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Thank you so much for joining us, Joanne. It's a real pleasure to have you on the show and we've done this. Oh no, the pleasure is all ours. Thank you. Thank you for helping us out here. So just going to talk a little bit about the format. Joanne and I are going to talk for about 30 minutes.
We have some questions that we're going to explore and then we're going to do questions and answers after that. I would give you a little health warning here. We do not know the answers. We are not experts on this. And last week I got asked a couple of times, when do you think my studio will open? And I just give you a heads up right now. I have no idea. I don't think anybody really understands what was gonna happen there.
So I'm going to start off just by introducing to add a, Joanna and I have worked together at plow anytime, I think it's three years now. Joanne. It's been a long time. And when Joanne comes out to visit, um, she usually stays in LA for a couple of days and I'm lucky enough to go for dinner with her and her husband. So it's always kind of cool. Duran is applied, his teacher, presenter, educator, studio owner, all of these things in Sydney and she's been in the party's world since 2003. And her studio is called [inaudible] on George. And uh, we've got to talk about it in a second, but your hand is doing live classes, you know, streaming over the internet. So if you fancy doing a class, which you around that opportunities available and we will put the link in the description in the chat. She hasn't hace as fast the night. She's already put it in the chat. Um, and you can, uh, see what she's up to.
And I have a class with her in person. So before we start here, what is happening in Australia on the Corona virus front? What's, what's, where is it for you? Um, well it's, I'm starting to be a lot more real where at, um, I think last I saw was about 4,000, 300 cases, Australia wide and half of those are in new South Wales. Sydney's the capital of new South Wales. So it is the biggest state. It's the most popular state. So it makes, I think it makes sense that um, most of the cases are there. Um, thankfully we've only had a very small number of deaths. Um, so that's great. Um, I think everybody's just hoping that we are just getting ahead of the curve in terms of um, getting all of our social distancing measures in before we're in a position like we're seeing in other places around the world.
Well, so what are the rules? Can you still go out to bars or are they closed or, no, all of that is closed. So I'm at the moment, major retailers like your Kmarts and things like that are still open. Um, which is kind of useful because it doesn't seem like something that's essential. But with everybody working from home, like we went to Ikea to get a few things and like the rush on sit to stand there, you could just say everyone in the office section just trying to set themselves up. Um, so those big retailers are still open and they've got markings on them low that indicate 1.5 may two distances, which you should be keeping from all the PayPal. Um, you can certainly say there's not very much, um, browsing going on people it doesn't getting in, getting out. Um, and then of course your supermarket doctors, pharmacies, things like that around are all open. Cool. We were, when we were chatting a couple of days ago, getting ready for this, I asked you a little bit about how does the healthcare system work in Australia has very different to here. You can probably tell I'm British and I'm used to the national health service, but I've lived in America now for nearly 30 years.
Can you tell me a little bit about how healthcare works in Australia? Sure. So we operate under the Medicare system. So, um, we have a lot of public hospitals and, um, the top physicians and things like that, they're all required to work, um, to some degree in the public hospital as far as I am aware. And then there's of course there's private hospitals as well, but basically what that means is that everybody can get health care without having to outlay additional costs. So, um, there are some instances where you contribute like a code contribution. Um, but yeah, we're all looked after here, so it's quiet. Um, it's a company bullets. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah.
Did you also tell me that some PyLadies teachers are also physiotherapists? So how does that, tell me about how that impacts things. So, um, so last Monday, whatever that date would have been, um, way where we were [inaudible] classes, an indoor recreation center or gym. So, um, all [inaudible] studios are closed. Um, however, there are physiotherapists out there or physical therapists who I'm also a practicing [inaudible]. So technically people can still go to those practices. Um, if they're having a Duke physiotherapy care, but really they shouldn't be engaging in any like group Kolodny sessions will send me private sessions. Um, from my understanding and the reason for that, um, is because if, if people have an acute muscular skeletal issue, they can at least go to their physical therapists or physiotherapists rather than putting an extra burden on GP or the hospital system here so they can still get that care.
So it's important that they're open and hopefully everybody is acting ethically and just, um, sort of staying within that scope. Yeah. Yeah. But mostly now your, your is asked for people only to be, to go outside, just to be in groups of two cause that take it out. Right? Yeah. So unless your family, your immediate family extends beyond that, it should really just be impaired. Cool. And that, that came into effect over the weekend, is that, uh, that actually just from midnight last night. So just woken up to this. Wow.
Tell me a little bit about your studio. What do you have there in Sydney? Okay. So I have, um, a studio in the heart of the downtown will CBD as we sort of call it here. Um, and we sort of operate with a semi-private system, so three clients to one instructor, um, and we might have a few instructors working at the same time, so quite personalized. And then as a little offshoot to that, some small mat classes. So, um, it's usually capped at eight people, so a very personalized approach. Um, and yeah, so as I mentioned, we're right in the heart of the city, so it's been affecting us quiet. Um, recent recently for a while as people have been encouraged to work from home, we've seen our clients Hill stop to dissipate. Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah. When did you close the studio? A week, exactly a week yesterday. Cool. Um, is that required by the government? Was that a yeah. Yeah, yeah.
Yeah. And it's gonna run another poll. Uh, I'm beginning to think this poll might be redundant, but I'm just going to ask, is, uh, is your colonial studio open or closed? And hopefully that's launching. Yup. Um, last time I ran this on Friday, everybody told me that their [inaudible] studio was closed. So there's just a few that are still open. I'm just kinda curious where that, those folks are. Maybe they're in certain parts of Australia or certainly here in the U S there's very few that are still open. If you're still open and you don't mind sharing, just cause you just say where, where in the world you are.
Cool. 92% are closed. Yeah. I'm just going to share the results here and hopefully you can see that my internet, my home internet was never meant to do a kind of what it's asking of it to do. Oh, so Japan open you me is saying in the chat. Wow. Thank you for sharing that. Yumi, uh, since you closed, uh, what happened with your teachers? Are they, uh, are they your employees?
Are you still paying them? What's happened? Um, so the instructors at my studio are, um, contractors. Um, so we describe ambling to try and get them teaching as quickly as we can, um, as quickly as they're comfortable and as quickly as their internet will allow for it as well. Um, a couple of the teachers realized that they just weren't really set up for that. So they're trying to get themselves organized. Um, yeah. So at the moment there's not much money coming in to pay anybody really.
Yeah. Um, what have you been advising your teachers? Have you been advising them to get engaged with online teaching? Yeah, definitely. So we're, um, we've had, it feels, it's so funny because it's only been awake since they've closed, but it feels like there's so much to do and it kind of feels like surely I've had all of this time, but really not. So, um, I think has to, you know, pull out, these teachers I think are renowned for being hard on themselves and must, um, must remember that. Um, but yeah, so I've got a few sessions on today that my teachers who do feel like they have capabilities are going to observe so that they get that last opportunity. Just to ask them questions before they go live, so to speak. Um, and yeah, and we're just in contact with their regular clients just to try and get them, get them earning some money. But they're, I'm reaching out. A lot of them are reaching out to, um, to the government because there's some, um, payments that are going to be made available to people.
So unemployment pay or similar. Exactly. Yeah. So even though they're contractors that they can get unemployment. And is that unique to the Corona virus? Is that something different? So, yeah, they're, um, our government, um, is a conservative government at the moment. So, um, what they're unveiling in terms of support, it's quite unprecedented for, um, like a small government approach. Um, lots of payments coming out and we just had announced, um, yesterday, um, a different type of payment where, um, more people are going to be eligible to try and maintain a connection with their specific workplaces. So, um, yeah, so it's going to be an interesting time ahead of how, um, the government supports the population.
Yeah, yeah. We saw a very complicated piece of legislation here, which I think people are still picking their way through to really understand it. Does it make more sense to do this or do this or do that? Um, yeah, I've seen conflicting advice, which is a bit confusing at the moment on what, what's appropriate here in the U S is your advice to your teachers or they should reach out to their clients and begin process processes, scheduling privates or how are you setting up a group groups, scheduled group classes? What are you up to? Um, well we're trying to stay, um, using the mind body system so we can kind of keep it, um, sense of what appointments we're trying to schedule. But um, yeah, I've been encouraging my teachers strongly to get in contact with their regular clients, preferably by phone, um, just to reach out because, you know, we have these regular interaction with people and I'd really like them to be able to keep that up. Um, and yeah, I'm just trying to email the, um, the clients as regularly as I can without being too annoying. It's such a tricky balance, isn't it? Because our inboxes are just flooded with stuff. Yeah. Cool. What do you hope to do?
You would like to be able to try and recreate your previous teaching schedule? Is that, what, is that the goal here? That would be ideal. Um, funnily enough, we, um, we've always been as, uh, like a studio semi-private heavy, um, practice. Uh, but I just sent out a survey to my whole client list over the weekend. We've only had a small response so far, but it's so funny that, um, it seems like more people are interested in the mat classes right now, so I'm not sure if that's because they don't understand what a semi-private would look like on the small screen or if it's a cost thing. Um, yeah. But yeah. Interesting. So we're actually pushing more mat classes out there than we ever have before.
Um, and just accepting whatever semi-private, some privates we can get in. Yeah. What's your pricing going to be? Is it going to be the same as an in person class? Yeah, technically it is. Um, but we're just adding a little bit more. So it giving an additional class just to thank people for their loyalty. Um, but because we're using mind body, I didn't want to mess with the prices too much because I didn't want to have too much admin, which you know, I'm sure would've had mistakes end up happening.
So we're just offering a little, uh, an additional class on their pack. It does bring that cost down, but um, I just really want to keep people moving so I don't mind taking that hit for a little while. Yeah, I saw an email for mind body a couple of hours ago. I didn't get a chance to really dig into it, but it, I think it was giving me the capability to search for virtual classes by region. So I could look at the, I live in Los Angeles.
The part I live in is Santa Monica. It's all the Santa Monica virtual classes that are available. And I don't, you know, I'm not a customer of MINDBODY online so I don't know if behind it all it all kind of integrated with the billing and made it kind of easier to know who was checking in and who to send links to. But if that is live then that that could be really useful. Absolutely. And that was the other reason that we, I'm really trying to get the mat classes going as quickly as possible because of that functionality that we have with mind body. Um, we're just taking advantage of the facets. They're really pushing all of the classes mocked virtual out, um, to their list, um, through the app.
So hopefully we can take advantage of that. [inaudible] fantastic. Yeah, I see a message from Christine here that mind body is about to launch their live capabilities with a zoom collaboration. That'd be fabulous. I'm really like that. When you're doing your virtual classes, are you using zoom or are you using, what are the other platforms? Yeah, I'm using zoom. Okay.
Yeah, we've, we've used it for our business for a couple of years and it's, it's worked really well for us. So that's, that's why we're on zoom today. You know, I, we've seen really good video quality. Let's see if we can get a little bit deeper into the nuts and bolts of how you're doing it. And I, I know you're going to say you're not an expert, but you're doing it, so that makes you an expert. Are you doing it just straight off your laptop? Is that how you're doing it? Yeah, yeah. Um, I, um, was given the advice, um, through a couple of webinars that the, um, camera in the laptops, a little bit of a wider lens so you get a better views.
So that was really great to learn before I started the, um, the online teaching and definitely the people that are using their laptop. I think, um, I'm able to see far better the iPhone and the iPad, uh, pretty tricky because you have to lean them backwards to be able to stop them from falling over. Um, well, and that's what people stop doing. But actually you need to try and lean them forward. Um, so trying to explain that to people can be a little bit tricky sometimes. Cool. And then in terms of the audio, are you using your ear birds or what, what are you, I can see them tucked in your hair though. Yeah, well they, these a buds, um, live very, um, generously donated by my husband for our webinar.
Thank you Ben. But, um, usually I have to say in using the audio through the computer, uh, and I've been given the feedback that it's pretty good. Um, but I may just buy instead of ear pod Oh, a plug. Um, and just get them sent by Apple I think. Um, cause I do feel like it's really nice to have that connection straight into my ears. Cool. And then your people are booking the classes through mind, body online and then you manually sent them the zoom link. Is that what you're doing today? Yeah, so there's lots room for error there, which makes me very excited to see.
I'm Christine's information about the zoom mind body collaboration. Um, that would make less far easier to manage. Cool. And where in your house do you do it? Um, I've got a little set up, um, where I have a Reforma, um, just by chance I found these, some retro reformer at the end of last year that I likened to, um, a light, like a 1994 Holden Commodore. I'm not sure what that, yes, American cars, but, um, picked it up for a steal.
And I'm very thankful for that because I think, um, it's going to help me out as I'm standing in front of the computer for hours. Yeah. Yeah. So if you're doing a group class, you, you're not demonstrating your in front of the camera, just telling people this is what you'd like them to do. Yeah. And I think that comes back to, um, what I hope to be the point of difference, uh, as a [inaudible] teacher rather than just a group fitness teaching in general. Um, and I had to make that decision of what I wanted to offer. So for me, being able to offer individual corrections, um, is really, really important to me. So, uh, I didn't want to be distracted by my own demonstration and potentially lose, um, sounds and also the capability to see people.
So I'm, I'm just standing and gesturing wildly and you're giving corrections as best you can. Yeah. Yeah. And it's really quite funny to say the facial expression expressions. How can she say that? How many people are you having? What's the max that you have in your classes? Um, look, my closet is still quite small at the moment. I think we've talked at, at about eight. Um, but I've opened it up to 15. Um, I feel comfortable with that as I've told lots of big groups before. Um, so I, I feel like I can monitor that number of people, but, um, I think I'm going to be listening to my instructors when they are ready to, um, to stop teaching online and change the caps according to their comfort levels.
That sounds, sounds like a good idea. You know, we're all making this up as we go along, so it's kind of a lot of experimentation. Yeah. Cool. Is it just a mat class as you're doing? Um, mat classes? Um, private sessions and semi-private sessions. So in the semi-private and private we use whatever props are available, um, at the time. And then, um, so it won't matter. And especially in a semi-private if somebody's got zero props from somebody who's got quite lot. Um, because we're still working specifically to each person. Um, in the mat classes so far they've been cropped free. However, I am, um, increasing our offerings.
So we're looking to do a TheraBand class and a foam roller cloth. Cool. Yeah. Um, I don't know if you've got a sense at the moment, but you know, do you have a sense of what percentage of your before Corona virus revenue you're seeing, is it sort of less than 5%? Do you know what John has been too scared to even investigate. Thank you. Me ostrich approach.
Well, you're going to have to look soon. I know, you know. Do you have any advice for studio owners and teachers? Mmm, I think it's, um, well just kind of going back to your core values. So, um, then may, it's always been about being able to make a connection with people one to one, even if I am teaching a group. So if you can come up with figuring out what that core value set or vision, um, of for your business is, and then just thinking laterally about how you can still convey that through the small screen. Um, I think that's the most important thing. Cause you know, for some people it's just having, being able to, um, bring lightness and fun to people's day. So you can still absolutely do that through the small screen. Um, using your voice, using music, um, all sorts of different strategies.
I think we just have to be creative. Um, and you're not what, like every day is so different and just acknowledging that like, you don't have to be in that op atom mindset each day. It's tough. Yeah. No, I agree. Tough, strange times. I think there's a lot of loneliness because, you know, most people are quite social. We enjoy other folks and, uh, you know, even if you're an introvert, you do want to see other people say hi to them. Um, so I think that there's a great role for [inaudible] teachers to maintain those relationships that they've had in the studio beforehand and just transitioning them to being online.
Definitely. Yeah. Th th the conversations I had last week, one of the big things was, you know, ask your teachers to ring up and get on the phone with the people that they've been teaching for a long time and talk them through it. And for some people, um, some older clients, this was a good piece of advice. I can't remember who gave it to me, but for the older clients use FaceTime or however it is that, that granny or grandpa has communicated their grandchildren cause that's the technology they know. Whereas trying to get them into saying, doing zoom might be kind of a little bit of a struggle technologically, but maybe it's just better for you to spend that 1530 minutes on the phone to explain how to install zoom and help them get set up so they can come to the group classes. Cause everybody needs to move. Yeah. Oh, well I was just going to say, you know, my mother is 78 and you know, in times of heightened stress, learning something new is, you know, it's a much bigger deal to her. Um, you know, technology's new, but also you just don't think clearly when you're in that fight or flight mode.
So just making it accessible as best as you can, I think is really good advice. Yeah. And I think for particularly the older clients that really needed their polarities to actually just move every day, you know, they have an even bigger need for this. The social connection, the movement and yeah. How these, how your exercises can be, you know, the practice can be modified. There's a lot of tools, you know, chair policies, there's lots of things that, yeah, I think it's going to be fun to see the ways that people are being creative with props and things that we have around the house and towels and cans of beans. Exactly. Uh, talking a little bit about money, um, you know, we talked on the phone a little bit about your, you know, after your employer, after your teachers, your biggest expenses, um, your studio and your lease rental. You know, please share whatever you feel comfortable with about that negotiation and, you know, how's it going? So I'm just to give people a little bit of an idea. I, um, my studio situated within a building, a 10 level building with many, many tenants. Um, so when we first reached out to the landlord, they were, you know, pretty much just by, yeah, there's no blanket abatement and give us all your financial details and maybe we'll think about it. Um, which was pretty disheartening because you also don't know what the landlord is going to do with all of that information after the fact. Um, but then one of the tenants, um, a few levels down, um, made the effort to go up to each floor and find somebody that he thought might be able to help. And together we were able to, um, go around to all the tenants in the building and asked them if they'd like to be involved in a group letter, which a lot of people were.
And then we were able to present that to the landlord in union, which was really wonderful. Um, just to be able to come together like that in a time of crisis. Um, and so they've given us 50% discernment on our rent for April, so that's due to be, um, debited tomorrow. Um, we're just all desperately waiting for the government here to announce, um, their tendencies plan. Um, there's talk of a hibernation ruling where everything is just put on pause so that people, um, don't accrued debt at the end of the period because there's not much point having six months rent deferred and then still having to pay it at the end when you've got no money. So everyone's crossing their fingers hoes and whatever else they can. Um, they can. Um, yeah, so it's a bit of a waiting game for us. Yeah, it's tough. Yeah.
I think we talked about Jared Kaplan, here's 4,000 square feet and the downtown center of New York and yeah, that's a lot of money. Okay. I don't know how much that is, but works out to be big money. Um, have you done any other things to try and reduce your costs and just trying to look at, um, any subscriptions that may have like slipped under the write up, um, that we not really utilizing. Um, I do have a subscription with, um, an organization that does out online waivers, which I'm keeping, I feel that that still gives value because I can just pump those out to people via link. Um, I get this signature and I feel comfortable with that. Um, yeah. And just looking to contact any of our service providers. So like internet and electricity for example, and just seeing what they can do for us. Yeah. What's the name of those servers?
Do you have your own standard online waiver? Yeah, it's, I'm sure a company called wavy King. Um, and they, they charge a small amount a month, um, to be able to just have this waiver embedded on my website. Um, and look it up. I guess you have to make a decision as to way you want to take more costs on right now. But I feel like for us it's added a lot of value. It integrates well with our mind, body system, um, cuts down on admin. Um, so yeah, that's quite useful way the King. Thank you. J you just GHS put it in the chat if people don't have that.
But yeah, we're certainly recommending putting in waivers even though it's online class, it's just protect yourself in these, these strange times. Yeah. Alrighty. Um, should we switch over and do Q and? A? All righty. I'm going to read the question. We'll start off at the top of the page. Uh, so Jennifer asked the question, are you seeing your teachers go out on their own to teach classes to their own accounts? Are they sticking with the studio? Oh, that's an interesting question. Um, look for a lot of my teachers, they, uh, they just want somewhere to come back to. So, um, I have the sense that they all just want to keep teaching for [inaudible] on George. Um, yeah. Uh, some of them have been working, you know, not, they haven't only been working just for me, so I wouldn't be offended if they're also teaching their own clients. But, um, we're, we're trying to keep all of the existing plotted on George clients coming through the mind body system and then doling it out. Um, and then they using the zoom account that the studio has created so there's no additional outlay required from them.
So if the client was to your guidance to folks would be, if the client was the studios before we started this thing, then they should stay with the studio if they had a client on the side that they were teaching somewhere else or had a direct relationship and that's their client. Absolutely. Yeah. I hope that answered your question. Jennifer. Uh, I'm going to Anna's question. Do you feel like it's necessary to be paying instructors for canceled class to be able to qualify for possible funding?
Mmm, not sure if I totally understand that. No, I mean neither actually. Um, uh, yeah, I'm not sure. Um, could you maybe Anna, could you just write a little bit of a clarification to that? See if there's a name. Yeah, I'll come back to it. Um, if you could just add something, there are the advantages and disadvantages of applying Mmm. Grants and disaster loans. Well [inaudible] please feel jump in as well, Joanne on this.
But my kind of feeling is that some of these loans are structured that as long as you live by the things like you pay your employees and you pay your rent, the loan will be forgiven. And I think that it really the, the attention to detail you need because each country's different. Each state in the U S is different. Um, just really, really look at it and try and understand it. Um, you know, it's one of those questions is like, how long is this going to go for? Cause I w we talked with Katie Santos on Friday and she was talking about if your view is this is going for a long time and you borrow money for a month and then you still go out of business two months from now, was it really worth taking on that additional debt? I don't know what you'd like to, what, what's your thoughts on this Joanne? Yeah, I agree. I think it's the uncertainty, um, of how long this is going to last, which is adding the most stress to what most of us. Um, because we're just, it makes it much harder to be pragmatic. Um, yeah, it's a tricky time and I think, um, it's made more challenging by the fact that the governments are also figuring it all out as they go along too.
Yeah. My thought on this is, you know, really just look into what are the, what are the conditions of every way of getting additional money to have that liquidity. And if it comes with a pound of flesh to kind of think about a victim, a Shakespearian reference, it's probably not worth doing, you know? Cause just, um, and there's, there's a whole series of choices here. Uh, I'm certainly not the expert. I, I try to understand what's going on in the U S it's so complicated. I'm not sure what, uh, what we're going to do. I'm busy taking advice, trying to dig deeper into it. Um, my advice would be to take a lot of advice. Yeah, absolutely. And it's just so challenging, right? Because you, uh, um, trying to maintain some semblance of a calm home life, pivot your entire business.
Correct. Completely different business structure. Um, I've got to get my taxes done well and then, you know, also be off on what's going on, um, with all of all of the support that's being put out there. So it's a pretty, um, it's a time I'm feeling quite, you know, on Dyson. Yeah, yeah, yeah. No, I think it's a, it's a very tough time, you know, with, uh, you know, my family is all over the world and I can a little bit scared that I can't nip around. I can't get on a plane to go and help them. Um, it's tough times. I do think one of the parts of this is looking after your own mental health.
You know, how you, how you find the chance to recover yourself. Um, I think a 15 minute meditation is good. It's good for me. I don't know if it's good for everybody, but just that little bit of quiet time to try and calm the mind. Definitely. And I can feel that waking up this morning, I didn't really make that time yesterday and I can almost feel it's only like a, um, a rushing hangover. Like all of that energy of racing around yesterday doesn't just disappear with going to bed. It's not, you don't get the most restful sleep too. Somebody helped us with Anna's question. Um, maybe she's talking about job keeper allowance. Um, is that something related to the Australia? Is that, that's right.
So the job keeper allowance is something that's just been announced whereby if you have employees, you um, you can register, forgive me if I get this wrong, you can register them and they can register you and then, um, they can get a $1,500, uh, payment per fortnight to, um, and it keeps the person tethered to the business some way. So, um, they are actually doing some work for you because you, the government's basically subsidized their wage. Um, apologies if I haven't explained that as well as I could have that just knew. Um, so that might be why she's saying if you pay them for canceled classes then it sort of keeps them in the scope of being your employee, um, and hopefully make some more eligible for the job keeper. Um, we are just trying to get people booked in so we haven't had the canceled classes yet. Oh, I have. Well maybe she's talking about the regular canceled crosses, but I can't afford to pay the regular cancel classes right now.
Yes. And good. Uh, Wendy just asked this question. I just started doing online classes last Friday and the response has been very positive. The struggle is getting the private training clients to be interested. We are fully equipped stop politely studio, which as you know, can really help compromise clients be able to exercise in good form. I know we can still train them virtually at their homes, but they don't understand that. Any suggestions? Great question, Wendy.
Yeah, I think so too. Um, [inaudible] well I think this is where it all comes down to communication, right? So just getting on the phone, chatting with them. Um, what, something that I'm looking to, um, ask some of my clients that have gotten started already is to do some video testimonials for me so that I can use that to help bring that point across. Um, I'm sure you've got one or two people that have bright enough to have given it a go. Um, so if you can ask them, beg them for, um, their testimonial, that might help. Yeah. I wonder about, you know, somebody put this, Jennifer put it in the things, you know, maybe give them the first class free just to try it. And you may both spend quite a bit of that first class.
Just helping them set up the tech and understand it. Yeah. Yeah. I would reach out on the phone. That would be my thoughts here. And yeah, bully them, persuade them Charmin, any tactic that works to try and get them, get them there, they need it. They need it as more than ever. I love that question, Wendy. Thank you. Uh, Anna, we talked a little bit about the advantage and disadvantage of grants versus disaster loans. Um, you know, free money is always the best.
If it doesn't have any strings tied to it and they're just giving you money, take that. Um, but, uh, you know, look at the pros and cons of them. You know, if it's really, you know, the, the phrase my dad used to talk about putting good money after bad money, you know, if you're already likely to go out of business as a result of this, do you really want to borrow more money and have more debt? I think that is a really tricky thing and it's so hard to give up on a, on a business, but there's a point sometimes, you know, not everybody is going to be able to restart after this event. I don't want to be doom and gloom, but it's, it's tough. And those, there's going to be a recession and you know, the last recession in America, there's a lot of plotty studios closed and they all kind of opened up, but it was over many years and there was a period where there just wasn't the money in the economy to do that. Do you have any thoughts on that one juror? Mmm, yeah, I think, okay. Yeah.
Well I think some, there's something in that shared experience that in some ways takes the pressure off. It's not you with a failing business. It's, well, the world is going through a tough time right now. And um, just like you're saying, trying not to add additional pressure to yourself by forcing something to work that maybe isn't going to, I think, um, they in optimist and they creative but also don't dig that hole deeper than it needs to be. Cool. I'm just seeing from Victor, so I'm just going to give a shout out to Victor. Hi Victor. Um, is just what he's done, he's done at co connect. [inaudible] was make clients understand they don't pay for their equipment, but they pay for the instructor's time. The value is the experience of the struct instructor, not the equipment. And he's been able to maintain maybe of his private sessions. Uh, hopefully that will inspire other people to kind of explain.
And when people say, you know, uh, should I pay the same as this when it's virtual? My answer was yes. You know, I've still got the same costs. And it might be hard to ask and say, but that's the truth of it. And if some people will not be able to pay for your time because they've lost their jobs, but other people may be in a situation where they can continue to pay. Interesting. There's a few clients that have been like, I'm not interested in a discount. I've maintained my employment and I want to support you, your, um, your sound. Your business is something that brings me happiness and joy to my weight and I want something to come back through when all of, when we're on the other side of all of this, which is pretty amazing.
I was doing a lot of crying last wake, but a lot of it was because of the beautiful emails that were coming through to me and just that sense of support that these clients were offering, which was really gorgeous. Oh yeah. That Mark said in the chat here, he's had the same, um, same experience there with the same kind of thing. Um, question from Victor is zoom integration through the fit grid fit grid app or directly from mind body online? So my answer to that is I believe that the integration hasn't yet launched from MINDBODY online. And somebody put this in the chat and I'm sorry there's so much coming in on my chat that I can't read it all. I'm sorry folks. Um, but I believe that mind body on its own integration with zoom is not quite there yet. It's getting really close. But I've also heard from various people and perhaps Wendy can put a link or something in the chat, um, that there is a really good fit grid app, MBO, MBO integration. Maybe if you could add a link to that, put it in the chat in some way. Wendy, that'd be really helpful for other people he helped us to make.
All right. And particularly John, like I said, I'm no expert. So this was a class length. Um, Chantel asked, are your virtual class is still 50 minutes, 55 minutes or shorter? How many classes a day you planning to schedule? Um, my classes are the same length. Uh, I am hoping to schedule, um, 7:30 AM that class, like a mid morning class, which might be shorter. Maybe that will be a 30 minute stretch session, a lunchtime session and Austin noon tea sessions and um, an evening session. So, and I'm probably not evening but more like a 5:30 PM session. Um, but if we can get those classes happening, um, that would be great. And then just trying to fit in the, um, semi-private and privates in between. Um, we're trying to do as much as we can with one zoom account just to keep costs down. However, if we need to go to Tuesday and accounts so that we can have two things happening at the same time, we will. Um, I've been looking at the breakout room functionality on zoom, but I don't think, I'm not sure if that's actually going to help us run two classes, um, at the same time or not. Yeah. I don't know what it is in Australian dollars, but here the Zuma count is about 15 us dollars per month, so it's not hugely expensive.
Yeah. And you make it up pretty quickly. Uh, I thank you for putting the fit grid fit grid live into the chat there. So that's there. If people want to, when we are finished doing this, we will edit the class and we'll put all the links in the description below the video so hopefully people be able to find them there. Um, Marilyn's question, some of my older clients who really need polarities and can foe, can afford it, have not booked sessions, but this week I'm doing some short, short group coffee sessions with them. I hope this is the way you can feel comfortable to talk about how would a session work and it keeps us all to connected. I think that's a really good idea. Do you have any thoughts on Joanne?
Ah, I love that. I just want a copy. Is that okay Marilyn? That's a great idea. I love it. Yeah, I'll just share a, so plot is anytime has about 20 employees and we're all been working from home for the last three weeks and part of the challenge is to keep us all connected. So we do a cup of tea with John, obviously British tea and all of that. And we do that every morning at 10 30. And any employee that wants to drop in that isn't busy doing other things can drop in and we can chat. And it's how I'm trying to stay connected with my, my team here. Uh, and then in the evenings I do an on know me or know me, translates I believe into hope the Japanese people here, not going to be too too cruel on my Japanese financiation but just means online drinking.
So I use my zoom account from work at 8:00 PM every night and my friends drop in and have a drink with me. So I think there's lots of ways of reconnecting your community that used to come to the studio to connect and I think to adapt them and that and make them more and more comfortable. And that's maybe another way that you can get them back into, um, being connected. Thank you Marilyn for that question. Patricia, any ideas on what to charge? I live in a rural community, which is recovering from drought and bushfires. Well, first of all, Patricia, my heart goes out to you and your community. I watched that on the news and it was just tough. So, um, do you have any thoughts Joanne? It was just devastating. Um, it's, I don't know what the answers are because you know, so many Australians are doing it tough from that bushfire season that just decimated so much of the country. Um, yeah, I'm not sure, um, perhaps some community classes.
I definitely want to add a pay what you can class to my schedule. Um, which you know, is tricky because obviously you still have costs that you need to cover. Um, but that might help people feel, feel embraced by you and your offering, um, and allow them to participate in some way. I'm sure that your clients probably want to help you just as much as you wanted to help them during the drought and bushfire season. Um, so that might be something that you can do be tough. Uh, last week we talked about Jared was using Eventbrite, which is kind of an unusual thing, but Eventbrite lets you tear your, you can sell tickets at different prices to an event. And so he had, um, you know, these are the people that can't afford anything.
This is if you can afford that. And he also had put in using event prior donation option. So if you can't afford to pay for somebody else, here's an option to do it. Um, he was really surprised, but he was, he wanted in that particular part of day to be able to offer all those different things. Maybe, you know, it's a discussion going on in the chat here. Um, and says she's in much of the same situation and Monica, um, offers free access to as those who can't afford it. It's a one on one decision. Yeah. It's that struggle between, you know, you really want to help everybody, but don't forget to look after yourself.
Yeah. And you know, it's not all about money, but Mmm. You know, when your, we give so much and when you're feeling depleted after a day of teaching and you realize that you've made a very, very small amount, um, that can be hard on the soul too. So, um, yeah, I think just be mindful of that. Be, be careful of how much you give and make sure that you've got a way of replenishing that. Yeah. Laura asked a question, I'm preparing to set up for teaching online. Do you think that we should have a minimum signup before we pay the teacher to teach the class? Um, well I'm going with my friend Carrie who was, um, participating, not sure if she's still here. Um, and just doing a blanket, um, percentage. So, um, if there's only one person in the class, you still get 50% of what that is. Um, and then hopefully that teacher can help drum up some business as well as you trying to do the same. Um, you know, like you were saying, you don't want to get yourself into a deep a hole just to try and make more money.
So I think it's extraordinary times and hopefully the teachers will still get on board, um, to pitch in. Yeah, it's, yeah. I think that the answer there, Laura, for your risk is, you know, just share the revenue so that the teacher and your interests are aligned. Um, I don't know if your, your folks who are employees or what they are, but um, I agree with Joanne there. Do you have advice on how to set up a pay what you can class on mind body? I do not know how to do that too. Is that an option they even ask offer?
I'm not aware that they do. I think that is why Jared switched to using a event. Brian putting the different tiers in. Uh, Carrie asked the question, are you scheduling different levels in your mat work classes? Yeah, so the idea was, um, a foundation level class and an intermediate level class, um, with no props. Uh, at this point in my survey, more people are interested in the intermediate level exercise class. Um, but I think that helps add some. Um, I'm hoping that it helps boost numbers because people, no what they're going to be getting.
Whereas in an open level class you can potentially feel a little bit, um, underwhelmed this, the other people in your class are all beginners. So I think it might be a wise move. Yeah. I'd encourage you, Carrie, as you kind of see, you know, what comes in, here's surveys are great things like survey monkey is not very expensive and um, you know, to do that. Yeah. I'm just using the free version of survey monkey.
[inaudible] Oh, I'm just reading Wendy's thing here. When did you AF so full of wonderful suggestions here. Uh, so just gotta to read Wendy's question here or tip. Really, my studio is small enough that I just offered to loan out my small props for current clients to pick up in a plastic bag outside the studio for their online classes. Ah, if you're able to do that, I think it is magical and that connection and that client is really going to appreciate it. Do you have any thoughts your own on that one? Um, I was a little slow to come up with that idea and so because of my location, um, there's not really many people left in the Sydney downtown to go and collect the items. So unfortunately, um, I managed to get one magic circle out there, clients, um, on the last day. Um, but they're all just sitting there disused. Um, it's a real shame. So I think that's a great idea. Right.
So the last question and then I will try and wrap up on time here is Maryland. Do you notice how much more exhausting it is to teach online than in the studio? The set up, the content, the Australian, the voice, the energy. Um, what's your [inaudible] I do actually. I think it's, um, it feels much more intense to me. Um, I don't know if it's just that sort of narrow vision into the small screen.
Um, or even if it's just something as simple as my studio has all of these beautiful open windows and lights constantly streaming in, um, the ability to just walk around, disconnect for a moment, and then come back in. Um, it does seem to give a bit of mental space. So I agree with you. Um, and a few years ago, uh, had a chat with one of my good friends who, um, is also an AXA and came up with some really great, um, vocal techniques to help warm up the voice and release the jaw. And all that sort of stuff. So maybe somebody could record something like that for out anytime for the teachers or self care. Maybe. Maybe it's going be you Joanne. I don't know what I'm doing. I need it.
So Marilyn, I think that um, Marilyn and Michelle commented on this and I think Jennifer, yeah, we totally agree. It is exhausting. You spend a lot of my day talking to my team, have a zoom, uh, five o'clock. I am so much more tired than when I was working in the office and I'm a bit fidgety. I like getting up and moving around and so yeah, totally agree with you to great content idea. Joanna, I might be back for you to teach that class though. So that's that researching. So that's four o'clock. I would just say thank you so much everybody. But before we go, I just wanted to share something that we are in the process of putting together.
So 6:00 PM Pacific standard time, which Joanne tells me what time is that? That's like two hours from there. Um, so that's like 11:00 AM 11:00 AM Sydney time on Friday in California, which should be Saturday morning in Australia. Uh, plays anytime. He's gonna host an online dance party. So, uh, we hope that you'll come and join us. We're going to have a really good DJ is a friend of mine is going to rock it and if you want to join, we're going to have a global [inaudible] dance party. It go from 6:00 PM Pacific standard time to 9:00 PM Pacific time. We're going to put all the links onto PyLadies anytime.com/live.
We're going to promote it in our social media. We just really, really hope you come. But finally, thank you Joanne for chatting with me from Sydney. It was great. Big out. I saw somebody in the chat say hi from New Zealand. I need to just acknowledge her. Thank you for coming fromL over the world to be here, South Korea. I saw you in there, Japan. Please join us on Friday for our dance party.
Thank you everybody. Thanks John. Thank you. We'll stay connected. Stay wealthy. Everybody.
