Take the Tour

I can't believe that I have not shared this yet!  For those of you who are not part of the School of Rock family and who may be wondering exactly what this is all about...

Check this out.

I love the line, "For kids, it's like dream world they created in their head, that actually exists in real life."

The Paradox

To quote my 11-year-old son, "What happens when an immovable object meets an unstoppable force?"

William at Grandpa Renzulli's last summer

Those words pretty much sum up how I feel right now.  I have not been posting because we are in the murky, offer, pre-negotiation stage.  Things are starting to happen and it would not be appropriate for me to play it out here.

At any rate, things are moving fast and not at all.  The franchise agreement is being reviewed, the numbers are being crunched and the offers are in on our top locations.  Now we wait.

For anyone who knows me, this is not one of my strengths.

Location, Location, Location!

I did not anticipate that finding the perfect location would be so hard.  The process could not be further from being straight-forward.  There are zoning, land-lord, price, build-out cost, ease of access, building condition, considerations abound!

In my experience, there are very few instances in business where one should take a shot-gun approach.  I am beginning to think that is the only way to get through this stage - go after anything and everything that has potential and see which spaces begin to make it through the funnel.  I can't wait until I can post an update about the location that won out.

The good news is that we may have found our answer.

The U in F.U.D.

Fear, Uncertainty and Doubt.

I am not afraid.  I also don't doubt that the Oak Park School of Rock can and will be successful.  I am, however, a little uncertain about a few things.

My sister, Beth, who has a slightly irreverent, always funny and straight-from-the-heart blog about her experiences as an internist, gave me some blogging advice.  I asked her if I use the word "I" too much and she assured me that my use of the word was appropriate.  She said to be real.  She liked my post about  FUD.  With her advice in mind, I am going to talk about it again.

I am coming to grips with the fact that I am actually happily employed, I feel valued, and I am still upwardly mobile.  Just yesterday, someone pulled me aside at a sales summit that I helped to put on and said to me, "Amy, I hope that you are here for a long time.  You bring warmth and heart to our company and we need that." What am I thinking?!!  Am I nuts?

I don't think so.

I am uncertain about what our lives will look like in a few months.  I am not sure exactly what the work/life/business owner balance will be.  I don't have all of the answers yet.  I know that I don't want to let people down and disappoint them, whether it be my family, my coworkers or even the people who hired me.  I do know that I want something more.

To quote John Sweeney, from the  Brave New Workshop, an improv group that performed at our summit,  "I am comfortably uncomfortable."  I am OK with uncertainty for now.