132 | You Expect This From Your Dancers… But Not Yourself

135 | Your Body Is Trying to Get Your Attention: A conversation about burnout with Jaclyn Smith

In this episode of Dance Studio Owner Life Coaching, Ginger talks with Jaclyn Smith, a former dance studio owner and current mental health therapist in New Jersey, about the real cost of studio ownership when self-care keeps getting pushed to the bottom of the list. Jaclyn shares her journey from growing up in a dance studio, opening her own school, expanding into a 13,000-square-foot facility with six classrooms, and eventually closing her studio after an unexpected real estate shift forced her to reevaluate her life, her health, and her identity. This conversation goes far beyond surface-level self-care. Jaclyn explains why bubble baths and weekends away may offer short-term relief, but deeper self-care requires honest identity work, body awareness, and a willingness to stop ignoring the warning signs. Together, Ginger and Jaclyn discuss how dance studio owners, especially women in this industry, often normalize pushing through pain, delaying medical appointments, skipping rest, and treating every studio problem as their personal responsibility. Jaclyn brings both her lived experience and her mental health perspective to the conversation, helping studio owners understand why the body's signals matter and what can happen when we continue to ignore them. Jaclyn Augustyn Smith Jaclyn is a graduate clinical mental health counseling student at Rider University, where she is completing her MA with a specialization in Dance/Movement Therapy (R-DMT). She holds a BFA in Dance Education from The Ohio State University and brings an extensive range of certifications to her work, including Board Certified Coach (BCC), Certified Sports Counseling, Pilates and Group Fitness Instruction, Injury Prevention, Certified Health Coach and Nutrition from The Ohio State University, and Certified Peri/Post-Natal Fitness and Nutrition. Jaclyn currently serves as Studio Services Manager at Dance Device Lab, President of Chi Sigma Iota — the Counseling Academic and Professional Honor Society International chapter at Rider University — and Student Representative on the Rider University Counseling Advisory Board. Her clinical training has been shaped by 200 hours of supervised experience across two inpatient settings — Princeton House Behavioral Health in Princeton, NJ and Pinelands Recovery Center in Medford, NJ — where her focus has centered on integrating movement-based interventions with evidence-based counseling to support emotional and behavioral change. Jaclyn's work lives at the intersection of somatic practice, mental health, and nervous system regulation, with particular attention to trauma-informed care, emotional attunement, co-regulation, burnout recovery, and mental health within performance and movement communities. She is available for one-on-one and small group coaching. Movewellmindbody.com [https://Movewellmindbody.com] Instagram: @unpackedwithjac If you enjoyed today's episode, be sure to get on The Leadership Roundtable newsletter. Enjoy twice monthly tools, inspiration and life coaching delivered to your inbox. Subscribe today. [https://thestudioownerlifecoach.com/newsletter]

134 | Stop Resenting the Work You Asked For

Do you ever catch yourself complaining about the work you do, the customers you serve, or the responsibilities that come with owning a business? In this episode, Ginger talks about the mindset shift that happens when business owners move from frustration and complaint into appreciation and ownership. Whether you are running a dance studio, launching a new program, managing customer questions, or trying to grow your income, your attitude toward the work matters. Ginger shares how complaints about customers, money, and workload can quietly affect the way you show up in your business. She also challenges studio owners to recognize the privilege and responsibility of building something that creates income, serves families, and provides jobs for others. This episode is a reminder that more money will not automatically create more gratitude. Appreciation has to begin with what you already have, the customers you already serve, and the income your business is already producing. Subscribe to the Leadership Roundtable Newsletter to get inspiration and insight for dance studio owners: https://thestudioownerlifecoach.com/newsletter

133 | The Ministry Mindset: When Passion Becomes a Financial Liability

Many studio owners — especially those with faith backgrounds or ties to community organizations — carry what guest Caroline Zanni of HarQuin Dance Bookkeeping calls the "ministry mindset": the deeply ingrained belief that sacrifice is the highest form of service, and that charging appropriately somehow conflicts with doing good work. In this episode, Ginger and Caroline share their own experiences working within church settings and unpack how that ethos quietly shapes the financial decisions of studio owners — from guilt around tuition rates to reflexive discounting that slowly erodes profitability. The conversation gets practical, too. Caroline makes the case that knowing your numbers isn't a betrayal of your mission — it's what makes your mission sustainable. From scheduling regular dates with your books to replacing open-ended discounts with a structured scholarship program (which, as Ginger points out, actually invites community generosity rather than absorbing the cost alone), this episode reframes financial health not as the opposite of ministry, but as its foundation. No money, no mission.

132 | You Expect This From Your Dancers… But Not Yourself

You already know what it takes to grow a strong dancer. More training. More consistency. More investment. So why do so many studio owners resist doing the same for themselves? In today's episode, we're unpacking a powerful (and often uncomfortable) truth: the double standard that keeps studio owners stuck. If you've ever felt like you're plateauing in your business—or questioning whether investing in yourself is "worth it"—this conversation will challenge the way you think about growth. Inside this episode, we're talking about: * The hidden double standard between how we train dancers and how we lead our businesses * Why avoiding investment in your growth may actually be costing you more * How coaching, mentorship, and education can accelerate your results * The real reason so many studio owners feel stuck or plateaued * What it looks like to lead by example—and grow into the next level of your business If you want stronger dancers, you already believe in training. This episode is your invitation to apply that same standard to yourself. If you're ready for more peace and more profit in your life and business, I invite you to discover your path through life coaching. Start here: https://www.gingerhaithcox.com [https://www.gingerhaithcox.com/today]

131 | The Frustration of Friction

Friction in your studio isn't always loud — it's the registration that never gets completed, the declined card with no clear process, the lead who expressed interest and then disappeared. In this episode, Ginger breaks down the most common places friction quietly drains your time, your team's energy, and your enrollment numbers. From murky payment language to follow-up systems that live in one person's memory (and nowhere else), she walks through the specific operational gaps that make running your studio harder than it needs to be. But the most important shift in this episode might be the one closest to home: recognizing when you are the friction. When every decision, approval, or question has to run through the owner, the whole business slows down — not because of a bad team, but because of a missing structure. Ginger makes the case for building clear lanes of authority so your team can actually do their jobs, your customers can get real help, and you can stop being the bottleneck in your own business. If you're ready to work through the friction points in your studio with support and strategy, visit gingerhaithcox.com to book a discovery call