Ok, as promised: Getting The Most From Your Method: A Free Training On How To Promote Your Practice And Ideas.
The super-short pre-training worksheet (only one page) can be downloaded by clicking here (pdf).
Once you have taken a few moments to consider the ideas on the worksheet and perhaps write a few lines about where you are heading with the work, please watch the short video below, leave a comment and we will begin! The second phase of the free training will begin as soon as I get enough answers from people from the question in the video. Probably in 2-3 days. To your and our success! - Ryan
Update: Video 2 and Worksheet #2 are now available
Set Yourself Up For Success: Marketing Your Method.
I need to be clear about the public I want to reach. One part of me wants to be busy with creativity and working with voice. Another part wants to help people with physical and emotional suffering.
One part wants to come out with what I do, another is afraid of the consequences : like having to have a self employed status and a accountant etc…
I realize the first thing I should do is be aware of, and clear out all these inconscious blocks. Thanks for pushing me to some thinking. I know all this but I don’t take the time to reflect and do something about it. I can help other people with this kind of things !!
1) having been working for 18 years as a Physical Therapist Assistant, in a variety of settings such as Stroke, Spinal Cord, Orthopedic Rehab, Chronic Pain, etc., and with a much varied age population I find myself being pulled in many directions and with a great deal of excitement as I approach graduation from ABM training this coming June. Narrowing down my interests is in much need but to name two big ones:
Stroke Rehabilitation and Gait Improvement after Total Knee/Hip Arthroplasty are big in my hart.
I also feel a great need for increasing awareness of the new science of pain, and not that I’m big on research (in fact I think a lot of times it serves us not that well) but that is a conversation I’d like to start, linking the new understanding of pain with the possibilities offered by a mindful movement approach. I would like to develop my writting skills in order to reach a bigger and more global audience via the internet, workshops, lectures and the like. I’m very much into finding/seeing the connections between seemingly disparate fields and bringing them to surface as working material
2) What would keep me going in the prescence of failure? My understanding and experience of many, maaaaaaany past failures and mistakes. Maybe even making a subject for coaching others on the value of failure and the removal of the fear of it.
Interesting question which I could use a couple few days to answer.
I’m kind of answering these rather quickly due to time constarins but it’s a start…
And thank you Ryan for taking such enthusiastic and prompt action!!! : )
Hi Catherine,
Thanks for your response! I still feel afraid and anxious sometimes when I do new projects and try new things. In fact, about 2 hours after publishing the post and page above, I saw that no one had commented nor joined my new list and I start to feel anxious and sad, thinking that I had made a mistake and should not have offered this free training….
At this point, I just feel the fear and keep going. I thank the fear and anxiety, take note of it and keep moving….
I just wanted to share that so that you know that it is normal and manageable to have these responses.
As far your two main interests and motivations:
Is there one that you would be willing to start with now? One that you are ready to take some small action towards?
I essentitally HAVE to do Feldenkrais projects from time-to-time, like this free training. Because if I do not, I feel like my soul is dying. But – I enjoy my psychotherapy conferences and they make a bit more money, so I do those too….
I hope that helps a bit.
cheers!
Ryan
Hi Mauricio,
I did not realize that you had a background as a PT assistant. That can be a great advantage as you know the “lingo” and what people want and need and are willing to pay for to re-habilitate themselves.
Any of those would be a great place to start. You can develop blog posts, free content, paid content, workshops etc and market the hell out of them. You could even think about reaching a national and international audience…
You mention “raising awareness”:
Now for a bit of tough love. We are here to talk about business, financial independence, building a practice, gaining income and students and reaching more people. Raising awareness is not really a business outcome. If it is not directly related to jump starting your practice, than skip it for now. Or put a bit of energy into it to feed your soul and keep the possibility alive.
Just my two cents for now
cheers!
Ryan
I’m a nurse and also have degrees in Music, which I am not using at this point. I have had some physical challenges this past year and have also moved to a new place, New York. I’m still a trainee, in my 3rd year. This week I visited a local senior center and a rehab facility in my neighborhood, and have done follow up letters and phone calls. I need to do more of this in my neighborhood. I really need to just get more practice teaching going, so hope to get classes going as a volunteer. I will start a part time job at the Veteran’s Administration Hospital in the Bronx in early March and am on their list (a long one) to do volunteer teaching there. As a visiting nurse, I’m used to working with the elderly and chronically ill, for whom chronic pain and depression are very real issues. I think Feldenkrais could help them tremendously, in ways I really don’t see home Physical Therapy doing.
For today, the next doable thing is I guess more followup phone calls to other neighborhood facilities and arranging more practice time with other Feldies around here.
Long-term I’m trying to learn Spanish – have taken two immersion weekends and today signed on for a Spanish for Health Care Providers class. I have a vague dream of working someplace possibly outside of the US in Cuba or Mexico, creating a Creative Arts/Feldenkrais retreat or rehab facility. My neighborhood, my building even, is mostly Spanish-speaking so the usefulness of the language work is unquestionable.
Barriers to getting the Feldenkrais work to everybody – especially poorer and older people – is a real issue for me. There was a recent article about how nurses’ aides are in the most dangerous profession in the country, with a high rate of debilitating injuries related to heavy work…work truck drivers and warehouse workers are forbidden to do in the workplace, but healthcare is such a mess in this country that the aides absorb tremendous abuse. They could really use what Feldenkrais has to offer. So could the disabled Vets on fixed incomes, etc…
I guess the only thing to do is to begin doing the classes as best I can. I won’t reach that community on-line I don’t think. Spanish-speaking Feldenkrais teachers seem few and far between here.
I don’t need to save the world and only see the indigent, and I have a lot of education and can speak to anyone with confidence, so there must be a balance I can find.
Thanks so much for this forum Ryan. It has helped me already.
Your two cents well taken and agreed upon! : )
Hi Terrie – Thanks for that. The Spanish speaking community is tremendously underserved and much, much more can be done. Ditto for the other communities that you mentioned.
Your idea about teaching as a volunteer is fantastic. Teaching at residential drug rehab center was a VERY important part of my development as a teacher. I got to teach 12 hours of ATM per week (!!!) for several months and see the dramatic impact that the work can have and got to develop my own style and see my potency as a teacher. I bet it can do the same thing for you. If that what it takes, why not!
Here in Mexico where I live, it is relatively easy to start a retreat center (marketing is another matter but it is do able) and there is plenty of cheap land and buildings if you stay away from the places that are heavily touristic.
The online market for Spanish speaking ATM’s and such may be smaller (as you suggested). This is mainly because many people are not yet used to paying for stuff online with credit cards. But more and more people are doing so.
Thanks for taking the time to write.
You will pick your next step and then go do it?
cheers!
Ryan
Hi all – here are the comments from the previous blog posts in case you missed them:
http://www.ryannagy.com/2015/do-this-for-feldenkrais-folks/#comments
http://www.ryannagy.com/2015/free-training-getting-what-you-want-from-feldenkrais/#comments
Hi Ryan,
Thanks so much for doing this training. I realize I have a lot of tools at this point but have not found my tribe. I’m really interested in sharing and teaching folks who are interested in self improvement and personal growth whether that is recovering from injury, improving performance, or they are just curious on how to develop a more fulfilling or stress free life. My studies of Feldenkrais, meditation, and tai chi, etc has open up a world of possibilities, interest, and fulfillment for me. I feel like I was sleep through life before in black and white and as my awareness increase things are now on color and in high definition. I want to share and give others the same opportunity for self discovery but really could use help in making that vision a reality. I tend to meet people who are interested in being fixed or intellectually curious about what I do but not necessary dedicated or active towards reaching their desired goals. I hope your training can give me a better insight on how to attract more people that are interested in playing an active role in what I refer to their journey whether it’s performance improvement, injury recovery, Etc.
Hi Ryan,
As others have said, thank you for putting this together. I am hoping to channel the many ideas I have into a plan which is sustainable, creating enough challenge to keep interested and learning, with enough time off to savor well-earned rests.
My primary need is income. I have many technical skills from developing software professionally for 17 years making information systems with databases and web front-ends. I create audio and video recordings and edit them. I could offer these services to members of the community, but then I’m again doing technical work. My juice is in being in the felt sense.
I enjoy creating new ATMs, currently using household items like balls and bracelets similar to how Ruthy Alon uses wraps and chairs. I had an idea to create a 30-day Feldenkrais experience of an ATM-a-day based on my personal practice. I can record, edit and publish them. I don’t know the appropriate fees to charge, how to entice people to register, if it’s too much, too soon for me and what expectations they may have which I’m to move towards.
I created LibraryOfLearning.com in hopes of building a place where new and senior practitioners alike could contribute their ATMs. The Internet opens having written discussions, suggesting similar lessons, and earning income through subscriptions or paying per recording. I’ve hit several walls within the Australian community regarding the willingness to add content, legal questions about ownership of material, fear around listeners making copies and the accounting of international sales and paying contributors.
Another key skill needed is being fair in negotiations, and in that is being fair to myself as a person with health needs, an artist with a desire to create and collaborator wanting to share and learn from others (peers and subscribers).
I’m teaching Auslan-interpreted classes–Australian Sign Language–with a professional interpreter and would like to see that project lead to traveling the country, raising awareness that deaf could be pretty darn good at working with their hands should they choose. http://moveEasier.com.au/FeldInAuslan.
This sounds like a lot, and I don’t expect 40% to be addressed completely. I see this online experience as a step along the way towards contributing to society in a meaningful way that would be wonderful to add to the global knowledgebase while providing a reasonable living.
Cheers
Brent
Thanks for your response. It’s good to hear again that the best way to learn to teach ATMs is to teach ATMs. I currently have an underdeveloped Facebook page and no website. I guess I should think about working on those and people say blogs are also good. The more multi-pronged the outreach the more time-consuming for me it becomes so I am wary of all this. Maybe once you get things going it becomes a more natural and reasonable commitment. For the moment, I’m going to pick up that ancient artifact called the phone book and look up rehab/nursing homes near me!
Ryan, thanks again for setting this up—very much looking forward to the training. I have a couple main goals and ideas at this point. First, I want to be able to hit the ground running with a private practice once I’m done with my training. I will probably be moving across the country shortly after I’m done with training, so I’ll be starting from scratch to an extent in terms of building a client base. Second, I’d love to build a platform or hub for practitioners and fans of Feldenkrais and related modalities, where there can be a kind of “meeting of the minds.” I’m also interested in producing and selling audio ATMs. All of these ideas are meant to dovetail, so to speak, though exactly how is something I still have to figure out 🙂
Hi Ray, that all sounds fantastic. If you develop a blor or website with enough content and “google juice” it is something that can travel with you. That is one reason that I moved everything to ryannagy.com, it gives me a home base and helps people keep track of me. And (drum roll) I did get more than a few clients when I came to Mexico. They were referrals from people reading my blog. I am certain that you can do the same.
cheers!
Ryan
Thanks Brent! We have talked a bit via email….I am taking notes on all that you want to get done. cheers! – Ryan
Ryan – Given your response to Mauricio about raising awareness, I’m not sure this training is for me, but I do want to connect with people teaching the Feldenkrais method. Along with Mauricio, I’m finishing my Anat Baniel Method training this June. I’m a retired physician and epidemiologist. I love doing the work and look forward to learning more as I teach ATM classes and do FI. But I’m not really concerned about building my practice – I don’t need the income, first of all, and secondly, I’m convinced it will happen. I already have two ATM series planned, one in a highly visible location that will give me a lot of publicity. This just happened – I was asked to give the classes. My big goal and dream is to be actively involved in bringing the work to the world. I have lots of ideas for that, which I won’t go into here. What I could get from the workshop is help in starting a blog.
As far as how I would react if things don’t go well… My expectation is that things may often not go well in the beginning. I’m just learning. I need experience managing classes, and experience with the hands on work. I expect that if I just keep going, things will go better, but there will always be times when things don’t go right, and there will always be people I can’t help. I think it’s important to look at obvious causes though – were things organized properly, was the space right, did I provide students with enough information so that their expectations were realistic. Again, I’m fortunate to have luxury of not having to rely on my practice for income.
Hi Deborah, that paints a great picture! Though you do not need the income, it looks like you are making strides in teaching the work and getting it out there. Fantastic. My point about awareness was simply that it is important to give people experiences of the work via classes, individual workshops (or products) and that can be a different animal than writing articles and blogs posts and such. I do both. But ultimately from an income and “change someone’s life” perspective, I think engaging in the work is most important. And that looks like what you are doing and planning.
I spent many years doing podcasts, writing blog post and helping make people aware of the work and research about the work. That was great. But for me to build the life and lifestyle that I wanted I had to think about creating products and workshops that people wanted FIRST. And the rest just followed naturally.
Anyway, you are obviously highly-accomplished and doing great stuff. Thanks for sharing it.
P.S. I will be putting up some info on how to create a blog.
Hi Terrie, I agree that we have to be careful about spending too much time on this stuff, otherwise we turn into web programmers and not Feldenkrais practitioners.
A simple blog/website with a FB page is usually sufficient. And to be clear the FB is mainly so that you can do cheap, targetted advertising and reach people who want to know more about you and the work that you do. (more on that later).
cheers!
Ryan
Hi Derrick, I remember replying to you, but I do not see it. I must have gotten caught in my own SPAM filter!!
I like your comment about finding your tribe. That seems to be a big part of what we need. It sounds like you have a compelling personal story. Blogging and writing about that while you blog and write about specific goals that your tribe has might be the ticket. Show them that you are real and that you know about and care about what they want.
More to come!
Ryan
Hi Brent,
I am re-reading this in preparation for making the final prep to do another video in the training and I want to add that I think this is very, very cool:
If you can give people Feldenkrais experiences in the home, that are fun, it I bet it would resonate deeply.
And in regards to practitioners worry about selling online ie.
I do not know if anyone “steals” my mp3’s but I do not think it matters. As long as our sales go up, and we are reaching more people then everyone wins. I specifically give transcripts of nearly all my sessions because I want people to use them and create their own workshops and such. The Feldenkrais Method WANTS to be shared. (I bet that sounds familiar to you).
cheers!
Am looking to work with sports. Have been teaching classes and doing FI work for years and am running round lots. Would be nice to settle down and work in one place and maybe do just one or two classes/FIs too.