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The way Alua Arthur assists thousands of students re-discover the meaning of death

Apr 1, 2023

Alua's unique founder's tale began with a trip on a bus in Cuba. Shortly after being diagnosed with depression that was clinical , and having to quit her legal profession, Alua found herself sitting beside a person who was suffering from cancer that was terminally affecting the Uterus. It was quite a shock to learn the outcome during the course of the conversation between them. The conversation between their lives would impact the direction of her life completely.

"I have asked her a myriad of questions about death -- the sort of questions you'd be reluctant to ask someone you don't know, however she was open and willing to my questions. We discussed for hours what she was scared of her death, the things she was unable to endure being left behind, as well as her hopes for what she would have made different in her past," Alua recalls.

"Coming off of this discussion, I kept wondering why I hadn't engaged with my partner with meaningful discussions about death during my 34 years of living. The more I thought about it the more I felt like"I'm taking action to address that.'"

Following her return from an excursion to the United States, Alua threw herself into trying to find ways to aid people through the preparations for their death. Being a lawyer, she knew that she wouldn't be going involved in social work or medicine. Although psychology wasn't exactly what she wanted to do but she was able to discern the message to enroll in a psychology course that was and was centered around the spiritual as well as death. However, shortly after her completion, her brother at-law was diagnosed as terminally ill.

"I could have supported his last two years of his life. I was there every day of the week -- lying on the couch, or on the floor , taking a nap and running errands. I also picked patients up from hospitals that were receiving medications as well as doing the research that was required" she says.

"I found myself feeling more and more frustrated because there was no one I could contact who had these questions to our questions, or, at the very least, someone who wasn't part of the circle of our friends who acknowledged and validated the difficulties was going through might become. In those times I felt certain that, if I didn't have the answer then I'd need to find the decision myself."

This realization was the catalyst for Moving with Grace Funeral, a funeral doula's education and the end-of-life planning organization that aims to improve and redefine the concept of death by using the individual experiences as the base.

Alua has accepted over 1,800 students to her "End of Life Program", has amassed more than 15,000 readers to her email newsletter. She has earned $2.5 million in sales. Here's how she accomplished this feat.

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     Her personal experience into her company's mission    

Since the beginning, Alua has been intentional in allowing Going With Grace to originate from her personal experience. It is her belief that regardless of the many people who try to differentiate those who are personal from professional they are both the same.

"How you conduct yourself in your home environment will reflect on your behavior in your professional life. This has always been an individual goal I set out to fix what I struggled with during the last stage in my own life. Moving with Grace was born out from the fact that ."

Her personal experiences have enabled her to stand through the footsteps of her customers with an unmistakable manner. She understood all of their needs prior to even seeing her product.

"The end-of-life process is extremely lonely. My primary goal was to make sure people don't feel alone while struggling with their issues. It's enough to be difficult, even with one of the most skilled doctors and also an excellent support system- it's crushing ."

She continues: "The mission of Going with Grace is to help individuals answer "What should I do in order in order to feel at content with myself to live my life as I am now and can pass in peace? No matter what one's response is, we support them -Sometimes it's about healing their relationships , or facing their fear of death. Sometimes they are looking for the goals that they would like to live by. That's our focus ."

The message she sent was consistent with her organic, personalized messaging

When she was trying to translate her own unique voice into a strategy for marketing, Alua stuck to her home base. She built her online presence with one purpose in mind that is to provide a platform to allow people to speak about the topic of death and grieving with real authenticity.

"When I realized that this type of space was not available and I wanted to facilitate it as I knew there was someone else seeking this. There could be a chance that it is the one in a million however, surely someone had gone through something like my experiences," she says.

"As result of my process of thinking, my marketing was born in a natural way, and this is the reason why people connected with it so deeply."

Yet Alua realized that her own messages can only go so long as they were coherent.

"When something is sparked in someone's mind, it's something worth remembering. The magnitude of that spark doesn't depend on you however it's up to you to fan the fire. If you keep passionately and honestly discussing the same topics, in time you'll see them come back to ."

     At the time of her first rollout Alua was in a position to recognize how important it was to have authentic and genuine persona. She was initially not aware of how she appeared within the media, but by finding her voice, and then establishing the voice she was able to level up her credibility and marketability.

"One essential aspect of marketing and branding is being authentic. My personality isn't gentle and slack-talking human being, but people commonly assume that we must whisper and tiptoe around matters of death and dying. Being unapologetic about my own me, I drew attention to my community ."

The first time she posted videos, Alua started posting one-minute videos on social networks that were based on her personal experiences and her mission statement and the course online she was starting to develop. Prior to this, Alua had pre-sold 57 subscriptions before she had even began to create the course. In addition the list of her email customers that was 400 strong increased exponentially.

"I was thinking that maybe 10 people could sign up. In that moment I realized that I was the one who had committed this ."

She clarified her course outline using a practical method

Once she knew the audience she wanted to attract, Alua started to wrap her mind around the daunting task of creating her very first online course titled "The The Art of Dying'. Similar to many course developers, she formed a skeletal framework that she built modules in modules.

"It was extremely helpful to consider the various blocks of information that my students might require throughout the course. I'd say to myself "Here's the basic. This is the next step. If we're here, what are we going to need to achieve our goals What do we need to learn?" It is important to keep the end goal of the class before dividing the lesson into pieces that can be broken down into bite-sized pieces," she explains.

The structure eventually came into existence into a practical way. It was when Alua was able to cut the curriculum into three basic sections. The first segment lays the foundation of 'What do funeral doulas really accomplish? What are the responsibilities of medical professionals? What are the indicators of death? Why do that we must be aware of the death of our family members? The next segment focuses on the fundamental aspects of death , along with funeral home procedures as well as funeral rituals, legacies, and memorials. In the final section, it brings all these components in a way that is practical.

     Alua has developed a variety of classes based on this model, all with the completion rate of 76% , with an overall score in the range of 4.9 stars. The model she has developed would have been possible without .

" is the one thing that really brought my dreams into existence. At the beginning I looked around in search of an online platform for learning, but there was no way to make it accessible or simple enough. I'm an analog girl I'm not certain what to do with changing the phone's ringtone, however it was easy, yet extremely effective. This is how we came to the point we are now." she says.

She integrated her real voice in her classes.

Alongside introducing this efficient course structure, Alua has been intentional regarding allowing her individual way of life to inform the online courses she offers.

"I share a variety of tales about clients I've worked with, in order for my students to get to know more about my practice live. It's very easy for me to speak directly to cameras, and I'm not adamant about keeping my personal life in dark," she says.

"I consider that the online courses I teach could be beautiful snapshots at the present moment in my career as well as my personal identity as a human being. I released 'The Art Of Dying' in 2018, and in four years, I could be an entirely different person than the one I was in the moment. When designing my classes I strive to keep from limiting myself to what I feel at this moment and also letting go of holding in the hope of what the next may hold. ."

She prioritized community when she was attempting to diversify her income streams

Alua has also placed great importance on celebrating community in and out of her course. By leveraging the power of study groups, she's capable of naturally expanding her revenue streams.

"One important things about our courses is the fact we have all our materials on the internet. We also offer regularly scheduled group studies in which participants discuss topics on Zoom in real-time. The students can think through their discussion questions that not only keep them engaged however, it also helps to build an even stronger feeling of community. Students become close to their peers, they build friendships. I've made the place allow them to do the things they would do anyway ."

She continues: "I'm simply following the breadcrumbs to the areas that they're already in. For example one of my students was engaged not long ago, and seven of their online class were present. For me, this is the real power of the work we do. ."

Alongside her online schooling, Alua has created various communities-based initiatives that support her business model.

"Another important part of our income stream is our Death Doula Den -- It's a private community where members get together to talk about the death process and dying. Additionally, we host distinct Zoom calls where we talk about "hot topics" as well as provide assistance to help in some way" she adds.

"Ultimately we have communities for people who seek solutions, and communities seeking to learn what it takes to be able to help others."

She was able to overcome the most fundamental obstacle creators face

When looking at Going With Grace's accomplishments at this point, Alua is very transparent about her struggles to overcome various obstacles during her journey as a creative -- and yet, these challenges have made her stronger on a both a personal and professional level.

"The largest leap I've made was pressing"Publish "Publish" button in my very first class. My heart broke as I hit the button. My only thought of was"Oh the horrors of what have I done? What are the things I think that I are? What is the reason for me to make a decision like this? ?'"

In a few years later, Alua has a few tips she'd say to herself:

"The ideal thing to do is silence the voices that say, "It's impossible. "You're not enough. You're not worth it. It's impossible to know how you're doing.' Don't think about it and keep moving forward because someone around the globe will need what you provide. Take the leap It's probably not going to be flawless and is likely to result in an extremely messy and embarrassing look back on in a several years. It's better than absolutely nothing. ."

Are you inspired by Alua's tale of the success of a business online offering online training courses? Do you want to try this yourself? Sign up for the class and start today.

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