We were lucky to catch up with Alyssa Poole recently and have shared our conversation below.

Alyssa, appreciate you joining us today. Can you talk to us about a risk you’ve taken – walk us through the story?

Far from family, far from friends. Immediately after getting married, we both packed up and moved to Atlanta GA so that I could dive into the film industry, what I thought at the time, was my calling. With just my husband working, I tried to get on as many sets as possible. After day playing a couple times, I finally landed a position on a Mini-Series that lasted for months, but after that… nothing. I received no work. Then the Writer’s Strike happened, followed by the Actor’s strike. By the time I had realized the film industry was not what I was meant to do, years had passed. I had been working as a waitress for some time, feeling utterly defeated. Did I waste thousands of dollars on a degree I’d never used? Did we uproot our lives and move states away for nothing? It was during this season of feeling defeated that I took up writing again, which was my true passion. I wrote in the mornings before work then came home, an endless cycle of feeling like a failure.

One Saturday, I came home to my husband excited about something. He’d gone through a free weekend workshop about growing a business and wanted to purchase the system they offered that helped entrepreneurs grow their online business. I agreed with purchasing it, because if he felt so strongly about something, that it was worth the investment, I trust him. A few months later, the same group hosted a 3 day, 8 hours a day workshop for their students. I took off my weekend shift and joined my husband. I filled dozens of pages of notes over the course of that weekend. By the end of it, my husband said he didn’t know what it was that he wanted to sell. But I did. I knew exactly what I wanted to do, what I wanted to spend the rest of my life doing. I wanted to teach people how to write good stories. I told him “I believe this is what I was created to do.” With that, we transferred the program over into my name and I got started.

We had decided that, since he works from home, and I’m building a business, that we would move back up north to be closer to family. So, in the midst of moving multiple states away, trying to sell a house, and writing a novel, I decided to build a business. Over the next few months, I dove in, learning as much as I could from the program. I designed a website and a Lead Magnet. However, I got stuck. It was a firehose of information, and I felt lost in the onslaught of it all. What should I do next? What were my next steps? I was trying to scale a mountain without any knowledge of how it worked or of the terrain. Another weekend of all day trainings came around from the same group, and in it they offered an in depth program. Essentially, it was like getting a hands on Masters in Entrepreneurship. I realize I couldn’t do what I was doing alone. I wanted to move quickly and understand how to be an entrepreneur, but the price tag scared me. It was steep, very steep. So I wrested with this decision for a few days. Was this large amount of money worth the risk? What if no-one wanted my services? What if my company flopped and I wasted all that money? Each night of the event, I was anxious and frazzled. After the event was over, the price would permanently increase by 50%, so if I did go for it, now would be the time. I remember talking to my husband about it at length. I wasn’t sure if the risk was worth taking. I felt guilty spending money on myself. I was bombarded with thought of “You idiot. If you do this you are wasting your money and time. This will fail. You’ll never succeed.” This voice was so loud, I heard it audibly, and I told that to my husband. If I was being berated in such a way, wasn’t that a clear sign that I should take this risk? If I firmly believed that God created me to do this, to teach people how to write excellent stories, and then I heard this level of backlash, clearly, this as my next step. I told this to my husband, and he wanted me to explain to him exactly why I wanted to make this purchase. After hearing my reasoning, he hugged me and said “I already moved the money into the account.” He believed in me. He believed in me taking this risk even when I didn’t.

After being inside the Mastermind Business Academy for months now, it was well worth the risk. I have an LLC, marketing strategy, a curriculum finalized, and am building my network of potential clients. I have a clear goal, a YouTube channel that is doing very well, and am gearing up to launch my first product. In the midst of all of this, I’ve nearly completed Book 1 of my fantasy trilogy and have grown closer to my husband and family in the process. This risk terrified me, I lost sleep over taking it, but I can say with confidence, it was the right choice. I have seen the fruits of getting help from those who have walked the entrepreneurial journey for years before me, who were masters at their craft. I truly am doing what I was created to do, and I cannot wait to continue serving aspiring writers and help them grow faster than I did, learning the craft alone.

Alyssa, love having you share your insights with us. Before we ask you more questions, maybe you can take a moment to introduce yourself to our readers who might have missed our earlier conversations?

Stories have always been an integral part of my life. From my youngest days, I was making up stories and analyzing my favorite movies and books. This love of storytelling lead to going to Film School and learning so much about the craft I loved. Before moving to Atlanta, I worked alongside a middle school teacher of mine to bring his book to life in the form of a documentary called “Prodigal Korea.” Through that project, I first discovered that I could teach others how to write. The first draft of the script read like sermon notes, because he was a pastor and that was the style of writing he was accustomed to. I taught him what made a powerful scene and how to write narratively. The final product as incredible! Over the years, I have written scripts, and given feedback on scripts from my classmates. One of the projects I reviewed for a friend won a writing competition. I was so proud to hear that she had won with her script, because I remember when we were in college and she hated writing. I encouraged her all through school and now she is a very good writer.

What I love about stories are characters, the heart of the story. My attention to detail and love of people is why I love characters so much. To be able to relate to someone so deeply, to learn from their life, to cheer them on, that’s why people gravitate towards stories. They gravitate towards characters. My program is character-focused. If your heart is strong, the rest of the body will function and can build off of that strength. Anyone who works with me will be taught the critical components of building dynamic characters and how to build the world and the story around them.

The pieces I am most proud of are “Prodigal Korea,” where I took a pastor from knowing nothing of film or writing narratives, to person using this new platform to help other pastors and churches. It was an opportunity to take the film connect I’d made and bring together a team of filmmakers, pastors, Christians, and churches to craft a story of hardships and healing. The piece offered hope for the hurting and left the audience in tears of hope in the theater. It was a blessing to work on this piece and proof that when God is apart of something, nothing can stop it. From a book to a documentary, the opportunity to broaden other’s horizons and introduce them to the filmmaking and storytelling process was one I’ll never forget.

I am proud of the Program I’ve designed for aspiring writers, that they will have everything they need in order to succeed as Writers and craft characters with confidence. It’s a comprehensive course that goes over the fundamentals of writing characters and how to flesh out each element to create characters that feel alive, that they’ve lived before the story begins. The plot, the story: it all springs out from the main character, and the actions they take are what affects their world and drives the plot, which then forces them to make another choice. The story progresses or stalls by the protagonist’s choices, by how they react as much as what they do. That’s why, my program is focused on crafting dynamic characters. It is the culmination of over a decade of experience, learning, and growth, all to serve the next generation of writers. The program is set up like a class, so that no one will be taking this journey alone, even after the class concludes, they will still have access to an exclusive community that I’ve designed for my students. A community of other writers to encourage one another, share ideas, and grow together. Writing is a lonely art, one that easily can isolate, but we are better artists when we are amongst like-minded people.

My fantasy trilogy is a testament that experience and hard work yields growth, and the results are beautiful. It is also an example that I use with my students, that when you set out to write something, write what you’d want to read! There are no guarantees that anyone will read your book, and if you are just starting off, you should write the book you’ve always wanted to read instead of trying to write what “may sell.” A good story well told, that’s what people want to experience. So I encourage writers to write about what they love, write about what makes them excited. Because a book can take so long to craft, it’s important to enjoy the story you may spend years developing.

Art takes time, and learning a craft takes a long time. The fantasy trilogy I am currently writing took over 4 years to develop before I began the manuscript. Those 4 years were possible due to the decade I spent studying and practicing the craft of writing, through writing tons of short stories, scripts, and outlines. At Going Beyond Entertainment, we know good art takes time and that the first draft will be rough. But growth comes in consistency, in building your repertoire of knowledge, and trying new things. Going Beyond Entertainment is designed to cultivate the creativity of aspiring writers while offering an encouraging and uplifting learning environment. Challenging students to go beyond simply entertaining with their writing, but to dig deeper and unearth values and lessons in their stories. In every culture, stories are used to covey important information, teach lessons, and showcase values. Today, our stories should be no different. It is stories that have depth that affect people. I encourage all of my students to keep Going Beyond Entertainment with their storytelling and to incorporate themes throughout their pieces, so not only do they grow as an artist, but so they might inspire others to grow as well.

Learning and unlearning are both critical parts of growth – can you share a story of a time when you had to unlearn a lesson?

Something I had to unlearn is one of the driving forces behind my approach to teaching writing. For years, when I wanted to write something, I would just sit down and start typing. As I went on and on, eventually, I got stuck. The words wouldn’t work, the story was going nowhere, and I couldn’t figure out what it was my characters actually wanted to do. That’s when I learned how to outline in Film School. Realizing that how I had been writing for years was wrong (for me) was one of the best pivotal things I learned in my writing journey. However, the lesson I have spent the last couple years wrestling against and unlearning was how I was taught to outline: plot centered. This concept of focusing on the outline of your story was, in theory, a great strategy. The problem fell with a specific formula used to write scripts: plug-n-play plot structure. I became extremely frustrated by how unnatural my stories were becoming, even though I was following the structure I was taught. I thought I had finally found a foolproof way to write, how wrong I was…

I spent the next five years unlearning this lesson and uncovering why I struggled so much with outlining. With time, and in crafting outlines for my current trilogy, I uncovered the secret to truly writing meaningful tales that resonate with an audience: Characters. Who the story followed always stuck with me far more than what they did. From this realization sprouted my business, where I teach aspiring writers the fundamentals of building out the heart of their story: their protagonist. The worldbuilding, the plot, that all revolves around the main character. This push and pull of these 3 core elements is what creates a story, and the protagonist is at the heart of it all.

How did you build your audience on social media?

Social media was something I had long since abandoned. Making posts about myself felt inconsequential so I never did. The irony is, I now love making YouTube videos (film background, after all), and strive to release quality content with lots of value for my audience. Having known very little about social media, I dove headfirst into creating videos, understanding my niche, and figuring out who I wanted to serve and what I wanted to offer them. My channel is fairly young, but has seen steady, organic growth since I began posting a couple months ago. The key to growth on social media is this:

1. Be consistent! Consistency truly is key to success. Be consistent in how often you post and when you post. If you can only post every other week on Fridays, then maintain that rhythm. I post a long video on Mondays and shorts on the other weekdays. This consistency tells your audience when you will have new content for them as well as showcase that your channel (or other platform) is alive and un-abandoned.

2. Offer value. People watch something because it gives them value. They come back, because they know you have something to offer them. Showing up and offering valuable information is key to maintaining and building trust with your audience.

3. Serve them. Sales is service. Think of brands you are loyal to. Do they maintain high quality products? Is their customer service helpful and pleasant? Now think of times when people have tired to sell to you. A stark difference, right? The key to sales is to serve. No one likes to be sold to, but people do like buying. When you serve your audience, they get to now, like, and trust you. Then, when you offer your services, they are more apt to accept because you are serving them something they need or want. Service is all about knowing your audience, which leads me to….

4. Know your audience. Figure out your niche, then get even more specific. You want your audience to feel like you are talking directly to them, 1 on 1. That level of specificity will make them feel seen and heard, and that connection is why people comment and engage. If you know your audience, you’ll better know how to serve them and give them exactly what they are looking for.

Contact Info:

• Website: https://goingbeyondentertainment.com
• Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/going_beyond_entertainment?igsh=enBhNG10ejBkZmhj&utm_source=qr
• Youtube: https://www.youtube.com/@goingbeyondentertainment

Image Credits

Alyssa Poole. Josh Poole