change Um?
Speaker 1:And there were obviously, you know, things that I really wanted to change um and make it my own and um, you know. So then I was working on that all summer too and I don't think we slept to. Obviously, you know, at this point my daughter is four months old, five months old, so you're not sleeping anyways, but it was just pretty crazy, but yeah so we, we, we set our registration day in August and that was scary, that was really scary.
Speaker 1:I was. I threw up the night before just from nerves of what you know. We've sunk all this money in. You know all the savings we had as a couple. And what if nobody shows up? What if we can't afford it? I've already hired all these teachers, you know. Yeah. And so thankfully, you know, it obviously went well. Yeah. We left and she had 65 students. We had 85 last year. So we had grown a little bit this year.
Speaker 3:obviously that just almost doubled, doubled, yeah, yeah, that's incredible.
Speaker 1:So it's been a huge blessing just a huge blessing. The building needed a ton of work. That's been hard navigating, figuring that out. We had to have the whole side, the brick, fixed like every single brick fixed last summer on the side of the building. Yeah, I remember seeing that, uh yeah, the roof was sinking in, raining on the inside every time it rained, so we just had that done within the last month a whole roof tear off and replacement you know, it's just more than anybody ever imagines.
Speaker 1:When you buy, you know any business, but especially an old downtown thing as I'm sure that you have had so many, I can't imagine um indeed, but uh, yeah, do you happen to know, like the, the history of the building at all?
Speaker 3:have you, yeah, learned anything about it, what it's been through the years and stuff?
Speaker 1:it used to be a ford model showroom. Do you know that?
Speaker 3:No super fun.
Speaker 1:Um. So there used to be a huge cement ramp that went up, um, from the ground floor up to the top floor, and that's where they took the cars up and they showed them up there and the upstairs is really cool. It's actually it's 6,000 square feet and it's totally empty right now, um, and it's beautiful, like old brick, and the woodwork is really cool. So we have lots of plans and dreams for that as, um you know, finances allow over the next few years and get things stabilized.
Speaker 1:Yeah, yeah, just make sure the building's not falling apart um, so it's super cool up there, but that's where they showed the cars. I know that. And then at one point Edie had had that taken out that cement ramp and had it finished as a top and bottom floor separate and then obviously for the Edie's business wasn't there for the whole 42 years. I don't know what it was in between her business and I guess I need to do some more research in all my free time.
Speaker 3:Do you know where she was before there?
Speaker 1:She had another small studio downtown where LifePoint Church is actually in that building and it was on like the third floor, I think. Okay, that's where she was right before, and actually several of my moms were students at that time. So they tell me about that studio and I felt like they were in New York because, you know, all the studios are up you know, on like the whatever floor of the building. So they said it was really cool. And then she taught at Mid-Oh Ohio in her early years.
Speaker 1:I believe she kind of taught dance there. I think she had one other place, okay, yeah.
Speaker 3:She's curious. Yeah, that's fun. I mean it's been a lot of fun for us. A couple episodes ago I had Courtney Danner, our property manager, on and she was telling about some of the history of some of the buildings that we have. It's become like her hobby to talk with some of the locals that have a lot of the pictures and stories and all of that. And we'd certainly be happy to make connections for you if you want and just being able to reimagine it and know that you know for 130, 50 years, whatever that it's been kind of constantly evolving to be what it is today and it's just really fun to kind of make those connections with the past.
Speaker 3:Yeah, and it's really cool, yeah, yeah. Well, that's neat. So, um, uh, talk a little bit about some of the some of the challenges, where there are some things in the last year that you didn't expect in terms of running a business. You know, I mean, had you ever like really take any business classes or, you know, done any kind of business-y things? I mean you, you know, working in restaurants. So maybe there was some crossover, but yeah, um challenges.
Speaker 1:So, um, I don't have a business degree. Um, my husband is a math was math major. He works full-time job during the day, but everything that I am not, he is which is amazing.
Speaker 1:And we work. I mean, we worked together for a long time at the warehouse, so we, we love working together. Actually, we work really well together. I mean 99% of the time, obviously, his husband the 1%, but, um, yeah, it's fun, fun, we enjoy it and we balance out each other really well. So he's very organized, he can do all the bookkeeping and um, all of those things that I don't want to do because I'm the big visionary, you know, and I'm the dreamer in this, in a relationship.
Speaker 1:So, um, I come up with the plans and then he helps figure out how we're going to make that happen. Yeah, which is really great, and he is at the studio every single night.
Speaker 3:Really.
Speaker 1:Wow, and nobody knows him and sees him, mr Caleb, and he's really wonderful. So thankfully I have him, or I would be, I don't know how to do it honestly as far as the business side of it goes, I think and was that the plan all along?
Speaker 3:Like that he would be as involved in the business.
Speaker 1:Yeah, yeah, yeah. I think so. Something cool that he said when, in that crazy couple weeks of deciding if we were going to do it, I was crying and I just said I'm so sorry that I'm going to do this to our family. You know, if I choose to do it cause it just feels like such a burden to our family, um, it's going to take time away from you, know, you and our kids and our life here at home. And he just said you know, when we got married, I said for better or for worse, but this is for the for better part. He's like this is getting to see you live out your dream and help you do that. You know that's the better part of our marriage.
Speaker 1:So he's so supportive and he really loves, you know, being there and being involved and stuff. And it's nice because then our kids get to be there and then I don't feel like I'm missing out so much in the evenings with them there and being involved in stuff. And it's nice because then our kids get to be there and yeah, and then I don't feel like I'm missing out so much in the evenings with them, so yeah, yeah so the challenging, challenging parts are um, just, you know it feels like you're constantly on call when you own a business.
Speaker 1:It just it feels like you can't. It's hard, and you know I listened to you and lindsey talking in podcast. You know about that balance and we're. You have a business question? Just message.
Speaker 1:You know, call the business phone number or text the business phone number because my phone is blowing up constantly and you know, the Facebook messages, the Instagram messages, what I'm not really good at. I'm trying to get better at them, but you know they get lost and it's just a lot all the time. It's a lot to process and I'm just one person and I'm trying to be a mom, and so it's just, you know, balancing all of that and and and just trying to figure out when to just say no, you know, or I can't, I know I can't respond to that and or that can wait till Monday.
Speaker 1:You know, that question doesn't need answered right now, so that can wait till Monday. I think I'm already doing this second year. I'm doing better at that. I've hired two people to work in the office this year to help, because last year it was just my husband and I. You know it's hard. You want to create a new culture. You have a new studio. You want to change that and you don't know who you can trust in those ways and whoever you have working for you represents you. Absolutely.
Speaker 1:Especially if the business is in your name. So just navigating that, yeah, I think. Luckily dance and just in general for young kids, I think it teaches great time management skills, just like any sport. When you get to a certain level, you're putting in a lot of hours, a lot of training, and so you're balancing that with school. So you know, I think I learned that growing up. So just doing that with little ones and family and husband adds another level. But yeah, it's, I think those are the biggest challenges, or have been the biggest challenges and still are.
Speaker 3:Yeah, yeah, well know that you're not alone in that. I think that every small business owner that I talk with to some extent or another struggles with balance of communication, of family, of work. You know, and you literally can work infinity number of hours and so you just have to draw the line somewhere, and that can be really difficult, because the reality is, I think we've learned, is that you're always letting someone down.
Speaker 3:And so it's either going to be your family, one of your clients, um, and those are tough trade-offs, um, but deciding what some of those boundaries are, you know, it sounds like you're navigating that and, uh, I don't know that it's anything you ever figure out but just get better at. And so yeah, but I mean the out but just get better at, and so yeah, but I mean the for you guys to be working together. That much, not a lot of couples can do that.
Speaker 3:So I think that you've got something pretty special going on. It sounds like to be able to do that. And then also recognizing the need for adding additional people kind of to the team is as the business grows and it sounds like it's growing fairly quickly. I think is really wise on your part and it sounds like it's growing fairly quickly. Uh, I think is really wise on your part. So it sounds like you're figuring it out as you go.
Speaker 3:Yeah, yeah, yeah, that's exciting. So, um, something that I mean I love about your business is just uh, maybe you can speak to this a little bit, but, um, Maybe you can speak to this a little bit, but a lot of people that know me in a business context or have met me later in life don't know that I was also a performer for many years in music and theater, not so much the dancing side of things, maybe we'll have to start some adult classes.
Speaker 3:Come back? Yeah, maybe not, but on the music and theater side and you know, I know that that I look back at that as something that taught me incredibly in terms of performing and being in front of crowds and public speaking and all of that yeah yeah, the confidence and just that stage presence and you know you're giving that gift to really kids of all ages. Talk a little bit about you know just like how that feels and I mean, do you look at it in that context? I mean, do you?
Speaker 3:see that kind of like real life application of what you're doing for the people that aren't going to go on to be a professional dancer or have their own studio, like you have.
Speaker 1:Right. Yeah, I think that's the question a lot of parents have at some point. You know what's the value.
Speaker 3:What's the value in?
Speaker 1:spending all the money.
Speaker 3:It's a big time and money investment.
Speaker 1:Yeah.
Speaker 1:I have a daughter that dances now so I get it and, oh for sure I mean it. Just, I think I think dance teaches so much more than just how to move your body. Um, all of the things you described and just seeing the, I think seeing confidence grow in the younger ones is is so special and so fun because you you get to see them in. The longer kids stay, obviously, you get to know them better and you get to see this more. But those middle school years are hard, just in general, and kids are so uncomfortable in their bodies and, um, helping them navigate, you know, through those hard years and into high school and building confidence within them and encouraging them, um, and building those things, like we said, time management skills and also discipline. Um, you know, I think discipline is so needed in all parts of of our lives and you know I tell my kids you're not, you're not going to wake up.
Speaker 1:You know when they come in and they're tired and they've been dancing all week, you know you're not going to wake up every day and want to go to your job when you get older, you know and that's where the discipline comes in that you, that you do it anyways, um, and just teaching that from a young age in a healthy way, because I think a lot of times it's done in an unhealthy way but teaching discipline in a healthy and encouraging and loving environment, I think is really, really important for young kids. So, yeah, I think, just getting to see all of those things move and students change and grow into who they are, and it's so fun. Yeah, sorry, go ahead.
Speaker 3:Yeah, it seems like there's also like an element of like teamwork and accountability. You know what I mean when you're dancing in like these group numbers. You know it's really like only as good as the weakest link you know if somebody is like really off, like it kind of takes away from the entire thing right, so kind of having some of those elements in as well. So I hadn't thought about that initially but as you were talking, I thought about that too.
Speaker 3:Yeah, for sure. Yeah Well, that's cool, I love to see it, and it's great to see that you know you're able to do that for a growing number of families and students as you're going forward here. So I'd like to shift gears a little bit, because the other thing that I've seen you do really well, in addition to growing your business and making it your own and just having a real authenticity to the way that you're doing things you know I love seeing you and Caleb out and about with your kids and you're at community events and just doing things both on behalf of your business and it seems like at least just because you really love the Marion community and specifically downtown, and I know that you've commented on kind of the growing number of activities for families and kids. So talk a little bit about like kind of how that experience has been, because I imagine you know when you left Marion to when you've come back, like it's it's, it's different.
Speaker 1:Yeah, Different in a great way it's been. It's been so fun to watch everything that's been going on downtown and all the work you guys have done. It's just really amazing.
Speaker 3:So thank you for all that, yeah, thank you.
Speaker 1:It's a team effort, like you said to make it happen.
Speaker 1:I will be really honest and say that years ago I remember my dad and I were talking and he said if Edie ever offered the studio to you, would you take it. But years ago I remember my dad and I were talking and he said if Edie ever offered the studio to you, would you take it? And I remember my comment back to him was I would buy the business but I would never buy that building Because the downtown was a rough place and there was nothing going on and I knew the building was going to be a lot of work.
Speaker 1:If I ever bought it, I knew 10 years the building was going to be a lot of work. If I ever bought it, you know, I knew 10 years ago it's going to be a lot of work and um, and then it was funny to see my change in perspective that you know, coming back and then and just and just being really excited and seeing the families in in town and seeing how the downtown is growing, and that when you know, when we were presented with the opportunity, it was like that was such a plus. You know the building being in its location and where it is in the history.
Speaker 1:you know I was like, oh, my goodness, like what? What an opportunity we have here. So, yeah, what a shift that was. That was cool. But yeah, it's been. It's been really, really cool to see the community. It feels like the community has really rallied around us in our family, um, which has been so fun. I don't think you can work and have a business in a community and have them support you unless you support them. Um, I think it's a two way street and, um, we, we love doing it. We have, you know, lots of friends and in town and we just love having places to go and, and you know it's, it's just awesome to see how it's grown and it's exciting to now be a part of the downtown growing and to be able to have so many families coming down you know this way and providing a place, a reason for them to do that, Another reason every week for them to do that.
Speaker 1:And I just think it's really, really cool how we've connected with the other studios in town. We're in a unique position to. We have a unique connection with each of the studios. One of the studios we worked at the warehouse with the owner for all those years that we worked together.
Speaker 1:You know very closely, so we know her very well and we love her and my husband is actually related to his great aunt was Martha Douse so we you know the other side is family from the other studios in town on that end and we've now become such good friends with Kiana who owns Diapers Smooth. Yes, yes, she's wonderful. And she's wonderful. If you don't know, kiana, everyone needs to know.
Speaker 3:Kiana, you need a dose of her every once in a while, just for some positivity, right?
Speaker 1:You do and I don't know. It's just been so neat to watch that unfold because in the dance world it's really unhealthy a lot of the times.
Speaker 3:It's very competitive.
Speaker 1:It's very sad when you get out into the performing world outside of your own small town. It's very small, very small. You'll see the same people constantly. You know, this friend knows that friend and it's all so connected, and so that was something I really prayed for when we bought it and I didn't know how we were going to accomplish it, but I did know that we had these connections, you know, and my hope was that we could just bring the dance community together and we, you know, as a collective effort, I feel like all of us, as studio owners, have really been able to do that.
Speaker 1:I mean, it's been really neat to watch our students support each other at Christmas at the Palace. And when we got to Christmas at the Palace, I gave my students a scavenger hunt. They had a video scavenger hunt. They had to go around and meet students from each of the studios and I gave them a challenge with each studio just so they could get to know them and that way, when you know they're watching them perform, they have made those personal connections to encourage them and cheer them on, and it's just been really cool and something that I really hoped would happen, and now it's cool to see that it did happen.
Speaker 3:What a great perspective. And, just you know, kudos to you for just trying to make those connections and the positive relationships within the dance community. Because, you're right, you know it's so easy in different industries or business types to really have sort of an adversarial relationship with your competitors and to be able to have that positive kind of abundance mindset. You know that, hey, there's plenty of students, there's plenty of like work for all of us to be able to do.
Speaker 3:The opportunity is big in Marion. This is a big enough town to support. You know numerous dance studios and we all kind of have our own specialty right it seems like, and when you allow people a choice of a lot of great options, you know, everybody wins, I think.
Speaker 1:Oh for sure. And sharing students, sharing students has been cool. You know, we don't. We don't offer hip hop at our studio. I'm very much ballet trained and so that's just not one of my forties at the moment. We don't offer that. But it's cool, you know, to have a student come in and say I want to take hip hop, and I I can say, you know, with full confidence, you know, hey, I, I know, perfect instructor it's not here. But you know, try out a class at this studio. And to be able to share students back and forth, that's really cool. We had, um, we had diverse moves come to our studio, they brought a bunch of their students and we came and we did a whole collab night where they got to know each other and we just got to enjoy dancing. You know, they taught us some hip hop, we taught them some contemporary movement, which they don't do. We got to use our strengths to build relationships and we made our mission spreading joy through dance.
Speaker 1:When we opened the studio, we thought about you know what is a quick phrase that we really want to implement every single day when we go in, and um, and, and that was it, and it's. It's just been cool to to do that in the community spreading joy through dance.
Speaker 3:Yeah, yeah, yeah, absolutely love that. Yeah, absolutely love that. So as a mom, you know, not necessarily as a business owner again I know that you've been really plugged in to the downtown and the community in general. I mean, what are some of the experiences that you've really enjoyed with your kids kind of around the downtown and so forth?
Speaker 1:Yeah well, we have our Wednesday ritual. We go to Max Air for jumping and then oftentimes we'll stop at Lulu's too and go across the street to get coffee at the Remnant going to the Exploratorium. Having those options for our kids is such a blessing just be able to drive five minutes down the road and have all of that right here in town and not have to drive to Columbus. I've heard so many people in the older generation say you know, we drove to Delaware, we drove to Columbus with our kids. There weren't these opportunities to do when I tell them.
Speaker 1:You know what I've done with the kids this morning and stuff. So, um, third Thursday, you know all of the events are just so fun the family nights that you know. Yeah, we, we really, really enjoy it, especially as a young couple with young kids, and we're excited to just see the opportunities growing and know our kids are so young so they're only going to have more opportunities in town. That's really really exciting. Um, I think this kind of put things into perspective for me. But I had choreographer from New York come last year to choreograph a piece for my students. She's lived in, um, I met her Oklahoma city, went to college together, but, um, she choreographs for a lot of the Broadway shows and so she's deep in the New York world. But before that she grew up in Phoenix and then lived in Oklahoma City and now in New York and she goes back and forth from New York to LA, so she's only ever been in big cities her whole life.
Speaker 1:And she came. I picked her up from the airport, I took her to Meijer to get some foods for her hotel room. And I mean everywhere. I stopped every aisle.
Speaker 1:I stopped in I talked to someone, you know, and it was just this sweet conversation and by the time we left, meijer, she was just in awe. She was like this feels like a movie. And then we went downtown and we walked into the palace box office because I wanted to show her the theater it would be in, you know, and they greeted us. Oh hey, emily, you know, and I told him about the oh hey, emily, you know, and I told him about the choreographer and took us around and we go across the coffee shop and people say your name and and she's, she was just almost in tears, literally almost in tears. She's like this is the most beautiful thing I've ever seen.
Speaker 1:She's like this feels like I'm in a movie right now. And I can't believe this is your life every day, you know, but it is, it is, it's so fun to walk around and you know, you walk into the coffee shop and you see your friends and you see people, you know, and I think it's just like this mind shift happened after that. It was like we need to like romanticize our town, you know, like it's just so special. And now, every time that happens, it's like I, you know, I feel that way, I feel like that warmth, you know, and think of her and and um, yeah, yeah, what a perspective.
Speaker 3:I mean, you know, I think we do take it for granted sometimes, you know, being from a smaller town, um, and just to have that, and I think that really, I think all of us as humans, like we, long for that. And you know, it sounds like she had never experienced it. But I think that we really saw that, like you know, during COVID and stuff like where that was kind of like taken away from us.
Speaker 3:And we weren't able to have those in person and really personal, deep, relational experiences. And I also think that it's like why people are kind of migrating from big cities to smaller communities like ours, and I think that it's a reason that Marion is poised for growth in the coming years because we have a lot of the amenities and opportunities that people want being from a larger city but with that kind of hometown-y feel that you know, I mean, it's so interesting to hear you know kind of refer to it as like it feels like you're in a movie, but to someone that's never experienced it it probably does.
Speaker 1:I mean, that's just wild. Yeah, it was cool to see that in real life. You know someone experience it who's never experienced it before.
Speaker 3:Yeah, yeah it's really cool, you know. The other thing that you mentioned that I really am excited for is just that. You know, I think that people like you know I'm a little bit older than you, but you know both of us like had the experience of coming to downtown Marion before. It was really much and in fact you know, it's kind of sketchy in parts and then have kind of flipped as it's evolved, whereas, like your kids, having just grown up like not ever knowing any different.
Speaker 1:you know, you know it just won't be the uphill battle to sort of educate and kind of convince them that this is, you know, something worth being excited about.
Speaker 3:Yeah, yeah, it's so cool yeah, yeah, and people like you are making that happen. Um, you know you didn't kind of mention, uh, but it was. It was fun to see you also offer like a toddler time at the studio, so that was kind of fun. I know that you and some of the other kind of like toddler-focused businesses kind of collabed about making sure that like they weren't all falling on the same day, but you know the summertime, like things are really hopping. You know there was a lot of different opportunities that way, and so I hope that the word continues to spread, you know, within the kind of young parent community that there are those opportunities.
Speaker 1:Yeah, yeah, for sure.
Speaker 3:Because, yeah, even as long as you know, eight or ten years ago, when our kids were younger, there were not those options in town. So that's exciting to see. So I mean, as you kind of look across the downtown landscape and at Marion as a whole, you know what's sort of your vision and things that you're excited about um, I think I don't know.
Speaker 1:Like I said, I just think it's exciting to to to know that this is where we've chosen to grow our family. Um, and I think it's it's just nice, because Marion is big enough to have those opportunities, but small enough, like we talked about, to feel homey. Yeah. And to feel safe and loved in this town and supported you know and not feel like this little fish in such a big world? Yeah, yeah.
Speaker 1:So I'm excited to see the downtown keep growing. I'm excited to see what else pops up and who else starts a business, and I'm excited to encourage whoever does it, you know, because it's hard, it's really hard. Sorry, I think I just kicked your mic. Yeah, it's hard, you know, every day, but it's also awesome and it's awesome to have a community that supports you while you do it Cause otherwise it would probably feel impossible, you know, if you didn't have the community behind you?
Speaker 3:Yeah, I think it's really exciting to see young families like yours that are choosing intentionally to live here, you know it's, it's like a I think that it's a leading indicator of like Marion's position for growth is when we see those types of things where people are coming back and intentionally choosing Marion and they're choosing to either stay here or come back here, and it seems like, especially when they, like, are ready to raise a family, which is your situation, as you told the story, had you not had kids yet, you would have jetted to New York. But recognize that if you're going to raise a family, this would be a really great place to do it.
Speaker 3:So, I'm glad that you're doing that and excited for others that choose that, others that that choose that, and the more opportunities we have for entertainment and activities and and all of that, especially for young kids, I think is really important.
Speaker 1:Yeah, yeah, I think so too yeah.
Speaker 3:Good. So, um yeah. So I guess, as we kind of wrap up, if you uh would share if someone has heard uh for the first time about I read dance Academy and they are wanting to get ahold of you and maybe talk about future opportunities to to dance with you there. How did they get ahold of you? Where are you located, all that stuff?
Speaker 1:Sure, we're located at two 19 East center street, so our catty corner to Papa John's, and you can just call the studio number, I guess, if someone wants to get a hold of us, 419-777-iry. Yeah, we have a Facebook page. Obviously. We have a website, so if someone's interested they can look at there. We're constantly trying to come up with new ideas.
Speaker 1:We're only a year in, so we have a lot of ideas in the pipeline but just you know we haven't had time to execute all of those yet. But we're excited about this six-week thing.
Speaker 1:You know students just want to try it out. We've already started our full season for the year, but we have other and we're offering more opportunities too. If you don't, if you aren't involved in our studio, you know, all the time we're doing um a few more of those parent nights we did last year. We have them on the schedule already parent night out, where kids can come. They can be at our studio for three hours um with our, with our oldest students, you know, and adults as well, but we'll dance with them, we have fun, we do crafts and parents can just go out and enjoy the downtown. Yeah, I love that.
Speaker 1:And we're right downtown, and that also gives kids. If they aren't a regular student, they can just come in and spend some time with us too. We can get to know them. So yeah, we have lots of exciting things happening all the time and more ideas coming and growth. You know it's exciting to see the studio growing, and so that only provides us, with you know, more opportunities in the future.
Speaker 3:So yeah, yeah Well, I'm excited to see more of those things come too. I thought the Parents Night Out was a phenomenal idea and I know it was well attended last year, and so I look forward to that. And you know, again, I think just those are the types of things that are so great for our community to be able to take advantage of expose their kids to some culture and you know something new if they've not been in a dance studio before. So it's kind of fun and, of course, always great for parents to get a night out, and, with the growing number of options here, it's a great time to do it. So, yeah Well, thank you again for being on with me. This has been a fun conversation. I think you provide a lot of inspiration for people that may be contemplating taking the leap on something at some point, and just that, it's okay to be scared, it's okay to deliberate about that, and it's okay sometimes if it's not the right timing. Sometimes things are still going to fall into place.
Speaker 3:So you shared a lot of wisdom with us, and I wish you much luck going into the second year here.
Speaker 1:Thank you.
Speaker 3:And success. And yeah, I know we'll be seeing each other around a lot here, so thanks, again Thanks. Thanks for listening to the Main Street Reimagined podcast. To learn more about Main Street Reimagined Henry Development Group or our work in downtown Marion, ohio, please visit MainStreetReimaginedcom If you want to connect or if you know someone who we need to interview, shoot us an email at info at MainStreetReimaginedcom. Until next time, keep dreaming and don't be afraid to take the leap.