Getting Things Done ATSuccess Week 3 - March 2014

These are the results of vigorous discussion in our ATSuccess Facebook group, with threads that sometimes reach epic proportions! Fabulous and pertinant information. Of course, not everyone follows all threads, but if a topic has an interest for you, you will read from actual AT teachers how they are implementing these new ideas in their practice. Of course even more exciting than that, is reading about the steady results that are flowing from this focused attention. If you are a regular of my blog and not in my coaching group, consider trying it out this a month... Click here now to find out more. *** On Getting Things Done I just LOVE that you act, that's the methodology of successful business people. Ready - Fire - Aim. So now that you've fired, time for a little more aiming! On the Utility of Facebook Friends Gathering all your prospective students on your Facebook Biz Page gives you the ability to create incredibly economical blasts about your service, workshops and events in ways that appeal to the people seeing them. Buy Facebook shares - that's my (unprofessional) advice! On When A Trainee Starts Preparing For Their Practice If you are a trainee who is serious at getting a real practise, join ATSuccess NOW. We have on trainee still in the middle of her training, but has already secured a spot at a major national convention to present on AT applications in that profession (who said you have to be a teacher?) and then "hired" an AT teacher to assist until qualification. My contention is that a successful practise can (and must) be built WHILE you train - when you finally open for business, there's a line of people waiting to come in. It's possible, but you need to start working for it NOW. Do. Not. Wait. On How To Wear An Ascot Horse Races Hat Was chatting with Greg (Holdaway - one of the Associate Directors of BC) about BC stuff, and I loved one of his comments so much I am posting it here for all of you to benefit: "I've started using the Ascot Hats ladies story to help people to locate themselves (and their heads) in space by 'remember they are there' instead of trying to feel anything. Our internal spatial map includes location, dimension, movement characteristics etc outside of any specific conscious muscle sense feedback (proprioception feeds the map, the map determines the behaviour)... it works really well for some people as a way to understand what I mean by "remember your head, allow it to move...." The classic 'where is the chair' experience also illustrates the point nicely... help someone to move up and they are likely to lose the spatial map/memory of the existence and/or location of the chair as the new proprioception flowing into the CNS has the effect of changing the whole gestalt of local space, including the body... hence then need to check and 'restore' the map." Don't you love that? Why You Should Never Get Other Teachers To Like Your Facebook Page Congratulations on the Likes! The problem you have when you get people who will never be students to Like your Facebook page is this: when/ if you use your biz page to propagate News Feed messages about events to people who Liked your page, you are also paying for them to see Posts that are basically irrelevant. It may irritate them: they may not want to see that because they will never come. Therefore, keep your Facebook page for prospective students and their Friends, no-one else need come. It might be nice to get a lot of Likes, but it can turn into an expense you don't need. On Making Money From A Blog Honestly - I would not recommend the model I am using i.e. paid blog: it's way too labor-intensive to make any sense financially. I got to this model because convincing AT teachers to spend money on building their businesses was not a habit that many had. I am still in a pioneering mode - creating a marketing where previously one did not exist. I won't do this forever, you can be sure of that. But you're all safe for awhile yet! I think it is a similar situation with Musicians. How many of them are used to paying for online learning? Basil and I are constantly talking about the online biz model we will create for Musicians in Japan, but we are not there yet. Our first step is to create some downloads of booklets - $2/3 each - on the same website as his blog to start testing the market. We want them to 1. have a good experience of online learning 2. get used to paying for it. Ryan Deiss, a slick and slightly slimy internet marketer, has been blogging about money and blogging recently - you could check him out. I haven't yet because he does IL so well I always end up buying then later regret it!!! Here's the link (be warned): http://authorityroi.com/offer/index.php On How We Hear Advice Interesting how some messages need amplification to get into people's minds. We all know about that, right? On How To Deal With Conflicting Advice Advice I give is often couched in generalist terms, but the truth is that I am responding to a specific situation. Therefore, it is possible to find advice that is contradictory in nature. I became comfortable with that when I came across the same phenomenon in Tibetan Buddhism - I was taught that all written explanations can not be logically consistent without contextual references, including the minds of those being taught! A No Show Policy Adopted By Dentists Successful dental practices operate this way: 1st time you miss a booked appointment is excused; 2nd time you miss means you can now only make a new appointment by paying in full before. If you then miss the 3rd session - which you prepaid for - the Dentist keeps your money and bans you for life. You can never get another appointment. On When To Make An Offer Offering is the only way to know if an offer works. Delaying only gets you two things: more thoughts, and older. Act. Implement. Get it Wrong. Do Anything! But start. On Giving Value, Not Taking Down Price TOTALLY, fully, 100%, without doubt, no question, it is a no-brainer and brilliant all means YES: never, EVER (if you can help it) do ANYTHING that would REDUCE YOUR INCOME. Never, ever. ALWAYS add the bonus - give something that does not cost you anything to deliver, preferably something YOU ARE ALREADY DOING and offer that into the mix. This is definitely the only way - and as we go on I can see that the next steps for the FaceBook adverts is getting an offer that is too good to refuse. On Getting A Trade Mark (TM) Researching your TM is just so you don't get to love a name, build your Biz, then find one day that someone else has nabbed the name and you can not expand. But at the level most of you are now - as single operators - it's highly unlikely you would ever have any trouble with this issue. When you get to more than a million a year revenue, then you are entering that league. But better to be safe than sorry. I am not really dispensing Trade Mark advice in this forum. If you are serious after the TM search, find a TM attorney who offers a free consultation, or search online. There are several aspects to a TM, first the name, then the symbol, then the class - check all. You can register without a design, but all this stuff is for an attorney, not me. On How To Keep 121 Students It involves creating more value in graduated steps along the way. My series of blogs on 7 different backend business models for AT teachers is worth re-reading. (Or didn't you read it yet?) You start with this blog. Put people into more of a structured program is the obvious answer, but I am guessing that does not quite "fit" with what you have. We had this problem at BC Basic - we found 3 months was a critical time. Many had left by then. So around the 3 month mark we created a structured "review" lesson - do it in a cafe i.e. outside the teaching environment; or create an "activity" lesson at their place of work. Heck - even take a group of your 121s off 10 pin bowling (I've done it). Anything that breaks the rhythm of 121. The problem with 121 is that there is no community "stick" - nothing, other than you and the work - that motivates them to come. What do you use to replace that? I don't know. It's great that you are opening up your work to groups… On Finding The Right Offer Your offer is hugely important. As I have written many times - people can love your service, hate your product. The product is what you "offer" = the cost, times, place, duration of how they receive your service. Keep experimenting, and eventually you find the "sweet spot" that works in your niche. It took me many years to find this for the school in Japan, but once I did - well, the numbers speak for me. 140 students in training now, and growing each month. Get the offer right, and your biz starts to gather it's own momentum. That's so fun! On Pupils Who Get Appointments Wrong Are all students like her? I learnt at BodyChance to be careful changing the policy towards all 100%, when it was just 10% that was the problem. Flexible solutions and approaches works better. Universal solutions to small percentage problems is what governments do - which is why we move towards a Nanny state and absurd oversights on large swaths of the population. Beware making the rule of all, see how you can deal with the problem of one. It might be easier. (And it's good to have a policy to back you up when you need it) My Personal Facebook Group [NOTE: The second half of to-day's blog contains posts from my ATSuccess Group in Facebook. They contain personal or specific information that is inappropriate for public consumption. You can join the group by becoming a member. Participants of enjoy privacy protection to express opinions openly. It gets interesting. Trusting each other creates a context to take risks. In ATSuccess no-one cares where you trained, they only care you succeed.]

*On Adding Time To Make Your Offer and Close the Student + 30minutes in our Intro to AT means that after 90 minutes of AT lesson a la BodyChance Method, our paid Intros then have a 30 minute "invitation talk" on the offer we have. This is the time we "close the sale"! If you are giving 121 first sessions - then those need to be scheduled this way. Give extra time where you explain your offer, including the great bonuses going this month, so you can close the deal THAT DAY. Their hormones are the most predisposed to say yes immediately after your lesson. Close the deal then, not later. Work out brilliant answers to all the objections you know they are already going to bring up. *The Logical Learning Path Of Your Service You can create not just multiple entry paths, but roads that lead to Mecca. Make it natural and logical for a person to progress along your discovery path. In our biz we do that through 1. 1Days, Intros, Events; 2. BC Basic with 3 levels; 3. BC Pro with 3 levels; 4. We're working on it! (Post grad stuff). Callan Rush has a great conversation about creating a logical upsell of your next product that available online for free a this link: http://wealththroughworkshops.com/live-events-are-dead *On Who To Read Reading many different marketing gurus at once is not a great plan in my opinion. You're way off better following one, maybe two at a time and getting to know their view more deeply. I started with Dan Kennedy, grumpy old man that he is. If not, you end up spending all your time reading and wondering instead of acting and implementing. You feel like you are doing something, but actually you aren't. Who connects best with you? Start with them. Ice-skating over the surface of many different plans is deeply unsatisfying and confusing in my experience. Better to start with the aim of becoming a Master of One, then move to your next level of mastery. I am a jack-of-all-trades kind of a guy, so I had to learn this one. Expect to regularly feel confused when you are reading so many different advices. *Alexander is Industrial Yes Cecile - one of my favourite expressions that I keep repeating around BodyChance is that "Alexander is industrial" It takes time. It's huge. But it takes time. Glacial. *Describing An Automated Marketing System BodyChance Intros used to be free, now the Intros are never free, but people can be given a "free" ticket to attend an Intro. The conversion of people who paid for their Intro are consistently higher than the conversions of people who came using a free ticket. "Conversion" in this case means becoming a BodyChance monthly learning member. Automated marketing = 1. Traffic generation methods (Google adds, SEO, flyers, FB pages etc); 2. Optin to emails through many different website pages; 3. Segmented (i.e. designed for different niches) auto-responders that eventually contain invitations to come to an Intro at one of our three studios. This all happens automatically now, giving us a regular supply of people to our Intros. Of course, we still market aggressively, but these days it is about building new niches and expanding current ones. *About Increasing Your Prices When you are moving into your discomfort zone by challenging your habitual way of thinking - increasing the price of your sessions for example - Katie often says: don't go past your own evolution. Another of my mentors Brendon advised: Ensure your structure is ready to live in the change. A third advice from me: make sure you are congruent with the price you ask. Prices have more elasticity that most people credit - reading peoples' experiences, many of you raised prices and no-one left. It means 1. You weren't charging enough i.e. they put more value of what you offer them than you put the value on it your Self. 2. You didn't go up high enough because no-one left! Amazing to know? Price - if you are challenged economically - can be moved to the point where people start leaving. And that is not all bad. As you move your price point up, you shift towards a different kind of student. Go for it. You are here to support your Self, and income is a major means to give your Self that support! *On Giving Free Intros At Your Studio We gave free Intros at BC then dropped them and started charging $35 ~ $45 for 90 minutes + 30 minutes on our offer. Once we started charging, our conversions increased. However, by that time we had an automated marketing system that kept filling up the Intros. We still do. We do offer a "free session ticket" which we give as a gift of goodwill to various folks, and people who come on that ticket never (I mean never) convert as well. But they do convert. When your biz is strong enough, keep anything that will get you another student! *On How To Use ATSuccess Alain - any time is a good time to start. It is worth repeating that people can, and will, start working on different things. You can re-start the 30 Day challenge and ask questions, post experiences on this forum as you do it. I, and others, will respond and give you support. It is not necessary for us all to be doing the same thing and the same time - it's impossible. Every person's biz is at a different stage, needing different things. Use this group to support YOU, where you are. Not where you think you should be! Go for it NOW. And ask any questions you like. (Sorry for all the English) *On My Own Mission Thank you Annie - I've been thinking lately how to expand my mission, but feeling overwhelmed in just managing the commitments I have already taken on. Reading you are talking up this group with other teachers is greatly appreciated! *On Stilettos As A Niche Great that you got that site up so easily and quickly Dana - assume you know about the AT teacher Chyna Whyne in England who is totally niched into this? Whether it is full-time or hobby I don't know, but she has embraced this as her niche. *On Getting Facebook Likes Read my post from yesterday - $20 will probably find you a 100 Friends rather than asking other Alexander Technique teachers to Like your page. Using Facebook ads this way will also get you finding the people most likely to book your lessons. The point is: AT teachers are not your prospective students, nor do most of them live near you, so Likes from people like that are almost next to useless for increasing your biz. What's your thinking on this Elyse? *Using A Squeeze Page To Build Your List Squeeze pages work because there is no distraction. There's one CTA, and nothing else to do on the page. What you omitted to mention Peter is how you plan to attract traffic to your Squeeze page? For example: these days Google adds usually won't allow them - your add will not be approved unless it goes to a website, or pseudo-website. So how do you plan to generate the golf traffic? Facebook is not strict that way, but it will still cost you plenty. I did this strategy for BCLA using Facebook, and it cost me on average $6 for each new email address. I could have got that much lower, but of course we all know what happened next… *Using Google+ To Turbo Charge Your SEO Rating Hey Adrian - would you be willing to do a guest post on my blog about this? The Google+ thing you mentioned above. First part all about the benefits, hidden part how to actually implement it. Whenever, but would love to have that clearly created for everyone (including me selfishly so). Willing? *Religious Images Within Your Marketing Angela - just wondering about having a religious image on your fb page... Does that work with your market? I am a Tibetan Buddhist, but when did you last hear me mention that? I don't hide it, and I don't display it. It comes up when it comes up, but I don't proactively push it out professionally. I have a whole story to tell about this lesson, but for another day. We can talk this through on our Skype session today. *On Email AutoResponders Please remember eLance. For $50 someone could import your contacts, set up your list, segment it and add whatever else you needed. That's a way better way to use your resources - how much is two days worth to you? I am sorry to hear about the Aweber problems because, as far as I know, Aweber is one of the only lower priced tools ($20 per month instead of the $300 per month I pay for Ontraport) that allows you to tag contacts and, when you get to it, that's HUGE, I promise. *Lessons On Price http://getmoremomentum.com/10-reasons-compete-price/ Brilliant blog - I am ready to sign up with the guy! I've been delicately pushing up the prices of BC in Japan for years. We now charge $US290 for a 1day, $74 for a 90 minute group class, and $770 monthly for 4 years to become a teacher. *On Katie Byron's Work Yes, I bless the day I found Katie's work. She's like my Marj - she was even born in the town, Barstow, that Marj's Uncle founded! *USP & Headlines Constance - "Improve Your Dressage Seat is a really clear message, I like it. Is it unique in the market? How about adding to it something like: "... so you never have to experience blah blah again." Remind them also of what bugs them most and make your work more of a standout in the niche. The IL heading will - as I think I said before - work better in a real sentence, not note form. Combing the two is good - but a great USP will generate lots of different headlines. A Headline and a USP are almost the same, but the USP is ubiquitous, that's the difference. *About Your Niche Choice Yeah - stay with performers if you can. No niche (that I have found yet) is more suited to ours. Of course "Performers" is already to big. Voice is one. Singing another. Within singing you have Opera, modern, folk etc. Niches within niches. Try for at least 15,000 geographically close, and you have a good size to start becoming a big fish in a small pond. *On Giving Free Workshops Why is it free? I see that you are looking for email signups, but better to give them a free PDF booklet, which then entices them to a workshop. If you offer the workshop directly - I think you could have gone the other way - charged a meaty fee! Say $97. That way, your claims actually come across as more convincing. You could sound desperate to some people - they’d feel suspicious as to why it was free. Next time experiment with a high price. After all, if your experiment failed, you'd still end up with nothing. A student who comes for nothing is usually not motivated to apply what you teach them. Maybe you had to make it free, but I strongly urge you to find another way. Give a bonus, create added value - an offer that increases their engagement but still leaves you with income. This is the way to find better matched students who stay for the long term and create income security for you. *** Anything to add? A new thread? https://www.facebook.com/groups/ATCSProMembers/