W05.06 Case Studies: Christie Johnson in Southwest Riverside County, California. Part Two

Today finishes the case study of Christine Johnston – who has great things in store for America is she decides to harness her brilliance with laser focus on the transformation of Occupational Therapy (OT) and even Physical Therapy (PT). Or so I think. You will all have to wait a week to find out what Christine thinks. Meanwhile, I carry on exploring the questions that need answers to bring this vision into reality…

Christine Johnson

Step 6 – Write Your Story

So what keeps an Occupational Therapist awake at night? What will hook them into exploring Alexander's discoveries with Christie? This is the first thing to figure out.

Next is Christie’s story – the tale of how she arrived where she is that resonates with those in her new niche. It is a tale that should build empathy with the reader, that lets them live vicariously through Christie’s experience. Her writing is eloquent, thoughtful and easy to read: what she needs now is solid, psychological profiling.

Step 7 – Build Your List

Christie writes: “My students have found me through their own on-line searches related to their own needs and through referrals from current or past students.”

I don’t know the full details, but given her financial concerns my guess is that she has no power in her marketing yet. So what is her Unique Selling Distinction or Proposition (USP)? I hope she doesn’t think it is: “Freeing your Form, Function & Flow…”

To build her list this she needs an impactful statement that doesn’t need any time to figure out what it means. (What is my ‘flow’ that needs freeing?) This is the invitation for people to go into relationship with her. What can that be?

Step 8 – Invent a Back-End Business

Christie writes: “I should be reaching people and educating them from a model that is more accepted on the front end and use the Alexander Technique as my back-end.”

That’s not a front-end / back-end business model, that’s a nightmare. That means running two front-end businesses at the same time. If she pursues this line of thinking, my guess is that in 5 years Christie is going to start feeling the same kind of exhaustion that she is already questioning now! No – don’t do that.

Instead – your back-end business will be a niched Alexander Technique Teacher Training School for OT, PT and any other XT’s you think would benefit. There is a whole passionate bevvy of OT & PT practitioners who will jump on board Christie’s “evolution” once they taste the extraordinary benefits of Alexander's discoveries.

Step 9 – Undoing The Stories That Bind You

Christie does not really go deep and personal as other teachers have in this series – and that may be a quirk in her personality, or she may really be that well adjusted. No shadows to talk about after dark? If it is the latter, then she has every reason to use her life to do great things. I face huge challenges all the time, not because I am neurotic (although I am that too) but because I ask my Self to do extraordinary things. I think Christine has all the elements there to be great – maybe that is what she is not acknowledging as clearly as she could?

The greater the aim, the bigger the challenge, the more difficulties and problems you face, the better you come to know who you truly are.

Step 10 – Launch Your Marketing & Sales Funnel

Start by building an OT website that will house the USP, story and pitch that Christie works out when she starts to write. Set up a series of auto-responders, offering an “ethical bribe” to encourage people to sign up. Given the national nature of her audience, her funnel could well end at a membership site with a monthly subscription that delivers regular, niche specific, processes with download, mp3, worksheets etc. Christie may be able to deliver her back-end business by starting a monthly subscription. People in established professions are used to paying a significant monthly investment in their ongoing education.

Step 11 – Become a Authority/Celebrity

Christie is already on her way to establishing her authority in the OT world, but it needs to be clearly harnessed with Alexander Technique, the BMJ study, a few people in white coats hanging around her website, and convincing written materials, conference appearances, guest teaching at well know OT training centers and her book. When will you start working on that Christie?

Step 12 – Find Partner, Make Deals

Christie’s an absolute whiz at networking and deal making – she obviously enjoys it – but now she needs to find partners with a linked identity, so that they all feed into each other to create momentum and mass in her business. Before her deal-making looked something like this:

“With collaborations I have worked with Yoga Centers, Music Centers, Horse Riding Facilities, Mommy and Me Centers, Local Colleges for Community outreach classes as well as part of curriculum as a visiting instructor for theater classes.  I have also given workshops at various locations to Chronic Pain groups, Better Breathing Groups, Veterans and Grief Support Groups and even Bipolar/Schizophrenia groups per invitations. “

Wow. This girl knows how to insert herself! So focus that amazing ability and energy into a unified vision that will take more than your life time to achieve. If Christie finds this all a little overwhelming, she can talk with BodyChance. I am interested in partnering with teachers who have a clear mission, a money plan, but need working capital, infrastructure support and business advice.

TOMORROW: Guest Post From Eleni Vosniadou in Reply to My Case Study

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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 Christine Johnson to go ahead? It is nothing of the kind. It’s intended to demonstrate a way of thinking, not a set of proscriptions. My intention with these case studies is to find another way of presenting the same ideas in a different light.