The Entrepreneurial Dance & Misty Lown

Misty Lown is a dynamic Christian entrepreneur with a unique and inspiring story. We are honoured to have her join our speakers’ line up for the Entrepreneurial Leaders Conference in Toronto on Nov 16th.

Misty Lown is the founder, president and energized force behind More Than Just Great Dancing™ - A licensed dance studio affiliation program that has a positive impact on over 50,000 dance students around the globe each week (www.mistylown.com). She is also the founder of www.MoreThanDancers.com, an online lifestyle magazine for young people that has over 50,000 visitors each month.

God gets credit for every accomplishment. Born with a clubfoot and survivor of an eating disorder, Misty Lown is an unlikely candidate to be a professional dancer and studio owner. Audiences around the world enjoy the grace and grit with which Misty tells her entrepreneurial story and the lessons it provides for the dance of life.

Misty’s Dance Unlimited, founded in 1998 and named a “Top 50 Studios in the Nation” by Dance Spirit Magazine has provided $225,000 in scholarship for dancers. Misty has been a speaker at the PULSE Teachers Convention, Hollywood Connection, Dance Teacher Web, Dance Teacher Summit, and the DanceLife Conference. She has also been the keynote speaker for the Australian Teachers of Dancing Convention. Misty is on the staff of Dance Revolution Convention, a faith-based dance convention, and has authored over 40 industry articles.

She has been recognized as “Teacher of the Year” by Eclipse, “Outstanding Businesswoman of the Year” by the YWCA and awarded the “Pope John XXIII Award for Distinguished Service” by Viterbo University and the “Philanthropy Award” from the Red Cross.

Misty is an entrepreneur at heart. In addition to her dance studio and licensing program, she owns a dancewear store, a dance competition and a self-storage business. She is the author of More Than Business and creator of the IamMORE podcast. Self-described as having “entrepreneurial ADD”, Misty has taken the best of her business ventures to the top of her industry while taking the lessons from the failures to heart. Misty’s favorite part of the day is spending time with her husband and five children.

Misty told me, “The part of the prayer you co-wrote with R. Paul Stevens in Entrepreneurial Leadership: Finding Your Calling, Making A Difference sums up my approach to my life's work: ‘Create organizational cultures that humanize workplaces, that steward the gifts and talents of people and that in beliefs, values and symbols express a foretaste of the new heaven and earth. And where you have opportunity and especially where your work, the way you work and the organizational culture you have crafted raises the questions of “why?” and “How come?” put in a good word for Jesus and the good news of the kingdom of God. You are doing the Lord’s work.’

 Misty explained that, “this has been my life mission. I have followed the call to take the work I do with students locally to start a global movement that now has a direct positive impact on 53,000 children in dance each week through our 148 affiliate schools in the US, Canada, Australia, Aruba and Dubai.  We recently launched an associated online magazine that has had over a half million visits in the last six months from 96 countries.  It's not what I thought I would do with my life, but it's better.  God has been so faithful.”  

 Misty has learned many valuable lessons in the course of her entrepreneurial endeavours. Here are Misty’s insights summarized in a post called “5 Tips for Motivating 'WOW' in Your Clients” (SOURCE: http://darrenhardy.success.com/2012/07/motivating-wow/)

1.  SHOWCASE their achievements.
It doesn’t even have to relate to your business.  At my dance studio we recognize student dance achievements, but what we don’t stop there!  We make announcements for students who are A+ Achievers in school, sports, and community.  If we are about “more than just great dancing”, it makes sense to showcase our clients who are, too!

2.  TRAIN desired behaviors with rewards.

My friend, Dr. George Sargiss, will probably agree that this is very effective.  My son Mason is rewarded with prize tickets every time he shows progress at his orthodontist appointments.  I could never motivate him to wear his retainer like those tickets do!  And, it’s not just kids who respond to rewards.  If you have a frequent flier account or a credit card with miles, you have been trained as well!

3.  COMPLIMENT something about your client every time you see them—even if it’s just their hair.
According to Dale Carnegie, the greatest desire of the human heart is to be important.  Abraham Lincoln said it this way: “Everyone likes a compliment.”  So ask yourself when you are interacting with your clients—is your focus on what’s great about YOU or what’s great about THEM?  If the 90/10 rule of giving vs. selling is important in social media, it’s even more important in real time.

4.  ASK clients for ideas about how to make your business more excellent.

When they tell you—and they will—act on as many suggestions as possible and the give credit where it is due.  Harry S. Truman said, “It is amazing what you can accomplish if you do not care who gets the credit.”

5.  CREATE a tribe of ambassadors. 

In his book “Tribe”, author Seth Godin says, "Ultimately, people are most easily lead where they want to go anyway."  Everybody wants to be a part of a winning team.  Not one of your clients wakes up in the morning and aspires to mediocrity.