M02.12 An Alien Speaks Out

When Isuzu first proposed that her niche was teaching English, I was befuddled. Really? I thought to myself… How do you make that work? On our Pro Members' Skype call this morning, I finally got it. For Pro Members who missed the call today, you can listen to it in the Skype directory. Members had great questions, then Isuzu contributed. Her idea is truly ingenious, but let me tell you a little about Isuzu first… Isuzu is an alien. She once told me:  "I come from another galaxy." Seriously. She is a delightful person, who refuses to go on underground trains (try living in Tokyo with that idea), seems to live in several places and – by her own declaration – has very little money and no permanent job. How she manages her lifestyle… well, she is a mystery, but maybe that's why her idea is wilder than anything I could have imagined – and I am not known for a lack of imagination… Japanese are crazy about learning English, while very few of them actually speak it. Go figure. People have asked me in bars if I will be their teacher: I thought it was a pickup line, until she brought her books to Starbucks! Japanese can learn English for 6 years in high school, yet will rarely speak it with you. I once met a Professor in the countryside who had translated several English books into Japanese, but he needed a translator to chat. Something is missing here – can you feel that? Enter Isuzu the alien and her new niche business. Read attentively – this may be the model that has been eluding you in another area… Her USP (Unique Selling Point) is around the area of: "You know enough English – now you need to speak it!" Here's what's revolutionary about Isuzu's plan: People go to Isuzu to learn how to speak English, not to have a lesson in Alexander Technique. Except they have a lesson in the Alexander Technique. She is teaching them how the stiffness they feel around speaking English is what stops them speaking it. Her lesson is transformative, applies all the Alexander Technique principles, yet teaches people to do something: speak English with ease. It's the activity model on steroids. Later today I was discussing this with full-time BodyChance staff member Yusuke in Osaka, and he related his experience teaching at a top music school here: he was originally billed as Alexander Technique for Drums, and bookings were low. So he changed it to: Drumming Lesson with Yusuke. Other drumming teachers at Miki offered a curriculum around their drum lesson, Yusuke did not. He just advertised: help with drumming problems. His classes started to fill up again, and he continued applying Alexander's Discoveries to drumming, exactly as he had always done. I can't sense what this means to me yet, but in case you hadn't noticed, I am having a public epiphany here. I've been encouraging teachers for years to stop selling Alexander Technique and start selling solutions to problems – but Isuzu's approach takes this to a another level. What if you just taught golf lessons? How easy is that for your market to hear? Gone is all the fuddy-duddy stuff that alienates people – instead, front and centre, clean and simple, is the message: I will teach you how to drive further, putt accurately and lose yips. Interested? You make it clear in your message that you only take "advanced" students (= step away marketing). You do not teach basics, you teach improvements on what they already have. It's a subtle shift, but quite profound from a consumer perspective. Of course you the teacher need to be "in" your niche totally, so it won't suit everyone. And in your lessons, it eventually dawns on students that you are doing something unusual, so when they ask you tell them: oh yeah, there was this guy called FM who figured all this out and blah, blah, blah… They will find out all that when they want to find out, and not a minute before. *** PRO MEMBERS: Listen to Isuzu on today's call in the Skype Directory.