Hi Everybody!
On Saturday, February 26th, I put on a Happiness Workshop. It was fantastic! The participants were engaged and interested before we even began. I had 24 people sign up for class and 20 show up. One woman called an hour before the class because she just got back from vacation and wanted to extend her happy mood. I changed the order of the 2 hour class because my personal story is about my own happiness set point and brought that information to the beginning. Also, instead of explaining all of the Happiness Habits, I chose to fully teach 7 (some were group exercises, some writing for themselves). No one grunted or groaned when they had to get up out of their chairs for Chi Gong, honestly everyone was into learning as much as possible
My "Big Thing" that I learned? Practice in front of two people so that the exercises can be timed in reality! While my husband and I accounted for time when people would be checking in with each other, we should have allotted more time for questions that come up. I went over 45 minutes! While everyone stayed...what I didn't get was a lot of lingering afterwards....which led to only selling 1 book and 1 paraliminal! More importantly, people wanted to give me feed back and thanks after we were finished, but not everyone could stay to wait their turn. No weird feelings, just not as well orchestrated on the back end
Things that worked:
Each person received a folder with their note taking (power point) sheets, the exercises, a Happiness Assessment, an upcoming meditation class invitation and my business card.
Had two friends helping sign people in so that I was available for conversation.
Asked the group to state what they hoped to learn in class (it's a time eater, but worth it for a group this size!). They each said something provocative and different. It also helped me remember to look at those women when "their" subject came up.
Provided mints - when they began to break into pairs for discussion, a lot of people jumped up to grab a mint...it made them feel comfortable to talk to strangers.
I remembered to breathe a lot!
Other things I learned:
Don't make colored copies! Wow, that ate up my profit!
Take 1 full minute to myself during the break
Consider not having a break for a 2 hour class
People loved the scientific information, have more when the group leans this way
Move the Law of Attraction to the 4 hour format
I created a slide with a general (super basic!) description of oxytocin, endorphins and seratonin...will post this later in the resources thread. Also put the information about dopamine onto the Appreciation slide, which got everyone excited
Overall it was great! Things ran smoothly and my energy was up and grounded at the same time. I'm looking forward to teaching more people in this way!
