W02.07 Guest Post from Franis Engel in Reply to Case History...

I asked Franis to post a reply to my Case History of her last week. Original that she is, she ended up quoting me from a FaceBook conversation we had after the fact! You can see this post also at her blog, with lots more of her original thinking about Alexander Technique.

Jeremy

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Selling Alexander Technique

January 11, 2013 by Fran Engel

Recently, the Alexander Technique community has been treated to an online course in business management. Offered by Jeremy Chance, he’s now in the stage where he’s using real people as examples. Being a classic under-achiever, I volunteered!
http://jeremychance.blogspot.jp/2013/01/w0106-case-studies-franis-engel-in.html

This led to a chat with Jeremy revealing the challenges inherent in my twisted sense of business acumen that I’d like to share with you. We were discussing the selection of a “niche” in marketing.

The psychic core that has you dashing from one thing to another and not sticking with a conscious, constructive plan that could give you the support your brilliance needs. I have a few people like this, and I number myself among them. I was “saved” by getting married at 43 and having two kids – I HAD TO STICK TO SOMETHING. Three other people depended upon me. It seems to me that is the core issue you face – do you agree? Do you have another take? I think that would serve many readers…

Yes, I have another “take.” “Following the tried and true” is a common admonition that hasn’t worked for me.
The drive is obviously in me, because why would I continue to be so dedicated to writing? Writing about subjective experience is tricky; it wasn’t my natural talent. Can I turn my writing skill into a money-making form? Either I need to invent a new form, (such as a Skype workshop series?) or marry some of my skills into a new form that combines what I already have done with A.T. as experimental principles. I’ll have to think about that one. What do I already do as naturally as breathing? (Off the cuff, I’m best at generating ideas designing experiments via telephone workshops.)
My best role model in the A.T. World would be Roy Palmer. His “niche” is “writing e-books about AT in sports.” Roy has defined a large, free ranging area of his interest and continues to publish e-books for each area. Each book is supported by a unique website and other marketing activities that are all similar for every book he publishes.
I have plenty of possible money-making projects that show potential that would support the appearance of students who want to learn A.T. But I just don’t finish them. From Barbara Sher’s advice, I’ve realized perhaps my problem has been a lack of a “buddy” to support and keep me on track.
Anyway – our society is made of specialists who are “known for” what they do. I don’t fit that model because I’m a generalist. I’m an innovator-journalist. Specialization is a fad.

Yeah, because it [niche specialization] works!

True. But I’ve tried to fit into that “specialist” mold in my life. It doesn’t supply fulfilment. Attempting to cram yourself into a mold will result in the you or the mold breaking. I’ve already experienced the break.

I’ve trained for more than one job that involved a lifestyle template that I wasn’t able to tolerate. Yet, the training model and activities themselves were exactly perfect.
Even the energy required to complete teacher-training for A.T. wasn’t sustainable for me – I financially crashed and burned right in the middle of my A.T. Training. Someone my age at that time would have had parents come to their rescue; I didn’t. If it wasn’t for Marj Barstow offering me the trade of writing for her in exchange for her teaching me, I wouldn’t have been able to finish my teacher training.

You can’t do what you don’t know if you keep on doing what you do know!

Except I’ve been there, done that. It was unsustainable for me. In a sense, specialization for me is short-term “end-gaining.” I guess that’s not the case completely. I specialize in my mural sign painting on windows without suffering, because it’s seasonal.

We all have the capacity to over-ride our essential nature in the service of …what? For you it was the needs of your family that convinced you to change. As I said, me having more money is just not enough to convince me to change that nature in myself.  Maybe wanting to communicate the benefit of my experience is – so I’ve been doing that directly. The complication is that people won’t recognize the value of my experience – unless I make them pay for it.

Jeremy, you suggested a mentor – who has knowledge of a similar sort of person who I’m trying to reach. Let’s say my “perfect students” are those multi-talented older women. Barbara Sher sells to this same crowd. I’ll use her “Wish-Obstacle” format.
Wish: To inspire the desire for a need for what I offer that nobody knows they need. Obstacle: people have no frame of reference for what it is I’m able to offer them – how do they get this?
I’ve asked her directly. Barbara Sher said, “Tell a story to show the context.”  Would story-telling work in place of hands-on, which offers context?

I have a strange idea. Perhaps the answer for me is merely to teach Alexander Technique at cost. I haven’t tried that yet. I’d be willing to see where it leads me. If I’m resisting making money in some way – what is the harm in “give in” to that urge to share what I have to offer at cost? There is no A.T. Teacher who will suffer from me giving inexpensive classes, because I am the only teacher who is teaching on the Big Island right now.Wish: to communicate by using my talent for rapport. Obstacle: lack of respect. People don’t pay attention when a teacher makes learning easy, because the student is not making enough of a [monetary] sacrifice. Your answer?

My continuing interest in writing about A.T. merely comes from believing in A.T. effectiveness and wanting to communicate it. I guess I must ask myself, “Is writing about A.T. without getting paid and having a couple of students a month satisfying enough for it to be all I ever do?”