W04.06 Case Studies: Eleni Vosniadou in São Paulo, Brazil. Part Two

These case studies are not only about the person; within them I am also including more structural and strategic advice for all Alexander Technique teachers to follow. If writing is your “bane” just jump straight down to Step 7 and read what I have written there…

Eleni Vosniadou

 

Step 6 – Build Your List

 

In my original plan I used to call this step your “Communication Mandala” but as I run this online course with you, I realize it all boils down to this: gather a list of names and people with whom you can start to building a long-term relationship.

 

Building your list is a topic of great depth and importance, and it hardly gets mentioned anywhere in Alexander Technique circles. The week after next I will address this critical element of your business plan. Eleni – please pay attention to this!

 

Step 7 – Write Your Story

 

On the top page of her website, Eleni does a nice job of showing her Self, but we only get three lines, then a link to Read more about my story. But on arriving on this page, she only serves up another three paragraphs. 3 paragraphs?! Eleni - be fearless in writing at length about your Self. People ask “How long should it be?” and the answer is “As long as it is interesting.”

 

We need to know her drama, her angst, her joy of recovery. She already writes nicely, but it is too brief to connect deeply to the reader. Eleni has studied NVC, so I know she understands the power of empathetic connections. Do you? The only way to establish empathy is to stop trying to be proper and start speaking truth. Be you, not someone you imagine people want you to be.

 

Here’s what she, and you, need to do:

 

First: find an interested friend to sit down and ask you questions about your experience. Use your smart phone to record it all (Voice Recorder HD by eFusion works well) and tell your story. Leave out nothing: make it raw, sometimes ugly – express the frustrations and anger you felt at almost losing your career; then speak about all ways you tried to fix the problem that didn’t work – the frustration that no-one told you this could happen, nor what to do when it did! Finally, how Alexander Technique provided a ray of light - express the joyful awe you felt as your problem dissolved, and the extraordinary insights and discoveries you made.

 

Second: once you have that recording, go to eLance and post a request for someone to transcribe it all. It will probably cost no more than $100 to get someone in Eastern Europe with nothing better to do to transcribe it all for you. That’s your story!All 7+ pages of it.

 

Third: Edit it down, cut out the repetitions, tighten up the narrative. Make sure it flows and follow this simple formula from marketing guru Dan Kennedy: Problem. Agitate. Solution. It speaks for itself. A lot more about this during week 7 when I dive more deeply into writing.

 

Step 8 – Invent a Back-End Business

 

Eleni writes: “This is something I am having difficulty with. I have a couple of students and I really want to find ways to increase their motivation to keep coming back for lessons. Both of them are not the enthusiastic follower type.” I am sure she is not alone in feeling this difficulty.

 

It’s simple – create a group structure, a theme and an offer. To maintain a longer term relationship with people – especially those not-so-enthusiastic people – you need to offer them a community experience. Not that they even know they want that, but as soon as they connect with others who have shared the weird, unexplainable-to-friends Alexander experience, they will feel some kind of relief and pleasure at being able to share this important part of their life with others. And they need to feel they are accomplishing something too – so I would create some kind of “completion certificate” that confers status but is basically meaningless in practical terms.

 

In Japan – I re-structured my Teacher Education into three different certificate courses that can be completed separately, consecutively or simultaneously. It took me years to prepare it, but once I finished and word got out, our numbers went through the roof. My point? Be flexible, listen to the market – find ways to adapt your work so people are willing to come.

 

Step 9 – 

 

Undoing The Stories That Bind You

The story that keeps popping up throughout her writing is “I am not confident I can get rid of their pains” as though it was the job of an Alexander Technique teacher to get rid of someone’s pain in the first place. Eleni - it is not your job to get rid of another person’s pain - that’s their job. Your job is to show them how they create that pain, and if you are not confident that you know how that happens - what were you doing for three years on your teacher training school? Of course you know how it happens. This is not about trusting yourself, this is about trusting the work. Do you doubt the truth of Alexander's discoveries? I don’t, not for second. So when something isn’t working, I know that investigation is the only way I can find out what is stopping it from working. And I know, 100%, that investigation will find it. Every time. I know you know that too - so get on with it.

 

Step 10 – Launch Your Marketing & Sales Funnel

 

Eleni is doing a fabulous job with this – she’s really started to think through the different ways that her potential students might reach her. This process is about creating different, individual streams that pool together to create mass. Eleni lists 6 different ways that she is going about attracting students: blog, talking to people, placing adds, distributing flyers, holding introductions, placing articles.

 

Next step is to create the natural path – all roads lead to Eleni. One of my mentors defined marketing as bringing people to your door, sales as inviting them into your room. I see Eleni marketing, but I wonder if she has thought about how to sell her lessons?

 

Have you?

 

Step 11 – Become a Authority/Celebrity

 

This can happen in the Music niche if Eleni is willing to re-invent her career in this world. I get that she is tired – but perhaps she can undo that story if she  saw how easily she can become a real authority. Classical Musicians, as I have written elsewhere in my blog, are an almost a perfect niche for Alexander Technique. Notice how well the work is integrated institutionally into that world today. This is no accident – the proclivities of classical musicians ideally suit our work. BodyChance’s economic muscle is built on this niche.

 

Step 12 – Find Partner, Make Deals

 

In every town, in every city of every country where people can speak and/or read English – there are people who are fans of F. M. Alexander’s ideas, people who long to meet a real live teacher, people who will support, suggest and attend to whatever you ask of them.

 

Since she put her website up in English, my guess is that plenty of people in São Paulo are comfortable with English. Among this English speaking community, Eleni will find fans of Alexander Technique. These are people who are often quite influential, and their endorsement could put Eleni on a jet to success.

 

When I first landed in Sydney in 1980, no teachers had been working there for years. One had recently arrived, but I opened the first real Centre there ever. It was so easy, I look back in fond remembrance. Just know they are there, and start looking for them!

 

TOMORROW: Jennifer Mackerras response to her Case Study of last week.

Your comment will get more feedback if you post it directly to my new FaceBook page at www.facebook.com/AlexanderTechniqueCareerSuccess 

 

CAVEAT: Remember what Alexander said: “They will see it as getting in and out of a chair the right way. It is nothing of the kind.” Is this case-study about the “right way” for Eleni Vosniadou to go ahead? It is nothing of the kind. It’s intended to demonstrate a way of thinking, not a set of proscriptions. My intention with these case studies is to find another way of presenting the same ideas in a different light.