M03.08 Sydney Lessons

During my failed attempt to launch BodyChance in Sydney, my retina detracted, my marriage ended and I lost a reasonable amount of money. Those are the highlights –if you ever get me in a room with a few hours to spare, there's a lot more to tell. I bring it up now, as I think a key factor in being unable to establish a presence was, well, I had no presence. BodyChance never had a permanent studio presence in Sydney. No Place! First, failure is a strong word. In fact, we had 7 people to start out, more than we currently have in LA, with most of the credit for that going to Paul Cook and his creative efforts to find, cajole and bring into BodyChance a number of people who wanted to be teachers of Alexander Technique. We also ran workshops – with good numbers – starring Cathy Madden, Lucia Walker and Rosa Luisa Rossi. In fact one student decided to cut loose from our school, and go study with Rosa Luisa in Europe instead. I am not sure if she did in the end, but the lesson for me is that nothing held her to us. How will you create "stick" in your business, what's the glue that holds your people together? Keep asking this question, meditating on it, reflecting on all the possibilities until you have a clear vision for how you plan to bring this about. In Sydney, Paul found a Fitness studio in the Sydney's CBD that closed over the weekends, so we held our classes there. To get there involved travelling down two escalators, then two sets of steps – it was a huge, 2 stories high, windowless bear cave with artificial lighting – and so silent. The atmosphere was like being in one of those movies where everyone has died, and you are the last group of people wandering around before the end of the world. Everywhere there were these elaborate fitness machines with no-one on them. The shops were all closed – we were a stone's throw from the Sydney Harbour Bridge and there was no-one, not a person to be seen anywhere… What did this unconsciously tell the students? The truth. This organisation was broke, could not meet it's own expectations and was unlikely to be successful. It reminded me of Tokyo circa 1999, before we had a studio, but without me on the ground every day. I didn't even live in Sydney. I was trying to recreate what I had done in Tokyo all over again. Had I given it the time, effort and consistency that I gave to building Tokyo, my guess is that by today I would have a reasonable business in Sydney. In fact, Greg Holdaway – an Associate Director of BodyChance – is running his own school in Sydney and doing exactly that. BodyChance Sydney lacked it's own studio, it lacked a star teacher attracting people to that studio and it lacked a community of people who could meet, share and be part of each other's lives. I am following a different plan in Los Angeles, but I had to sell my flat in Clovelly to have the money to back up my commitment to a person (Brett), a studio (3800 Barham Blvd., Hollywood) and a front end business (Sydney lacked that) to generate interest in the back end business (Teacher Education). I've planned to run BCLA at a loss for one year, and I will not be surprised if that continues for a second year (although the plan is break even), but the third year will certainly be break even, and the fourth year will see profits start. After that, for a 100 years or more, profits will keep flowing. I tell you – get it right, and Alexander is a good business. That's your business too. I believe in me, the work and what I can do with it and you can believe in you, the work and what you can do with it. But make a realistic plan around my 12 Points to achieve it.