This is the podcast for us dance teachers balancing our teaching job with other jobs, commitments, and just life in general! We don't need to know how to run the whole studio, work with students 20+ hours a week, or win big at competitions; we just want practical advice and real conversations about how to be the best dance teachers we can be with the little time we have with our students. Join Maia on the casual dance teacher's podcast and in the casual dance teacher's network on Facebook.
Maia
Hello and welcome to the Casual Dance Teacher's Podcast. I'm your host, Maia. On the podcast, I focused a lot on setting you up with tools and tips for teaching your dancers, which of course is very important.
We've also delved a bit into taking care of yourself mentally and physically, but one thing that we haven't really talked about yet is how to actually advocate for yourself as a dance teacher from a business perspective. Today's guest is going to be sharing some tips about making sure that you look out for yourself, whether you are literally the CEO of a company or you're an independent contractor or someone that's working more casually like me. We all need to make sure that we're keeping our financial wellbeing in mind just as much as our physical and mental health.
So I'm very, very excited to introduce today's guest Audra Queen to the show. Audra Queen is a personal development and business coach and founder and CEO of the Dance CEO Coach. She holds a Master of Fine Arts degree in Choreography from the University of Arizona and a Bachelor of Arts in Musical Theater from Colorado Mesa University.
Audra is an Adjunct Professor of Dance at the University of Southern Mississippi, producer and host of the Dance CEO Podcast, dual business owner, soon to be published author, and thriver of adult diagnosed ADHD and autism. Audra has held the positions of Director of Dance for the Louisiana School for Math, Science, and the Arts, Adjunct Professor of Dance for Northwestern State University, and Co-Artistic Director for Dance for a Cause and co-founded the Dance Business Owner Summit. So I think it's safe to say that Audra knows a thing or two about dance and business.
Let me not hesitate any further. Welcome to the show, Audra. Thanks again for being here.
Audra
So happy to be here. Thanks for having me.
Maia
Of course.
I love your podcast, by the way. I love that you are the Dance CEO Coach, yet you're not just pushing hustle culture and business business working all the time. You really have a holistic view of what that looks like.
So before we get into talking business, can you tell us a little bit about yourself?
Audra
Yes. Thanks so much. Thanks for being a listener.
I am a happily remarried part-time single mom. I know this sounds a lot, but that makes sense for me. I was divorced six years ago, got remarried almost two years ago.
I have two humans from my previous marriage. My now husband has three kids from his previous marriage. And then also we live apart and see each other throughout the month.
And so that was also the single mom part. So there's still seasons. I'm not with anyone.
I have danced my entire life. Ballet was my soul, my passion. I was all in on ballet.
I ended up falling in love with all forms of dance, dance in general. As I continued my training, I ended up unexpectedly going to undergraduate school and falling in love with choreography. I planted the seed to go to my master's program.
And now I'm an adjunct dance professor. But the main thing I do is this business supporting dance, business owners, leaders, entrepreneurs, educators, and something else that I'm very proud of that makes so much sense in my life is I'm adult diagnosed with ADHD and autism. And that actually like fulfills me the most to understand my brain now and how I can thrive with it.
Maia
Yeah. Thank you so much for sharing that. And as you know, my little guy, five-year-old has autism.
So we have actually some episodes by the time this comes out that will have already come out. We're talking about the intersection with autism and neurodiversity and dance. It's just, it's great.
Um, but that's not what we're talking about today.
Audra
So happy to come back on and have the conversation too.
Maia
So, um, one of the first things that I want to talk to you about not duplicating anything that you've already spoken about on your own podcast, cause I know you've touched upon this, but I know that you personally have had quite a journey of growth with your relationship with finances.
And again, just kind of separating that mentality of always trying to chase finances in a business versus having a mindset of abundance and that those can come to you in a natural and organic way without sacrificing too much of yourself. So are there any aha moments in your own personal journey that you wouldn't mind sharing with us when it comes to your financial mindset?
Audra
Yeah, absolutely. Okay.
So I grew up in the traditional sense in the dance world where starving artist mentality was the way to go, right? Like you say yes to everything. Don't expect any money. There isn't any, and just be grateful when opportunities handed to you.
And unfortunately that was also similarly reinforced in my home. I grew up as very loving parents who I found out as an adult, the money lessons I learned from them were not supportive to abundance and a lot of money. My father absolutely said, yes, you could pursue your passion, but don't expect a lot of money from it.
And he was a coral director at a university. And my mother was like, you can have money, but you have to work really hard. And she used to clean houses to help bring money in for my family.
So I got these two examples of absolutely pursue your passion, but if you want any type of money, you're going to have to work a ton. And that absolutely was my life. And I didn't know any different.
I put myself through college. I worked full-time doing that. I had my first job at 10 years old cleaning with my mother and she started paying me 50% of what she made.
And I, that was the first time I started working. And I didn't stop until recently. I finally had a break in there and I didn't know any other way.
And I just thought you just have to work hard for money, even just to have a little bit of money, not a lot of money, just to have a little bit. And it was a few years ago after I'd already started my business and I had been fighting as a single mom to keep a group over the home for my kids. And I, and I joined this coaching program and this concept was introduced to me, which had never occurred to me before, which is a scarcity mindset.
And I was like, okay, you know, like, I know that like there's abundance mindsets and stuff. I hadn't thought about the opposite, which is just, you believe in scarcity and everything that even unintentionally, everything you do is based around that you're going to do a lot for a little bit. And I was living my entire life like that.
And that made sense why I was struggling to do well financially. Like I was growing in abundance in the sense of the services I was offering my clients and the transformations I gave them. But my bank account never reflected that my bank account continued to struggle with having anything in it.
And that just rocked my world. And I started a journey of specifically understanding and shifting my money scarcity mindset because I didn't even know that existed. And that journey to sum it up is it's not an overnight thing because I have how many years, 30 plus years of thinking and living a certain way that I needed to unwind and unlearn and also then replace it with things and how my body nervous system understand those things I'm learning when I've set it to do it another way.
And the core things that I've taken from that is scarcity is a sham. The starving artist, well, it's real. The starving artist mentality is crap and it's just been handed down forever.
And it's not a true way to thrive and be sustainable. You can't thrive with that. And one of the core things that I learned that is if you shift your intentions to where your focus is on the service and the outcomes you're desiring for other people, that the secondary aspect will come back to you, which is the financial security.
And so when I shifted into like, oh, I'm doing this, which I always was doing this to help others, but I was also like, I need to pay my bills. I want to put my energy and time into serving others and trusting the process. And then things have more easily come to me financially in the sense that my hard work is paying off because it doesn't feel like I'm just fighting to put food on the table.
I don't know if any of that made sense.
Maia
Oh, a hundred percent. And thank you for sharing like your personal experience and being really open with that.
It's nice for me to hear that I'm not the only one that has struggled with that mindset. I'm thinking specifically about so many dance teachers that are working on a contract basis or a gig basis. And that can be really tricky because you don't know when your next paycheck is coming or where it's coming from.
So I think it's so tempting to say yes to everything and to say like, I have to take this because I don't know if a better opportunity will come up, but I think that makes it so easy to sell yourself short and undervalue the true worth of what you're offering. So I'm just wondering if you have any tips or any advice on in that position, how can you approach each opportunity with a healthy mindset and make sure that you're not undervaluing your work?
Audra
Okay. Like how much time do we have? I mean, take it away.
Okay. Well, first I want to give the context. You alluded to this earlier, but the title of my business and my brand is the dance CEO coach.
And I define being the CEO of your life and your business. I don't just mean it in the context of how we think about it in a business sense. So when I use that as this aspiration to be the CEO of your life and business, you're in control of everything.
You determine what your life is going to be like. And when I think about it through that lens and it takes a different meaning in the types of things I choose to put my energy and time into. And one of those things that a CEO does in a business sense is that they get really clear in what the long-term vision is for the company.
And then they make the decisions on how to get there. So when you think about it through your own life, and if you don't know what your long-term vision is of what you're trying to work towards, and you're just focused on the next paycheck and just trying to keep dancing, you're going to say yes to anything. And you are going to not honor yourself or even know what those values are for yourself because you don't know what you're working towards.
You're just trying to stay afloat. So you first have to actually say, wait a second, what am I working towards? What's the end game? And I don't mean like have a five-year plan and a 10-year plan. I don't mean it like concretely in a timeline.
I mean like where do I desire to be as a human and professionally down the road? And don't put a timeline on it because you got to trust that that will work out how it's supposed to. But when you say, okay, now I understand that these are the things I'm working towards. I now have a filter and a lens to say yes and no and make decisions through.
So when someone says, here's this opportunity, and you're like, oh, wait a second, that has nothing to do with what I'm trying to do. But that absolutely serves your vision, but it's going to detract from my vision. I'm going to trust and say, no, thank you, and leave room for the things that are going to serve my vision.
And it takes guts to do this because yes, that might've been an immediate paycheck, but you just did another sidestep or another step back from what you're trying to achieve. And anytime you say yes to something that doesn't serve you, you're saying no to something that could serve you. And so you're actually literally not creating space for things that could.
One of the things through the lens of a growth mindset is when you start prioritizing that vision and that focus, and you start putting in healthy boundaries to enforce and support that, naturally things are going to fall away. Things that no longer serve you, relationships that don't serve you, jobs that no longer make sense, time that you're spending on things, energy you're putting into things. But even though they're going away, you actually create more space for the new things.
So when you level up, there's actually the things that make sense for you, filling in the things that no longer do. And so at first it might be scary, like, wait, what about these relationships? What about this job opportunity? But the moment you say no to something that doesn't serve you, you're giving yourself space to say yes. And you will be shocked.
You're like, it can't be a coincidence that the next day this thing popped up or someone was like, oh yeah, referred me to so-and-so for an opportunity that absolutely is in alignment or connecting me with the next thing or like, wow, this fell in my lap. I can't tell you how many times things have come in my path when I said no to things that no longer serve me. And it sounds like a lot if you definitely live in the opposite of this.
And it is, because you can't do this overnight. You have to go through so many things. But just the starting point, the stepping point is to get clear on what you're working towards.
You don't need to know how you're working towards it. You don't need to know the how. You just need to know the what.
The how is going to make sense in the process of. And you will be shocked what comes up for the how in the journey. Because the last little bit about this is if you try to figure out the how to get to some end game that you're not really on track with now, you're making those decisions of how through the lens of where you are now, which is not who you're going to be in five years time doing that thing.
So you also have to trust that the how is going to make sense as you move forward. But you have to just start where you are right now and just know what direction you're moving in. There's a author, Rachel Hollis.
I don't know if you know if you've heard her. She wrote "Girl, Wash Your Face and Girl, Stop Apologizing." I heard this from her.
And I've actually used this as a filter in my life, which is this is after the first book released the first year she said yes to like, all the opportunities to go on tour, right to go to all the gigs to promote her book, right? You just like awesome just came in. She said yes. But what happened that year is that it completely took her family out of balance.
It sacrificed time, energy, all that. So she said the next year, I'm only going to be saying yes to things that absolutely make sense to me. And she said, my filter now is if it's not a hell yes, it's a hell no.
So if I'm not all in and know that this serves my family, myself, the things I'm working towards, it's a no, like there's no gray area. It's not maybe sure why not, if you're not sure about it, it's a hell no. So with that filter in place, it can technically become easier because when you say yes to things again, that don't serve you, you're just putting your time and energy helping someone else's vision come to life while you're taking time away from yours.
Yeah. I don't know if you followed me. I feel like I just kind of all over the place with that.
There was a lot there.
Maia
So much. Yeah.
And what I'm struggling with, honestly, from that is, you know, I have narrowed it down to what works for me as far as being employed as a dance teacher. And I'm very fortunate with that. I'm very happy with my current studio and my current situation.
But one thing that I do fall into that doesn't necessarily fit in with what you're saying is that, you know, my contract says I'm responsible for X, Y, Z. Now I personally am just obsessed with dance and choreography and teaching. And I put in so much of myself. I love that.
I'm passionate about it. So I don't feel like it's unhealthy or it's like draining from me, but I think it is a fine line. And I can see where another area where dance teachers or dancers in general, for sure.
Can sell themselves short is not that they're like not asking for enough money or getting enough work, but that they are putting so much more time and effort into the work than what's like actually required of them to the point where it can get unhealthy. A lot of what you said, I think does apply to that in a way, but do you have any additional insight about being able to find where that boundary is for yourself and setting firm boundaries to try not to cross over into where you're pouring so much into it, that it takes away from other areas of your life you could be enjoying?
Audra
Yeah. One of the key quick indicators that something is crossing a boundary for you is if you feel resentment towards it.
So let's say you love teaching in the studio, you're at a competition studio and you have to go work competition weekends, but you don't get compensated for your time at competition weekends. Do you resent when you're there, which is actually negatively impacting the experience with the dancers and the overall outcome? Resentment is a core indicator. One of the common ways I see this is when I have clients who work with clients, and they're like, I lowered my price point for them to work with me so they could work with me, but I end up resenting the process and working with them because I actually didn't honor my own pricing, or I said yes because it was a paycheck, but honestly, I didn't really want to spend four months working with them.
So if you're like, I really am not excited about this teaching opportunity, but it's a paycheck, you're actually not only hurting yourself, but you're hurting all those involved because you're not fully committed either. So if you think about, first, are you experiencing resentment? And two is, what are you going to do about it? Is that enough motivation to say, wait a second, I want to honor what I'm committing to, who I'm committing to, to make sure it's good for everybody around. Is that enough for you to say, I need things to change?
Maia
If you get to that point where you do need a change, I know for myself, I would never not want to have dance in my life.
So I cannot imagine a situation where I'd be like, that's enough of dance, but if you're in an unhealthy environment, you're going to want to go create dance somewhere else. That's going to be more healthy. So I'm trying to think how to break down this question, but I guess the first thing that I would ask is, do you have some tips and tools for networking and getting your name out there to attract the kind of work that you want to do in the dance field?
Audra
Yeah. So I'm a big fan of reframing things because you'd only have like some kind of connotation attached to a phrase or term and then we think that's it. But if you think about it differently, it helps. So that being said, networking is not go to a networking event, hand out business cards, and then walk away, never talk to that person again.
Genuine networking is when you're thinking about building a relationship with that person that you can serve them and trust that it will come back to you if it's necessary. So networking is, Hey, there's this choreographer I absolutely love and I follow them and it would be my dream to work with them one day. Literally just DM them and say, I'm talking to a human, right? And just say, Hey, I just want to let you know I really value the work you do for these reasons, not with the desire to get a job, but to genuinely say as another human, I respect and admire this about you and then let it be authentic and genuine and leave it at that.
Networking is absolutely building relationships because we all know what it's like when someone's being salesy and scammy to us. So don't be that person to someone else, but you have to be okay with the concept that you might not hear back from them. You might get something like, please don't contact me again, or like most likely that's not the case, but you have to, the general phrase I would use is the high intention, low attachment, which is your intention is to connect to them and you want to serve them in some way, but you're detached from the outcome knowing it's not personal.
If you say, Hey, I want to build this relationship. We actually connected really good. And I thought things were moving forward, but also out of nowhere, they ghosted me.
And it's not a romantic relationship. So we're not going to go with like, what are the reasons and like drying yourself an ice cream and all of that. It's going to be, I'm going to just trust that there was a reason for that, but it's not because of me as a human being.
Most likely something happened on their end, where they just didn't mark it as unread, remember to get back to it. And like they're three weeks deep in unread messages that they haven't gotten to, or literally something happened in their life that they just aren't putting energy and time into DMS right now, or whatever the thing is. So you have to approach it from being genuine, truly desiring to build a relationship with that person to offer value to them not to take it.
And then also to trust that your intentions are good and be detached from the outcome. When you approach it from that you do it in a much healthier place, you're not desperate for anything, you know that you're building those relationship grounding blocks to have something develop long term. But you do think about it romantically in a relationship, right? You don't just walk in on the first night and say we're getting married, right? You don't like lay everything, someone's going to get scared.
You have to start from the beginning, say what's common ground? I want to get to know you generally as a human being. Do I like you as a human being? Do you like me? Is this a good fit? Do you want to see each other a second time? And it's just a natural progression of genuinely saying, is this a good fit for us? What do we like about each other? How can we move forward? That concept goes in any type of relationship. And so you have to trust that.
So it starts with getting to know the person first. And the dance world is huge. And also the dance world is small.
And that yes, it does help to know people, but it's not just you know, it's how you know them and the quality that's attached there. Yeah, I feel like I'm speaking a lot of like big, like concepts versus like practical steps. I don't think that's making any sense.
Maia
A hundred percent. Yes. As I said, in my question, obviously it's casual dance teachers podcast.
And I always think about that as like for dance teachers, but this can apply to dancers. This can apply to like any kind of, I mean, anybody it's just, yeah, those same concepts apply. So speaking broadly is really helpful.
And it's so funny because it brought to mind one of the first dance teaching jobs I ever got at a studio where I literally emailed my resume and the head of the studio hired me off of my resume. We never met. I knew very little about the studio.
I mean, I looked at their website, but I, I really, I was in that place at that time where I was like, I need work. You know, I was that, that person that I just asked about. So now knowing that you're in that position where let's say you really do need work and you send out your resume.
And instead of getting back, like, Oh, okay. Let's meet and talk. You get back.
Like, yeah. When can you start? Do you have some types of questions that we could ask or the way that you could at least open up the conversation a bit more to where you can get enough information to feel secure in making a decision of whether or not that's going to be a good fit for you.
Audra
Yeah, absolutely. So first you want to make sure you know what you want from the situation. So like, if you're like, I'm just trying to get a masterclass gig to pay my bills this month, or you're like, am I trying to get a teaching job for the year? Right. Like you need to be clear, like what you're looking for.
So then when you do move forward, like again, dating somebody, right. Are you looking for a one night stand? Are you looking for a potential husband or a partner? Right. Like you need to know what you're looking for.
So that conversation from the beginning makes sense. Absolutely. You have the possibility to interview them per se, because it's a two way street.
They are going to be hiring you and they have expectations in their studio. And so you need to be saying this is a good fit for me. It's not just a paycheck.
Do I actually align with how they show up? Thinking back, for example, really quick, the times I've not enjoyed working in a studio is when I said yes to money, and their desperation. They're like, Oh my gosh, we just had a ballet teacher quit for the third time, which should have just been my red flag anyways. And I'm like, yeah, I can do this.
They moved the schedule around to accommodate what I needed because they needed me. And I just said yes, not paying attention to like, wait, do I really want this? I was just trying to help them out. Yes, it's a paycheck.
Not a fan didn't stay there past the year. The times I've absolutely loved the job is when I sat down with the studio owner, the decision maker, and there was a conversation back and forth. I got to know them as a human, they want to know me as a human, we made sure that we were aligned in things, the culture of the studio, I really appreciated the values that they had.
They respected me in my profession. It wasn't just trying to get me at a low hourly rate. My expertise is valued.
I have a voice, I feel that they have my back. This is a good community. And if the director is like that, you know, that trickles down into the culture of the community and studio.
So this is, again, between two humans. Yes, at the end of the day, you're offering a service and you're teaching in the studio. But it started with the person that brought you into the doors to begin with.
And if that's not a good vibe to begin with, it's not going to go well. So you need to give yourself permission to know that you have a say in the matter. It's not the starving artist mentality.
You don't just say yes to whatever's handy, because you should be grateful to job is available. No, no, no, this is not an abusive relationship. So you say, thank you for getting back to me.
I have some questions for you. And then you can go through and at this point, hopefully, you have some values in place to say, I'm curious to know, what do you expect in these scenarios? Like, hey, is this you know, if it's a competition studio, hey, what's expected for me as far as going away to competitions? What is the compensation like for that? What's expected of me for recital weekend, you should be compensated for recital weekend as well. Side note, you don't just volunteer time, there should be some kind of hourly compensation.
Side note, you know, what does the teacher situation like? Honestly, do you have teachers come and go frequently? Maybe there's better way to word it. So they're not like getting pointed out like, wait a second, that's gonna have high turnover, because that's a red flag. You know, there's so many things.
What kind of focus are your students? Are they recreational? Are they more serious? You know, like, I think another one that people forget to ask is like, if I need to take a day off or something, like, what's the policy with that? Because sometimes there's negative repercussions when you are sick. There's unfortunate punishment attached to that. So it's really getting clear and say, what's important to me in my work environment, this is no different than going and working a corporate job, like you should have things that are important to you.
And that you're like, if this happens, this is a red flag or non negotiable, I'm out, like, it's okay to have those questions beforehand. And if that director, the decision maker, isn't willing to have that conversation, or doesn't have good answers, answers for you, that's your indicator that you shouldn't move forward. And it's okay to say no, because then you're creating space to say yes to the thing that will feel good.
Mm hmm. And if you're like, you know, I understand what my values are, this is not quite 100% all there. But there's mainly really good ones, a few things that concern me I could work with, because it's just a year's time to make sure I get on my feet financially.
That's when you also weigh those things in there too. Like you can say, wait a second. But if like the few things that aren't lining up or like red flags, again, say, is it worth it? Do I want to spend the next nine months of my life in this environment? Am I going to that? Yeah, especially I think when students are going to be the victims of your attitude, it's not like it's just affecting like you sitting in a cubicle somewhere sulking, you know, it's going to affect their year and their quality of education as well.
So there's a lot on the line there, which I always hate to put that pressure on the listeners. Like, you have a lot of responsibility, but it's true. You signed up to walk into a room and have however many humans are in that room with you to make an impact and influence them for however much time you're with them.
Like you signed up for that. So yeah, take it seriously. It's not just a paycheck.
There's humans on the other end of that situation. One other part to the potential job situation is it's okay to ask to do a trial class. Because again, you want to also know what's the culture like.
If you go in and like the students are a nightmare and really rude and whatever, that's not going to probably change on the next one. So if you end up finding out that the other teachers are really rude to each other, or whatever the thing is, and you get those vibes, you know, it's not a really great environment, you can still walk out and say no, thank you. Like, you know, you're not committed to anything.
It's a trial. You can actually say, Hey, before I say yes to this, I would like to do a trial class with you to make sure it's a good fit for both of us. You know, if they're not interested in seeing you to begin with, this sometimes is also concerning to me.
But so there's a lot of things in here. If you're concerned about something, pay attention to your concern, trust that instinct and look into it.
Maia
Total just off the wall question, because I've seen this debated online.
When you're doing a trial class, would you say that you need to be compensated for that?
Audra
The best jobs I've had, if I was hired, they retroactively paid me for it. It's like kind of like a training period to me, like when you train for somebody like your competency, maybe not your full hourly rate, but there's some kind of compensation during your trial period. And then like, okay, cool, where everything's good.
We're moving forward. And here's the full shebang that we promised you. I just have seen differing opinions.
Maia
I was curious.
Audra
Yeah, I haven't thought about that in a long time.
Maia
Yeah, I think it can get sticky. And I think again, when you're doing something you love, you can almost feel shame in asking for fair and appropriate compensation for it. Because you're like, oh, like, it's fine. It's what I love to do.
But thankfully, I do think that the culture and having open conversation about what is fair and appropriate and holding businesses accountable for being fair and appropriate and not taking advantage of the time of their teachers is growing and shifting in the industry. So I'm happy to see that.
Audra
Yeah. I mean, this is goes back to like, again, the decision maker, the director, you know, the student manager, whoever's hiring you, if they're being sticky about paying you, that just tells you all you need to know about the whole experience, right? Because then they're coming from a place of scarcity. It's like, I'm sorry, like, you need no, you're gonna earn this job. And we're not gonna pay you unless we hire you.
You don't want to work for that. If you believe in not living in scarcity anymore, you need to work for someone who also believes that or you're going to have a big issue, a clash of values. So if they can't value you, for the expertise you're bringing up front saying, yeah, like, I totally understand, like, so grateful that you're coming to us with all this background.
It's like, essentially, even though it's a child class, it's considered like a masterclass, you know, essentially, there should be compensation involved. And if they are on board with that, then to me, that's a red flag. And it's not going to work.
Maia
So yeah, thanks so much for walking us through that. I love again, that you are so focused on mindset and serving what you know to be most important to yourself.
So I think that we're going to wrap up here shortly. But is there anything else around this conversation or this topic that you wanted to add?
Audra
It is totally possible to get to that place to where you not only believe abundance is possible, but you feel it's possible. But keeping in mind that the journey most likely comes with years of some type of trauma attached to it, if you lived in a scarcity mindset and starving artist mentality.
And to be honest, a lot of the times that needs to be addressed with a professional. You don't just say I believe this, but most likely your body's like, but that's not what we've been told time and time again, and know how we've been treated. So you can say one thing, but your body nervous system's like, No, I'm sorry, I still need to go try and protect myself.
So the last thing I would say is, if you truly desire that change, but you know, you struggle, you're not alone, that's totally normal, because it's way deeper than you probably realize. And what's really been rooted in the times I've actually caused trauma, that's just reinforced this, even just in dialogue, like, hey, you're only as good as your worth, or like, you know, you're not good enough to get paid. So like, you don't even know all the times you've been told something that's just reinforced this that can be hindering your ability to move forward.
So working with professional therapist, certified coach in that particular area, it's totally okay to know that and know it's worth it. On the other side, it's like working with a physical therapist to heal properly from an injury versus trying to do it yourself and wonder why you're not making any progress. That's another area that I do think we're making a lot of progress like society in being open to that.
But dancers, for some reason, I feel like might hold on to like, I can do it, I can push through it more on their own. So that's a really good point that you bring up. Yeah.
And I lived all those cliches. I literally grew up and like all the toxic negativity of it all. But I didn't know any other way.
I thought that's part of what it was to get where I wanted to be to be a professional ballet dancer. And there's been multiple years of professional assistance and shifting the dialogue. So, yeah,
Maia
Yeah. I want to mention again, that I've been listening to your podcast, and you share so much more, you go so much deeper there. So can you share with my listeners, where they can listen to that and where they can reach out and connect with you in general?
Audra
Yeah, I'd be happy to have you come join me at the dance CEO podcast. You can find that in all major streaming platforms.
And I mainly live on Instagram at the dance CEO coach, you can email me if you want to at the dance CEO coach at gmail.com. My DMS are always open on Instagram. I do exist on Facebook, but mainly Instagram is my home. Awesome.
Maia
Thank you. I don't think I mentally prepared you for this. So I hate to put you on the spot.
But if you if you can, do you have a favorite quote that you would share with us?
Audra
Okay, so the one that's coming up right now is you didn't come this far to only get this far.
Maia
Hi, again, everyone. It's Maia wrapping up.
I just could not let the episode and without saying another big thank you again to Audra. I had such a fun time talking to her and hearing her perspective, and a little bit of her background and story as well. Remember that if you want to hear more, you can check out her podcast, the dance CEO podcast, as well as the other resources that she shared.
Thank you again to GB Mystical for the theme music for the casual dance teachers podcast. And because of course, I need to advocate for my own business, I would love if you could leave a review for the podcast on whichever streaming platform you use to listen. Thank you so much for your support and listening and providing feedback.
If you haven't already joined me in the casual dance teachers network on Facebook. And you can also follow us on Instagram at the casual dance teachers podcast. I'll see you next time.