Unedited Franis Engel

I am reposting this blog with my comments added. Today, Franis added a comment below, starting with the question: "It sounds like a plan, doesn't it?" and my basic answer is "Not yet." You are on the way, but until you get specific about finding the real people who can be spoken to without having a budget the size of Apple to find them, your plan is incomplete. I think Franis is an interesting and creative person, and the perspective of my comments is focused on how she can make a living as a teacher of Alexander Technique. 1. What drives you towards this career? A lifelong interest in psychology, conscious awareness and potential. ** But no money? My purpose in making this community was to talk about how to use our knowledge of Alexander Technique to attract people who will pay us money so we can live in a nice place, take a holiday when we want, feel ease around our nutritional and health needs, be housed without fear of eviction, and do whatever is ethical, legal and moral and gives us sufficient joy to make a living out of teaching Alexander Technique. This is the place for consideration of ideas about “psychology, conscious awareness and potential” as they impact how you making a living from teaching this work. 2. What is your niche/who will you teach? Thinking skills, to those who love to learn, have multiple interests and are looking for mentors because they don't know how to do all the things they love or even what those things are. Essentially, people who need an attitude that the resources they need exist and can be found. ** How will you find these people? Where are they? Who are they? 3. What place(s) will you practice? From an office in Hilo, Hawaii - (that I don't have yet) that has better internet access and a group meeting space. But anywhere in the state of Hawaii, given there is a group who will pay me to come and talk with them. ** It makes no sense to find a location without knowing who you are inviting to it. 4. Describe the kind of service and products you will offer… Speeches. Youtube snippets. Internet podcast interviews, tele-workshops and E-books with various subjects (people) of personal interest who are original thinkers and have found their niche, (similar to how Roy Palmer's writes e-books on various topics, but what they all have in common are they are a sport.) ** How does this fit with the office in Hila, and the groups that may invite you? All of the above are good service products to create, but how are they integrated with your niche, your location? I don’t see how you are going to build a business by producing products on “original thinkers”? It feels like there is no spine to what you are doing, just a lot of parts floating around, disconnected from each other… These 12 Parts, when you work on them as designed, naturally flow into each other. Abstractions don’t make you a living. 5. Who are the people who will mentor/support your career development? Barbara Sher - the grandmother of coaching, started as a career counselor  Phil Bachmann from debonosociety.com - thinker and programmer  Peter Hoy - a friend who writes about legal stuff  Jack  - My friend who is a retired lawyer who had a TV show about legal stuff and making it amusing  Etc.... Lots of people I'm great at getting educated. ** I never thought I’d say this – but you’ve got too many mentors! If you are listening to all those people, it’s no wonder your Alexander career is in a muddle. 6. How is your skill in writing blog, email and website content? Lousy at first, but I've been practicing for about twenty years now so it's gotten much better.   I need help finishing projects that are already mostly finished. ** That’s encouraging for others to read. Yes, now you write really well, and you could leverage that skill if you had a clear “who” as your reader who would pay you money. Alexander Technique teachers may love your writing, but they won’t pay your rent. Right now, writing gives you ego replenishment, but not financial replenishment. You can have both, but you need a plan. Your “who” needs to be a niche of real people in a real place with an specific interest that you are willing to connect with over a long period of time. 7. How will you gather a list of people who follow your work? Barbara sher will endorse me, and her list of people have already expressed an interest in buying the book I'm writing on how to find mentors among people you already know. I'll interview interesting people in podcasts and will possibly get their followers interested. I'll publicize holding 'success teams'. Which are essentially, support groups for making dreams come true. I can paint signs and design logos for these people. I can also publish a hard copy directory for people who want to be launched. I would help people educate others about their subjectively described potential livelihoods. (There are many people who move to Hawaii who can't connect with their "peers" because of the move. So having a directory of possible class offerings such as the ones that exist on the mainland might work.) ** Firstly, a book of itself does not a business make. It is only one aspect of a scheme with many parts. And the list that this book creates – are they the people you are building your community for? It’s confusing to me. Secondly, it doesn’t feel real. What you described business-wise is massive, yet you write about this plan so casually that I sense no real conviction in you to follow through with it. I have heard many ideas from you, and this one comes across as your “current idea” and my hunch is that in a month or two it will be gone, replaced by another great idea. Thirdly, there’s no traction in this way of yours, no sense of building something that nurtures and supports you as you inevitably disintegrate back into the earth. Yours is a harsh world to live in, that’s my guess. 8. What do you imagine as your back-end business? Classes in Alexander Technique about how to accelerate learning speed, how training works, etc. ** That’s not a back-end business. 9. What are the stories that stop you from being successful? I don't have enough energy to bother with this. It's not really Alexander Technique. I don't have the "look" of a person in this business. Fighting a habit of being late. I'll end up doing things I don't like, because that's what every business involves when the tail starts to wag the dog. I'll have to spend my time getting people to show up to my classes and their resistance will inevitably stop them. There's too much cultural racism here in Hawaii for this to work. Making money isn't worth the trouble it takes to do it. It's not the money I want, it's the experience of being a part of a group of people who make discoveries that I really want. I could get that by being an adjunct to other people who are already assembled into a group and doing workshops, etc. here rather than going to all that trouble myself...  yada yada yada ** I get it – those are powerful stories and I’ve had them all at one time or another. However, anyone reading this now needs to hear loud and clear that if earning money, real money, from teaching Alexander Technique is not a strong need of yours, then you are in the wrong community. This is not the community to “discuss Alexander Technique.” There are plenty of other communities where you can do that. This is the community of people who want to earn a full-time living from teaching Alexander's Discoveries. You can define that success however you want, just be sure your criteria is clear enough to keep you honest to your intention: “My pupils will appreciate me” is lame compared to “90% of my students will book another lesson with me next week.” With the latter, it’s hard to dodge your intention. With the former, it’s easy. 10. What kind of expert advice will you offer others professionally? I'm full of it. Everyone tells me I'm exceptionally resourceful and a high idea producer. Probably I should be an advice columnist who interviews notable A.T. people. I've originated a really useful way to teach self-observation. ** I get that you are a brilliant person – but what I can’t find is any constructive plan to deliver you a reliable, regular income? If you genuinely don’t care about that, then stop wasting my time. If you do care about that, then get serious. Right now, you are at a different same place from when I last did this with you. I don’t see any tangible progress. 11. Describe the process you will use to gather students… Maybe I'll just find groups of people who are already assembled into a group...   Really, I don't know. ** And there’s the rub. Steps 11 & 12 flow out of the last 10 steps: creating an integrated plan that leverages an accessible niche that needs your service so you can skillfully build a loyal community that actively seeks your advice in whatever form you choose to deliver it. My guess is you think of it like a “prison” that you will be “stuck” in one niche, so you get miserable and give up too soon. However, the opposite is true. The world opens up to you when you find the right people. Right now, many of you are “stuck” trying to chase after the latest bright, shiny object, the newest idea. Chasing anyone and everyone who is willing to listen. It works as a plan, but it requires great amounts of energy, and it is tiring to sustain over the long term. You’ll end up depressed and homeless. There are better ways to efficiently leverage your energetic resources to develop influence, wealth and genuine choices. 12. Who could be beneficial partners in building your business I don't have a clue about this either. Perhaps I can do something for other Alexander Technique teachers. ** I think other Alexander Technique teachers, trainees – that is your main niche now. However, you are not making any money from that niche. Neither am I. My reasons for being in this niche are:

1. to find partners to expand BodyChance out of Japan
2. to support people earning more money from teaching the work
3. to produce income to cover my time and the costs of this website
4. to explore the logistics of creating and maintaining an online business
5. to develop the model for a BodyChance online business for the public.

  What’s your long term game with this niche? If there is no strategic plan, it’s time for a major update of your current life mission. You wrote: ”Essentially, I'm a popularizer, a journalist who is on a campaign for bringing A.T. to more and more people without selling it short of the potential it has.” OK, that sounds great but here’s what I want to know: how many is more and more? who are they? how will you do this? where will you publish? Generalities look great, but are easy to wiggle out of. Getting specific, and sticking to it, will quickly lead to unmasking your true intentions.