From feeling her business wasn’t sustainable to easily securing new international clients.
Name: Amanda Croft
Business: Teacher, trainer and theatre practitioner, Amanda helps business professionals ‘level B2 and higher’ master their inhibitions about speaking and gain ownership of their English through real world language immersion programmes in the historic town of Faversham, Kent.
She also works with teachers to re-imagine their classroom practice through storytelling, improvisation and theatre.
Problem: Amanda knew she really wanted to work directly with people, rather than online, but didn’t really believe this could become a sustainable business.
Result: I helped her develop a clear niche, focused on her considerable storytelling and theatre skills, to help teachers connect more deeply with their students, and get better results, and individual students transform their communication at work.
Within a matter of weeks after finishing the programme, she has already attracted her first completely new-to-her client, and been invited to run paid workshops in Europe.
I’ve begun to understand things about myself and my process. that make it easier for me to market myself. I’ve now got offers of workshops, paid workshops in Europe. That was definitely not on the horizon when I started in March of this year.
I’ve also got a person that I didn’t know before sign up for an immersion program next year in 2025. And for me, that’s obviously what I want. I want to do the work that I love most. and to be able to do that, you know, is basically answering my dream
Before and after working together
My situation before we worked together was that I had run two English Language Immersion Programs.
I’d got a few contacts. I was working online for a school in France but I felt stuck. I guess I just felt stuck. I didn’t know how to boost my visibility. And working with you seemed like the natural solution. The best thing for me about working with you has been a clearer insight into how to market myself, what my niche is and what it is I have to offer.
And I think fundamentally, I’ve begun to understand things about myself and my process that make it easier for me to market myself. I’ve now got offers of workshops, paid workshops in Europe. So one in Berlin and another in Geneva. That was definitely not on the horizon when I started in March of this year.
I’ve also got a person that I didn’t know before sign up for an immersion program next year in 2025. Um, and for me, that’s kind of, obviously it’s what I want, you know, I want to do the work that I love most. and And to be able to do that, you know, is basically answering my dream.
Did you have any hesitations about doing Designed to Flourish
I think for me, it took me two years.
I was kind of following you on LinkedIn and I was, I attended IATEFL where you spoke and met you face to face. And I was on your mailing list. So I was getting some information through and I attended some of the visibility challenges that you ran or have run in the past. You gave a lot of information away free, actually.
Um, and I was using that information in my place of not knowing what quite to do. I was using the freebies that you offered to help me on my journey. Um, and then when I met you in person, I felt like I, yes, no, I can trust this person, um, you know, your business, you know, uh, the EFL world inside out. And for me, that was really important.
Would you recommend the programme?
Would I recommend the course? I mean, for me, without a doubt, I wouldn’t be where I am now if it wasn’t for the course. Absolutely, without a doubt.
But, I would say to anybody listening to this, you have to be strong, you have to be really passionate about it.
What your course does is, it makes you dig deep, so it or it made me dig deep. It really challenges you to think about what it is you want, who it is you want to offer your services to, and why you want to do it. And I think you have to be really passionate about what you want to do because it’s not an easy journey. And those are not easy questions to answer
What I’m doing is I’m building the door and I don’t know if on the other side of the door is a brick wall. The door is slightly ajar. I haven’t quite finished building it. But there is light. I can see light. To be going to Berlin next year, and that’s already in the calendar as a date. And to be invited to Geneva to a school for three days. That was not on the books. I didn’t have that. I didn’t even have an inkling that that’s what I might be doing in 2025.