W07.06 Case Studies: Annie Turner in Redruth, Conwell UK. Part Two

Yesterday, I wondered about Annie’s motivation to inject financial steroids into the muscles of her current career, but I assumed she is at least willing to consider that. So I began mapping out a strategy based on her current “Live Your Truth” Service Product, which will involve her in lots of challenging activities which can only further support revealing her true desire…

Annie Turner

Step 7 – Write Your Story

In Annie’s case, it’s write your book. So Annie - put that vociferous pen of yours to work and start expressing your whole self. You wrote that you have started to write a book – but do you have the residential in Cornwall as the obvious outcome for anyone who reads the book? That has to be the message it gets across. You need to know that before you start writing it.

Here’s another way I suggest you all can do this: launch an online blogging course. Annie’s “Live Your Truth” can be illuminated over a period of time by her blog, helping you to develop your Service Product. I am doing a similar thing now, and finding it a great discipline to write.

No-one has to come to start, but you do need to investigate ways you can market your blog online. It’s your new location – not Cornwall, but the world is full of the people you want to attract. One online resource you could tap for this is Dereck Halpin – who offers lots of valuable information about how to build a successful blog following.

Step 8 – Invent a Back-End Business

This really requires that you nail down your USP (Unique Sales Proposition). “Live Your Truth” is not really a USP. You liked “Back pain is a mental problem” so start working with that theme: physical pain is connected to psychology.

I am not sure what is out there – Wilhelm Reich was one of the first to lay claim this niche – so it may take a long time get to any clarity about this. That’s why I say just start blogging – find out what pops out. You have no idea how much information is stored in your unconscious. Once you start to write, it will all pour out. Then slowly, a pattern will begin emerging. Your USP will start appearing to you…

Step 9 – Undoing The Stories That Bind You

How many “I can not” are ringing in your ears now? I can’t imagine what it must be like. No wait! Yes, I can. So can Véronique Druesne, who has scripted a beautiful piece of writing for tomorrow’s guest blog which will speak to you deeply. She is undoing years of these “I can not” and is already realizing new successes in her small world of Cork. You two might make a great support team – there’s a lot you have in common.

Step 10 – Launch Your Marketing & Sales Funnel

Check out the online course that Steve Harrison offers with Jack Canfield. It’s on my list to do when I get the opportunity. The course itself sells for about $2,000, but the link I gave you will put you in a sales funnel with a generous series of videos that offer genuinely helpful information, even if you decide against the course (which is orientated for Americans). One side of the process is to produce content, the other side of the process is to see how you can match that content to a viable market. You need to pursue both strategies simultaneously. So do any of you out there who want to write more.

The worst that can happen is that your current Service Product “Live Your Truth” will get way better. Blog your book, like I am doing here, and you can use the time to gather together a group of interested people.

Step 11 – Become a Authority/Celebrity

Steve Harrison’s online course mentioned above also describes how you can monetize your book celebrity/authority by creating a membership site to dispense your wisdom to those who choose to join the monthly plan. I am no an expert at this, but right now I am working with a web design company to build a membership site for BodyChance. I plan to incorporate this concept into our business model as another revenue stream.

In fact, we have got into the business of selling online information – our Internet Books Course has just passed 100 enrolments, and it’s basic function has been to fund the cost of translating Alexander’s works in Japanese – a gigantean undertaking. Initially, we only wanted to enroll our students and graduate teachers, but in 2014 we plan to launch the books course for the public as part of our online information service. It’s win, and win again, as we generate revenue while simultaneously marketing our Basic and Pro leaning programs to whole new online audience, and improving our Service Product in the process!

So I am ahead of you in this Annie – but not by much. I am here to tell you it is doable, and with you living in Cornwall, this is a realistic model for your future financial health. Sure, we are talking years of development, but what other plans do you have?

Alexander is industrial.

Step 12 – Find Partner, Make Deals

Here’s a “mini-project” I encourage as a warm-up: launch your Self as a local identity. Or are you already? Have you been featured in the Western Morning News yet?

If so, there is always another level you can reach. Start collecting and reading as many local papers, magazines, newsletters etc. as you can. Once you are familiar, go personally visit the Editors and offer to them an article which blends in with the content they already have. They will be delighted – it is the bane of these community efforts to keep finding worthwhile and relevant content. Make sure you read Véronique’s guest post tomorrow – she is doing just this. People are now stopping her in the street.

Start finding the NPO’s, church and community groups that you can talk to. Give your “Living Your Truth” talk in a way that speaks to them; then offer a booklet, collect emails, build your list.

It may not give you much of a kick in lessons immediately (and then it might) but that’s not the point. In the longer term you are establishing local celebrity status, and that will benefit you. This is your trial run for national celebrity and the emotional challenges it poses are a way to gauge if this is truly the life for you?

It’s also possible, with a few tweaks and adjustments, that you are OK the way you are.

TOMORROW: Véronique Druesne writes about the ups and downs of her new career…

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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 Annie Turner to go ahead? It is nothing of the kind. It’s intended to demonstrate a way of thinking, not a set of proscriptions, even when they read as proscriptions! My true intention with these case studies is to provoke you into finding another way to think about your Alexander Technique Teacher career.