A 7-part happy ending, with a to-be-continued
'The End' School pilot was short, and it's over. Here are 7 of the many things I learnt. (But this is only the beginning).
On a hike in late March this year I thought “I’m going to start a co-working creative space.” And in mid-April, I kicked it off with a modest number of enrolments (but yay, it was plural, and they all paid up, so that’s a win already!). And in early May this experience has come to a close.
What did I learn?
Don’t overthink it, do do it: a different me would have pfaffed around creating the perfect product and then never launched. So much has changed in me over the past 4 - 5 years, and I would say that largely has to do with relocating to a different hemisphere, and is also owed to the impact that the pandemic had on our approach to work and how much we then turned to online experiences for our learning and growth.
Mine for learning: I am a writer and nonfiction book coach and I am also an embodiment coach and bodywork practitioner/teacher. There are many surprising parallels in all that I do. One of them is learning how to learn. So, on the one hand, I can start to build this idea on courses, model it on someone else’s tested framework and understand the theory of facilitation, group dynamics, writing craft and creative ideation but that’s cognitive and it is not practical. Yet. In my bodywork practice the idea is that we perform movements with no ‘real world’ consequences. And we explore doing the same thing more than one way. The purpose is, as lofty as it sounds, to uncover our unlimited potential. I think this can be done in all our endeavours. That’s why people have a ‘practice’. And in the case of my co-working creative space, ‘The End’ School, we are practicing. We are making baby steps, alone together, towards our individual goals, that at the end of each session has no ‘real world’ consequences. But the impact on ourselves as individuals is that we have moved a millimetre in progress, and we see ourselves differently (clearer, perhaps? With more respect or kindness? But after every practice we are definitely different). And even by being in the same virtual space as each other, we are changed. We are approaching our work and ourselves in a different way than when we are on our own. The need to ‘push’ ourselves to work on our beloved projects alone is gone. (Instead, we ‘push’ ourselves to come to ‘The End’ School zoom room and do the work there! 🤣)
Ask for feedback: People will give it anyway, especially if it’s a pilot and they know it is ending. I heard hings that made me go, gee I wished I was a participant in this community (wait, I am - more on that later). One participant said: “This really helped me. It actually got me to finish this project 5 days earlier than I would have, if I didn’t join. I would normally have worked to the 11th hour, like, before I got on the flight to get to my workshop, but instead, I am prepared with time to spare. I almost didn’t turn up to the previous session as I had brain fog and didn’t feel like writing. But Jane “made” me spend 15 minutes gathering the resources in one spot, so that when I felt like writing later in the week, I had what I needed to hand, to keep on writing.” Another participant said (and of course, I paraphrase): “It is so helpful. I’ve not attempted long form writing before. So for me it’s about creating structure. I feel that if I can map out the idea I have, the actual writing process will be much easier and more enjoyable. I’m actually less worried about the mechanics of writing my book, like making choices about voice and perspective - that will all come later. The hard part for me is the creation of the framework, and that’s what I want to focus on in these sessions. So I could start anywhere as I simply had to make a start, and at your suggestion I chose world-building. In doing that, more twists and revelations for the plot have come up for me that I wouldn’t have had before.” And I am the queen of helping people ‘plot’ the bones in order to have something to write muscle and skin on, and to beautify later, even if deep down they have been behaving as ‘pantsers’ in disguise, by simply not writing at all. It is an honour to witness what is arising in participants that is surprising for them, and that’s exciting for everyone watching on.
Where I have encountered other lessons outside of ‘The End’ School": even though I have been playing piano for 40+ years, I still take piano lessons myself. In my life, there will never be an end to that learning. I was with my teacher last week and he had shown me something, and he said as he often does “now, you have a go”. And I remember that moment of resistance thinking “I’ll do it on my own, later, once I’m home.” And he and I knew in that moment a) Jane will not do that, because she has young children and runs her own business and is studying and has her own coaching appointments to give and receive and she is primary caregiver and domestic engineer plus ‘life’ and b) sometimes the thing that you resist will only take … 3 minutes. So he gently ‘made’ me do the exercise with him watching me, several times, until I mastered it right then and there. It proved to me (and of course, he knew), that it never really takes much to overcome these stories we have that it’s too hard, it will take too long, it will be difficult to coordinate, when will I have the time etc. And, it doesn’t have to be elaborate. It can be a simple thing. I was learning a new latin rhythm for me and it looked simple on paper, but I had to drum it into my bones and muscles. Three minutes. And before that I had never dared or bothered to learn this style of music because I thought it would be too hard, take too long, be difficult to coordinate and when will I have the time etc. At the end of the day, the space I want to create is about attention, intention and accepting the stories we make up about our creative explorations and then facing them head on. I want to do this in the kindest, most compassionate way possible. And provide a little bit of help where needed to climb over these barriers we set for ourselves.
Decide on what to do with learnings: So I have had 48 hours to think about what I want to do with my community from next week forward. I have, as is customary in my world, filled my working hours with too many yeses and have been attending to them. But I woke up this morning and have decided to keep going with my community, and to charge for it, and to grow the number of people in stages. It would be lovely to get some people in real life to work with me too, and I have plans to do some in-person networking in my city. In fact, over three weeks I have encountered a combination of 30 new people, acquaintances and friends in movement classes I’ve been teaching across Christchurch (bodywork experiences in this case, not creative or writing projects), which tells me that there are people around me who align with me, as a human. In a town with less than 300k people, and having expected 2 people to show up to each lesson, is this the result of smart marketing? No, actually. It was a classic case of “I befriended a natural networker and they put in a good word to me to their many connections”, who also gave me a free space to use, and who advocated for me. My plan is to turn up online and continue to meet people who will vouch for me, and who know more people who are interested in having a space online where they can share their goals, their achievements and roadblocks and have the practice of progressing incrementally and potentially finishing their project. But word of mouth alone won’t cut it. Hence this newsletter. I also think for now that a month-to-month membership makes the most sense and I want people to get a feel for how much they can ‘get stuff done’ in about 4 weeks. For just US$100. And when you get back the sense of I can do this, and it wasn’t painful, wow, look what I did and what I learnt and what I can create and how far I’ve come - and in fact, I look forward to logging on and working with everyone becomes addictive in a way, it’s easy to drop $100 on that. For just a month! You can also have a pause over your summer or when the kids are on term break. And you can come back when you know it’s time to knuckle down. For full transparency, I invest the equivalent of US$300 every single ‘The End’ school session by not booking/charging a client in that time slot (and I run 2 per week). It costs money for business owners to work on this sort of project through investing their time and money. So, I know this firsthand. I also know you and I are worth this sort of investment.
My personal project: In the time I’ve been in/run ‘The End’ School, I have made a start on a book proposal and made the decision to continue working with my nonfiction book coach and feel excited about how seriously I’m taking my project. I plan to publish by a certain anniversary (in January 2025), so I need to keep up the pace. I know I can do it with just these two weekly working sessions to help me keep focused. It’s just the right cadence for me, personally.
‘The End’ School doors are (still) open. Will you join us? I am looking forward to welcoming more people to this working alone, together space. (Yes, I need to make a landing page. Yes I need to refer to this community on my website. But I want to get on with it and those marketing-y things will come.) If you have a project that needs some more love and attention - and I’m not just talking about writing ‘The Great [insert nationality] Novel’ - I also have visions of someone who has a speech or performance coming up and needs a friendly push to sit with their notes or instrument and just learn their lines or music in real time with others (while on mute - heh); the one who wants to create a family recipe book for a beloved family member; people who are close to retiring and want to write a memoir; the consultant who has just left corporate and wants to write a brand book to position themselves in their niche.
It only costs US$100 per month and you get access to up to 2 x working sessions per week where you work on your project in real time, while I do too. We top and tail those sessions with check-ins and ensuring that we are setting goals that make the best sense for us each, and working out what’s holding us back from doing ‘the work’ if that seems to be happening. And, depending on how busy the session is, there is the chance to ask me anything in a breakout room and get access to my tools and experience (as a writer, coach, former keynote trainer and performer), and more. If you want in, please email me. I would love to start seeing your face in one of those zoom squares as early as next week!