I’m sure that it goes without saying that for the past 25 years, our fitness and yoga memberships have been BL’s bread and butter. In fact, approximately 70 % of our gross revenue comes from BL peeps wanting to workout and practice yoga. But over the years we have decided to add other layers to BL. When Chris and I go to Mindbody conferences, they refer to these layers as Black Boxes. Black Boxes refers to other areas, services or products that we can offer our community in addition to our memberships. I’ve already told you a bit about two of these Black Boxes…our workshops and massage program. So today I thought I would share a little about one of my favorite Black Boxes or additional layers that we have added to our BL menu over the years:  RETAIL!!Read More

Chris and I were reminiscing about our milestone celebrations at BL the other day. First, we remembered when we did a big party to celebrate 10 years in business. It seemed like SUCH an accomplishment. 10 years managing and sustaining a fitness and yoga business…pretty much unheard of!! 5 years later we threw another party and the shirts we created for the event said…”15 years and going STRONG!” Then just 2 years later, it was time for another celebration when we finished 1 year of construction and actually had space to celebrate with the Grand Opening of the LINK!! And then…of course in 2017, we couldn’t miss the chance to celebrate now 2 decades in business. Our 20 year celebration was themed by showing our Team Spirit. We sported jerseys that said Team BL and had 97 on the back as 1997 was the year I bought BL!!   One of things consistent with all these celebrations is that we offered one morning of sample classes based on the number of years we were in business. So for our 20 year, we did 20 minute sample classes followed by a celebration to connect all the BL peeps.

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So every year from the time BL opened until 2008, we grew! Just a steady increase in bodies, number of classes and revenue. Then 2008 hit us hard as it did most businesses. But thanks in large part to the huge popularity of Zumba at this time, we were able to keep our heads above water and land on the other side of the 2008 -11 recession. Shortly after this, the physical therapist who was had occupied the space between fitness and yoga moved out. So for those of you who weren’t around at this time, let me paint you a picture. You walked in through the same doors your do now to sign in but then if you’re going to yoga you walk right back out the same doors and head in to the yoga door two doors down. No big deal except when it’s pouring down rain or in the middle of a snow storm. So when the landlord told us this space between fitness and yoga was opening up, it just made sense for us to take it over.

I say that with apparent ease now…like it just made sense so let’s do it BUT those around me at this time knew that I really wrestled with taking on more space. Not only would I be paying significantly more rent but my utilities would almost double. PLUS…we had to figure out what we were going to do with this space. We tossed around several ideas like adding Spinning or a third room for either another fitness or yoga class. We even considered making part of this area a Blow Dry Bar. Ha!!  What seemed to be obvious to others is that if we were taking on more cost we should defray some of that by brining in more revenue. Right?? But as were tossing around a bunch of ideas, what Chris and I kept coming back to is that what we really needed was more space for our BL peeps to connect. We knew that much of what set BL apart from other workout or yoga businesses, was our community.  Many of us have come to BL looking for a great workout or yoga class and been thrilled to have made life long friends along the way. So if that’s a big part of what BL is about, why not create more space for us all to connect? Oh, and it also created a space for those students who ONLY did fitness to meet those students who ONLY did yoga. (And realize they aren’t so scary!)  It created a more inclusive environment which has since resulted in more peeps crossing back and forth from fitness to yoga. It has offered a space for students to linger after classes and get to chat to their friends and make new ones. It also has given us a space to do social hours after many of our events.

With this vision in sight we now needed to figure out logistics, traffic flow and oh and a name for the area!! This venture was challenging. Dave took an entire year off his art job and employed Chris’ son, Chase, and the 2 of them took on, what turned out to be, a year long project. There were a LOT of decisions to be made like where to put the child care room, how to bust through a cinder brick wall, and which doors did we want students go in and out of. Not to mention picking out the faux finishes for all the walls and decorating the whole space. We had a good team with different skill sets. Chris was great at envisioning traffic flow and managed all the logistics…Dave was capable of executing and beautifying whatever we were envisioning and my role was often just to say…yep, I love turquoise!! One of the biggest challenges was busting through the cinder brick wall. We had to hire a structural engineer and close BL for a week due to safety and the huge mess this created. So we moved our classes to upstairs at Matter of Taste for one week. Clients said they loved doing yoga or fitness with a view of Union Lake.

Now that we have busted through the wall, we needed a name for the space we had created. Chris and I were at our friend Mary’s getting our hair done one afternoon, and we started brainstorming. Objective was to find a name that described a space for students to connect but also to describe a connection between fitness and yoga. The key word was connect…Mary was actually the one who came up with the perfect name…The Link!!! It says it all!!

Start to finish…the Link and the lower level Zen Zone for massages, took us a year to complete. Chris and I had lot of fun decorating it with furniture and rugs donated by family members, picked up at garage sales or, the place that became our favorite place to be, Home Goods!! Looking back, I’m so glad that I was encouraged by Chris and Dave to make the leap, to take on this additional space and that so many have enjoyed and appreciated this space to connect!!

So it was about this time 2008-2010 ish that we added another dimension to BL….WORKSHOPS!! Reminder that we had already started our teacher training program back in 2003 but the individual sessions of the training were only available to those enrolled in the whole teacher training program. You see when I first started the teacher training program, I not only created it, got it approved for Yoga Alliance’s 200 RYT, but I also led each and every session. Read More

My story picks up when BL is a little over 10 years old. It’s 2008 and the fitness and yoga programs were well established, but we decided it was time to “take our show on the road"!!  At this time, you really didn’t hear of many retreats or studio get aways but one of our teachers, Rachel Shepard, came to me and Chris and suggested we give a weekend retreat a try. She told us about this place called Garland and this amazing band who played at night… Jeff & Sue. Well…any of you ladies who ended up going on one of these girl get-aways over the next 10 years or so, know that they were an absolute blast!! We mixed in a little Zumba with some yoga…themed each year with matching outfits…shared good food (and, of course, drink)….danced, danced, danced and had lots of giggles and girlfriend time.Read More

As I continue my story of the evolution of BL, I would like to take this week to highlight some of the teachers who have played an integral part in our yoga program. Now, of course, we have had many great teachers over the past 20 plus years of BL yoga, but today I’m just focusing on a handful of them who have a long history at BL and who still play an integral part in our current yoga program. Here are a couple of their stories…

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Andrea's Antics
 
Hey wonderful BL family!! Just letting you know that I’m taking the weekend off from telling my story of the evolution of Body Language to take some time with family and friends as we celebrate the life of Dave’s mama who recently passed. As I reflect back on the 40 plus years I have known Dave’s mom, Carol, there is one story in particular I’d like to share with you. Read More

 As I mentioned, we opened the yoga center in the Fall of 2003 and decided to include a room for offering massages. (Side note: Our massage rooms are all since then named by the art in the room, so this room was called the Peacock room for the mural that my husband, Dave, painted on the wall.) We had the vision way back then that a massage program might be a good adjunct service to offer alongside our fitness and yoga classes. If you’ve read my antics in the past, you already know that getting massages at this time was a relatively new thing for me. I really came to understand the value of massage when I was struggling with chronic pain a few years prior. Since then, massage has become an integral part of my personal wellness journey and so I wanted to share it with our students as well.  I have no idea how many massage therapists have come and gone from 2003 to present but if I had to guess I would say over 30. (You think it is hard to book a massage now?.. just think about only having 1 massage room from 2003 until 2015 when we added the other rooms…but that story is to come.) I am so thrilled that we added this layer to BL at this time and that you, our students, have seen value in this program as demonstrated by the popularity of our present massage program. Very grateful for the 3 massage therapists we currently have at BL (Sarah, Angela & Erin) and we are presently in the process of hiring more massage therapists so we can meet a growing demand (please note that it is my job to “interview” each applicant…lucky me!!). Stay tuned for more hands onboard to rub those sore muscles and help you relax!!Read More

As my story continues, allow me to jump back just a smidge. I’ve been talking a lot about how we ended up adding yoga to our studio but I haven’t really given much attention to the fitness program that was running strong from day 1.  As I mentioned awhile back, the fitness program started out with just me, Chris and a handful of other teachers who have since come and gone. But there are a couple of key players you may recognize who are still an integral part of our team.

Remember Tae Bo with Billy Blanks?? Sure many of you will!! Well around the time that Billy was making Tae Bo a household name, Toni taught a version of Tae Bo kickboxing right here at BL. Her classes were so popular that there would often be a line up out the door waiting to grab one of the 40 plus spots in class!! You can still find Toni teaching KB here at BL a couple of times a week!!

Right about this same time…Little Deb found her way to BL. Truth is I had taken Little Debs class at a place called Total Workout, which was right across from the original BL on M-59. I knew she was an awesome instructor (who they referred to as The Terminator) but she was hesitant to come work at BL because the previous owner of BL and Total Workout had been partners and split. She associated me with that previous owner since I purchased it from her but I kept hounding Deb to come in and just give us a try, and one day she walked through the door to take a class. She immediately realized that the vibe at this new and improved BL was very different than she remembered and she was all in and has been ever since. That was back in 1999…and 23 years later she is still teaching 4-5 classes a week and never disappoints on kicking all of our asses!! You will often hear her say…”I don’t know what I would’ve done without my BL family.” Deb we feel the same about you!!

Another name some of you will recognize is Karen Cook. Although she has sinced moved out of state, she was really a very integral part of keeping BL’s head above water when the economy crashed in 2008. You see in 2007 she came to Chris and I to say she was going to get certified in Zumba. We had never heard of it and couldn’t imagine that a dance class added to our step aerobics program could possibly be popular. So when she got back from her training, we decided we would try Zumba out during a girls night. Chris and I thought it would be a good idea to learn a few songs to help Karen out for the girls night since we had 40 plus women signed up for the event. Not only did the students LOVE Zumba, they loved the team teaching. Karen, Chris and I instantly became BL’s first Zumba team. Chris and I drove to Grand Rapids to get certified and somehow I talked Chris into wearing matching hot pink Zumba pants so that our Team Zumba would all match when teaching!! Others started getting certified and forming teams (and dressing alike)!! We all learned each others choreography so that whoever’s Zumba class you went to, you would have many of the same familiar songs to dance to.  So in 2008 when many were cancelling memberships due to financial concerns, the popularity of the Zumba program carried us through the next 3 years!!

Many other teachers have supported the fitness program at BL through the 25 years but these are 3 that stood out in the first decade who really contributed to the success of BL’s fitness program!!

Picking up where I left off…we have just opened the yoga center. It’s Fall of 2003.  BL now has a designated fitness room and yoga room for the first time ever. Those of you who know me, know that I’m a numbers person. Numbers stick in my head especially when there is something emotionally charged about those numbers.  We started BL out with 17 fitness classes per week and now here we are in 2004 with 75 classes a week between fitness and yoga.  So, it was around this time in the evolution of BL that I reached a peak in my teaching. Here’s what I remember…One day I taught 6 classes…One week I taught 16 classes and One month I taught 60 classes. Ouch!! Don’t get me wrong…I had a great staff but still there were just a LOT of classes to get covered AND I was capable of teaching them all.  Also, I thought if I could keep payroll costs down, I could turn this “hobby” of mine into a profitable and viable business.  Just to give you an idea of where we were financially at 7 years in to buying BL:  Dave had quit his corporate job…we had a Senior and a Freshman at University of Michigan and our joint adjusted gross income was $25,000. Ouch again!!  Definitely an emotionally charged number!! (Thank goodness for FAFSA and Home Equity loans.) BUT…it was time for me to revisit the lesson I learned when I first bought BL and tried to “do it all.” I was burned out physically and emotionally plus still trying to be there for my 3 daughters. In addition to teaching all those classes, I was also covering many desk shifts, helping out with retail, and doing all the scheduling for fitness, yoga, managers and child care.  It just made sense to me that the more I worked in the business, the more money I would save and the more likely I would be successful.Read More