What it is, is: they want to _know_ how, not learn how. A certain kind of person hopes for benefits without effort. I suspect this is a person who has never received any real benefit from work, from putting out effort, so they don’t see effort as worthwhile.

You are doing nearly everything right, here, as far as I can see. The only addition I would make is to feature this blog more prominently on your main blog.

For myself, all I can say is that I knew I needed something from you the moment I heard about you from Molly Gordon. And once I found your store, I knew the Shiva Nata was what I needed. I’m sorry only that your profit is merely $5. I’ll send you a flower, soon.

Amazingly enough, I get the impression that even if you put in huge neon letters all over the site in the middle of the page “BUY THE STARTER KIT HERE” at least one person would email you to say “How do I start?”

Because for some people, there’s a kind of cut off between clicking the button and finding out for themselves and emailing you. I see it as similar to the people who ask you about things you’ve mentioned rather than clicking on the link you helpfully inserted into the blog post. Or people who say “what’s….” on Twitter to me when the obvious thing to do is GOOGLE IT.

This is a private frustration for me too, mostly because, given the fact that “Amnar” pops up in conversation along with the words “writer” and “I am” and “my books are called” you wouldn’t believe the number of people who say “Oh… what’s you book called?”

I therefore suggest we tattoo the instructions upon our foreheads. At which point people will say “What’s that tattooed to your forehead?”

There is, in short, no way to win.

Love,

J xx

P.S. This also reminded me of the students I used to teach at university who, having been given all of the information they needed to pass their degree, said they couldn’t find the library. “It’s the whopping great building at the very centre of the square with LIBRARY written on it.”

Joely Blacks last blog post..Letters for small spaces

Frankly, by the time I’d realied “oh there’s a kit I can buy” I was wondering if it was all a big advertising lead up to some hugely expensive deal… you know, the kind where they keep you waiting ages and ages before you get to click on “buy” and you don’t know the price until you click and then you have a heart attack? Thankfully it didn’t turn out like that, and yes I ordered it, but, hey, give the newbies a break, eh?

I would have liked an FAQ with the straightforward info first, and maybe all the feelings stuff (which I quite understand) afterwards?

Anyway, I’m glad there’s a kit, and I’m sorry this is all so frustrating, but not all of us have read other pages of yours (yet).

PS you said you did no marketing at all – but maybe you should?!

Best,
D
x

Oh and I agree it sounds like there’s a non-starter kit too.

The other day I was trying something new – listening to the numbers. But I couldn’t remember both numbers, only the one for the left hand. So I got the idea to focus only on my left hand movements and let the right one do whatever it thought was right. (Yes, the right hand ended up in some creative places.) But you have given me such freedom to play with my brain and my learning process. Thank you. Thank you.

That guy that complained – don’t let him get to you. You’ve done a great job. Thank you (have I said that yet).

Love, Meredith

As far as I can see, you’ve done a superlative job. I’m a technophobe and had no problem figuring out how to order the Starter Kit to start practicing the Dance of Shiva, which I am finding fascinating. I’ve tried some spirals while I’m walking with my dogs. Luckily we live in the woods and no one can see me.

If you are getting this irksome question about once a month, then here’s my take on it in freeform: For a certain percentage of the public, it is easier to ask a question than to look around for 5 seconds and find the answer in front of their eyes. Or maybe they are attempting to make contact with someone they want in their lives. Or they “push” when the door says “pull”; they drive and talk on their cell phones.

Who knows, but if I were in your position, I’d use this as a trigger. Go do something totally fun every time this question pops up (before or after you send them something that points to the site for buying the Starter Kit, like, “perhaps you didn’t see this …)

Have fun with your brother. I’m lucky enough to have my family close by to see them regularly and know that’s lucky.

Chow baby, (yeah, I know that’s not the Italian spelling, because that’s not what I mean)
ct

“I want to learn Dance of Shiva — what do I do?”

They might mean ‘HOW do I do WHAT?’ but you want to 1) approve; 2) instruct; 3) incite.

The quizzer wants approval for wanting to learn; you’re GREAT at that.

The quizzer needs instructions on “what do I do?” — lay it out short and direct:
“Buy my kit, that’s what you do, duh.”

Or, the more informative:

“it’s possible to learn alone from a book, or with a teacher, but I’ve put my decades of experience into a kit that will get your started having epiphanies in as little as 10 minutes a day — just buy my easy Starter Kit by clicking here.”

The quizzer needs to get excited enough to act now. Some info they may need for this emotional call-to-action:

The extensive value of the many pieces (facts),
the sensory experience they can expect from the first time they use the kit (emotion),
the discounted-because-it’s-a-gift-for-now price that must go up in [deadline] (offers fact, value and urgency) — all three gems of marketing will help excite/incite your quizzer to action to “click-and-own.”

Tell them that there’s a few downloads to review while the kit ships — instant gratification, yay!

Tell them that your labor-of-love gift-to-the-world pricing is getting brought up to normal value (I personally didn’t realize it was a product of your own making; I thought it was a collection of other, existing products that you just bundled), and that you’ll both feel better about it if they take your personal gift to them (the discount) now.

And for goodness-sake, put the “learn the dance” stuff and epiphanies graphic up right under your face in the right sidebar. It’s more important than SEARCH or CATEGORIES.

Apologies for the long post or bossy tone.
I didn’t have any idea of your feelings in all this, and I’ve been wanting the kit for months. I DID know what it was and where to get it and how to buy it, etc. Your FluentSelf site is real clear on all that. (I bet if you had a Non-icky-self-promo client who had an obscure lesson kit for sale you could tell her all this yourself!)

Good post, glad you got it out.

I’m not one of the folks cluttering up your email inbox, but I was about to be. Timing, timing! It seems that here is a better fit now.

I’ve been obsessively poking around here for about two weeks now, considering picking up the starter kit for a whole host of reasons. Increased coordination? Great! Better reaction time? Also very nice. Waking myself out of a couple of life ruts? BOY HOWDY, sign me up!

So why haven’t I just gone for it? A lack of knowledge about Shiva Nata (and, actually, yoga in general) combined with my experience in martial arts.

Here’s the thing: within the martial arts (mainly Kung Fu in my case), virtually everything is cumulative — build a good foundation in a stance, learn individual hand formations and movements and integrate, integrate, integrate. This makes having someone right there that understands what’s “right” incredibly important, so you can catch mistakes early on before they become ingrained habit.

Which makes learning from a DVD kinda scary.

I know not everyone’s got crossed wires between combat-based martial arts and Shiva Nata. I know you yourself got started with little more than a single class and notes and a mirror. And, really, I know most of my unease would be overcome by a somewhat backhanded reassurance: that if I’m doing something utterly, utterly wrong, I’m going to know, it’s going to be totally my fault, and I’ll be able to work at on my own.

Wow, there’s a ramble. The short version: I want the limiting factor to be me, not that I’d be learning a DVD.

So, there’s that. I think I actually just convinced myself to place an order by writing my concerns and realizing that I could guess most of your answers, but maybe there’s something you can distill out for your eventual FAQ.

And if you know of any teachers down here in the Dallas metro area, I’d love to know.

And also, could just be me, but “Starter Kit” implies there’s something bigger, cooler, badder assed available. (Should that be bad asser? More bad ass?) Anyway, sometimes when I want to start something, I want to jump in full-on. I don’t want to start in pre-school, I want to go straight to University. I don’t want the “Starter” kit, I want the complete kick ass program.

Despite that paragraph, I’m really about more than the ass.

Now, I knew they knew what their homework was. I made sure they could repeat back to me what I expected them to do. These kids weren’t goofy in the head. (Well, not extraordinarily so…)

So what were they asking? They wanted to know how to make an “A” without doing the work. They wanted to be able to do something simpler than what was assigned, get “extra credit” for it, and have the “extra credit” make up what they chose not to do of the “harder” work I’d assigned.

I think a lot of us are that way. I know I am. I’m always looking for the easiest, laziest way to do things.

Anything worthwhile, though, is not easy. And therein lies part of the virtue.

I’m totally saving up to get the starter kit. I can tell in your blog that you have a peace and an unstuckness that I want. I look forward to learning.

Justins last blog post..Class and style