Making Money with InterPlay
The current state of InterPlay is that it has spread all over the place, but not many people are making much money from leading it.
Some who are investing a lot of time and energy to maintain an ongoing InterPlay program depend on someone else bringing home the bacon. Even Cynthia and I depend in part on other sources of income to fill the gaps.
Perhaps InterPlay is a labor of love (does someone have a "play" version of that expression?) Perhaps InterPlay should be free of charge.
Perhaps InterPlay need only be about giving and receiving grace.
It certainly seems like we should be able to get together and play without having to invest much money in it. If you have led InterPlay you may have gotten this sense from your participants—that there is resistance to the cost.
I believe that there are probably some deep issues behind the "deals" with InterPlay and money. And perhaps we will explore those in this discussion.
But one of my beliefs is that if we can figure out a reasonable economic model for the way that InterPlay works in the middle of a market economy—a model in which more people make at least some money from teaching and leading InterPlay—then InterPlay will spread more quickly and more widely.
We may have to change in order to get this to work.
So the first question is: what is your current picture, based on your own experience, of the way that InterPlay is working/not working for you financially? Be specific (focus on the details) if you are able and willing.
posted by Phil Porter, InterPlay Co-founder @ 10:34 PM
11 Comments:
i wonder if part of the deal is that artists generally walk a beautiful yet fine line between abundance and scarcity. i think it is a gift a talent of artists. necessity is the mother of invention afterall.
i also think our society / culture does not promote the economy of "enough". but again, if we were the bear that had the porridge that was "just right" would we be satisfied long or would we get bored?
hmmmm
also, i think interplay is in the zone of massage, chiropractic, accupuncture, etc
how do you educate people to just plane old take care of themselves through play for health and well being. deciding we deserve such - self love, self care, self kindness - is that in the secrets curriculum?
What a good idea this discussion is! I have lots of opinions and "crack pot theories" on this topic, as our leader Phil is fond of saying.
Making InterPlay part of what you professionally do as a teacher, therapist, coach, trainer, works well financially as long as those professional roles are being paid well. But getting reinbursed for teaching, promoting and/or producing InterPlay - that is an amazing challenge.
1) Space is a big expense in many communities. I have found financially, it works best when a space is donated, as when a church or organization sponsors an event, or at least at a low cost, otherwise all the money taken in for an event goes to the rental space with not much left over for the teachers and organizers.
2) I have found it necessary to "give away" a lot of InterPlay experience so people can be introduced to what it is and how it might have value. I believe that this is a common practice in the marketplace when what you are offering is new and unknown.
3) I hear the complaints about the cost of InterPlay classes but I don't hear the same people complaining about the cost of a) a movie with pop corn and drink, b) a drop-in yoga class, or c)their monthly gym membership fee
What I have decided from this is that spending money on a "play experience" is still too counter cultural. Too many messages to "get your work done first" or "make sure your bills are all paid" before you spend time and money on something so frivolous.
And how does an activity get cultural acceptance? When my husband and I visited the National Bass Fishing Contest, housed at the convention center in our new hometown last summer,-- we marveled at how sitting in a boat with a pole in the water got to be a big deal major sport in America. We decided if InterPlayers could come up with stuff to sell - hats, electronic equipment, decorated beach towels, sun visors, beer holders, posters, mousepads, etc, we could move swiftly into the mainsteam of American economic life!
In regards to bass fishing...I think TV has a lot to do with what becomes mainstream. I think even aerobics and yoga got big boosts from television. Any way we can get on Tv? Any body got an "in" with Oprah? Perhaps we need to cultivate access!
interplay on the comedy channel or saturday night live!!!!
Already an interesting conversation! My first thoughts come from my "entering InterPlay journey." I first discovered InterPlay accidentally during another very very expensive project... getting my MDiv. Once I discovered InterPlay, I wanted more... it was a big YES! I took two classes, again paid for as part of school. My last year of school, I wanted to be part of the Leadership Program and didn't have enough money to pay for it. So, I took out my first student loan in order to take the Leadership Program. For me, coming from an anti-debit family, that was a BIG DEAL. (Now that I work in the office and see how many years it takes some people to pay off their Leadership Programs, I realize that I wouldn't have had to pay the loan fees... but it didn't even occur to me to ask! So, there you go.) For a number of years after that, I took classes from time to time. Phil and Cynthia and others had something I wanted, and I was glad to pay for their teaching. Compared to therapy and even guitar lessons, it was blessedly not too expensive. It wasn't until Cynthia and Jonathan performed at my ordination that I considered giving a gift to InterPlay/Body Wisdom in gratitude and a desire for more people to have InterPlay in their lives. That was the beginning of a shift for me.
Until then, I had heard about the InterPlay community, but never considered myself a part of it. I had other communities that were primary for me, my church community first among them. But once I gave a gift to InterPlay, I began to belong in a new way. The next year, I made a multiple-year pledge of $50 a month, which wasn't as much as my church pledge, but it did make InterPlay the second highest recipient of my giving. At that time, I started attending InterPlay events at least in part to renew connections with people I cared about, to play, to be reminded of some of the Body Wisdom philosophy which rings so true in my life. I didn't mind paying for the reunions, but I did at times choose not to take a class because I couldn't "afford it" in my budget right then. Now that I work in the office, things are shifted in a new way, and my own experience seems less useful.
I share all of this because I think there's something in this whole conversation about money that has to do with belonging. Perhaps there are multiple ways that people interact with InterPlay... those who get a taste and know they want the whole menu for the flourishing of their lives – and it immediately has value they are willing to trade for money. There are also those who find themselves part of InterPlay communities that meet over time – playgroups, performance ensembles, leadership graduates, etc. – that function more like membership organizations or worshipping communities.
I think of the relationship I have with a financial advisor whom my partner and I are seeing this year. We paid her a fee of $1000 for the year. She is available to us for phone consultation and meetings about every other month as we move through the stages of her plan (created in collaboration with us) to get us where we want to be with our financial situation. I wonder if there might be something useful in that for us.
That's all for now. Look forward to more...Sheri
this morning i'm thinking about "attractiveness" and "appetite" and "value". people are totally complaining about gas prices but that doesn't mean it inhibits expensive lattes and designer clothes (yet). i have put it out to the community here that i'd like to facilitate an aerial interplay class on cloth slings/swings. the response was a glorious "yes, we want that!!!" and now as details of time, fee, etc pan out, response has definitely cooled. in a concerted effort to "think different" of late, maybe i'll just decide it's a way fabulous workshop experience that no one will want to miss, as opposed to trying to woo participants via compromise of fee or juggling of dates, etc. i will just image it attractive and desireable, as it is. stay tuned to see if this experiment equals participants and a manifested workshop.
interesting not just coincidence...
from 2 to 8 participants in the last 2 days after jotting the last comment.
If you want to get another perspective on money, check out this movie. It costs $5 to view online. I've seen it several times and have the DVD. I use it in my own life, teach it to others and it makes a huge difference: www.thesecret.tv
As a side note, I think it's incredible that we're having this conversation in a public, on-line forum. That alone says volumes.
This weekend, our performance ensemble will perform (another) free performance. What free means in this context is that the people who come to see/hear will not pay. It does not mean that there are no costs involved in hosting the performance (ranging from renting the space to buying miniDV's to take the video -- not to mention the hours of preparation in rehearsal, sign-making, space setup, etc., etc.). Someone commented at our dress rehearsal about putting out a tray for donations... Hmmm....
So one of my questions to myself is: what's my pay-off? what value(s) am I implying by not charging for the performance and/or by asking for donations? My answers are incomplete so far. I know that I enjoy performing just for the rush I get from performing and the challenges+pure-joy of improvisation -- as Leah or Ela (I assume that's who "lelavisionaries" is) implied, this form of "play" is a form of self-love for me. AND I do not want to always reinforce the idea that art can be "had for cheap" or that improvisation has less value than, say, a commissioned composition.
Bottom line for me? In this like lots of other areas in my life, I'm looking for balance.
I have a personal struggle with the money issues in my life all around and I'm begining to see that how I relate InterPlay and finances is a telling and transforming lesson for my entire life. I willingly pay, sometimes a big sum, for the "things" that I and my family value. I'm thinking healthier, organic foods, vacations, home improvements, education....which is where I've come to believe that InterPlay belongs. InterPlay offers the equivalent of a lifelong PhD. in grace, self discovery, community, ease, joy, creativity, embodiment and YES, the opportunity to work on our "stuff". To this end, I am interested in dedicating my full time, whole-hearted life's work/play to InterPlay; teaching, performing and interracting for social and ecological betterment. How could I ever begin to fathom this unless InterPlay has a monetary value to my students.
A friend is a dancer and naturopathic doctor and is desperate for a place to refer her patients who are so eager to reconnect to their bodies. I wonder if this possible "therapeutic link". might lead somewhere.
I, too have lost money to rental space or low registration where a center requires a minimum participation to offer IP.
I am in an interesting quandry because I Personal Train and teach fitness, which would seem like a great foundation for InterPlayers and yet the perceived value of InterPlay is not there yet, even though my students love my skill and style and trust me (and I can't halp but infuse my classes with InterPlay forms and ideas). That cross-over to play/ease/improv is a bigger gap than I anticipated. I do think that involving more InterPlay in visible community activities would provide an awareness level that couldn't hurt.... (Let;s go for Oprah, not Jerry Springer!) I am optomistic that we are on the cusp of an InterPlay revolution in this country (think Pilates, NIA, hot yoga) and I'm proud to be on this side of the explosion. Maybe I'll be the 100th monkey!
Very interesting point " making Money with interPlay" ...I am here in Brazil starting to talk to people about InterPlay and having to deal with some cultural issues and after reading your comments I realised that here is very much the same... I'd like to share something that I consider funny...some people in Brazil from "Inter", a famous soccer team, are thinking that InterPlay is all about soccer! Nadia Khalil Thalji
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