New Home Forums Monthly Challenges October 2017 Adventures in Meditation (Membership + Online Community)

19 replies, 5 voices Last updated by  Sara McCann 6 years, 5 months ago
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  • #57078

    Bradley Morris
    Mountain Guide
    @bradleytmorris

    ADVENTURES IN MEDITATION

    “Where breath and nature meets
    the thrill of being alive.”

    Below is an email I just sent out to my ‘meditation email list’ to validate this idea. Included in the email is a survey.

    Feel free to check it out for your own learning’s sake or fill it out if you’re interested in the offering.

    I’m excited to see how people respond.


    SUBJECT: Can you share your thoughts on an idea I had?

    Hi Everyone,
    I’ve had an idea bouncing around in my mind for about 6-months and I just have to ask you for your feedback around it.
    I have been thinking about building a new offering called “Adventures in Meditation.” 

    Each week I would take you on an incredible adventure in epic locations in nature with a different thought leader and meditation guide. 

    We would record the video and audio of us hiking, having an inspiring conversation and then w
    hen we get to the “sit spot” on the hike, the guest (or me) would lead a beautiful guided meditation practice.
    It would essentially be part: guided meditation, part podcast, part adventure. You could choose how you consume the transformational experience. 
    All meditations would be archived in a community and membership site where you can connect and grow with other life adventurers. 
    Is this a good idea? Would you be interested?
    I am committed to making this extremely high quality and valuable. Building it will be a lot of hard work, time and energy. 
    I personally think it will be a brilliant way to share powerful, life-changing practices and amazing teachers in a fun, unique, inspiring way.
    I would be so grateful if you would fill out this short survey.

    If interest is high enough, then I will start right away.

    Much Gratitude,

    Bradley T Morris

    More to come as the story unfolds…


    #57080

    Bradley Morris
    Mountain Guide
    @bradleytmorris

    LOGO DESIGN:

    I imagine the logo being a silhouetted Indiana Jones Buddha’esque character meditating in lotus, with a silhouette of a mountain behind him.

    #57088

    Bradley Morris
    Mountain Guide
    @bradleytmorris

    Here are four images showing my brainstorming session in my journal while outside in the sun today.

     

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    #57092

    Mars
    Adventurer
    @Mars

    That sounds really interesting @bradleytmorris I can imagine you in your Indiana Joneseque gear.

    #57122

    Bradley Morris
    Mountain Guide
    @bradleytmorris

    Journal image 2:

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    #57126

    Bradley Morris
    Mountain Guide
    @bradleytmorris

    Journal entry 3:

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    #57130

    Bradley Morris
    Mountain Guide
    @bradleytmorris

    Journal #4:

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    #57232

    Gardner
    Adventurer
    @Gardner

    Really sounds engaging!  I filled out your survey but got wordy and worried that it would get lost/cut off, so just in case, here is what I wrote:

    It would be hard to compete with Headspace that appeals to the fit-bit exercise craze as you probably know all too well. So I think you are wise to offer an entirely different experience, not one of efficient/streamlined/convenient fitness on the go, but one that pulls up so many lasting, loving memories (at least for me) of backpacking/adventuring/traveling/meeting others on the trail with lots of quiet time and quality sharing around the campfire.  Nothing rushed.

    Another app- Insight Timer- is appealing for some folks I know due to it being free (of course) but also due to mistrusting any one person and so liking to survey and experiment with a variety of guides. Your approach would be even more inviting in that I for one would be real interested in the pod-cast piece of hearing a bit from each guest, a bit of Mark Marron’s comic pod-casts interviewing other comics.

    One suggestion I’d have is to check out the “slow television” craze that took Norway by storm (the wiki page gives a good summary). Maybe an option would be to have a video stream of a long, quiet hike. Maybe have it somehow able to be running in a small popup window, maybe even for a whole day or week. Like how some folks (like me) focus better with the din of a noisy cafe, you could offer your own “focus” app that provides this soothing background of hiking to some destination like Norway had a tv channel just dedicated to a campfire (like on your eCourse) or simply gazing out of train window filming nothing in particular but the passing scenery. No talking, nothing too exciting, no great views or vistas – that could come once the view wants to/ gets to the peek or whatever and the podcast chat can start leading to setting up camp and the guided meditation.

    -Gardner

    #57369

    DavidJ Jurasek
    Adventurer
    @DavidJ

    Bradley – I really dig this!

    I also love @gardner ‘s suggestions…

    My desire, being into adventures and meditation for a long time would be to contribute in some way… Would there be a way to have special guests or have your tribe members record their adventures and share them with the group…

    The piece I find missing from Mindfulness and meditation communities is ironically the relational piece. I teach parents and kids to not only engage in it together, but to share their experiences and attune to one another during the meditative experience for that reason… it just deepens and makes it more human, less about tuning out and being in one own’s bubble and island… (which some studies have shown meditation reinforces – an attachment avoidant posture).

    Just my three cents there. : )

    What you are brewing sounds awesome and I love that you are asking your list to give feedback!

    #57658

    Sara McCann
    Adventurer
    @saramccann

    Sounds fantastic and definitely a course I would love to do! I am lucky enough to live in beautiful countryside, surrounded by nature. What struck me though, when reading your vision, is how, not everyone is lucky enough to be able to access such beauty. And for them…something like this…would be even more rewarding and transformational.

    Kind of like… If they can’t get to nature then nature will come to them. I’m thinking here of people commuting on a train for an hour and what pleasure it would bring to them to watch something like that. This also makes me think of when I watch paulo’s kayaking videos. How he brings the water, the sounds and the tranquility of it into my home, and how, that in itself is meditative.  So, I think the format of your idea will be incredible!

    thank you so much too for sharing your journalling for this. I found it really helpful to see your thought process behind this. LOVE the little Indian Jones character-  he makes me smile!

     

    #57675

    Bradley Morris
    Mountain Guide
    @bradleytmorris

    Survey Results So Far:

    Thanks everyone, I appreciate all the feedback. I’ve had 33 people respond to my survey so far and here are some stats.

    • More than half have purchased meditation related products from me.
    • 28 love listening to other people’s audio meditations.
    • 27 said they love the sound of the idea and would want it.
    • 11 said they’d pay $5/month, 9 said they’d pay $10/month… so I’m thinking $7.99
    • 10 said they’d pre-buy a life-time pass for $100(ish) and 18 said they would not pre-buy
    • I also got a ton of great feedback and thoughts from people.

    I am wondering if I’m missing the business model though.

    I know I’ll need at least a $3000-5000 for some better outdoor recording gear and one of those fancy tripods on a stick that is made for shooting while walking, to keep the camera smooth. Those are my main obstacles at the moment.

    I’m definitely not goign to commit to this if it’s a “long-term success project.” I’ve got enough of those. So at the moment, I am going to continue reflecting on whether I really want to push forward with this or if there is another path for me to share inspiration, meditation, stories and build a business i love.

    Back to my pondering cave.

    #57694

    DavidJ Jurasek
    Adventurer
    @DavidJ

    @bradleytmorris

    Hmm… worthy questions to ponder for sure.

    I wonder also whether you would be drawn to start small… Like the deal is you make one awesome meditation adventure video a month and they pay the low fee (kinda like when folks sign up to patronize a great writer to produce and share articles, chapters, etc)… and they get to engage and be part of the creation in some small yet meaningful way… Whether that would excite you, pay you enough (if you had like 100 subscribers paying $8 = $800 a month) and maybe even it could be a series that you later repackage and sell for more… Like a 12 level Adventure… I dunno…

    Just love the dream and wondering if you thicken and deepen it whether it would be worth starting and creating…

    I have similar dreams… like last month the challenge (which I almost joined) I was dreaming of a series of podcasts on the dark emotions (shame, guilt, fear, apathy, envy, etc) and how to disarm their grip and transform them… So much work to lay this out and do the sequence… Now I am considering it as a thread in my PAL community…

    I get also with kids and family and so much else going on how we need to be so DISCERNING about investing TIME (our most precious resource).

    Wishing you a rich conversation with your wild and wise soul in that cave!

     

    #57899

    Sara McCann
    Adventurer
    @saramccann

    Hmm, yes, a lot to ponder on, and I completely understand the need for it to fit with what you want in the future.

    It would seem a real shame to give up on it though, as I think it’s a great idea and love David’s suggestion of starting it small and having engagement. That sounds very exciting and I think it would really draw people in with their chance to engage and have connection, making them keep coming back for more and wanting to keep up with their subscription.

    However, I guess that does not solve your issue of needing to buy 3-5k’s worth of better recording equipment! 🙁 Do you really NEED that recording equipment to make it work?

    #57922

    Bradley Morris
    Mountain Guide
    @bradleytmorris

    I went into depth around my reasoning on our coaching call today, but I’m opting out of this idea. Not doing it.

    Basically, the interest was super high and there are elements I really like. But after getting validation and imaginging myself in the role of actually doing it, I realized it’s not really want i want to do.

    I have another idea…

    The Happy New Now

    It’s part talk show. It’s part interview with inspiring guests. It’s part New Earth Comedy skits. it’s part podcast. It’s part TV-like show.

    It’s something I can do in my garage in my spare time for fun. I’ll do it when I have time and when it feels right.

    I’m going to keep working it.

    For my meditations, I am focusing on licensing. 

    I realized I don’t want to keep producing new meditations, unless I’m getting paid a lot of money. I am going to continue focusing on licensing my meditations to more companies. In fact, as of the last week, I have 5 places where my tracks are being featured and I just had another person approach me about licensing to a spa just this AM.

    My immediate goal for my meditations is to make enough passive income from licensing and selling my meditations to cover 100% of my monthly expenses so that everything else I do for clients and in life is an added bonus to fund other dreams and projects. As it is now, I am close to half way there. But the beautiful thing is, this is the first time I’ve ever claimed it like this.

    I feel stoked on this clarity.

    #57941

    Mars
    Adventurer
    @Mars

    That’s pretty awesome clarity there @bradleytmorris Well done.

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