Day Five - Leveraging Desire Gets Your Group To Do Itself

I always know two hands will shoot up before I have barely finished my sentence: "Has someone got something they want to explore with me?" Welcome to Basil's Music ProCourse - BodyChance's Teacher Education course exclusively for musicians. This is the niche experiment at it's finest: a band of enthusiastic students intent on developing their skill by leveraging Alexander's Discovery in their playing. You need to be creating your own group of niched students, and there's plenty of guidance in past blogs on how and why you do that. Teaching a group configured this way is a gift from heaven. None of those awkward silences when you ask "Who's next?" Instead, a torrent of questions so thick and fast, that you suddenly realize they will do this all night unless you shift the agenda back to explorations… Niche your groups, and if you can't niche them - at least create themes that blend easily with the concerns and daily activities of the students you are attracting. In this way, teachers can lead by handing over to students the job of being responsible on how they want to explore the work with you today. This leads on to… How To Structure Your Group Financially In Your Business [NOTE: This second half of my blog is a paid area describing ideas and exercises (to design and market groups) which are explored in a closed Facebook group together with 43 other teachers and students. Don't miss all the discussions - be part of a new community of teachers intent on building their AT businesses. Get 30 lessons this month, but join now for less than the cost of one lesson.] Group teaching is aligned with niching your business - they are two sides of the same coin.

Keep your 121 going, but restructure them as a premiere service: increase your prices 50% or more; make a 121 lesson with you a deluxe item (some people will want it more) and offer your groups as the primary choice. I know, that's rather radical - then work for whatever fits your proclivities, beliefs and wants. My point is this - groups are not an add on to your individual lessons, they are your replacement plan. I may be suggesting too much for you too soon ("but Jeremy I love my private lessons"), then at least give equal prominence to your group teaching as a valid source of substantial income. It's a deep rethinking of how you image your business as a teacher of Alexander Technique. The reason I am suggesting you move this way is because you can't build communities on the back of 121 lessons - I hope that much is now clear to you from what I have already written. Group teaching = building a community, that's the secret juice. Why Build A Community? A community is how you create a sustainable, long-term business with a back-end product. Communities generate their own attraction once they are established - they can do some of the selling for you. It gets easier, not harder. Communities also improve retention - students who might normally leave after three month of 121 lessons (has anyone noticed that tendency?) can be enticed to stay in your group a year or longer. For them it is first about learning, but it's also about meeting new friends, it's about having an oasis in their life that isn't polluted by their everyday stress. Groups offer that - providing you niche them so people are joined by their interest. 121 lessons can not offer the same level of new relationships, human connection and camaraderie. In Japan we are lucky, because there is no "belief" about what an Alexander Technique lesson looks like. Since most learning happens in groups - why wouldn't Alexander Technique be the same? BodyChance is now totally orientated to groups - and we grossed more than a million dollars last year. It can be done. When you have your niche strategy functional - again refer to past blogs about that - you are tapping into people with no pre-conception of what an Alexander Technique lesson should look like. So you get to create the culture - they learn from you what their expectations should be. Wonderful. Of course, restructuring your business towards group teaching will happen gradually, but groups are an effective way to leverage your time to increase your livelihood. First, you develop your teaching craft by increasing your effectiveness; second, you start freeing up more time to work on your business, rather than in your business without reducing your income; third, you create a community that is open to higher end services involving an increase in their commitment and your revenue. Call it your retirement plan. https://www.facebook.com/groups/ATCSProMembers