Your Graduation Story
With my background in circus, improvisation, and storytelling, I've always tried to make my coaching and business practices playful, experiential, and highly engaged. I trained in Lean Startup, and later joined Ed Dale's mentorship in applying this experimental, iterative approach with a light, fun attitude.
So I was a perfect fit for Marisa's approach. I joined EPM at the moment that I was going to start doing customer interviews and testing my market, so I felt I was about a month away from really knowing my market and validating my course idea. I wanted the momentum and implementation of EPM, but ideally starting a month later!
However I plunged in because I was fairly sure I had a good course idea, and enjoyed the sense of progress. I was hoping I could run my customer interviews in parallel with doing EPM, to get full clarity and validation of my plans, but EPM was just too intense. I was surprised at the sheer length of all the trainings, and they took a lot of my time just to work through.
I was really pleased that a lot of the worksheets were much better paced than other business development training I've tried to follow. The practical and psychological stages were well thought out and didn't leave me stuck or bogged down. And the group coaching gave me some much-needed confirmation of where I was on the right track.
In the end I hit a patch of poor health for the whole of January, which was highly frustrating as I saw my deadlines slipping away. I had high hopes before that, that I would be swept along on the group momentum to actually launch on-time - something that I've never come close to. But I had already got close enough to launching my marketing campaign that it all felt real and imminent, and most of my key preparations and decisions were all organised and ready to use. So I was able to keep my motivation going, and resume once my energy returned.
I now have a clear plan and all the pieces I need, and feel I can reach out to the world and conduct an enormously fun experiment that will attract all the right people. I'm confident that out of that will burst a blossoming business - even if I have to adjust and experiment a little more in the coming months.
So, thank you Marisa for being a light-hearted, confidence-giving, motivating mentor! You've lit my way and pulled me along delightfully. Put the kettle on - I'll be there shortly.
PS. Unfortunately that won't be at Message to Money - no money yet to travel to the USA. I'm sure it will be fun, but I probably need to stay focused on the immediate results rather than doing more planning yet!
What is your biggest takeaway from EPM?
I've always taught in a highly experiential and playful way, and used the power of storytelling. But EPM has shown me how to integrate my key methods into a coherent and proven approach that uses them across every aspect of marketing, communication, and delivery.
How did EPM help you become successful?
It was a whole business incubator with a group momentum, so I could feel urgency over a long enough period to get things done, with it still feeling fun and doable.
How has EPM and your success impacted your life?
I've broken through a tendency to plan, reflect on, and balloon my ideas into endless planning stages, and I've managed to commit to key decisions about the Milestones etc. EPM has got me far closer to launching than I have in years of wanting to. I'm now confident that I will do a pilot launch in the next month or so, and that I'll be able to iterate to a profitable and fulfilling business very soon.
What has been the biggest change in your business?
I haven't launched yet, so the changes are all in hitting practical stages of thorough preparedness and getting close enough to launching that I'm still motivated to push ahead to a deadline.
What are you most excited about moving forward with your Experience Product?
Finally getting a lucrative and satisfying business that will use my talents to the full and spread my impact, while living out my values of playfully doing business human-to-human.