Stacy Tuschl started her own business at the age of 18 in her parents’ backyard and turned that into a multimillion-dollar company that she still runs today.
Stacy is also a bestselling author and founder of the Foot Traffic Formula that helps small businesses get more customers in the door. She was recently named the 2019 Wisconsin Small Business Person of the Year by the United States Small Business Administration.
In this episode, Stacy talks about the four phases of her Foot Traffic Formula that she created as a result of utilizing foot traffic to grow her business to where it is today, the importance of taking the time to really evaluate what works in your business and what doesn’t, the lies many of her clients tell themselves that have a negative impact on their businesses, what the transition was like for as she expanded her business and began building a support team, how she trains new team members to ensure their success, how she communicates her brand identity to her new members, her company’s four values, how she handles team members who cause drama, and more!
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Transcript
Hey, hey! It’s Andrea, and welcome to the Voice of Influence podcast where we explore the intersection of human dynamics, communication, and service, all under the umbrella of influence. So, if you’re interested in growing your own voice of influence or the influence of those on your team, check us out at voiceofinfluence.net and we would love to talk.
Today, I have with me Stacy Tuschl. Stacy started her own business at the age of eighteen in her parents’ backyard and turned that company. That company that she started at eighteen into a multi-million dollar business that she still runs today. Congratulations on that by the way, that’s fantastic. She is a bestselling author and founder of the Foot Traffic Formula, helping small businesses get more customers in the door. Stacy was recently named the “2019 Wisconsin Small Business Person of the Year” by the United States Small Business Administration.
Andrea: Congratulations, Stacy, and welcome to the Voice of Influence podcast!
Stacy Tuschl: Hi Andrea, thank you so much for having me.
Andrea: Well, I’m really interested, what is that business that you started at eighteen?
Stacy Tuschl: Yeah. So, I started teaching dance classes in my parents’ backyard. We had seventeen little middle school girls coming to the backyard, and within three years we had a hundred kids. And now today – this is actually our 17th year – we have about a thousand music and dance students that come to us every single week. And we have two locations here in Milwaukee, Wisconsin.
Andrea: Wow, that’s awesome!
Stacy Tuschl: Thank you.
Andrea: What are some of the things that you suggest that people do to grow, to get more foot traffic? Now I know that that’s part of what you talk about so tell us just a little bit about that too.
Stacy Tuschl: Yeah. So, one of the things that happen very naturally and organically for me was we just kept growing. And we started in 2002, so even through the recession, 2008 and beyond, we just kept getting bigger and bigger, and people started to go, “How is this happening? Most people are going out of business or they’re losing business, but you’re getting bigger.” We built our first custom million-dollar-plus building – which for Wisconsin, that’s a pretty nice-looking building – we built that in 2008.
I mean, literally our contractors, as we were building the building, were going out of business. We had to hire new people to keep building, and our little dance studio was just blossoming. So people started to say, “How are you doing this? Tell us what you’re doing.” And I naturally just started to kind of teach what we were doing. And with our Foot Traffic Formula, it’s these four phases, you know, it’s driving traffic to our business, getting people to understand who we are, that we exist, what we do, what we can do for them.
And then the next piece is really making sure that we’re driving them to us, but we’ve got to capture and touch them, and get their contact information, make that first connection. That next piece is transaction, how do we get them to actually buy with us today. And then that last piece is tracking, which is really understanding your numbers, what’s working, what’s not, and just doing more of what’s already working.
I always tell people, “You’re throwing spaghetti at the wall to see what sticks, but you’re not looking to see what’s sticking. Like, you’re throwing it and then you’re gone to the next thing.” But when we throw it, we look and we’re like, “Why did that stick? Why did that not?” And then we go from there and that’s a big, big part of what we do here at Foot Traffic.
Andrea: Hmm. Why do you suppose it is so hard for people to kind of… you know, they’re trying new things, but they’re not necessarily going back to figure out what is it that works. Why is that so hard for people to do?
Stacy Tuschl: Yeah, that’s a great question and it was hard for me. I mean, I don’t want anybody thinking naturally I was able to do this. I had to learn a lot. I’ve really just invested in growing and learning about how do I make this be a true business versus just a hobby. I think, first of all, one of my problems was I’m a doer. And I think a lot of entrepreneurs, we like to do and we feel like how we can measure our success is by how hard we worked and what we’ve done.
I grew up in an entrepreneurial family where my family has a construction business, and I watched them be very successful, but I watched them work. I watched them, you know, be out before the sun got up, and I watched them come home after the sun went down.
And for me, it’s like a lot of us, the way that we grew up is we watched really hardworking people, and now we’re trying to do that too. But I think we’re not understanding is a different time, it’s a different world. We can actually have very successful businesses and not have to work as hard as generations previously. So, I think we’re just so used to doing, doing, doing, but we’re not stopping to actually see what is working, what is moving the needle in our business, and what we really should be truly focusing on.
And I also think it’s a mindset that entrepreneur, like if you’re a quick start, I don’t know about you, Andrea, but I love like getting new ideas and implementing. That’s the fun stuff. It’s hard to stick with something. It’s hard to finish it, and it’s hard to do the non-fun, you know, spreadsheets and numbers. A lot of people don’t like that stuff. And honestly, I always say to people, “That’s where the fun stuff is actually happening. That’s where the profit margin shows up. That’s when you start to see the difference in your bank account when you get to that tracking section.”
Andrea: So true, yes. I am also a quick start, but you’re right, if you don’t go back, I mean… I’ve heard it over and over here in podcast interviews that one of the keys to success, in general, is the ability to take a step back and do some reflection. So that makes a lot of sense.
Stacy Tuschl: Yeah. It takes a lot of discipline, and it’s something that I’ve had to work on because I love that next thing, like go, go, go. And it’s hard to sit still. It feels like, “Am I doing anything? Should I be doing more?” You start to question it, and that mindset just starts to really jump in and question yourself.
Andrea: When you work with businesses, what are some of the biggest internal challenges that you’re seeing women face in growing their businesses? Those things that are going on inside?
Stacy Tuschl: Yeah. I think the thing we just brought up with that mindset is we’re telling ourselves so many lies, and maybe we’re making excuses. Maybe we truly believe it, but we’re saying things like, “I just don’t have time.” “I don’t really have the money.” “I could never grow my team.” “It’s too difficult.” “It’s too expensive.” “I would never want to do that.” “It doesn’t sound fun,” right? “It feels heavy.” Like, we’re making up all of these things that I said. Either we’re believing them or we’re allowing ourselves to believe them so we have an excuse to stay in our comfort zone, right?
It’s really easy to feel good where we’re at right now, and that next level, we don’t know if we can do it. We don’t know if it’s possible. We don’t know how well it will be received from our audience, our customers. And it’s scary to do something you’ve never done before. And as an entrepreneur, we are faced to do that every single day. So, I just think a lot of times we get stuck in our own ways, and we self-sabotage because we like where we are right now, even if… I should say we liked the feeling of where we are right now even if we’re not happy with our bank account, our business, our team, it’s still a little scarier to branch out and do something you’ve never done before.
Andrea: Hmm. So true, and especially if you sort of grow up being really good at something like the craft of dancing and then you’re sharing that with others, that sort of thing. Then you took it many steps further. You created a business out of it that wasn’t just about you, but you obviously must have a number of people that are teachers now. So, you took that to that next level. Why is it hard for people to go from that point of, “This is what I do, I’m really good at that,” to actually building the team?
Stacy Tuschl: Yeah. A lot of us start as what I call the technician, right? So I was the dance teacher. Every Sunday, we had a hundred kids getting dropped off, and I was the only teacher. And then finally when I think I just had to really take a look at what do I want this to be and how is this truly going to grow. And when I realized it was so much bigger than anything I could do on my own, I had to give up the fact that I didn’t know how to hire.
And I’ve never been a manager, or a leader in that way, or had to be responsible for payroll, or you know, somebody else’s family and them having to pay the mortgage. And all of those fears kind of came in. And I will tell you that I have a team right now of… I think we have about forty-five employees in my Brick & Mortar, and then I think we have a team of about six in my online business in Foot Traffic. And the bigger we get, the easier it gets. And people just don’t believe me when I say that. But I really truly believe, I mean there’s no way I could be running the business I’m running.
My Brick & Mortar, just so you guys know, I don’t work in the business. I don’t teach dance classes. I don’t take phone calls. I don’t work the front desk. I strictly work in my home office on the business, and you can’t do that if you’re the technician. It’s just too difficult. My daughter, she’s six and she always used to say, “When I grow up, I’m gonna be a dance teacher like Mom.” And she didn’t realize, I’ve never taught a dance class since she was born. But she doesn’t know that, she thinks I’m a dance teacher, and she just recently said, “How come you never teach, Mom?” She was like, observing me, and I had to explain to her.
At some point, it got so big, I almost feel like I became the principal at a school. You know, the principal doesn’t teach classes. His whole focus is just to make sure everything runs smooth, and that’s what I’m doing in my business. And I think so many times we get stuck, if we’re using the school analogy, thinking we have to be the teacher, but that’s not the case because the bigger you get, pretty soon a principal needs to step in and really help with running everything.
And I think maybe, again, we feel comfortable staying small, we get nervous of what that feels like. But when you’re growing a team and you’re delegating, trust me, it is a skill. If you say, “I’m a control freak, I can’t imagine letting somebody else do this,” you just have to learn. I mean, it’s a skill that you will have to get better at. You will have hard mistakes that maybe cost you money or cost you more time. But in the long run, it will make you more money than you can do on your own, and it will save you so, so much time.
Andrea: Do you ever miss being the technician?
Stacy Tuschl: Not in my dance studio. I have friends that do miss it, and we’ll go back to it. And I think that’s maybe why I don’t miss it is because if I wanted to, I could teach a class right now. I could put out a Facebook ad saying, “Hey, Miss Stacy’s, you know, gonna be in the studio this day in time,” and I could sell that class. So, I think because I know, as the owner, I can do whatever I want to do, that if I want do it, I can do it.
So, I think for me, as I’ve evolved… I mean, I started that business literally the summer I graduated high school – I was still seventeen, and now I’m thirty-five. I’ve grown up, you know, and I think I realized too, as somebody who grew up in an entrepreneurial family, I didn’t realize how much of this business stuff I was going to love. And now that’s like, the part that I’m obsessed with is I just love business and I love what it can do for our families, our community, our customers, just everybody.
Andrea: You really do have to fall in love with the process, the business process.
Stacy Tuschl: Yeah, you do.
Andrea: Okay, so when it comes to building that team, was it hard for you to let go of your students? Was it hard to sort of put your… I don’t know, your brand, I guess, in the hands of other people? Was that difficult?
Stacy Tuschl: Yeah, it was a little scary, and I kept thinking, these are the stories you tell yourself, like, “Everybody’s going to want me,” right? Like, “Who’s going to want to work with this person? I’m that person.” But here’s the thing, it wasn’t like overnight, I was the main person, then I was out. It was a gradual, and I’m talking several, several years. So, maybe I first took off a few of my classes. Like, I cut my classes in half, and I only taught my favorite classes that I love to teach. Which when you think about it, that’s me being in my zone of genius, so it makes more sense, right?
And then, you know, I slowly started to lose more and more classes until I decided, “Okay, it’s time for me to really own other areas of this business.” I wasn’t the front desk. I didn’t really fully do a lot of the admin stuff at the time because I was so bogged down by being in the classroom. So then I was out of the classroom, but I started to work the desk. And then I was working in marketing, and I was really trying to own these areas, put systems in place, and then I would hire somebody. But before I would step out… I think when people hire people, they think, “Well, I hired her, and she doesn’t know what she’s doing. And I’m very confused why this is… you know, she should be doing this.”
You don’t hire somebody and they magically know your brand, your business, your vision, your values. You have to teach them. So when somebody comes and they work for us… I should say when I was training, they would come with me, I would teach them how I would do it. They would watch me and observe me, then there was a period we would do it together, and then there was a period where they did it and I observed before I ever let them go out on their own. So that’s how you get comfortable putting other people in a role that you used to do, and you will have so much [of] that fear of, “Uh, can she do this?” It’s like you’re raising children, and you’re teaching them how to like, leave the nest. That’s what you’re doing with your employees and your team.
Andrea: How did you and how do you now communicate the DNA of your company – the mission, vision, values, all those sorts of things. How do you communicate that and make sure that your team is really embodying that?
Stacy Tuschl: Yeah, definitely. So, we have company values, and it’s something that we try to have in as many places as possible where it’s almost like, so in your face that you can’t not understand we have company values. So, whether it’s social media, in our lobby, in emails, in newsletters, like, it’s just everywhere. But then at the same time, we want to acknowledge. So, I think when you have company values and you do them once, but you never talk about them and people in your team can’t remember what they are, it’s really hard to say that you’re embodying those values.
So, one of the things that we do is we are rewarding our employees as we see them. So, actually, we do a monthly leadership meeting, and one of our staff said, “Okay, I actually saw one of our teachers do this. He was off the clock. He was helping this student. Like, wow, this really embodied like the high standards aspect of our company values.”
So what happens is we acknowledge, once a week, a certain employee. We kind of shout them out. We share this to the public, to our Facebook, social media, all of that. But we do it internally to the other staff and say, “We want to acknowledge this person. This is what we noticed – like, what a great way to display this value. We honor you, we see you – like, so grateful for you.” And we actually give them a $10 gift card to Amazon, and every single week, somebody new is being picked.
So, when you’re talking about fifty-two times a year we’re bringing up a value and talking about a way that somebody displayed it… First, it’s really starting to make you remember which values are really embodied in your business. Second, when you see other people getting awards, you’re thinking, “Oh.” Like it almost makes you up a level to go, “I wanna be the person that gets acknowledged. I wanna be that person that they’re talking about.” So, I think it really kind of steps everybody up. Like, a little inside competition like that is good for everybody. You know what I mean?
Andrea: Sure.
Stacy Tuschl: Not in a negative way, but just to really stretch your team.
Andrea: I think it kind of helps people to even see what’s possible. Sometimes people, if it’s not there in front of them, they don’t even know that it could be like this. But when they’re hearing it, and then they’re seeing it, and then they become it, I mean, that’s just… it’s really great.
Stacy Tuschl: Absolutely, yeah. And I think instead of just saying like, “One of our company’s values is high standards,” to just say a story that goes along with it, and people are like, “Oh, that’s what she means, right?” All of a sudden it’s a lot easier for them to understand like, what you expect of them.
Andrea: Hmm. Do you have any other tips for leading a team? Anything in particular, especially when it comes to trying to influence people to work together, that sort of thing?
Stacy Tuschl: So, even going off of the values in Foot Traffic, we have four company values. Number one is integrity, number two is high standards, number three is resourceful, and number four is results driven. So before we even hire somebody on our team, they do a test project – which weeds out so many people right there because they’re thinking, “I’m not doing a project if I’m not getting paid to do a project.” So, when somebody is turning in this kind of like test assignment, all we do is we look at our four values, and we rate them on those values.
So, what’s fun is they don’t know that those values exist. Maybe they do, maybe they’ve checked out our website, but maybe they don’t. And they’re giving you this assignment and you’re judging them off of their personality type and how they would approach any assignment. So, what’s nice is when you finally hire that person, one of the first conversations I have is those four company values and how they basically got the job, like where they just excelled. And imagine as somebody who’s brand new to the team, and you’re sitting here sharing with them like, where they are just a rock star and why we picked them.
Again, when you hear the things you’re good at, you have a tendency to want to do more of what you’re being acknowledged for, right? So, we’ve hired the right person. She has displayed those four values and now in thirty days when we talked to this person again, all we do is go over those four values and we say where we think we’ve seen them over the last thirty days, what’s working. Maybe where we’d like to see a little bit more in one of those categories, and we’ll reevaluate in another thirty days.
And when you pick these values that really align with what you’re expecting, they can’t be fluffy. Like, you can steal mine if they really are yours, but if you’re like, “Oh, it sounds good.” No, with us… I mean, integrity, it means if you say you’re going to do something, you’re going to do something. And when we have high standards, we expect you to treat each other with kindness. We expect you to go above and beyond for our customers. We expect you when you present your tasks for the week, they’re not just average, but they really are above and beyond. We expect you to not just be reactive when there’s a problem, but proactive to resolve problems that don’t even have to happen.
And then the last one is we’re looking to get the job done and that’s why it’s results driven. So when we look at that person, I mean, it’s just such an A-player, and it makes us feel confident. We’ve hired the right person and we’re going to keep her accountable to those four values.
Andrea: Hmm. I really loved the idea of making sure to say, “This is why we picked you.”
Stacy Tuschl: Yeah.
Andrea: I think that that’s got to be really influential in how they then approach their job in the future.
Stacy Tuschl: Yeah. And I mean, I haven’t applied for a job in quite awhile, but I remember, you know, going into these interviews and then getting hired, and you’re nervous, and you’re not sure if they like you or what you should be doing or what you’re good at. And when you can just off the bat say, “Listen, we noticed this about you and we’re excited,” they know where to lean into, and you’ll just have such a great start with them.
Andrea: Great. Okay, so I’m guessing that at your dance studio you probably have a lot of women that are on the team, and you’ve worked with a lot of businesses that potentially have women on the team, maybe lots of women on the team. One of the things that I have heard a lot about over the years is just this tendency for there to be a lot of drama when there’s a lot of women together. Is that you’ve seen, number one, but number two, what do you think are some of the common aspects of companies that actually don’t have a lot of drama, but they have a lot of women on the team? Like, why is that?
Stacy Tuschl: I think it’s like, you get what you tolerate, right? So if you’re letting it happen because, “Oh, it’s normal. Everybody complains about their job so if they’re complaining about me…” You know, that’s just something where I’m going to address something that I have an issue with. And yes, I mean, 99% of our students are girls. I would say like, 90% of our employees are women. And I have two sisters, no brothers. I have two daughters, no sons. I mean, everything about my life is all girls, and I’m not a drama person, and I just think it’s because I just won’t tolerate it.
And so many of us, again, just think, “Well, I have to tolerate it so I guess this is just gonna be what we need to happen.” And you set the tone, right. So, they’re following you. So, be very conscious of the way that you’re talking to other employees, that you’re discussing things with leadership team, and all of that because they’re going to follow your lead for sure.
Andrea: So when it happens, when you do happen to see a little bit of drama – maybe you’ve tried to set the tone, but you do happen to see some drama – how do you approach it? How do you make sure that they understand that it’s not tolerated?
Stacy Tuschl: Yeah. So, and I don’t want you to think that it doesn’t happen because it would be physically impossible for the amount of people in my life that this wouldn’t happen. So, last year, I had a situation where I had somebody on the team who was constantly re-sharing things that were happening that maybe had nothing to do with her, that was kind of like lighting a fire under it, and it was becoming a thing. You know what I mean? Like, if she would have just not said anything, nothing would have happened. But because she was sharing things, things were starting to escalate.
So, I had to sit down and discuss this. And what we first realized was she believed… like, I believed that was gossip, and she believed that it was just her sharing her opinion. And when you don’t agree that it’s the same thing, you have to really understand and come to those terms that like, I understand where she’s coming from, but I wanted her to know that I perceive it as gossip, and I will not tolerate this in the future. And it had happened already more than once. And this was me saying, “I’m dead serious here, and I love you. I love having you here, but if this continues, you will not be a good fit to be here.”
And this was a really a serious conversation. I mean, it definitely ended in some tears, but she took it seriously, and we haven’t had a problem since. And I think it’s just having those hard conversations when they come up versus how easy is it just to vent to somebody – your spouse, one of the employees, like, “I can’t believe she’s doing this again,” – but not actually like, going to her and saying, “This is a problem. I don’t want this to keep happening. You know, I want this to be a good working relationship with us, but how do you think I feel when all of these things are sparking because you keep sharing and spreading things that don’t have anything to do with you,” right?
So yeah, it’s hard. I hate having those hard conversations, but I really hate being mad at something that just continues to happen when I have not said anything about it.
Andrea: I was just going to ask, do you feel like it is hard for you to be direct like that, but obviously you just said it is kind of hard, but…did you ever find it just like, “Oh my gosh, I’m so afraid of having this conversation, but I’m gonna have to do it anyway.” How did you get over that hump into actually having those hard conversations?
Stacy Tuschl: Yes. So first of all, every personality is different. So, some of you might be able to have that conversation so easily, whether you grew up in a way that your family was just very honest and that’s how you’ve learned. For me, that’s not the way that I grew up, and it’s almost like I would rather brush it under the rug, but I know that it’s going to slow my business down, and it’s going to hurt me, and it’s going to hurt, like, the growth in the business. So a couple of things is sometimes it just takes longer than it needs to for me, and I realized that that is a weakness, and I need to just get more direct. It’s better for them, and it’s better for you, right?
I mean, no employee wants to hear that you’ve been so mad at them for like six months or a year, and you’re finally bringing it up. I mean, nobody wants to hear that. So as tough as it is, go there out of love, go there and explain to them that, “I really like you. I really would like to see this work, but I do want to address this.” Then another thing that I realized with me is as my team started to get bigger, I was no longer even able to hire people. I wasn’t able to be there as much as they needed for me to hire. So, I started to have like, department heads come in and to hire their departments.
And one of the things that I did was I made sure I put managers in place that could hire and fire because it’s a lot easier for me to be like, “This person needs to go. You’re gonna to have to tell her,” right? Versus “I’ve got to go fire everybody.” I actually don’t fire anybody in my business right now. Like, you get hired by… our rule is whoever hires you, fires you. I don’t hire. Now, if you have been with me… I mean, I’ve been open a long, long time and people had been with me for over a decade when I maybe hired them, if one of those people were to be let go, I would absolutely be the person to let them go out of respect.
However, now moving forward, there’s almost like many bosses in my business because of how large we are. And hiring somebody that can almost be the void in your weakness, even if she has to tag team it with you when you have the conversation together, that could be really helpful, or bring your spouse in if they’re in your business as well.
Andrea: Hmm. So it’s time for us to kind of wrap things up. I’m wondering what sort of last bit of tip about having a voice of influence would you like to leave with our audience?
Stacy Tuschl: I would say just really being true to yourself. We talked about taking that time to reflect; and the more you can learn really truly who you are, and what you stand for, and what you believe in, what you’re passionate about, the more you can really bring your authentic self and not have to feel like, “Oh, I should be doing this,” or “I need to be doing this.” You’ll naturally be doing those things. So, I think just taking that time and on a consistent basis – it’s not a one-time homework assignment. It’s something where you really need to step back and decide, “When am I taking these breaks?” “When am I reflecting?” “When am I deciding?” “What’s next for me and my business?” And as you start to do that, I think as a voice of influence, it will naturally be coming to you so much more.
Andrea: Hmm, so good. All right, Stacy, thank you so much for being on the podcast today and a voice of influence for our listeners.
Stacy Tuschl: Thank you so much for having me, Andrea. I really appreciate it.