Your GRADUATION Story
Having meticulously documented that I could grow a year's supply of food on a 35'x40' plot in an enjoyable hour a day of gardening, I wanted to teach a course about how to do it. I had started with the usual content-only approach when Sonia Ricotti, who was teaching a course my wife was taking, sent her a link to Marisa's three webinars on EPM. Watching those, I could see that this was a far likelier route to success than the usual one, so I signed up, even though it was a financial stretch. Since I had already done a lot of thinking and planning on this course, it was mainly a matter of adapting my plans to Marisa's fabulously comprehensive instruction on how do it in a way that I never would have accomplished on my own. All I had to do was view the videos, do the assignments, and overcome lingering doubts and fears to complete the journey. Which I did, with the result that I had signed up my first three customers by January 28 by chatter-boxing only a few friends.
Your FIRST SALE Story
My first sale was to two friends (married) who I thought would be interested in my overall goal of not just teaching a self-sufficiency gardening course, but embarking on a mission to establish a national garden food system as an alternative to the enormously inefficient and destructive industrial food system. This 25-minute Power Point presentation was also my intended introductory lesson of the course I wanted to teach. Lo and behold, they were so inspired they declared on the spot that they wanted to take the course, which surprised me. So instead of taking 50 chats to get that first sale (actually first two), it took just one. Several more potential customers are currently in process, so I expect to get to 5 or 6 (my limit) by the course launch date of Feb 15.
Your PROVED MY IDEA Story
Yes, three sales proves my idea on a minute scale, but the real proof will come when I've sold the course to 50 people (my goal for the Spring 2025 iteration), which I'll be working on as I learn from teaching nine months of the Zoom and field course this year. (The 2025 course will be all online.) Then to hundreds, thousands, and eventually millions in order to realize my vision of establishing that garden food system, which basically I've been working on for the last 60 years or so.
Your MADE A WHOLE LOT MORE Story
I haven't yet reached the whole lot more status on the scale you're referring to, as I'm just starting the course. But when I do get to it, my WHOLE LOT MORE, as I alluded to above, will be much bigger: selling the course (or future iterations thereof) to a large proportion of the population, my overall goal being to galvanize 60% of the U.S. and world food supply by gardens, by 2050 or sooner. Mark my words, I will do it. The time is right, as there is currently considerable interest in food gardens, and the need is great, as a series of national and global food shocks loom on the ever-closer horizon, which industrial food has zero chance of being able to handle. By contrast, I've shown that self sufficiency gardens are effective and feasible from the individual to massive scales. LYM's Momentum program appears to be a good way to move forward once I get this version of the course solidly on its feet.
Changing my mindset from that of an academic to that of a business-minded person. I honestly don't see how I could have successfully moved from where I was to implementing my vision without EPM. I would have floundered for years, I'm sure. Marisa's course came along at absolutely the right time. Presto! Magic! After having taught at the college level for 37 years, I can now see that the future of effective teaching is far more of the EPM style and far less of the "sage on the stage" style that I used. As I mentioned above, the path is now open to getting the word out to those who need it on a very practical level. This is the next giant step to getting where I want to go.