Last night we had five guests at yoga at the Loft here in Brisbane, four new people, which is the biggest night so far. Ah, with nostalgia I remember the humble beginnings of yoga at the Loft in Auckland back in 1997. Three people crammed into a small room one night a week. Then at the Loft in Wellington, where we got so excited when we had seven people on one night. Fast forward to 1999 with over 40 people coming a night, yoga seven days a week and having to raise the price to cut back on numbers.

Three of the guests were three Mexican lady friends, so I had the opportunity to converse in Spanish. After a year of absence from South America my Spanish is getting a little rusty. I might switch back to reading Srila Prabhupada’s books in Spanish for a while to stay sharp.

Yesterday I listened to an audio book on “The 22 Inmutable Laws of Marketing”. There it was explained that you should be first in the market if you can. If you can’t, then be first in Category. Forget Brand Marketing, they explained. Market the Category. IBM might have had the first “personal computer”, but DEC had the first “super computer”, Cray went over the top and had the first “mini super computer”. Commodore didn’t have the first home computer, but they had the first “multimedia computer” with the Amiga, the market leader of the time. If you are not first to market, then invent a category that you can be first in, and market that.

So we are marketing the category of “Yoga Lounge”. As one guest commented last night: “I’ve never been to a yoga class where you sit down and eat together afterwards.”

“Oh really?” I said, raising my eyebrows as if that idea itself was a novelty to me. “People don’t do this everywhere?”

The guests stayed for over an hour after the class and the conversation ranged over various topics and we laughed at so many things. I miss the people of Latin America. They have a calidez - a warmth that you just don’t find in the Western countries where the consumer has replaced the family as the basic building block of society.

So “Yoga Lounge” it is. The world’s first. Pictures coming soon.