Staying Awake And Well • ATSuccess Week 4 - March 2014

Sometimes the hardest time to stay awake is when there are no dramas; when the work of keeping your biz fed, well-exercised and healthy is a smattering of small tasks, a consistency of focus and a remembrance of why you are doing it all in the first place. ATSuccess was like this the last week - many people thinking of leaving, taking a break. I think that's the dumbest decision you could make. And I respect your right to make it. I am not here to make you feel good, I am here to share what I have learnt: when the light is dimming, you don't turn it off. You turn it up. Click here now to find out more. *** Biz-Building Is A Vehicle For Personal Growth Financial security will make your heart rich - for to achieve it, you need insight into universal paradigms of being to create a state of mind that attracts wealth. I pursue wealth because, with my integrity in tact, as I move into wealth, I move into effectiveness. Greater numbers of people are introduced to the work, and that is the mission of my life. The "success" is an honest metric of how effective I am in my life mission. Effectiveness, as a reliable metric, is calibrated factually on the realties of what I do. Why? Because I know my own mind will lies to me: I don't believe the thoughts I am having. I know that the flows of INCOME/EXPENSE and ASSET/LIABILITY sit at the core of financial literacy. How To Use ATSuccess It you have not read my book yet, that is definitely the place to start. Many things I speak about in this Facebook group are explained in detail in my book, which is basically a compilation of ideas that I have gathered from many different sources. What I do in my book is apply these ideas specifically to Alexander Technique as a business - there's no other book I know of that does this. As a member of this group, you can download your own copy. I just ask that you don't distribute it yet, as it is a benefit of membership! Here's the link: https://www.facebook.com/groups/ATCSProMembers/234492410048466/ (Note: link only works for members of Facebook ATSuccess group) On Having A Mentor I have my mentors, and you know you need yours. Whoever that is, think of it as an investment in you. I am my biz, there's no separation there. I think that is what makes biz-building such an effective channel for personal growth - the feedback is immediate, and it makes the meat it feeds upon. What's a 5 to 9er? One nickname for entrepreneurs is 5 to 9ers. It means - start work at 5am, finish at 9am, then start work at 5pm, and finish work at 9pm. The reason being: don't leave the day job until your biz actually pays. I had times in BodyChance where I did everything, because I wasn't making enough to pay someone, but I needed to get even busier so I could. That pattern continues, as I am still striving for growth. But it is more fun, cause now I only do what I want! How Rich Will I Become? There's a popular exercise talked about in seminars that focus on lifting your game financially - count non-family members that rate as your seven closest companions. Now add the average of their income - it will match yours. It's almost a law, or so it is said. Of course, having a billionaire as a best mate will throw this right off. Anyone got one of those? On Raising Price By Lowering Hours Keep the price the same and reduce hours if you don’t want to go beyond the $75 price point. That does raise the price. If you do want the 4 hours, I think it is important you position your self from the start as a higher priced service. What have you got to lose? If they don't come, you still have you. And you learnt something about your market. If they don’t book at that price either 1. You are seeking students in the wrong place; or 2. You haven’t got the product offer right. On Taking A Break A break away is another smart way of being "on". Off is on sometimes. I also could list a long series of failures on my part. It took me years to get the offer right for BC Education, but once I did our numbers started growing and growing. Never give up! On When To Make a Facebook Page For the sake of a few days, wait and check the TM of your proposed Facebook Page name. Unless you are also ready to start making ads, making your Facebook page is non-urgent. It's a snap to make it, so that can happen same day you start Facebook ads. Do I Start A New Facebook Page for My Niche? If your current Facebook page doesn't have any of your niche community in it then: YES! Start a new page and DO NOT invite us, other AT teachers or any non-related people to Like it. Make is exclusively - as much as possible - for niche community fans, so when you start using it to advertise workshops, you are not wasting money advertising to people who are not in your niche. Quite honestly - you DO NOT WANT me to Like your page. Really, it's not smart. On What To Do When Opportunity Knocks I salivate at any exciting opportunity. I want to immediately follow it. "Opportunity knocks" is the expression, but I also have a gut feeling about these opportunities which I can know if I ask my Self. A great question to ask is not: Shall I do this? but, What do I delay or abandon to do this? On this free time you have, how would you use it otherwise if you were not consumed by this wonderfully exciting opportunity? It's not to discourage you, rather give you a reality based foundation for your decision so you can be confident in it and pursue it, without nagging doubts which will limit your capacity to deliver, not enhance it. Of course there will be a cost for your current niche, so figure out what that is, then ask: is that acceptable so you are able to assess whether you will do a 180 and move into a significantly different niche? On Why The Riches Are In The Niches You think going into one niche is closing doors whereas the opposite is true - it opens so many. Check out Cecile's post today. It feels like a narrowing, yet it is actually an opening. It feels too focused, and that gives you depth. You think it is sinking below the big, wide world into obscurity, whereas in fact you are rising up in the big, wide world into fame. When people talk about doing two or three totally different niches (golf, music and running) I hear that that still don't get it. Each one is a lifetime's work which will give you a sense of accomplishment. Take all the time you need - eventually you won't find your niche, rather your niche will find you! On Niche Strategy Working This is my greatest joy in coaching: to see the fruits of your work happening for you. Yes, niche is the way for us. It will only take a few stella successes for the message to come home to our whole community, resulting in a deeper integration of Alexander's discoveries with everyday life. Two Kinds of Curriculum In BodyChance, prospective students often ask about the curriculum and love to read many details. However, once they start, most forget about it. I sometimes ask at the start of the class: "Who knows what the topic of today's class is?" They stare back blankly. No one knows and no one cares. I think there are two educational processes: 1. Bringing them in based on a clearly articulated curriculum 2. Delivering that curriculum in ways beyond anything they imagined. On A Great Pithy Sales Letter http://tinyurl.com/ogz23gd It's a great sales letter - a text book example in gaining empathy then hitting you with a CTA, even disqualifying if you won't buy immediately! (the "…must be passionate about the next 90 days…" line) Compelling, like any good invitation should be. On Having A Bad Day* You're having a bad day. That's OK too. Good days come again, you know that. You are hurting, but don't hurt you. You deserve more, much more. It's not about them, but you know that too. And you will remember. And start again. Every day. Like this. You can. 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.]

*Do You Discount Or Not? Rather than "discount" our route is to "add value." People do like getting value, and they do enjoy a good deal - no question about that. It's how the offer is put to them that makes all the difference. "The Offer" is a new series I am putting together at the moment.... *On Falling Asleep To Your Life Mission Jennifer, I love that you love when you wrote: "I love what you said about why one would want to take a "break" away from something that has been so positive in one's life." Yes. Trainees do it in AT programs too. At around the two year mark, they start thinking they want to leave, have a break, take time off. In ATSuccess that moment seems to be about now for several people here, according to all the private emails I have received on the topic recently. I am working up an interesting response to that, designed to give you all a shock. Time for a wake up call to this group, time to renew our focus and purpose. Coming this week to a blog post near you... (I wonder who will catch this little treasure tucked away here. Curious.) *How To Decide On A JV Offer… Angela - you know his upside, what's yours? Base your final decision on more than just discomfort, base it on clarity too. He's giving you a shot at his market, based on you filling content for his course. It seems a fair exchange. He does give you the option of not paying a "nominal finders fee," so don't. Make it clear you won't if that helps you. We pay AT teachers in Japan who send people to BodyChance for teacher education. Seems to me he is a bit nervous giving you access to the people he's worked hard to get into his program. JVs are the future. I am not so good at them either, but I see them as a way for us to accelerate out ability to put the work out in front of more people... *How To NOT Build Your Biz The route to a successful business is rarely achieved by giving over your hiring power to an institution. Make the connections directly to the people in your market, and BECOME THE INSTITUTION that they go to. Then you get to decide most things, according to the needs of your market. It's more powerful positioning for you. (and your biz) *On How To Run A Yoga Workshop Hey Cecile, this sounds right "I am used to be spontaneous and go with the flow of what is going on in the class with a framework in the back of my mind only!:)" They way it works for me is we start out doing what they want, then suddenly one person blurts our a complaint (you can fish for it) which evolves into a demo lesson while the others curiously watch on (while secretly thinking 'Yeah, that happens to me too') Out of this demo you "spontaneously discover" that hey! you girls have no idea where the hip socket is! OMG. Let's do something on that - then you whip our your "mini hip joint rant." Now you have it contextualized in a way that convincingly relates back into what they want. Let mini-lessons arise out of what is going on, rather than imposing them into what is going on. *On Deciding Your Niche In Small Towns Well Veronique - some people are definitely on a niche roll. You small town people feel challenged by the niche question, and I totally get it and don't have a magic answer. The closest I have got is: you are the niche. Do a Branson, become a local personality. Stand out. Other than that, I am useless in advising your niche in Cork. Or Cornwall. Or Sheffield. Whatever. *On Doing Facebook Adds Hey great Veronique! Here's the girl with no niche or time for Facebook ads, doing Facebook ads! I love it. As far as I know, you are the second off the block. Remember - build your local Likes and it gets cheaper to run these kind of adds. I was beginning to feel my post had fallen flat. Not so! *How Can You Reduce The Cost of Facebook Likes? Cost of Likes going down is mystery, based on Facebook's own algorithms which we can only guess at. However, automatic optimization can reduce cost. As Facebook discovers which audience and when respond best, it starts serving up your add that way, which results in more clicks per 1000 impressions, which reduces the cost if you are on CPM (paying per number of impressions) not CPC (paying for each click). You asked. *Build Your Base, Then Your High End Gosh Jennifer - I am struggling to "get" this on the first read (I will try again) but my BIG question is this: what's the size of your audience? If you have, say, 40 paying students, you can bet that 1% will go for a very high-end product. So out of 40 people, that's not even one person yet. You need an extra 60 paying students to get 1 willing to pay a super high fee. It seems you already got your one, there may be two or three more. 1-5% is the actual range, but the additional 4% take more work. Now the critical game is building the base which you are inviting into your product mix. For example - tell me how many people you have on your mailing list now? How many regular paying clients do you have? Build the thing your students want, not the thing you want for your students. *Finding People For The High End Yes Jennifer - now I see where your previous post is coming from - I read from the top down when doing my Facebook replies. Gathering folks this way is a smart strategy - keep thinking of other ways you could implement this to find folks who would enter into your high end stuff. Along the way keep listening - what works for them? What did they already do? *On Designing A Name for You Biz Jann - is “Become A Play-Full Musician” your idea of what you think Musicians should become, or is it their idea of what they want to become? As a name it is a start, but I would continue "playing" with other choices. Listen to how they speak, list down all the things they have told you they want. Are any themes emerging? And can your name include a benefit within it? I am not sure what the benefit is when I can Play-Full? For example, if you said “Become a Better Sounding Musician” for example, I get benefit immediately. Also, a name for your biz can be a reduced version of a tag like that. One word, double-barreled even, is OK. *On Making A Video Kudos for getting this done Adrian - we are working on four videos for our Yoga project and I know what an effort it is. Congratulations, and keep perfecting it. I still wonder at her sitting like a mannequin for so long - it feels a bit creepy quite honestly. What I would want to see is her explaining why she came to you for lessons (which of course she didn't) and your information coming out of that dialogue - it can still have me as a participant - i.e. direct-to-camera speaking - that works, and do one with a format where the student is in relationship to you. *On When To Introduce AT In An Invitation Letter Alain - great work. This one is hugely improved version from the one I read previously. I would leave mentioning Alexander Technique until you get to the "I am saved" part of your story. Mentioning it up front takes all the mystery away - it's like being told “The butler did it!” just as you are starting to read a mystery novel. Keep it till later, let them wonder "What was this thing that helped Alain gain all these amazing changes?" *** Anything to add? A new thread? https://www.facebook.com/groups/ATCSProMembers/