The next step

As you may know or have guessed, for months I've been trying to figure out how to:

1) Keep Ask Moxie free and add some more free features, and

2) Go deeper into the things that are behind how we parent and work on that with readers who want more focus.

I've been feeling like answering questions here is giving people a fish, when what I really want to do is help us all figure out what's behind our parenting so we can come up with our own best answers and troubleshoot for ourselves.

And I finally figured it out: the winner is.... More Moxie!

More Moxie is a subscription-based group working to figure out what's going on behind our parenting, to get us past the stuck spots and conflicts, and make our values and processes explicit.

In other words, let's figure it out!

Details:

* We're going to do a different topic for two months at a time (so we have the space to dig in and think and process).

* Members get a weekly emailed assignment (reading and some questions to answer about yourself--it should take about 20 minutes, plus time to marinate in your head during the week), a private message board to talk about the assignments and topic with other members, a CD/MP3 of a conversation with an advisor on the topic, and a monthly discussion call (three different times) on the topic.

* The cost is only US$30 a month--you pay for the two-month unit, so US$60 every other month. Less than a cup of coffee a day, and an entire year of More Moxie is less than one live month-long parenting class or a month of therapy.

* Topics through the rest of 2009:

July/August: "Trusting Your Instincts as a Parent" Learn about why we tend not to trust ourselves, how your individual personality characteristics influence how you listen to yourself, and how to
see yourself as the expert on your own kids.

September/October: "Stress and Creating Margins for Yourself as a Person and a Parent" The fall is when work and school and other obligations crank up. We'll explore how we react to stress and how to create margins for ourselves so we don't get fried.

November/December: "Teaching Kids Your Values During the Holiday Gauntlet" Every year there's confusion and angst about how to make it through the holiday season without feeling like we're selling out ourselves or our kids. Let's work on it in a methodical fashion so we can create the good and float above the parts that don't work for us.

* The first unit starts July 1, so sign up now:

Or through this link:

https://www.paypal.com/cgi-bin/webscr?cmd=_s-xclick&hosted_button_id=6052452

And please pass this on to anyone you think would be interested.

I'm really excited about this group and hope that you'll all sign up and get your friends to sign up, too, so we can start to figure out how everything works together and how to make it easier.

Comments

[Marta]

Will you ontinue with Moxie as is while you do this?
I'm hoping so.

[Diane]

$30 a month?

Absolutely no disrespect to you, Moxie, but that's pretty expensive.

I really do wish you the best of luck.

[Raia]

I hope I can do this, Moxie, not sure right now. Would you be willing to give a discount for the second and subsequent subscriptions?

[Chris]

I was actually hoping you were working on a book. Still hoping.

[mida]

Will you be keeping this post or link somewhere obvious on the front page? I would be interested in revisiting More Moxie come November, and I know I will be searching the archives madly if I can't find the link on the front page.

[Moxie]

mida, I'll keep it up there in the left column.

Diane, I'm sorry if it sounds expensive to you. I've been thinking about how much my time is worth to design the program, and pricing other programs like this, and deliberately charged less than comparable programs on other topics or any online classes I can find.

Raia, I've been thinking about offering a discount for a year-long subscription. Is that what you meant? Or did you mean for more than one person doing it at the same time?

[michaela]

Yeah, think some more about a discount for a year... when I read your Facebook announcement I was confused about whether you *have* to sign up for the whole year. Now I know that you can just pick and choose modules, right?

Also, I'm a hella big believer in asking to be paid a rate that makes the work worthwhile for you. And I have absolutely no problem paying for quality.

[Kate]

Guided self-introspection for $30/month is beyond reasonable in my mind. In NYC the low end for therapy's got to be at least $150 an hour, right?

[amanda]

moxie, this sounds neat. can you explain the components in a little more detail? I don't get the mp3 of the conversation with an advisor...a conversation between participants (ie me?) or between you and someone else? ...and the discussion call is something we can call in once? three times? how long? thanks, maybe it's just late in the day and my comprehension is suffering.

[Diane]

I'm sorry. I certainly didn't mean to imply your time is worth pennies. I don't doubt it is a good bargain for what you're offering. It was just, to me, that $30 a month for something I'd see as a luxury just feels too steep. I should have made it more clear that I meant expensive FOR ME. Not for your work.

That being said, I had another idea that might appeal to people who are having to pinch pennies.

Are you at all familiar with Fark.com? The regular forums are free, but they also have Totalfark. It has its own discussion forums, and is just $5 a month. I think something like that could be really interesting here, Moxie. I know I would pay $5 a month to be able to have a great discussion board where all the Moxie mamas could congregate and brainstorm. I have no idea how much effort something like that would take to get started or maintain. It's just a thought I figured I would share!

[Raia]

What I was thinking is that perhaps you could charge $60 for first section, then something slightly less for someone who goes on to another session. Discount for a year might work also, but then you might have to plan some more topics in advance...I probably couldn't pay for a year upfront unless I knew that all the topics would apply to my situation. For example, since I have just the one son and not sure if we'll be able to have another, I wouldn't want to pay for a section on siblings, though I'm sure most people would find that valuable. Similarly, we are past the newborn stage so I wouldn't want to pay for that either. Thanks for thinking about it, however you end up deciding.

[eccentriclibertarian]

I like this concept a lot...none of the modules listed (except maybe the 2nd one) are sparking my plug at the moment, though. I'm not thinking about what I *would* want to see/what I feel a need to work on parenting-wise. With only a 7 month old, I have not run into a lot of the more heavy-duty sorts of parenting issues yet.

[auburn]

This isn't in my budget but I agree with Diane that I would pay a smaller fee just for access to a message board here. So if that is ever something you'd consider I'm in for that. I find your comments section consistently better than any parenting message board I know of.

Good luck with the new business!

[AH]

I wish you would do a book. I don't have the time or energy to do the kind of detailed thinking you would do in a paid forum. But if you sold a book with the best of moxie (I.e. Reprint old blog posts in an organised fashion) I could buy it for my friends who are having babies. Now that would be great.

[pocha]

I second the book idea suggested by AH. Is this paid service eventually going to replace the blog? I sure hope not!

[Jane]

I enjoy your blog, but I would never pay $30 a month for such a service. Perhaps a smaller fee for just access to the blog? It's hard because there are tons of blogs out there. Not all of them are the quality of yours, nor do they have the lively discussion yours does, but it is hard to charge for something that is usually free. But I also understand that your time is worth something and you need an income.

I second the idea of a book of various columns. I would be a great gift to new parents.

[Schwa de Vivre]

I am seriously considering the September/October one, but fear I may already have too much on my plate. How's that for irony?

[Kris]

I would be concerned that you may lose a lot of individuals who really need the information you offer if they had to pay $30 a month, if only because (to me) that's pretty steep. I don't even pay for my own blog because I just can't afford it. I'm still trying to figure out how to pay my iSP this month. No, really.