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How Alua Arthur Helps Thousands of students rediscover the meaning of death

Mar 28, 2023

Alua Aruthur's unique founder's journey began on a bus ride in Cuba. Soon after she was diagnosed with depression that was clinical and ending her career in law, Alua found herself sitting alongside a passenger who had terminal uterine cancer. It was a surprise, but the conversation that unfolded between the two of them would change the course of her life completely.

"I asked her a lot of questions regarding deathkind of questions that you wouldn't ask a stranger, but she was so open to me. We talked for hours about what she feared, what she didn't want to be left behind, as well as what she wished she would had done differently in her lifetime," Alua recalls.

"Coming off the conversation, I kept thinking about why I had not engaged with my partner in meaningful conversations regarding death during my 34 years of existence. The more I thought about it, the more I thought"I'm going to take action about that.'"

After returning in after returning to the United States, Alua threw herself into trying to find ways of helping people through their end-of-life transition. As a lawyer and a law degree, she was aware that she wasn't going to be in the field of medicine or social work. Although psychology wasn't exactly the career she was looking for but she was able to decode the code to enroll in a psychology program that focused on death and spirituality. However, shortly after her graduation she discovered that her father-in-law was diagnosed with terminal illness.

"I could help his last two months of his life. I was there day in and day out, sitting on the couch, lying on the floor and sleeping, running errands, picking individuals from the hospital, getting medications, as well as doing research," she says.

"I was feeling increasingly frustrated that there was nobody I could just call who could provide these solutions for us, or, at the very least, someone outside of our circle of support who could acknowledge the difficulty we're going through is. In those moments, I decided that if I couldn't find it, I was going create it."

The realization sowed the seeds for Going with Grace the funeral doula education and end-of-life planning company that seeks to redefine and improve the end-of-life experience using individual lived experience as the foundation.

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

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She turned her own experiences into the mission of her business.

Since day one, Alua has been intentional about making it possible for Going With Grace to originate from her personal experience. Alua believes that despite the fact that there are many who try to differentiate the personal and professional from each other, they're one and one.

"How you show up at home will reflect on the way you present yourself in your professional lives. For me, this has always been a very personal mission and I was determined to rectify what I had been struggling with through the final stages of my life. Going With Grace was born out of that place ."

Alua's personal experience has allowed her to step into her customer's shoes in an unique manner -she was able to understand their needs before they even discovered her service.

"The end-of-life process is so isolating. My goal was to ensure that people don't be a burden while working through their challenges. It's not easy enough even if you have top doctors and the best support system -It's a crushing ."

She adds: "The mission of Going with Grace is helping people answer the question "What can I do in order to feel at peace with myself so that I can live my life today and pass away gracefully? Whatever someone's answers may be We are there to help themoften it's about healing their relationships, sometimes it's about talking through their fears of death, sometimes it's seeking out what values they would like to live with. That's our focus ."

Her message was consistent with her organic, personalized messaging

When it was time to translate her personalized messaging into a commercial campaign, Alua stuck to her home base. Alua created her website with one goal in mind that was to give permission for other people to speak about funerals and loss with authenticity.

"When I saw that this kind of space didn't exist I decided to create it, because I knew there was someone else looking for it. Maybe it was just one in a million, but surely, somebody had experienced something similar to me." she says.

"As as a consequence of this thinking process my marketing came about spontaneously, and it's the reason people connected with the message so strongly."

Yet Alua recognized that her natural messages could only go as far without consistency.

"When something is sparked inside someone's soul, that's something. The amount of fire isn't up to the person who ignited it, but it is up to you to fan the flame. If you're constantly passionate and authentically talking about similar topics, in time they'll come close to ."

  In the initial phase of her rollout, Alua was also able to appreciate how important it was to have an authentic personal brand. Originally, she wasn't even conscious of her public perception, yet through honing in on her personality, she was able to increase her authority and marketability.

"One of the most important elements of branding and marketing is being authentic. I'm not gentle, slack-talking human being, and yet many people believe that we have to whisper and tiptoe around about the dying and death. In my unapologetic self-expression I was able to attract my peers ."

In her early days, Alua started posting one-minute videos on social media sites that focused on her own experiences, her mission statement, and the online course she was preparing to launch. Prior to her knowledge, Alua had pre-sold 57 subscriptions, before she even started building the course. And, not only that but her list of 400 email addresses began to grow exponentially.

"I honestly believed 10 people would be registered. At that point, I realized that I had to commit to the following ."

She outlined her course structure with a practical approach

After establishing her market, Alua started to wrap her mind around the daunting procedure of creating her first course online entitled 'The Art Of Dying'. Like many course creators, she crafted a structure that she crafted module by module.

"It was really beneficial to reflect on the blocks of information that my students required at specific points during the course. I would think to myself, 'Here's the basic information. Here's the next step. If we're here then what are we going to need in order to get there What do we need to know?" I'd always think about the goal of the course in mind, and then break down the modules into smaller chunks of information," she explains.

This framework eventually took form into a practical wayit was a practical framework - Alua could break the course down into three main components. The initial segment is the foundation of 'What do funeral doulas actually perform? What's the function of medical professionals? What are signs of death? What is the reason we should bring attention to your own demise? The second section focuses on the natural aspects of death, funeral home logistics, and the funeral rituals and legacies. Finally, the third section brings all this into practice.

  Alua has since developed numerous courses using this framework that have been completed with a completion rate at 76% and overall scores that is 4.9 stars. She believes none of this could have been achieved without .

" is what truly brought my vision to life. In those early days, I searched a lot for an online course platform but none were easy or accessible enough. I'm an analog girl -- I don't know what to do about changing the ringtone of my mobile However, it's not just straightforward, but extremely effective. This is how we came to where we are today." she says.

She integrated her real voice into her lessons

In addition to the introduction of this innovative course structure, Alua has been intentional in letting her personality influence her online course offerings.

"I tell a lot of stories about the clients that I've dealt with, so that my students can learn about the practice in real time. I'm conscious of speaking directly to camera and I don't keep my persona in check," she says.

"I think my online courses are a stunning snapshot at the moment of my work and who I am as an individual. I released 'The Art of Dying' in the year 2018 and four years from now the course could be entirely different person from the one I was then. When I design my classes, I try to refrain from marrying myself to what I'm feeling in this moment and also allowing myself to hold on to what the future might be ."

She emphasized community while diversifying her revenue streams

Alua has placed a great importance on celebrating the community both inside and outside of her course structure. Utilizing the strength of study groups, she has been able to naturally expand her revenue streams.

"One of the best things about our courses is the fact that we provide the material online, but in addition, we have weekly group study sessions where people discuss things via Zoom live. It allows them to answer the questions they ask in a way that will keep them interested and engaged, but also creates a greater feeling of belonging. They are able to connect with each other, they build relationships -- ultimately, I've just been creating an environment for them to engage in the things that they naturally would do anyway ."

She adds: "I'm simply following the breadcrumbs in the places where they are already present. As an example, one of my students was engaged not long ago, and seven participants from their online course were in attendance. This to me is the real power of the work we're doing. ."

Apart from her online education, Alua has created various community-driven initiatives to support her business model.

"Another big part of our income stream is our Death Doula Den -- it's a member-only community in which individuals gather to discuss death and dying. We also host separate Zoom calls where we talk about "hot topics" as well as provide assistance in this way," she says.

"Ultimately We have communities that cater to people looking for services, as well as communities for people who are seeking to learn how to provide services to the public at large."

She overcame the main obstacle course that creators have to overcome

When looking at Going With Grace's achievements up to this point, Alua is very transparent about how she has struggled to get over various challenges during her journey as a creator -- yet, the struggles she has faced have helped make her more enlightened on both the professional and personal level.

"The biggest leap I have done was to press the 'Publish' button on my very first class. I sobbed hysterically when I hit the button. My thoughts were"Oh my God What have I done? Who do I think I is? Why would I 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 enough. You're not worthy. It's not clear what you're doing. Don't think about it and continue to push because someone in the world has what you can offer. Take the leap It's probably likely to not be perfect, it's probably gonna be really messy and embarrassing to look back on in a few years, but it's more effective than doing nothing at all ."

Inspiring by the story of Alua about building a thriving online business for online courses? Ready to take the leap yourself? Register for the course and start right now.