Welcoming Strangers and Breaking the Ice
The first ten minutes of your class determine how every minute after them feels. Here is how to make them count.
Ten strangers walk into your shop. Some of them know each other. Most do not. They do not know where to sit. They are not sure what is expected of them. They are looking at their phones because looking at their phones is what people do when they do not know what else to do.
This is the most important moment of your class, and it is the moment most hosts spend setting up supplies or going over their notes in their head.
The first ten minutes are when trust is established or withheld. They are when guests decide whether this is a place they belong or a place they are visiting. They are when the social temperature of the room gets set, and once it is set, it is very hard to change.
The articles in this section cover what to do before guests arrive, what to do when they walk in, how to warm up a room quickly without making it feel forced, and how to manage the reality that your guests will have different levels of experience and different reasons for being there.
In this section
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The first five minutes
Guests decide whether they belong in your class before you say a word. Here is how to make that decision easy.
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Teaching mixed skill levels in the same room
Every class has a range of experience in it. Here is how to design for the whole room without leaving anyone behind or bored.