Running a Laughter Club is TRUE understanding
I was chatting with the Good Doctor one day recently and the question came up (as it often does) as to how many Laughter Clubs there are, how many people attend them, and how many are started but fail to keep going. Due to the enormity of the question as there is no real data kept, I decided to conduct a mini survey here in Australia. It appeared that we had reached a plateau and in some cases numbers of clubs were decreasing. So what to do? Why not start my own Laughter Club to determine what’s going on
Laughter Clubs are our strategic point of difference
I have been involved with Laughter Yoga for more than seven years now. In that time I have attended Laughter Teacher Training three times, Laughter Leader Training at least five times, attended around ten conferences, and given hundreds of presentations to different groups. But I have never actually started or run my own Laughter Club
I finally started my own club
Due to my extensive knowledge of business over more than 35 years, I am experienced in planning, marketing, and sales. So when I was asked how to start a Laughter Club, or get more members to it, or retain the ones that I have, I was well versed in providing hints and tips and ideas of what could be done…always knowing that even the best advice can sometimes fail. But this knowledge was still not first hand so starting my own Laughter Club was the only true measure of what has to be done
Getting people to attend
The first thing I did was to join with an organization that had a suitable venue, with an extensive database, and the ability to market to other venues. As they asked for a donation from the attendees to help their center, it was in both of our interests to try to get as many people attending. This worked very well with consistent numbers from day one
Getting them to stay
We then had to get them to come back every week. Everyone submitted email addresses so a weekly update of what had happened that week could be sent, along with what to expect next week. This had them wanting to come back to see how next week would be different. There was also a theme to each week. The first 15 minutes is always spent introducing new folks along with discussing the theme. The laughter session always finished with euphoric laughter where there is a total loss of control and submission to whole body laughter
Getting stories from them
The biggest benefit of running my own club comes from the stories I can now tell at my presentations. Stories of people having eliminated pain, experiencing happiness like never before, relief from asthma, and reduced anxiety to name a few. Other stories of husband and wives coming along (one couple who have been married for more than 50 years), parents bringing children, children bringing parents, people who couldn’t speak English and so they go on. So in summary if you are REALLY serious about making Laughter Yoga a REAL part of your life, you need to start and run a Laughter Club to gain TRUE understanding
Enjoy Life
Merv