further musings on a present future
thinking out loud about my business
hello, blessings to all our relations
may the great un-story un-fold as is naturally liberated and always whole
I wanted to ramble a bit transparently, for a few reasons:
I think that the strange addiction to confidence, certainty and slick marketing polish has led America and much of the western world to put its “trust” in con-artists and abusers, “strongmen” and “father figures”, in order to feel “safe”. However, life, time and nature are always cyclical, becoming, in-process, non-linear and not progressive in any way shape or form.
To build so-called community requires something resembling trust… but trust in what exactly? This is one of the big questions, and it relates to the “upstream of behavior issue” — neurobiology, mental illness, narcissism and addiction. Mostly, I want to practice together, and I want to make art, and to do that I need to survive capitalism, which means I have to put on the mantle of teacher, leader, educator or some otherwise trustworthy figurehead in order to sell my services so that I can prove my worth in an economy that is based on slavery, manufactured precarity and disposability.
I personally value transparency, reflection, critical inquiry and emotional/mental/physical/psychic regulation. I appreciate people who model that, and who speak directly to the devil’s bargain of the market, the parasocial toxicity of "fans”, and the propensity for people to “cultify” things.
So, what I am chewing on?
In looking at the market, which is to say, other teachers and educators who offer similar services to me, I have noticed a few trends that seem to “work” in the current era. The following are digital/virtual offers.
A. First are ongoing group containers. These often include some kind of weekly check ins, with pre-recorded workshops, and a platform folks can talk to each other in, etc. The basic low-end price for these containers is about $100-150usd monthly. The cost for the platforms and associated technology begins at about $100/mo for each platform/service/tool. This is by far the easiest and most sustainable low-cost option for everyone. It attempts to build a sustainable base by which the service provider/teacher can rely on. Stability, Constancy, Regularity. While it does not provide the high-ticket windfall of a premium “launch”, it also does not require the energetic spike and crash of a launch.
B. Next are drop-in one-off online workshops. These are generally $100 for a 4-hour online event and usually have some kind of access to the recording, either short term or lifetime.
C. Third is 1-on-1 coaching and the people I see sustaining themselves on this are charging thousands of dollars per month with an application process. These are marketed towards affluent people who can afford this level of intimacy, time and attention.
All of these tend to cater to a need in people to achieve some combination of the following three ideals. These are from a high-end coach named Rich Litvin whom i read but am slightly disgusted by. I say this because i am not trying to steal his work, and i have deep reservations about the worldview he operates from, but i find it useful to expose myself to various ghost ideologies while my consciousness is here in the dream called 2024 America.
1. To increase their income
2. To increase their influence
3. To increase their impact
Your secret job is to help them increase their inner peace. But don't try to sell this because they don't yet know they need it!
Okay, so… how weird is this. Anyway, it’s useful as a kind of bizarre mirror into the narcissistic hubris of the modern middle or upper-class person-consumer-self-development junkie.
I am still chewing on what it is I actually provide to people based on these 3 slash 4 items. I’ll stop now before I let in more ghosts.
Going Back to the types of online offerings:
I would like to be able to offer all 3, which is usually part of the ecosystem that successful online educators and coaches are doing.
However, I am highly skeptical of what the audience can actually value & reciprocate.
This has always been the main issue for me, an audience base whose financials, attention and dedication are fragile due to various co-factors. This means I need to protect myself from being harmed by my audience, while following my level of spoons and my internal compass for joy.
Going with what works for me, I am leaning towards a monthly group container (A.) that is focused on a number of pre-requisite skills such as dream yoga, divination, emotional and nervous system regulation, meditation, sleep, artmaking, etc. This would be like “level 2” whereas “level 1” is my premium tier on the substack which I will still be doing. This “level 2” will be more like a basic practice community with dialog circles, “homework assignments”, practice times etc. It is closer to indigenous models of learning with a higher requirement for dedication but also a recognition that people will self-manage their own participation.
If this goes forward, an option is that then material that I generate can be packaged and edited on the back end towards VOD products that people could buy without any longer-term commitments.
However, creating and launching closed courses/series is not in my future. I hate it, I hate what it does to the nervous system, and I hate how groups splinter and disperse after each “event”. I did that the first 5 years of the business and it doesn’t work. I will likely only do these one-offs in small 3-4 hour formats (B.).
That may look like free/discounted access to members of level 2, with tickets people can buy for specific workshops. Or it may look like something else. IDK
(If you are overwhelmed by the level of complexity here, try being an entrepreneur where the details are head spinning. I’m letting you in to what reality is like in this survivor’s economy.)
To summarize/solemnize
I need to run my business as close to indigenous models of sanity as possible. This means relationality and praxis first, products second. Integrity, dignity & process first. As close to nature as possible given the situation the earth is in.
I am not close to announcing anything, but I am closER than I was a few weeks ago. If I can generate more income, I can afford to see my doctors more often before the massive climate crises wipe out more than half the current population. etc etc
(I’m under no illusion I can be cured or saved, but i don’t feel like i’ve quite done the job(S) i was signed up to do in this bardo realm.)
I don’t like making choices based on fear, stress, scarcity, poverty and precarity, but I also cannot totally choose not to. So, I need to model this for myself as much as anyone else. The deep consideration as to what to do next and why.
Consider the word consider: from Latin considerare "to look at closely, observe," probably literally "to observe the stars," from assimilated form of com "with, together" (see con-) + sidus (genitive sideris) "heavenly body, star, constellation" (see sidereal).
Perhaps a metaphor from navigation, or perhaps reflecting Roman obsession with divination by astrology. Compare desire (v.), from Latin desiderare "long for, wish for; demand, expect," the original sense perhaps being "await what the stars will bring."
I’m posting this as much for my own integration as anything else, because I think that art and commerce are essentially both ritual actions that either resolve or generate karma.
Ta for now. You know how to reach me for natal and divination sessions. I require all clients (past, present & future) to go through daoist polesar natal sessions before moving onto other types of coaching.
appreciate the look under the hood. these are tricksy puzzles during this ghostathon.
That all makes a lot of sense.