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The Way Alua Arthur Helps Thousands of Students Redefine Death

Mar 28, 2023

Alua Aruthur's unique founder's journey started on a bus in Cuba. Soon after she was diagnosed with clinical depression and ending her career in law, Alua found herself sitting alongside a passenger who had terminal uterine cancer. Little did she know what was going to happen when the conversation took place between them would change the course of her life for ever.

"I have asked her a myriad of questions on death- the type of questions that you wouldn't have to ask someone you don't know, however she was so honest with me. We spoke for hours about the things she feared, what she was afraid to leave behind, and the things she wishes she could have done differently during her time," Alua recalls.

"Coming off the conversation, I kept wondering why I hadn't engaged with my partner in meaningful conversations regarding death during the 34 years I've lived. The more I thought about it, the more I thought, 'I want to change that.'"

Upon returning home in the United States, Alua threw herself into finding ways of helping people through the process of preparing for their death. As a lawyer, she knew that she didn't want to go in the field of medicine or social work. While psychology was not exactly the career she was looking for, she decoded to enroll in a psychology course that was focused on the spiritual and death. But shortly after completing her studies the brother of her got terminally ill.

"I was able to support his last 2 months of his existence. I was with him day in the day, and out of it -- in the living room or resting on the floor doing errands, taking patients up from hospitals, getting medications, as well as doing the necessary research" she says.

"I felt ever more dissatisfied that there was nobody I could just call who would have these answers to our questions, or, at the very least, someone not in our circle of friends who would acknowledge the difficulty we were going through is. In those moments, I decided that if I couldn't find the answer, I would have create it."

The realization sowed the seeds for Moving with Grace the funeral doula education and end-of-life plan organization which aims to improve and redefine the concept of death by using the individual life experiences as the basis.

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

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She turned her own experience into her company's mission

Since the beginning, Alua has been intentional in making it possible for Going With Grace to originate from a personal place. Her belief is that, despite many people try to separate the personal and professional from each other both are one and the same.

"How you show up at home is going to reflect the way you present yourself in your professional life. This was always a personal endeavor -- I wanted to rectify what I had been struggling with through the death process. The idea of Going With Grace was born out of that place ."

Alua's personal experience has allowed her to step into the shoes of her customers with a distinct way- she understood all of their requirements before they saw her offer.

"The dying process can be so isolating. The main goal was to help people not feel isolated while going through the challenges. It's enough to be difficult, even when you've got the best doctors and an excellent support system- it's crushing ."

The author continues: "The mission of Going with Grace is helping people to answer the question "What can I do to find peace within my own self, in order that I live in the present and pass away gracefully? Whatever someone's answers may be they can count on us to support themSometimes it's about healing relationships or talking through their fears of dying, and sometimes, it's about looking for the values that they want to live their lives by. This is our main focus ."

She remained consistent in her personal, organic messaging

When it came to translating her personalized messaging into a commercial campaign, Alua stuck to her home base. Alua created her website with one purpose in mind that was to give permission for people to discuss the loss and grieving process in an authentic way.

"When I realized that this kind of space wasn't there, I was determined to make it happen because I was convinced that somebody else was looking for it. Maybe it was just one in a million nevertheless, I'm sure someone else has had a similar experience to my experience," she says.

"As the result of that thought process My marketing took place organically, and I think that's why people resonated with it so deeply."

Yet Alua discovered that her organic messages could only go as far without consistent messaging.

"When there is an igniting of something within someone, that's worth some thing. The magnitude of the spark is not up to you , however it is up to you to ignite the fire. If you're constantly passionate and authentically discussing similar topics, in time they'll come close to ."

  During her initial rollout, Alua was also able to appreciate the significance of having an authentic and authentic persona. In the beginning, she was not conscious of her reputation, however, by focusing on her own voice it was possible to increase her authority and marketability.

"One important element in branding and marketing is to stay authentic. I'm not a quiet, calm, human, yet people often assume that we must talk and tinker around with the topics of the dying and death. Being unapologetic about my own self I was able to attract my peers ."

The first time she did this, Alua started posting one-minute videos on social networks that delved into her personal experience as well as her mission statement and the online course she was beginning to create. Prior to her knowledge, Alua had pre-sold 57 subscriptions before she had even begun to build the course. And, not only that but her list of 400 email addresses started growing exponentially.

"I really believed that perhaps 10 people would register. At that point, I realized I actually had the commitment of this ."

She clarified her course structure using a concrete method

Once she had established her target audience, Alua started to wrap her thoughts around the challenging task of creating her very first online course called 'The Art of Dying'. Similar to many course creators she created a basic framework that she fleshed out each module.

"It was really helpful to think about the blocks of information that my students needed at certain points throughout the course. I'd say to myself, 'Here's the foundation. Here's the next step. If we're here What do we require to do in order to reach our goal?'" I'd always think about the goal of the course in mind. Then, divide the course into bite-sized chunks," she explains.

This framework eventually took form into a practical way- Alua was able to divide the program into three core parts. The initial segment is the foundation of 'What do funeral doulas actually accomplish? What is the role of medical professionals? What are the indicators of death? Are there any reasons to pay attention to our own death?' The second segment delves into natural death care as well as funeral home operations as well as funeral legacies and ceremonies. The third segment integrates all of these elements into action.

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

" is the one thing that really helped me realize my idea. When I first started out I searched for a long time for an online course platform however none could be made accessible or simple enough. I'm such an analogue girl I'm not sure how to change the ringtone on my phone however it was easy, but also highly efficient. That's the way we got to where we are today." she says.

She has incorporated her own voice into her courses

Apart from the introduction of this innovative course structure, Alua has been intentional about allowing her personality to be reflected in her online courses.

"I tell a lot of personal stories of clients I've dealt with, to allow my students to understand the process in real time. I'm conscious of speaking directly to the camera, as well as avoiding keeping my personal life in the shadows," she says.

"I think my online courses could be beautiful snapshots into the present of my work and who I am as a person. The Art of Dying' in the year 2018 and four years from now the course could be completely different person than who I was at the time. So when I'm creating my courses, I refrain from binding myself to how I'm feeling in this moment, while also loosely holding onto what the future could be. ."

Her focus was on the community in her decision to diversify her income streams

Alua has placed a great focus on fostering community both inside and outside of her curriculum. Through leveraging the power studies groups she's found a way to increase her income streams.

"One of the best things about our courses is the fact that we provide everything online. And there are also regular group study sessions in which participants discuss topics on Zoom live. They're able to process their questions in the discussion, which is not just a way to keep them engaged and engaged, but also creates a greater sense of community. They become close to one other, they build relationships to the point that I've created space for them to do the things that they naturally would perform in their own way. ."

She adds: "I'm simply following the breadcrumbs where they already exist. One of my students engaged not long ago, and seven people from their online course attended the wedding. This to me is the real power of what we're doing ."

In addition to her online courses, Alua has created various community-driven initiatives to support her business model.

"Another important source of income is the Death Doula Den -- it's a membership community where individuals gather to discuss dying and death. Additionally, we host distinct Zoom calls where we talk about 'hot button issues' as well as provide assistance in this is how," she says.

"Ultimately there are communities for people who are seeking services themselves, and communities that seek to understand how to provide services to other people."

She overcame the main hurdle course creators face

Looking at Go With Grace's progress to date, Alua is very transparent about how she has struggled to overcome various obstacles during her journey as a creator -- yet, the struggles she has faced have helped make her stronger on both a personal and professional level.

"The largest leap I've ever taken was hitting the "Publish" button on my very first lesson. I cried hysterically as I pressed the button. All I could think was"Oh my God, what have I done? Who do I think I is? What is the reason I would make a decision like this? ?'"

  A few years down the line, Alua has a few tips she'd give herself at that point:  

"The best thing you can do is stop the voices that say, "It's not possible. 'You're not good enough. You're not worth it. You're not sure the way you're going. Don't think about it and keep pushing because somebody out there has what you can offer. Make the move It's probably not going to 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 much more effective than doing absolutely nothing. ."

Are you inspired by Alua's tale of building a thriving online course business? Are you ready to make the jump for yourself? Join and begin right now.