Unedited Eleni Vosniadou

My new way of presenting case studies is to publish in full a teacher's 12 Point Plan, then offer my comments after each entry. The answer to the question in bold is Eleni's words, the comments that come after the three  < *** >  are my comments. This is a wonderful read - follow Eleni's steps one by one, and I promise success will flow to you. It won't be quick, but it can't be stopped from working...

Eleni Vosniadou

1. What drives you towards this career? AT is the passion of my life. It is one of the few things that make sense in this world and it enables and empowers me towards a happier life. I have chosen the career of a teacher in this method because through teaching it I move towards fulfillment. Practically, I want to make a living doing this. A good living. I have made my calculations and the amount that I want to make yearly cannot be made just by waiting for them to come. So, here I am! *** I love it. Clear, to the point and clean. Two drivers: the passion, the sustenance. It’s the power that starts you off in the direction you want to go… 2. What is your niche/who will you teach? I am convinced about the importance of the niche. My small business cannot grow without first expanding within a small group... My background is of a 'musician in pain', so that is what I see as the most realistic niche for me right now. I have started a research, there are three main categories of musicians in Sao Paulo; 1) professionals classical music , 2) professionals brazilian music, 3) amateurs brazilian and classical music.    I am aiming for number three because there is plenty of them and it is the category that has a day-job and money. It is usually men, 25-55 years old, usually in a well-established profession (eg. engineers) who have heard about AT for musicians. I have found that in most occasions I work effectively with this profile. It seems like these people are really looking for a way to personal development but - unlike their wives - they are not willing to admit it, so they need 'a cover', and their hobby provides that. *** Wow – your analysis, if correct, is impressive. For a niche, there are five simple qualifers that need to be in place before you consider entering a vertical market or niche: First, they are fanatics about something; Second, they are accessible; Third, they have money to spend, Forth, there are enough of them; and Fifth, you have something they want. Go read again what Eleni wrote with those 5 points in mind: you can understand why hers is a winning strategy. 3. What place(s) will you practice? The big plan is to create an AT center in the heart of Sao Paulo where my niche, or anyone else can come before work, during lunch-time or after. There are a couple of strategic locations in Sao Paulo I have in mind, but it is expensive. So, my smaller plan for the moment is to work from home which is in the 'alternative' area of the city, slowly building my skill, my clientele and my mailing list. *** When you are ready for the next stage of growth – let’s start a new blog series on BCSP! 4. Describe the kind of service and products you will offer… My service is now more about efficiency and freedom in movement by applying simple 'practical' intelligence to what you do. This one is under construction at the moment... Product: I have created a 'product funnel' that goes like that:  1) Intros: One-day events hosted in niche-related spaces or my own  2) Beginners group lessons  3) Private lessons  4) Advanced group lessons. A great shift happened when I decided to take the step into the unknown and start teaching in groups. I loved it. I felt freer and happier teaching, as the dual relationship of one teacher - one student can easily get intense for me at this point. So, groups will start being the main service and private lessons will become a more expensive option. My plan is to have at least one intro a week, every week, booked in my agenda. We are starting to organize that in a group of three teachers, so I will be sharing the administrative work load on making this possible, which is a great relief! More on the 'Advanced group' in the back-end section. *** A famous Alexander Technique teacher in New York – who was always busy – told me about her weekly ritual with her appointment diary. At the start of each week she would look at the empty spots on her teaching schedule, and imagine people calling or coming. All week she would remember “I am free to teach from 2.30 to 4.30 on Thursday afternoon” and found that this focus actually worked to fill those spots. A bit whacky, but hey – it worked! The point is – make the space, take the action, know “I have to fill this Intro this week.” And your mind catches opportunities that would otherwise have ignorantly sailed by. Focus is the point, it leads you into taking action. Every day ask yourself in the morning: “What is the most useful thing I can do today to build my practice?” (and help more people and make more money) 5. Who are the people who will mentor/support your career development? At this point Jeremy is my only mentor. For the last couple of months I have been looking for a business consultant without success. I got tired of looking, and got tired in general. So, my strategy is this for now; I am shifting the focus to developing the work with the groups and my current students, and will rest a little from the intense business stuff. Also, I am thinking a little more in small steps rather than the big plan all the time. And, I will let my new mentor appear on their own! *** Use your Pro level of membership. You can email questions, get on my Pro Skype call (time being announced this week) use any of the resources I have available – look for uploads of videos of me, Cathy Madden, Mio Morales, Greg Holdaway, Tommy Thompson, Vivien Mackie teaching in Japan – to help kickstart your career. Basically you are doing great – this is one of the easiest and quickest assessments I have ever had to write! 6. How is your skill in writing blog, email and website content? I never thought I could do it before I actually started. Now, I can't see myself stopping! I am writing on my blog about once a week and each time it is a great learning opportunity. The biggest lesson was on the day with the most views ever. That day I was convinced that sales is everything, after all how is a great blog important if no-one knows about it? It was definitely not a special blog post that I wrote that day, but I boldly published it on facebook with a catchy description. Numbers were tripled! Of course since then I have been over-doing it and views came down again, but what can you do - it's all about learning. Now I am reading Dan Kennedy's book that Jeremy suggested. I am putting a mailing list on my website, so I'll need to learn how to be clever with auto-responders or offers. *** Go girl go! Actually, Basil and I often talk about how the numbers reflect our own state of mind – it’s uncanny. When we are hot, focused and in tune - our numbers go up. When we are fearful, distracted and unsure – our numbers go down. Last night in my CareerThinking class, I asked one of the regular blogging students how his numbers are. He didn’t know. He didn’t check. “Why not?” I asked. His answer “I feel so great after writing, I don’t care what the numbers are.” Hmmm… I answered by highlighting one of Alexander’s experiences: “Yeah, Alexander felt like he had done what he wanted – and not pulled back his head after he did some reciting. Trouble is, when he looked in the mirror, he saw his feeling was baloney.” It is the same in business. You might feel your business is going well, but that is not to say your business is going well. Numbers parallel Alexander’s mirror. They don’t care about your feelings, your opinions, your desires – they just tell you: “45 people read your blog today.” You need that information. It keeps you plugged into reality. Most businesses fail because their owners are living in a dream world they created, believing it till the day their business comes crashing down around them. Watch the numbers folks. You will come to love them. And blogging once a week? Come Eleni – you can do more now. Blog writing is part of your Research and Development. You use your blog to build an information bank that you can leverage off in the future. Many of my best teaching ideas appeared while writing this blog. Go for 2/3 times a week. Use your blog to write your book. 7. How will you gather a list of people who follow your work? I finally came to understand the importance of a mailing list, so that's what I am working on right now. After signing up on the mailing lists of a number of interesting businesses the importance of offering something for someone to want to follow you became clear, so I am trying to understand what is that something, especially for my niche. I am putting together an e-book that people can have for free if they join my mailing list and I will also experiment with a 'free workshop' offer to see which one works best. I am happy to know that if someone is looking for Alexander Technique in Sao Paulo and uses the internet, it is impossible for them not to come across my website, so these people are my target. The next step is to approach the ones who are not looking for us, yet. I am planning to achieve this with the Introductory events that will drop like a meteor shower in Sao Paulo from September 2013. Again I am planning to  create an attractive offer for the ones that join my mailing list so I am expecting this will be a big source of additions to the mailing list. *** People – take a leaf out of Eleni’s playbook and go sign up for mail lists that target people in your niche. I do that. Look for the fabulously successful ones, and see how they are pitching their service. Remember – you are part of the “product.” These days people want to connect to people. That’s why I have my picture at the top of every page, why I call this website “Jeremy’s …” I am a little sparse with my mailing list – sorry folks – but remember the most any of you have paid to me is 1 cent. Who says I am all about money?! Eleni – be careful of using price as an attractor. I don’t think you need it. People have read your blog, joined your mailing list and followed you for awhile – they are ready to pay. It can be “reasonable” but not “free.” I did it with this site because I need to educate you about paying for online advice. However, musicians know about paying for education. They know it isn't a one shot thing. They have the habit. You can charge them right from the start for direct contact learning with you. It’s better from the start to position you Self as a high end non-discounter. I don’t say you never discount, but when you do people know it is genuine. So offer a “free Intro” deal maybe three or four times a year at the slow periods. When you make the offer, your list members will understand it is a genuine, time-limited offer and will jump at it. Offering it upfront at the start sends the wrong message. Make ‘em pay for being in a room with you. They’ll respect you more. Those that want a discount – or to whom that is important – will jump in during those times when you do offer it. 8. What do you imagine as your back-end business? The ‘Advanced Alexander Course for...’ will be an expensive, but also very attractive product. It will be for special groups like musicians, body therapists, dancers... For instance, a six-month sort of mini-Alexander training specialized on their subject, only available to advanced students. An example is a course for music teachers who want to apply AT in their teaching. The idea was born when many of my students started asking  for something like that, a course where they can learn more - I am guessing that they are recognising that they need to improve their Alexander skills of inhibition and direction and they are not able to do that on their own, so they are looking for a learning environment. Of course people who have a job and don't have loads of money saved to invest in this would never consider the training options available in Sao Paulo - which are not easy to discover anyway, unless whoever is interested is persistant in discovering the two small training courses that are around... So, I can see a back-end business is essential in achieving financial stability for my business and surely creating a flexible training course seems the ideal thing to do. But I wouldn't start anything as big as a training program right now - it feels too scary doing this with my level of experience and more importantly on my own. Of course if we create BodyChance Brazil that is another business… *** I am ready for that. Once BCLA is going – and we are in the process of negotiating leases, hiring staff, building a website, getting promotional materials ready – let’s start talking about that. Advanced course idea can work – but your students, as you discovered, are the best at telling you what they want. Ask about scheduling – that is critical. You can offer the course they want to pay for, but if their schedule does not match it, they will not come. “Product” remember is not equal to “Service.” People can love the service, hate the product. Product is when, where, how much, who teaches, how long, what I get after – things like that. Make sure you call it a “certificate” course. Or whatever it is in Brazil that gives people a feeling of validity and accomplishment. Don’t underestimate the power of conferring your authority to them. 9. What are the stories that stop you from being successful? At the moment what gets on my way is my perfectionism. I go into exhaustion and forget all about Vishen Lakhiani's 'state of flow'...Although this is not something new, I have either gone too far or it is the first time I want to deal with it! Not quite sure how to deal with it apart from a small strategy I have created; I make it a top priority to remind myself many times during the day that life is too small not to enjoy even the moments of desperation! When I manage to remember, there is a tiny shift in my system that gives me a smile and helps me keep going - but this time breathing! *** I know that one. It is driven by the desire to appear… (fill the gap). Perfectionism is usually not about you, it’s about how you imagine others will perceive you. It’s about proving to you that you are able to do it so that others will be right to think you great, and then you can think your Self great too. So skip the part about others thinking you are great, and go straight to being great for you. I love the mess I can live in these days, the sloppiness in my flat, the casual preparation for my classes. And here’s the weird thing – my classes often go better than I ever expected. And sometimes not – but that was how it was before when I tried much harder. I try way less these days so I get more done, and still have more free time. Katie helps. A good cry with her is one of my medicinal processes. 10. What kind of expert advice will you offer others professionally? The main focus is on the 'simple practical intelligence' applied to every-day life. I can show people how by interfering with our natural balance we make life harder, even painful. But the most powerful part of communicating this is my own state. I work on my 'state of flow', which in the Alexander business is translated into going through life with a happy primary control. Because I can do this to a satisfactory degree I know that I am an expert in this business, and by incorporating it, it is not only my words that communicate this to people. *** Yes. 11. Describe the process you will use to gather students… 1) Getting them to go to my website: events, blog, personal encounters, flyers, social media networks...  2) Getting them to sign up to my mailing list: interesting website, site, e-books, offers...  3) Getting them to come belly-to-belly: creating a relationship with my mailing list that will lead to them trusting I can help them; keeping them up-to-date with useful info, inviting them to events, special offers only for my mailing list members. *** Hey – you actually read my blog and implement my advice. Basil was the first person who also did this – I mean, in every aspect as you are doing - and he’s now got his own school happening. Keep going this way – it works. Not only in Alexander Technique world, in any business world. 12. Who could be beneficial partners in building your business? At the moment I am creating a partnership with two other Alexander teachers in the form of a support group. This could lead to a partnership where it would actually be 'us' instead of 'me', but right now it is in still in its very beginning. This could also be the core of the teaching staff in BodyChance Brazil. A partnership with Jeremy is something I can see working beautifully. It is scary because the numbers would be bigger than what I've known so far! Well, I know I have the passion and the dedication and he has the knowledge and experience in this game, so how can this go wrong? The truth is that I have big plans for myself in this career and I need Jeremy's valuable business and teaching ready-made systems and of course the funding. I can also see that this is not a one-way thing as I know I have everything it takes to create something successful which will be a success for BodyChance as much. *** Ricardo Semler, author of Maverick, and a brilliant Brazillian businessman, is one of the inspirational mentors of BodyChance’s business model. Semler applied Alexandrian principles to business – giving full autonomy to his employees. At first glance quite outrageous ideas: employees hire their boss, decide their own salary, detirmine the hours they work. In BodyChance, based on Semler’s model, I adopted four T’s: freedom of Technique, freedom of Time, freedom of Task and freedom of Team. Just today in our Operations Meeting we discussed the difficult Japanese labour laws where employees must record their hours veer an odiously complex sheet – we all veteoed it. Not for us. Last year all BodyChance staff decided their own salary increases, if they increased at all. Can such a system work? Ricardo Semler built a billion dollar Brazilian company and proved it can. It seems both astonishing and poetic that the country that gave rise to a revolutionary business model that is most in harmony with Alexander's principle of personal responsibility could one day play host to BodyChance – a baby company with a giant dream. And if it happens, it will all be Eleni's doing.