This part of my story is a hard one to write. Since I purchased BL in 1997, we were on a steady incline in terms of growth of the business and bodies through the door…AND THEN COVID. How many times have we said this phrase over the past couple of years…I know I’m definitely not alone on this one. Life was going along pretty smoothly…AND THEN COVID. BL was operating like a well oiled machine…AND THEN COVID!! So my story now picks up on March 16, 2020. A day never to be forgotten by many…but this is part of my BL story, so I’m taking this opportunity to share with you my behind the scenes view of how BL “navigated” this crazy couple of years.
Here goes…It’s March 16, 2020. I remember the day well as Chris and Marie and I were in a meeting in my office and when I got the news that we were being told to close, my first reaction was just NO. We aren’t going to close…that’s ridiculous. My husband, Dave, was coming out of class that day and after telling him the news, he agreed with me that we couldn’t possibly close BL. This had just never happened before for any reason, totally un-precedented. Marie and Chris looked at me like I had grown a 3rd head. Of course, I had to close…and of course we did. Then there was that feeling of hope for a few weeks. Maybe this was just going to be for 2 weeks. Then it became…it surely couldn’t last more than a month. Right away, we started scrambling to provide students workouts in their homes. My daughter, Brie was living at home at this time and jumped in to help us create content and research platforms that would be user friendly for our students. We heard from so many of you who were not only missing their workouts but missing their community. We thought if we could bring BL into your homes, we could lessen the sense of isolation that many of us were feeling. Needless to say, this was a VERY stressful time. Brie did a great job of learning a huge variety of technology as we tried to figure out the best platforms. We went from YouTube to Facebook Live to Zooms to eventually developing a Class Library that was exclusive for our paying clients. Brie was constantly being bombarded with questions on how to hook up a client’s TV, or how to navigate Zoom. We did a ton of hand holding to try to help our clients out. Working out at home wasn’t ideal but it served a purpose while we couldn’t be together. I was so used to working out with others that I would often be guilty of waiting outside Brie’s door for her to get up, so I would have someone to work out with. Brie had lost her job as a Trip Director for the time being, so she was able to jump in and literally help us create a whole new virtual BL over night. There was a lot of frustration and tears that accompanied this time, but also some highs as we figured out creative ways to keep many of our clients engaged and connected.
Also during these months, clients were cancelling their memberships left and right. Please allow me to say that I make this statement without any finger pointing. There were many reasons that students cancelled, including their own financial challenges, but it was a very scary time for BL. Marie was in charge of handling all of these cancellations and it was daunting and depressing for sure. 25% of our clients were able to make the choice to continue paying their auto pay…and again with no judgement on those who didn’t or couldn’t, this is single handedly what kept BL’s head above water. I heard many of you guys say…I just want to support a couple of small businesses during this time, and I chose you as one of those. Others said their motivation for keeping their auto pays going was that they wanted BL to be there for them on the other side of this. Regardless of the reason, this revenue allowed me to keep paying the rent and utilities. I also had to come up with payroll to manage memberships, create the class library and continue to brainstorm on ways to re-create our business model. It was grueling. To give you a little peek into my brain…this was my visual at this time. I have 3 daughters…BL is like my 4th daughter. During this time, I felt like my 4th daughter was drowning and I couldn’t figure out how to keep her from going under. I started waking up every morning at 5:30 am…thinking I had to do something but didn’t know what to do. All that I had created and built over the past 23 years seemed to be slipping away. It was awful…One day after driving around in my convertible delivering weights and steps to students, I pulled up in the driveway of our home and just laid in my front yard. I don’t know why, but it just seemed like I couldn’t take another step and laying in the front yard was the only thing I could think to do. Brie looked out the front window and being understandably concerned, called Chris who had headed to her upnorth cabin while we were forced to close. Brie said "what should I do about my mom?"…and Chris said “just leave her there. It’s probably right where she needs to be.” No one had an answer or a solution. The other funny story that makes Chris and I giggle now but not so much at the time, was when I called Chris one morning…I was just driving around in search of something “to do.” Chris suggested I look on the All Trails app for a local trail and start walking…so I did! I walked and I walked and I walked…then I texted Chris and sent her a pic of me…and after taking one look at me she texted back…”keep walking!” I walked 17 miles that day…38,000 steps. I didn’t want to turn around because I knew that when I did, I would have to walk back and face the question of how to save BL. But of course, I did turn around and made a choice to Fight.
It was about this time that I was watching a seminar on Zoom offered by Mindbody. It was geared toward businesses like BL all over the world who were in the same position as Body Language. The presenter made a statement that I will never forget…He said you have 3 choices. You can choose Fear…Freeze…or Fight! Now, it goes without saying, especially after sharing with you all the above stories, that there was definitely some Fear going on, Fear of losing what I had worked for so many years to create. And perhaps the laying in the front yard scene and the walking 17 mile marathon were a testament to some pockets of Freezing. But, when it came down to it, my instinct was overwhelmingly to Fight. There were many near me who said maybe it’s time to be done…cut my losses before going too far in debt. I did a lot of soul searching during this time and I always came back to the desire to Fight. The passion that I have for fitness and yoga was a big part of that desire, but the thing that was, hands down the motivating force, was the BL community. I couldn’t imagine not continuing to provide the space for all of us to come together…to be a part of something bigger than ourselves…to be able to connect with friends we have made over the years. I also couldn’t imagine getting up in the morning and not have the purpose of bringing you all together…and seeing all of your faces daily. So I chose to Fight for You and for Me!!
Once allowed…we started Fighting by offering outdoor classes at Edgewood Country Club. This was after being kicked out for noise complaints at several other spots. We Fought when we were told we could reopen in June, by scurrying to put a schedule together only to be told at 9 pm the night before that the green light for re-opening had been overturned. We Fought when we were finally allowed to open on September 9th, by coming up with mask and social distancing protocol. We Fought when we relaxed the mask protocol and were bombarded with emails and phone calls of those not aligned with our decision. We Fought when we were told to shut down again on November 18th, just when we were starting to get some momentum. And we have continued to Fight ever since we were FINALLY allowed to open for good on January 16th. Nope, we are not back to where we were Pre-Covid…in fact, just about 60% of you have found your way back to us. But we will continue to Fight to provide the 60% the best fitness and yoga classes around and we will continue to Fight to encourage the other 40% of you out there to re-join your BL community!! We re-did the front and back of our building to send a message to the community that BL is back; That we are not only Surviving but Thriving. And we cannot thank all of you enough for being by our side as we continue to Fight to provide this space for us to come together and stay healthy mind and body, for years to come!!
