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What Alua Arthur Helps Thousands of students redefine death

Mar 28, 2023

Alua's intrepid founder's trip started when she boarded a bus in Cuba. Shortly after being diagnosed with depression that was clinical and quitting her legal career, Alua found herself sitting with a traveler who had terminal uterine cancer. She had no idea, but the conversation that took place between they would alter the course of her life for ever.

"I I asked her lots of questions regarding death- the type of questions you would never have to ask someone you don't know, however she was so forthcoming to me. We discussed for hours what she was afraid of, the things she didn't want to leave behind, and what she wished she would have done differently during her life," Alua recalls.

"Coming out of the conversation, I kept contemplating why I didn't engage in a meaningful conversation about death in the 34 years I've lived. The more I thought about it, the more I was like"I'd like to do something about this.'"

When she returned in the United States, Alua threw herself into finding ways to help people during the process of preparing for their death. As a lawyer her mother knew she did not want to go into medicine or social work. While psychology was not exactly what she wanted to do however, she decided her desire to study a course that was focused on spirituality and death. However, shortly after her graduation she discovered that her father-in-law was diagnosed with terminal illness.

"I could help his last 2 months of his existence. I was there day in, day out -- in the living room or lying on the floor and sleeping and running errands. I also picked people up from the hospital taking medications and doing some research," she continues.

"I felt more and more frustrated because there wasn't somebody I could contact who could provide these solutions to our questions, or, at the very least, someone who wasn't part of our network of support who could acknowledge and validate how difficult what we're experiencing could be. In those moments, I decided that if I could not find the answer, I would have to make it."

The realization sowed the seeds for Moving with Grace the death doula training and end-of-life planning company that seeks to improve and redefine the experience of dying using personal life experiences as the basis.

Alua has since accepted over 1,800 students to her 'End of Life Training Program', accumulated over 15,000 newsletter subscribers, and generated $2.5 million in sales. Here's how she achieved this feat.

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She translated her personal story into the company's mission

From day one, Alua has been intentional about allowing Going With Grace to originate from a personal place. Her belief is that, despite there are many who try to differentiate the personal from the professional both are one and one.

"How you appear in your personal life will reflect on how you show up in your professional life. This has always been a very personal endeavor and I was determined to fix what I been struggling with through the end-of-life support process. Going With Grace was born out from this place. ."

Alua's own experience allowed her to step into her customer's shoes in a unique way -- she understood all of the needs of her audience before they discovered her service.

"The death of a loved one is isolated. My main hope was to make people be a burden while working through the challenges. It's not easy enough even with top doctors and the best support system -It's overwhelming ."

The author continues: "The mission of Going with Grace is to help individuals answer the question "What can I do in order to feel at peace with myself, so that I may live presently and pass away gracefully? Whatever someone's answers may be, we support them -- sometimes it's about healing relationships or talking through their fears of death, sometimes it's looking for their ideals that they wish to live by. That's our focus ."

Her message was consistent with her organic, personalized messaging

When it was time to translate her personal message into a commercial campaign, Alua stuck to her roots. She built her online presence to achieve one objective -- to create permission for others to talk about death and grief with authenticity.

"When I realized this type of space was not available, I was determined to create it, because I was convinced there was someone else looking for this. Maybe it was just one in a million, nevertheless, I'm sure someone else had experienced something similar to me." she says.

"As as a consequence of this thinking process my marketing came about organically, and I think that's why people resonated with it so deeply."

But Alua realized that her organic messages could only go as far without consistency.

"When there is an igniting of something within someone, that's worth something. The amount of spark is not up to you -- but it's up to you to fan the flame. If you keep passionately and honestly expressing your opinion on similar topics, in time they'll get close to ."

  During her initial rollout, Alua began to realize how important it was to have an authentic personal brand. Originally, she wasn't even aware that she had a image in the public eye, but by honing in on her personality it was possible to improve her standing and credibility.

"One important element of branding and marketing is to stay authentic. My personality isn't soft spoken, demure, human being. Yet, people frequently assume that we must talk and tinker around with the topics of the dying and death. Being unapologetic about my own self, I attracted my community ."

In her early days, Alua started posting one-minute videos on social media that included her own personal experiences, her mission statement, as well as her online course that she was starting to develop. Before she knew it, Alua had pre-sold 57 subscriptions before she had even started building the course. Not only that, her 400-strong email list started growing exponentially.

"I genuinely thought that maybe 10 people would be registered. At that point, I realized that I had the commitment of that ."

She fleshed out her course outline using a concrete method

After establishing her market, Alua started to wrap her thoughts around the challenging process of developing her first online course entitled 'The Art Of Dying'. Similar to many course creators she formed a skeletal framework that she fleshed out each module.

"It was extremely beneficial to reflect on the various blocks of information my students would require at various times during the course. I'd think"Here's the basic information. Here's the next step. If we're here then what are we going to need to do in order to reach our goal?" I'd always keep the course's overall goal in mind. Then, break down the modules into chunks that are bite-sized," she explains.

This structure eventually came into existence into a practical wayit was a practical framework - Alua was able to divide the program into three main segments. The first part lays the groundwork of what die doulas really perform? What's the function of medicine? What are signs of dying? Why do we need to pay attention to the death of our loved ones? The second section focuses on the natural aspects of death and funeral home logistical issues, and funeral legacies and rituals. Finally, the third section integrates all of these elements into practice.

  Alua has created a number of classes using this model and has all of them with completion rates of 76% and overall scores that is 4.9 stars. She believes none of this would have been possible without .

" is what truly brought my vision to life. When I first started out, I searched a lot to find an online platform for courses, and none of them was accessible or easy enough. It's a shame that I'm an analog person I'm not sure what to do about changing the ringtone on my phone, but was not only straightforward, but extremely effective. That's the way we got to where we are today." she claims.

She integrated her real voice into her classes

Alongside rolling out this effective format for courses, Alua has been intentional in letting her personality permeate her online course offering.

"I often tell stories about the clients that I've had the privilege of working with to allow my students to be able to learn more about my practice in real time. I'm conscious of speaking directly to camera as well as avoiding keeping my personal life in the shadows," she says.

"I believe my video courses could be beautiful snapshots into the present of my work and who I am as an individual. I published 'The Art Of Dying' in the year 2018 and in four years, I might be a completely different person than who I was at the time. When I design my programs, I stay away from committing myself to the way I'm feeling in this moment and also allowing myself to hold on to what the future might be ."

She emphasized the community in her decision to diversify her income streams

Alua is also putting a lot of focus on fostering community both inside and outside of her course structure. Through leveraging the power in study group, she has been able to naturally expand her income streams.

"One one of the great things about our programs is that we offer the material online, but in addition, we have regular group study sessions in which participants discuss topics through Zoom in real time. They're able to process their discussion questions which not only keeps them engaged, but fosters a deeper sense of community. They become close to one others, and they develop relationships to the point that I've created an environment for them to engage in what they would naturally do anyway ."

Then she adds: "I'm simply following the breadcrumbs where they already exist. One of my students was married not too long ago, and 7 students from their online class attended the wedding. To me, that shows the real power of our work. ."

Apart from her online education, Alua has created various projects that are driven by the community to help her business model.

"Another important aspect of our revenue stream is the Death Doula Den -- it's a member-only community in which members meet to discuss death and dying. We also host separate Zoom meetings where we speak about 'hot button issues' as well as provide assistance in this in a way" she says.

"Ultimately, we have communities that cater to people in need of services for themselves, and groups for those who want to know how to offer services to the public at large."

She overcame the main obstacle course that creators have to overcome

When looking at Going With Grace's success so far, Alua is very transparent about how she has struggled to conquer various hurdles throughout her course creator journey -- yet, the struggles she has faced have helped make her stronger on both the professional and personal level.

"The largest leap I've made was pressing the "Publish" button on my first course. I sobbed hysterically when I clicked the button. All I could think was, 'Oh my god, what have I done? Do I really think that I is? What is the reason I would act like this? ?'"

  In the present, a few years down the line, Alua has a few tips she'd say to herself:  

"The most effective thing you could do is to silence that voice saying, "It's impossible. 'You're not good enough. You're not worthy. You're not sure what you're doing. Don't think about it and keep pushing because somebody out there is in need of what you provide. You should take the plunge It's probably likely to not be perfect and it's most likely to end up being really messy and embarrassing to look back on in a couple of years, but it's better than doing nothing . ."

Inspiring by the story of Alua about the development of a profitable online business for online courses? Do you want to try it for yourself? Join and begin today.