How Megan Meyers Built an Online Dance Empire from Home
All photos courtesy of Megan Meyers
Meet Megan
Megan Meyers’ first dance class as a little girl was a flop. The studio was somber and the dance instructor was unengaging. Megan left and did not consider dancing again for a decade. This is a surprising start to a story where dance eventually empowered Megan to open her own dance studio at age 18, with a side-gig as an NFL cheerleader.
When motherhood became a priority, Megan crafted a virtual business model that allowed her to share the inspiring dance curriculum she had developed over a decade with thousands of dance studios worldwide.
Megan’s success can be attributed to her propensity to lean into her passions, being what she calls “very coachable,” and a rare lack of fear to go for it — even if she does not have the background or formal training for an endeavor. “I am not afraid to fail. I will try it, and if doesn’t work, it doesn’t affect me personally.”
That said, Megan’s work ethic and determination have resulted in several successful chapters in an unconventional career.
The Gift of Dance
As a child, Megan was a budding entrepreneur — at home. She offered her parents shoeshine services, with pricing for one shoe or two. She performed housecleaning services for a fee and even left mints on the pillows. But she was painfully shy in public.
That changed when she was a freshman at Napa High School. Megan was captivated by the camaraderie and excitement of the school’s spirit squad, and overcame her timidity to try out. Despite having no dance experience, she trained hard and made the squad. Dance gave Megan the confidence she had been missing, and the shy girl turned into an exuberant spirit leader with top grades.
After high school, Megan was approached by an acquaintance who volunteered for the Napa County Sheriff’s Activity League, which was headquartered at the Napa State Hospital property. The League offered extracurriculars for at-risk youth, but lacked a dance program. Megan initially hesitated because she had no teaching experience, but finally agreed to give it a try and arrived with her boombox and a few fun dance moves in mind. She fell in love with teaching dance, and her program was an instant hit.
Soon thereafter, a local dance studio closed down, and the parents of those dancers heard about Megan’s popular program. They asked if she would offer dance instruction to their kids. Megan did not have entrepreneurial parents or any role model for launching a business, but with so many prospective students knocking at her door she was empowered to lean into the opportunity.
At age 18 Megan leased a dance space in Napa — her father had to cosign the lease — and launched Expressions Dance Studio. (It’s safe to say that most 18 year olds are not signing commercial leases).
At the same time, Megan was taking classes at Napa Valley College. She had originally applied to UC Berkeley’s Haas School of Business but was not accepted. Not one to take no for an answer, Megan applied as a transfer student two years later, and got in. She juggled running her studio and taking a full load of classes. Needless to say, she has a lot of energy.
After graduation, Megan decided that the corporate route that her fellow Cal graduates were taking was not the right fit for her. Instead, she felt called to continue running her small business in Napa. In hindsight, Megan finds that she got more value from her hands-on experience as an entrepreneur and classes at Napa Valley College than the big theoretical courses at UC Berkeley.
Dance gave Megan the confidence she had been missing
Moonlighting as a Raiderette
After graduating at age 21, Megan realized that she missed performing. “I was too young to have already hung it up!” On a whim, she auditioned for the Raiderettes. She asked her former Napa High spirit squad coach to help her practice the audition routine, and amidst a pool of 400 competitors she was one of the 40 dancers to make the squad.
For the next two years, Megan continued to run her studio in Napa and travelled for Raiderette rehearsals, NFL games and photo shoots. (Again, so much energy!). She enjoyed the glamour, fun and camaraderie of the squad and found even the rowdiest Raider’s fans to be respectful to the cheerleaders. Megan was voted Rookie of the Year her first year and the following year was Team Captain.
After two seasons her performance itch was scratched, and she left the Raiders, but Megan credits the experience as giving her insight as to how a successful organization is operated.
From Hobby Business to Successful Enterprise
At this point Megan was motivated to really grow her studio. Although she had a business degree, she had never seen a dance studio run as a professional enterprise. She attended a seminar that taught the “business side” of dance studios, and was so inspired by the program that she hired the speaker as a business coach.
With his guidance she improved the systems and procedures of her business — including enrollment, staffing and marketing — and grew exponentially. Megan worked full time on sales and marketing and her husband quit his job to run the front desk and help manage their staff. At its peak, Expressions Dance Studio expanded to a 7,000 square foot facility with multiple dance rooms and hundreds of students.
As a result of this positive experience with a business coach, Megan has become a big proponent of working with coaches and taking courses for a “boost” whenever she feels stuck or has hit a plateau. And she is extremely intentional in her use of those resources. “When I buy a $2,000 course I require myself to make ten grand within 90 days. I hold myself to that standard to get the ROI. I am motivated by that.” That is some impressive no-nonsense discipline.
Megan considered herself a modern woman and “happy workaholic” who would never slow down. She did not believe friends and family who warned her that this might change when she had a baby.
“I was totally devoted to my business for all those years. I had no other thought in my mind. We didn’t vacation, I just loved to work all the time, 24/7, and I was happy to do it. But then I had this new thing (motherhood) taking my time and attention and I was really surprised at how much my priorities changed.”
Megan recognized that a new chapter was beginning, and her career needed to evolve. She did not want to give up on everything she had built, and her family relied on the revenues from the studio. So Megan devised an idea that she thought would simplify her business.
Crafting a Virtual Business
Over the years Megan had developed a dance curriculum called Princess Ballerinas that was joyful and engaging — exactly what she would have loved as a little girl. Megan jokes that if Disney had created a dance program, they would have created Princess Ballerinas.
Megan and her Princess Ballerinas at Expressions Dance Studio
This program was the most popular, profitable and systematized program at her studio. Megan realized this could be a franchise prototype, and considered selling her studio and opening multiple Princess Ballerina locations that she could run in a streamlined way for better work-life balance. (In hindsight, this seems like more work, but read on).
True to form, she contacted a dance studio consultant for help developing this idea. On their introductory phone call, the consultant advised Megan that she could simply package up the Princess Ballerina program and sell it to other dance studio owners in need of high quality programming. She could operate this virtual business from home, with little overhead and more time for her family.
This idea checked all the boxes for Megan. Despite having no experience running an online business, Megan felt empowered that somebody in the industry believed that she could do it. She educated herself about virtual businesses, tapped into the marketing skills she had developed over the years, and launched her online venture with one Facebook ad. Thirty days later, 150 dance studios from around the country had subscribed to her monthly membership program for $47 per month. Megan was able to sell her physical studio and lean into her new online venture.
Today Megan has over 2,000 subscribers to her Princess Ballerinas program and her revenues are exponentially more than what her brick-and-mortar studio generated. She works four hours per month preparing the lesson plan from home — which includes choreography, matching themed music and bonus materials — and the rest is automated. “It’s amazing. There’s no overhead and I don’t have any employees. I heart software,” she laughs.
With this creative pivot of packaging and selling her programming, Megan now shares the joy of dance with thousands of little dancers nationwide — while being present for her own children at home. And since launching her Princess Ballerinas venture, Megan has expanded to offer a broader choreography membership program for studios called Dance on Demand.
Coaching Others with Shine Online
In her most recent innovative move, Megan helps other women “shine online” by teaching them how to turn their own passion, skills, and experience into simple online businesses.
Like many of Megan’s endeavors, this one developed organically. An acquaintance asked Megan multiple times to help her transform her skills into a virtual business. Megan refused at first, since she was relatively new to the virtual business herself and did not consider herself a specialist, but eventually she agreed.
The acquaintance had expertise in her field, “but she didn’t know how to package it, how to market it, all the technological side of it — and that’s what I do. I knew exactly how she needed to brand it, package it — everything.”
Megan had so much fun on this project that she launched her Shine Online coaching business. Her biggest challenge is helping clients overcome “impostor syndrome,” which is the tendency to doubt your abilities despite education and experience to the contrary. She has found that certain clients consistently charge too little for their products and services, and others never even launch their online business because they are so paralyzed with self-doubt.
Megan is exploring tactics to help her clients overcome their impostor syndrome so that they, too, can shine online.
What’s next?
When asked what is next, Megan admits that she has a few new ideas brewing. Her motto? “You’re either growing or dying.” Even with two kids at home and several enterprises, she still has all that energy and drive. But the key for Megan seems to be working smarter, not harder — and loving the work that you do.