Dawn (Guest Blog)

I have often written that the incubation time for landing a new student in our Alexander Technique business can be long, and Dawn Robinson is living proof of that fact. Her incubation from a lecture about Alexander Technique to taking her first lesson was fifteen years! Take heart everyone – start building your list, you never know who might lurk there for a long, long time until finally taking up one of your offers. Dawn offers us insight into that journey by fearlessly expressing her own intimate experience… *** Dawn's Story My earliest memories of my childhood are happy ones. As a child, ballet was my overwhelming passion and I would spend hours dancing in my room, dreaming of the day when I would become a dancer. But as I got older, my dreams of dancing faded and somewhere along the line, in my teens, I became less confident. I developed a typical teenage slump and slouch in an attempt to make myself as inconspicuous as possible. My mother constantly reminded me to “stand up straight” but even with all my ballet training, this was something that was difficult for me to maintain. I also became more reserved and whilst, I still had a good circle of friends, speaking in a class situation or to adults, was difficult for me. Thankfully, after a little more life experience, I began to regain my confidence and in my early twenties, I decided to do what would have been my worst nightmare during my teens – a job involving public speaking. After a few years of study and a postgraduate course in Personnel and Development, I started my career in the Training Department of a large financial company. Here my role involved making presentations and running courses for junior members of staff such as induction and communication skills courses. In the summer before I began, I read an article about a journalist who had attended a course at Lucie Clayton, a finishing school in Central London, where she had learnt some useful self-presentation skills. Fearing that I needed all the help I could get, if I was going to develop the confidence to stand up and talk in front of groups of people, I sent myself on to the course with some money from a small inheritance. There amongst other things, we learnt to walk confidently on a cat walk, to move a little more gracefully and to develop some social graces. But what really intrigued me, was the way two of my teachers moved and stood. Somehow, in a way, I couldn’t quite explain, they looked more symmetrical and somehow more connected to the ground. They stood in an expansive way without any of the sloping shoulders and slight twists of some of the other teachers. And when one of them gave a brief lecture on the Alexander Technique, I listened fascinated. I began my career with enthusiasm although initially, I was often literally sick with fear. On the morning that I was to run a course, I would shake with nerves. But the feeling of euphoria at the end when no one had walked out in disgust, or I had even begun to enjoy myself in front of an audience made it worthwhile and gradually, I began to relax far more. Several promotions and jobs later, I was working in a male dominated company as a training consultant and with it came long hours, lots of driving and running courses in different companies. During this time, I was aware, that when I felt less confident, I could almost feel myself physically shrinking. Despite my best efforts, those teenage habits of wanting to look inconspicuous would resurface even though I knew these were now inappropriate and certainly not helping me when I was trying to persuade reluctant engineers that the new appraisal system their company was implementing was going to be a good thing! By this time, I was married, living in the north of Scotland, and commuting three or four hundred miles twice a month to carry on my work in a self-employed capacity. Inevitably, eventually, the long hours and stress spent driving, led to lower back pain. A move south and after various treatments for my back, which left me with some short-term relief but which clearly had not treated the cause of my pain, I desperately turned to the Alexander Technique. If I am honest, there was no “flash of lightening”, instant pain relief moment, but I was sufficiently interested and made enough improvement to carry on with lessons for the next few months before we moved yet again with my husband’s job. Another move to Scotland and I resolved to continue with my Alexander Technique if I could find a teacher locally. I was in luck. Jeanne Day, a wonderful teacher in her eighties who had trained with Walter Carrington and run a school in Devon with her husband for many years, was only a few miles away. I remember vividly my first lesson with her. I was just so impressed with her vitality and how lightly she moved but she didn’t take any nonsense. She told me that we could sort out my back but that I would need to come twice a week for lessons if I was serious. I was and I did. By the time we had finished our time up in Scotland, my back was better, I had learnt an amazing amount from Jeanne and I had decided to train to become a teacher. I had two fabulous years training at the AT school in York. I loved the work and felt that I had at last found what I wanted to do. I had a clear sense that this was about enjoying the sensation of “being”. When we were working on each other, I didn’t need to strive towards some positive emotional state or to try to be something else, I could simply enjoy the sensation of feeling physically expansive and free, knowing that all I had to do was to work with the Technique. I was 40 and the decision as to whether or not to have a child had kept haunted me for years but by this time, my husband and I decided to try for a baby. I was realistic about my chances of conceiving quickly but fortunately, I was pregnant within two months. Another move was on the way this time down to Wiltshire so I began my third year of training at a new school in Devon. Fortunately, my pregnancy was very easy. I remained fit and well and avoided all of the back pain and strain that many pregnant women suffer from. Training at the school and having daily input from other students and the teachers was fabulous, but by the time I reached my seventh month of pregnancy, I was exhausted. I stopped training and agreed to resume after the baby had been born. Much to my disgust, I was deemed too old to have my baby in a midwife led centre because of my “advanced age” and it was suggested that the baby be induced. Feeling under pressure I agreed, but as it turned out, the labour was short and complication free. If I am honest, I was not aware of using the Alexander Technique during the birth, but I gave birth on all fours with only a little pain relief and I am convinced that all my lessons and training helped me. When my baby was six months old, I resumed my teacher training – it was agreed that I would do two days a week and I completed another year this way until graduating the following summer. With a small child to look after, my time was always slightly limited in building up a practice. But I always had a few pupils and ran a couple of workshops and by the time, we moved yet again from the area, five years later, I had had some experience of working as an Alexander Technique teacher and starting to market myself. Now as my daughter is at school, I have the time to seriously commit to making a career as an Alexander Technique teacher work and to make it relevant for my pupils. Looking back, I think it is clear that the Alexander Technique helped me with so much and I am thankful that I had my back pain which in turn led me to seek out the Technique. It’s interesting that there was a fifteen year gap between my initial introduction to it before I searched out lessons for myself but I had never forgotten how amazing it had looked and I had always wanted that look of ease for myself. I know now, that it certainly would have helped me greatly in my early career. I learned the hard way that when making presentations, how you look is more than half the battle. I clearly didn’t make a complete hash of this, but how much easier it would have been for me if I could have breathed with more ease and stood with less tension. And the Technique has also proved invaluable in my personal life and through the constant house-moves it has provided me with some roots as well as helping me in pregnancy and childbirth. I have also had the wonderful privilege of having Jeanne as such a remarkable role model of the possibilities of aging well and so I am also now aware that aging for me does not have to be about a slow deterioration of the quality of life, something which may well prove to be the most important gift of the Technique for me. Jeremy's comments

I am not sure where you are with your niche development (?), but boy do you have a great background to create a stella career! I am really excited for you. Presentation skills is a huge market, very competitive (which is good) and ripe for a nuanced and activity-deep Alexander Technique approach. I apologise that I had not got this from you before, but I have now. I also understand that you were not sure who to write to – and I love that you asked that question and wrote the way you did. Was it for the actual audience of Alexander Technique teachers? It appears that way to me, and my main advice now is to rework it for your niche. I think your story is beautifully written: now the metaphoric teaching elements behind your story need to be beefed up and laser-focused. For example, one point that immediately flows out of your story is: "You can grow old gracefully with Alexander Technique." Ok – but who do you want to hear this message? Is this a message-to-market match for your niche? I am demonstrating how your story is there to serve marketing messages: your teaching points enlighten the reader to benefits, and benefits build connection and interest with an implicit suggestion to act. Constructing this underbelly clearly in your own mind, before re-writing the story, will create the focus you need to captivate your niche. Another message could be: "When you hear something great, don't wait 15 years" which creates a subtle CTA (Call To Action) without being too aggressive about it. Let them know all the downsides to waiting, all the upsides to taking action – they can conclude your implicit message: act now! And so on… What are the messages you want to communicate? List them. Sort them into an order of importance. Create a logical sequence, then tie that to emotional aspects of your story. In that way, you craft a precise instrument to connect to legitimate needs you can authentically serve. And you are on your way to the first million dollars!