Become a Creator today!Start creating today - Share your story with the world!
Start for free
00:00:00
00:00:01
08. From Ballet to Business: How My Dance Training Prepared Me for Entrepreneurship
112 Plays4 months ago
I never imagined that I would go into business for myself, but here I am!
From Dancer to Educator to Administrator to School Director and now Entrepreneur, I owe much of my success to the skills I learned in the dance classroom.
Chances are you will find yourself in a career outside of performing one of these days. If you’ve ever thought about entrepreneurship but are not sure you’re cut out for it - tune in to this episode. You might realize that your dance training has set you up with the most important skills you need to get started.
Links and Resources:
1-1 Career Mentoring: book your complimentary career call
Let’s connect!
My WEBSITE: thebrainyballerina.com
INSTAGRAM: instagram.com/thebrainyballerina
Questions/comments? Email me at [email protected]
Recommended
Transcript
Introduction to Caitlin and the Ballerina Podcast
00:00:04
Speaker
I'm Caitlin, a former professional ballerina turned dance educator and career mentor. And this is the brand new ballerina podcast. I am here for the aspiring professional ballerina who wants to learn what it really takes to build a smart and sustainable career in the dance industry. I'm peeling back the curtain of professional dance world with open and honest conversations about the realities of becoming a professional dancer. Come along to gain the knowledge and inspiration you need to succeed in a dance career on your terms.
From Dancer to Entrepreneur
00:00:39
Speaker
Hello and welcome to the Brainy Valerina podcast. I'm your host, Caitlin Sloan, and today I'm sharing how my dance training prepared me for entrepreneurship. When I was dancing professionally or when I was training, I never saw myself being an entrepreneur. I never thought that I would own my own business. It was not something I had on my radar. And in my minds, Being an entrepreneur as a dancer meant owning your own dance studio. That was the path that I had seen the most. I'd seen a lot of people take, and I never really thought that I wanted to do that. I love teaching. I loved being the director of a school that was affiliated with a professional dance company in that role, but I didn't see myself owning my own studio.
00:01:18
Speaker
So I kind of stumbled into it by accident in a transition period of my life when I was looking for something. I had left a leadership position and I was missing that ability to be a leader and have autonomy and make decisions that I thought were best. And I really was craving that again. And that's how the brainy ballerina really started was me needing that sense of having something that was important to me that I could have in my control when a lot of things felt outside of my control as a dancer retiring and just feeling like who am I what am I doing with my life and so that's how the brainy ballerina started and it's so interesting because I never thought that I would go into this role and
Applying Ballet Lessons to Business
00:01:55
Speaker
yet.
00:01:55
Speaker
When I started my business, I realized that I had so many skills already in my back pocket that helped me build my business. And there's a few things that really stood out to me. And one is the fact that great things take time. In this day and age, we are ingrained in a culture of instant gratification. I can turn on my TV and stream any show directly with a click of a button, or I can have takeout delivered to my door in a matter of minutes. And I know we all love quick fixes, and I am definitely someone who likes the convenience of certain things. I will absolutely use those things in my life to help make some things easier. But there will never be a quick fix for learning ballet. It takes time, it takes dedication, it takes perseverance. And the same principle reigns true for building a business. One fact that I read in a book that really stood out to me, and I believe it was in the book Atomic Habits by James Clear,
00:02:50
Speaker
And this fact that he shared was that bamboo grows its roots for five years underground before growing 90 feet in the air within six weeks. Let that sink in for a second because that fact really astounded me when I read it and it just spoke to me on such a deep level because there's no such thing as an overnight success, even when it feels like that to those outside the process. You might watch someone else and think, wow, they just had overnight success, but you didn't see the years and years of auditioning or trying to build this business and not getting clients.
00:03:24
Speaker
Whatever it is, you didn't see all the times that they failed before they had success. So when the progress I'm making in my business seems really slow and monotonous, I think back to the millions of pliés I have done in my life, all in preparation for something much bigger. It took years of daily practice, but eventually it led me to a professional dance career. I've been through this process and seen what can happen when you take your time to build a solid foundation And this lesson has been essential for me to persevering through some of the tough times in business.
The Role of Perseverance and Monotony
00:03:56
Speaker
There are plenty of times when I have to do a task or figure something out that for me seems really monotonous. My brain likes the creative part of it. It likes doing things like this, a podcast. It likes writing the blog posts. It likes working with clients. My brain does not love figuring out.
00:04:15
Speaker
how to prepare for my taxes, or how to update something on my websites. Those things just are so monotonous and tough, but they're essential for a business. You have to do all of those things in order to do what I call for me the fun things, the things that I actually want to do and the reason why I got into business in the first place. And so I can equate that to all those plies I've done. They sometimes can feel monotonous when you do it every single day over and over again, but it's like taking your medicine. You have to do it in order to do the fun things. You can't jump high or do a lot of turns if you don't have a solid plie. So once again, just coming back to that idea of putting in the work.
00:04:56
Speaker
It's okay if it's slow. It's okay if it takes time. It will lead you to where you want to go. And I understand that because I was a dancer and because I had that experience and saw what can happen. Another thing that has really helped me in my business and that has really stood out to me for my dance training is the knowledge that I can do hard things. And when I started my business, like I was just saying, I was initially excited by a lot of the flashy parts. Like picking up the name was really fun, choosing a logo and the colors and all those kinds of things. But then reality sets in and you realize there's a lot of things you don't know about starting a business. Like I said, taxes, finances, his SEO, oh my gosh. So many things that just had me metaphorically banging my head against the wall because I was so annoyed that I had to figure out these monotonous things. But again, I think back to my very first ballet class and I was so excited to go shopping for my first leotard and ballet slippers. and
00:05:48
Speaker
put my hair in the perfect ballet bun, and I thought ballet looked beautiful and fun. And I had no idea how much I was going to have to learn before I could do the steps I had watched on stage. You know, you see these beautiful ballerinas, you see them doing footays. Grand Delay grow and you think, wow, I can't wait to do that. And you think you're going to walk into class and start doing that. And then you realize there's so much more that you have to do before you can fly. But I took that very first step in class and then the next and I kept going and I came to so many roadblocks in my career and I figured out solutions. It was hard, but I did it. And ballet taught me that it's okay to not know everything.
Career Transition and Embracing Change
00:06:27
Speaker
But what's really important is being open to learning and knowing that I have the skills and the tools available to help me find the answers. So whether it's a quick Google search, reaching out to my coach for guidance, sign up for a new class, I know that I can take those roadblocks and build a bridge to climb over. I've done it many times in my career and I know I can keep doing it again. I have proved to myself that I'm capable of doing hard things. The last really big lesson that I learned from my dance career that I have transferred to my business
00:07:00
Speaker
is that it is okay to pivot. When I first started my dance career, I was so sure I wanted to dance in a classical ballet company. That was what I had trained for. That is what most of the dancers in my studio did. For me, that was the peak, and that is what I wanted to achieve. But after I went down that path for a few years, I realized it wasn't for me. I wasn't happy. I wasn't enjoying what I was doing. And I wanted to do something else. And I needed to have the courage to let go of out outside expectations and my own internal expectations for what I thought my career was supposed to look like.
00:07:35
Speaker
and pivot to a career that was truly fulfilling for me, even if it was different than my original plan. And throughout my career, I have repeated this many times times and not in a flighty way, but with a well thought out intention to keep developing my career in a way that aligns with where I am in each moment of life, recognizing that I change and my career can change too. And that's allowed me to start my business and what continues to allow me to evolve. So when I first started the Brainy Ballerina, I exclusively intended to sell only printable resources for use in the ballet classroom. And while I still have this arm of my business, I realized that dancers need so much more personal guidance when it comes to their careers. And I realized that that's something that I'm good at, that I really enjoy doing.
00:08:21
Speaker
And so it's what led me to start offering career mentoring and working one-on-one with dancers on the cusp of their professional career and really centering my business around career resources instead of around resources for the dance classroom. Because I just realized that was where my passion lied and that is where I found the most fulfillment. And it was scary because people really were supportive of my initial business plan. and Changing it felt a little scary because it's like, what if people aren't supportive of this? But it didn't really matter to me because it's what felt right to me. And I knew that if I was passionate about what I was doing, other people would see that and they would want to be a part of it.
Lessons from Dance to Life and Encouragement
00:08:58
Speaker
So making a change can be scary, but I've done it so many times in my dance career. And I've learned that if you lean into that discomfort, you'll continue evolving. It's okay.
00:09:08
Speaker
to change your mind, it doesn't make you flighty, it doesn't make you undisciplined, it just means that you are following what truly matters to you instead of sticking with something because you feel like you have to or because you've sunk too much time in it to change your mind. This is your one and only life, so you have to be able to have the courage to try something new if what you're doing isn't working. So the major lesson that I take away from this is that the time you spend in the dance studio is setting you up for success no matter which career path you choose. Whether you choose to be a dancer, whether you choose to start your own business, whether you choose to do something completely different that you've never even thought of yet, you are getting set up for success. Dance teaches us to be disciplined, creative, adaptable, organized, team players, critical thinkers, so many more things. And these attributes are truly some of the most invaluable skills you can have as you make your way through your life.
00:10:03
Speaker
both on the stage or off. So I hope that this episode has helped to demonstrate to you how much you really know as a dancer and how much power you have and how much strength you have. And so if there's something on your mind that you want to try, just know that you have everything you need to succeed. You have done the work, you have put in the time, you have done hard things and you have made major pivots in your life and it all has turned out okay. Even if it seems scary at the time, even if you weren't sure what was going to happen, you took the metaphorical or sometimes actual leap and you figured it out. So if you have something on your heart that you've been wanting to try or something you wanted to do, just know that you already have everything you need inside of you to make it happen.
00:10:50
Speaker
Thank you for tuning into the Brainy Ballerina podcast. If you found this episode insightful, entertaining, or maybe a bit of both, I would so appreciate you taking a moment to leave a rating and hit subscribe. By subscribing, you'll never miss an episode. And you'll join our community of dancers passionate about building a smart and sustainable career in the dance industry. Plus, your ratings help others discover the show too. I'll be back with a new episode next week. In the meantime, be sure to follow along on Instagram at The Brainy Valorina for your daily dose of dance career guidance.