W11.06 Case Studies: Victoria Stanham in Uruguay, South America. Part Two

Yesterday I was excited that Montevideo, capital of Montevideo, is one of those markets that has not been touched for very long by Alexander Technique. Places like these offer wonderful opportunities that places like New York, London and Sydney got over a long time ago. With 3.5 million people to pull on, it’s a market that needs investment and time, but a rich business could be built. Rich enough for me to wonder if BodyChance can invest in helping Victoria build a Front-end/Back-end business. It’s something I want to do, so from today I will keep describing how this can be done by you…

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Victoria Stanham

Step 7 – Write Your Story

Victoria writes: “I have endless collections of notes on the AT and my thoughts about it, but I haven't yet started a blog or published anything.” That’s a great start. Now start organizing them in a blog.

Why do I keep going on about this? In my business model, you need words. You need intelligent, often simplified, explanations that reflect who you are, and create value in your the Service Product you are building. By asking your Self to articulate your Service Product - you are in the process of creating it! Sure it presents challenges - when did anything worth doing not?

For Victoria, the other side to this is that she start reviewing her notes and figure out angles or headlines for different ideas that she could present to Editors, local websites, radio & TV stations that would pique their interest and get her publicity.

Step 8 – Invent a Back-End Business

What is Victoria’s mission? What does she want to accomplish?

Mariana diPaula already has a school for teachers in Montevideo, and I am guessing this is where Victoria was educated. So starting a school now only makes sense if Victoria has an alternative vision for the work. If not that, then what?

She can develop a different business models and one immediate step I encourage is ramping up the commitment of students who want to study with her. In Sydney back in 1984 when I was still working at SATS (Sydney Alexander Technique Teaching Associates), my sister heard of how Alexander demanded that people book a minimum of 30 lessons, 20 of them every week day. Being then only a newly graduated teacher, she decided to do the same with 20 lessons. 10 over two week, the final 10 over three to five weeks.

Everyone at SATS thought she was insane: “No-one will agree to that. Especially with us teaching here offering lessons whenever they want them.” She didn’t care and went ahead. Guess what? It worked. I started copying her!

People said “Well, I can’t do that right now, but I will arrange things so I can next month.” And next month they came. She was busier than all of us, and her students made much deeper and faster progress.

My point? Victoria can step outside what her colleagues are doing and build an entirely new system if she wishes. I present 7 different models to work from during the week on Front-end/Back-end businesses.

Start there, and let that wonderful creative mind lead you to an answer…

Step 9 – Undoing The Stories That Bind You

Why is it that the creative types are often the most neurotic, starting with me?

Victoria writes: “On a personal level, I find it frustrating that I am slow to take action because of fear of failure and rejection (I'm working on my beliefs about that), and end up with lots of wonderful ideas that never come to fruition.”

I get it. One explanation is that creative people have an ability to imagine both dreams and nightmares. They are both pictures of the future, neither of them are real. The ones to be concerned about are those that sap the joy from living, disempower action. Sometimes nightmares are useful, like driving a car on an icy road. Fear has a function to keep us awake to what we are doing, so if we tend to doze off, this is a good thing.

I also noticed that creative types get mad if they don’t act on all their ideas - but this is impossible. I suggest Victoria start giving her Self a reality check, and just note down what she is already accomplishing each day. She could be surprised.

Step 10 – Launch Your Marketing & Sales Funnel

This goes back to my question in Step 8. I suggest Victoria think about this, and put together a proposal for my next online course where I will choose 36 plans to review and suggest on “Building A Real Business.”

Just making a real plan - only on paper for now - is worth doing to give form to her ideas. Pick the psychologists, and map it out using my 9 steps. I will be writing more about this in the final week of this course. For example - what is a back-en course for the Psychologists? Enhanced Alexander Technique in their practises?

Step 11 – Become a Authority/Celebrity

This one is important, and needs working into the “story” of Victoria right from the start. Is there an epic journey? Girl suffers this, overcomes that. In terms of psychologists and their backs - does Victoria have her own story of redemption?

Step 12 – Find Partners, Make Deals

What if BodyChance did invest in Victoria, just saying. What does that look like? From us you get your business plan, the systems, the strategy, the ongoing coaching advice, financial support - but Victoria is the star. The business revolves around her. Can she picture a plan compelling enough to make her Self a celebrity in her own Alexander Technique business career?

If that is what she wants, if that is what you want, you need a plan. Without a plan - how can you even begin? Next week I will be talking about the next step in this process we are - getting more serious about actually doing this.

Can you write a plan? Start thinking about that. It’s time.

TOMORROW: Kimberly Peterson writes her reply to my Case Study of last week.

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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 Victoria Stanham 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 understand the same ideas.