Imagine yourself having just finished leading a successful workshop…
There were wonderful, engaged participants who are eager to recommend you to others…and who want to work with you again…
You gained a deeper, more delicious understanding of your own work…
And you made a nice profit.
Sounds great, right?
And you know that Turn Your Wisdom Into Workshops (which starts TOMORROW) will give you all the tools, insights and straight-from-the-trenches information to succeed, whether you’re a beginner or an experienced pro.
So what’s holding you back?
(I tried to write this in such a way as to be useful to you whether you’re consider my class or not. Let me know what you think. Is it fun? Meaningful? Annoying? Too woo? Helpful?)
1) You feel like now’s not a good time. You wish this were happening in a few months.
Practical Answer: Yes. Opportunity is often inconvenient. But if you get into it and decide it’s really not working, just let me know within 30 days and I’ll cheerfully refund your tuition. No worries.
Spiritual Growth Answer: This opportunity has presented itself to you now because now is the right moment for you. You don’t have to feel ready. You don’t have to feel confident. You don’t even have to know where all this is going. I have faith in you. The Divine Spirit has faith in you. Your future students have faith in you. The moment to step out in faith is now.
Try This Perspective: I answer the call, knowing that everything is unfolding in perfect time.
2) You don’t feel like you’re really an “expert.”
Practical Answer: Actually, I bet you kind of are. I’ve been leading workshops of all sizes & shapes for over 30 years, and in my experience, most of what makes a great teacher great is life experience, empathy and a unique perspective on the material.
Spiritual Growth Answer: You don’t need to a special certification to be able to help people. And you never have to pretend you know more than you do. You know what you know. That’s sufficient: you know what you know.
Try This Perspective:I know what I know, and I’m learning more every day.
3) You kind of hate the idea of promoting yourself.
Practical Answer: Oh, honey, we all do – especially at the beginning. But it gets a lot easier and more joyful with the support and simple guidelines provided in the class.
Spiritual Growth Answer: You may feel like it’s not really safe for you to be VISIBLE. Or that you already take up too much space. Or that you mustn’t impose on people. But you are ready to move past the point where you let old stories and fear make the decisions for you. Self-promotion may be uncomfortable at first, but if you really want to help people, it’s well worth it.
Try This Perspective:I am ready to stand tall in my truth and share my voice with the people who need to hear it.
4) You really don’t know how much to charge.
Practical Answer: It’s tricky, right? Charge too much and you might turn people off, charge too little and it’s not worth your time. I’ll give you some great suggestions and formulas for figuring out the perfect price point.
Spiritual Growth Answer: Remember that buying and selling is a sacred exchange of energy. Just like other sacred exchanges of energy (a hug, for example, or sex) it requires strong intention, mutual respect and an honoring of the other. As a teacher, you have an opportunity to re-shape your relationship with money. Nothing overcomes an old story like a new experience.
Try This Perspective:Creativity is abundant, clients are abundant, money is abundant. I rejoice in the easy flow of money, energy and time.
5) You’re not sure exactly what you’d teach…or if anyone would be interested in it.
Practical Answer: We cover that in the class, so you’ll have total clarity and focus.
Spiritual Growth Answer: Staying in the “I don’t know” or “I’m still figuring it out” stage for too long is a form of hiding out. It also shows traces of insidious perfectionism.
Try This Perspective:I open up to new information and to my intuition, knowing I am on the right path.
6) I don’t know if I should teach online or in person.
Practical Answer: Both are good. You might want to teach in person if you live in a big city, like being up in front of a group, and if you’re teaching something where you need hands-on access to their physical bodies. You might want to consider teaching online if you want to reach a global community, if you like the “green” aspect of no one having to drive anywhere, and you are OK learning some tech stuff. And certainly you can do both. (I do.) Either way, you’ll get total clarity on this during the class.
Spiritual Answer: Allowing yourself to stay in a state of indecision is keeping your foot on the neck of your talent.
Try This Perspective:It’s safe for me to decide. I can always choose again.
7) I don’t have the money.
Practical Answer: You can get started for just $187. That’s six bucks a day. If you can learn enough to get 10 people to pay you $49 for a one-day workshop, you’ve earned back your investment. And you can do that over and over again.
Spiritual Answer: You always have the money you need to do the things that are truly important to you. And in my experience, the minute you take action, the resources appear. (You’ve had that, too, right? You decide to do something that you really want and then almost immediately, the exact amount you need shows up. Happens all the time.)
Try This Perspective:I take inspired action and welcome in the miracles.
Whatever you decide to do, I hope that you feel clean, clear and fabulous about it.
You could probably predict most of the questions I get asked about creating great workshops:
– How to even get started? (Especially when I’m already so busy!)
– How to figure out how much info is enough? Or if it’s too much?
– How to attract the ideal participants, who will actually show up & pay up?
– How much to charge?
– How to decide which platforms are best for marketing and delivery?
And if you enroll in Turn Your Wisdom Into Workshops, you will ABSOLUTELY get the answers to those questions and a ton more that you haven’t even thought of yet (like…what do you do if someone wants a refund? What do you do when the tech goes on the fritz? How do you collect testimonials? Is it better to teach in person or online? etc.)
But there is one question that only one brave soul wrote in:
“What if no one shows up?”
And I think it is that question that keeps smart, creative people like you from sharing your wisdom.
It’s a plaintive question.
As a child, I actually had one of those birthday parties where no one came. My babysitter and I just sat at the kitchen table with a cake I had made myself, decorated with a sunburst. (It was the ’70s – everything was decorated with a sunburst.) Finally I took myself up to my room and re-read Little House on the Prairie for the thousandth time.
No one wants to visit those feelings of rejection, sorrow and dashed hopes.
But when I started offering workshops, I had to face those feelings square on.
And so will you.
What a wonderful opportunity for spiritual growth!
You will find that the question, “What if no one shows up?” leads directly to some other interesting questions like:
What ifeveryone shows up?
What if you don’t show up?
What if you do show up?
What if you show up 100% more than you ever have before?
(Oh, look! It’s another wonderful opportunity for spiritual growth!)
And I bet that if you show up, the right amount of perfect other people will, too.
Finally, just to be super-practical about it, even IF no one shows up (and it totally happens – I myself once offered a workshop that got zero enrollment and man, was that a wonderful opportunity for spiritual growth : ) you will still benefit.
Because once you start creating a great workshop, you have AUTOMATICALLY created the framework for:
your book
your signature talk
a high-level coaching program
a “train-the-trainers” certification or licensing program
a compelling lead magnet
media opportunities
a tribe
And it might ALSO cause you to get your sh*t together around:
organizing your contacts
getting new business cards
updating your website
figuring out how Facebook ads work
putting you back in touch with people (it’s amazing who turns up when you start promoting a workshop – I’ve got several former clients and students enrolled in Turn Your Wisdom Into Workshops and I’m so excited to see what they’re up to)
There’s nothing like a nice, big, scary project like creating a workshop to get you to face your demons, stare down your fears and bust right through your procrastination.
Plus you get to share your wisdom, have some fun and make some good money.
I’ve spent all day emailing out answers the questions that you all submitted in answer to “The question I have about creating a great workshop is…”
And by far the most popular question was: How do I get people to show up? How do I market it?
It’s a great question.
Perhaps THE question.
And…I can’t really answer you.
Because there are different answers depending on your content, target market and personal goals.
It’s some combination of being crystal clear about your ideal client and the transformation they are seeking, and making sure that your title, pricing, images, and marketing materials are consistent with that. But it’s also got to match your personal vibe, and of course the timing and delivery need to be just right.
And, if I can say this without sounding too self-serving: get some support.
Frankly, putting together a workshop that is both meaningful and profitable is both complex and complicated.
Complex, in that it has many moving parts, but most of them can be broken down into steps and accomplished with a bit of good information from a reliable source and old-fashioned elbow grease. That’s the “practical” part that’s fairly easy for me to teach. (And I’m doing 3 “Sam Explains the Technology” bonus calls to walk you through the nitty-gritty stuff about platforms.)
Complicated, in that it involves humans, and all of our wackadoodle human behavior. So we need to harness your imagination, your insights, your intuition and your plain good sense to create something that’s never been done before. That’s the “creative” part that requires a bit of a leap of faith on your part, but is also the most fun.
So it’s a lot of moving parts, and it’s a bit scary and mostly exhilarating and it’s exactly the reason I created the Turn Your Wisdom Into Workshops course that starts next week, and I’d love to work with you.