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The Way Alua Arthur Helps Thousands of Students Rethink Death

Mar 28, 2023

Alua Aruthur's unconventional founder journey started when she boarded a bus in Cuba. Shortly after being diagnosed with depression clinical and ending her legal career, Alua found herself sitting alongside a passenger with a terminal cancer of the uterus. Little did she know that the exchange that took place between them would change the course of her life for ever.

"I have asked her a myriad of questions on death- the type of questions you would never inquire of a stranger, yet she was so honest with me. We discussed for hours what she feared, what she didn't want to leave behind, and what she wished she would have done differently during her lifetime," Alua recalls.

"Coming off the conversation, I kept thinking about why I had not engaged with my partner in meaningful conversations regarding death during my 34 years of existence. The more I considered it, the more I thought"I'd like to do something about the issue.'"

When she returned in America, upon returning home to United States, Alua threw herself into trying to find ways of helping people through their end-of-life transition. Being a lawyer her mother knew she didn't want to go to social work or medicine. While psychology was not exactly what she wanted to do, she decoded the need to go into a psychology program that focused on death and spirituality. However, shortly after her graduation she discovered that her father-in-law got terminally ill.

"I am able to help his last two months of his life. I was there day in, day out -- lying on the couch, resting on the floor doing errands, taking patients up from hospitals taking medications and doing some the necessary research" she continues.

"I found myself feeling more and more frustrated because there wasn't somebody I could call that would have these answers for us or even someone who wasn't part of our network of friends who would acknowledge and validate how difficult what we're experiencing could be. In those moments, I decided that, if I didn't have it, I'd have to create it."

The realization sowed the seeds for the idea of Going With Grace the funeral doula education and end-of-life planning company that seeks to improve and redefine the end-of-life experience using individual experiences as the basis.

Alua is now admitted over 1,800 people to her 'End of Life Education program', and has gathered nearly 15,000 new subscribers to her newsletter and earned $2.5 million in sales. Here's how she did it.

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She turned her own experience into her company's mission

Since the beginning, Alua has been intentional regarding making it possible for Going With Grace to originate from a personal place. Her belief is that, despite there are many who try to differentiate the personal and professional from each other both are one and one.

"How you show up at home is going to reflect the way you present yourself on the job. This has always been a very personal goal that I set out to fix what I faced during my final stages of my life. Going With Grace was born out from this place. ."

Alua's personal experience has allowed her to step into the shoes of her customers with a distinct wayshe knew all their requirements before they discovered her service.

"The dying process can be so isolated. The main goal was to make people feel alone while they work through their struggles. It's hard enough, even when you've got top doctors and an excellent support system- it's crushing ."

The author continues: "The mission of Going with Grace is helping people to answer the question 'What must I do in order to feel at peace with myself so that I can live my life today and live my life with grace? No matter what the answer of a person is, we support them -often it's about healing relationships, sometimes it's about discussing their fear of dying, and sometimes, it's about seeking out the values that they want to live with. We're focusing on that ."

Her message was consistent with her natural, personal messages

When it was time to translate her unique message into a marketing campaign, Alua stuck to her home base. Alua created her website with one goal in mind that was to give permission for others to talk about funerals and loss in an authentic way.

"When I saw that this kind of space wasn't there and I wanted to facilitate it because I was convinced that someone else was searching for it. Perhaps it was one of a million but surely, somebody had experienced something similar to me," she says.

"As the result of my idea, my marketing happened really organically, and I think it's the reason people connected with the message so strongly."

However, Alua discovered that her organic messages could only go as far without consistent messaging.

"When there is an igniting of something inside someone's soul, that's some thing. The magnitude of the spark doesn't depend on the person who ignited it, but it's your responsibility to ignite the fire. If you continue to be passionate and authentically discussing similar topics, in time they'll come around ."

  During her initial rollout, Alua also came to understand the significance of having an authentic personal brand. At first, she wasn't conscious of her image in the public eye, but by focusing on her voice, she was able to level up her credibility and credibility.

"One of the most important elements in branding and marketing is staying true to who you are. I'm not gentle, slack-talking human being. Yet, people frequently believe that we have to be quiet and avoid about the dying and death. Being unapologetic about my own self I was able to attract my peers ."

The first time she did this, Alua started posting one-minute videos on social media sites that included her own personal experiences, her mission statement, and the online course she was beginning to create. In the blink of an eye, Alua had pre-sold 57 subscriptions prior to having began to create the course. In addition but her list of 400 email addresses started growing exponentially.

"I honestly believed 10 people would sign up. That was the moment I realized that I had to commit to the following ."

She outlined the course's structure with a practical approach

Once she had established her target audience, Alua started to wrap her head around the difficult task of creating her very first course online entitled 'The Art Of Dying'. Similar to many course creators she created a basic framework that she developed each module.

"It was extremely helpful to think about the information blocks that my students would require at various points during the course. I'd say that to myself: "Here's the foundation. This is the next step. If we're going here What do we require to do in order to reach our goal What do we need to know?" I'd always think about the goal of the course in mind, and then break down the modules into chunks that are bite-sized," she explains.

This framework eventually took form in an actionable way -It was then Alua could cut the course into three core parts. The first segment lays the basis of "What do death doulas perform? What is the role of medical professionals? What are signs of dying? What is the reason we should bring attention to the death of our loved ones? The second section focuses on traditional funeral care as well as funeral home operations and the funeral rituals and legacies. Finally, the third section integrates all of these elements into action.

  Alua has developed a variety of classes using this model, all with completion rates of 76% and overall ratings of 4.9 stars. Alua believes that none of this could have been achieved without .

" was the thing that truly brought my vision to life. When I first started out I looked around in search of an online learning platform, and none of them was accessible or easy enough. It's a shame that I'm an analog person I'm not sure how to alter my phone's ringtone, but was not only easy, but also highly efficient. It's how we got to where we are today." she says.

She has incorporated her own voice into her lessons

Alongside introducing this efficient course structure, Alua has been intentional in letting her personality influence her online course offerings.

"I frequently tell personal stories of clients I've dealt with, in order to let my students be able to learn more about my practice at a moment's notice. I'm very clear about speaking directly to cameras, as well as avoiding keeping my persona in check," she says.

"I consider that my videos are a stunning snapshot at the moment of what I do and what I'm like as an individual. I released 'The Art of Dying' in 2018 and four years from now the course could be completely different person than who I was at the time. Therefore, when creating my classes, I try to refrain from binding myself to how I'm feeling in this moment, while also loosely holding in the hope that the future will be. ."

Her focus was on community while diversifying her revenue streams

Alua is also putting a lot of focus on fostering community both inside and outside of her course structure. By leveraging the power studies groups she's successfully increased her income streams.

"One one of the great things about our courses is the fact that we provide everything online. And there are also regularly scheduled group studies where participants discuss topics via Zoom in real time. They're able to process their discussion questions which is not just a way to keep them engaged and engaged, but also creates a greater feeling of belonging. They become close to one others, and they develop relationships and ultimately, I've created the space to allow them to do the things that they naturally would do in any other situation. ."

She adds: "I'm simply following the breadcrumbs that already exist. For example one of my students was married not too many years ago and seven students from their online class were in attendance. To me, that shows the power behind our work. ."

In addition to her online courses, Alua has created various projects that are driven by the community to help her model of business.

"Another significant part of our income stream is our Death Doula Den -- it's a member-only community in which members meet to discuss death and dying. We also have separate Zoom meetings where we speak about "hot topics", and provide support that way," she says.

"Ultimately there are communities for those who are looking for services, as well as groups for those who are seeking to learn how to provide services to other people."

She jumped over the primary obstacle course that creators have to overcome

In analyzing Going With Grace's success to date, Alua is very transparent about her struggles to conquer various hurdles throughout her course creator journey and yet, these challenges have made her stronger on both an individual and professional scale.

"The most significant leap I've done was to press the 'Publish' button on my very first class. My heart broke when I pressed it. All I could think was"Oh my god What have I done? Do I really think that I really am? How come I could make a decision like this? ?'"

  Now, several years down the line, Alua has a few suggestions she'd tell herself in that moment:  

"The best thing you can do is silence the voices that say, "It's not possible. "You're not enough. You're not worth it. It's not clear how you're performing. Don't think about it and push on because somebody in the world needs what you have to offer. Make the move It's probably unlikely to be flawless It's likely to be extremely messy and embarrassing look back on in a few years, but it's better than doing absolutely nothing. ."

Inspired by Alua's story about creating a successful online course business? Are you ready to make the jump for yourself? Register for the course and start now.