Coordinating

Jul 04, 2014

By Lauren Hollasch



2 Years
into my journey as a BodyTalk practitioner and enthusiast, I decided it's time.  I'm going to bring BodyTalk Access to my small community, way up in the boonies of northern Alberta.  I've been discussing my passion of BodyTalk to everyone - family, coworkers, customers, and really, anyone willing to listen.  I feel that I've generated enough interest and laid the groundwork for people to want to know even more.  So I call up my beloved instructor Allison Bachmeier from Saskatoon, and she's willing to make the journey if I can get enough students for the Access course to run.  Not that I thought it would be soooo easy, but I was not concerned.  I talk to strangers for a living at the local health food store, and I used to be a hairdresser, so talking to strangers is kind of my thing.  Coordinating was going to be easy,  and it was.  I think that every person has their own opportunities to learn something from within the realm of organizing a course.  My most valuable lesson was hidden behind the obvious tasks of coordinating. I discovered that I was, in fact, sneakily sabotaging my BodyTalk business.  How you might ask?  Here's how coordinating a course changed everything.

How many of us BodyTalkers say, "I want more clients!", or "I want to make more money at this!", or "I am trying to promote myself!".  Are you?  Do you? Do you really?  Before coordinating, my answer would have been a resounding "yes!"  I probably would have even been somewhat defensive and scoff at the idea that on some level I actually didn't want that.  And so I was shown a realization that is the best kind; a self-realization.
As I printed the BodyTalk Access flyers, I was feeling an electric enthusiasm.  People can finally experience BodyTalk by an amazing Instructor whom I hold in extremely high regard.  Now, I don't know if it's because she was my first (you know how we all feel about our firsts), but I trust this woman with every fiber of my being.  She has been supporting me and so many others, and there is an admiration I have for her.  Because of my adoration of her, I was inspired and motivated to get this course to run!! People need to meet her!  I brainstormed and made lists:  Lists of people, lists of stores, lists of towns, lists of other peoples' "people" lists.  I gassed up and set out, flyers in hand, brochures and business cards in the other.  I was ready!

I was pleasantly surprised at how long my stops were at each store.  I would hand them the flyer, and each time they would say," What is BodyTalk?  So I would give them the BodyTalk basics and then give them a brochure, as well as my business card, and invite them if they were curious to get a session with me.  I finished everywhere I wanted to go in my town and set out for the next town.  It wasn't until the end of that day of going store to store that I realized  I've never done this for myself.

I have never done this for myself. Wow!  Even what I am doing for myself right now is piggybacking off of me promoting someone else.  Cue record scratch.  I am literally putting someone else's worth above my own.  I believe more in Allison, and her impact on people, than I do in myself.  Crap.  BreakThrough moment, without all the crying though.  I cannot explain how liberating it was to realize this.  I need to value myself and what I have to offer people through BodyTalk.  No one BodyTalker is better than the other, just different.  And all this time, on some level, I was comparing myself to my mentor.  No wonder I never went out and promoted myself in the area.  It's not like I didn't have the confidence to blather on to strangers all day.  I literally did not think I was "the best" yet.  Better keep waiting, right?  So silly now; just different.  I need to keep reminding myself of this.  It's also interesting to see that I never once sat down with myself, for myself, and made a list of contacts to promote myself.  I left my cards and brochures at the front of the health food store, figuring that surely, this is good enough.  Constantly fantasizing about having clients to fill full days of work, and of course, make some money while doing my passion.  Why is it not happening?  What am I doing wrong?  Better question:  What am I doing right? Answer to both: Nothing.  In that moment I have never felt so honoured to take responsibility of my sabotaging behaviour.  Because now, I can consciously take action to rectify it.  Without coordinating, I don't know that I would have had the opportunity to realize that. For me, it acted like a catalyst.

The course almost went through the first time.  At first I felt disappointed that the fruits of my labor left me hungry.  But then I realized, this just gives me another opportunity to work through this, to not give up!  And so, the course did run the next time, and I felt amazing!  What was also interesting is I learned another angle.  As we sat in class, Allison asked each person to share their experience and how they got here.  I felt caught off guard, for each person credited me for their journey towards BodyTalk.  In retrospect, it makes sense, but up until that point, I thought only instructors could have that effect on people.  Again, undervaluing myself.  All the while, unknowingly contributing to other peoples' firsts.  And so, the student became the teacher.  Sort of.  Ok not really.  But it felt like it at that moment! 

What I'm trying to say is that coordinating bore me more fruit than I ever could have imagined.  All that I ever needed to know about myself and my relationship to my BodyTalk business lay hidden in coordinating a course.  And I'm sure the next time I coordinate a course, even more layers will be uncovered.  I urge and compel anyone who has thought or felt similar things to be vulnerable enough to discover for yourself, what hidden breakthroughs lay ahead, waiting for you, in the honor of coordinating a course.

Lauren Hollasch, CBP
Bonnyville , AB Canada


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