A New Idea - 130 Years In Coming

A new idea is brewing up within me. About the future. About BodyChance and the newly realised BodyChance Method that is debuting in Japan as I write. My vision for this life includes building a learning eco-system, as originally devised in Japan over 14 years, in an English speaking country. I was dreaming of this as my exit plan from Japan once I had been fastened to the land by a baby, a wife and a new AT business. I didn’t speak Japanese, and I still adored my Sydney hometown. I dreamed of returning there and launching BodyChance Sydney… In 2010 I did it. Except I was living in Mullumbimby at the time. Paul Cook was a Godsend: the Operations, Marketing and Business staff team member who worked tirelessly to get the project off the ground. But he lived even further away from Sydney than I did! BodyChance Sydney spluttered on for a year, collected several individuals of faith, found it’s own semi-permanent home in the city centre - but the congregation proved too small to produce the kind of revenue power needed to sustain the beast into it’s second year. I shut it down, returned to Japan with my tail between my legs, and resumed the business of building BodyChance in Japan. Lesson learned? The second year is one of the hardest. I didn’t reach it. Instead, I did return to Japan and began to focus again… We surpassed one million dollars in annual revenue, launched a new niche with classical musicians, opened a studio in Shinjuku for our Pro Music Educators school (which had been incubated for a year at our Meguro Studio), appointed a new full-time Administrative Director of Education, and started planning for BodyChance niches in Yoga and Dance. I also employed a new personal mentor - Paul Lemberg - at US$25,000 per year - to help me figure out how to go from a 1m a year biz to a 10m a year biz. In number terms, that is my next goal. His solution was simple. If you earn 1m off one studio, then you need to build 10 studios. Job done. He was the one who first suggested LA. He told me I would thrive more in an English speaking environment - Japan was stifling me in many different ways. My plan was to make BCLA work, leave Brett in charge, and carry on opening another BCLA in another place, like London or New York. While all this was going on, I sold my flat in Clovelly (Goodbye to my Sydney dream) and used the cash to launch Mark II of my attempt to launch BodyChance as a learning eco-system in an English speaking country. This was BCLA (BodyChance Los Angles) and instead of a lean start - which had been my Sydney model - I went for a full on everything-ready approach and invested in full-time staff, large rental studio in the heart of Hollywood and lost $160,000. Again I return to Japan with my tail between my legs. Will I ever get this right? Here I am now, in 2014, still planning what is sure to be my third and final attempt to get this done before my grave opens up before me. And I have a plan. Perry Marshall - my current biz mentor - advised this morning “Harness existing forces as much as possible.” Yes. And currently the forces for development of an AT learning eco-system that is produced by my 12 Point Plan are the members of ATSuccess Pro. They are building their lists, and I am coaching them to do so. Could we take another step together and become business partners? It’s a radical notion, and the introduction of commercial relationships between teachers across international borders with a seriousness of intent that has never been attempted in our profession as yet. It is pioneering, leading the way. Showing others how a biz model for this work can be created. After all - that seems to be the mightiest challenge we face. Those who believe deeply in the epoc-making discoveries of F. Matthias Alexander, and wish to realise this seismic change, must first crack the puzzle on how to monetize the work on a societally influencing level. Since 1884 - when the first lesson was given - to 2014, a period of 130 years - no-one has managed to make as much money as Alexander did in his early days of teaching. Until BodyChance. In Japan we are succeeding in creating a business model for Alexander's discovery that feeds the feedback loop. As Alexander put it: “It makes the meat it feeds upon.” Partnerships across the world - is this the future for Alexander's discovery through the business model being developed by BodyChance? I guess the members of ATSuccess Pro can answer that one!