Dance Your Way to a Stronger Relationship with Adam & April King

Episode Transcript
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Speaker 1 (00:00):
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(00:21):
Hello all, my entrepreneurs and business leaders, and welcome to
the Michael Esposito Show, where I interview titans of industry
in order to inform, educate, and inspire you to be great.

Speaker 2 (00:33):
My guests today are founders of the Dance King Method.
They are the driving force behind the Dance King Method,
with over twenty three years of experience transforming relationships. They
harness the art of social dancing to help couples connect,
communicate effectively, foster trust, and reintroduce fun into their lives.

(00:58):
This time tested form of communication may have been lost
in our modern world, still it possesses a unique power,
breathing life into relationships and rekindling the spark of shared experiences.
If you're struggling in your relationship, feel disconnected, unhappy, and
maybe even a little bored, It's time to change your

(01:21):
rhythm and start moving in sync with your partner again.
Please welcome the founders of Dance King Studios and the
Dance King Method, April and Adam King.

Speaker 3 (01:35):
Hey, Michael Howaring, good, welcome, Thank you for having us.

Speaker 4 (01:38):
Yeah, welcome to the show. This is really really cool
to have you two on.

Speaker 2 (01:42):
I myself am a bit of a performer, as we've
already kind of touched on off camera here. I have
a little bit of a background in theater, but I'll
put it out there right from the start.

Speaker 4 (01:52):
I did ballet when I was a little kid, you.

Speaker 3 (01:57):
Know, I wish I had. I didn't start until I
was a sophomore in college, so and only did ballet
like twice. Very difficult. I can appreciate it on a
lot of different levels. How long did you do it?

Speaker 2 (02:09):
I think the difficulty with doing ballet was more that
I was a boy than it was the difficulty of
doing ballet.

Speaker 5 (02:16):
Some one called us. Just a couple of weeks ago,
a mom called and said, do you teach because she
didn't realize we teach adults and social dancing. She just
saw we were a dance school. So she's like, I'm
having a heck of a time. I'm trying to find
my son wants to do ballet and it's hard as
a boy. So she ran into the same thing.

Speaker 2 (02:32):
It was very challenging to be a boy in a
room full of girls, not knowing you know that that
would be a dream later on in life, but of
course much different. Yeah, So I did it for I
want to say, probably three years. I'm thinking, because I
think it was like from.

Speaker 4 (02:50):
First grade to maybe third grade.

Speaker 2 (02:52):
And then you know, then then all the masculine you know,
started coming out of like, wait a second, what am
I doing wearing a leotard?

Speaker 3 (03:01):
Well, I can see that. I mean, it's it's one
of the big misconceptions when folks reach out to us
assuming that or when we highlight that we teach dance, Yeah,
the student's ballet or jazz, hap modern something like that.

Speaker 2 (03:16):
Yeah, all inspiring with what you do, and yet certainly
understand more of an adult studio. And we're going to
get into the relationships and all the different connections and everything.
But I'd love to learn more about each of you
as individuals, as to your backgrounds and where you came
from and what sparked this desire to dance for you?

Speaker 3 (03:39):
Sure would you like to?

Speaker 5 (03:42):
We'll follow your lead ladies first, So all right, ladies first,
so I didn't grow up dancing. I was a band geek.

Speaker 6 (03:50):
I played the flute and did the marching band, and
I absolutely loved music all growing up, but I never
tried dancing. And then when I went off to college,
I took a ballroom elective class and I fell in love.
I liked the people, I liked the connection. That was
so much fun. And so that was my freshman year

(04:11):
in college and I ended up connecting with the instructor.
He was like, you know, you have some talent and
would love to bring you on as my assistant for
the class. So for the rest of my college career,
I actually worked as his assistant. And I started working
at the it's called Danceport, Virginia where I got to

(04:32):
go in and they started doing teacher training with me.

Speaker 5 (04:36):
But I was a poor, broke college kid and couldn't.

Speaker 6 (04:38):
Afford private lessons for ballroom dancing, and so they said, well,
if you shrub the floors and you shrub the toilets,
then you work all of our parties, we'll give you
the teacher training for free.

Speaker 5 (04:50):
And I was like, sign me up. So that's what
I did. My whole college career. I worked every party.

Speaker 6 (04:56):
I was the custodian for the studio and I got
my teacher training for free, and I just I loved
working with the people.

Speaker 5 (05:05):
I loved the movement.

Speaker 6 (05:07):
It was a I fell in love with the community
that it brought people together. It brought people together from
all different walks of life, different ages, different backgrounds, and
if it didn't, it didn't matter, Like just brought humanity together.

Speaker 5 (05:23):
And I really really loved it.

Speaker 6 (05:26):
And so that's how I got started with, you know,
teaching dance.

Speaker 2 (05:31):
That's a really great opportunity that you had from this
instructor bringing you under their wing. I'm interested a little
bit too, in the mindset that you had of being
essentially the custodian in order to learn to be a
dance instructor. I bring this question up because so often
we hear about the side hustles in order to accomplish
our dreams, and so I'm just interested in, like, what

(05:52):
was what was your mindset as you were, like you said,
scrubbing toilets and doing the things that you know, that's
not why you're there, but you have to do this
in order to get to where you're going.

Speaker 6 (06:03):
Because I saw what a beautiful opportunity it was, and
an opportunity to do something that It was the first
time that I felt really excited or passionate about something
and I didn't understand like how what that looked like
down in the future. But I knew that this was

(06:24):
going to be something that was part of my life.
And you know, I didn't have the money. Like I said,
I was a poor college kid and my parents didn't
have the money, so you know, I didn't come from money.
And having this you know, opportunity to you know, work
for something and having to be a custodian type thing
to do that, I was like I would have done

(06:45):
more to do have the opportunity to do something that
was a dream, like a dream job, dream opportunity. So
I was very thankful the whole time I was scrubbing
toilets and you know, mopping floors. It was a space
of gratitude and because that's that was the way that
I could do something that I really loved.

Speaker 5 (07:04):
So I was always in a space of gratitude.

Speaker 2 (07:07):
Yeah, I think the space of gratitude, you know, is tremendous.
We sometimes forget about that, right we look at what
we don't have rather than what we have, and you know,
being in that space of gratitude and looking at it
as an opportunity.

Speaker 4 (07:19):
It was all about what you have. I love that.

Speaker 2 (07:22):
It's so cool, Yeah, because I think that you need
to be in a space of gratitude and look at
your opportunities when youre scrubbing toilets, right, we won't linger
there too much, too much longer. And what about for you, Adam,
how did you get your start and dance?

Speaker 3 (07:39):
For me? I started as a college student as well,
so I did a It was you remember those old
gap commercials, you know where they would throw the you know,
they would throw the girls to the left, to the right,
throw them up and then between their legs. I think
I'd seen that commercial too many times wow, and decided
I want to learn to the swing. So I found

(08:00):
a studio at the Jersey Shore one summer I think
it was my junior year, and apparently I had entirely
too much fun that that summer, so I didn't even
finish all of my ten private lessons, but but I
was definitely it got me started and it taught me
what I didn't know. I started with swing, and even
even then, my instructor introduced me to some other styles.

(08:24):
And then when I moved to Virginia, I found an
opportunity with one of the big chain franchise dance studios
and I taught there for seven years with Arthur Murray.
And that was that was the beginning. That was back
in two thousand and one.

Speaker 4 (08:42):
So it's been And you're a bit humble, right.

Speaker 2 (08:45):
Weren't you listed named one of the top dance instructors
for Arthur Murray?

Speaker 3 (08:50):
Yes, yeah, I think it was. That was that was
that was how I went out that last year. That
was back in two thousand and six, and I've been
teaching dance our adult life.

Speaker 2 (09:01):
Give us a little contact on Arthur Murray and its
significance in the dance world and and this award. And
I bring this up not to be boastful for you
in any way or try to take away from obviously
you're very humble, but also so that people can understand
your level of experience.

Speaker 3 (09:20):
Sure, I mean a ballroom, any ballroom studio. So Arthur
Murray fredist there, think of think of McDonald's and Burger King.

Speaker 2 (09:29):
So those are the two biggest players, is what you're saying. Yeah,
we'll go with we'll go with Ferrari and Lamborghini, we'll
give we'll scale you up a little bit like that.

Speaker 3 (09:39):
I've gotten into cars, so so you know, teaching with
them it was a great opportunity. You know, we have competitions.
They would do competitions essentially every three months, so students
were always getting ready for that next competition. So that
last year, you know, as I was shifting away from ballroom, uh,

(10:02):
the goal is to shift away and focus on the
social styles. So it was it was a wonderful experience
to get that award for that. That was my last
competition I ended my career for the It was a
free styles event, which was a great experience just in

(10:23):
terms of the students and everybody was excited, you know,
for the next chapter of my life. So ballroom, ballroom
is always I always look at it as just being competition.
So if you go to a ballroom studio, the goal
is going to be to go to a competition. So
whether some students are interested in that, some students a.

Speaker 4 (10:43):
Little bit more.

Speaker 3 (10:46):
Reluctant to do competitions, which is i'd say most, But
we shifted into a social space. So there's a huge
community of folks. There's basically a place to go every
day of the week for salsa, for tango, and for swing,
and so that became the focus of dance King and

(11:07):
what we do with the dance king method. My favorite
is and has always been working with couples. So that's
in terms of folks that come out, we get a
combination of singles and couples, but couples are the couples
are the ones that are I think are just the
most rewarding in terms of you get to see and

(11:28):
you get to see what it's like, you know, with
them working together, building the skills of learning, connecting with
each other on a deep, deeper level. So that's been amazing.

Speaker 4 (11:39):
That's really cool.

Speaker 2 (11:40):
Yeah, and I'm gonna go to my analogy for you.

Speaker 4 (11:43):
I like the analogy of the Lamborghinian Ferrari. Uh.

Speaker 2 (11:46):
You know, these are fred Astaire, like you said, Arthur Murray,
these are your these are your premiere dance studios. And
again to kind of go back to your experience and
knowledge and in it a top a top performer at
our Murray.

Speaker 4 (12:00):
So I think that that's.

Speaker 2 (12:02):
You know, very very important for everybody here because it's
not just about the award, it's what the work that
went into the award, right, because in order to get there,
you had to spend countless hours working, performing, rehearsing. Some
of us get to witness now that get to witness
that now and when we watch the behind the scenes
of what's it called the Dancing with the Stars. Yeah,

(12:25):
do you guys ever, have you have aspirations of being
on there at all?

Speaker 6 (12:28):
Or?

Speaker 5 (12:28):
Oh? Man, if I got the opportunity, I do an
a heartbeat.

Speaker 2 (12:31):
All right, listen up, listen up, Simon. We know he's
running those shows.

Speaker 4 (12:38):
You know, it's it's interesting both of you.

Speaker 2 (12:40):
So you really started more in college, and I would
I would have assumed that it would have been a
lot younger. You know, I have my daughters and dance.
They're they're there at the dance studios. Of course, it's
it's more ballet, jazz, tap is what they take. Like
I said to you, you know, I started in ballet.
I think I did ballet and jazz. My sister did
it with myself, ballet and jazz. We then went on

(13:03):
my sister and I then went on to work for
a DJ company. H And we would do you know,
communions and our mitzvahs and sweet sixteens and weddings, we
would be the dancers that would come out with a
DJ company, and.

Speaker 4 (13:14):
I always enjoyed. I loved it. I loved it.

Speaker 2 (13:17):
It was more of like crowd motivating and going out
there and grabbing, grabbing people to swing with them, like
you said, and do something, do the hustle, and you know,
really just have a really, really great time. It was
such a great experience.

Speaker 4 (13:28):
Uh.

Speaker 2 (13:29):
And so when when we're talking with the two of
you and leading into the couple's side, I can see
later down the years with me and my wife probably
you know, going into a studio like yours to dance together,
because of course that's how we met. We met at
the bars dancing together. But now with a family and
kids and not going to bars anymore, we don't dance
as much together, and I kind of missed that. And

(13:50):
I want to kind of bring it back to the
two of you and speaking about the relationship and dancing,
because part of what you talk about is the communication
that happens, the relationship building and for some who may
have felt disconnected from their spouse to reconnect on the floor.

Speaker 4 (14:08):
And I would love if you could.

Speaker 2 (14:09):
Share a little bit about that because there's the art form,
but then there's also what you talk about, the social element.

Speaker 5 (14:17):
Sure, yeah, we've.

Speaker 6 (14:20):
With all the couples that we've worked with over the years,
we've been blessed to receive a lot of feedback about
how the dancing has impacted their relationship. And it's through
that feedback and there's testimonials that we realized, Wow, this
is actually impacting folks. This is not just we're not

(14:41):
just teaching dance. This is actually impacting lives and way
that's way deeper that we didn't even realize until we
started getting some of this feedback. And I think it
has a lot to do with all of the communication.
Like seventy percent of our communication as humans is nonverbal, right,

(15:05):
and when you're when you're dancing, the nonverbal communication things
like making eye contact, your proximity.

Speaker 5 (15:15):
To each other, physical touch, the gestures.

Speaker 6 (15:20):
These are all things that we develop through the dancing.
So if you're a couple and you know you've been
married for twenty whatever years, or you've got young kids,
whatever stage you're in life, you know, nobody escapes life, right,
We're all, you know, hustle and bustle, and it is
it is life and it's very easy to in that

(15:43):
space to disconnect or grow apart from your partner or not.
When we're dating, you know, we're all about that person
and you're in that infatuation stage and you can't, you know,
go two seconds without being with your person, right, and
then life happens and.

Speaker 5 (15:57):
We've all experienced it, so all of a sudden.

Speaker 6 (16:01):
You know, Okay, you could go on on a date night,
you could go watch a movie, but you're watching the movie,
you're not really engaging right with the dancing. You're now
literally face to face with your partner and you're making
eye contact right, and you're holding their hands, and now
you're smiling, and now you're learning something together. There's a

(16:21):
shared activity. You're having to actually figure things out. And
then you've got to figure out how to communicate because
you've got one person in the lead and the other
person who wants to lead but shouldn't be. You know,
she just pointed to herself, everyone, yourself and all the
other women out there.

Speaker 5 (16:39):
It's true.

Speaker 6 (16:41):
So but all of those things right, if you have
good connection. We talk about the way that we hold hands,
We talk about the eye contact and the way we
look at each other and those are not just important
when you're dancing. These are like really important off the
dance floor just as much so the dancing and actually
helps us to practice them, It helps us to apply

(17:02):
them and get comfortable with them, because we're actually finding
more and more folks are, even with their significant other
are not super comfortable making eye contact. And I don't
know if it's because of our digital world and everybody's
on their phones all the time.

Speaker 3 (17:18):
Being in DC and DC.

Speaker 5 (17:20):
Area is nuts, but anyway, that's so that's how we've.

Speaker 2 (17:25):
Seen things, you know, yeah, evolve and grow, and I
want to just share for our audio listeners, and of
course you'll be able to check this out on my
YouTube channel, Michae Lisposito inc. The video proportion of this,
but the audio will definitely be out sooner than.

Speaker 4 (17:39):
Before the video.

Speaker 2 (17:41):
While April was speaking, the entire time you were talking
and telling us about this, you and Adam are holding hands,
You're engaging with each other, You're making eye contact with
each other. So it's it's unique because I've had other
couples on the show, and this is being recorded via zoom.
I've had other couples on the show and they're usually
just looking at the camera. They might glance over at

(18:02):
each other when one is talking, which is.

Speaker 4 (18:05):
Pretty normal which we see.

Speaker 2 (18:06):
But in this case, right now, as you were describing
all of that, you and Adam were really like locking
in eyes while talking to me. While sharing with our
audience about the locking and eyes holding hands, Adam shifted
his entire body around to hold your hands and almost
like the two of you were dancing while telling this.
So I really, you know, we can really I can
see it, and I'm hoping our audio listeners everybody out

(18:29):
there right now can can appreciate what's happening right now
as we're having this conversations.

Speaker 4 (18:34):
It's so cool.

Speaker 2 (18:36):
I agree with you one thousand percent. I mean, I'm
a person that enjoys a touch.

Speaker 4 (18:41):
I like being held.

Speaker 2 (18:43):
I like being put my arms around my wife, my kids,
and I like them doing the same for me. And
I know that, you know, my wife is there's always
opposites in relationships, right and my wife is she's one
of those. She can walk right by me and no
touch or feel and so I have to I let
her know, like, hey, you know, just rub your hands
on my back as you walk by me, or you know,
just give me a tap or you know whatever, and

(19:04):
do a stop. So without right right anything right, I'll
take the slap on the back of the head right
right right. And where I'm going with this is that
me sharing that with her is because I'm so self
aware and because I'm in the self development space and
I'm very aware to be able to have that open dialogue.
But to your point, so often in relationships, if you

(19:25):
don't have that open dialogue, if you're not communicating with
the other even if one desires it, which typically one does,
the other person's just walking by them. And if you're
not forcing the good morning and the kiss good morning,
and the hug good morning, it.

Speaker 4 (19:41):
Just falls by the wayside.

Speaker 2 (19:42):
And I know that to be true because I know
how hard I work on it in my relationship to
make sure that we hug and we kiss every morning,
not just my wife, but my kids and my parents,
like anybody that I love and appreciate that we have
the physical connection. So it is so important. And I
think for those who don't have let's say, the self

(20:03):
development or improvement background, like like what I work on
every single day, dancing, like you said, just brings that out.
It almost forces it to where if we're going to
be going to the studio next week, we better be
rehearsing at home. And if we're rehearsing at home, guess
what we're doing.

Speaker 6 (20:20):
Yeah, yeah, And you you said the word. You know,
you communicate with your wife, right, you let her know
like you're aware, and but you're right, not everybody is.
And so all of a sudden, the dancing opens up
their eyes on to what is actually what they like

(20:40):
or what's important, right, and then gives you a space
to practice it, you know, in a fun way, like Okay,
we're just going.

Speaker 5 (20:49):
To sit here and stare at each other, but like in.

Speaker 6 (20:51):
A way, and then you have to learn how the
other person like. The way that you feel loved maybe
different from the way that your wife receives love. Right.
The way that I need to be talked to, you
know when we're dancing, we're learning together, you know, is
different than what Adam needs. Even this morning, you know,

(21:12):
I had a question. He was like, now say a
question again, but say it like very directly, because I
was kind of.

Speaker 3 (21:19):
Ex right, and he.

Speaker 6 (21:21):
Was like, I hear you're asking me a question, but
can you say it like? And I had to think
about it. In one second, and I had to rewire
to say the same thing but in a more direct
way that he needed so he could receive.

Speaker 5 (21:36):
What I was saying.

Speaker 6 (21:37):
So a lot of our practice and a lot of
the things that we've you know, tried, failed, tried again,
you know, And it's a constant You don't just like
all of a sudden wake up and you're like.

Speaker 5 (21:48):
Oh I've arrived. It's a constant.

Speaker 6 (21:52):
Ebb and flow of but we communicate it and then
the other person listens, right, So that's part of this.
And in the dancing, guess what you have to do.
You have to be aware of your partner. You have
to listen to your partner. So when your partner's saying something,
you have to and then you have to word.

Speaker 5 (22:09):
Sometimes easier said than done, easier.

Speaker 6 (22:11):
Said than done, but then you're adjusting. So I had
an immediately like okay, I need to give I need
you ask this question. He can receive it. So there's
a quick adjustment. But because we work on that, like
you were saying you work on self development, we do
the same thing, but we work on that constantly with
each other, so we can be better versions of ourselves,

(22:32):
but better for each other every day and guess what
we do every day?

Speaker 3 (22:37):
We dance.

Speaker 6 (22:38):
Yeah, any things come up, and so it's you know,
we're no different than any other couple in that way.

Speaker 4 (22:44):
That's awesome.

Speaker 2 (22:45):
And the other thing that you said that I want
to say that I want to highlight too is that
it's a shared experience. I really appreciated that as well.
In that Yeah, going to the movies together and doing
these other activities together. You're right, we're standing shoulder to
shoulder a lot of the times hip to hip we're together,
or we're sitting across at a dinner table.

Speaker 4 (23:02):
Eating a meal. Well, eating the meal is.

Speaker 2 (23:05):
More like the shared experience part, which is the eye
contact with each other, like you said, And I think
that that's a big one to note too, the shared experience.

Speaker 4 (23:11):
I think that's why there's such a big.

Speaker 2 (23:14):
Movement with the painting together and the hiking together and
all these different experiences for dates. I have a question
for both of you. Either one of you I think
could take this question. It does have to do it
taking the lead, because you did mention something about you know,
sometimes you want to take the lead and for all
your women out there, and this is a conversation that

(23:36):
comes up very often in my podcast, especially with female
entrepreneurs in being the only woman in the boardroom, of
gender inequality and different things, and so, you know, not
that I'm a white night for it all, but I
am always interested in understanding the other perspective. I'm a guy,
and yeah, when I'm dancing with a partner, which is

(23:56):
typically a woman, I'm taking the lead and I'm definitely
thrown off if she tries to take the lead. I'm
completely thrown off and don't know why what's happening. So
where I'm going with this is I'm interested in both
of your perspectives on is there a way is this shifting?

Speaker 4 (24:15):
Is anything changing? I don't know.

Speaker 2 (24:17):
Is there a shift in this? Is there a way
for a woman to take the lead? How do we
balance this out? Or is there a desire to balance
it out when people dance?

Speaker 5 (24:27):
The really good question? Do you want to share your
thoughts on it? And then I'll share mine.

Speaker 3 (24:33):
I mean, for yeah, I guess I can take the lead.

Speaker 4 (24:37):
On this one. I love it. He's taken the lead
on this one.

Speaker 2 (24:41):
Well, I don't know. I'm going to argue that since
since April reaffirmed the question towards you. She took the
lead and said I'll take it last.

Speaker 3 (24:53):
Technically she gave me the lead. So that's the first
role of dance king. So the woman has to well,
it's a trust, it's a conversation. The conversation is based
on a mutual trust and respect. So so she has
to respect my she has to respect the man initiating

(25:15):
and trying to take the lead. And for her it's
an active listening. So following is following is just being
a good listener when all of a sudden done. So
as far as like developing a lead, I mean you've
done the lead and follow, I mean, so you have

(25:37):
the we have the best of both worlds in terms
of being instructors. So how would you describe it?

Speaker 6 (25:43):
And would you I think that in the partnership, like
when we dance, there's obviously there's two roles. You have
the lead and you have the follow the second that like,
for example, if if Adam has my hand and we're
here and he's trying to turn me and I lock
my arm, right, he's trying to turn me and I

(26:04):
lock in and I stop it. Well, now we're in
combat mode, right, So in terms of as a follow,
I need to soften, I need to listen, I need
to trust, and I need to allow him to move me,
allow him to guide me. So the lead in dancing
is not a forced thing. He doesn't have my hand,

(26:25):
he's not gripping my hand, he's not controlling me. The
lead is not about control. And it's interesting because a
lot of the gentlemen that.

Speaker 5 (26:32):
Come in.

Speaker 6 (26:35):
One, A lot of men are uncomfortable learning to dance
right off the bat because it's not something we just
wake up and do right. And so it's new and
they know they're in the lead role, and so it
becomes uncomfortable to have to step into a space to
lead somebody when you don't know what you're doing right,
when you yourself have to learn, and the follow has

(26:59):
to be a space of long and encouragement, support, patience,
and allow the lead to guide her.

Speaker 5 (27:07):
And so.

Speaker 6 (27:09):
I don't look at you know, sometimes as follows, we'll
try to take over because we're used to doing you know.
As a woman, you know, we we do certain things.

Speaker 5 (27:19):
We each have certain rules.

Speaker 6 (27:20):
But I see that in our marriage as well, Like
there's certain things like Adam has the role in there's
certain things I take the lead on and we have
our roles.

Speaker 5 (27:29):
And the things that we do together.

Speaker 6 (27:32):
But in our marriage, I respect him as the head
of our home right, and he respects me. He always
asks me, you know, we always talk things out. We
work together.

Speaker 5 (27:43):
It's a team.

Speaker 6 (27:44):
But at the end of the day, I see him
as my husband. I see him as the leader of
our home right. We've got two kids. He's the leader
of our family right. And on the dance floor, I
respect that position of the leaders. And so even if
the leader was new or didn't know, like I tell
the ladies all the time, you're not dancing to the music,

(28:06):
you're dancing with your partner. So even if he was off,
even if you know he's learning and he you know,
you're listening and you're being patient and you're guiding. I said,
because if you don't, then you're you're taking away his
ability to learn and grow and lead. And you know,
as a man, you know, all the men that we've
talked to, that's that's not good for you know, it's

(28:29):
not in a good space. It doesn't put them in
a good space. Men want to lead, men want to guide,
and so I think it's really important I respect that position,
and so I do my best to just be in
that space and be loving and supportive.

Speaker 5 (28:45):
No matter what.

Speaker 4 (28:47):
Cool.

Speaker 2 (28:47):
Yeah, I think you know with what you just said
there trust is a major factor in it all. And
also I think the importance of knowing, of knowing what
you tell's role is in that moment. And if somebody's
leading in a certain dance, then they're leading and maybe
you know, April, maybe you know more in a certain dance,

(29:10):
and maybe you might have to take the lead, And
so there's a great understanding and trust between the two
of you from what I see, and again for everybody listening,
when April was describing Adam taking her hand, she was
showing a resistance to that at first, and then showed
how it can also flow very easily, which the resistance

(29:30):
is obviously not allowing or not trusting the lead. The
other thing I want to note, which is you know. Again,
So back to my experience of being in ballet when
I was a kid and then dropping.

Speaker 4 (29:40):
Out of it, I enjoyed ballet.

Speaker 2 (29:42):
I enjoyed dance to the point where when I worked
for the DJ Company, it was like it was like
a dream job.

Speaker 4 (29:47):
I absolutely loved it.

Speaker 2 (29:48):
I mean I got paid to go out and dance,
but I do remember it being a bit, i'll say,
emasculating in some sense because of what our society looks
at of dance, and that you know, girls, girls dance,
women dance, and men play football, let's say, right, or
men play these these masculine sports, right, And we know

(30:10):
that that's not necessarily true, But that is really what
you're dealing with when you have a man come in
and he says, you know, I don't know how to
take the lead on a dance, or I don't really
want to dance. My wife brought dragged me here. And
a lot of it has to do with that, because
at the end of the day, we find that the
man really loves it. Men love to dance once they
can kind of break out of that shell. And you know,

(30:32):
I'll share real quick with my parents, for instance, And
I was talking with you guys about this before my
father growing up. So my parents are my parents are
married fifty fifty plus years now, and growing up, I
remember seeing my father dancing with my mother, but he
was never a good dancer.

Speaker 4 (30:48):
He was just never a good dancer.

Speaker 2 (30:50):
My mother was a very good dancer, and they would always,
you know, kind of dance, and we kind of teased
them and made fun of him for it, you know,
as of course loving chill and would do to their father.
But he grew a love and a passion for dance
and he always wanted to get better at it. So
later in life, as they led towards more retirement and

(31:13):
we moved out of the house and they had more
free time, they joined a dance studio in their area,
which is Queens, New York, and they started doing competitive
dancing and ballroom dancing and foxtrot and salsa and all
the different dances that you actually teach, and they've grown
such a passion for it to where they're so committed.

(31:34):
They ended up getting a role in The Nutcracker for
the first time a stage performance, and they ended up
getting a role for this, and they were down in Florida.
They were on vacation at some point during the rehearsals
for it, and they were flying back and they got
a flight back and they got in late and they
had a dance rehearsal that night. They stayed at the

(31:55):
studio till like ten o'clock at night for their dance rehearsal.
Just after flying in because they knew they were going
to have to perform on stage, and so they're so
committed to it. But I got to tell you, they
when when you see them now at a party and
you see them dance together, to your point, the connection
is there on the floor and they are so in
sync to the point where the crowd clears.

Speaker 4 (32:17):
In order to watch them dance.

Speaker 2 (32:18):
It's like it's like people are dancing with each other,
and all of a sudden, my parents are dancing, and
every everybody just starts starts moving away and watching, and
it's just really really cool to see.

Speaker 4 (32:28):
This transformation happen over the years.

Speaker 5 (32:32):
Yeah, that's that's amazing.

Speaker 3 (32:34):
I love that. And then you grew up with with
that as an example, you know, seeing your parents dancing,
just having fun with it, and and her letting him
take the lead. And a lot of times we'll we're
from time to time, we'll get gentlemen that come out
and they'll just they'll just cut loose. It's not that
they've ever done lessons, they just kind of they just

(32:56):
assume the lead, they take the lead, and you know,
they have fun together. But but it really is a
lost art and the more guys that the get turned
onto it in terms of being open to it, especially
for those that are in a relationship that are looking
to connect you know, physically, emotionally, spiritually. I mean, it

(33:22):
really is an amazing date night.

Speaker 2 (33:24):
Yeah, so cool, and we're going to get back to dancing.
But I think this just relates to what we're talking
about in terms of leading. And you know, in terms
of you you have the people coming into the studio
and learning how to lead and learning how to follow
and learning this through dance, but then this also comes
out in your entrepreneurial experience of being leaders and what

(33:45):
you're looking to create as leaders. And I really, you know,
in reading your bio and what you sent into me
on your intake form in terms of leadership, what really
struck out to me, and I'd love for you to
share more about was not so much as being leader
to create followers or create a following, but being leaders
to create more leaders. And with what we just talked about,

(34:08):
it really I think creates paints such a beautiful picture
of it right where you have these people coming in,
they don't know how to dance, they don't know how
to lead, they don't know how to follow and you're
teaching them to be leaders, and then this translates into
your entrepreneurial journey. And I'd love if the two of
you could share more about this.

Speaker 5 (34:26):
Sure.

Speaker 6 (34:27):
Yeah, someone asked me a couple of weeks ago, a
new gentleman. He came in and he goes, he's brand new,
I've never done it before, and this is Jeff, And
he said, I bet you get so bored.

Speaker 5 (34:42):
Yeah.

Speaker 6 (34:42):
Well it kind of struck me because he had never
done We were dancing bachata and he never done it.

Speaker 5 (34:50):
He'd always wanted to. He was really nervous to learn.

Speaker 6 (34:53):
And he goes, you know, if we you must get
so bored of teaching like the basics like this, And
I said, oh, contraire, Like, I absolutely love getting to
be a part of someone's life, especially working because usually
I work with the men on like a private lesson

(35:14):
because I'm a follow, right, I'll work with the men
and Adam will work with the women when we have
just one on one lessons like that. With couples, it's different, right,
But I said, I really enjoy getting to play a
small role in that development of a new leader, right,
because it wasn't just about the dance. You know, it

(35:36):
was there was a there was a confidence being there
and I think to be a leader, part of that,
part of leadership is to develop confidence and all of
these things play and I said, no, I love being
a part of you know life, different lives in a

(35:58):
small way that push them in a direction that all
of a sudden they can take the lead in different
areas and they can go out and ask someone to
dance like they literally something they never do before. All
of a sudden they can take a lead and then
that impacts someone else's life. And it's a it's a
trickle effect. So that's just one space where you know,

(36:21):
the developing leads. We've started a we're launching an internship
program for the youth for high school. This was something
that Adam mastermind. Adam is the He is the visionary
and the creator of our partnership. And so it's without

(36:42):
Adam's vision and drive and like where he sees and
the creation, we wouldn't be where we are today. I'm
more of the all right, tell me what you want,
let's get or done right right systematically help him implement it.

Speaker 5 (36:58):
So that's how we work. We're not the same in
our strengths. We compliment, compliment each other.

Speaker 6 (37:04):
But part of that leadership and growing new leads is
to help take the youth, you know, so high school
students that we have local high school students and give
them an opportunity to experience you know, photography, videography, the
dance put them in spaces of leadership roles where they
have to take the lead on certain things that will

(37:25):
help them, give them experience as they're getting ready to
just you know, start their journeys outside of a graduation.
So we're really excited about that because you know, I
don't remember getting any like crazy opportunities like that in
high school and I would have appreciated, you know, having
that opportunity to be in that space. And we've just

(37:50):
started talking to schools. They're very into it, Like the
they're very excited about it. So we're really looking forward
to launching that program right now on a local level,
helping the youth and giving them the skills to become
a leader.

Speaker 2 (38:06):
Yeah, and you spoke about confidence. I'm having such a
fun time talking with you guys about this because you're
sparking so many memories for me and dance has played
such a role in my life. And as you were
just talking about the confidence to go out and ask
somebody to dance, it brought me right back to this
interview that I had many years ago. And so I'm
talking about job interview. It was I was fresh out

(38:27):
of college. I just graduated college, and my parents were like,
you need to get a job, you need to get
a job. So I was on the recruiter boards and
I get an interview with what's called yellow Book and
it was yellow Book USA, which was which is now Hibou,
which was selling yellow pages.

Speaker 4 (38:42):
And I made it through the first round.

Speaker 2 (38:44):
The first local manager liked me and was just like
you're good and everything, and then I was going to
the second round of interviews, but the other manager was out,
she was on her honeymoon, and so I was sent
to the vice president of the region. Yeah, of course, right,
it's frush out of college and my first interview experience
is with the vice president of the entire like tri

(39:05):
state area of New York, Connecticut and New Jersey.

Speaker 4 (39:08):
For yellow Book. And at the time, yellow Book was
like you know, the Google of the world.

Speaker 2 (39:13):
Right, it was like before this is this is two
thousand and five. So anyway, so I go and meet
with this guy. I remember him, Mike, Mike Vukick, Mike Vukick,
and I'm sitting across from him, and he loves everything
I'm saying. You know, We're having a really great dialogue,
a really great interview, and at the end of it,
he goes, you know, Michael, the only issue I see
is you're too young. And he goes, how would you

(39:35):
deal You know, you're too young. You don't have enough
experience dealing with rejection, And he said, how would you
deal with rejection? And at the time, I was single,
and I loved dancing, and I loved going to the
different bars, the clubs. I was definitely one of those
people Thursday, Friday, Saturday, I was at the bars and
the clubs. And yes it was to hang out with friends,

(39:56):
and yes it was to drink, but it was definitely
to dance because I could have done all the those
things other places. And my friends always knew that we
would hang out before, we'd pregame before, and once we
got there, they would lose me.

Speaker 4 (40:06):
They would lose me. There was many times.

Speaker 2 (40:08):
That I was left at a bar or a club
because I was out on the dance road, dancing and
they were ready to go home. So anyway, so I
say to Mike, I go, you know, Mike, I'm a single.

Speaker 4 (40:17):
Guy and I love to dance.

Speaker 2 (40:19):
And I go out on the dance floor and I
go up to every single girl to ask her to
dance with me. And I'm going to tell you, nine
times out of ten they all say no. And I've
learned how to deal with rejection and go out and
go out the next night, and go out the next
night and dance to the next song and dance the
next song. And you know what, I ended up getting
the job because of that. It was wild, but well,

(40:41):
I mean, but that speaks to the confidence that it
teaches you of you know, and the way it translates
into real life. Of this is something that I enjoyed doing.
And this was a passion and I know that for
me at least. You see, we bring the genders back
in and women, girls can go out on the dance
floor and dance by themselves, dance in the group of

(41:02):
girls together. Guys, it's very different. And you know, of course,
barring mosh pits and all the rest, for a guy
to go out and just start really feeling the music
and dancing on his own. There is this stigma or
this feeling at least that I have even somebody who's
very open about dancing, where I'm like, ah, you know,
I kind of need the girl. I kind of need
the woman to kind of validate that what I'm doing

(41:24):
is not nuts and crazy right here, you know. And
so that's why we Sometimes I'll ask somebody to dance
with me because I'm like, I just don't want to
be out here by myself.

Speaker 4 (41:33):
But that confidence to go out and do.

Speaker 2 (41:35):
That translated obviously into the business world and in what
you're talking about, into creating leaders not just through preaching it,
but through teaching it and going back to your mentorship program.
Oh my goodness, you're teaching these kids something that you're
using an art form, and you're teaching them confidence and
leadership through this art form, and it's incredible.

Speaker 5 (42:00):
Yeah, it is.

Speaker 6 (42:02):
We're very blessed to you know, we wake up every
day and you know, like everybody who's an entrepreneur, everybody knows,
like you said, you know, when we were before we
started recording, you know, the grind, you know, the struggle
is real, Like it doesn't stop right when you own
a business. And you're doing your thing, like there's a
nine to five kind of of a thing. But we

(42:25):
we wake up every morning. And don't get me wrong, there.

Speaker 4 (42:28):
Are days and we're like I just want to sleep in, Yeah.

Speaker 5 (42:33):
But we wake up and we were excited to impact
more lives and what we can do. You know, we
were very blessed.

Speaker 2 (42:46):
And I'm interested in that because you also have like
a really great morning routine that you guys do. You
guys work till ten o'clock at night, and but you
guys have some strengthening exercises from what I saw, and
different types of routines that you guys follow. Could you
share a little bit more about that, because again, these routines,
these habits that we as entrepreneurs have, they're will carry
us through the hard times.

Speaker 3 (43:09):
Yeah.

Speaker 6 (43:09):
You know, one of the things that we've found to
be very powerful. I mean one, you got to take
care of yourself physically.

Speaker 3 (43:15):
Right.

Speaker 6 (43:16):
So some folks, you know, we could hear, oh your dancers,
your dance all day is when we teach all day, right,
But it's different, I said, So we still need to
take care of ourselves, you know, physically, So we always
take an hour to to spend you know, at the
gym or whatever way I do yoga. You know something
I started jiu jitsu, and so so yeah, something for

(43:40):
us which.

Speaker 3 (43:41):
Is important to balance. I mean we've learned that. It's
it's constantly evolving and changing. So we're just like in
a relationship, we're constantly working on it. So our routines
are even changing as we're basically combined the different parts
of our company. So it's a dance studio what started

(44:05):
out as a dance studio that grew into a DJ
company that's now also a media company. So combining those,
what's the.

Speaker 6 (44:15):
New routine that you just added, the new thing that
you got that you really love.

Speaker 3 (44:20):
It's actually I think I have it here a little offset.

Speaker 2 (44:23):
So so he's going to go off set to grab
something real quick. But while he's doing that, you said,
DJ company, So are you hiring dancers?

Speaker 3 (44:32):
We are. We're looking at we're looking at bring on
DJs now that we've opened up three DJ internship positions.
So it's it's interesting how because years ago I had
this concept of connecting or bridging the gap between music
and dance. I mean, I've been teaching for twenty three years,
so creating the DJ part of the company allows us

(44:56):
to basically share what we do, just in a different level.
But this is this is the new thing that I
started just writing down my my goals for the day.

Speaker 2 (45:09):
So it's a little black, little black notebook that he
just broke out and it's got yellow pages. I saw
on there, small black notebook and it's written and he
writes his goals in it. I love that, So keep
telling it, tell me us more about it. I just
wanted to make sure that people can visualize what you're
showing us.

Speaker 5 (45:25):
What are you writing in there? That's been helpful.

Speaker 3 (45:28):
So this is a very new. Up until this point,
everything's been on my iPhone and or notes. I use
an app called Notability. But I saw something. It was
a It was a video by Peter McKinnon. If you've
ever seen him on YouTube, he's he's amazing and one
of the things.

Speaker 4 (45:48):
That dear photographer. Yeah, I have seen his work. He
does have really cool work.

Speaker 3 (45:55):
Yeah, he's he's amazing. So I've followed him for years
since we launched our media company. I probably spent about
one hundred hours watching his videos. But this concept of
just going analog and writing things down being able to
cross cross it out at the end of the day
or throughout the day. It's very, very different. But we're

(46:17):
constantly trying to change our routine in the morning.

Speaker 6 (46:20):
Well we're tweaking it because as we do different things,
we adjust. But one of the things that we found
very powerful was to write it out on paper versus
on the computer, because like they were saying, the computer
can be very distracting, or the phone and all of
a sudden, oh, there's Facebook, like it can pull you,

(46:41):
or we get ding, there's you know, the emails or
the texts that start at six in the morning, like
you know, and so just having quiet time where we're
not even engaging, where we just can be in our
heads and think, to write out the goals, like big
vision goals, and write out the things that we're going
to do each day when we're going to have that

(47:03):
you know, time to take care of ourselves physically, and
then you know, just been having that time to just
breathe and think before the the chaos, right has been
very important to both of us.

Speaker 2 (47:23):
Adam, you April mentioned that you're a visionary in the
business and in creating a lot, and so we have
the studio. You have the method that you teach and
you're you're you're doing this mentorship program. I love that, April,
you're like the operations and the backbone to it.

Speaker 4 (47:40):
And we we need that. Like you said, I love
the balance between you two. We need that.

Speaker 2 (47:45):
I'm interested on the visionary side on you know, we're
talking about goal setting, we're talking about writing things down
and ideas and different thoughts. I'm currently reading a book
called Originals by Adam Grant, and in what he's is,
what he writes about is how original thinkers, original ideas, visionaries.

(48:06):
It's not the first idea that makes it. It's so
many iterations, it's so many trial and failure, so many
different things. And so I'm interested in some of the
different ideas that you've had, the failures that you might
have had that ended up maybe leading to what the
successes that you're seeing today, such as the DJing, the mentorship,

(48:27):
the method. I'm interested in a little bit of like
the backstory there of some of the trying that you've done.

Speaker 3 (48:35):
So I think I think a lot of where I'm
operating from now is based on mistakes from the past.
So I think one of the biggest mistakes is putting
pen to paper and being organized in terms of this book.
This is what I'm hoping changes because because there are

(48:57):
so many ideas between the three different branches of these
three different verticals, connecting them has been it has been
an amazing experience. Ultimately, we're looking at the We're looking
at dance king as a stage right, so whether you're dancing,

(49:19):
performing music as a DJ, as a as a as
an artist and or an influencer. The opportunities that we're
creating because they span so many different arenas, it's important
to be able to write that down. And I think
that's been my biggest mistake to date, is not having

(49:40):
a place where I can just go back through my
thoughts from like a week ago, a month ago, a
year ago, you know, a few years ago, and see
that see that tape shade M.

Speaker 2 (49:55):
I like the physical element of it too. I used
to journal in physical notebooks, and then, like yourself, I
found some apps and started using those and started journaling
in those. I've actually journaled less since that. I still
journal in them, but to your point, I don't necessarily
go back and reread those versus when I see an
old notebook, I might pick it up and start looking

(50:16):
through it and thumbing through it, and there is a
different feeling and reaction. And there's doodling.

Speaker 4 (50:21):
I'm a big doodler.

Speaker 2 (50:22):
There's doodling on the pages. There's, like you said, crossing off.
There's my own way of creating.

Speaker 4 (50:27):
Lists versus the I guess polished version that ends up
happening when you're doing it in an.

Speaker 2 (50:32):
App or something because autocorrect comes up and my OCD
triggers and I'm like, all right, I gotta fix that.
I don't like that red underline while I'm typing, And
before you know it, your whole thought is lost in
auto correcting or correcting things versus just writing and feeling
it all out. So I love that you've kind of
gone back to the notebook, and you're kind of inspiring

(50:53):
me to go back to my notebook.

Speaker 4 (50:54):
It's been a thought in my mind.

Speaker 2 (50:55):
But I feel like this conversation is inspiring me to
be a little bit more specific here in terms of
being the visionary in the business. What ideas maybe did
you start working on that you might have crossed off
more recently as to getting to the point where you're
at today of the DJ in the stage that you

(51:16):
just mentioned. I want to hear one of the crazy
ideas that you might have had recently.

Speaker 6 (51:25):
Idea, My goodness, that's a whole other conversation there, Michael.

Speaker 3 (51:32):
There's a lot of crazy ideas.

Speaker 4 (51:33):
All right, buckle up, everybody, here we go.

Speaker 3 (51:35):
So the the craziest idea that we've pulled off, Wow,
that we've pulled off, or that.

Speaker 2 (51:44):
We're working on, either one, either one that you want
to share. Yeah, what are you working on pulling off?
Let's let's go in there.

Speaker 3 (51:51):
So we are, we're looking at I'm going to have
you film the blank smile of head one. Well, oh yes, yeah,
that would be.

Speaker 5 (52:02):
So here's here's one of Adam's. Adam's ideas.

Speaker 6 (52:04):
He wanted to have a salsa this. Now we've talked
about couples in this, but we work with a lot
of singles as well.

Speaker 5 (52:11):
So there's a there's two too, there's two directions right.

Speaker 6 (52:13):
One, couples and also how we help singles and make
a difference in their lives. So Adam's big, big idea
was he wants a salsa singles mingle program in all
fifty states. That was like the vision, that's what we
have dancing, you know, and all fifty states, and and
you know sometimes when Adam, you know, he's got these

(52:35):
dreams and they're.

Speaker 5 (52:36):
Big and well he'll share them.

Speaker 6 (52:38):
But there are a lot of times folks will be like,
can't do that, or there's this like there's a lot
of naysayers, right, there's a lot of that's too hard.

Speaker 5 (52:45):
You've got this bump, You've got this bump.

Speaker 6 (52:47):
And then I'll immediately see the road bumps or the
challenges right where I'm like, Okay, you know, how do
we great, Yeah, they're there. You're never going to get
somewhere without them. But that shouldn't. We don't want that
to stop you and people get hindered by it, right, Oh,
well that's going to be too hard versus like what's

(53:07):
the solution? They focus on the problem, they don't focus
on the solution. So what just happened that we're launching
on February twenty ninth here locally. The thing that we
said was, well, if we can do it locally, if
we can make this event like pop locally and we
know the recipe to make it work, then then we

(53:28):
can hop over, you know and do one in Maryland,
and then we can hop over and do one in
West Virginia, and then we can go up to Pennsylvania.

Speaker 5 (53:34):
You know, we're surrounded by states.

Speaker 6 (53:35):
We can go up to New York right and put
people because we can train folks on how to put
together this, you know, salsa singles, mingle. We're going to
be teaching a salsa class, a beginner salsa class, the
beginner of a China class. There's going to be a DJ,
and it's going to be a lot of fun and
all the marketing. Within within a couple of weeks of

(53:55):
us marketing this, we've already sold over half of the
tickets that we could, right, and we still have a
few more weeks. It has gotten so much excitement, like everybody,
we've got a cool venue, we've got a restaurant. The
general manager he's like, oh my gosh, this is the
next best thing. And so it's actually happening where this

(54:16):
was a vision or a dream and now it's real
and people are buying tickets left and right. So we'll
be sold out and that's super exciting because when this
is successful, then we've proven proof of concept. Right then
part of like you said, part of the leadership thing
is we'll be teaching and training somebody else as part

(54:37):
of the dance king and you know, instructor who can
go and then take the lead on this one and
then eventually right we'll get.

Speaker 5 (54:44):
Off fifty states.

Speaker 2 (54:45):
Yeah, and I mean it's it's not so crazy. I
mean what you're talking about is perhaps licensing or franchising
this this business.

Speaker 4 (54:52):
And I love this idea.

Speaker 2 (54:53):
I mean, we think about the word zoomba, right, everybody
knows zoomba as a dance, but zoomba is a business.
Zoomba started as a business, or tybou right, or all
these other ones like P ninety X, These are all
businesses that started somewhere, right, they started somewhere. I mean,
when you think about P ninety X, not P ninety X,
what are the ropes that people hold themselves from. I

(55:15):
forget the name of those. They're TRX, thank you, Yes,
the TRX that started. He was an Air Force pilot
and it was the parachutes that he was that he
was playing with and working out with and seeing, and
he starts cutting them up and playing with them and
starts developing them and the next thing you know, they're

(55:36):
in every single gym now and they're part of a
program and a class. I mean with what you're talking about.
You see, this is the thing about visionaries that people
don't understand. It's exactly what you just said, is that
you got to have these crazy hair brain ideas in
order to see things through, in order to see them
work and give them to the world. And I love
that you have this idea and I love April how

(55:56):
you support it and go all right. You know, everybody's
the naysayers, and they're saying, seeing the problem, let me
find the solution to this. That's what we need. We
need more of that. And that's really was the crux
of my question there is is what's the crazy idea
and what are you seeing as the problem?

Speaker 4 (56:11):
And how are we solving it?

Speaker 2 (56:12):
And that's the thing for all of our listeners here
is that you know you have an idea, you have
a vision, you have something that you want to create.
Don't let others stop you from creating it. And there's
going to be a ton of failure, there's going to
be a ton of people saying, no, you can't do it.
Find the people that can help you do it. Find
the people that can support you and help you through
it and understand that not every idea is going to

(56:33):
work out, and it's not all going to work out
the same the way that you've maybe envisioned.

Speaker 4 (56:38):
But if you.

Speaker 2 (56:39):
Keep trying, And that's where I go back to the
book that i'm reading about that I'm reading in Originals
of warb Parker, of Steve Jobs of so many others,
where if you keep trying and keep reiterating, and keep
finding the believers around you, you're going to find a
solution to get it, like for you guys in all
fifty states. And I could certainly see that happening with
what we just talked talked about because it has happened

(57:01):
in your space, So I don't see why it wouldn't, right.

Speaker 5 (57:05):
Yeah, And that's that's the neat thing. I mean. We
started out when I met Adam.

Speaker 6 (57:10):
In twenty seventeen, we were just a local dance studio, right,
and then fast forward, you know, a couple of years
we were going out and doing like house parties and
dance instructors and stuff like that. But we always bring
in a speaker and always bringing music, you know, So
it was like, well why don't we just so Adam's

(57:30):
vision was why don't we just go all in learn
how to be DJs because guess what else we teach
wedding couples all day long. And he goes, we could
he could, like that could be a niche so one
of his ideas.

Speaker 5 (57:45):
There's no DJs that are dance instructors.

Speaker 6 (57:48):
But if we could package it like we're not only
your dance instructors and getting you ready for your first dance,
then we can go partying up with you at your
wedding and you know us and there's a relationship because
we're big on building connections and so we've been very blessed.
We've got a wedding coming up on the twenty fourth
this month. You know, we've been doing lessons with them.

(58:10):
We'll be DJing their wedding. So that was one of
Adam's visions. And I met our DJed you asked me
what a controller was or like an excel Our cable
like ah, right, So he did. He wanted it and
we you know, you spent months researching it and I
was like, okay, I'm going to be a DJ now.
And we bought the material and we learned how to

(58:31):
do it right. There's so many resources these days. And
we didn't go to school and become DJs. But there's
so many resources that if you want to do anything,
you can find it. Like there's there's stuff you don't
have to pay an arm and a lake for. And
we we learned how to DJ and that's what we do,
and then we have the photography and videography that guess

(58:52):
what for marketing?

Speaker 5 (58:54):
What are we doing at the dance studio? All the
time there was you know and doing it was like, well.

Speaker 6 (59:00):
You know, he had a passion for a photography and
it's like I just want to do you know, I
don't want to just do dance. I'm interested in other things.
And that morphed into know, you know what, all this
photography and studio equipment that we use, and so it's
just manifested that way.

Speaker 2 (59:19):
And it's brilliant too because it's going deeper rather than wider,
which is a big conversation and business of When we
think about building out clients and building out client lists,
a lot of times we think about going wide wide,
meaning more prospects, more clients, go further, go longer, get
more people, get more people involved, and that's good. There's

(59:40):
definitely some validity to that, but then you can also.

Speaker 4 (59:43):
Go deeper and deeper. Is I already have a relationship.

Speaker 2 (59:46):
With you to teach you dance, to work with you
on dance, and your wedding is coming up, and I'm
teaching your first dance. Deeper is being the DJ for
that wedding, being the photographer for that wedding, being the
instructor for that. And so you're building out this long
term relationship and rather than spinning your wheels to find
more clients and more customers, you're actually just building a

(01:00:07):
deep relationship with somebody and offering them more. And I
think you can attest to this. The more you offer
and the high quality which we know that you offer,
the more you offer, then they're just going to sing
your praises to others and the referrals just grow to
where you could build deep relationships with more and more
just through that one relationship.

Speaker 6 (01:00:28):
Yeah, And I think and having that personal connection, you know,
with the we were referred by a lady. We're going
to be doing an event with her on the twenty third,
a salsa will be teaching salsa at this volunteer appreciation party. Right,
we're coming in as the instructors we're working with her.
She referred us to she's the event planner for a
wedding coming up, and she's like, I know the DJ,

(01:00:50):
you know, and so those starts to network. And I
did a zoom, you know call with this couple, because yeah,
I could have just called them on the phone.

Speaker 5 (01:00:59):
But now, well now it's personal. Right now we're one
on one, and.

Speaker 6 (01:01:06):
Those connections are are really important, I believe, you know.
And that's what we do with the studio. It's a
it's about the it's about the community. It's about making
people feel.

Speaker 5 (01:01:18):
Comfortable and welcome.

Speaker 6 (01:01:20):
And when you do go deeper and you do show
that you care and you really make that effort.

Speaker 5 (01:01:26):
You know, it goes a long way. And in you know,
I think one of the things that.

Speaker 6 (01:01:32):
We're really learning now in that process of going deeper
and in the process of just being a couple of
dance instructors at a studio to now, you know, having
to balance all these other things and growing, we realize
that it acquires a bit more, a bit more structure,

(01:01:52):
a bit more like you know, Adam, because he's his
brain is so amazingly like he's just sees everything.

Speaker 4 (01:02:02):
Adam, you and I relate. So don't worry. Yes, I drive.

Speaker 2 (01:02:06):
I drive my operations team crazy as well, so don't worry.
I get it, But go ahead continue.

Speaker 6 (01:02:11):
But if we need people like you, right, so like
I appreciate it because but then there's moments where I'm like, ah, right,
because and that's why having that book that he has
now and being able to write everything out, I said,
write everything down, because everything is more awesome than the next.
But then having to learn with taking on more and growing,

(01:02:32):
we've had to figure out, okay, well we can't do
all five hundred things at the same time, right, So
now here's now we have to create a little bit
more of a of a roadmap of a plan. That's
what's number one, right, you know, he takes the lead,
what's most priority, right, and then let me like, let's
walk through the stuffs that we need to get it

(01:02:54):
done and check those boxes and move on to the
next awesome.

Speaker 5 (01:02:57):
Idea, right Versus, here's all my.

Speaker 6 (01:03:01):
Ten ideas, and I want to do a little bit,
but then they don't quite get finished. Yeah, we're kind
of left, like you know, And so that's been a
big thing that we've had to have had to learn
how to work together, even just recently, from a good thing,
from a growth thing. We're growing, and so it's presenting

(01:03:21):
new opportunities for us to grow as well.

Speaker 2 (01:03:26):
You know, with everything you just shared, it's something that
I'm working through right now. So i'd love to I'd
love everybody that's listening to to kind of take in
what you just heard there. And I want to hear
some feedback from the two of you here in that,
you know, as visionaries there, we have a ton of
ideas and this is everything you just said. And so

(01:03:46):
we have a ton of ideas and we think every
single one of them is important. And I work with
a coach, and my coach and I were talking about
this because I said, you know, in January, I really
want to focus in on only certain things and I
don't want to be doing all the one hundred different things.
And here we are in February, and of course this
is an airing till much later. So all of you listening, yes,

(01:04:06):
and I hope you're enjoying the spring air. But and
I said, you know, Merritt, you know that's my coach's name.
I said, how do I focus in on these things?
And we talked about driving the ball forward and looking
at okay, we have all of these different plays that
we can you know, the analogy is to sports and
it's looking at it going okay, we have all these
different plays that we're creating and doing, but which one

(01:04:29):
of these are really going to drive the ball forward?
Which one of these are going to get us to
our goal? And so we started really working on that
and that's helped me a little bit in my decision making.
And I'm interested in yours, Adam, and it seems like April,
you might be a part of this decision making. How
do you make a decision on these five hundred ideas?
How do you decide, you know what we're going to

(01:04:51):
focus on djaying we're going to focus on photography. How
do you make that decision from all these great ideas?

Speaker 3 (01:05:00):
It's a million dollar questions. So it's the it's the
one that we've wrestled with by far and away the most,
I would say, because for for a while, as the
ideas of kind of proliferated, it's it's been harder and harder.

Speaker 5 (01:05:16):
Even if you'd agree, yeah, we because we talked about
those two tiers of of programs we want to develop
to help singles and the program that we feel very
strong about in terms of couples.

Speaker 6 (01:05:31):
When we were working with one of our coaches, they
were like, you don't do both at the same time, right,
And they one of our coaches encouraged us to go
the couple's route because as a couple, right, we can
we can speak to things all all things couple.

Speaker 5 (01:05:50):
And so I asked Adam.

Speaker 6 (01:05:52):
Who's who's the leader of the team, right, I said,
So we made the decision based on the coach is
advice to focus on that and then of that, what
are the top priority things? Right, Sometimes it's driven by
finances and that any programs that we've invested in terms

(01:06:14):
of growth, and we've invested in it, then the outcome
of those that we want to focus on, right, we
don't make sure we're not wasteing our investment. So that's
somehow sometimes kind.

Speaker 4 (01:06:29):
Of tied to it.

Speaker 6 (01:06:31):
Yeah, but I said two or three, And so I
just I said that only picked two or three because
it's not that we just have to do one thing.
Things can happen at the same time. But I asked
Adam to really think about it and to tell me
which three are the top.

Speaker 5 (01:06:49):
Three that he would want to at any given time.

Speaker 6 (01:06:52):
Then we took the calendar and he said, okay, well,
if it's very easy with business to get distracted and
pulled right because you're called, they're just there's so many things.

Speaker 5 (01:07:02):
So they said, but if we can commit to forty
five minutes and.

Speaker 6 (01:07:06):
These top three things right each day, then we can
move the needle forward each day and field progress. One
of the things that was frustrating us was we'd set
a goal to get you know, this is what we
want to focus on, but then we would get pulled
and we wouldn't. We weren't prioritizing it, and it created frustration, stress,

(01:07:30):
and so we had to reevaluate what we were doing
and how to restructure. And that's why Adam was saying earlier,
like our routine things, things are in flux a little
bit because we're trying to figure out.

Speaker 5 (01:07:44):
How to structure.

Speaker 6 (01:07:45):
Adam is a very spontaneous person and doesn't like having
his day just like boom boom boom structured, right, I
don't mind it as much.

Speaker 5 (01:07:58):
So we had to figure out, okay, how do we
balance that? Right?

Speaker 6 (01:08:01):
Because I tried, I totally tried structuring his whole day
I got in his calendar and I was like, here's
what we'll do from eight to nine, and here's what
we'll do.

Speaker 5 (01:08:08):
From this, and let me tell you how much that.

Speaker 3 (01:08:10):
Did not work. Yeah, the Jersey and me did not like.

Speaker 2 (01:08:13):
Yeah, it's just that's definitely a personality thing for sure.
Very similar, April. I've tried to do that to myself
and Adam, so I feel the same way. I do
follow my calendar with appointments, just like you guys do
with appointments and scheduled appointments with people. But I do
have on my calendar like a time to meditate, a

(01:08:34):
time to write, a time to journal, a time to exercise,
and I do not follow that at all because of
that spontaneous behavior.

Speaker 4 (01:08:41):
So very similar.

Speaker 2 (01:08:42):
I want to articulate some of the things you just
said because I think this process is very helpful for
everybody listening. But I also think for the two of
you hearing it back, is that one of the first
things you did was you asked for outside help. And
outside help could be a mentor a coach, somebody that
you respect, somebody maybe in your business world, a colleague,
ape And I think asking for outside help is really

(01:09:02):
really important. I think masterminds. You mentioned the idea of
a mastermind being part of mastermind groups. I'm part of
one for my speaking business, and I get so many ideas.
I learned so much from them, and you're able to
just voice an idea and get some feedback.

Speaker 4 (01:09:16):
I think the.

Speaker 2 (01:09:16):
Feedback is really crucial because it's going to validate the
idea and it's going to also help accelerate the idea
into here's what I tried similar to you, and here
was what I fail fell off, and maybe here's a
suggestion on how you might be able to do it.
So I love the outside help from your coach. The
next thing I love that you articulated here, which was
April you as kind of the operations in the backbone

(01:09:38):
and Adam you as more of the visionary in all
of this and having the multiple ideas, April you were
wise enough to say, Okay, you're the visionary in this,
You're leading the charge, and in that I'm going to
create a bit of a structure, but allow flexibility in that.
Give me two or three of these that you want
to work on. And I think that that's so huge
because I know, for myself and Adam, I'm sure you

(01:09:59):
could tell to this. When we're put in a corner,
we don't like it. So when you say give me
one idea, only go with one of these, all of
a sudden we feel like the structure is like it's
not allowing us to be free and creative and to expand,
and so we feel trapped. And I love how April
you were wise enough to say, hey, look, you know
I'm not going to trap you.

Speaker 4 (01:10:18):
I'm not going to put you in a corner.

Speaker 2 (01:10:19):
But there needs to be some sort of structure to this.
And so give me two to three of your top
ideas and three. You're right, it's the magic number. The
magic number is three, because outside of that.

Speaker 4 (01:10:31):
It becomes a little bit more challenging to do. I
was just.

Speaker 2 (01:10:35):
Interviewing somebody yesterday and we were just talking about goal
setting and setting up goals for our days and for
our weeks. And when you set more than three, it
does become daunting, whereas three is almost manageable and doable.
So love that idea. The next part to everything that
you just said was what are the drivers to these priorities?

(01:10:55):
And the drivers could be to build a strong community.
The drivers could be to inspire others. But there has
to be that financial element to some extent, because this
is a business and what drives business but profit, and
you need to have profit in order to maximize on
your investment. So I think that that's another great part
to this process that you have. And then it's the

(01:11:16):
action steps. So what are the action steps to building
this all out? And you said to him, you said
to Adam, you know, tell me what you want to
work on, and now let's map it out. And I love, well,
you didn't say map it out, but you put it
on the calendar, which is mapping it out. So let's
map out this process. Let's map out these ideas and
let's fit them into the calendar. Where into calendar can
we fit out forty five minutes a day or maybe

(01:11:38):
thirty minutes a day, or maybe it's an hour and
a half a day, whatever it is. We need to
drive this forward and see progress. And so I want
to take all of that and then also put it
in contrast to what you said, Adam, which was when
you didn't do that, it led to overwhelmed, to stress,
to frustration. And we as entrepreneurs all feel that sometimes

(01:12:01):
of when we're feeling the enter. The stress, the frustration.
A lot of it is because we have so much
that we want to do and we're like, there's not
enough hours in the day. And April you bring us
back and all of our operation people, all of our
people like you. You bring us back to Okay, there
are enough hours in the day. Let's map it out
and we can see it through. And Adam, you just
attested to it. By doing that and following that process,

(01:12:23):
it led to so much less stress and frustration.

Speaker 4 (01:12:26):
I love that.

Speaker 2 (01:12:27):
I felt like it was just like a masterclass coming
from the two of you.

Speaker 4 (01:12:29):
It was awesome.

Speaker 5 (01:12:32):
Oh well, thank you.

Speaker 3 (01:12:33):
Yeah.

Speaker 6 (01:12:33):
It's funny because we've we've tried different things and one
of them was we created a shared note that we
could you know, just kind of like the things that
are getting done.

Speaker 5 (01:12:44):
So I thought, this is a great idea. We'll do
a shared note. So I use this shared note as
like a brain jump. Therese are all the things, and
I just got boom boom boom boom boom boom that
all the things.

Speaker 3 (01:12:54):
And Adam went in there and he was like, well,
it was a weekly shared note, so things that we
want to do this week, next week, week after three
weeks out.

Speaker 6 (01:13:03):
My fifty things were things you know that whatever you
didn't get to would shift anyway that did.

Speaker 3 (01:13:08):
Not I would open it up and on my iPhone
no less and I would just keep scrolling, and I'm like, yeah,
what on earth, It's going to be a long week.

Speaker 5 (01:13:20):
But you spoke to overwhelm, right. I know everybody listening.

Speaker 6 (01:13:24):
Everybody is just eight experience this right, And that's probably
the biggest thing that happens with me as more of
the operations person.

Speaker 5 (01:13:32):
If you if you pull me too many directions and.

Speaker 6 (01:13:36):
I get overwhelmed and I otherwise, if you just give
me a few, right, not only is he happy because
like what you've said, it doesn't lock him into one
thing right, and a few for me is a happy
place because I don't feel like there's so many directions
and I it's hard to map out everything. But if

(01:13:56):
we have three, like you said, it's a happy number.
We both feel like we can manage that. And I
still give him that flexibility because every day we look
at our calendars. It's not like it has to be
from nine to ten every day, But just when are
we going to block out? Because our days are different,
our schedules are different each day, So you just tell

(01:14:17):
me what time works well for us tomorrow. I'll work
around that, and then he has all the spontaneity and
flexibility that he still desires. But we've gotten the needle
driving forward on the top three things, So whatever else
happens in the day.

Speaker 4 (01:14:34):
That's it.

Speaker 2 (01:14:37):
I've learned that for myself is that you know, by
being spontaneous, I'm spontaneous. I mean I remember always being
called a free spirit, spontaneous, and I would think that
that I don't need any structure. I don't want structure.
What I've learned is that there's more freedom in structure,
and it's been so true in my life.

Speaker 4 (01:14:55):
Adam.

Speaker 2 (01:14:56):
One of the things that help drive a lot of
these ideas forward. Outside of it obviously the operations and
everything we just listed, there is something that you live
by which is always take action. And I'd love if
you could share a little bit more about how you
just dive into an idea, and I'll kind of set
you up a little bit in that. You know, the
dance studio, you know, you just signed a three year lease.
You had no idea that this was going to work,

(01:15:17):
but you dove into it and I'm interested in that
mindset behind there.

Speaker 3 (01:15:23):
So years ago, April and I did a we did
this training and it showed you what your essentially learning
model was. And so I've learned over I've learned from
that experience that I'm action knowledge April's blueprint and nurture.

Speaker 6 (01:15:44):
The acronym is bank VA NK. It's called bank code.
You could look it up. But yes, so and so
I've always been this way. I just I think of
something and usually I'll try it.

Speaker 3 (01:15:59):
But writing things down has actually kind of shifted my
thoughts to being able to Like we talked about focusing
on two or three things, but the biggest thing was
actually connecting the different parts of what we do between
the dancing, the music, and the media.

Speaker 6 (01:16:20):
What was your mindset on when you opened the studio
in the very beginning you left Arthur Marry you had
been doing the rest and thing for a bit, like
and you just like roped the band aid and just
went for it.

Speaker 3 (01:16:33):
Sure, I mean that was probably one of the scariest
things I've ever done, but it was just one foot
in front of the other. To be honest, why did
you want to do?

Speaker 2 (01:16:44):
Like?

Speaker 5 (01:16:44):
What was your driving what were you excited about opening
the studio.

Speaker 3 (01:16:48):
Well, being able to work with more folks, you know,
being able to be able to create something very unique.
When I was teaching ballroom, I enjoyed the experience. I
enjoyed the different styles, but going out into the community,
going out to you know, whether it was a salsa

(01:17:08):
bar or any place with live music, I always kept
coming back to the fact that it was those social
styles that I really wanted to share with folks the most,
so salsa, the Tanguin swing. So that was the concept
for Dance King, And that was thirteen years ago, and
you know, we never looked back.

Speaker 2 (01:17:27):
Yeah, April, I'm gonna have I'm going to hire you
as my assistant interviewer. I love it you were able
to draw that out of Adam. Yeah, and you know,
it's so true on how couples compliment each other. You know, obviously, April,
you're you're you are the spokesperson to some extent for
the business and help draw so much out of Adam.
And I really love this give and take, this dance

(01:17:48):
that you two are having on the other end here.
It's it's actually really really cool to witness and be
a part of it.

Speaker 4 (01:17:53):
And I appreciate it from both of you.

Speaker 2 (01:17:55):
Something else I want to mention that April wrote for you, Adam,
and your intake for that that I think is part
of all of this is that you don't let fear
stop you. And and you know that's that's the big
thing for you, is like you don't let fear stop you.
And that's huge, right, because so many of us we're
all afraid, right and you're afraid.

Speaker 4 (01:18:15):
I'm afraid. We're all afraid.

Speaker 2 (01:18:17):
But it's about not letting it stop us and just
going forward. And so I love that you were able
to share some of that.

Speaker 6 (01:18:24):
Something that that's something that I really admire about, Adam,
because there are so many times where I know I
would have gotten stuck because I would have been scared, right,
and I didn't understand the hell right. I didn't have
all the inform like like you say, mapped out. I

(01:18:46):
didn't understand exactly how it was going to happen, and
so a lot of times I equated to you know,
jumping out of the airplane without a shoot like you right.

Speaker 5 (01:18:55):
You know, it's just there was no.

Speaker 6 (01:18:58):
You're just going You're just doing it right, and we
don't have to have it all figured out, and so
sense being together with Adam, it's.

Speaker 5 (01:19:05):
Taught me.

Speaker 6 (01:19:08):
To breathe, just to be able to be more spontaneous,
because that's a skill.

Speaker 5 (01:19:16):
I think that's like to not be so.

Speaker 6 (01:19:19):
Attached to the outcome, to not let the fear of
the unknown or get stuck in having to know how
it was all going to work out. There is a
leap of faith there, right, but to not get stuck
in the hell. And I know that I get stuck
in the hell. My very like system planning.

Speaker 5 (01:19:37):
In brain.

Speaker 6 (01:19:39):
Would get kind of like stuck where he was just like,
the heck with it, we're going that's how. That's the
mind that he took with the with the he didn't
want to do ballroom anymore. He wanted to give folks
an opportunity to teach dance in a way that was
fun and exciting and couples could connect and say, like
not in a in a strict ballroom setting competition competition,
but a social setting and that's not there's not a

(01:20:01):
lot out there in that way. So he had a
very unique vision and a friend of his, you know,
say hey, there's a spot you know for relice, and
he was just like let's go, because that's who he is,
Like he's just this go and you know, with knowing
that he was just going to make it work, you
slept at the studio like people have come into our

(01:20:23):
lives that have helped us along the way, but there
was no way to know how this was going to
pan out, that we would meet back in you know,
five years later, Like, there is no way to know.
So sometimes I think, and you've taught me this, that
you just have to sometimes take a leap of faith
and believe in yourself and believe in your vision that

(01:20:43):
you have everything you need.

Speaker 5 (01:20:45):
And that the how will present itself.

Speaker 4 (01:20:50):
Yeah, I mean we could end right now. That was awesome.
That was awesome. That was really really great. I mean
it's so true.

Speaker 2 (01:20:57):
It's so true focusing on the how is what it's
a stuck and allowing it to just kind of play
out and believing in it. I have a off off
topic question, uh, for for you, Adam, and it's just
more of a theory that I have for for visionaries
like us. When you when you go somewhere, if someone
gives you a place and they say, hey, you know,

(01:21:19):
meet me at such and such, and you don't know it,
it's a it's a new place, it's new or something.
And do you do you map it out before you
go or do you just kind of like hop in
the car and start getting ready to go and they're like,
oh wait, I need to know where I'm going.

Speaker 4 (01:21:32):
I'm just curious.

Speaker 3 (01:21:34):
So yeah, I'll usually just wing it.

Speaker 4 (01:21:39):
It's a it's ding ding ding. I had I had
a feeling, right, go ahead.

Speaker 3 (01:21:44):
Well now now I just say hey, Siri and right.

Speaker 4 (01:21:48):
But when when you do that?

Speaker 2 (01:21:49):
When you do that, do you do it when you
get in the car, or do you do it a
day before, when you when you learned about it?

Speaker 4 (01:21:55):
When do you map it out?

Speaker 3 (01:21:58):
Usually in the moment yep. So I mean in the moment,
I'll check to see if it's if I don't know,
like what town it's in.

Speaker 4 (01:22:06):
If it's not, just to give yourself some time. Yep.
That's so funny. And my other my little.

Speaker 2 (01:22:10):
Follow up to that is what about the weather? Do
you ever check the weather to see what you should
be wearing?

Speaker 3 (01:22:16):
I do now, I do now because I used because
I've been riding my motorcycle, so so yeah, But for
the most part, I would just I would kind of
wing it in terms of getting out and figure it out.

Speaker 4 (01:22:29):
And what about you April, same two questions.

Speaker 6 (01:22:33):
I'm well, the morning, like wherever I am, I'll if
I'm going to somebody and map in see just because
I can prepare.

Speaker 4 (01:22:42):
How long as yeah, of course, because you have to prepare.
And then what about weather, the.

Speaker 6 (01:22:48):
Weather if I'm going to be somewhere outside, I know,
like the day before, like I've mapped out what I'm.

Speaker 4 (01:22:53):
Gonna wearing, Yes, the day before. Yeah, that's so inside
not as.

Speaker 5 (01:22:57):
Much, but outside one hundred percent because I do not
like cool.

Speaker 4 (01:23:00):
Weather, And that makes sense, that's fine.

Speaker 2 (01:23:04):
I asked that like off topic question only because like
of what we're kind of talking about, the visionary and
the operations and all of that, and it kind of
just it's something that I wanted to I've been meaning
to ask, and it's like it just came up. Because
you guys are into self development space and professional development
space too, and so we hear so many people on
stage I'll talk about They'll say you don't just hop
in the car and turn on your GPS, and I'm like, wait, no, yes,

(01:23:26):
I do, yes, I do, Like like I don't.

Speaker 4 (01:23:28):
There's very very rare.

Speaker 2 (01:23:30):
Like the only times I'll really look into it is
like I have someone coming on and he's down in
DC and he invited me to an event that he's doing,
and I was like, oh, I'm in yeah, I'll go
to it. Yeah, when is it? Give me the day,
send me the address, and you know, because to me,
DC is three hours away from me.

Speaker 4 (01:23:47):
I don't know. It's like I don't know.

Speaker 2 (01:23:48):
I'm like, it's a drive, and then come to find
out it's ten hours. I was like, all right, well,
now this is a weekend. But you know, so I
had to look into that. But if someone is in
my local area and they're just like, yeah, meet me,
and so so I'm all right, yeah, lead you there,
because I'm like, I don't know, it's like within forty
five minutes. I'm like, I'll figure it out when I
get in the car. But I think it has to
do with our personalities and how we how we operate

(01:24:11):
in that I don't really need to know how I'm
going to get there, or how I'm going to get dressed,
or what I'm going to do. I don't really need
If I don't really need to know it, I'll figure
it out in the moment, and then we have the
operation side, which is kind of like I need to
know how we're going to get there and how I'm
gonna dress, and so I feel like there's like a
correlation there.

Speaker 6 (01:24:27):
So rightly, but I think to speak to that as well.
I think it's really important for couples of relationships that
like that training that we did. It was like a
personality thing. That was one of the best things that
Adam and I did for our relationship because it helped
me to understand him because we're so different, and this

(01:24:51):
way I could actually learn like not to see him.
It's not a negative, it's not a deing. There's nothing
wrong with him, but it's it's who he is, and
to not try to change him. Right, The mission there
is not to change each other. The mission is instead
to okay, appreciate each other's strengths and work to each
other's strengths, and then there's adjustments that need to be

(01:25:14):
made or I have. I had to learn to be
more spontaneous, right Like, if we're going so when we travel,
guess what, I let him take the lead.

Speaker 5 (01:25:22):
I'm like, you know, I don't need to know anything,
just you do.

Speaker 3 (01:25:25):
Oh wow, he tells me, it's been amazing.

Speaker 4 (01:25:28):
Yeah, that's incredible.

Speaker 5 (01:25:30):
Yeah, he does everything and I just sit back and
let him.

Speaker 4 (01:25:34):
That's a fun exercise.

Speaker 5 (01:25:36):
It's nice though, because for the for one time, like
I don't need to be as I actually enjoy the break.

Speaker 3 (01:25:40):
Right.

Speaker 6 (01:25:42):
But we've upgraded this way, and so when we go
out to eat, like he doesn't he he knows what
he wants and I just let him take the lead.
But even in our so in our personal and our
professional lives, it's understanding each other. We reference our personal
so we have to adjust to each other and those

(01:26:03):
needs and not it's not credit criticizing, it's not putting
anybody downs. It's appreciating the other person for those strengths,
recognizing that you're not your own and all of a
sudden it puts a very different, like a positive spin.

Speaker 5 (01:26:19):
I've seen couples criticized, Well, you didn't do it like this,
You didn't do it like you're not doing it like you.

Speaker 6 (01:26:25):
Know, this is how I would do it. Well, that's
not the way of the world, right, you have to
be So I think it's important. I think that's just
important kind of in general for a healthy relationship.

Speaker 4 (01:26:37):
Yeah, and speaks to collaboration.

Speaker 2 (01:26:39):
I think that you know when you talk, what you're
talking about is it's complementing each other. And I think
to your point of the knowing each other's personalities, when
you then know that this is this person's strength, you
can lean on that. And when you know it's their
weakness and they know it's their weakness, you could then
compensate for that.

Speaker 4 (01:26:57):
And and that's huge.

Speaker 2 (01:26:58):
And I think just relating back to dance, it's the same, right,
it's you know, maybe you're better at this one dance,
and yeah, let me take the lead, or maybe I'm
better and let me take the lead, and so you
have this really great dance that happens between you.

Speaker 4 (01:27:11):
I like the way that you articulated that we.

Speaker 2 (01:27:12):
Share so many similarities as couples and as people, because again,
my wife and I very similar. She's operations. She needs
to know the day or two ahead of time. She
does all the planning. And so I'm going to take
a note out of your book and see if maybe
I can. I can I can plan a trip for
us and see if she'll she'll let me take the lead.
I have a feeling she might, she might enjoy it.
Like you just said, one of the other things that

(01:27:34):
we talked about or that we that I learned about
the two of you is is some of the things
that you learned through COVID. But when we talk about COVID,
it's because what would shut down most of the world,
and you know, again, you know, you have a studio,
you have people coming in and being shut down. That
was really, you know, tremendous impact to your business. And
of course grateful for the PPP loans that you were

(01:27:56):
able to receive and all that.

Speaker 4 (01:27:58):
But I want to just go further than.

Speaker 2 (01:27:59):
That into what it taught you for today, and I'm
going to just highlight some of the things that you mentioned,
and you could elaborate on any one of these, but
I want to make sure because the six things that
you put in here in your intake form, I think
is so important for people to hear, and it relates
to not just what you went through in terms of
COVID and what you learned from it, but it just
relates to going through difficult times and some of the

(01:28:21):
things you could lean on. And so the first thing
you put in is the importance of teamwork, and we're
talking about that right now. Collaboration, the importance of resilience
and getting back up, and importance and faith and positive
mindset and thankfulness and gratitude, I mean both of those
things you just talked about back when you were talking
about being a custodian essentially, the importance of community and

(01:28:41):
the people that surround you, thinking outside of the box.
We're talking about it right now, being these outside thinkers,
and then never let step back stop you. And I
just didn't think that all six of those things that
you articulated there is lessons from coming out of COVID
apply to today and pick any one of those that
you would just kind of like to expand on for

(01:29:02):
us today. In that learning of getting over difficult situations,
I mean.

Speaker 3 (01:29:09):
For me, I the biggest lesson and take away from
from that was was trusting my partner, so you know,
really leaning on my partner and and and so it

(01:29:31):
really I credit it to you, I mean, getting through
that that that that moment in time, I mean because
you because I was so connected to it. I was
emotional and so April was able to help balance me
out and it was our partnership, you know, leaning into
that that really made the difference.

Speaker 5 (01:29:51):
Well, we had to.

Speaker 6 (01:29:53):
At a time it was uncool to be a social
as a social studio, you know, it'd be shut down,
and so in order to it's a community basis of
people membership base, right, and we had to figure out
how to stay connected because we at the time, we
didn't know how long this was going to last.

Speaker 5 (01:30:14):
You know, we didn't nobody knew anything.

Speaker 6 (01:30:16):
And so we decided to completely change our home into
a studio space. And much like we're sitting here with you,
we created a virtual opportunity for folks to learn to dance.

Speaker 5 (01:30:31):
And so we reached out to all of our couples
and Adam and I.

Speaker 6 (01:30:36):
Instead of usually when we teach lessons, I'm on a lesson,
he's on a lessons, we have two simultaneous lessons going on.
But at that time we came together because this way
would let you lack in in us being able to
guide or you know, you could see both of us,
and so everything became visual and so we were like, well,
this is a good way to stay connected, right, So

(01:30:58):
we we we've charged very reduced amounts and then just
did right here. We created a studio and we worked
virtually with folks a space of gratitude because our community
of folks were so amazing many of them kept their memberships.
We thought everybody would cancel their membership, and we only

(01:31:21):
dropped maybe one or two of all of the memberships
that we had. They kept supporting us, and that was
that's you know, incredible, because most people we ud have
just canceled, right, So that bond that we have with
our dance king family was so strong that they supported
us through it, which we you know, was one of

(01:31:43):
the reasons we survived. Then we went outside the box
and we started dancing on the rooftop of a parking
garage just to be able to bingle. Everybody was massed up.
We were all twenty feet apart from each other, but
we were all together outside. We brought our Bluetooth speakers.

Speaker 5 (01:32:02):
We threw some music on, and we did.

Speaker 6 (01:32:05):
Some like solo work, right, and so we've got tons
of video and photos of us just everyone like apart,
but everyone was so happy to just move and see
each other. And then as things shifted, you know, we
were still on the rooftop, we were able to stow
mask and hold hands and you know, eventually things progressed
back to normal. But just we did a we did

(01:32:27):
for couples. We partnered up with a place, a historical
place here in Liesburg, Oatland, and in their garden, we
threw up our speakers and we created an event where
couples could be together because obviously if you live together,
you know you can be together. And so we set

(01:32:48):
couples out.

Speaker 5 (01:32:48):
We got a florist.

Speaker 6 (01:32:49):
Our partnered with a florist. Every couple got a rose
and we set the roses twenty feet apart, and everyone
was outside in the garden and we led a swing
and fox trot class outside in this beautiful backtop of
a garden and the Odin's Sweetheart Date night. We did
that for all through COVID for a couple of years

(01:33:10):
and it was incredibly successful.

Speaker 5 (01:33:13):
So it was a date night.

Speaker 6 (01:33:14):
Couples got outside, it was safe, right, every couples bought
their own food, so there was no exchange. We just
you know, but it was so much fun and so
it was really just to am amazing memories, great opportunity,
great partnerships. We couples that are at the studio now
came to found out about us, you know through that,

(01:33:35):
and what said, that's when our relationship, that's when our
relationship change was in COVID because before I was an instructor,
but I wasn't helping to operate the business. And when
that went down, we lost two of our other instructors
that used to be part of the team. They left,
and it became well, it's it's sink or swim, and

(01:33:57):
we're going to have to work together. And the company
had been Adams all this time, and so he was
very attached to it and I never trusted anybody else
to release some of that control, and I had to
earn it. And it was through COVID that he that
I earned his trust and that our relationship strengthened.

Speaker 5 (01:34:19):
And I know here we are.

Speaker 2 (01:34:22):
I mean, I'm interested in do you guys know the
piano guys? Have you ever followed the piano guys?

Speaker 5 (01:34:28):
I listened to their music?

Speaker 4 (01:34:29):
Have you ever seen them on YouTube?

Speaker 3 (01:34:31):
Absolutely?

Speaker 6 (01:34:32):
Yes?

Speaker 2 (01:34:32):
Yeah, you know what I'm referencing here, right, So I
just I just came up with this hair brain idea
for you guys here. It's sorry, sorry, April, Adam you ready?

Speaker 4 (01:34:39):
You and me?

Speaker 2 (01:34:40):
Right, It's just everybody, It's just me and Adam here, April,
April's out. I'm just I'm just I'm just kidding, but April,
I'm so sorry, but this is what the that the
piano guys, they'll go, They'll like hoist these huge, these
beautiful pianos and all their instruments to like these like
the Grand Canyon and these like amazing like locations outdoor locations.
And when you were just talking about during COVID how

(01:35:01):
you were dancing with this garden in the backdrop, I
was just like, oh my goodness, Like, wouldn't it be
so cool if you did like more like dance outings
and all this like the piano guys. Do so sorry
about that, April, go live with that for the next
hour after you've were done wrapping here.

Speaker 5 (01:35:17):
I love it.

Speaker 6 (01:35:18):
I love it.

Speaker 4 (01:35:18):
I knew you would. You know.

Speaker 2 (01:35:21):
Trust has been the theme in this conversation of just
you know, whether we're talking about dancing with your partner,
whether we're talking about dancing by yourself, trusting in yourself
and believing in yourself, and then trusting as as a
business owner, trusting the process, trusting that things will work out,
trusting that you will figure it out, and then of

(01:35:42):
course trusting each other. And you just articulated that in
how important that.

Speaker 4 (01:35:46):
Trust of each other.

Speaker 2 (01:35:47):
Is I really, really am so appreciative for the time
that we've been spending together and learning so much about
your journey and seeing how that trust is blossomed into
not just one business, but multiple businesses and going really
deep with your customers. And of course that's all led
by some of the beliefs that you hold dear to
you and some of the mantras that you carry with you,
and we've talked.

Speaker 4 (01:36:07):
About some of them.

Speaker 2 (01:36:08):
I'm remiss to to bring up, of course, Mohama Gandhi
as an inspirational person for you guys, and some of
his teachings and some of his works. But I want
to just bring up what you what you listed as
your mantra, and I love the way that you wrote
this out for me, and so I'm going to read
this back to you and just elaborate on how you
live through how these mantras help inspire you every single day.

(01:36:29):
And it's watch your thoughts they become words. Watch your words,
they become actions. Watch your actions they become habits. Watch
your habits they become your character. Watch your character. It
becomes your destiny. Love that share a little bit about

(01:36:49):
that mantra with us as to how it means to you,
what it means to you.

Speaker 3 (01:36:54):
So that's that's something that I've always It's a quote
that as we stuck with me and so in terms
of developing as a partnership because you know, April and
I we we're married and we are the business. You know,
we are dance king, so we spend all of our

(01:37:14):
time together. So it's important. It's an important reminder for
me to be careful, you know, with the way that
I communicate, and it's something that I have to work
on and something that we talk about all the time
because it's our thoughts and even when we're stressed or tired, angry,
you know, impatient, sometimes those are those are times when

(01:37:41):
we communicate things that we don't want to communicate, that
we don't or that doesn't show the partnership the way
it should be. And so it's something that I always
kind of guard against. But it's something that I have
to work on more and more because as the stress
of building this uh, this vision, you know, as it

(01:38:04):
creates more polls, it's it's easy to get it's easy
to get distracted, it's easy to it's easy to lose
light loose sight of the the way that we communicate best,
and so it's one of the things that we want

(01:38:25):
to get on the wall. We've actually ordered something, so
we're going to have it here in the house when
we when we come.

Speaker 6 (01:38:31):
In, so to have a daily reminder, and we use
that mantra to communicate like, hey, that you know, watch
your words right, so something you know, if either I
say something and or Adam says something that's a little
like edgy or snippy because we're hungry or we're you know,
we're frustrated about something, they you know, watch words just

(01:38:51):
kind of because it's a it's a gentle way of saying, hey,
you know, not it right, And so it's a it's a.

Speaker 5 (01:39:01):
You don't have to say much that's communicated there. Hey,
love you know, remember watching words because it's it's a
respectful way of If he says something to me that
I felt was not respectful, you know, I know.

Speaker 6 (01:39:13):
He didn't mean it. I know, I know it's something's happening.
He's frustrated about something's coming out. But at the same time,
I think it's very important that we communicate hey, that
I don't want to be like, let's be let's guard
against that, because you know, I've experienced in my own past,
but I didn't guard against that. It kept happening. And

(01:39:33):
it's like I allowed it. I allowed, you know, people
to talk to me certain ways. And so now we're
both very careful about our words and our thoughts. Well,
if we have nothing but negative thoughts, if we're stuck
our mindset, mindset is power, right, we heard it eighty
twenty rule that mindset twenty percent action, right, you know

(01:39:55):
that's a self development thing that that we're learning right now.
And really as well, if you have eliminating beliefs, or
you have negative beliefs, or if you're you know, even
if you're if even during like the COVID thing, we're like, oh,
you know, end of the world, we're done, we're going
to fail, the studios closed.

Speaker 5 (01:40:12):
What are we going to do?

Speaker 6 (01:40:12):
And you're just in this like brain dump of negativity? Well,
then you know, what do you think is going to happen?
Then you're not.

Speaker 5 (01:40:20):
Then you don't.

Speaker 6 (01:40:21):
You you're so stuck in that your thoughts that are
negative that you you don't they don't you don't work
on the problem or the solution to the problem. Right,
So watching your thoughts, and so if we're talking to
each other and we're sharing things, then we can say, okay,
that's now we're negative. We're being because everybody, this happens
to everybody, right, So it's easy to get stuck in

(01:40:43):
a negative space. So it's in that mantra like, okay,
let's watch your thoughts for I can see us for
there's a shift, right, let's pull out right, and how
are we going to shift to a positive mindset?

Speaker 3 (01:40:55):
We do this?

Speaker 6 (01:40:56):
That doesn't serve us, So that mantua just helps as
a daily reminder of because life is not perfect. You know,
we're not going to sit here and be like, oh yeah,
we have it all figured out.

Speaker 5 (01:41:07):
You don't. But we're constantly you know Adam.

Speaker 6 (01:41:12):
Adam has lived his life by that and he works
on it. It's it's we're always working on it. You know,
nobody ever is the constant.

Speaker 4 (01:41:19):
Yeah.

Speaker 2 (01:41:20):
Yeah, it helps, and it helps, Yeah, yeah, it's it's
a it's a great reminder. I like how you said
that too, and that it's just by saying the one
thing of watch your words. We know we know where
it's going. We know that the words turn into the
actions turn into the turn into the character turned into
the destiny. And so just by that one thing, it's
such a great way of reminding each other what what

(01:41:42):
are we doing and why are we doing it? And
I think it works in the positive sense too, of
watch your words or or see your words right, because
they can turn into something really wonderful. And I think
both of you have talked so much about that, of
being able to see a thought and actually make it
come true. And you use the word manifest earlier in
the show today, and it's so true. It's you know,

(01:42:04):
our thoughts, everything in our life, everything around us, everything
that we see and have and hold.

Speaker 4 (01:42:13):
We're thought.

Speaker 2 (01:42:13):
We're once a thought. It was another person's thought that
created it. It was our thought to have it or
to do it, and these were thoughts. So we see
this to be true and it could work positively, it
could work negatively. And which choice do you want? And
I love the way that both of you have shared
that with us. Of course we're going to have in
the show notes all of your contact information the way
people can can reach out to you. But for all

(01:42:35):
our audio listeners out there, if you could just share
your handles that where people can see some probably cool
videos of you guys dancing of the studio. What are
your handles on social? How can people connect with you?
How can people learn more about all the amazing things
that the Dance King is doing?

Speaker 3 (01:42:52):
Yeah?

Speaker 5 (01:42:52):
Absolutely the handle for a pace. But you want us
to tell you now like a lot?

Speaker 2 (01:42:56):
Yeah sure, yeah, please, whoever's listening, they can go ahead
and pull over, pull over and google it.

Speaker 6 (01:43:02):
So our website is dance Kingstudios dot com. And then
our Facebook is that dance King Studios King Studios.

Speaker 4 (01:43:13):
Yeah, so you'll find everything.

Speaker 2 (01:43:14):
And I saw on your website you have all of
your links to all of your social on there too,
so dance Kingstudios dot com check them out. You guys
are doing some amazing things. I can't wait to see
more of what the amazing things you're doing. And then everybody,
I'm gonna invite you all to watch this episode on YouTube.
But also I'm gonna invite you Adam and April to

(01:43:37):
join me on my Instagram excuse me, on my LinkedIn
live show. And so everybody you can go back now
to my LinkedIn page or to their LinkedIn page and
find this episode. What we'll do is I'd love to
invite both of you on my LinkedIn Live and so
that you could promote this awesome event that you guys
are putting on in the next couple of weeks. I'd

(01:43:58):
love for you to promote it there and share with
with my audience and with your audience live what's going
on there, and so everybody stay tuned to learn the
success about how this is going to hit fifty states,
because I know it will. This has been awesome.

Speaker 5 (01:44:12):
Thank you so much. It's been an absolute pleasure.

Speaker 6 (01:44:14):
So thank you for giving us the opportunity to be
on your show, and we've really enjoyed the experience even amazing.

Speaker 4 (01:44:21):
That's cool, cool guys, so much.

Speaker 3 (01:44:22):
We appreciate it.

Speaker 1 (01:44:23):
Thank you for listening to The Michael Esposito Show. For
show notes, video clips, and more episodes, go to Michael
Esposito Inc. Dot com backslash podcast. Thank you again to
our sponsor dn ten Insurance Services, helping businesses get the
right insurance for all their insurance needs. Visit Denten dot
io to get a quote that's d N t N

(01:44:46):
dot io and remember when you buy an insurance policy
from Denten, you're giving back on a global scale. This
episode was produced by Uncle Mike at the iHeart Studios
in Poughkeepsie. Special thanks to Rodrian for the opportunity and
my team at michaelspositol A

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