Photo courtesy of Vallie Pate
Vallie Pate
Q: Tell me about your two businesses.
A: I’m a multipreneur, I guess. Tippi Toes is a franchise business. We are all over the country. It was featured on “Shark Tank” a few years ago. We serve families right where they are, which means we go into schools, into preschools, day cares, after-school programs. We are a preferred provider in Hoover City Schools and Shelby County Schools for their after-school programs in some of their elementary schools, and we offer a full dance program for children ages 18 months up to right around 10 years of age. It’s a full dance program, and that means full instruction all the way through to a full recital, including costumes on a big stage at the end of each semester, which parents of course love.
Q: Do you have one big recital or is it divided by location?
A: We have one recital in December and one in May. The way we do that is we will hold five recitals in one day. So this past May, we had it at Oak Mountain High School, and we had one at 10, 12, 2, 4 and 6. Your child will be in one of those. … It’s only about an hour, which parents love. It’s their favorite thing because of the horror stories of dance recitals lasting five and and six hours, and you get to see your child for two minutes. That’s not what we do. We like to say we’re the home of the 30-minute recital, which parents love. Our motto at Tippi Toes is we encourage children, and we cultivate character, and we build confidence through the love of dance.
Q: Tell me about your other business.
A: I feel I was born to be an artist. I have an art business. It’s Vallie Pate Art & Design. I am a mixed media artist. I work a lot in acrylics, but also in watercolor and inks and all sorts of different surfaces and textures. I was a self-employed artist for about 20 years prior to Tippi Toes. My work would end up in gift boutiques, gift stores, home décor places. I even got picked up nationwide by Books-A-Million at one point. I was in every Books-A-Million in the nation. That was interesting because I had to have those things mass-produced overseas. I did that for a long time, exhibited in trade shows like the Atlanta Mart, where buyers from all over the country find what they’re going to put on their store shelves. It kind of exploded beyond my two hands, and it wore me out. That’s when I pulled back and jumped into Tippi Toes.
Q: Did you get out of art completely?
A: I did. Those who know me best were really shaking their heads — the people who know me well really couldn’t understand how or why I would ever put a paintbrush down because it’s so much a part of who I am. It’s so much a part of my personality. It’s just synonymous with creativity and art — it’s who I am. So I put down my paintbrushes for about six years totally. Here and there, I would make a gift for a friend or a birthday present or whatever, but I put it down. About two years ago, I was really missing it, but I was also at a point in my life where I was really trying to remember who I was made to be and going back to who I really am and what I really love and what I want to do with my life. … I’m a firm believer. I have a very strong faith and it’s almost like God has tapped me on the shoulder and said, “Hey young lady, I gave this to you for a reason, so why don’t you pick that paintbrush back up?” And that’s what I did. So I’ve been on a journey ever since then to relaunch my art business. I got a website for the very first time. Things changed a lot in the six years I was gone as far as the business goes. There’s a lot more to it now with Instagram and online learning and algorithms. It’s just a different world as far as the marketing and the business side of it, and it’s not like riding a bicycle. It was surprising that after laying my brushes down for that period of time, for something that I have always said is as easy as breathing for me, that it was challenging to find my style again and to get comfortable again with creating and having to teach myself the creative process again. It’s been a journey for sure, but I can tell you I know I’m on the right path. It feels right. It feels like I’m doing what I was born to do.
Q: Regarding Tippi Toes, what type of dances do y’all offer?
A: Our main segment of children are ages 3 to 5. That’s our largest category, and it’s a combo class of ballet, tap and jazz in one class. They’ll get an introduction to all of those disciplines. Our baby babies — the 18-month-olds — that’s a mom and me or a parent and me class. That’s a lot of just teaching them how to stretch their legs and point their toes and all of that. Our older kids that are in the after-school programs in Hoover City Schools and Shelby County Schools — those classes are called Tippi Pro. That’s a little more advanced than the combo class, and it’s more ballet heavy, more structured as far as the ballet discipline goes.
Q: I think I read somewhere that you don’t come from a dance background. Is that kind of unusual for the dance business?
A: Yeah, when I jumped into this business and purchased the franchise, I had a little bit of imposter syndrome about that, and I felt like I don’t need to let anyone know that I wasn’t really a dancer, but I think I’ve come to terms with it. As I’ve grown my team, I have these amazing young women that work for me, and they are the ones that are instructing. To be honest, I tell people I prefer being like Oz behind the curtain. I love business. I’m a dork when it comes to entrepreneurship and running businesses. I love growing a business, running a business. I have a marketing brain. I love marketing and PR and all the mechanics of what it takes to run a business, and I feel like having a successful team is finding and placing people on your team that have strengths that you don’t have. That’s kind of a secret sauce — knowing what my strengths are and filling in the gaps with people who have strengths that I don’t have. That’s where their talent and the dance background comes. I’m not in the classes unless something has gone way wrong and I have to jump in and sub a class, which I can do because I have a theatrical personality. I can teach a 3-year-old — no problem, but that’s not my gift.
Q: How did you decide —I’m going to do a dance business?
A: This is a great story. My baby sister lives in Bowling Green, Kentucky. We’re really, really close. When my niece was little, she took her to swim lessons. And when you’re taking your kids to soccer or swim lessons or whatever, moms are sitting along the sidelines, and they’re getting to know one another. You’re making friends with the other moms. She met a lady and became good friends with her. The two little girls became best friends, and I go up to see my sister all the time, and so I became friends with this person as well. I didn’t know what she did for over two years. It turns out she’s the CEO of Tippi Toes. The CEO’s name was Sarah Nuse, and I was talking to Sarah, and she said, “I really want to grow Tippi Toes nationally, and we don’t have a strong presence in the Deep South.” She said “Birmingham is really ripe for something like this. It’s a family town. The demographics are great. Do you know of anyone that would be interested in running a franchise there?” In God’s perfect timing, it was right around the time I was getting worn out from my art business. It had scaled to a place that was truly wearing me out, and she just planted that seed. She knew what she was doing because she knew me. And I said, “You know what? I think I do know somebody that could do this in Birmingham.” So I took it from there. And my niece had been a Tippi Toes dancer, so I had been with familiar with what they do. That was in 2017, and that first year, I got rookie of the year. I grew the Birmingham market faster than any other market had been grown in the history of the company.
Q: What did you start out with in terms of enrollment?
A: I’m not given a book of business. I’m given a “Good luck, go find the business.” I had to crack the market here and start from zero. I decided that the best way to do that was — I wanted to get to 100 students as quickly as possible, so I just set an easy formula with 10 schools with 10 kids per school. ... I did that in less than six months.
Q: How many locations do you have now?
A: Over 35. During the school year this past year, we had more than 50 classes per week. Some of those locations have more than one class.
Q: You also offer summer classes and camps?
A: Yes, but not at every single location. Some locations close down for the summer time.
Photo courtesy of Tippi Toes
Tippi Toes instructor Sumiyah Morris leads a ballet class.
Q: How many total students?
A: During this past school year, we were right around 365. … Next year, it’s going to be 500. That’s my goal. It is about numbers, but we have to remember that each of those numbers — that’s a little kid. That’s a child. We don’t assume that we know what their entire life is like or what the rest of their week is like, but we can guarantee that for the 45 minutes that we have them, that they’re going to be loved and seen and encouraged and spoken words of positivity over. .. Our goal is that’s the best 45 minutes of their week.
Q: So you’re still looking for more locations?
A: Yeah, there’s just a lot of ground to cover in Birmingham. It’s a family town. I did this both pre- and post-COVID, and the landscape of the day care world and the preschool world has changed. Before COVID, there were a lot of schools that were part-time or just during the school year, and it has really opened up. Because a lot of parents are working from home, they need their little ones to go somewhere more than they used to. I’ve noticed a trend where there are just a lot more kids in preschools and half-day programs and day cares.
Q: How many teachers do you have?
A: During the school year, we have between 16 and 18 on staff. We have anywhere from older high school students to college students and some that are full-time teachers for us.
Q: Do you feel like y’all offer just as good instruction as a traditional dance studio?
A: I do. It’s different. We have our own flavor and our own way. It’s not as stringent or serious as a traditional studio. We’re really whimsical, and we weave in storytelling and theatrics, and Tippi Toes has produced between six and eight of our own CDs that have been on the charts for Apple music in the children’s division. We produce our own music. We write our own lesson plans. We have somebody on staff at corporate that is in early childhood development that specializes in making sure we’re hitting those developmental marks.
Q: How many operations staff do you have?
A: I have an executive staff. There’s myself. I have a franchise administrator, and I have two managers.
Q: Do y’all have an office, or do y’all all work from home?
A: Baba Java Coffee Shop. It’s great because it works well for their life. It works well for my life. We meet in person once a week, and everybody stays in their lane, and then we hop over to the other lane when we’re needed. In some ways, I’m building this plane as I’m flying the plane, but it’s wonderful because it flexible; it helps with their work-life balance.
Q: How do you compare with the other Tippi Toes franchises nationally in terms of size?
A: It’s hard to compare me to Houston, but I’m in the top 10% as far as numbers and growth consistently.
Q: What’s the price range for classes?
A: Our ballet-tap-jazz is $72 in tuition monthly, and our Tiny Toes — that’s our 2-year-olds — is $65 a month.
Q: Are the classes pretty much the same at each location, or are they different?
A: They’re the same. If your child is enrolled in the ballet-tap-jazz at Meadow Brook Baptist, it’s going to be the same instruction, the same curriculum as if they were at the Jewish Community Center. If they’re taking the 3-to-5-year-old, that’s exactly the same.
Q: Anything else you’d like to add about Tippi Toes?
A: Our mission is building confidence and character through the love of dance. Our goal is serving families where they are, which is to provide a full, quality dance program right there at school. Nowadays, most households have two working parents, and so when they get off work, we want them to be able to go home and have family time — not have to run all over town, shove chicken nuggets down the kids’ throat and then rush them over to wherever and hurry up and get to dance class. They just get to show up on recital day and watch their kid.
Q: Do you have a favorite kind of dance?
A: I think tap. Watching someone that is really talented, I like watching tap.
Q: Do you dance yourself?
A: I did in high school. Everybody took dance. I took at Mary Jane Savage’s School of Dance in Clinton, Mississippi. I took ballet, tap and jazz.
Q: How long have you been doing art?
A: Really my whole life. When I was a little girl, I spent time with my grandmother, who was an oil painter, in Louisiana. Although she was just probably trying to entertain me, she entertained me with art, and we would paint together and do pottery together and sketch. She would set up still life — fruit or flowers or whatever, and we would sketch it together. We did a lot of fun things. That was a part of my childhood, but it’s always been there That and the entrepreneur thing has always been there. My little sister — she never had a pencil case that I didn’t decorate or bedazzle. All of her T-shirts, I would have to make them super special. Then in college, there was a T-shirt company that went out of business. They were selling off all their stock. It was just solid color shirts. This is where the entrepreneur thing first showed itself. I had this idea. I bet I could buy up a bunch of those shirts and paint them with the sorority names on them and make ‘em really cute. So I called my dad and asked him, “How would you like to invest in a new business? Would you invest $200 in this business idea.” So he gave me $200. I bought up all these shirts. I painted all the sorority names. I went around and cold-called all the stores in Hattiesburg and sold every one of them. That just gave me the bug. … I really started getting more serious again in college. I worked for a gift shop that sold some pottery that I really, really loved. I told myself, “I love that pottery, but I bet I could teach myself to do that.” So I snooped around and found a supply house, bought some supplies and started making ceramic ware. Again, I packed it all up and went back home to the Jackson area for Thanksgiving, and I just went knocking on all the best gift shops in town to see if anyone would be interested, and a business was born. About three of them said yes. That was proof of concept enough for me, so I did pottery for a while. I sold at the Atlanta gift mart, which opens you up to boutiques all over the Southeast or all over the country. Then I transitioned into picture frames. I did murals for businesses. As soon as you walk in Oak Mountain Elementary, there’s an 8-foot-by-8-foot mural that I did for them. They have a rock climbing wall in the gym that’s the entire length of the gym. I did the rock climbing wall mural. I’ve done pediatric dental offices through the years. I’ve done all kinds of stuff. It’s kind of hard to answer “What kind of art do you do?” I’ll paint on anything. But in this next phase, what I would like to do, knowing how I got burned out before – basically I turned myself into a machine. I have no interest in doing that anymore, so what I would really love to do and what I’m working on is — I want to be the designer, and I would love to be able to license my work and my designs and outsource them to other companies. That would be maybe like gift wrap companies, paper goods, tableware. Anything that you see a pattern on, there’s a human behind that. Somebody came up with that. So there’s this whole field of art licensing.
Photo courtesy of Vallie Pate
Vallie Pate
Q: What is the inspiration for your work?
A: That’s a great question. It could be travels that I’ve been on. It could be different seasons or something that inspired me. I just launched a series of butterflies. That was coming out of the wintertime and really being excited about the changes in the season. I was inspired to do a series of butterflies. I went on a trip last summer to Italy, and I love the architecture. In particular, I love old doors. I don’t know how many pictures I took in Italy of these old doors. One of the things I want to complete this summer is a look back on my travels to Italy with a series of the doors of Italy. … With the butterflies and some of the florals that I’m doing, I plan to put out a calendar during the holidays and some other product-based pieces. And then I always do ornaments and holiday things.
Q: Do you have a favorite piece of art you have done?
A: Surprisingly, it was a piece I did when I was 11, and it’s still hanging in my house. My grandmother framed it in a really nice frame. It’s an oil painting. She and I picked hot pink roses from her garden and came inside and made an arrangement together, and we both sat down, and she taught me how to paint roses from a real bouquet. It’s in my dining room.
Q: Do you teach art, too?
A: I love to teach. That’s another one of my goals this year is to start having events. I call them “elevated” events because I don’t want them to be craftsy. I want to have really nice curated artistic experiences for people. I would like to partner and collaborate with local businesses, like local restaurants, to offer something that would be an experience with some good food, maybe some wine.
Q: I understand you’re also a school bus driver. What’s that like?
A: It’s awesome. I never expected I would become a school bus driver, honestly, but it has really been the most unexpected blessing. It really is. Anyone who spends any time around me or hears me talk about it knows that I call them my bus babies. I really see them as my own kids in some way. The job of a bus driver obviously is to transport the kids safely to and from school, but truly if you think about it, we’re the first touch of the school day that that kid has. We’re the first face that they get to see. We’re the first part of their day. How they experience us can kind of start their day off one way or another. Are they going to see someone that is excited to see them and asking how they are with a big smile on their face, or are they going to encounter someone that ignores them and is grumpy? I take it kind of seriously. I’ve always called it my little mission field on wheels. It’s been a blessing to me. Anytime you do any kind of service work or volunteer work — you’re there to serve others, but you always come away feeling full. That’s what those kids do for me. I must have an extra dose of patience because they don’t really get on my nerves. I drive children K-5.
Q: What’s the funniest thing that’s ever happened on a school bus?
A: Through the years, I’ve made posts on my Facebook, and I do a series called “Confessions of an elementary school bus driver.” So many funny little things have happened through the years that it’s hard to think of one right now. I can tell you this — moms and dads — kids tell us everything.
Q: You’ve been doing this how long?
A: Ten years. I’ve only hit one mailbox, and I got rear-ended on Highway 119 one time. I did get stuck in the mud once, but we won’t talk about that.
For more information about Vallie Pate Art & Design, visit valliepate.com or email vallie@valliepate.com. For more information about Tippi Toes, visit tippitoesdance.com.
