Carol Adrienne, Ph.D.

Are you thinking about changing careers, but not sure how to start? Syd Hoffman, fifty-three, is a woman who exemplifies the life of following the entrepreneurial spirit.

I first met Syd in the 1990's in Arizona during a book tour. I remember her big smile and joyful spirit as she described the school she had recently founded. Today, she is currently the owner of the Joyful Yoga Studio, located near Phoenix, Arizona. Not content to rest on past successes, Syd is currently looking ahead to what's next. Her big question? Is there another career for me? She says,

“I was an educator for twenty-eight years, starting with teaching. For twelve of those years I was an elementary school principal. When my daughter, Hillary, was ready for kindergarten, I couldn't find a school for her that I really liked. I had been teaching at a private school, and had just assumed that she would go there. As it turned out, they didn't have any room for the staff's kids! Of course, I was very disappointed, and decided that I would start my own school. Looking back, I think it was a good thing it happened the way it did, because I was galvanized to go in another direction.

Believe in Yourself and Do Your Homework

That year I decided to take a part- time job so that I would have time to hunt for locations for the school, Although, my background up till then had been in middle- and high-school, and I had no experience with pre-schoolers, I decided that wasn't going to stop me, and I did my home work. I knew what I wanted. I was also newly divorced so I was really busy supporting my daughter and myself as well as doing the footwork for the school. Of course, I was younger then, and totally driven! This was one of those times in life when you have to trust your gut. I knew that if I didn't open a school, I wouldn't be being true to myself.”

Syd remembers how that first year required stamina and thinking on her feet. Not only did she have to find a physical location, she also had to develop a curriculum, find teachers, and finance her venture solely on her own savings. On July 15^th, 1994 she opened Bright Beginnings school with twenty-seven students. She says,

“In the beginning, I needed about $35,000 , and I had about $30,000 saved up. We didn't make money for the first six months, so I had to use my credit card. From July to January I felt lucky if I could just pay my rent and my teachers.

Since I couldn't afford adminstrative help, I had to do everything myself. If the phone rang in the office while I was teaching, it just had to wait until after school. Even though I had never taught three-year-olds before, I had to because I couldn't afford to hire another teacher.

I was at the school from six a.m. to seven p.m. every day. I did the bookkeeping on the weekends. Of course, I was also caring for my five-year-old. Her dad helped with her child care every other week. I didn't sleep much in those days. I just kept getting up every day, and doing the whole thing again"

An Attitude of Adventure

The school got a break when Syd happened to hire a fellow dressed as The Great Pumpkin to entertain the kids for Halloween. The local newspaper picked up the story. School enrollment surged so much that Syd was able to open another classroom, albeit having to juggle the demands of sudden success without extra help. Sounding like many busy, single, working mothers, she says with a laugh, “Luckily my daughter, Hillary, never got sick, because I don't know what I would have done! Starting the school was hard and I didn't know if it would really work, but it just felt like the right thing to do.  Hillary and I looked at it as an adventure”

From the original three classrooms located in a shopping center space, Bright Beginnings grew every year. During the second year it became a state charter school, allowing for free tuition for families. The school expanded to two locations in shopping centers a short distance apart.

“ After the first school year things became a lot easier. In the third year, I applied for a loan in order to buy land and build a new school. We found an amazing, affordable, six-acre parcel in a beautiful location. Six years after opening the school, we had gone from two tiny locations in shopping centers to this huge piece of land, and were now a pre-school through 8^th grade campus. It was really great!

We had our share of setbacks, too. For example, problems with the utility company forced us to take temporary classrooms in a couple of churches until the building was finished. I had one terrible week when I had no idea how or where we would be housed. I was petrified that parents wouldn't like having the class in a church, but everybody showed up. Despite all the uncertainities that year, we didn't lose one student.”

Recognize When it's Time for the Next Adventure

When Hillary finished high school and was moving into college life, Syd was turning fifty. A year before someone had made an offer to buy the school, but the deal fell through. However, in perfect synchronicity, another couple soom came along and wanted to buy the school and were an even better fit. For Syd, it felt like her leap of faith had come full circle. She was delighted and ready for a new adventure. She says,

“That whole summer of 2006 was amazing. I traveled from July of 2006 to July, 2009. I hiked in Africa. I climbed Mt. Kilimanjaro. I went to Japan to visit a friend, and travelled all over Japan learning about the culture. I went down to Argentina and Chile for a month. Sometimes I travelled with groups of hikers, and sometimes I travelled with my daughter. In between trips, I would hike and train for upcoming treks. During this period, I was able to do whatever I wanted, and not worry about anything. In the back of my mind, though, I felt there was something else coming. Since I didn't know what it was yet, I just relaxed and had a good time.

In the fall of 2009, I went to Italy. One day I was practicing yoga in a beautiful outdoor setting, when the thought came to me: 'I want to have my own yoga studio.'

I had started practicing yoga in 2006 after I sold the school. There was just something enchanting about being outdoors at a 500-year-old Tuscan farmhouse. I decided that I wanted to get people excited about yoga. I was really strong then from all my training and hiking, and yoga was a big part of my world. Having a yoga studio seemed very much like having my school. I decided to research the idea when I came home.

Get Into It with a Sense of Fun

Happy to have found a new interest, Syd began to do some market research on yoga studios in her area. She contacted a broker friend, looked at some spaces, and basically did her homework. She absorbed herself in the project, without becoming overly-driven. She approached the new direction with a sense of fun. She recalls a similar mindset for both her school and the studio:

“It was funny, because when I had my school, it was important to me that it was well-rounded. Besides reading, writing, and math , we also taught Spanish, art, music, and physical education. In the same way, it was important to me that the yoga studio had a well-rounded offering of classes. I wanted it to be an enriching environment in every way.

We opened Joyful Yoga Studio January 1, 2009. It's a beautiful, comfortable, safe place for people to practice yoga, start losing weight, and feel good about themelves. However, I find that it's taking longer to make a profit than it did for the school. For one thing, with a school you have a more or less stable population for a few years as kids grow. At the studio, clients come and go for various reasons, sometimes getting discouraged with their progress, or being hit hard by the current downturn.

Lately, I've been thinking about selling the studio. Now that Hillary is out of college and moving to California, I find that I really want to be nearer to her. My partner, Daniel, works at home and he's willing to go wherever I want, although he thinks we should stay here and just fly to California every once in awhile! My mom died last year, so time with my family is very precious to me.

I'm not sure what I want to do next. I could go back into teaching, but since I've been my own boss for so long, I feel more like a business woman. I never would have imagined saying that before I started the school and the studio. I love creating something and seeing it grow. I like making people happy. I get a lot of satisfaction from taking something that was nothing and making it useful. I like to feel that I'm making a difference.”

• If you get a wild idea and you can't get it out of your head, at least do some homework. 

• If you have a a compelling new goal, make a vision board. "When I look back, most of the pictures I pasted onto my vision board have come to fruition. The ones that haven't were probably the ones that I really didn't want to do it anyway!"

Happy May!

Carol Adrienne

Carol Adrienne, Ph.D. is an intuitive counselor and life coach who has helped thousands of people work through doubt, procrastination, and obstacles to createthe life  they want to live. Private consultations and coaching available. Contact her at     Carol22@sonic.net

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